Al-Qaeda, bin Laden, never imagined that the 3,000 people who lost their lives that day would inspire 3 million to put on the uniform and harden the resolve of 300 million Americans. They never imagined the sleeping giant they were about to awaken.
— Vice President Joe Biden at September 11 commemoration (9/11/11)
Actually, that’s precisely what bin Laden imagined: Al-Qaeda’s central strategy was to draw its Western foes into economically ruinous wars in Muslim lands (Extra!, 7/11). But I suppose it would be bad form for journalists to raise this fact as the U.S. commemorates a decade of war and economic decline.
And its corollary was the Bush cabal’s wet dream of a “Pearl Harbor” that would justify its imperial wars.
The questions raised by the duplicitous handling of vital intelligence prior to the attack can’t be viewed separately from that context, can they?
“The tenth anniversary of 9/11 was predictably exploited by the US ruling elite and the media in another attempt to wear down the critical faculties of the American people and justify the crimes carried out over the past decade in their name.”
“There is a palpable sense, however, that these efforts are wearing thin. Like everything else in American life, the official commemorative ceremonies for 9/11 have a ritualized character that has less and less to do with people’s real concerns.”
“The lives of the three thousand victims of the appalling crime carried out ten years ago should be honored and those they left behind supported. But this is something entirely different from the attempt to exploit their tragic deaths again and again for the most nefarious purposes…”
“Within hours of the attacks, the World Socialist Website warned in a statement posted September 12, 2001 that the political establishment would seize on them â┚¬Ã…“to justify and legitimize the resort to war in pursuit of the geopolitical and economic interests of the ruling elite.â┚¬Ã‚ This assessment has been fully confirmed.”
“This year’s commemorations were lent a sinister character by the prominent participation of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Both are so personally responsible for the crimes and horrors that followed 9/11 that they cannot leave US soil for fear of being arrested on war crimes charges.”
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/pers-s12.shtml
The rule of the super-rich may indeed be wearing thin. The mass news media (including their unincorporated contingent) are currently reporting very few direct quotations from Republican sources. Seems with an election approaching the whackos don’t want to stand up and be counted.
For those with any sort of attention span, here’s a frank assessment of post 9/11 America:
http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779
I ain’t so sure about this. If it was OBL’s grand plan in 1996 when he gave the interview that’s cited in the Extra piece, then why didn’t he say it then? All he says is he was disappointed that the US pulled out of Somalia so he couldn’t fight them– no mention of war of attrition or making us spend money.
Then in 2004, when it’s obvious that we’ve spent gazillions on wars, that’s when he says this was part of the grand strategy all along, I just never told anybody about it between 1996 and 2004? I dunno… I think it’s debatable whether that was the goal from the get go.
What’s far less debatable is that we’ve arrived at an economically ruinous war-strained economy. Whether or not it was OBL’s plan to bring it about, it seems to have happened.
And today, Al-Zahwari said Al Qaeda is to thank for Arab Spring. I get the feeling that next they’re gonna take the credit for the TX wildfires, flooding in New England, and the Saints winning the Super Bowl.
Call me skeptical about they’re claims in general, I guess. They spin things too, ya know.
“their”, not “they’re”
[sigh] I’ll go now.
Say OBL first said it in 2004. That sure gave the deciders plenty of time to say “my gosh, that’s right, if we keep this up, we’ll end up like the Soviet Union! And OBL has given us the perfect out – he says this is what he wants, so we’re free to say we want something else, and get the hell out.”
No, I heard many many hours of prattle on NPR about how Bin Laden got what he wanted. Never forget, this is what Bush and Cheney and Obama and the rest of the scoundrels want too. When they cast their votes for it, it counted for a lot more than Bin Laden’s, too.
Oh bull.He thought we would throw a few cruise missiles his way and become the paper tiger he thought we would be.Im sure he was more than a bit surprised we dropped Tora Bora around his head.And believe me(to those of you who think he had it all figured out)when that navy seal drew a beed on his ugly face- im quite sure he wasn’t thinking”ah just as i wanted it to happen -so it is”.He was thinking oh shit.
He was hate filled.Like any mass murderer the possible consequence of their murderers are pushed out of their minds.The game is to kill.When the whip comes down they are usually found to be small men hiding in a hole somewhere.By no measure can he and his cadre say that it helped their movement.Today another top guy was killed in a missile stike near/Pakistan.Yeah great move genius.
