Posted on 02/14/2006 3:24:30 PM PST by SJackson
As a Ph.D. Islamologist and Arabist I really hate to say this, but I'll say it anyway: 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam. The war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape.
It's a tough thing to admit because I know on which side my bread is buttered and dropping Islam from the 9/11 equation is dropping my slice of bread butter-side-down. The myth that 9/11 had something to do with Muslims has poured millions, if not billions, into Arabic and Islamic studies. I finished my Ph.D. last year, so all I have to do is keep my eyes in my pocket and my nose on the ground, parrot the party line, and I'll be on the fast track to tenure track.
The trouble is, it's all based on a Big Lie. Take the recent "bin Laden" tape please! That voice was no more bin Laden than it was Rodney Dangerfield channeling my late Aunt Corinne from Peoria. I recently helped translate a previously unknown bin Laden tape, a real one from the early '90s, back when he was still alive. I know the guy's flowery religious rhetoric. The recent tape wasn't him.
The top American bin Laden expert agrees. Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke University's religious studies department, has just published a book of translations of bin Laden's speeches. He says that the recent tape is a fake and that it is possible bin Laden is not even alive.
Fake bin Laden tapes, "verified" by the CIA, are nothing new. Every supposed bin Laden statement since 2001 has been blatantly bogus. The last we heard from the real bin Laden came in his post-9/11 statements to Pakistani journalists: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation. ... I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. ... I had no knowledge of these attacks."
Then on Dec. 13, 2001, as George Bush was whining about the "outrageous conspiracy theories" that were spreading like wildfire, the first and shoddiest of the "bin Laden speaks from beyond the grave" tapes appeared. The video's sound and picture quality were horrible. It showed a big guy with a black beard, doing a passable imitation of bin Laden's voice, claiming foreknowledge, if not responsibility, for the 9/11 attacks, and chortling over their success. The trouble was, the big guy clearly was not bin Laden. He was at least 40 or 50 pounds heavier, and his facial features were obviously different.
The "Fatty bin Laden" tape was widely ridiculed, and I have yet to meet an informed observer who considers it authentic. (If you haven't figured this out yet, go back and look at the images from the tape and compare them to other images of bin Laden.) But the media let the fraud pass without asking the hard questions: Why was the U.S. government waving this blatantly fake "confession" video in our faces?
Perhaps due to the widespread hilarity evoked by "Fatty bin Laden," the next Osama from beyond the grave message had no images it was an audiotape delivered to al-Jazeera in fall 2002. The CIA verified it as authentic and then got a rotten egg in the face when the world's foremost voice identification experts in Switzerland reported that "the message was recorded by an impostor."
Every bin Laden message since then has been equally phony. They are released at moments when the Bush regime needs a boost and the American media go along with the fraud. Remember the bogus bin Laden tape that made headlines right before the 2004 presidential election? If you didn't figure out that it was a CIA-produced commercial for George Bush, I have some great bridges to sell you. Walter Cronkite, bless his heart, opined that Karl Rove was behind that tape. But the rest of the media just kept pretending that the emperor was clothed.
And the fraud continues. The most recent alleged bin Laden tape has been ridiculed by America's top bin Laden expert, yet the U.S. media keep right on holding a transparent fig leaf in front of the emperor! Professor Lawrence believes that this phony tape was designed to distract world opinion from the horrific massacre of Pakistani civilians by an errant CIA drone. But it may have another, more sinister purpose: to prepare public opinion for another false 9/11-style attack designed to trigger a U.S.-Israeli nuclear attack on Iran.
The real bin Laden, who insisted that he had nothing to do with 9/11, has been dead since late 2001 or early 2002. The fake messages have been fabricated by "al-CIA-duh" to support the Bush regime and its phony "war on terror." It is time for Americans to rise up in revolt against the fake terror masters who are looting U.S. taxpayers, torching our Constitution, destroying our economy, and threatening nuclear Armageddon.
Kevin Barrett holds a Ph.D. in Arabic, with a focus on Islamic studies, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: http://mujca.com. E-mail: kevin@mujca.com
Huh?
