9-11 in the News

In the "War on Terrorism" there have been two recent developments of note (but not widely noted). First, the recent arrest of "terrorists" plotting to bring down the Sears Tower in Chicago turns out to be an arrest of dreamers rather than terrorists, who were sharing their fantasies with an FBI informant purporting to be a member of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. The "terrorists" had no connection to Al-Queda.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1096208.ece

Second, the folks at "Muckraker Report" called the FBI and asked why Osama bin Laden's poster on the FBI's Most Wanted List does not mention 9-11. Rex Tomb, the FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, is reported to have said, "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

According to the FBI poster, Osama is still wanted by the FBI "in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya." Three years after those bombings, Osama was still at large.

In the months leading up to the September 11, 2001 attack, it is reported, the Taliban "outlined various ways bin Laden could be dealt with. He could be turned over to the EU, killed by the Taliban, or made available as a target for Cruise missiles." The Bush administration did not accept the Taliban's offer. This according to a pro-Islam (but not necessarily pro-Osama) website, which also notes the following:

After 9-11, according to the Guardian, "the Taliban offered to hand Osama bin Laden to a neutral Islamic country for trial if the US presented them with evidence that he was responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington. The US rejected the offer."

Bin Laden, in a September 28, 2001 interview with the Pakistani newspaper Ummat, is reported to have said: "I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States."

Bin Laden is the "prime suspect" in the September 11 attacks, said President Bush on September 17, 2001, and he pledged to capture him "dead or alive."

I can't think of a single government official who was responsible for protecting America from attack before 9-11 who was fired after 9-11 for failing to do so. On the other hand, numerous whistleblowers have been fired or harassed for criticizing the government and exposing weaknesses in national security. Nobody still in government would dare suggest that the government itself is to blame for 9-11.