Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Robalini's Note: For those who are unaware, the American Free Press 
is the new version of The Liberty Lobby, a right-wing populist 
organization who have a deserved reputation for anti-Semitism.  
Having said that, noted Zionist underground journalist Barry Chamish 
personally stated that for all its faults, "I trust The Liberty Lobby 
more than I trust the New York Times."

Whatever the faults of the philosophy of the philosophy of American 
Free Press may be - just as, as so many have recent whined, whatever 
the faults of the philosophy of the WSWS - this is some of the most 
important questions and stories I have seen printed yet about the 911 
tragedy.  So long as the American Free Press continues to do such 
important work, The Konformist will pass on their work without any 
reservations.


http://www.americanfreepress.net

Evidence Hard to Come by in WTC Case

Much of the case against the Muslim terrorists in the Trade Center 
attacks is based on copies of a letter considered by experts to be a 
fraud. 
 
By Christopher Bollyn
 
It has been exactly one month since four passenger planes were 
involved in an atrocious act of terrorism on American soil and yet no 
hard evidence has been presented associating the prime suspect, Osama 
bin Laden, with the events of Sept. 11.

A case has been built, largely in the media, blaming Muslim 
terrorists for hijacking the passenger planes and flying them into 
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The much-awaited scientific 
evidence from the planes' flight data recorders, the "black boxes," 
has yet to be presented. 

An FBI spokesman told American Free Press on Oct. 11 that only two 
black boxes had been retrieved from the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania 
crash sites but the information they contain has not been released, 
although AFP was told that it would be "eventually."

In the eye of the public, much of the government's case against the 
19 Muslim Arabs named as suspects rests on copies of a suspicious and 
possibly spurious five-page letter, hand-written in Arabic, which has 
turned up in three different locations. However, the document itself 
raises more questions than it answers, leading one expert to say that 
it could be "the greatest falsification in history."

A law enforcement official described the letter to the press as "a 
spiritual instruction manual" giving the terrorists step-by-step 
instructions for their suicide mission and preparing them spiritually 
for death. The document contained a mission checklist and 
instructions for mental and spiritual preparation, the official said, 
speaking on condition of anonymity, according to USA Today on Oct. 2.

One copy was found in Mohammed Atta's suitcase, which "mysteriously" 
was left behind at the airport in Portland, Maine. Another copy was 
found in the wreckage in Pennsylvania and a third was found in the 
car of one of the suspects.

Muslim scholars and specialists question the authenticity of the 
letter saying the phraseology and style are "un-Islamic." "This is 
not the way Muslims speak or think, there is a mysterious element 
here, and the FBI knows it for sure," Mohammed Hurub, a Muslim 
scholar from Bethlehem said.

There are serious questions and problems with a number of foreign and 
peculiar phrases and ideas contained in the text of the letter.

If the letter, which is described as "part theological, part mission 
statement" is genuine, "then the men who murdered more than 7,000 
innocent people believed in a very exclusive version of Islam-or were 
surprisingly unfamiliar with their religion," Middle East expert and 
journalist Robert Fisk says.

The problems first arise in the opening lines of the letter, "In the 
name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate . . . in the 
name of God, of myself, and of my family." No Muslim would include 
his family in such a prayer, Fisk says, but would mention the Prophet 
Mohammed immediately after he mentioned God.

Furthermore, the letter lacks any mention whatsoever of the specific 
political reasons for the planned actions that could tie the suspects 
to the agenda advocated by Osama bin Laden. Why is there no mention 
of the political reasons that would compel these men to take such 
drastic action?

Although the original letter has not been found, the copied text 
reads "remind yourself that in this night you will face many 
challenges. But you have to face them and understand it 100 
percent . . ."

American scholars raise doubts about the use of "100 percent" noting 
that it is "hardly a theological term to be found in a religious 
exhortation," according to Fisk.

The letter urges the reader to recite the morning prayer and then 
goes on to quote from it. A devout Muslim would hardly need to be 
told of his duty to say his prayers and would certainly not need to 
be reminded of the text of those prayers. It is as if a Christian 
would have to be reminded of The Lord's Prayer.

In some respects similar to the suspicious "diaries" of Lee Harvey 
Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan, there are many other problems with this 
letter which is now being used as "evidence" to tie the suspects 
together in a religiously-motivated conspiracy.

*****

STILL ALIVE? FBI Mixed Up on True Identities of Perpetrators

Some of the men the FBI claims hijacked planes on Sept. 11 and 
crashed them into hubs of U.S. finance and defense are still alive. 
 
Exclusive to American Free Press

By Christopher J. Petherick
 
At least six men the FBI says were part of the ring of 19 hijackers 
who seized passenger jets with box cutters on Sept. 11 and crashed 
them into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon 
are "alive and well," report Mideast officials.

