Is the Al Queda a myth?

Med - this is really  long and I don't know if I have an hour to watch it...can you give me the main concept here or an outline or something?

Medclinician: Thanks for acknowledging the elephant in the living room. Like so many other things, this was manufactured to create a face to identify evil-doers - a name to point the finger at to support all manner of unConstitutional, extra-executive authority and financial manipulation. I haven't seen this particular video and I have come to my independent conclusion based on research. It's so much easier to feed the public a story and a name for all the bad stuff - to blame them for all the carnage. It's a great smokescreen. When is the American public going to wake up? I actually heard Dennis Kucinich's DNC speech when he used those words. I was rolling on the floor, he was right on. In the meantime, naysayers can google the Carlyle Group for starters. Open your eyes to who is making the money on this war. Good call Medclinician.   And while you're at it, do some research on what really happened to WTC I, II, & 7. Here's some questions to ask yourself.

1. Why didn't jets intercept the airliners since they had numerous warnings of terrorist attacks?
2. Why did Ashcroft stop flying commercial airlines, citing an unidentified "threat" in July 2001?
3. Why did FEMA lie about their presence in New York on 9/11?
4. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom?
5. Why did George H.W. Bush meet bin Laden's brother on 9/11?
6. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights all use the term boxcutters?
7. Where are the flight recorders?
8. Why were the FISA warrants discontinued?
9. How did Bush see the first plane crash on live camera?
10 Why was security meeting scheduled for 9/11 cancelled by WTC management on 9/10?
11. How did they come up with the "culprits" so quickly?
12. How did they find the terrorist's cars at the airports so quickly?
13. Why did Shrub dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force?
14. Why the strange pattern of debris from Flight 93?
15. How extensive was the relationship between the Taliban, the ISI and the CIA?
16. What exactly was the role of Henry Kissinger at UNOCAL?
17. When was it decided to cancel building a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan?
18. Why did the FBI in 1996 close the files to investigate Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington?
19. Why did Bush stop inquiries into terrorist connections of the Bin Laden family in early 2001?
20. Who made the decision to have John O'Neill stop investigating Al-qeada accounts?
21. Who gave the decision to give him a security job at the World Trade Center?
22. Did John O'Neill meet anyone of the FEMA in the night of September 10th?
23. What about media reports that hijackers bought tickets for flights scheduled after Sept. 11?
24. Why did none of the 19 hijackers appear on the passenger lists?
25. Why would devout Muslims frequent bars, drink alcoholic beverages and leave their bibles?
26. Why would the hijackers use credit cards and allow drivers licenses with photos to be zeroxed?
27. Why did the hijackers force passengers to call relatives?
28. How did the hijackers change the flight plan without law enforcement or the military try to stop them?
29. How did a hijackers passport miraculously appear near the WTC? Who found it and what time?
30. How could the FBI distinguish between "regular" Muslims and hijacker Muslims on those flights?
31. Why was there not one "innocent" Muslim on board any of these flights?
32. Did someone go through the passenger lists looking for Muslim names and label them as hijackers?

33. Did the Florida police provide information that Atta was searched because of 1) an expired Visa, 2) driving a car without a license, 3) because of an incident at Miami Airport?
34. Why did Atta leave his bag at the airport and the employees didn't put it on board?
35. Who found his bag? How can we be sure it it was his bag?
36. Why did Atta place a video "how to fly planes", a uniform and his last will into his bag, knowing that he would commit suicide?
37. Why did Atta leave his drivers license in a rental car?
38. When did Atta train on a flight simulator?
39. Did Atta leave the US while in training and then return?
40. Why did Atta decide to study at Opa Locka, a famous hub of 6 Navy training bases and includes government partners like U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Police (Miami-Dade) Aviation Unit?
41. Why was Atta allowed to study since he was stopped by the police for driving without a license and also for violating his visa?

42. Why were the Black Boxes never recovered ?
43. Why didn't the FBI release the air traffic controller's protocols?
44. Why did the FBI not release the Flight Data Recorder info?

45. How did the FBI receive a tip from a passenger who boarded a different plane and reached his destination safely that he had a confrontation with two ME men at the Logan airport in Boston?
46. Who tipped the FBI to storm the Westin Hotel in Boston on September 12th?
47. Where did the photos of all 19 hijackers come from?
48. How were all hijackers identified just 2 days after the attack
49. Why did all 19 names not appear on the passenger list 2 days after the hijacker list was released?
50. Why do none of the names appear on the passenger lists UA and AA gave to CNN?
51. How could the hijackers disable the defense systems?
52. Why did the FBI ignore Bin Laden's family, who left the United States without further investigation?
53. What about the supposed hijackers who are still alive?
54. Was there a reason to change the list of the original 19 hijackers?
55. What happened to Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, who have been in jail since September 2001, because of possession of box cutters on a train? Who gave the tip to arrest them?
56. Why did it take 4 months before Ramsi Binalschibhs name was mentioned, since he was a good friend of Mohammad Atta and lived in his apartment in Hamburg?
57. Why did it take 4 months until December 11 to charge Zacarias Moussaoui for the 9/11 attacks when his case was known worldwide for months, but not mentioned in the American media?
58. Whatever happened with Lotfi Raissi, who was arrested in UK for teaching the terrorist pilots?
59. What is the current status of the investigation of Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export-Company in Hamburg and Al Taqwa Management Organisation in Lugano?
60. Why was Richard Reid able to enter the Paris airport twice and who paid for his hotel?
61. Who hired Zacarias Massoui to learn how to fly passenger jets in the United States?
62. Why did the FBI or CIA fail to interrogate him between August and December 2001?
BIN LADEN
63. Did the CIA monitor Bin Laden in 1998 with the help of 15 Afghan agents, paid $1,000/ month?
64. Where are these agents? Was Johnny "Mike" Spann one? Was John Walker Lindh one?
65. Is an Afghan agent a member of the ISI? Is an Afghan agent working for Bin Laden?
66. When was the first time Tenet mentioned the Al-Qaeda group to any member of the Senate?
67. Why did the Pentagon release a new video version or translation of the Bin Laden Home video?
68. Why it was released only 8 hours after translation by the German magazine MONITOR on December ?
69. Why were the four translators prior US-Government workers?
70. When was the Bin Laden Home Video found and who found it?
71. Who found the video if Northern Alliance and US troops had not yet arrived in Kandahar or Jahalabad?
72. Does the timestamp on the Bin Laden video indicate that it was found two weeks after it was produced?
73. Why was the public not informed who found the video and when?
74. Why according to MONITOR magazine, were the most controversial statements translated incorrectly?
75. Why was the video released?
76. Who gave the final decision to release it?
77. Why is the Bin Laden video of June 2001 in which he praised the attack, available on the Internet?
78. What about Bin Laden's statements on Al-Jazeera in June 2001 about the bombing of USS Cole, which are similar to the statements on the November 2001 home video?
79. Why did Bin Laden state in Umman Magazine in Sept. 2001, that he was not involved in the WTC?
80. Is Bin Laden still on the payroll of the CIA or ISI?
81. Did the Bin Laden Group Inc. help build ToraBora with the CIA?
82. What was the purpose of the meeting with General Pervez Musharraf in May 2001?
83. Why was a statement released that Al-Khalifa bin Laden, who is not the mother of Bin Laden, had a telephone call with Bin Laden on September 9, rather than Alia Ghanem, his mother? Why did Alia Ghanem say she did not believe he planned the attack?

