From the moment first plane struck north tower of the World Trade Center

How long was it before the media was claiming that it was Osama Bin Laden that perpetrated the September 11th attacks? Was it that very same day? I don't recall. Where can I find this information?

NGU.

:dunce:

And congrats on the blonde thing!

came to the conclusion NY was being attacked. As for specifics, I dunno. You could try a search on the 9/11 forum.

it was speculated that it was bin Laden within an hour. But I don't think that is what you meant. I just mention it because it wasn't that surprizing to people.

207) Bush at the White House: 'We think it's Usama bin Laden'

http://www.911timeline.net/#830

I thought it might have been at that site, I just wasn't sure.

That Al Qaeda supposedly claimed responsibility for it. It was pretty soon, maybe even that day. Or maybe I'm just thinking I remember it that way. It was so overwhelming at the time. Just like it was supposed to be I guess, huh? I'm getting more and more MIHOP all the time.

I don't remember who it was or the source but I can't just be imagining it.

False claim:
Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility For Power Blackout In US
http://english.daralhayat.com/arab_news/08-2003/Article-20030818-14bdd659-c0a8-01ed-0079-6e1c903b7552/story.html

'Al-Qaeda' Madrid claim
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3509556.stm

nine suicide blasts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad
http://www.command-post.org/nk/2_archives/010855.html

But the only thing regarding 9/11 was that tape which turned up before the 2004 elections.

However there is also this one which was released on Sept 17 2001:

Bin laden denies terror attacks and points finger at Jews. Annanova news.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_410936.html?menu=news.latestheadlines

but it seems to be a fairly clear fake. The faces (of Bin Laden and the "actor") look quite different, and even the translation is questionable:
http://www.complete911timeline.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&startpos=1250#a121301binladenvideo

There is evidence that suggests that the video shown before the 2004 elections is also a fake. The facial features are different on close inspection, and the grayness of the beard looks just the same as it did three years earlier.

Several sources stated (prior to the latest video) that they think Bin Laden is probably dead. These links reference Karzai, Musharraf, and an FBI Counterterrorism Chief:
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/06/karzai.binladen/
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/18/gen.musharraf.binladen/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/17/attack/main515468.shtml

Comments from a Centcom General (and Rumsfeld's response):
http://www.pentagon.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040929-secdef1361.html

A Taliban officer claims to have attended Bin Laden's funeral in December 2001:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw100928556223B212

From the Daily Telegraph, December 28, 2001: "The recording was dismissed by the Bush administration yesterday as sick propaganda possibly designed to mask the fact the al-Qa'eda leader was already dead."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/28/wbin28.xml

And for the reason you've listed, however I haven't seen any hard evidence - nor have I really looked at hard evidence, therefore I have left that point open for discussion.

Thanks for the links BTW. I didn't know the last one about the US claiming that Osama bin Laden was already dead. That is very interesting indeed!

Usama bin Laden at first hesitated, but later has taken credit for it.

buy the book "Imperial Hubris." It is by "Anonymous," the (now) retired CIA fellow who also authored "Through Our Enemies' Eyes." I think you'd enjoy the book. The author quotes from numerous Usama bin Laden messages. I believe, though I do not have the book at my fingertips, that it was within a couple of months after 9-11 that UbL answered muslim critics of the action, who quoted their teachings on giving people an opportunity to turn away from their "evil doings" before such an attack. It is important to remember that bin Laden speaks to people around the globe, not just the occassional conversation directed at the American public.

I don't mean who is "Anonymous" -- his identity has been mentioned many times on the web. I mean what source is "Anonymous" referencing for that information.

Schauer knows a lot about Afghanistan, and that's what made his book interesting. But his expertise is limited to Afghanistan I think.

Yes, Bin Laden mostly directs (or directed) his messages at fellow Muslims, and in several interviews just after 9/11 he denied any involvement in the attacks. In an interview with Pakistani newspaper Uumat, he said he suspected that American intelligence agencies or a "secret government" were responsible.

I am a little suspicious at his jihad - I have a feeling it doesn't run much deeper than Jerry Falwell's Christianity. There are too many aspects to this figure that don't add up. His ties to intelligence agencies (close to Turki Bin Faisal, former head of Saudi intelligence, mysterious meetings with the CIA, being protected by Pakistani intelligence) and to the global heroin trade (he reportedly made a staggering $1 billion a year on the commissions he charged for laundering Afghan/Pakistani drug money! - which should make him one of the richer persons in the world) are the most important.