Concur.
I have been on FR since 2000. I don't pay attention to names of posters and who posts what or their past Free Republic history or an exhaustive mental catalogue of their FR comments. I read the content of articles only. And I questioned why the constant postings from this source. SJackson explained himself and I accept his motives were purely innocent and out of a desire to inform. I misjudged SJackson and apologized.
MUJCA-NET was founded by Dr. Kevin Barrett of Madison, Wisconsin, a scholar of Islam and literature, and Imam Faiz Khan M.D. of New York City, a 9/11 first responder who teaches at Long Island Jewish Hospital.
...
Here are brief biographies of MUJCA-NET co-founders Kevin Barrett and Faiz Khan:
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Kevin Barrett has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin. He grew up in a family of lapsed Unitarians (which is about as lapsed as it gets) and reverted to Islam in 1993, a move that gradually impressed upon him the gravity of the moral choices we make in this life. Barrett,s dissertation is on Islam and Moroccan legend. He is also the author and illustrator of the cult classic A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco, published under the pseudonym of ,Dr. Weirde., (He begs Allah,s forgiveness for that slightly twisted book.) Barrett became a 9/11 truth activist in 2004 after reading David Griffin,s The New Pearl Harbor and conducting follow-up research that convinced him Griffin had accurately summarized evidence indicating 9/11 was an inside job. In the summer of 2004 he founded 9/11 Truth Squad, a local group based in Madison, Wisconsin. In July, he rashly rejected a plum post-doc at the University of California because it was funded by the 9/11-disinformation-sponsoring CIA-linked Ford Foundation. Barrett has led several 9/11 Truth Teach-Ins at the University of Wisconsin, including a 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Truth Marathon on the third anniversary of the attacks. As of January 2005, he has made six guest appearances on local radio and television to discuss 9/11 truth. He is currently working on university research projects, writing and editing for the Muslim magazine al-Jumuah, and spearheading MUJCA-NET.
I get more pings from this mofo than ANY! I have never posted to this person. Please remove me from that list! I don't read most of em anyway. No hard feelings....
As I said earlier, it's all or nothing with this story. If OBL is dead, then there is a massive conspiracy to keep him "alive" via taped messages. This conspiracy would have to include Muslims, the CIA, Al Jazeera, etc. If the CIA/Karl Rove is producing these videos with a fake OBL, wouldn't Muslims who know OBL be able to spot the phony? Has ANY Muslim with ties to OBL said they are fake? NO! If OBL were dead, his associates would know. If a taped message from a dead man pops up, they would KNOW that it's a fake. Can you imagine the fall-out if the CIA was behind these tapes and the Muslims then pointed out how the tapes were fake, exposing the CIA? Why would the CIA take such risk? Oh, to help Bush at the "right" time? Like the CIA has been so helpful thus far to Bush? Riiiiight.
Are OBL's buddies providing fake tapes? Well, the CIA has authenticated them. The CIA should be able to detect a fake. Additionally, the OBL's buddies would not risk putting out a fake tape. Proven a fake, their "credibility" would be gone and they'd have a tough time convincing anyone that he is alive. Simply put, if these are fake, the CIA knows it. If they know it but continue to "authenticate" them, then they are complicit in the conspiracy and cover up. For what purpose? Does it do the US any good to have OBL running around making tapes? NO! It would be much better if we could say "the tapes are NOT authentic, and OBL is believed DEAD". Then let's see OBL appear and prove us wrong.
Fact is, the MOST LOGICAL explanation is that OBL is alive and making these tapes. Any other conclusion defies common sense.
Exactly right on every point. It would be nice to think he's dead, but he's not. But I suspect one day soon he will be thanks to a well-placed Predator Drone missile. No one can hide forever.
There have been individuals with familiarization with the Middle East who have been posting on FR and saying since early 2002 that Osama Bin Laden was dead. The Ph.D. is a nut-ball, but if you forget the propaganda and read the guts of the article you will find much that is indisputable. Expecially telling was the CIA's authenticity of a tape the Swiss experts proved was bogus.
