Are We Boiling Frogs?

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  in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in late November 2001, a second

  video, dated November 9th, was also released as evidence of

  Osama bin Laden's confession. In it, OBL is heard to discuss

  the planning of the attacks with his close associate Sheikh

  Khaled al-Harbi. The video was reportedly made during a CIA

  sting operation carried out in late September 2001, about

  two weeks after 9/11. However, the CIA have been vague

  about its origins and no government official has ever verified

  how the video was filmed.

  The conspiracy theorists ask, if the CIA could operate a sting

  operation on OBL two weeks after 9/11 why didn't they

  arrest him? Also, seeing as OBL was left-handed, why was

  he right-handed in the video? Why was his skin a different

  colour and his beard very much shorter than it was seen to

  be in a confirmed video shot by professional journalist just 6

  weeks later? Why was he about 30 pounds heavier, with full

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  mobility, a shorter, fatter nose and different shaped ears?

  Finally, if this video was shot a few weeks before the verified

  footage, why did he look about 10 years younger?

  OBL allegedly suffered from kidney disease.[180] But even a

  rapid deterioration in his health, wouldn't appear to account

  for all the differences between the videos. If the claimed

  dates were accurate.

  The official explanation for the anomalies states they use the

  PAL video format in Afghanistan, which distorts and

  compresses the image in comparison to the NTSC format

  favoured in the U.S. Though PAL is used in Europe. This

  allegedly accounts for the much shorter beard and different

  shaped facial features. Skin colour variations were simply a

  result of different video quality and lighting conditions.

  Ultimately OBL wasn't held responsible for planning the

  attacks anyway. He was seen by the 9/11 Commission more

  as an inspiration for, and the director of, the operation. The

  mastermind who planned the attacks was named as Khalid

  Sheikh Mohammad

  Following his 2003 arrest in the Pakistan city of Rawalpindi

  by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI),

  Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) was identified as the

  ultimate architect of the 9/11 atrocity by the 9/11

  Commission. KSM was taken to a number of secret military

  bases, called 'Black Sites,' in Afghanistan, Thailand then

  Poland, before ending his extraordinary rendition in the

  Guantánamo Bay detention centre.

  After months of torture, he admitted to being the tactical

  mind behind a string of terrorist attacks, including 9/11. In

  fact, he admitted to pretty much anything and everything.

  [104]

  He later withdrew his statements saying he simply told his

  CIA interrogators what he thought they wanted to hear to

  stop them torturing him. Some elements of his confessions

  were proven to be false. For example, he confessed to

  robbing the Plaza bank in Washington in 2003. However, the

  bank didn't exist until 2006.[105]

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  KSM's disclosures, extracted through torture, were key to

  many of the 9/11 Commissions findings. For example, the

  commission credited the following statement to the

  'interrogation of KSM:'

  “Bin Ladin . . . finally decided to give the

  green light for the 9/11 operation sometime

  in late 1998 or early 1999. . . . Bin Ladin

  also soon selected four individuals to serve

  as suicide operatives. . . . Atta – whom Bin

  Ladin chose to lead the group – met with Bin

  Ladin several times to receive additional

  instructions, including a preliminary list of

  approved targets: the World Trade Center,

  the Pentagon, and the U.S. Capitol”

  Conspiracy theorists point out evidence extracted through

  torture is generally useless and inadmissible under

  international law, including Article 5 of the Universal

  Declaration of Human Rights. Though they acknowledge that

  recent exceptions have been made, in order to admit 'war on

  terror' evidence.[140] They highlight, for reasons we shall

  discuss shortly, the Commission's opinion that OBL met

  with Atta and 'chose' him to 'lead' the hijackers.

  Regardless, on the day itself, the finger was firmly pointed at

  OBL. According to the MSM, politicians and the rest of us

  who accept the official story, the near instant identification

  of bin Laden as the main culprit was an obvious conclusion.

  Prior to 9/11, governments and the intelligence agencies had

  long warned of the danger he and his network presented. All

  the major news networks had run stories and features on

  Osama bin Laden and his support for terrorist operations.

  He was wanted in connection with several attacks. Therefore

  media speculation and intelligence suspicions would

  immediately lean towards OBL. The fact that many

  accurately identified the culprit, straight away, suggests

  nothing other than a well-informed media. Intelligence

  agencies surely possessed enough information to be

  'confident' about the Saudi's guilt and, as it transpires, they

  were right. The evidence proves it. Presumably the FBI

  weren't aware of this evidence when they didn't list 9/11 as

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  one of OBL's suspected crimes.

  That Osama bin Laden was central to the 9/11 horror is not

  disputed by anyone, except conspiracy theorists. Every

  Western intelligence agency stated OBL was guilty. Every

  MSM media outlet, journalist and commentator agreed.

  Leading academics and 'think tanks' said he did it and the

  vast majority of politicians, across the globe, had no doubt.