A French parliamentary investigation into global money laundering commissioned in 1999 publicized its report in October 2001. They found that over 40 British banks, financial institutions, companies and individuals in London, Oxford, Cambridge had ties to Bin Laden. These were probably not people named "Ahmed". This guy is/was well connected. I remember reading in US media that his wealth had been "exaggerated" or that it was a "myth" that he was such a rich man. Bullshit. He's one of the big players in the heroin trade. So is his "number 2", the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri. I doubt they ever lived in caves in the Afghan mountains.

I'm not saying he didn't play a role in the 9/11 plot, but not even the 9/11 Commission report claims that he was the main mastermind, financier or organizer of the attacks. I think his role was very small, or perhaps even zero. But he is the bogeyman.

of what you say. First, regarding the 9-11 Report, I think that Sections 5.1,5.3, and 5.4 do implicate UbL pretty directly. I agree that there are others who were more involved in many of the planning aspects. And as we recall from the 9-11 hearings and Michael Moore's wonderful movie, there was a memo that Condi Rice wasn't too eager to talk about, that mentioned concerns about UbL wanting to strike inside the USA.

Also, Michael S.'s territory is indeed Afghanistan, though I think Pakistan is a pretty close second. But his primary concern in recent years was the individual man and the organization he helps to lead.

Again, UbL certainly did deny participation in 9-11 early on. But his comments have not been limited to those denials.

I understand that reasonable and intelligent people could look at the same evidence as I see and conclude UbL is a mere bogeyman. I think that is an error. However, I am sure we still see the administration in pretty much the same terms .... I just see them as less capable, and think that the Islamic world is very capable of producing a force that would see the current events in terms of a holy war.

as soon as it was clear it wasn't an accident, that it had to be Bin Laden. Talking heads started saying it very shortly afterwards. Richard Clarke and George Tenet reportedly told Bush it was "al-Qaeda" when Bush was at Offut, they had been expecting the attack so they should know (or know what the cover story was, at least). I don't think Bush was too surprised, as he had been briefed that "Bin Laden determined to strike within US" on Aug 6.

I think it took the FBI a day or two to release the list of the alleged hijackers, several of whom later turned out to be alive.

they knew who they were on Sept 10th. If all of these highjackers were blown to pieces and had false ID's, how do they know to this day who they were if they didn't know before?

They knew within hours which flight schools to raid too. But then, of course, FBI headquarters had received many requests from field agents to investigate suspicious Arabs taking flight lessons, and denied them all. According to former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, there are many instances that we haven't heard of as well, of FBI agents being denied permission to investigate the alleged hijackers before 9/11. Someone in the FBI really didn't want FBI agents poking their noses into these Arabs.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.dance/browse_thread/thread/771cd2336f90efca/0507e71ff6c0aa91?q=Bin+Laden+charts+world+trade+center+Burns+front+page&rnum=1&hl=en#0507e71ff6c0aa91

September 9, 2001
On Videotape, Bin Laden Charts a Violent Future
By JOHN F. BURNS

The image on the grainy videotape is mesmerizing: a tall, slim, middle-aged Arab man, with the bushy beard, white robes and draped white headcloth of a devout Muslim, standing before a gathering inAfghanistan. He is reading an Arabic poem, apparently his own, on papersthat riffle in a breeze.

The speaker's style is that of the fire-and-brimstone preachers common
at Friday Prayers across the Middle East. But he is no imam, nor even,
by calling, a poet. He is Osama bin Laden, the 46-year-old Saudi-born
fugitive millionaire who has declared a "holy war" against the United
States, directing suicide bombings that have made him the F.B.I.'s
most-wanted terrorist.

to be responsible. I do not have any link, except that I remember that being reported. It was debunked within a couple of hours by the media.

and were ready with the blame game.

:kick:

they began speculating about ME terrorists

Osama bin Laden by name? I don't know.

terrorists. I think that was that evening or next day. Pristeen passport supposedly fell out of plane during explosion and conveniently landed where FBI could find. They knew it had to be Al Qaeda then..

September 12, 2001

The passport of hijacker Satam Al Suqami is found a few blocks from the WTC. <ABC News, 9/12/01 (C), AP, 9/16/01, ABC News, 9/16/01>

The Guardian says, "the idea that Atta's passport had escaped from that inferno unsinged <tests> the credulity of the staunchest supporter of the FBI's crackdown on terrorism." <Guardian, 3/19/02>

http://www.complete911timeline.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&startpos=1050#a091201passport

I got it on tape...

Cops, FBI, reporters -- all were saying it within minutes to each other by phone, according to John Miller's The Cell.