- This past Easter Sunday, President Bush engaged the press.
He couldnít have done this a week ago, but now he knows what to
say. Because Condi Rice, his National Security Advisor, said everything
already on TV.
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- Condi told 9/11 Commissioner Lee Hamilton, ìHad
we thought there was an attack coming in Washington or New York we would
have moved heaven and earth to try and stop it.î Bush, being manly,
says he would have ìmoved mountains.î
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- Condi swore the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing
memo entitled, ìBin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.î was
merely ìhistorical information based on old reportingÖ.There
was nothing in this memo as to time, place, how or whereÖ. There were
no specificsÖ.î Bush, combining Condiís assertions with
Hamiltonís claim that ìsome MuslimsÖhate us,î
said Sunday that ìOf course we knew that America was hated by Osama
bin Laden. That was obvious. The question was, who was going to attack
us, when and where and with what?î
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- Bush and Condi imply that no mortal being could know,
so no action to prevent 9/11 was possible.
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- But this is not true.
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- The 8/6 memo says it all.
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- Who was going to attack? Al Qaeda.
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- When? Soon. The memo states ìFBI information since
[1998] indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent
with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent
surveillance of federal buildings in New York.î ìRecentî
indicates preparation for something happening soon.
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- And where? Well, where are most of the ìfederal
buildings in New Yorkî located? Downtownójust blocks from
the World Trade Center. In fact, there were federal officesóboth
overt and covert--in the WTC itself. So location, although not exact, was
deducible within a few city blocks.
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- As to ìwith what,î the memo states: ìBin
Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers
would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef.î
What ìexample?î A huge car bomb that, in the WTCís
bunker-like basement, caused only minimal damage.
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- So this would require thinking like bin Laden. Thinking,
gee, bombing from the bottom didnít work. How about bombing from
the top?
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- But thinking like a terrorist may scare other people.
And it probably wasnít in any course taught by Professor Korbel,
Condiís mentor.
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- So instead of Condi and her ìVulcansî standing
around a map of Afghanistan the day after 9/11, why were they not all huddled
around a map of lower Manhattan in the weeks following the 8/6 memo? Trying
to think like terrorists?
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- They were on vacation.
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- But if they had decided to try, they could then have
asked: Why did Ramzi Yousef choose the WTC in the first place? And why
might al Qaeda choose it again? To answer, one would have to actually know
something about Islamóa risky business in this administration, since
one might then be accused of actually being a Muslim, of hating America
and Israel, and then of being a terrorist or a sympathizer.
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- The main reason is that the building is big, and would
certainly get peoplesí attention if it blew up, or at least fell
down. Bombing the Cole, the Nairobi Embassy, and Khobar Towers did little,
really, to wake up America. Bush himself said, oh, how did Condi put it?
ìHe said he was tired of swatting flies,î Condi quoted Bush
as saying to her.
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- Swatting flies.
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- Al Qaeda is the fly that roared.
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- And its roar is about several things. Al Qaeda wants
U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia (although this has now reportedly expanded
to include the whole Middle East), and it wants the Palestinian situation
rectified. This may well mean an ìendî to Israel, or at least
to Sharonís kind of Israel. The Bush Administration could have done
a lot to defuse these contentions early on. In fact, the open presence
of troops in the Persian Gulf states, the constant Iraq overflights, the
enormous potential for conflict with local custom and religion, were never
taken seriously as issues of contention by Bush and his advisors. And the
chance for peace in Palestine, and the creation of a viable Palestinian
state? Squandered by the Bush Administration. Shamefully.
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- And one would not even have had to guarantee ìpeace.î
How would Americans feel if they knew that possibly this whole conflictóin
New York, Afghanistan, and Iraqócould have been avoided by the merest
changes in U.S. policy towards Israel? Just by, perhaps, letting U.N. resolutions
critical of Israel, for good cause, pass without the U.S. exercising its
veto. Truly, many Americans simply do not know the truth about Palestiniansí
stateless status, the seizure of their lands and properties, the misery
in which they are kept.
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- Most Americans, frankly, think that if Palestinians donít
like Sharon, they should just stop voting for him.
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- Most Americans just donít know.
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- Most Americans count on their leadership to tell them
the truth, as was done on the issue of South Africa. South Africaís
white, racist regime made many of the same arguments about giving black
Africans the vote and allowing them full citizenship and participation
that Israel makes about the Palestiniansóthat there would be a ìblood
bath,î that ìtribalismî would run amok, that the high
black birth rate will cause white South Africans to disappear. And yet
eventually, the United States came around, largely because of popular opinion
and education on the issue, and South Africa movedónot without violence,
but effectivelyótowards a better, more moral public order.