100. What happened on September 18th, when an employee of Batelle Memorial Institute was involved in a so-called anthrax hoax on that day? Was he arrested?
101. Why did the investigation of that case begin in December 2001?
102. What was in the memo of Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a public health consumer advocate and author of "Death in the Air" on October 1, 2001, almost two weeks before the first anthrax letter was sent from Trenton to the American media building in Boca Raton?
103.What about his letter of Nov. 13 in which he claimed that BAYER is behind the anthrax infections?
104. Did US BioDefense laboratories send the anthrax-laced letters to get a new budget for research?
105. What about the statement of former UN-weapons inspector of Iraq, Richard Spertzel, who told ABC, "...he knows only five scientists in the USA who would be in the situation to produce such a fine, highly developed spore material"?
106. Why did it take 48 hours to inform Bob Stevens that he had anthrax?
107. Why were envelopes never found near Bob Stevens, Amelie Lundgren and Mia Nguyen?
108. How come Microsoft got a hoax anthrax letter from Malaysia on the same day that President Bush said Malaysia might be one of the next targets of the United States?
109. Why did the FBI never investigate the case Don Wiley, a Bioscientist who disappeared 11/13/01?
110. Why did the FBI begin to investigate after his body was found on December 22, 300 miles away? Was there an investigation at the military hydro plant where workers found him? Why did the media write different versions about how, when and where he was found? Why did the police report change 2 months later from suicide to an accident?
111. What was the goal of Bioport in 1997?
112.Did development of anti-anthrax vaccines begin in 1998?
113.When did Bioport decide to produce anthrax vaccines?
114. Was it before or after Sept. 1998 that Admiral Crowe was put in charge of investigations of the August 7, 1998 bombings of Embassy Nairobi and Embassy Dar Es Salaam?
115. Did the schedule for developing anti-anthrax vaccines begin starting in 1998?
116. When did the US Government ask Bayer for help in developing a vaccine?
117. When did Bayer start sending the vaccines to the U.S.?
118. When did Bayer double production of the vaccines?
119. Was the death of Vladimir Pasechnik investigated? He was former director of the Institute of Ultra Pure Biochemical Preparations of the Soviet bio-warfare establishment Biopreparat in November 2001?
120. How are the deaths of scientists Robert M. Schwartz, Dr. Benito Que and Set Van Nguyen explained since all occurred in the same month? Is Set van Nguyen related to the anthrax victim Mia Nguyen?
121. What about the death of Nancy Sonnenfeld (FEMA-Wife)?
122. Why was the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife examining Anthrax in August 2000?
123. Do any employees in Trenton have the same handwriting as printed on the Anthrax envelopes?
124. Is it just a coincidence that the laboratory is also based in Trenton?
125. Did the FBI ever ask Fort Detrick to examine anthrax spores?
126. What about the list of 15-20 labs (maintained by Barbara Rosenzweig) who used Fort Detrick spores?
127. Does the CIA have spores different from those at Fort Detrick?
128. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i.e. illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force?
129. Why did he decide on October 25, 2001 to ask Congress for another $500 million to produce Acambis's smallpox vaccine?
130. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax. Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again?
131. Did Walter Gilbert, Director Myriad Genetics ever get official permission from relatives of those killed at WTC to examine their DNA?
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
150. Why did General Mahmud Ahmad, former head of the ISI quit his position?
151. Why did retaliation against the Taliban begin the day he stepped down?
152. Who in the ISI paid $100.000 to Mohammad Atta?
153. Why does Ahmad think that another secret service was involved in the WTC attack? Which Secret Service was he referring to? Did other ISI official's believe that? Did officials of the CIA believe that? Did some officials of the Mossad believe that?
154. What was the purpose of Ahmad's visit to Washington on 9/11?
155. Who told Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov to abort an air strike against Afghanistan in May 2000?
156. Did Russian intelligence notify the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist pilots had been training for suicide missions, as reported in the Russian press?

1. What did Kissinger mean that an "outside threat from beyond", a "world government" and "individual rights" who are "willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted", what you mentioned in 1991 on a Bilderberg Conference?
2. What was his role at UNOCAL?
3. What did he discuss at the Bilderberg meeting last year in May 2001?
4. What was the purpose of his meeting with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in July 2001?
5. Why does he write in "Toward a New Diplomacy for the 21st Century" that America doesn't need a Foreign Policy?
6. When was the last time Henry Kissinger met US-Ambassador in Pakistan, Robert Oakley?

1. Is it true that the CIA is in possession of PROMIS software?
2. What is the purpose of PROMIS?
3. Did A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, CIA, own any stocks of United Airlines, American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re.?
4. What is his connection to Alex Brown, Deutsche Bank?
5. Did he give any insider information about to George Tenet, CIA?
6. Who was the investor who purchased 2,000 UAL put options between August and September 11, 2001?
7. Did Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown own any stocks of UA, AA, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re?
8. What about the 2,500 UA-contracts which were "split into 500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S. exchanges around the country simultaneously." on August 10, 2001?
9. Did Deutsche purchase UAL options in August 2001?
10. Why did DB-AB purchase 4,744 put options on United Air Lines stock as opposed to only 396 call s on September 6-7? What was the purpose of doing that?
11. What is the connection to Wally Kromgaard?
12. Did Deutsche Bank or Wally Kromgaard purchase 4,516 put options on American Airlines as compared to 748 call options on September 10?
13. What was the reason of Mayo Shattuck III re-asssignment on September 15th?

1. When was the last time they met any representatives of the US-Government?
2. What was the purpose of these meetings?
3. Did the Taliban know Karl E. Inderfurth and State Department counterterrorism chief Michael Sheehan?
4. Do they know which US-Representative said in February 2001: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs"?
5. When was the last time the Taliban was in touch with this representative?
6. Did Abdul Haq, the former Mujahedin leader executed Sept 2001 by the Taliban, decide in Winter 2000 to attack the Taliban?
7. Did production of opium in Afghanistan fall from 3276 tonnes in 2000 to 185 tonnes in 2001?

1. Was Global Hawk technology able to remotelycontrol unmanned planes in 1999 for 27 hours?
2. Did Northrop-Grumman use Global Hawk technology in the war in Afghanistan since October 2001?
3. What is the purpose of unmanned technology?
4. Is Northrup in contact with any engineers of Boeing?
5. Did Northrup install Global Hawk technology in a commercial airplane?

