Your Saturday's Rove Truth Squad Heads Up ...
Remember the Bush Junta II's Puppet Boy King is just 1° of Separation from Osama — as his late brother Salem bin Laden was a close family friend of the Bush Crime Family — The two closest friends of King Fahd were Prince Mohammed ben Abdullah (son of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's youngest brother) who died in the early 1980s and Salem bin Laden who died in 1988, when a plane that he was flying flew into some powerlines in San Antonio, Texas. He was flying a BAC 1-11, a short-range jet airliner which had been bought in July 1977 by Prince Mohammed Ben Fahd PBS "Frontline".The plane's flight log had been a subject of some interest because the same plane was said to have been used in the summer of 1980 by negotiators in the so-called "October Surprise" (the conspiracy by Ronald Reagan's supporters to delay resolution of the Iran Hostage Crisis until after the US presidential election as Bush lackies ensured Operation Eagle Claw would fail). — Michael Moore's highly critical documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 alleges strong business connections between the Bush political family and the bin Laden family. Moore based most of his claims on Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud which relates how Salem bin Laden invested through James R. Bath, the sole U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, some money in Arbusto Energy, a company run by George W. Bush [2]. Connections beyond investment activities 30 years ago have not been proven. Saudi Binladin Group's corporate website, www.saudi-binladin-group.com, expired on September 11, 2001, the same day at the attacks in the United States. After September 11, 2001, some two dozen members of the bin Laden family, most of them students, were in the United States at the time of the September 11 attacks. Saudi Embassy officials, fearing reprisals, gathered the group together and, with approval from the F.B.I., flew them by private jet from Los Angeles to Orlando, then on to Washington, and finally to Boston where they were kept in seclusion. As soon as the F.A.A. permitted overseas flights, the bin Laden jet flew to Europe.
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Prices at the pump spike overnight in U.S.
August 12, 2005
Overnight gas price hike shown at a Chicago area BP-Amoco station
(background). The Shell station (foreground) has not yet posted the
whopping 12 cent price hike.
Oil prices post 9/11
All this week, prices at the pump have been reaching record levels across the United States. Since yesterday, the price for a gallon of gasoline increased by as much as fifteen cents in some places. Large cities in California, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, have reported gas prices that top $3.00 a gallon for regular grade, twenty cents higher than the state's average of $2.80. Chicago is reporting gas prices beyond $2.80. These price hikes are a direct reflection of the record price of crude oil at $67 per barrel and the fact that 12 U.S. refineries have reported issues that have affected output.
These price increases are concerning some who worry that those with considerable financial hardships will endure more of a burden. A poll was conducted for The Associated Press and America Online News about whether or not these gas prices will cause problems with people's personal finances and the poll found that 64 percent say gas prices will cause money problems for them in the next six months, while 35 percent did not think so.
According to a AAA Texas motor club spokesman, additional price increases will more than likely continue into the weekend.
Sources
- "Gas prices generate full week of record highs". The Business Journal of Phoenix, August 12, 2005
- "Poll: Gas prices a growing pain". CNN, August 12, 2005
- "Gas prices at all-time high". Dallas Business Journal, August 12, 2005
Document reveals U.S., Taliban discussed bin Laden assassination
August 20, 2005
According to documents recently declassified by the U.S. State Department, top U.S. and Taliban officials discussed the potential assassination of Osama bin Laden after the bombings of U.S. embassies in 1998.
The documents were released on Thursday by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act. They show that the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, Alan Eastham Jr., met with Wakil Ahmed, a close aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, on November 28th 1998 at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad.
In that meeting Wakil Ahmed told Eastham Jr. that the Taliban would understand the U.S. desire to have bin Laden expelled from Afghanistan. He said that one possibility to "resolve" the "bin Laden Situation" would be if the U.S. were to "kill him, or arrange for bin Laden to be assassinated".
Wakil said the Taliban wanted to resolve the "bin Laden problem" as quickly as possible because a failure to do so would result in American bombing of Afghanistan and the Taliban's "termination".