Information Times, an on-line publication, reported that Saudi 
Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told the Arabic Press 
after meeting with President George W. Bush on Sept. 20: "It was 
proved that five of the names included in the FBI list had nothing to 
do with what happened."

According to The Orlando Sentinel, the Saudi Arabian embassy 
confirmed that four of the five mentioned by Al-Faisal -Saeed 
Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri, Abdul aziz Alo mari and Salem Alhazmi-are 
not dead and had nothing to do with the heinous terror attacks in New 
York and Washington.

Saudi officials at the embassy were un able to verify the whereabouts 
of the fifth accused hijacker, Khalid Al-Mihdhar. However, Arab 
newspapers say Al-Mihd har is still alive.

NUMBER SIX

A sixth person on the FBI's list, Saudi national Waleed Alshehri, is 
living in Casablanca, according to an official with the Royal Air 
Moroc, the Moroccan commercial airline.

According to the unnamed official, Alshehri lived in Dayton Beach, 
Fla., where he took flight training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 
University. Now he works for a Moroccan airline.

On Sept. 22, Associated Press reported that Alshehri had spoken to 
the U.S. embassy in Morocco.

The FBI acknowledges that the identities of some of the purported 
hijackers are still in question because some of the suspects' names 
on flight rosters had been reported stolen months before the attacks 
took place. 

Why the FBI still lists these men as suspected hijackers who were 
killed during the terrorist assault remains a mystery.

The following contains the FBI's list of suspected hijackers:

American Airlines No. 77, Boeing 757

1) Khalid Almihdhar-Possible Saudi national
   Possible resident of San Diego, California, and New York
   Alias: Sannan Al-Makki; Khalid Bin Muhammad; Addallah Al-Mihdhar; 
   Khalid Mohammad Al-Saqaf

2) Majed Moqed-Possible Saudi national
   Alias: Majed M.GH Moqed; Majed Moqed, Majed Mashaan Moqed

3) Nawaf Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
   Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey; San 
   Diego, California
   Alias: Nawaf Al-Hazmi; Nawaf Al Hazmi; Nawaf M.S. Al Hazmi

4) Salem Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
   Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey

5) Hani Hanjour 
   Possible resident of Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego, California
   Alias: Hani Saleh Hanjour; Hani Saleh; Hani Hanjour, Hani Saleh H. 
   Hanjour
 
American Airlines No. 11, Boeing 767

1) Satam M.A. Al Suqami-Possible Saudi national
   Dates of birth used: June 28, 1976; Last known address: United Arab 
   Emirates

2) Waleed M. Alshehri-Possible Saudi national
   Dates of birth used: Sept. 13, 1974; Jan. 1, 1976; March 3, 1976; 
   July 8, 1977; Dec. 20, 1978; May 11, 1979; Nov. 5, 1979
   Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Orlando, Florida; 
   Daytona Beach, Florida
   Believed to be a pilot

3) Wail M. Alshehri
 Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
 Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Newton, Massachusetts
 Believed to be a pilot 

4) Mohamed Atta-Possible Egyptian national
   Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
   Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Coral Springs, Florida; 
   Hamburg, Germany
   Believed to be a pilot
   Alias: Mehan Atta; Mohammad El Amir; Muhammad Atta; Mohamed El 
   Sayed; Mohamed Elsayed; Muhammad Muhammad Al Amir Awag Al Sayyid 
   Atta; Muhammad Muhammad Al-Amir Awad Al Sayad

5) Abdulaziz Alomari-Possible Saudi national
   Dates of birth used: Dec. 24, 1972 and May 28, 1979
   Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
   Believed to be a pilot
 
United Airlines No. 175, Boeing 767

1) Marwan Al-Shehhi
   Date of birth used: May 9, 1978
   Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
   Believed to be a pilot
   Alias: Marwan Yusif Muhammad Rashid Al-Shehi; Marwan Yusif Muhammad 
   Rashid Lakrab Al-Shihhi; Abu Abdullah

2) Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad
   Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Florida
   Alias: Fayez Ahmad; Banihammad Fayez Abu Dhabi Banihammad; Fayez 
  Rashid Ahmed; Banihammad Fayez; Rasid Ahmed Hassen Alqadi; Abu Dhabi 
  Banihammad; Ahmed Fayez; Faez Ahmed 

3) Ahmed Alghamdi
   Alias: Ahmed Salah Alghamdi

4) Hamza Alghamdi
   Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
   Alias: Hamza Al-Ghamdi; Hamza Ghamdi; Hamzah Alghamdi;Hamza 
   Alghamdi Saleh

5) Mohand Alshehri
   Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
   Alias: Mohammed Alshehhi; Mohamd Alshehri; Mohald Alshehri
 