1. Did two U.S. carrier battle groups arrive in the Gulf of Arabia just off the Pakistani coast before 9/11?
2. Did 17,000 U.S. troops join more than 23,000 NATO troops in Egypt for Operation 'Bright Star' on 9/11? What was the purpose of both of these operations?

1. When did Tommy Franks learn that he would use Thermobarics in ToraBora?
2. Does he know if it had been tested on December 12 in Nevada?
3. Who told Franks that Bin Laden might hide in ToraBora?
4. Is the main purpose of Thermobarics to destroy buried bio and chemical stocks?
5. When was the first time Franks used Thermobarics? Was it before or after the announcement of the end of ABM Treaty on December 11?
6. When did the US decide to use B61-11, the "nuclear version" of its "conventional" BLU-113 counterpart?
7. Why has the NSA destroyed data collected on Americans or US companies since the Sept. 11 attacks?

1. Why did Clinton abort an attack on Bin Laden in October 1999?
2. Who was responsible for that operation?
3. Why was the operation put on hold?
4. Why did Musharraf halt a covert operation to attack Bin Laden in October 1999?
5. Why did the GOP in Congress stop almost every move Clinton made against terrorism? They refused to believe reports and pass necessary legislation. In 1996 Clinton proposed a very extensive anti-terrorism regulation.

1. Who hired Richard Reid to threaten a passenger plane in Paris?
2. Who did he send an email to in Pakistan?
3. Has he ever been in touch with the ISI or CIA?
4. Did he know the difference between an explosive and a detonator?
5. How many ounces did he have in his shoes?
6. What size are his shoes?
7. Who build or prepared his shoes?

1. Has John Walker Lindh ever been in touch with the CIA?
2. Did he ever work for the CIA?
3. Who arrested him in 2001?
4. Why didn't he escape in the tumult to nearby Masar-e-Sharif?
5. Who hired his lawyer, Richard Brohanan? Who paid his lawyer?
6. Why didn't he go to Guantanamo Bay?

1. When did Cheney stop working for Halliburton?
2. Is he still in possession of any Halliburton stock?
3. Is he still in contact with Halliburton?
4. Was Halliburton invited to an oil conference in May 2002?
5. Does Cheney know when that meeting was planned?
6. Did Cheney have influence concerning Halliburton contracts with the Pentagon?
7. What exactly did Cheney decide to do on September 11th?
8. Did he speak with an Air Force Commander or Lt. Gen. Charles F. Wald on that day?
9. When did he inform the president about the hijacked airplanes on September 11?
10. Who called the White House on September 11 at 9:30 AM about a possible threat?
11. Why was no air security at the White House or the Pentagon at 9:30 AM?
12. When and who gave the approval to evacuate the White House at 9:45 AM?
13. What was the purpose of a meeting with Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi in June 2001 about a multimillion-dollar debt owed to Enron from a major energy project in Indian Power Plants?
14. When was the last time Cheney spoke with anyone from ENRON?

1. What was the role of Colin Powell?
2. Who decided to give $43 million in aid to the Taliban regime in May 2001?
3. Did he know that production of opium in Afghanistan fell from 3276 tonnes in 2000 to 185 in 2001?
4. What was the purpose of his decision to treat the Taliban prisoners as War Prisoners? Is this decision in any way related to media reports 2 days earlier that Powell may have been involved in negotiations with Indian Power Plants?
5. What was the purpose of his short trip to Latin America on September 11?
6. Who decided that he fly to Latin America on that day?
7. Why would someone threaten him in Afghanistan on January 17, 2002 as Newsweek reported?
8. What was the purpose of Powell meeting with India's foreign minister on April 6, 2001?
9. Did Enron or Cheney ask Powell to help collect a $64 million debt on an Indian plant project?

1. When was the last time George H.W. Bush traveled to South Arabia on behalf of the Carlyle Group?
2. What was the purpose of that meeting?

1. Is Thomas White still in contact with ENRON?
2. Did his contact at anytime influence his decisions?
3. Does he still own ENRON stocks?

1. Did Delmardt Vreeland warn Canadian Intelligence in May 2001 about possible terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon?
2. Did he place the warning in an envelope while in prison in Toronto, Canada?
3. Where did he get his information?
4. Whom did he give the envelope to?
5. Why was he placed in jail?

1.Was the domain AUDI-BINLADIN-GROUP.COM created on September 11th, 2000?
2. Who paid for that domain?
3. Are they also owners of Iridium Satellites?
4. When did they end contact with relatives of the Bush family?

1. When was the last time George H.W. Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the privately owned Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the U.S.?
2. What was the purpose of that meeting?
3. When did he resign from Carlyle Group?
4. Is he still in touch with any of their representatives?
STEPHEN LANDER, Director MI5
1. Did Lander monitor a phone conversation between Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid in Dec. 2000?
2. What did Lander tell representatives of the CIA about Zacarias Moussaoui?
3. Why did he stop monitoring Djamel Beghal, member of Takfir-wal-Hijra (financed by Osama bin Laden) in August 2001?
BIN LADEN IN DUBAI
1. Did Bin Laden in July 2001 enter an American hospital in Dubai?
2. Did he arrive on July 4, 2001 on a flight from Qetta, Pakistan to American Hospital?
3. Was he at the hospital July 4-11, 2001?
4. Did Bernard Koval, CEO of American Hospital, ever speak with Doctor Terry Callaway about that visit?
5. Why did he change his statements about this story not being true and that he "asked around"?
6. What is the difference between Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis?
7. Did Koval know Larry Stevens?
8. Can Koval explain why Richard Labeviere, author of "Terror Dollars" (about illegal Al-Qaeda accounts), wrote the story about Osama Bin Laden's kidney operation?

1. What exactly happened on September 11 and at what time was President Bush informed?
2. Why was President Bush scheduled to visit a school in Florida?
3. Who scheduled the time of the visit?
4. When exactly did Bush learn about the first crash into the WTC?
5. How could he have seen that on TV?
6. Why didn't he interrupt his school meeting as soon as he learned of the first plane crash?
7. Did Bush ever wonder how Bin Laden was able to hear the first plane crash live on the radio?
8. Which radio station he was listening to?
9. Can Bush explain how Bin Laden's Home Video was found only two weeks after it was produced?
10. Why did Bush decide to release Bin Laden's Home Video?
11. What is the purpose of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, where terrorists have been trained for undercover agents in South America? Bush stated "if any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves". So what does he think about Fort Benning?
12. What is the role of Zalmay Khalilzad (former UNOCAL) in the National Security Council ?
13. What is the current role of Zalmay Khalilzad (former UNOCAL) in Afghanistan?
14. When was Bush's last contact with anyone from ENRON?
15. Why was China admitted to the WTO on September 13 after 15 years of unsuccessful attempts?
16. Why did Bush postpone the release of Ronald Reagan's records?
17. How does Bush feel about the need to investigate the CIA's mistakes?
18. Does Bush agree with senators John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman, Porter J. Goss, former C.I.A. clandestine case officer and a Florida Republican, Richard C. Shelby and Ron Paul, US Congressman, who want an investigation and have said "Secret government is winning out over open government"?
19. Why did Bush continue to sit in that classroom reading to children when he should have been conferring with his advisors?
20. Why did Bush say that he and Card initially thought it was an accident involving a small plane?
21. Given all the information sources available to the POTUS and his staff how could his people not have known the kind of plane involved?
22. Why didn't they know at this point, as did the FAA and NORAD, that aircraft were hijacked? The Batallion Chief in the 9/11 video was seen and heard asking for military backup immediately after the building was hit.
23. How come the NYFD knew it was terrorism right away but the POTUS and his aides just calmly went about their business?