Sources
- "U.S., Taliban bargained over bin Laden, documents show". CNN, August 20, 2005
Weblinks
——————————————————Osama bin Laden
Ronnie the Rapist's favorite Freedom Fighter Osama bin Laden
Us?mah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin L?din (born March 10, 1957) (Arabic: ????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ????), commonly known as Osama bin Laden (Arabic: ????? ?? ????), is usually considered to be the figurehead of al-Qaeda, a Sunni Islamist terrorist network that has been involved in attacks against civilians and military targets around the world. He is widely believed to have conceived of, incited and been instrumental in, the attacks on September 11, 2001 on New York City and Washington, D.C. which killed at least 2,752 people.
One of bin Laden's main grievances was the presence of U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, where two of Islam's holiest places are located. The U.S. withdrew from these bases in 2003, although it is unclear whether these decisions were already planned before the September 11 attacks.
Bin Laden is the "most wanted" man in the world with a reward for information leading to his capture of US$50 million. While his current whereabouts are unknown, the most popular assumption is that he is hiding in Pakistan's unruly tribal region of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, or, more specifically, near the small Pakistani market town of Chitral [1] [2]. If Bin Laden is in Pakistan, it is likely that he continues to benefit from significant local support from the fiercely independent Waziri tribe. Together with the inhospitable mountainous terrain and uncertainty about the true cooperation of Pakistani intelligence, the United States faces many difficulties in pursuing his capture despite a wide array of sophisticated eavesdropping sensors deployed in the region [3].
Background
Family and childhood
Osama Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Muhammad Awad bin Ladin, a wealthy businessman involved in construction and with close ties to the Saudi royal family. There is no definitive account of the number of children born to Mohammed bin Laden, but the number is generally put at 54. In addition, various accounts place Osama as his seventeenth son, while others say he was the last of 25 sons.
The large number of bin Laden siblings is the result of polygyny; his father was married ten times, although to no more than four women at a time per Islamic law. Osama is the only son of the elder bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, who is reportedly of Syrian descent. A woman who in 1971 had attended an English language course with bin Laden recalled him saying with some sadness that his mother was a concubine[4].
His family originally came from Hadhramaut, Yemen and he was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. After his graduation from secondary school in 1973, bin Laden went to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and allegedly frequented bars and nightclubs. As a college student, he studied business and project administration. He also earned a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah in 1979, possibly in preparation for taking over parts of his father's extensive construction and civil engineering business.
After his father died, bin Laden inherited what was once estimated to be a fortune of US$300 million although more recent estimates put his holdings at about US$25 million.
In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married his first wife (and first cousin), Najwa Ghanem. Bin Laden reportedly married four other women, divorcing one. He has fathered at least 24 children. Najwa, a Syrian and his mother's niece, reportedly had 11 children by bin Laden, including Abdallah, Omar, Saad, and Muhammad. Saad, born in 1979, is reportedly active in an Iran-based al-Qaeda network, although it is widely known that Iran has contempt for Al-Qaeda.[5] Omar and Abdallah were reportedly organizing the U.S. branch of the World Congress of Muslim Youth in Falls Church, Virginia during the 1990s.
Bin Laden’s position within his huge family has always been unclear. His immensely wealthy family publicly disowned him in 1994, shortly before the Saudi Arabian government revoked his citizenship. He attended his son's wedding in January 2001, but since 9/11 is believed only to have had contact with his mother on one occasion.
Appearance and manner
This Osama bin Laden photo is from the FBI Ten Most Wanted
page on 9/11/01. Looks like they've split "regular" criminals
from "terrorists;" he's still on the list.
Bin Laden is often described as lanky — the FBI describes him as tall and thin, being 6' 4" (193 cm) to 6' 6" (198 cm) tall and weighing 160 pounds (75 kg). He has an olive complexion, is left-handed and usually walks with a cane. He wears a plain white turban and no longer dons the traditional Saudi male headdress.
It has been claimed (by US military figures) that Bin Laden employs at least one double to act as a decoy, in order to evade would-be captors. This belief has been expressed several times, from many quarters [6]. No proof of this claim, nor any supporting evidence, has ever surfaced.