  Osama bin Laden was a follower of Wahhabism. It is a pious

  form of Islam, built upon Salafi traditions, which advocates a

  return to ancient Islamic practices and laws. The Wahhabi

  faith is most widely practised in Saudi Arabia and is taught

  in Saudi financed religious centres, called Madrassas, across

  the world. It stems loosely from Sunni Muslim beliefs, but

  differs from Sunni theology and is fiercely opposed to Shi'ah

  interpretation of Islam.

  Most Muslims, including the vast majority of Sunnis,

  consider it extremist and, in return, many Wahhabists

  consider any Muslim, who doesn't practice the rigorous

  austerity and barbaric 'justice' they advocate, to be 'Kafirs'

  (unbelievers.) This may go some way to explaining why the

  vast majority of people killed by Islamist extremists are

  Muslims. Everyone else is a Kafir as far as they are

  concerned.[107] This fervent extremism's potential to inspire

  acts of despicable violence has long been recognised as a

  useful tool by the those who seek power.

  In the 18th century the emir of Najd, Muhammad ibn Saud,

  head of the al Saud tribal family, formed an alliance with

  Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism,

  and his ferocio
us fighters. The Wahhabi part of the deal was

  to fight and pay their taxes to bolster the al Saud coffers. In

  return they received land and title, pay and a commitment to

  fund the expansion of their faith.

  In the 19th century, this partnership resulted in the

  Wahhabi 'Muslim brothers' of the Ikhwan capturing Riyadh

  to return the house of Saud to power. By 1925, with the

  fierce Wahhabi troops under his command, Abd Al-Aziz ibn

  Saud had seized both Mecca and Medina and was well on his

  way to establishing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[108]

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  However, his mercenary warriors wanted to create a

  Wahhabi caliphate across the entire Middle East. Realising

  this would pit him against other regional potentates, and

  jeopardise his personal ambitions, Abd al-Aziz slaughtered

  the fighters who brought him to power.

  In 1931 OBL's father Mohammad bin Laden emigrated to the

  fledgling Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from Yemen. An astute

  business man, he built strong relationships with the future

  Kings Abdul al Aziz and King Faisal.

  In 1933 the young Kingdom granted the Rockefeller owned

  'U.S. Standard Oil' exclusive oil exploration rights. Just over

  a decade later, in 1945, the dying U.S. President, Franklin D.

  Roosevelt, met with King Abdul al Aziz and they made a deal

  that would underpin U.S. Saudi relations for the rest of the

  century. The Saudis agreed to sell their oil to the U.S. and,

  reciprocally, the U.S. pledged its military might to protect the

  rule of al Saud.

  King Abdul al Aziz stipulated another condition of the deal.

  In return for oil the U.S. would also protect the Saudi faith,

  Wahhabism.[109]

  Osama bin Laden was born into wealth, in Riyadh, in 1957.

  One of 54 children, his family's construction empire and

  their shrewd political acumen placed them amongst the

  world’s wealthiest. They had reached the upper echelons of

  the world power elite and their Saudi Binladin Group had

  investments across the globe.

  In 1976, Salem bin Laden (Osama's half-brother) co-founded

  Arbusto Energy with George W Bush and his close associate

  James R. Bath.[110] The bin Laden's also had extensive

  business ties with the multinational, private equity firm, the

  Carlyle Group. George H.W. Bush was the company's senior

  advisor and a major shareholder.[111] On the morning of

  9/11, another bin Laden brother, Shafig, was a guest at a

  Washington meeting of the Carlyle Group. George H.W. Bush

  was also in attendance.

  The Binladin Group supposedly disowned their wayward

  son, Osama, in a statement in 1994.[112] However,

  conspiracy theorists draw attention to Yeslam bin Laden's

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  admission, in 2004, that the family shared a joint Swiss

  bank account with Osama until at least 1997.[113]

  Furthermore, the French intelligence agencies issued a

  report, two days after 9/11, stating their opinion that the

  family continued to fund OBL's terrorist activities.[114] This

  was something both Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of

  the CIA Counter Terrorism centre, and Michael Scheuer, the

  former head of the CIA 'Alec Unit,' also acknowledged.

  Odd then, say the conspiracists, that in the first few days

  after 9/11 two dozen members of the bin Laden family were

  transported to assembly points in Texas and Washington

  before being quietly flown out of the country.[115] Even

  stranger that Abdullah and Omar bin Laden (who were

  suspected of funding terrorism) were 'allowed' to make their

  own way home by the FBI, only days after 9/11, without

  even being interviewed.[116]

  The brothers had been under investigation since 1996 for

  their connections to a suspected terrorist recruitment

  organisation called the 'World Assembly of Muslim Youth.'