1. Were 25,000 British troops and the largest British Armada since the Falkland Islands War, part of Operation 'Essential Harvest' pre-positioned in Oman, the closest point on the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan before September 11, 2001?
2. When did he begin to place SIS-Special Forces in Afghanistan? Why?
THE SUN-SENTINEL
1. Did Gloria Irish own unit 1504 at the Delray Racquet Club, 755 Dotterel?
2. Did she rent that property to Hamza Alghamdi in August 2001?
3. Why did the media not report about a connection of the Sun-Sentinel and the hijackers?
4. Why did it first appear that the hijackers had something to do with the anthrax attacks?
5. Why has this connection or coincidence never appeared in the media again?
6. What was the connection between husband Michael Irish (SunSentinel) and Bob Stevens (who died from Anthrax)?
WARNINGS
1. When did Vladimir Putin warn the CIA about a possible terrorist attack and what was their reaction?
2. What was the purpose of the meeting between Christina Rocca, director of Asian affairs at the State Department and the Taliban ambassador Mollah Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad in August 2001?
3. Why did she oversee the delivery of Stinger missiles in the 80s to Afghan mujaheddin?
4. Did Walid Arkeh in Seminole County jail inform the FBI in August 2001 about an attack on America? What was the reaction of the FBI?
5. Why did Dr. Jeffrey Starr, U.S. department of defense, visit Tajikistan in Jan 2001?
6. When did Jean-Claude Cousseran, Director DGSE , French Secret Service inform the CIA about terrorist attacks on America? What was their reaction?
7. What does he know about the monitoring of Djamel Beghal, member of Takfir-wal-Hijra (financed by Osama bin Laden) and Kamel Daoudi? Did he ever inform the CIA about that? And when?
8. When did Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini inform the CIA about a possible attack on the American president "with the use of an airplane"? What was their reaction?
9. When did President Mubarak, Egypt, inform the CIA about a possible attack on America with an "airplane stuffed with explosives"? What was their reaction?
10. When did Efraim Halevy , Director of Mossad since 1998 (unconfirmed) inform the CIA about a possible attack with "200 terrorists" on America? What was their reaction?
11. Is it true he warned Ariel Sharon not to travel to New York on September 11 to speak at a festival?
12. Did a caller to Loxley Banks, Director Radio Cayman Islands talk show, give several warnings of an imminent attack on the U.S on Sept. 3 -10?
13. The London Times reported that someone from the FAA warned Salman Rushdie not to travel to the United States on September 3rd? If this is true, who was it?
14. Did the FBI investigate the two men who met Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi in Harry's Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan on September 8, 2001?
15. Who does Abdullah Abdullah (Northern Alliance) believe killed Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001?
16. When and why did he decide to attack Kabul on September 11 at 5:30 PM?
17. When did he decide to invade Masar-i-Scharif
18. Did the CIA helped him provoke a tumult?
19. Did he ever meet John Walker Lindh?
20. Why was Major John Kenny, Commander Wright Patterson Air Base, Dayton placed on high alert on September 10? Did he inform companies in Dayton to shutdown their offices?
21. Why was Colonel William M. Dietrick , Commander Defense Language Institute in Garrison, Monterey on high alert on September 10?
22. Why did one of Kenneth (Ken) Weinbrecht (President SAMS ) executives say on September 10, that he was a 'Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act.'"
23. Did Jean-Louis Bruguiere, French anti-terrorism, inform the CIA on September 10 about a possible terrorist attack? If so, what was their reaction?
24. Why did Atta and hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari check into a Portland, Maine motel (unidentified) on September 10?
25. Why was the Portland, Airport, according to eye-witnesses, in full charge of more military officials and soldiers than usual, weeks before September 11, 2001?
26. Why, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, was Mayor Brown warned to be "cautious in your travel" the night of September 10? Who warned him?
27. Why did Alex Diamandis, Odigo Vice President of Sales and Marketing, receive a warning on his messenger service about a possible attack on America on September 11, 2001? At which time?
28. When did Dr.August Hanning , President BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany) inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction?
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL/GLOBAL HAWK
1. Why did Kenneth Waldie, Stanley Hall, Herbert Homer and Peter Gay of Raytheon travel on Sept. 11?
2. Can Global Hawk technology be used for at least 27 hours?
3. Is Global Hawk technology used in commercial airplanes?
4. Did Danielle O'Brien, air traffic controller, inform another air traffic control center about a plane traveling fast southwest of Dulles after spotting it 8:18 AM on September 11?
5. Who was informed and what happened?
THE PENNSYLVANIA CRASH
1. Why didn't Dr. James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force try to reach the airplanes in NYC (7 minutes time for McGuire AFB in New Jersey ) and at the Pentagon (10 minutes time)?
2. Did Roche ever try to shutdown the plane in Pennsylvania?
3. Can Roche explain why magazines of that plane were found 20 miles away from the crash? Andrews AFB is 13 miles away. He had one hour and fifteen minutes to respond to the plane that hit the Pentagon. What happened during that time?
4. Can he explain why many ear and eye witnesses, including workers of the road construction company New Enterprise saw or heard F-16 jets?
5. Why did President Bush say only one week later that he tried to shutdown that plane?
6. Who gave that decision?
DEFENSE ALERTS AND MOVEMENTS
1. Why did George Bush leave Barksdale Air Force Base aboard Air Force One and flew to an Air Force base in Nebraska on 1:48 PM on September 11 and returned to Washington at 4:30 PM?
2. What exactly did Donald Rumsfeld do that day before he arrived at the Pentagon around 3:55 PM?
3. How did Rumsfeld know at 5:30 PM on September 11 that the plane in Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible targets: Camp David, the White House or the U.S. Capitol building?
4. Can he explain why early media reports told us that no squadrons of combat-ready fighter jets have been at Andrews and later changed their reports that they haven't been on high alert only?
5. Why was Air Force Lt. Col. Vic Warzinski, another Pentagon spokesman, so sure on September 11 that aircraft was coming your way?
6. What did the D.C. Air National Guard in Washington do on September 11?
7. Can he explain what those 3 fighters did from 9:40AM until 9:55AM when they finally turned towards Flight 93 and were 60 miles out at 10:06am?
8. Can he explain why Air Traffic Controllers in a Nashua Telegraph article did report an F-16 was circling Flight 93 and was in visual range at the time of crash?
9. Can he confirm a witness report that National Guard F-16's have been at Han**** field in Syracuse NY in the air early that morning before 9AM?
10. How could the hijackers know how to disable defense systems?
11. What was the official reason that fighters of the 305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base, NJ did not intercept the 2nd hijacked plane in NYC? This would have been possible within 7 minutes after 8:48 AM.