He reportedly suffers from various medical conditions including kidney disease.
For more information (mostly speculative) see this summary of medical information about bin Laden.Names
Bin Laden's name can be transliterated in several ways. The form used here, Osama bin Laden, is used by most English-language mass media, including CNN and the BBC. The second most common English-language form of the name is Usama bin Laden (used by the FBI and FOX News) commonly abbreviated to UBL (favored by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld). Less common renderings include Ussamah Bin Ladin and Oussama Ben Laden (used in French-language mass media). The latter part of the name can also be found as ibn Laden, Binladen or Binladin.
Strictly speaking, under the Arabic naming convention, it is incorrect to use "bin Laden" as though it were a Western surname. His full name means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of `Awad, son of Laden." However, the bin Laden family (or "Binladin," as they prefer to be known) generally use the name as a surname, in the Western style. The family company is known as the Binladin Brothers for Contracting and Industry and is one of the largest corporations in Saudi Arabia. For this reason, although the Arabic convention would be to refer to him either as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden," using "bin Laden" is in accordance with the family's own usage of the name and is the near-universal convention in Western references to him.
Bin Laden has several aliases and nicknames, including the Prince, the Emir, Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shaykh, Hajj, and the Director.
Military and terrorist activity
Afghan Jihad
His wealth and connections permitted him to pursue his interest in supporting the mujahideen, Muslim guerrillas fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. (See: the History of Afghanistan.) By 1984 he had established an organization named Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Order in English), which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the world into the Afghan war.
Some argue that MAK was supported by the governments of Pakistan, the United States[7] and Saudi Arabia, and that the three countries channelled their supplies through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). This account is vehemently denied by the US government, which maintains that US aid went only to Afghan fighters, and that [Afghan Arabs] had their own sources of funding, an account also supported by Al Qaeda itself. [8]. The State Department quotes CNN analyst Peter Bergen as saying:
"While the charges that the CIA was responsible for the rise of the Afghan Arabs might make good copy, they don't make good history. The truth is more complicated, tinged with varying shades of gray. The United States wanted to be able to deny that the CIA was funding the Afghan war, so its support was funneled through Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). ISI in turn made the decisions about which Afghan factions to arm and train, tending to favor the most Islamist and pro-Pakistan. The Afghan Arabs generally fought alongside those factions, which is how the charge arose that they were creatures of the CIA. Former CIA official Milt Bearden, who ran the Agency's Afghan operation in the late 1980s, says, "The CIA did not recruit Arabs," as there was no need to do so. There were hundreds of thousands of Afghans all too willing to fight, and the Arabs who did come for jihad were "very disruptive . . . the Afghans thought they were a pain in the ass." Similar sentiments from Afghans who appreciated the money that flowed from the Gulf but did not appreciate the Arabs' holier-than-thou attempts to convert them to their ultra-purist version of Islam. ... There was simply no point in the CIA and the Afghan Arabs being in contact with each other. ... the Afghan Arabs functioned independently and had their own sources of funding. The CIA did not need the Afghan Arabs, and the Afghan Arabs did not need the CIA. So the notion that the Agency funded and trained the Afghan Arabs is, at best, misleading. The 'let's blame everything bad that happens on the CIA' school of thought vastly overestimates the Agency's powers, both for good and ill." [Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden (New York: The Free Press, 2001), pp. 64-66.]