A truly stupid and vile thing from the mouth of our often-idiotic VP. Jesus Christ! I guess he thinks he’s talking to a bunch of half-bright, scared school-children. (I mean ordinary citizens, not the press, many of whom are scared, almost all the time–especially the very well-paid ones.)
On what basis would he think we’d turn into paper tigers? We’ve shown for 50 years we’ll send our military anywhere that can’t fight back on the same level, from Korea to Nam to half the countries in Latin America. Paper tigers, no; stupid tigers, capital YES.
The only thing about Tora Bora that probably surprised him was how easily he was able to foot it out of there like a hiker on holiday in the Alps, while one of his admirers played Franks like a violin all night.
And -if it was him we killed this spring, for all we’ve been told and shown it could’ve been another Black Hawk Down — he lived for another 8 years, more than enough time to know that whether he planned it or not, he defeated the scary superpower of Satan with one battle, four stolen airliners, 3000 casualties. I imagine civilian casualties meant as little to him as they do to our CIC’s and military. This country is nothing like it was on Sept. 10, 2001, and it showed when the chips were really down, we were a nation of cowards and ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ was a joke. We’ve been terrified ever since and our every repressive action shows we are obsessed with that day and scared to death it may happen again. A majority of the people in this country are fine with a shredded fourth and first amendment, no habeus corpus for anybody who assists terrorist groups as defined by the government, and a president who has the right to kill us if he thinks we’re a threat to the state. Everything is defined by a lawless government that ignores the rule of law. And most of that is because of 911.
It may not have done Al Qaeda much good in the long run, but bin Laden couldn’t have produced more terrorists if he knew how to clone them than we have with the criminal and stupid wars we’ve fought since, bankrupting us financially and morally. Not to mention we’ve come up with a couple of world-class mass murderers of our own.
And he lived long enough to see it all. Actually he achieved more than he ever dreamed he would I’m sure. For the next century or so, every map produced in the Middle East will have a bullseye over North America. But you’re like our fearful leaders — we’re winning the war on terror, we refused to live in fear, he awakened a sleeping giant, it brought us all together blahblahlblah. More deceit and lies.
If you think bin Laden wouldn’t have traded his life the next day just to be told what would happen, you do not understand the man or his hatred. That he lived long enough to witness it I’m sure gave him uncountable moments of satisfaction that made the few seconds of fear staring down the barrel of a gun a very minor thing.
Spin it like you will otherwise.
michael e, why the hell can’t you put a space after a period or a comma like everyone else?
Shades of Pearl Harbor! “The sleeping giant” … “hardened the resolve of 300 million Americans!” … to do what? Toss a billion dollars a day down the hole to one day execute Saddam Hussein (whoops, our bad, wrong villain) and, ten years after 9/11, to feed Bin Laden’s body to the fishes? Hundreds of thousands of civilian and military lives lost and even more maimed and ruined? The prospect of revenge terrorism perpetuated forever?
Words are the only things that are still cheap in this wrecked economy.
Biggest overreaction since Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination precipitated World War I.
With all due respect to its victims and their families, 9-11 was a very dramatic tragedy, but I find the sheer number and preventability of “everyday” casualties of drunk driving, and suicide, for example, more compelling and much more worthy of press and citizens’ attention and efforts.
But it’s harder to hype patriotism when talking about these subject
Mike
I dont doubt he would of been happy at the “wonderful”way his life on this earth effected those who live here.It should not surprise us what one evil man can accomplish.Look to Lenin,Stalin,Hitler,Pol pot.Evil little smelly fucks that spread their filth as far as they could before going to their makers.We don’t believe in Evil anymore.But I think OBL had that special spark.But there are good men too.Good men who will stand up, and sacrifice to fight evil.It has always been so.But Mike you seem to be wringing your hands(when your not rubbing them gleefully together)pulling the covers over your head and yelling from under them that it is all Americas fault.That OBL beat us.Mike he is worm food as are most of his followers.From a special place in hell he can smile at the tears that have been shed because of him.We have had to adapt to the changing evil in this world to be sure.But don’t count us out yet.Im sure as OBL spent his last night in his squalid- porn covered filthy room that he was having a laugh on us.Well right up until he was introduced to a Navy Seal( probably) from small town America.Goodnight funny man.Come on Mike- pull yourself up and look around you.Fight the good fight.It’s an easy call
bu$hco gave bin laden pretty much everything he wanted… excuse for a pointless war, shredded constitution, damaged economy, cowering conservatives, etc, etc…
yes, we ultimately killed him 10 years and a trillion dollars later….an entire decade where the american government pretty much ignored everything that actually mattered….