12. Why did none of the 459th Aircraft Squadron (Andrews AFB) fighters intercept the plane which crashed into the Pentagon? Andrews AFB is 10 miles from Washington DC.
13. Col. Ken McClellan, Air Force spokesman said on September 11, that Mohammad Atta attended the International Officer's School at Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, and was seen by eye-witnesses? What was McClellan doing there? Why did he later deny the report?
14. Why did he decide not to shutdown ECHELON base Bad Aibling in Germany as planned for 2002?
15. What is the reason that none of any Air Force fighters reached the hijacked plane in time?
16. Many ear and eye witnesses think that the plane in Pennsylvania was shot down. What is the scientific explanation why the magazine of the airplane was found many miles away?
17. Why did Jack Kelly, idefense.com, inform USA Today only 12 minutes after the first crash (8:48AM), that terror groups using Web encryption may have been responsible? And why was he so sure before the second crash at 9:03 PM?
18. Did Kelly serve with the U.S. government where he managed several significant programs for the information warfare and intelligence communities?
19. Did Joseph J. Esposito, Chief of NYPD try to contact the Pentagon at 9:06 AM on September 11? What was their reaction?
20. Why didn't General Elwood "Pete" Quesada of the FAA inform President Bush between 8:15 and 9:05 about four simultaneously hijacked planes? Who did he inform and what was their reaction?
THE WTC COLLAPSE
1. What does Nicholas Scoppetta of FDNY know about the latest reports of the WTC destruction?
2. Can he explain why many witnesses saw and heard more than two explosions in the WTC?
3. Can he explain why both Twin Towers and Building 7 collapsed in that way?
4. Can he explain why a gas tank was in Building 7?
5. Can he explain why there were no passengers in the subway under the WTC?
6. Can he explain why there was no guard at the gold reservoir under the WTC?
7. Why did Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Director CDC prepare, as CNN reported, emergency-response teams on September 11 at 11:16 PM?
MISCELLANEOUS
1. When did Dr.August Hanning , President BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany) inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction?
2. When did Tayseer Allouni , Kabul correspondent Al-Jazeera, receive his first video from Bin Laden? Can he explain why the first video on October 7 2001, the day of the retaliation, looked like it was recorded in the morning?
3. Did Tom Simmons (former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs) and Lee Coldren (former State Department expert on South Asia) decide or announce in a July 2001 meeting that an attack was planned on the Taliban in October 2001?
4. Why did Ms. Barbara Bodine, US ambassador to Yemen stop John O'Neill from investigating Al-Quaeda accounts in July 2001?
5. Did Niaz Niak, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary say in mid July 2001 that the USA planned military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban?
6. Did Hameed Gul, retired Pakistani general of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, say that a secret service was involved in the attack on America?
7. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i.e. illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force? Why did he decide on October 25, 2001 to ask Congress for another $500 million to produce Acambis's smallpox vaccine?
8. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax. Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again?
9. Why did Mayor Guilani sell WTC rubble to India for recycling and also China? Who made that decision?
10. What was the purpose of U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain's phone call on October 10, 2001 to the Pakistani oil minister? Why was she sure that a previously abandoned Unocal pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to the Pakistani coast for the purpose of selling oil and gas to China, was back on the table in view of recent geopolitical developments?
11. What exactly was found on Z. Moussaoui's computer after 9/11, when local agents were given a Federal Intelligence Security Act (FISA) warrant, which they had requested six weeks previously? This ties directly into the question of the administration's dealings with the Taliban, its reluctance to investigate Saudi nationals, etc.
12. Why the attack on Cynthia McKinney for asking: 1) why has there been no investigation of the 9-11 attack? and 2) did Bush/CIA/NSA know of it beforehand, and allow it to happen?
13. Why is the Bush administration so strongly against a real investigation into the events of 9-11?
14. Why did the US give 43 million dollars to Afghanistan back in May or June of 2001
15. Why did Bush toss the Hart-Rudman terror security study (developed over a 2 year period) and instead assign responsibility to Cheney and FEMA?
16. Why did Ashcroft stops flying commercial, citing an unidentified "threat" in July 2001? Why did the FBI and Justice not identify the form, origin and time of the threat?
17. Why did Bush stay in Texas for the month of August and Cheney in Wyoming?
18. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom a half-second after Andy Card told him, "Mr. pResident, the nation is under attack"?
19. Why did they leave him exposed to danger for two and a half minutes in the classroom and another half-hour in the school before he returned to the relative safety of Air Force One?
20. Where was George H. W. Bush at the time of the attacks?
21. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights tell people on the ground that the highjackers had "box cutters"?
22. Where are the flight recorders?
23. How did they find a passport that just "happens" to belong to one of the hijackers in the WTC rubble and they can't locate even ONE flight recorder?
24. Why no investigative reporting of the Pentagon scene? The photos do not show much, but then photographers were not allowed, initially, to photograph the scene, if I remember correctly.
25. Why was the series of recommendations Al Gore also put together in 1996 on airport security called by Republican congress "paranoid" and too harsh. Why did the airline industry, lobbying against it, consider it too expensive and impractical.
26. Why was the Hart-Rudman report on the potential dangers of terrorism in the homeland. The results of the research ignored by Bush?
27. Why were FISA warrants disallowed by Bush?
28. Why did the US pull the plug on Muslim websites Monday September 10, 2001?
29. Why did the Saudi bin-Laden-group have a website with a PRE-SET expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001?
30. Why were the bin Ladens flown out of the U.S. on private jets the day after the 9/11?
31. Why did Cheney say that everyone in the White House started taking Cipro on September 12 when the first anthrax letter wasn't postmarked until September 18?
32. Why did Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force? What would have happened had this focused and knowledgeable group been in place 9 months before 911?
33. Why was metallic debris found 8 miles from the crash site of the plane that went down in Penn? They said it went straight down and left a small hole in the ground. If they found metallic debris from the plane 8 miles away it was either shot down or a bomb exploded in the plane.
34. Why did they not let the media or any reporters take video or photos of the crash site?