The accounts of some journalists and investigators, however, do suggest that CIA money and weapons reached the Afghan Arabs and bin Laden indirectly through the ISI.[9] According to Ahmed Rashid, Central Intelligence Agency Chief William Casey in 1986 "committed CIA support to a long-standing ISI initiative to recruit radical Muslims from around the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Afghan Mujaheddin. The ISI had encouraged this since 1982 and by now all the other players had their reasons for supporting the idea.... Washington wanted to demonstrate that the entire Muslim world was fighting the Soviet Union alongside the Afghans and their American benefactors. And the Saudis saw an opportunity to promote Wahabbism and get rid of its disgruntled radicals. None of the players reckoned on these volunteers having their own agendas, which would eventually turn their hatred against the Soviets on their own regimes and the Americans." (Ahmed Rashid, Taliban New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000, p. 129.) This account is also substantially backed up by John Cooley, Unholy Wars : Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, New York, Pluto Press, 2002. And while Marc Sageman, former CIA officer who worked closely with the mujahedin under Milton Bearden, makes clear that he does not believe the CIA ever came in direct contact with the foreign volunteers (an account refuted by Coll, see p. 201) and calls the notion of CIA training of future al Qaeda terrorists "sheer fantasy," he also notes that U.S. support for the Arab Afghan volunteers was funnelled through the Pakistani ISI at Pakistan's insistence. "The global Salafi jihad," he writes, "is without doubt an indirect consequence of U.S. involvement in that Afghan-Soviet war." (Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p. 59, emphasis added).
Formation of al-Qaeda
By 1988, bin Laden had split from the MAK and established a new militant group, later dubbed al-Qaeda by the U.S. government, which included many of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 and bin Laden was lauded as a mujahideen hero in Saudi Arabia. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bin Laden offered to help defend Saudi Arabia (with 12,000 armed men) but was rebuffed by the Saudi government. Bin Laden publicly denounced his government's dependence on the U.S. military and demanded an end to the presence of foreign military bases in the country. According to reports (by the BBC and others), the 1990/91 deployment of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Gulf War profoundly shocked and revolted bin Laden and other Islamist militants because the Saudi government claims legitimacy based on their role as guardians of the sacred Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina. After the Gulf War, the establishment of permanent bases for non-Muslim U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia continued to undermine the Saudi rulers' legitimacy and inflamed anti-government Islamist militants, including bin Laden. Bin Laden's increasingly strident criticisms of the Saudi monarchy led the government to expel him to Sudan in 1991.
Assisted by donations funneled through business and charitable fronts such as Benevolence International established by his brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations in Sudan to disseminate Islamist philosophy and recruit operatives in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Bin Laden also invested in business ventures, such as al-Hajira, a construction company that built roads throughout Sudan, and Wadi al-Aqiq, an agricultural corporation that farmed hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum, gum arabic, sesame and sunflowers in Sudan's central Gezira province. Bin Laden's operations in Sudan were protected by the powerful Sudanese government figure Hassan al Turabi. The funding from these ventures was used to run several training camps on his farmland, where Islamist militants could receive instruction in firearms use and the use of explosives from former Afghan mujahideen.
Around this time, bin Laden and his associates began developing and executing a series of meticulously-planned terrorist attacks. In 1995, the Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship after he claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. and Saudi military bases in Riyadh and Dahran.
Refuge in Afghanistan
Sudanese officials whose government was under international sanctions offered to extradite bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1990s. However, Saudi Arabia refused because of the political difficulties of accepting such a controversial figure into their custody. Thus, in May 1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, Sudan expelled bin Laden to Afghanistan. He chartered a plane and flew to Kabul before settling in Jalalabad. After spending a few months in the border region hosted by local leaders, bin Laden forged a close relationship with some of the leaders of Afghanistan's new Taliban government, notably Mullah Mohammed Omar. Bin Laden supported the Taliban government with financial and paramilitary assistance and, in 1997, he moved to Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold.
Bin Laden is suspected of funding the 1997 massacre of 62 tourists in Luxor, Egypt conducted by Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian militant Islamist group. The Egyptian government convicted Bin Laden's colleague, one of the leaders of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and sentenced him to death in absentia for the massacre.
Attacks on United States targets
Bin Laden's first strike against the United States was the December 29, 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen that killed a Yemeni hotel employee, an Austrian national and seriously injured his wife. About 100 US soldiers, part of Operation Restore Hope, had been staying at the hotel for two weeks but had left two days earlier for Somalia. Bin Laden and the Indonesian militant known as Hambali allegedly funded, then aborted Operation Bojinka conspiracy when police discovered the plot in Manila, Philippines on January 6, 1995.