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- So this would not have been impossible for Israel even
a year or two ago. And certainly it was not impossible before 9/11.
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- But now the fly has roared. And the world is different.
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- But if one so dared to further speculate on target choice,
one would also reason the WTC is largely a business, banking, and insurance
center in the middle of an even larger business, banking, and insurance
center (virtually all of New York City), and in the West, this necessarily
means interest, or usury. And nothing in Islam is more sinful. Usury is
more sinful than adultery, more sinful than even murder.
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- But no one, not even Osama bin Laden, yet escapes this
horrendous Islamic sin. And al Qaedaís actions have not eradicated
this sin, but have blasphemously compounded it.
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- Islamic bankingís inherent dilemma is that virtually
all the worldís monies move through Central banks, which are Western,
interest-based banks linked irretrievably with international insurers.
Bin Ladenís own financing schemes, or at least parts of them, move
unavoidably through these banks and insurers, tainting his actions and
making him complicit in the very sin he seeks to impugn to others, and
profoundly punish. His actions ironically strengthen the Western, interest-based
finance systemóone which Westerners will be less ready to question,
even though they are harmed by usury, because Western banking looms as
a bulwark against Islamic finance, which is now wrongly but popularly viewed
by Westerners as something terrorists do.
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- In trying to be a Muslim hero, bin Laden harmed Islam
in the worst way imaginable.
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- If anyone in the Bush administration had bothered to
study Islam, they might have been able to broadcast this fact from the
first WTC bombing, and derail the whole al Qaeda operation. Or at least
discredit it, dampening misguided enthusiasm.
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- Perhaps even get a fair-minded, brave Imam on board.
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- Instead of Chalabi.
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- So inastute, undeterred al Qaeda terrorists, unmindful
they were attacking their own banking system and likely dooming their own
souls, selected the WTC, which was not only the tallest building in New
York, and one of the tallest in the world. It represented the biggest sin
in the world.
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- Had Condi and company known anything about Islamic finance
or Muslims views of usury, the memo and the ìchatterî that
accompanied it would have been a clear signpost.
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- What would bring this very, very, very, very big edifice
and the very, very, very, very big sin it supported crashing down?
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- As Condi quoted from classified chatter, a ìbig
event. There will be a very, very, very, very big uproar.î
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- Big building, big sin, bigÖÖÖbang?
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- Elsewhere, the memo mentions ìBin Ladin want[ing]
to hijack a US aircraft.î
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- One might simply read newspapers. The 1996 incident where
the Cuban government shot down a Cessna aircraft piloted by radical Cuban
exiles who illegally entered Cuban air space and refused to leave after
being repeatedly warned to do so is on point.
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- The United States excoriated the Cubans. But the Cubans
claimed they feared the exiles planned to use their plane as a weapon to
bring down the Castro government.
-
- Goshówould anticipating planes being used as missiles
or bombs mean that one isógaspóa Castroite Cuban? Better
not mention having that thought.
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- International law establishes airspace over a nation
as sovereign for national security. So itís understood planes can
carry weapons, and can be used as weapons. Small planes have previously
crashed into government buildings, including the White House itself, so
the phenomenon is hardly unknown.
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- What was needed to derail the 9/11 attack was creative,
independent thinking, unstifled by political correctness.
-
- Instead, Condi and Bush hold out their hands instead
of exercising their brains, and say, ìOh, if we only had only been
handed a detailed memo with specific dates, times, people, and places.î
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- But even then, they say they would have failed.
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- At least the Wizard of Ozís scarecrow knew what
anatomical part he was missing.
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- Condi and Bush seem oblivious.
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- But very poised, yes indeed. Condi on direct examination
by her many Committee friends was unstoppable. Condi on cross examination
by her presumed foes was still impressive.
-
- Condi is used to being handed all the information she
needs to look smart.
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- Then, immaculately coiffed, suited, and bejeweled, Condi
does the rest.
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- The poised part.
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- But the thinking part? Stanfordís teacher of the
year gets a failing grade.
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- Pity the nation. Pity the world.
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- Sarah Whalen is an Islamic Law expert who writes for
<http://www.arabnews.com/>Arab News. She taught at Temple University
School of Law in Philadelphia, and at Loyola University School of Law in
New Orleans. She is writing her first book.
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- http://www.dissidentvoice.org/April2004/Whalen0429.htm
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