Makes a person wonder. D

a few facts:

Al Qaida is stronger / weaker than before 9/11

On July 12, 2007, the Bush administration's National Intelligence Council released "a report entitled Al Qaida Better Positioned to Strike the West^[4][5], concluding that the 'network is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and planning attacks…despite concerted U.S. attempts to smash the network.'"^[6][7]

However, on the morning of July 12, 2007, President George W. Bush and Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, "attempted to play down the intelligence report.^[8] 'I wouldn’t put it [the threat] at that level — in my own opinion,' said Chertoff. Bush claimed:^[9]

There is a perception in the coverage that al Qaeda may be as strong today as they were prior to September 11th. That’s simply not the case…because of the actions we’ve taken, al Qaeda is weaker today than they would have been.

On June 28, 2007, Bush, in a "major speech" at the Naval War College, "referred to al Qaida at least 27 times, [which] seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn't reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues."^[10]

Bush called al Qaida "'the main enemy' in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration's senior intelligence analysts", and "the perpetrator of the worst violence racking that country and said it was the same group that had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington."^[11]

"U.S. military and intelligence officials, however, say that Iraqis with ties to al Qaida are only a small fraction of the threat to American troops. The group known as al Qaida in Iraq didn't exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn't pledge its loyalty to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn't controlled by bin Laden or his top aides."^[12]

Resurgence 2007

"Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials," Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde wrote February 19, 2007, in the New York Times.

Although until recently Bush administration officials "had described" Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as "detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda", Mazzetti and Rohde wrote, American officials said there was "mounting evidence" bin Laden and al-Zawahri "had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan."

Additionally, the U.S. has "also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan," Mazzetti and Rohde said.

Perspectives

Summed up by Jason Burke in the March 21, 2004, Guardian Unlimited (UK):

"Al-Qaeda is as much an ideology or a set of values as a single organisation led by a single leader." [1]

In Burke's May/June 2004, Foreign Policy follow-up article "Think Again: Al Qaeda" he wrote:

"The mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more lethal as an ideology than as an organization. Al Qaedaism will continue to attract supporters in the years to come--whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead them or not."

According to the perspective of historian R.T. Naylor:

"Al Queda itself does not exist, except in the fevered imaginations of neo-cons and Likudniks, some of whom, I suspect, also know it is a myth, but find it extremely useful as a bogeyman to spook the public and the politicians to acquiesce in otherwise unacceptable policy initiatives at home and abroad. By those terms, Al Queda is cast like 'the Mafia' and similar nonsense coming from police lobbies. This is a complex issue but, putting it very simply, what you have in both cases is loose networks of likeminded individuals-sometimes they pay homage to some patron figure who they may never have met and with whom they have no concrete relationship. They conduct their operations strictly by themselves, even if they may from time to time seek advice." [2]

According to the perspective of author Jason Burke:

"Every piece of evidence I came across in my own work contradicted this notion of al-Qaeda as an 'evil empire' with an omnipotent mastermind at its head. Such an idea was undoubtedly comforting - destroy the man and his henchmen and the problem goes away - but it was clearly deeply flawed." [3]

In the May 23, 2002, Christian Science Monitor, Kimberly A. McCloud and Adam Dolnik wrote:

"The United States and its allies in the war on terrorism must defuse the widespread image of Al Qaeda as a ubiquitous, super-organized terror network and call it as it is: a loose collection of groups and individuals that doesn't even refer to itself as 'Al Qaeda.' Most of the affiliated groups have distinct goals within their own countries or regions, and pose little direct threat to the United States. Washington must also be careful not to imply that any attack anywhere is by definition, or likely, the work of Al Qaeda."

"we must be honest with the facts in order to construct a viable long-term strategy"

Peter Bergen wrote December 25, 2003:

"... there is a great deal of ambiguity about what exactly constitutes al Qaeda. Is it a terrorist organization run in a regimented top-down fashion by its CEO, Osama bin Laden? Or is it a loose-knit group of Islamist militants around the world whose only common link is that many of them trained in Afghanistan? Or has al Qaeda, the organization, morphed into something best described as al Qaeda, the movement -- a movement defined by adherence to bin Laden's virulent anti-Westernism/anti-Semitism and propensity for violence? Is 'al Qaeda' all of the above?"

... and describes four concentric rings of depiction:

• "First there is al Qaeda, the organization. Most non-specialists are surprised to learn that al Qaeda has only 200 to 300 members. These are the men who have sworn bayat, an oath of allegiance to serve their emir, or leader, bin Laden, even unto death. (It is al Qaeda, the organization, that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.)

comment: this is an item which is debated. Whether they provided support or people.

• "The second concentric ring spreading out beyond the inner core of al Qaeda consists of perhaps several thousand "holy warriors" trained in the group's Afghan camps in the terrorist black arts of bomb making and assassination.

• "Beyond this circle are tens of thousands of militants who received some kind of basic military training in Afghanistan over the past decade. Many of these trainees went to Afghanistan for what amounted to little more than a jihad vacation. Most were to be cannon fodder in the Taliban's war against the Northern Alliance. Think John Walker Lindh.

• "Finally, untold numbers of Muslims around the world subscribe to bin Laden's Manichean worldview that the West is the enemy of Islam. Some of these, too, may be prepared to do violence."

Bergen concludes that there is evidence "that al Qaeda has successfully turned itself from an organization into a mass movement -- one that has been energized by the war in Iraq."

In the documentary series The Power of Nightmares, producer Adam Curtis "tells the story of Islamism, or the desire to establish Islam as an unbreakable political framework, as half a century of mostly failed, short-lived revolutions and spectacular but politically ineffective terrorism. Curtis points out that al-Qaida did not even have a name until early 2001, when the American government decided to prosecute Bin Laden in his absence and had to use anti-Mafia laws that required the existence of a named criminal organisation." --Andy Beckett for The Guardian, October 15, 2004

"In an era of satellite television and the World Wide Web," Faye Bowers writes of Al-Qaida in Christian Science Monitor, "it is nearly impossible to stop boutique terror groups - small homegrown cells that can reach mass audiences with just a videocamera and a few stylish graphics." According to Michael Scheuer, a former senior intelligence official who studied Al Qaeda for more than a decade, "Their communications systems are light-years more sophisticated than they were on 9/11." [4]

The Wikipedia article is well established.

Al Qaida and Saudi Arabia

"In the al-Qaeda plan, the conquest of Saudi Arabia would represent the foundation for a restoration of the (military and political form of) Caliphate... to reunite the one billion Muslims in the world today under the same green banner of Muhammad." - by Charles Lambroschini, Le Figaro

Al Qaida and Egypt

The BBC Documentary The Power of Nightmares shows Egyptian roots in radical violent "Islamist" groups. Marc Sageman asserts that Al Qaida has Egyptian origins, Egyptian ideologies, and Egyptian leaders. [5]

Al Qaida and CIA

"Al-Qaida, literally 'the database,' was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians," admits former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, whose Foreign Office portfolio included control of British Intelligence Agency MI-6 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), in a column published by the UK Guardian newspaper. [6]

In other words, the so-called "Al-Qaida," which was misnamed and misreported as "The Base" (not the "database") was simply a database of CIA trained mujahideen that has been portrayed as a coherent global network of terrorists.

How many "No. 2"s are there?

"'If I had a nickel for every No. 2 and No. 3 they've arrested or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd be a millionaire,' Evan Kohlmann, a brainy counter-terrorism analyst who tracks the Iraqi insurgency, told" Michael Isikoff for his weekly 'Terror Watch' column (written with colleague Mark Hosenball) on the Newsweek web site, Isikoff reported September 29, 2005, in The Huffington Post.