In 1998, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad) co-signed a fatwa (binding religious edict) in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, declaring, "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.'" For more information, see Osama bin Laden Fatwa.
Bin Laden is officially wanted by the United States in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 225 people and injured more than 4000. Since June 1999, bin Laden has been listed as one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. Al-Qaida was allegedly involved in several unsuccessful conspiracies, including the 2000 millennium attack plots to bomb Los Angeles airport, several tourist sites in Jordan and the USS The Sullivans, and well as the subsequent Paris embassy terrorist attack plot. The al-Qaeda organization was allegedly responsible for the successful USS Cole bombing in October, 2000.
In response to these attacks, President Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets linked to bin Laden. Clinton also signed an executive order authorizing bin Laden's arrest or assassination. In August 1998, the U.S. military launched an assassination attempt using cruise missiles. The attack failed to harm bin Laden but killed 19 other people. The U.S. offered a US$25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's apprehension or conviction and, in 1999, convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.
September 11
Immediately after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the United States, the United States government named bin Laden as the prime suspect. He claimed in an interview shortly after the attacks, "I was not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States nor did I have knowledge of the attacks," and suggested the attacks were the fault of Jews or of the CIA. But in subsequent statements and interviews he expressed admiration for whoever was responsible. He took credit for "inspiring" what he calls the "blessed attacks" of September 11th in several public statements.
In December 2001 U.S. forces in Afghanistan captured a videotape during a raid on a house in Jalalabad, in which he discusses the September 11 attacks with a group of followers. According to the official U.S. translation of this tape bin Laden says:
We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for. (full text of the tape transcript)
Several other videotapes have surfaced in the media (11.11.01 Sunday Times / Al-Jazeera 26.12.02 / 04.02 Al-Jazeera/AP / Sunday Times 19.05.02 / 09.02 Al-Jazeera etc). The video found in Jalalabad in December 2001 is still the most often cited as evidence for bin Laden's participation in the September 11th attacks.
In a closed door session in October 2001, the U.S. presented evidence to NATO of bin Laden's involvement in the September 11 attacks. NATO's general secretary George Robertson described the evidence as clear and decisive and led the organization to invoke, for the first time in its history, article 5 in the NATO pact. Article 5 states that any attack on a member state is considered an attack against the entire alliance. [10] The evidence presented to NATO was never presented to the public for security reasons.
One leading al-Qaeda member, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, claims (according to his interrogators) that the idea for the attacks came from him and not from bin Laden. Khalid has been in United States custody since September 2003. The extent to which bin Laden was involved in funding or overseeing the operation is unknown. The FBI's most wanted poster of bin Laden only refers to the embassy bombings and other unspecified terrorist activity.
Nevertheless, bin Laden has publicly praised the September 11 attacks in several instances and has taken credit for being their "inspiration." It is clear in many of his public statements that he views himself as an active participant in the attacks, whether or not he deserves the credit the West gives him as their "mastermind." A good example is this passage from his October 2001 interview with Al-Jazeera:
As for the World Trade Center, the ones who were attacked and who died in it were a financial power. It wasn't a children's school! And it wasn't a residence. And the general consensus is that most of the people who were in there were men that backed the biggest financial force in the world that spreads worldwide mischief [ta`ithu fil ardi fasaadaa]. And those individuals should stand for Allah, and to re-think and re-do their calculations. We treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they stop from doing so.[11]
In October of 2004, a videotape was released of Bin Laden in which he said:
...as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children. [12]
On March 18, 2004, the United States House of Representatives unanimously voted to double the reward for information leading to his capture from US$25 million to US$50 million.
Whereabouts
After the September 11 attacks, the United States asked the Taliban government of Afghanistan to "hand him over." The Taliban counter-offer to try bin Laden in an Islamic court or extradite him to a third-party country was deemed unacceptable by the U.S. government. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the death or arrest of many members of his organization, as well as many civilians (estimates range from thousands to 49,000), but bin Laden was not found.