I have been asking for years why the CIA maintains OBL is alive. (And by the way, where are his sons, and his Sudanese wife -- a relative of Sudan's Hasan al-Turabi who has not heard from her since 2002?) What do they gain by it? In a convoluted way, I think that it makes the administration look bad and gives fodder to the Democrats. Secondarily, perhaps it helps in the CIA's annual funding drives. Finally, it may be that there are elements in the CIA who are scared witless to tell their bosses they think OBL is dead, and has been for a long time. I know it seems goofy, but as one who has followed the life and times of OBL for more than ten years before his death in 2002, I just can't explain all the anomalies in the intelligence community. Curt Weldon are you out there?
Then his mother is a liar. Didn't she just recently say that he told her 'something big is about to happen' just prior 9/11?
An illogical admission, if not true.
I suppose the video a month or so after 9/11 where bin laden admits to 9/11 and says they were surprised they did so much damage doesn't count.
I thought I clicked on a link within the link I posted that took me to NPR
I did back up the url to the homepage, but now I'm confused. Isn't NPR National Public Radio? I know they have a leftist bias, but this much? I wish I could find what I clicked on but can't. It switched to my default browser and is in my history file there.
I *do not* like these mind games. And I don't know SJackson all that well, but don't mind posts that alert us to what is being said unless they are poseurs here. SJackson has been on this forum just about 8 months longer than I have, since 2000.
I googled national public radio and came up with the same link wwww.npr.org but without reading through all that junk right now, I can't tell what their position is.
Moonbat alert!
I could actually believe everything this nutjob was selling until he got to the part where al jazeera went along with the propaganda coup Bush needed...
Several times.
Only getting Al Zaquari would make me happier at this point, than knowing OBL is dead. It pi$$e$ me off that he's still alive nearly FIVE YEARS after 9/11. I hope we get him ASAP. I just hope we know for sure when we do, so the speculation will end.
All this talk about "he's dead, Jim" is just wishful thinking, just like when we hit Saddam the first night of bombing in Iraq 3 years ago. Then he poppped up on video. Everyone here laughed "oh, that couldn't be him with the funny nose and glasses! He he ha ha. His ex-mistress says he's been dead for years!", etc. etc. etc. I tried to warn people then, "hey, is THAT the 'fake' video you'd make if you were going to make one?" The most logical conclusion was that it was indeed Saddam. Sure enough, we later captured him and he's now standing trial. Unless, of course, it's NOT him and just part of some massive conspiracy involving Muslims, CIA, WH, The Jooos, Masons, etc., yada, yada, yada...
If OBL is dead, then who is behind the tapes?
And that's just one spot where this hilarious conspiracy falls apart.
Only getting Al Zaquari would make me happier at this point, than knowing OBL is dead. It pi$$e$ me off that he's still alive nearly FIVE YEARS after 9/11. I hope we get him ASAP. I just hope we know for sure when we do, so the speculation will end.
I agree with you. I think it's more important to get Zarqawi than Bin Laden. I think once we nail Zarqawi, the terrorist movement in Iraq will wither on the vine. I think Al Qaeda in Iraq is more centrally controlled and too dependent on Zarqawi's direction, logistical and planning skills and finance ability to survive the loss of Zarqawi. If we nail Bin Laden, while satisfying, it will not stop or slow down Al Qaeda at all since Al Qaeda's cells seem to be operating independently throughout the world.
And illogical for OBL to not know where his big bucks are going.
Yeah, I can feature that.
Terrorist # 2: 'Hey, Osama! Got any spare cash?'
OBL: 'Bushels full. How much do you want?'
# 2: 'Oh, about $50 mil oughta do.'
OBL: 'Lemme cut you a check.'
# 2: 'But don't you want to know when I'll pay it back?'
OBL: 'Hey, what's a few bucks between friends.'
# 2: 'But don't you want to know what I'm going to use it for?'
OBL: 'You'll think of something.'
Well, maybe AZ will pay OBL a visit and we can send them a 2-for-1 bunker busting special. Now THAT would make my day, week, month, and year.
What does he make of the 1993 WTC attack?
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