Resources and articles

Related SourceWatch articles

• fear
• Iraqi insurgency
• Islamofascist
• Jundullah
• liquid bomb plot August 2006
• The alleged linkage of Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction
• The Other War: Afghanistan
• War in Iraq is fueling global terrorism
• war on terrorism

References

1. ↑ Global Jihad and the United States, inactive link.
2. ↑ Bearers of Global Jihad? The Nixon Center.
3. ↑ Dan Murphy, "Iraq, Internet fuel growth of global jihad. Analysts suspect Thursday's attack in London was motivated by Britain's role in Iraq," Christian Science Monitor, July 12, 2005.
4. ↑ Laura Rozen, "Intelligence Briefing on the Hill Today," MotherJones, July 11, 2007.
5. ↑ Spencer S. Hsu and Walter Pincus, "U.S. Warns Of Stronger Al-Qaeda. Administration Report Cites Havens in Pakistan," Washington Post, July 12, 2007.
6. ↑ "Bush, Chertoff Seek To Discredit Their Own Intelligence, Claim al Qaeda Is ‘Weaker’," Think Progress, July 12, 2007.
7. ↑ Katherine Shrader and Matthew Lee, "U.S. Intel Warns al-Qaida Has Rebuilt," Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2007.
8. ↑ Mimikatz, "Al Qaeda Determined To Attack In US," The Next Hurrah Blog, July 11, 2007.
9. ↑ Satyam Khanna, "Bush, Chertoff Seek To Discredit Their Own Intelligence, Claim al Qaeda Is ‘Weaker’," Think Progress, July 12, 2007. Includes video link to Bush/Chertoff shown on CNN.
10. ↑ Jonathan S. Landay, "Bush plays al Qaida card to bolster support for Iraq policy," McClatchy Newspapers, June 28, 2007.
11. ↑ Ibid.
12. ↑ Ibid.

External articles

2002

• Kimberly A. McCloud and Adam Dolnik, "Debunk the myth of Al Qaeda. Its size and reach have been blown out of proportion," Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 2002.

2003

• Standard Schaefer, "The Wages of Terror. An Interview with Historian R.T. Naylor," CounterPunch, June 21, 2003.
• Jason Burke, "What is al-Qaeda?" Observer/Guardian Unlimited (UK), July 13, 2003.
• Erich Marquardt, Al-Qaeda's Exaggerated Organizational Strength, Power and Interest News Report, September 2, 2003.
• Brendan O'Neill, Does al-Qaeda exist?, Spiked Online, November 28, 2003; contains an historical examination of the use of the term.
• Peter Bergen, "The Dense Web of Al Qaeda," Washington Post, December 25, 2003 (Note: link inactive): "Defining our terms on al Qaeda is more than a matter of semantic interest. If we can better define what al Qaeda is, we may better understand the threat it poses at a critical moment. ... President Bush reportedly keeps photos of the 20 or so top terrorists in his desk, and when one of them is apprehended or killed writes an X through his picture. That might work for a Mafia crime family: Arrest all the key members and the organization will disappear. But al Qaeda is now a movement based on an ideology. Arresting a movement is quite a different proposition from arresting people."
• Rowan Scarborough, Drug Money Sustains al Qaeda, Washington Times, December 29, 2003: "Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has become deeply involved in international drug trafficking, using the money to buy arms and, possibly, radioactive material for use in a so-called 'dirty' nuclear bomb, senior U.S. officials say."

2004

• Jason Burke, "What exactly does al-Qaeda want?" Observer/Guardian Unlimited (UK) (InformationClearingHouse.com), March 21, 2004.
• Jason Burke, "Think Again: Al Qaeda. 'Al Qaeda Is a Global Terrorist Organization'," Foreign Policy, May/June 2004. Note: Abstract; subscription required.
• "The making of the terror myth," Guardian Unlimited (UK), October 15, 2004.
• Faye Bowers, "Terrorists turn up the dial in global PR war. Al Qaeda is using the Internet and video outlets with growing speed, volume, and sophistication," Christian Science Monitor, November 24, 2004.

2005

• Dana Priest, "Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground. War Created Haven, CIA Advisers Report," Washington Post, January 14, 2005.
• Robin Cook, "The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means. The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities," Guardian Unlimited (UK), July 8, 2005.
• Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, "The 'Second' Man. The slain Abu Azzam may not have been Zarqawi’s top deputy after all. Will his death have any effect on the Iraq insurgency?" Newsweek, September 29, 2005.

2006

• Mark G. Levey, "Why 9/11 happened: Bush curtailed Operation CATCHERS MITT," Daily Kos, September 11, 2006.
• Larry Womack, "2001 memo to Rice contradicts statements about Clinton, Pakistan," The Raw Story, September 26, 2006. Also see:

• January 25, 2001, memo from Richard A. Clarke to Condoleezza Rice (3-page pdf).
• 2000 "Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects." (13-page pdf).

2007

• Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde, "Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power," New York Times, February 19, 2007.
• Seymour M. Hersh, "The Redirection. Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" The New Yorker, February 25, 2007 (posted), March 5, 2007 (issue).
• Nico Pitney, "Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups," Think Progress, February 25, 2007.
• Mark Mazzetti, "Qaeda Is Seen as Restoring Leadership," New York Times, April 2, 2007.
• Angela Doland, "France Knew in 2001 al-Qaida Had a Plot," Associated Press (Guardian (UK)), April 16, 2007.
• Firouz Sedarat, "Qaeda group says Iraq a 'university of terror'," Reuters, April 17, 2007.
• "ABC: Reports Of Masri’s Death False, ‘Part Of A Misinformation Campaign’," Think Progress, May 1, 2007.
• "Al Qaeda has rebuilt itself: intelligence report," Associated Press (CTVNews (Canada)), July 11, 2007.
• Katherine Shrader, "Report warns of replenished Al Qaeda. US analysts see pre-9/11 strength, Pakistani haven," Boston Globe, July 12, 2007.
• Ed Morrisey, "NIE: AQ Still Top Threat," Captain's Quarters Blog, July 17, 2007.
• Jonathan Stein, "New NIE Summary: Much We Already Knew, Some We Didn't," MoJoBlog/MotherJones, July 17, 2007.
• Bradford Plumer, "NIE on Al Qaeda," The Plank Blog/The New Republic, July 17, 2007.
• Brian Ross, "Experts: Unclassified Report 'Pure Pablum,' Hides Truth," The Blotter/ABC News, July 17, 2007.
• Eben Kaplan, "The Rise of al-Qaedaism," Council on Foreign Relations, July 18, 2007.
• Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus, "Al-Qaeda's Gains Keep U.S. at Risk, Report Says. Safe Haven in Pakistan Is Seen as Challenging Counterterrorism Efforts," Washington Post, July 18, 2007.
• John Aravosis, "The top al Qaeda leader in Iraq has been captured, again and again and again," AMERICAblog, July 18, 2007.
• Michel Chossudovsky, "Rumsfeld Helped Al Qaeda Establish a Stronghold in Northwestern Pakistan", Global Research, July 26, 2007.
• Kate Kelland, "Report says war on terror is fuelling al Qaeda," Reuters, October 7, 2007. re Oxford Research Group

External resources

General articles

• "Al Qaeda: Profile and Threat Assessment," by Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service, February 10, 2005.
• "Complete 9/11 Timeline": "Financing of Al Qaeda," Cooperative Research, undated.