There had been suggestions that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, or that he may have died of natural causes. The U.S. military had reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly kidney dialysis. Ayman al-Zawahiri, also an FBI Most Wanted Terrorist, is a physician and may have provided medical care to bin Laden.
Bin Laden was rumored in the Pakistani press to have died in 2001 of pulmonary complications incident to catastrophic kidney failure in the absence of available hygienic dialysis. His death was speculated on by the Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf [13] and by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan [14]. This speculation was later undercut by newly released videos of bin Laden, alive and referring to current events such as the 2004 US Presidential election.
Although he has been publicly disowned by his family, an estranged family member, Carmen Binladin, speculates (without providing evidence) that unnamed family members may be providing financial support to bin Laden. The corporate website of The Saudi Binladin Group's (a family-owned company), www.saudi-binladin-group.com, expired on September 11, 2001, the same day as the attacks in the United States.
A Spanish court indicted bin Laden and 34 others on charges related to terrorism on September 17, 2003.
Rumours about his whereabouts have appeared from time to time since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan but none have been confirmed.
On October 21, 2004, John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission, reported that bin Laden was indeed alive, and that the Pentagon knew exactly where he was. According to Lehman, bin Laden was living in South Waziristan in the Toba Kakar Mountains of the Baluchistan region in Pakistan, surviving from donations from outside countries such as the United Arab Emirates and high-ranking ministers inside Saudi Arabia. "There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops," Lehman said. "If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now" [15].
On October 29, 2004, the Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of bin Laden addressing citizens of the United States, discussing the reasons behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. This release came just four days before the 2004 U.S. presidential election and is subject to speculation by some political analysts as having affected the election's outcome. See 2004 bin Laden video.
See also
- Terrorist incidents
- Videos of bin Laden
- Osama tapes
- Worldwide perception of Osama bin Laden
- Osama bin Laden's Declaration of War
External links
- Reward for Osama's Capture
- US State Department on conspiracy theories
- Identifying Misinformation US government denial of CIA connection
Other
- Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement from bin Laden, 23 February 1998
- BBC:Transcript of Osama bin Laden video aired by al-Jazeera
- Bin Laden comes home to roost - By Michael Moran, MSNBC, August 24, 1998. Alleges a CIA/bin Laden relationship
- Picture of bin Ladin and two brothers on a visit to Oxford in 1971 - Story on BBC News
- Osama bin Laden at the Internet Movie Database
- Coll, Steve (2004), Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin Press; ISBN 1594200076
- Emerson, S. (2002), American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Free Press; ISBN 0743233247
- Hunting bin Laden" Frontline PBS report based on French intelligence
- houseofbush.com Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud
- Jane Mayer, "The house of bin Laden: a family's, and a nation's, divided loyalties," from The New Yorker November 12, 2001: conflicted loyalties prevented the bin Laden family from publicly distancing themselves from Osama
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Daily Mail: Scotland Yard offered Menezes family US$1m
The British newspaper Daily Mail reports that Scotland Yard has offered the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot by British police on July 22nd, one million US$ (£560,000) in compensation. The paper quotes his parent as saying: "We will not be bought off. We will not be silenced. This is not about money, this is about justice."
According to Yasmin Khan, of the Justice4Jean campaign, John Yates, deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, flew to Brazil about two weeks ago and made the initial offer. Khan said: "Money was being bandied about but was not accepted. The family felt it was insulting and was not prepared to be bought off." She also stated that she considers Scotland Yard's alleged actions to be part of a cover-up.
Menezes' cousin Alessandro Pereira told the Daily Mail: "The police knew Jean was innocent, yet they let my family suffer. They let us suffer. Ian Blair (Metropolitan Police commissioner) let us suffer. For three weeks, we have had to listen to lie after lie about Jean and how he was killed. The police met my family yet they still didn't tell us the truth. Did they think because we are poor Brazilians we do not deserve the truth?"
Scotland Yard has denied the reports. A Spokesman said: "The only discussions we have had so far with the family of Jean Charles de Menezes have been about initial expenses. We strongly refute any suggestion that a figure anywhere in the region of one million dollars has been offered as compensation."
