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by Jared Israel
October 8, 2001, emperors-clothes.com
"We will starve the terrorists of
funding," he said. "If you do business with terrorists, if you support or
sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America."
--George Bush, 24 September 2001
While thousands of human beings lie
buried under tons of rubble in devastated Manhattan, the U.S. and Britain
have launched a massive bombing attack on Afghanistan. Among the declared
targets: electrical power facilities (1), clearly an attack on civilians.
Hundreds of thousands of terrorized human beings are fleeing into the cold
countryside, carrying with them nothing but their poverty. Among the
weapons employed by Infinite Justice: Tomahawk missiles, which are partly
composed of deadly Depleted Uranium. U.S. and British soldiers and Afghan
civilians take note: Afghan Syndrome may be just around the corner. (2)
But some folks are doing OK.
Below we have reprinted an article
from the 'Wall Street Journal'. It reveals that Saudi Binladin Group, the
conglomerate owned by Osama bin Laden's family, has invested in: "Carlyle
Group, a well-connected Washington merchant bank specializing in buyouts
of defense and aerospace companies." ('WSJ,' 27 September 2001)
Through his lofty position at
Carlyle and as a consultant, George Bush Sr. is closely linked to the bin
Ladens. As are other powerhouse U.S. politicians.
Given that Carlyle's business is
"defense," the Bushes and bin Ladens may well profit handsomely from the
current war.
There has been no outcry in the
mass media about this. No U.S. newspaper has picked up the WSJ story. Nor
has CNN or Fox.
As for politicians, only those
involved have commented, and they dismissed the bin Laden link without a
blush. For instance, Caspar Weinberger, Reagan's Secretary of Defense and
part of the Saudi Binladin connection says:
"I don't think the sins of the son
should be visited on the father or the brother and the cousins and the
aunts." ('WSJ,' 27 September 2001)
How stern Weinberger was when it
came to invading little Grenada; how non-judgmental when his own interests
are at stake.
At first, Bush spokeswoman Jean
Becker told the 'Wall Street Journal' that her boss had met with the bin
Ladens only once.
But "after being read the
ex-president's subsequent thank-you note" the original "only once" claim
was revised. In other words, she got caught in a lie and switched to a new
story:
"President Bush does not have a
relationship with the bin Laden family," says Ms. Becker. "He's met them
twice." ('WSJ,' 27 September 2001)
Once, twice, who's counting?
Clearly a) Bush has a guilty
conscience, otherwise why not tell the truth? And b) since he's clearly in
stonewall-mode there is no reason to believe there weren't more meetings
with the bin Ladens. How many more? Who knows? But his spokeswoman's
behavior shows this: if Bush did have more meetings, he surely won't come
clean unless confronted with proof.
EVEN IN AN EXPOSÉ, THE WSJ TOES THE
LINE
The 'Wall Street Journal' article
implicitly supports the official story, that Osama has broken with his
family, by telling us, as if it were a fact, that Osama only "worked
briefly in the [family] business."
This is not true.
In an article in preparation,
Emperor's Clothes will show that Osama directed the family business in
carrying out at least two large projects for the CIA, one in the 1980s and
one in the late 1990s, building facilities to be used by terrorists.
Moreover, the only pieces of
evidence that Osama bin Laden broke with his family are statements by him,
his family, and U.S. officials. Since these parties have an interest in
convincing the public that the connection was broken, their statements are
of scant value.
Also, there is evidence to the
contrary. In "Body of Secrets," the new book by National Security Agency
expert James Bamford, the author cites freedom of information documents
revealing that:
"[National Security] Agency
officials have sometimes played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother
to impress members of Congress and select visitors to the agency." (quoted
in 'Baltimore Sun', 24 April 2001)
And another article states:
"Yossef Bodansky, director of the
House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, said "Osama
maintains connections" with some of his nearly two dozen brothers. He
would not elaborate." ('San Antonio Express-News,' 14 September 1998)
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