BIN LADEN REPLIES TO BUSH

What did the primary suspect have to say about the 9/11 attacks? A great deal—but one had to know where to look. Early on, the Bush administration asked the major news media not to report on what bin Laden had to say, arguing that he might use the opportunity to pass secret messages along to his al Qaeda network. Next, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer instructed the press to censor any future tape-recorded messages from bin Laden, although he didn't actually use the word “censor.” Fleischer spent some time arguing with the media representatives, saying only, “we have the power but this is only a request.” In the end, the sycophantic corporate media agreed to self-censor any word from bin Laden. However, the European media and alternative outlets in America, especially on the Internet, made no such agreement.

In an interview on September 28, according to the Pakistani newspaper Ummat, bin Laden stated, “I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of battle. It is the United States, which is perpetrating every maltreatment on women, children and common people.”

In this interview, largely unreported in the United States, bin Laden unsurprisingly blamed the attacks on Israel, claiming, “All that is going on in Palestine for the last eleven months is sufficient to call the wrath of God upon the United States and Israel, (and) what had earlier been done to the innocent people of Iraq, Chechnya and Bosnia.”

Bin Laden went on to state, “we are not hostile to the United States. We are against the [US government] system which makes other nations slaves to the United States or forces them to mortgage their political and economic freedom.”

One cannot, of course, take bin Laden at face value, but then the same could be said for the US government, which in the past has been caught in so many lies and misstatements that it is surprising that anyone pays serious attention to official pronouncements.

In the late fall of 2001, a videotape of Osama bin Laden was offered to the public by the CIA and proclaimed by President Bush as a smoking gun, “a devastating declaration of guilt” in the 9/11 tragedies.

Immediately, voices rose criticizing the tape. Bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, told a British newspaper, “There are too many gaps and the statements are very unlike him. Osama is too good a Muslim and too good a person to say or do what the script of the video suggests.” Ghanem, who still lives in Saudi Arabia, said the tape was “doctored.” Ghanem also denied reports that her son had called her prior to September 11 and told her he would be out of touch for some time because something big was about to happen. Some days later, his mother's claim was supported by Arabic language experts, who claimed that the Pentagon's translation of the tape was incorrect, taken out of context and that incriminating words had been put in bin Laden's mouth.

Two independent translators and an expert on Arabic culture reported their findings on the German state television program Monitor, which broadcast on December 20, 2001, over Germany's Channel One, Das Erst, often compared to NBC or the BBC. Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated, “I have carefully examined the Pentagon's translation. This translation is very problematic. At the most important places which have been presented as proof of bin Laden's guilt, it is not identical with the Arabic.”

In the Pentagon translation given great publicity by the United States corporate media, bin Laden was quoted as saying, “We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy.” But, according to Dr. Murad Alami, “The words ‘in advance’ are not even heard on the tapes. This translation is wrong. When we take the original Arabic from the tape there are no misunderstandings which would allow for us to read this into the original.”

At another point in the Pentagon translation, bin Laden was reported saying, “We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day.” But Alami stated, “‘Previous’ is never said. The following sentence that the event would take place on that day is not heard in the original Arabic.” Alami said the sentence “We ordered each of them to go to America” was in the active voice while the original Arabic was in the passive voice, “they were ordered to go to America.” He added the translation with the word “we” was simply wrong. The expert said the sentence translated by the Pentagon as “they didn't know anything about the operation” is not understandable on the original tape.

Another of the experts interviewed, Gernot Rotter, a professor of Islamic and Arabic studies at the University of Hamburg, after studying the Pentagon's translations, stated, “The American translators who listened and transcribed the tapes have apparently written a lot of things into the text that they wanted to hear, which are actually not heard on the tape no matter how many times you listen to it.”

This was somewhat supported by a December 20, 2001 USA Today article that described how the tape was hurriedly translated in twelve hours by a Lebanese and an Egyptian who “had difficulties with the Saudi dialect that bin Laden and his guest used in the tape. Regardless of whether bin Laden or his organization was involved in the attacks or not, this tape is of such bad quality, in some places it cannot be understood at all, and those parts which can be understood are torn out of context so that the tape cannot be used as evidence to prove anything.”

After a hiatus of three years, a bin Laden tape was suddenly produced in January 2006. Parts of an audiotape purportedly of bin Laden were played on Al-Jazeera television and later a full version was published on its website. CBS News styled the tape as “chilling” and reported that bin Laden threatened more attacks on the United States. The news agency also reported that the CIA had verified the authenticity of the tape and that it proved bin Laden was still alive.

As in 2001, independent researchers once again questioned the authenticity of the latest bin Laden tape.

Internet columnist and Washington insider Wayne Madsen noted, “What's not right about the Osama Bin Laden audio tape? One thing that the Bush administration does well is manage perceptions of the public. Amid protests over the NSA wiretapping, the extension of the Patriot Act, and the nomination of neo-Fascist Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, an audio tape on Osama Bin Laden is sent to Al Jazeera. On the tape, Bin Laden suddenly veers from being a traditional right-wing Wahhabi fanatic to the right of the House of Saud to a leftist progressive. The tape by Bin Laden was quickly verified as ‘authentic’ by a CIA that is now firmly in the grasp of neo-cons under Porter Goss. However, the tape is an obvious fake being used by the Bush administration to scare Americans into believing ‘al Qaeda’ is making plans for another attack and an attempt to link Bin Laden to Democrats.

“The reason the tape is as phony as Niger yellowcake documents and Saddam's weapons of mass destruction is as plain as day. ‘Bin Laden’ allegedly quotes from the introduction of a book written by long-time Washington, D.C. progressive author and journalist and a friend of mine, Bill Blum. Bill was once an editor and contributor to Covert Action Quarterly , a magazine devoted to exposing CIA operations like the arming, funding, and training of Bin Laden and his Mujaheddin guerrillas during the Afghan-Soviet war. The Bush perception managers are either incredibly stupid or are trying to ensnare liberal journalists as aiders and abettors of al Qaeda, something that is certainly within their scope.

“Bin Laden allegedly quotes the following passage from Blum's book, Rogue State: ‘If you [Americans] are sincere in your desire for peace and security, we have answered you. And if Bush decides to carry on with his lies and oppression, then it would be useful for you to read the book Rogue State, which states in its introduction: ‘If I were president, I would stop the attacks on the United States: First I would give an apology to all the widows and orphans and those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all.’

“However, this quote is not from Rogue State, again, pointing to a very bad forgery of the Bin Laden audiotape. No sooner had the alleged Bin Laden tape been released, neo-con activist Cliff Kincaid was already spinning nonsense about Blum and his publisher, Common Courage Press of Monroe, Maine, being part of some sort of pro-bin Laden progressive and liberal ‘Fifth Columnist’ grouping in the United States.

“Bin Laden might not be so eager to quote Blum if he was aware of his other work, Killing Hope, an expose of the CIA’s covert wars. In it, Blum defends the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as self-defense against the CIA-backed Islamist guerrillas, including bin Laden's forces that were backed by the CIA. Now, why would bin Laden plug an author like Blum who backed bin Laden's hated enemies, the Soviet Communists and their Afghan allies? Because the bin Laden tape and his purported oratory are frauds.”

Even the staid BBC saw the obvious connection between President Bush's troubles and the release of the bin Laden tape by stating, “The commander-in-chief has been under intense pressure in recent weeks, accused of trampling on civil liberties in pursuit of terror suspects. His defence has been that America is a nation at war. So Bin Laden's latest threats to launch new attacks on the US will only serve to underline this argument.”