Related Stories
- Man shot on London Underground unconnected to bombing, says Scotland Yard
- Armed police shoot man dead on London Underground
Sources
- "We don't want your $1m". Daily Mail, August 20, 2005
- "Police deny m Menezes cash claims". Liverpool Daily Post, August 20, 2005
Rocket attack on USS Ashland docked in Jordan; another rocket fired at Israeli town
August 19, 2005
Two Katyusha rockets exploded this morning (8:44 AM UTC+3) in Aqaba, Jordan, near the USS Ashland, which has been docking at the Aqaba port for the last ten days. One Jordanian soldier was killed. Another rocket exploded in Eilat, Israel.
One rocket narrowly missed the USS Ashland and struck a warehouse in the vicinity of the Ashland and the USS Kearsarge, killing a Jordanian soldier, Private Ahmad Alnajdawi, and injuring another. The two amphibious ships had been docking at the Aqaba port for the last ten days. The other missile fell near a Jordanian hospital but caused no injuries.
Commander Jeff Breslau of the U.S. Fifth Fleet told reporters "I can confirm that a rocket flew over the bow of USS Ashland and the rocket impacted in the roof of a warehouse. No sailors or marines were injured. It’s pretty safe to conclude that they were probably trying to hit one or both of the ships".
The rocket that was aimed at Eilat exploded about 15 meters from the Eilat airport, near several hotels. An Israeli taxi driver, Meir Farhan (40), was lightly injured. Farhan told the press "I heard a noise, the car shook, and I kept driving for two more meters. I didn't realize what it was; when I went out of the car I saw a hole in the ground on the asphalt."
A branch of the Al-Qaeda linked terrorist organization Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Egypt has claimed responsibility for the attack. They also claim responsibility for last month's terror attack in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and for the 2004 attack on Egyptian tourist resorts.
Immediately after the attack, the two US Navy Ships left the Aqaba port. All flights in the Eilat airport were briefly delayed before the explosion site was cleared of debris.
Jordanian security forces have located the launch site on a nearby rooftop. They are searching for three people with connection to the attack, two Syrian nationals and one Iraqi.
Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz said that Israeli and Jordanian security forces are cooperating. "We are certain the Jordanians are also acting to thwart such attacks" Mofaz said. "There were no prior warnings regarding this specific case, but we're alert.".
Eilat and Aqaba are both considered international tourist destinations in their respective countries.
Sources
- "Rockets hit Eilat, Aqaba". Ynet, August 19, 2005
- "Jordan - Israel: Coordinated attack on Aqaba and Eilat". Al Bawaba, August 19, 2005
- "Rockets fired at U.S. Navy ships in Aqaba". CBC, August 19, 2005
- "Al Qaeda claim for Red Sea attacks". CNN, August 19, 2005
THIS SUNDAY ON MOTHER JONES RADIO - 08/21/05
Having invaded Iraq on the pretext that Saddam Hussein was ready to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States, the Bush administration failed to secure the one undeniable WMD threat Saddam possessed: the scientists who developed Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
The September/October issue of Mother Jones magazine will break story of how the US failed to keep track of Iraq's nuclear scientists, with the result that today they're dispersed and more dangerous than ever. We're pre-releasing the story this Sunday, August 21st, on the Mother Jones website. Also on Sunday, tune in to Mother Jones Radio, heard on Air America affiliates around the country, at 1:00 p.m. EST, for exclusive interviews with the only Iraqi nuclear scientist known to have been granted refuge in the U.S. since the 2003 invasion, as well as former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright, and writer Kurt Pitzer.
| Read the story Sunday, August 21: http://www.motherjones.com/ Find your local Air America Radio Affiliate: About Mother Jones Radio: |  |
| This is a special edition of the Mother Jones Radio newsletter. If you want to be notified about what's happening each week on Mother Jones Radio and wish to continue receiving this newsletter, click here to subscribe. |
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Be seeing you! - Sparky
posted by Coat @ 3:11 PM
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