So, michael e, OBL is responsible for the over 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians who were turned into bloody bits by US made bombs and bullets, too? Please, if you can, show me the connection between GWB’s and BHO’s killing sprees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Wuzuristan and what OBL did to this greatest country in the history of the universe. How is OBL responsible for America’s spree of mass murder perpatrated mostly against civilians who have even less say so in their country’s affairs than we do in this god damned phony democracy? He was just the excuse the ruling elites needed and as always there was a mass of idiots underneath them ready to don uniforms and die for nothing.
Woodward and B
Maybe we gave him the one thing he really wanted.The one thing his sick twisted head craved since his sandy birth.A 5.6mm slug in his brain.Maybe his mom didn’t hug him enough.Maybe He really always wanted to be a flamenco dancer.Who cares,he’s toast.We will recover.Dont think he will .Kind of funny really.Bush is fishing and OBL is FISH food!
So now they are Obamas wars…plus one.And if ya have not heard the constitution is making a comeback.Thanx to the tea party.
I’m so sick of unimaginative, mediocre minds dribbling on about “waking a sleeping giant”. My boss said it days after 9/11 and all I thought was, “Think of something original to say, ya schmuck.”
How about: Despite what he said about it not mattering who was president when he ordered the attacks on 9/11/01, bin Laden knew that George W. Bush and his Republican lapdogs who controlled Congress at the time were much more likely to exploit the America’s economic resources to the detriment of America’s economic future (which we’re struggling through now, by the way) and use 9/11 as an excuse to raid the national coffers under the guise of “fighting terrorism” than Bill Clinton or most Democrats ever would have been.
bin Laden also knew that since the Soviet Union had fallen the U.S. politicians had been looking for the next big boogeyman they could use to frighten voters into electing them into office. Somehow Saddam Hussein always seemed to come up short (perhaps one-too-many South Park jokes) so bin Laden was more than happy to let himself be the West’s new evil madman as long as it served his purpose, which it did nicely.
I saw a TV show once where a prosecutor eviscerated the defendant’s attorney to the point where the judge threw out the case, which was exactly what the defense attorney had hoped for all along. Just like lawyers and politicians, terrorists also know that in the end the only thing that matters is that you win. Despite the fact that we’re eagerly awaiting for the next generation of the iPhone to come out 10 years later, the disparity between the rich and the poor in this country is greater than it’s been in decades. All the major news outlets are starting to look indestriguishable from FOX’s ultra-right-wing bent, we’re on the verge of a nother economic downswing and religious fundamental radicalism is on the rise. (And never forget that 9/11 was purely a religious act.)
Osama bin Laden won in more ways than most Americans would ever want to admit.
Most of the comments here have accepted the assumption that 9/11 was planned and carried out by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Consequently, you are looking for possible motives by bin Laden, based on this assumption. If you question that assumption and think critically, then you begin to look at the longstanding motives of the Bush Administration for planning and orchestrating 9/11 as a pretext to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a growing body of evidence that 9/11 was a false flag operation, evidence that is discussed in detail by David Ray Griffin in a number of excellent books, including his, Debunking 9/11 Debunking. Also, the archives of the International Hearings on the Events of September 11, 2001, held in Toronto Canada from Sept. 9-11, 2011, are available at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thetorontohearings. The hearings presented evidence given by engineers, scientists, and many others that the official conspiracy theory as presented by the 9/11 Commission in 2004 was false, full of omissions and distortions.
Michael E.
OBL, as you & others call him, wasn’t hiding in a hole. He was watching Fox News on TV.
michael e, you haven’t answered my question which is show me how bin Laden is responsible for the 100,000 or more Iraqis who died when Bush invaded Iraq. How is what bin Laden did on Sept. 11, 2001 capable of resulting in their deaths? I guess its because you can’t. There is no real connection between bin Laden’s attack and what followed, not in terms of cause and effect anyway. The ruling elites had for years been looking for an excuse and bin Laden on Sept. 11, 2001 was it.