United Airlines No. 93, Boeing 757 

1) Saeed Alghamdi
   Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida
   Alias: Abdul Rahman Saed Alghamdi; Ali S Alghamdi; Al- Gamdi; Saad 
   M.S. Al Ghamdi; Sadda Al Ghamdi; Saheed Al-Ghamdi; Seed Al Ghamdi

2) Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi - Possible Saudi national
   Date of birth used: Oct. 11, 1980
   Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
   Alias: Ahmed Alhaznawi

3) Ahmed Alnami
   Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
   Alias: Ali Ahmed Alnami; Ahmed A. Al-Nami; Ahmed Al- Nawi

4) Ziad Samir Jarrah
   Believed to be a pilot
   Alias: Zaid Jarrahi; Zaid Samr Jarrah; Ziad S. Jarrah; Ziad Jarrah 
   Jarrat, Ziad Samir Jarrahi H

*****

What Does Bin Laden Really Want?

While the U.S. government and mainstream media refuse to discuss the 
foreign policies that breed resentment against America in the Islamic 
world, ignoring these fundamental issues can only per petuate the 
conflict.
 
Exclusive to American Free Press

By Christopher Bollyn
 
It was late on Sunday morning when President George W. Bush began 
his "war against terrorism" by launching 50 cruise missiles and 
bombing raids on Taliban targets in Afghanistan.

Within hours, Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the 
terror attacks of Sept. 11, responded with an effective counter-
offensive in the war of words. Bin Laden spoke to the world through a 
taped message broadcast by Al Jazeera, the most widely watched 
television news channel in the Arab world.

The American mass media portrays bin Laden as "consumed by hatred for 
the West" and misrepresents his primary political goals of restoring 
integrity to Saudi Arabia and confronting American abuses in the 
Middle East.

"Bush and Blair may tell the world they are going to win the 'war 
against terrorism' but in the Middle East, where Osama bin Laden is 
acquiring almost mythic status among Arabs, they have already lost," 
Robert Fisk of The Indepen dent said on Oct. 10. 
A resident of Cairo told Fisk that Arabs believe America "is trying 
to kill the one man ready to tell the truth."

Bin Laden, who "is hardly a madman," according to experts, despises 
the Saudi royal family, which he regards as corrupt surrogates of 
American rule. In 1998, bin Laden said he expects "for the ruler of 
Riyadh the same fate as the shah of Iran." Because the Saudi royal 
family "sells the interests of its own people and betrays the 
nation," bin Laden said, 
"They shall all be wiped out."

"The United States is committed to defending the House of Saud 
against any internal political movement that might want to get rid of 
it, or perhaps even reform it," Writes Said K. Aburish, author of The 
Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall of the House of Saud.
The American troops in Saudi Arabia are seen as protecting the royal 
family, which "is becoming less acceptable by the day," Aburish says. 
The House of Saud is not unlike the regime of Saddam Hussein, 
according to Aburish, "People still disappear in the middle of the 
night in Saudi Arabia; people are imprisoned without being charged; 
people have no voice in the running of the government, and they have 
squandered the country's wealth . . . the country is not only broke, 
they are heavily in debt.

"Saudi Arabia operates in very mysterious ways. . . . We are talking 
about a closed society ," he said. The royal family is dedicated to 
keeping the kingdom closed because "outside influences would include 
calls for human rights, equality, democracy and things of this sort 
that the House of Saud is not about to tolerate," Aburish said.

The oppressive conditions in the country are causing massive unrest, 
although due to suppression by the government, Islamic fundamentalism 
provides the only vehicle for political reform movements-and these 
are becoming increasingly violent. "Osama bin Laden is the prophet of 
these movements," Aburish says, whose "number one issue" is that 
American troops should leave Saudi Arabia, and secondly that "there 
should be a Muslim Jerusalem where Islamic holy places are 
protected." 

Bin Laden has "developed a stunningly deceptive regional war calculus 
that stands a reasonable chance of success," according to Paul M. 
Wihbey of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies 
in Washington.

"His strongest belief is that Saudi Arabia can be brought to its 
knees, the House of Saud deposed," Wihbey says. His "overriding goal" 
is to return to Saudi Arabia in triumph and put an end to the 
existing regime.

Support for bin Laden's political program to reform Saudi Arabia 
comes from all levels of society, Aburish says, including from 
members of the House of Saud who belong to Islam ic fundamentalist 
groups.

There is an ongoing power struggle between two competing factions in 
the Saudi royal family over how to deal with American requests to 
neutralize bin Laden, Wihbey said. One week after the terror attacks 
it was reported that the ailing Saudi king, Fahd, had flown to Geneva 
with a massive entourage and is now in seclusion.

If bin Laden survives and returns to Saudi Arabia, his supporters 
will greet him as a Mahdi (messiah). This would mark "a dramatically 
new geopolitical landscape," Wihbey said.

Bin Laden today stands accused by the U.S. government of 
masterminding the kamikaze terror attacks in New York and Washington 
although evidence linking him to the crimes has not been presented to 
the public. 

