CNN Wrote:Islamic militant leader Osama bin Laden, the man the United States considers the prime suspect in last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, denied any role Sunday in the actions believed to have killed thousands.

In a statement issued to the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, bin Laden said, "The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it. I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons," bin Laden's statement said.

Full article: http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-16/us/in...r?_s=PM:US

Wikinews Wrote:One message includes bin Laden's denial of having anything to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

"Following the latest explosions in the United States, some Americans are pointing the finger at me, but I deny that because I have not done it. The United States has always accused me of these incidents which have been caused by its enemies. Reiterating once again, I say that I have not done it, and the perpetrators have carried this out because of their own interest," said bin Laden on September 16, 2001, just five days after the attacks.

Bin Laden also states that he was living in Afghanistan at the time of the attacks and that "I have held talks with His Eminence Amir ol-Momenin [Taleban leader Mola Mohammad Omar Mojahed], who does not allow such acts to be carried out from Afghanistan's territory." Again on September 28, 2001 in an interview with Karachi Ummat, bin Laden denies any involvement with the attacks and further denied that al-Qaeda had anything to do with plotting and carrying out the attacks.

Full article: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikileaks_ob...ted_by_CIA

Those are what bin Laden said just a few days after the 9/11 attack when he was interviewed. But is that the truth? I don't know. I can't say without a reasonable doubt whether or not he was responsible for the September attacks, and either way, I don't think that anyone here can prove that what he said is not true. But personally, if he did plan the attack, then I think that he wouldn't try to hide it from anyone since there were times when he openly issued "Jihad" against infidelity and one time I read one of his interviews in which he said that the 1996 bombings of American servicemen in Riyadh and at the Khobar Towers barracks were an act of "praiseworthy terrorism." So, why would he reveal all those things and ironically deny everything about 9/11?

Also, there was a famous video of him which was found in December 2001 (or perhaps earlier) and shown all over the mainstream news as a "compelling" evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks. But there has been a lot of controversy about the authenticity of the video. I have read that the "independent" translators may have intentionally mistranslated the barely audible speech in the video to make it seem as if bin Laden was actually involved in the 9/11.

See the two articles below:

- http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLE...atape.html - http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/BinLaden...ideo.shtml

My understanding is that he initially denied it, but later claimed responsibility.

(May 8, 2011 at 5:19 am)theVOID Wrote: My understanding is that he initially denied it, but later claimed responsibility.

A bad idea if you don't want to end up dead by your enemy's hand a decade later.

Given what I read somewhere yesterday is true... that Bin Laden was a spiritual leader rather than a military activist... how do you regard his position Rayaan? Do you think he was outside mainstream Islam or a part of a bonefide division within mainstream Islam? I'm not wanting to attack Islam or yourself at all, just asking personal clarification from yourself as I respect your opinion. I know the perspective of the west from outside of the west is completely different from insiders, and I'm on neither side.

(May 8, 2011 at 9:30 am)fr0d0 Wrote: Given what I read somewhere yesterday is true... that Bin Laden was a spiritual leader rather than a military activist... how do you regard his position Rayaan? Do you think he was outside mainstream Islam or a part of a bonefide division within mainstream Islam? I'm not wanting to attack Islam or yourself at all, just asking personal clarification from yourself as I respect your opinion. I know the perspective of the west from outside of the west is completely different from insiders, and I'm on neither side.

-way to be politically correct frod


... I'll go ahead and just be honest ... are you in support of Osama Bin Laden because he was "misunderstood" by the USA? .... or for any other reason?

(May 8, 2011 at 5:19 am)theVOID Wrote: My understanding is that he initially denied it, but later claimed responsibility.

Have any links or sources for that? So far though, I haven't seen anything credible where Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility or that authorized the attacks.

Now, here's the problem I have with all these news stories and tapes that have come out. As you can see in the links above, Osama Bin Laden took no responsibility for the killing attacks although the US already pegged him as the man behind the attack even before he denied it. I'm no psychologist, but he doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to squirm at ever claiming responsibility for such an attack, IF he did it. There's no reason to, and he might even be willing to be killed in fighting a war.

(May 8, 2011 at 9:30 am)fr0d0 Wrote: Given what I read somewhere yesterday is true... that Bin Laden was a spiritual leader rather than a military activist... how do you regard his position Rayaan? Do you think he was outside mainstream Islam or a part of a bonefide division within mainstream Islam?

Bin Laden was both a religious leader and a military activist according to my knowledge. He was a military commander who had religious leanings and I read that he built camps for his mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan. He also assisted in delivering aids and arms to the Afghan forces and eventually joined the fight against the Soviets in 1979 when they invaded the country. However, I don't think he would fall under mainstream Islam because a lot of his views on religion are quite extreme compared to the majority of Muslims. Additionally, groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are all considered to be outside of the mainstream.

(May 8, 2011 at 2:47 pm)Cinjin Cain Wrote: I'll go ahead and just be honest ... are you in support of Osama Bin Laden because he was "misunderstood" by the USA? .... or for any other reason?

I don't support him and I have nothing to gain by 'supporting' him. As for him being misunderstood by the USA, that could be true, because he may have been cast in a much worse light by the US government by connecting him to the 9/11 attacks although there is no solid evidence for the connection.

I'm not saying that he certainly DIDN'T authorize the attacks. Rather, what I'm saying is that the probability of it being staged by either the American government itself or another group of terrorists could be higher than what you think. There is a high probability that 9/11 was completely staged. I think it was too organized to be done by Osama bin Laden in such a perfect sync and I'm not dismissing any of the conspiracy theories that the whole thing was staged by America itself. America's government is widely known to be notorious at hiding things from their own people and the rest of the world through numerous events (two very well known regarding the Watergate scandal and the U2 bomber).

*yet again Rayaan tries to make OBL look innocent*

Quote:There is a high probability that 9/11 was completely staged.

No matter how much I dispised Bush, I would not accuse him of masterminding something like this.

Rayaan..you just lost a LOT of respect from me with this thread.

Quote:No matter how much I dispised Bush, I would not accuse him of masterminding something like this.

Bush COULDN'T mastermind anything.

I can't cite reference, but he did play a part in training terrorists for the 9/11 attack as he was in their camp at the time prior. Perhaps not the particular terrorists then ended up preforming the acts, but his culpability as part of the training, inspiring and supporting terrorism is really undeniable. [/no more to say]

(May 8, 2011 at 7:22 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:No matter how much I dispised Bush, I would not accuse him of masterminding something like this.

Bush COULDN'T mastermind anything.

Bush was utterly helpless when it came to his colleagues and their running mouths. As soon as one of his buddies realized they could profit (either financially or politically) by exposing government secrets, they would do it in a heart beat.

To suggest there was a conspiracy any further than "Hey, we can use this terror attack to invade Iraq", then you are putting WAY too much credit on Bush and his cabinet.