Now that bin Laden is dead the new excuse for US hegemony is that we must prevent (insert name of any country where Islam is the majority religion here) from becoming a haven for terrorists. I wonder what the civilians in Wuzuristan, for example, must think our daily drone missile attacks are. Oh, I know, they must think these are freedom bombs!
Gary first that number you state is one of many estimates.None have been verified so we really should just leave it that a lot of people died.Now the listings are under the heading “violent death”.If you are saying American arms killed 100 thou non combatants you are wrong.The insurgency killed innocents everyday.Look at the numbers who died every week prior to the war.This is ,was and always has been a lethal place.To Dump it like genocide on Bush is stupid.Let us also see that as we have beaten back our enemies there deaths have dropped to….well less than Phila. this past weekend.You do seem to have an ax to grind with your own government yet not a mention of the violence on the other side.Ah well we will give them a bi because after all Bush was worse than Hitler and Mao combined right?The anti christ.
Dennis .
.You really think he watched FOX?I see him with a bag of popcorn and a twinky ,watching Democracy now.Or maybe Kieth O.
Alice
Alice what can I say but we need and love you wacky conspiracy nuts.Can you imagine if OBL had not admitted doing it and actually said BUSH did it.Half the Dem party would be carrying your torch.He missed a golden opportunity there.
Frank
OBL was no genius.Im glad you give him such accolades for a simple brutal act that killed so many,and ignited so much loss.But really look to another man.Gravrilo Princep.He shot prince Ferdinand dead igniting WW1.That in turn begat ww2.That begat most of the wars we have had since and their conflicts.Hundreds of millions dead,and a world gone mad.One bullet by a little scumbag.So it has always been so.
Bush reacted and reacted again.History will judge if the world is better or not for his actions.But Osama was just another zealot.Another soft spoken ,brutal piece of garbage .No different than a man who enters a preschool and kills all the children with a machine gun.He is maggot food now.Those who see him as above the maggots that feed on him do the maggots a dis service.
The arguments above are made under the assumption that bin Laden was, in fact, the inspiration for 9-11. Even the FBI, when asked why bin Laden’s name was not listed among their 10 Most Wanted list, stated that there wasn’t any evidence to implicate bin Laden. His name was thrown out there along with 19 other Muslim “fanatics” as being responsible for this deadly attack on the U.S. within 24 hours of the attack. Yet, none of the names appear on the passenger lists. How could they be identified that quickly when the only evidence provided was a picture ID of Mohammad Atta which survived the fires and pulverization of the Towers and was found among the dust and ashes intact. How convenient. Also, these religious fanatics were seen and identified in Florida prior to 9-11 drinking and womanizing. How strange for fanatics who were driven by there religious beliefs. Remember, bin Laden was a CIA asset when the Soviets were fighting in Afghanistan. Can we really accept that 19 Middle Eastern fanatics, armed with matte knives, outsmarted a multi-billion dollar U.S. defense system? It’s not about what bin Laden’s goals were, but rather what were the goals of our military leaders and the Bush administration.
Dave honestly i think we can.OBL and his men did not outsmart our defense shield.He simply saw there was none there. Everytime we see one of these human bombs go off we ask ourselves those questions that rational people wonder about.My father asked the same questions about Japanese suicide pilots during the war.Dad was a pilot off of carriers himself.It bewildered him.What could drive a man to do this.’I spoke to Richard Clark(national security advisor for Clinton/Bush head of cyber warfare .He would be surprised to hear that you read that OBL was not high on the list of threats and suspects.Mr Clark considered him one of the most dangerous men in the world,and the moment he heard about the plane his mind went to him.Look blaming our government and Bush is good people magazine dish but really that is all it is.OBL took credit and his men recorded suicide statements prior.It is really a slam dunk.Since then they have been less successful attacking us.Most have gone to their maker ,or are being hunted like the vermin they are.Some people even try to explain that it was impossible to bring down those buildings.Having the architects,builders,and explosive experts patiently explain it to them seems to get no where.And so it goes.Bush derangement syndrome and conspiracy nuts on full steam..
Dave, bin Laden was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Terrorist list, but just not for 9/11. When the FBI was asked why he wasn’t listed for 9/11, Rex Tomb, then chief of investigative publicity, said it was because the FBI had no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.