Books

• Marc Sageman, "Understanding Terror Networks" (ISBN 0-8122-3808-7).

Documents and speeches

• George W. Bush, News Release: "President Bush Discusses War on Terror in South Carolina," Charleston Air Force Base, Charleston, South Carolina, Office of the White House Press Secretary, July 24, 2007. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" Fact Sheet, July 24, 2007.

Websites

• Daily news on Terrorism and the Hunt for Al Qaida, Islam Threat Blogspot.

Medclinician

Thanks Evergreen - I won't quote or comment on specific items per se- but there are a lot of gems of information in that data. Despite the fact that none wants to labeled as seeing plans where there are no plans, after fifty years of incredible machinations, we have reached control of opinion, invasion of privacy, and manipulation of the over all psychology, news, and privacy of the individual in a way never before possible with the coming of the computer database age and especially biometrics. Over a  few beers (very few since I don't drink) many of us talk late into the night  not with Peter Straub's Ghost Story Chowder society talk, but piecing together the incredibly complex society and government we live under.

No doubt, people, and groups of people stay up nights at a time writing speeches, planning incredibly intricate spins and media blitzes. We have come a long way from the subtle shadow of the girl in the ice cube so we would buy whiskey or our eye tracking be recorded so we put the products inches from her garden of earthly delight.

Many of us believe it is truly beyond the scope of most people who would crumple with mental fatigue when faced with the incredible shotgun media and propaganda, either become partially deaf or just go along, or assume it is true. This is not to be elitist. This is just to say, life is short, and such pursuits may be reserved for the truly intellectual masochists to see the man behind the smoke and thunder of the Wizard of Oz. Like Jack Nicholson said in the Shining about one of his child's comments "he saw it in on the TV" so it must be true, or don't worry - no matter how gory or gruesome - people are ripped apart daily on cartoons.

In the 21st century, we face non-truisms of such magnitude they stagger the mind. The very simple statement - There is no Al Queda as we have been led to believe, is likely a valid statement. No doubt there may be a blood sworn group of hundreds, or even a dedicated group of thousands, but we live in a world of 6 billion people.  The crafty clever robed figures who plot to destroy the world may just be getting really annoyed at being bombed in their home countries for almost almost a decade and watching hundreds of thousands die as well as dealing with no utilities and poverty for a decade. Imagine the general temperament of the American if we were accused by a nuclear armed country capable of vaporizing our continent of working with some evil nebulous group and then we were invaded, our leader hanged, and our country occupied. These are dangerous lines to type believe me. Basically factual, but nonetheless not lifespan increasing.  Does this sound like England's meager tea tax which started the revolution and led to us taking on the greatest sea power of that time except for Spain. We were unhappy with a tea tax.

Osama Bin Laden has become an Icon. He and the idea of the AQ are a rallying focus for many Muslim extremists who feel the ire of the clash with Western civilization. He is a rallying figure, and most who rally about the idea, never have met or will meet him, or even communicate with or receive any sort of money from. They don't like the U.S. The leader of the U.S. and the ensuing chaos since the invasion. Their leader did a really dumb thing. He invaded a country which he claimed belonged to them and set off Armageddon for his whole country.

The lone wolf as mentioned in some datamining is one growing problem. Much like the college student who some girl spurns and tanks up and and becomes a killing machine, like free-radicals in the body, these are some of the greatest enemies of modern society.  Al Queda - or the Al Queda mythos is not really an organized group. They are loners,sit in place (which is called cells as if they had been programmed when actually perhaps some have had a plan but many do not which was given them. They simply make up a plan.)

They can't be tracked. True, they may not do much damage with 200 lbs of cow manure, but the lone wolves can be highly educated and effective.

The Tubes incident was not linked to the Al Queda. It is much like law enforcement, with all due respect since I have relatives in law enforcement, who find a suspect and suddenly he has done 100 crimes or killed 42 people. Cases solved.

The world is full of free radicals. Extremists abound in Lebanon but in another classic example the Hizbollah only numbers in the hundreds.

It is truly incredible that trillions of dollars are spent to hunt and take out leaders of groups numbering in the hundreds.  And then overnight our own people lose a trillion dollars because of economic piracy among our own ranks. Who is the greater enemy?

As far as the banking and money control - we buy countries and banks. It isn't about evil Muslims, it is raw control of the flow of money and arms sales across the globe.  And even more so- the flow and control of oil.

But the the common person is simply not that interested or do they have the time to delve into such amazing complexity. We can do it with computers and data mining. We can compile amazing correlations with advanced software and research.  But, who wants to know?

It hasn't stopped you realize? They are still ranting about the Al Queda. And another person blows up, likely a free radical and within moments there are possible AQ connections.  Unconfirmed, unbased, unproved - but within minutes - it hits the news.

In India, things blow up quite often. There is always civil unrest. In Nepal, in Indonesia and Thailand - you will find huge populations of Muslims - whole governments collapsing and is some of  this more like Dr. Strangeglove or some comic book super villain.

People must have a villain or a group. And that group must always have a name, and it always can't be just bad, it must be evil.  The gods of one nation are the demons of another.

The endless search, like the hermit with his little lantern is to discern the truth. You may not get people to listen, and it may not matter to most even when you have found it. However, one cannot deal with real enemies effectively while creating imaginary ones.  And so the Al Queda was born with two persons. One a highly educated Arab called Osama Bin Laden and his would be stir up bloody revolutions (which all failed)  for 20 years friend who wasn't doing so well at it.. at all.

Set up a training camp in Afghanistan to train fighters (first to kick Russia out and trained by our own people) and then to train most who have no interest at all in attacking or fighting the United States. They may mutter vile words concerning the U.S. or Western civilization, but there is very little cohesive planning except from a very few.

We have whole countries who don't like us and Russia is at the top of the list. We have real tigers to deal with and we have people are are in the game for power, pure and simple. It has nothing to do with the good of the American or other people. It is all about power and money.

Create a monster, and you will not be aware of the real threats to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This will not stop politicians from continuing to create demonic Icons which exist more in thought than fabric. And occasionally like a stalking tiger a blood sacrifice will be offered of one of our own corrupt leaders and be hung out to dry as others step forward with cries of "cleaning up the corruption in the government."  For many, such verbal and involved discussion is painfully tedious. So as some pass out from sheer eye abuse, I will stop. Unfortunately our enemies don't find it so exhausting and continue onward to not as Al Queda but as splinter extremists who just don't like us and want to hurt us bad. And if we do not meet their level of dedication to detail and observation, they will succeed.

Medclinician