"Neither I nor my organization Al-Qaida is involved in the attacks 
and the U.S. has traced the attackers within America," bin Laden told 
the Karachi daily Ummat. "The attackers could be anybody, people who 
are part of the American system yet rebel against it, or some group 
that wants to make this century a century of confrontation between 
Islam and Christianity."

Bin Laden has always carefully denied involvement in terror attacks 
such as the U.S. embassy bombings saying it is not his job to 
organize such attacks. His role is "to create awareness about the 
injustices done by the U.S. to Muslims." He rails against 
the "corrupting influence of the West" on the Muslim world. "What has 
the West given the world? A lust for power and a license to loot and 
plunder the poorer countries," he said in a recent interview with an 
Arab journalist, as reported in The Washington Times.

"We are against the American system but not the Ameri can people. 
Islam does not allow killing of innocent people, men, women and 
children even in the event of war," he said to Ummat.

Although bin Laden denied personal responsibility for the terror 
attacks, in the taped speech, broadcast as Bush began the bombing of 
Afghanistan, he accused the United States of hypocrisy, murder, and 
occupation of Islamic lands, articulating widely held grievances 
which resonate throughout the Islamic and Arab world.

Bin Laden said that the suffering America is "tasting now" is 
insignificant compared to the humiliation and degradation the Islamic 
world has suffered for more than 80 years. "Its sons are killed, its 
blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no 
one heeds.

"Millions of innocent children are being killed as I speak. They are 
being killed in Iraq without committing any sins," bin Laden said 
about the human toll of the 11 years of U.S.-led sanctions on Iraq.

"Israeli tanks infest Palestine," bin Laden said, "in Jenin, 
Ramallah, Rafah, Beit Jalla, and other places in the land of Islam, 
and we don't hear anyone raising his voice or moving a limb.

"To America, I say only a few words to it and its people," bin Laden 
concluded. "I swear by God, who has elevated the skies without 
pillars, neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of 
security before we live it in Palestine, and not before all the 
infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed, peace be upon him.

"The enmity between us and the Jews," bin Laden said in 1998, "goes 
far back in time and is deep rooted. There is no question that war 
between the two of us is inevitable. The leaders in America and in 
other countries as well have fallen victim to Jewish Zionist 
blackmail," he said, "They have mobilized their people against Islam 
and against Muslims.
"Our mothers and daughters and sons are slaughtered every day with 
the approval of America and its support," he said. "And, while 
America blocks the entry of weapons into Islamic countries, it 
provides the Israelis with a continuous supply of arms allowing them 
thus to kill and massacre more Muslims.

"The American government is leading the country toward hell. We say 
to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish 
their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an 
American patriotic government that caters to their interests, not the 
interests of the Jews."

Al Jazeera, often called the CNN of the Arab world, reaches 35 
million viewers and is the only news organization with a 
correspondent and direct satellite link in Kabul, the Afghan capital. 
Secretary of State Colin Powell appealed to the emir of Qatar, where 
Al Jazeera is based, to stop the flow of information the network was 
sending from Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera resisted American censorship saying that in order to be 
seen as credible by its viewers it must show both sides of the 
conflict. Bin Laden is a party to the conflict and has a point of 
view that deserves to be heard, a spokesman for the network said.

The Voice of America, however, pulled an interview with Mullah Omar 
Mohammed, the Taliban leader, following objections from the U.S. 
deputy secretary of state and senior officials of the National 
Security Council.

"America controls the governments of the Islamic countries . . . they 
are in the grip of the United States," Omar said. "America has 
created the evil that is attacking it. The evil will not disappear 
even if I die and Osama dies and others die. The U.S. should step 
back and review its policy. It should stop trying to impose its 
empire on the rest of the world, especially on Islamic countries."

Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the 
American-led attack on Afghanistan as cruelty and a major mistake for 
the United States and Britain. The government of Iran is opposed to 
the Taliban but is not assisting in the U.S.-led attack on 
Afghanistan.

Khamenei said that it was not true that the strikes are part of a 
campaign against terrorism. "Their real purpose is to expand their 
[U.S. and U.K.] power and domination," he told a meeting of clerics 
in Tehran the day after the bombing began.

"What can justify this oppression that will lead to the killing and 
wounding of people and forcing many innocent Afghans to leave their 
homes?

"The Americans must know that they might be able to achieve their 
short-term goals with military strikes," he said. "But they will be 
hurt in the long run. Without doubt, their acts will bring 
instability for them."

Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi condemned the attacks and 
expressed Iran's concerns that such military operation could "provoke 
extremist reactions."

"We stressed from the beginning that terrorism cannot be eradicated 
through military actions," he said at a news conference the day after 
the bombing began. "Its causes must be identified and eliminated."