Yes, the title of this thread is a joke, but… is it? - Jon

Bin Laden Warns Europe To Stop Aiding U.S.
In Audiotape, Al Qaeda Chief Calls On Europeans To Stop Helping America In Afghanistan

Source: cbsnews.com

CAIRO, Egypt, Nov. 29, 2007

(AP) Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden called on the Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, saying America is “ebbing” in excerpts of a new audiotape aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera television.

Bin Laden said he was the “only one responsible” for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, arguing that it was unjust for the Americans to have invaded Afghanistan.

“The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance’s aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that,” he said.
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I sent the following letter to the author of this report…

Hello. What does it mean to be Osama Bin Laden’s “Handling Officer” for the Pakistani ISI? What is the responsibility of the person that has this particular job? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jon Gold

His response…

The handling officer of a source in Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies is the person who looks after the welfare of the source, keeps him motivated and uses him as needed. The source cannot meet anybody else other than his handling officer except the head of the agency. One source–one handling officer is the general rule. This is to prevent the exposure of the operation and maintain its deniability. I understand in the CIA they call him the Running Officer of a source.

Thanks.

Raman

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Source: cooperativeresearch.org

In the late 1980s, Osama bin Laden and his mentor Abdullah Azzam are running a charity front called Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK)/Al-Kifah in Peshawar, Pakistan, and it has an important branch in Brooklyn, New York, called the Al-Kifah Refugee Center that is sending money and recruits to fight in Afghanistan. The CIA apparently helps the Al-Kifah Brooklyn office send up to 200 people from the US to fight in Afghanistan (see 1986-1993). Many of them are US citizens. Zalmay Khalilzad, a State Department Afghan specialist who will later go on to become a prominent neoconservative, will later deny knowing of any Arab-Americans fighting with the mujaheddin. But one anonymous Congressional aide will recall occasional mentions of Al-Kifah Refugee Center or its head Mustafa Shalabi by some of the most radical mujaheddin. He says, “Among that cabal, the extreme militant fringes, Shalabi was known.… [T]hey were asking to talk to him so he could organize some particular assistance.” The Neutrality Act prevents US citizens from fighting against countries not at war with the US. But the New York Times will later note, “Yet there is no sign that a criminal investigation ever took place even though Federal agents had come across broad hints about the center’s activities when they investigated the [Meir] Kahane assassination [in 1990 (see ] and the slaying of Mr. Shalabi [in 1991].” Kahane’s assassin, El Sayyid Nosair, was one of Shalabi’s assistants. [New York Times, 4/11/1993] Apparently the CIA’s ties to the Al-Kifah Refugee Center prevent other US agencies from investigating it, even after the 1993 WTC bombing when all of the bombers are found to have been tied to the center. While it closes itself down shortly after the WTC bombing, it immediately reopens in Boston under a different name and continues to publish the same newsletter and post from the same website. The New Yorker will later comment, “[W]hen the fanatical fervor [the CIA] whipped up leads to unintended consequences - the assassination of a Jewish militant leader in Manhattan, the bombing of the World Trade Center, a terror conspiracy to blow up the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and other Manhattan landmarks - [the CIA tried] to discourage local law enforcement agencies and the FBI from looking into the matter too deeply.” After Nosair assassinates Kahane, the FBI tells District Attorney Robert Morgenthau that Nosair was a lone gunman, not part of a broader conspiracy. However, the FBI had truckloads of evidence connecting to Al-Kifah strongly suggesting otherwise that it does not closely investigate. Morgenthau will later speculate the CIA may have encouraged the FBI not to pursue any other leads. “‘The FBI lied to me,’ Morgenthau has told colleagues. ‘They’re supposed to untangle terrorist connections, but they can’t be trusted to do the job.’” [New Yorker, 3/17/1995] Counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson will later call Al-Kifah “al-Qaeda’s operational headquarters in the United States.” [Emerson, 2006, pp. 436] In 1994, a secret internal CIA report will conclude that the agency is “partially culpable” for the WTC bombing because of its support for radicals connected to Al-Kifah. One CIA source will say, “By giving these people the funding that we did, a situation was created in which it could be safely argued that we bombed the World Trade Center” (see January 24, 1994). But even after 1994 there is little evidence that the links from Al-Kifah were carefully explored by any US government agency. For instance, the government will not freeze its funds until shortly after 9/11, long after it ceased to exist (see September 24, 2001).

Wasn’t the confession video good enough for him? - Jon

Osama’s son, 27, weds granny, 51
He first saw her horse-riding near Great Pyramid in Egypt

Source: newspaper.asia1.com.sg

July 13, 2007

SHE is a grandmother of five who has been married five times before.

He is the son of the most-wanted man on the planet, Osama bin Laden.

She is a British parish councillor and is a keen horse-rider and scuba diver.

He works as a scrap metal dealer in Jeddah and is under surveillance by the security services in Saudi Arabia.

Worlds apart, but Ms Jane Felix-Browne, 51, and Mr Omar Ossama bin Laden, 27, are now married in the most unlikely of romances.

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The real question is, who authorized those flights?

In August 2004, the 9/11 Commission released an addendum to their report. CNN Reports:

“The commission states that all the Saudi nationals were screened by the FBI to make certain they were not a threat to national security, and that no terrorists escaped from the United States on any of the Saudi flights.”

According to Richard Clarke during his testimony at both the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the 9/11 Commission Hearings, he stated the following:

Senate Judiciary Committee
“Now, what I recall is that I asked for flight manifests of everyone on board and all of those names need to be directly and individually vetted by the FBI before they were allowed to leave the country.* And I also wanted the FBI to sign off even on the concept of Saudis being allowed to leave the country. And as I recall, all of that was done. It is true that members of the Bin Laden family were among those who left.* We knew that at the time. I can’t say much more in open session, but it was a conscious decision with complete review at the highest levels of the State Department and the FBI and the White House.” Testimony of Richard Clarke, Former Counterterrorism Chief, National Security Council, before The Senate Judiciary Committee, September 3, 2003.”

9/11 Commission
“I was making or coordinating a lot of decisions on 9/11 and the days immediately after.* And I would love to be able to tell you who did it, who brought this proposal to me, but I don’t know.* Since you pressed me, the two possibilities that are most likely are either the Department of State, or the White House Chief of Staff’s Office. But I don’t know.”* Testimony of Richard A. Clarke before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, March 24, 2004.”

Khalil Bin Laden was on one of those flights out of the country. He is the brother of Osama Bin Laden.

Khalil bin Laden, who boarded a plane in Orlando that eventually took him back to Saudi Arabia, won the attention of Brazilian investigators for possible terrorist connections. According to a Brazilian paper, he had business connections in the Brazilian province of Minas Gerais, not far from the tri-border region, an alleged center for training terrorists. [Craig Unger "Saving The Saudis" Vanity Fair, 10/2003]

This means that the White House or the Department of State gave approval for someone suspected of terrorism to leave on those flights.

And Osama Bin Laden may have helped to pay for it.

How nice of us to accomodate him. - Jon Read the rest of this entry »