Michael e, two weeks after 9/11, bin Laden denied that he had anything to do with the attacks. But two months later, a video was conveniently found in a cave in Afghanistan in which a man who was supposedly bin Laden took credit for the attacks. However, that man was darker, with fuller cheeks and a broader nose than the OBL of all other videos, which strongly suggests that the video was faked and planted.
Oh Gosh Alice -every government on the globe at this point has computer scans with face”painting”measurements.Even the casinos use them now to weed out known card counters.It would be impossible to fake OBL with a little greasepaint and makeup.After ten years there has never been even a wiff of evidence that anyone else ran this horror show.There is better “funny” evidence that we were never on the moon.I love that stuff
Hi, michael e, it’s a lot scarier to think that people in our own government attacked their own fellow citizens than that foreigners attacked us. Sadly, the evidence indicates that the former is the case. The evidence was recently analyzed and presented by a group of scholars in Toronto, as I pointed out above. It would be helpful if you would actually examine the wealth of evidence available. Instead, you have, again and again, inferred your conclusion by starting with the assumption that the government’s conspiracy theory is correct and reasoning backward from that assumption. You say it would be impossible to fake OBL with greasepaint and makeup. Surely modern technology has gone beyond those crude techniques. They may have used a lookalike and voice morphing. In any case, while they fooled a lot of people, they didn’t fool everyone.
I actually read the results of those hearings Alice.Just finished.You owe me big time.What a mind F#$K
Well….well what can i say?Your intelligence dept. knows its is all ridiculous.Your military,your state dept,the FBI ,the CIA.Your last president….your present president.Hell even the taliban.It is like that game 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.Empiricle logic turned on its head by convoluted logic..Elvis is still alive.Michael jackson too.Oswald never shot Kennedy.Bobby was shot by the CIA ,Rev king as well.Hitler escaped.We never landed on the moon.On and on and on.As i say i would like to personally thank OBL for admitting his guilt.If he went the other way there would be millions who believe this bunk.You could have a film from beginning to end following one of the terrorists like the Kardashions and it would only take one nut saying “he stumbled on he controls of the 767 to prove to you it was all a fake”.Enjoy.It is a fun game.Everyone else really has to move on
Sorry, michael e, you couldn’t have read the results of the hearings, as they haven’t been published yet. So far they are only available in video format. I owe you nothing. Too bad that you can’t distinguish real conspiracies, such as the JFK assassination (designated a probable conspiracy by the House Assassinations Committee in 1978) with phony stuff like denying the moon landings.
Marinda, I also appreciate this site.
Alise I found it in video and redacted.It is a theory.A weak theory with little facts to back it up.You can believe as you like of course.Don’t expect anyone of note on the right or the left to buy it.Even Obama scoffs at it.
As far as Kennedy……New computers and forensic techniques as well as studies have proven that Oswald did the deed.
1.All bullets and fragments have now been matched to his gun
2.New computer studies on the angles of trajectory have proven that the progression of the bullets were correct
3.Months prior he told his wife he shot at a “general’.That man was identified and the bullet that missed him tested.It was from Oswalds gun.
4.The “picture”of the man behind the fence has proven to be shadows.
I could go on all day really.If there is anything you feel has not been answered ,especially in the pathology please ask away.I will do my best.
The real question or bur in the saddle is people ask how can such a puny little man(men 911)have caused so much change in the world.Happenstance…luck…planning.Who knows.Read about the Russian who stopped a nuclear attack on America during a computer malfunction.It was called “the man who saved the world” I think.Of course this is not to say Oswald had no other people on some level involved or “in the know”.Just very doubtful and without hard facts.But he pulled the trigger.Sad little nothing did it
michael e, since you now willing to agree that others may have been involved in the JFK assassination, we can get back to the issue of 9/11. You ask if anyone of note would “buy it.” As you must know from “redacting” the hearings, there is nothing to buy except a demand to have an impartial investigation of the facts. You should also know that one of the speakers was former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel. Other persons of note in the 9/11 Truth Movement are former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who provided the President’s daily brief for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; Col. Robert Bowman, head of the “Star Wars” program in the Ford and Carter administrations; and Col. George Nelson, former airplane accident investigator for the U.S. Air Force. Numerous firefighters and emergency medical workers of the New York Fire Department reported witnessing explosions in the North and South Towers and Building 7 of the World Trade Center. You may not be aware of these oral histories, because Mayor Bloomberg refused to release them until forced by a court order to do so in 2005.