  The FBI later released documents which showed they were

  pressured by the Bush administration to cease the

  investigation. It was reopened a week after 9/11, once the

  brothers were safely returned to Saudi Arabia. They flew

  home while all U.S. commercial flights remained grounded.

  [117]

  Furthermore, the conspiracists add, there is little doubt the

  U.S. were aware the family had profited from Osama's

  terrorism. Osama had taken credit for inspiring the 1996

  bombing of a U.S. Air Force base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

  Nineteen U.S. service personnel died in the attack on the

  Khobar Towers. The Clinton administration awarded the

  contract to rebuild the base to the Saudi Binladin Group.

  [118]

  The mainstream response is that this is all circumstantial

  and meaningless. Just because the bin Laden's were well-

  connected, that doesn't mean the black sheep Osama had

  any association with the Western powers.

  During the 1980s the CIA ran 'Operation Cyclone' to arm,

  train and equip Afghan Mujahideen fighters in their war

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  against the occupying forces of the USSR. The CIA

  superficially made efforts to distance themselves from the

  jihadis and liaised with Pakistan's ISI to funnel funds to the

  extremists.[120] A significant proportion of the estimated

  $5Bn investment was administered by Maktab al Khidamat

  (MAK.) The CIA had grown tired of the tribal infighting that

  plagued the Afghan fighters and looked towards foreign

  extremists as a better option. MAK was run by Osama bin

  Laden, among others.

  Its purpose was to coordinate the movement of money, arms

  and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan conflict.

  [121] OBL supplemented MAK funds through his close

  association with the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

  and his international drugs empire.

  Following the 1985 publication of National Security Decision

  Directive 166 (NSDD 166,)[129] which 'stepped up covert

  military aid to the Mujahideen,' the U.S. Assistant

  Undersecretary of Defense, Michael Pillsbury, flew to the

  Afghan border to meet with Hekmatyar and reviewed his

  military training operations.

  Pillsbury was the chair of an inter-agency White House

  policy group tasked with advising Operation Cyclone. At his

  meeting with Hekmatyar, Pillsbury asked if direct funding of

  OBL's Arab fighters would be helpful. However, the Afghan

  drug lord wanted the money to continue flowing into his own

  operations and warned against it. [122]

  Unconvinced, CIA director William Casey made an agreement

  with the Pakistani ISI to increase funding to the Arab

  fighters. Following this agreement, in 1986, Osama bin

  Laden established his first training camp which he named

  Maasada (the Lion's Den.) The camp was precariously close

  to a Soviet military base and was opposed by other Islamists

  who felt its scale and expense were unnecessary. Nor did

  they want to divide their forces by nationality. A split

  emerged which later sh
aped events in Iraq and elsewhere.

  MAK ran up to 30 fundraising and recruitment offices in the

  U.S. Though the first office opened in Tucson (Arizona) it was

  the New York office, the 'Al Kifah Refugee Center,' which

  became its most significant. It was the place where the so

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  called 'Arab-Afghan foreign legion' (the future al Qaeda), was

  initially conceived.[137]

  Based in Brooklyn, the office served as a hub for Arab

  immigrant and American born Islamist recruits to be sent to

  Afghanistan. It was also a rallying point for Afghan fighters

  flying into the States. Their passage facilitated with CIA

  supplied passports.[123]

  In 1989 Michael Springmann (head US consular official in

  Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) was fired after repeatedly complaining

  about being overruled by his superiors every time he refused

  to issue Islamist extremists with visas to enter the U.S. On

  one occasion, Springmann reported that he declined the

  applications of two individuals who said they were visiting a

  trade show in the U.S. The men didn't know what it was

  called or where it was. Having rejected them Springmann

  said he received “an almost immediate call from a CIA case

  officer, hidden in the commercial section [of the consulate],

  that I should reverse myself and grant these guys a

  visa.” [153]

  The original founder of MAK was Sheikh Abdullah Azzam,

  OBL's mentor. Azzam made numerous visits to the U.S.

  during the 1980s and, while building financial support for

  MAK's U.S. based operations, ran into conflict with his pupil

  Osama. Azzam was against the expansionist ambitions of

  OBL and his Egyptian comrade (and one time physician) Dr

  Ayman al Zawahiri.

  Al Zawahiri eventually co-founded al Qaeda with Osama. He

  was pivotal, according to official accounts, in convincing OBL

  to expand the jihad globally. Azzam strongly disagreed with

  the pair's idea to move operations beyond Afghan borders.

  Following The Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in

  1989, Osama and al Zawahiri formed a fighting force whose

  aim was to use terror to take jihad to these foreign 'enemies.'

  Abdullah Azzam continued his objections, resulting in

  Ayman al Zawahiri accusing him of spying for the CIA.

  Azzam died in a car bombing later that same year and an

  unrestrained Osama and al Zawahiri forged ahead with their

  plan. Al Qaeda began to form and Osama took leadership of