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On the 9/11 commission report
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| dj_ilan_yosef |
Been traveling lately.... no time to check the boards.
I miss you guys... well, no -- only my princess cyrus ;-P
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Special Dispatch - Reform Project
August 3, 2004
No. 757
To view this Special Dispatch in HTML format, please visit:
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD75704
Liberal Columnist in Al-Hayat: Do Arabs have the Courage to Reconsider Their
Positions Following the 9/11 Commission Report?
Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at the
University of Qatar, wrote an article in the London-based Arabic-language daily
Al-Hayat titled "Following the 9/11 Commission, do the Arabs have the Courage to
Reconsider their Position?" In his article he called upon Arabs to recant their
conspiracy theories regarding the perpetrators of the attacks, and apologize for
spreading these theories. The following are excerpts from the column:(1)
The 9/11 Report Details the Terrorists' Plans
"The 9/11 Commission depicted the full and accurate picture of the attacks,
their planning, their perpetration, the perpetrators, and their nationalities.
The report clarified that the idea of the attacks was conceived by Khaled Sheikh
Muhammad, who admitted that he first discussed the idea of attacking the World
Trade Center with commercial planes with his nephew Ramzi Yousef [the architect
of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993]. They discussed it again when
they planned the Bojenka conspiracy in Manila [Phillipines] in 1995, which aimed
at hijacking commercial planes on 10 American targets, including the 4 targets
chosen for September 11, American intelligence [CIA] headquarters, the highest
tower in California, and nuclear reactors. He presented the plan to Osama bin
Laden and the Al-Qa'ida leaders, who at first weren't enthusiastic about it
because of its complexity and magnitude, but in April 1999 bin Laden invited him
to Kandahar and told him that Al-Qa'ida supported his idea. Bin Laden chose the
first four suicide bombers after the original plan was changed.
"The American report also describes how the four trained to fly commercial
planes in America and how they established four groups, the first group led by
the Egyptian Muhammad Atta, with four hijackers. The second group would be led
by Marwan Al-Sheihi, from the Emirates, with four hijackers. The third group,
led by the Saudi Hani Hanjur, with four hijackers. The fourth group was led by
the Lebanese Ziad Al-Jarrah with three hijackers, totaling 19 hijackers. The
report criticizes the CIA, stating that they missed 10 opportunities to discover
their activities. It claims that there were flaws in the operation,
capabilities, forecasts, and policies of the CIA, and that it needs to undergo
major changes. President Bush responded to the recommendations and has begun
implementing them."
Will We Now Admit that Arabs were behind the Attacks - or are We 'Incapable of
Apologizing?'
"No doubt the Americans are going to draw practical lessons from the report in
order to prevent their recurrence of their failings. But what about us? What
about the Arabs who are the active element in this conspiracy?
"After September 11, we blamed the Israeli Mossad for planning the attacks. This
belief prevailed not only among popular circles. Intellectuals and high-level
figures held to this belief, validating it by their allegation that 4,000 Jews
didn't come to work at the World Trade Center on that cursed morning, and by the
arrest of the Jews who gleefully took pictures of the destruction [of the
falling towers].
"Another group among us blamed the American extremist right for planning the
attacks in order to provide a justification to attack Afghanistan and spread
American hegemony in Central Asia. We are also very happy with the book written
by the French crook Thierry Meyssan, 'The Appalling Fraud,' who became a
millionaire thanks to our stupidity in translating the book into Arabic and
disseminating it. Another group, headed by Muhammad Hassanein Haykal, blamed the
Yugoslavian Serbs for carrying out the attack in revenge for America's attacks
on them.
"The question must be asked: Are those who blame the Mossad, the American Right,
and the Serbs still holding strong to their convictions? What do they say about
the American report? Do our religious leaders, especially those who appear so
many times on the satellite channels and who have a monopoly on programs on
Al-Jazeera, still hold to the conviction that Al-Qa'ida and bin Laden [are]
innocent of the September 11 attacks? These leaders used to say that bin Laden
is a miserable sheikh who has no capability of planning operations at this high
a level of accuracy and planning, and that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by
the Americans themselves in order to prepare for attacks on Muslims and Islam.
"Moreover, one of our religious leaders claims that America is absolutely
certain that bin Laden is innocent and he is being blamed because of their
Crusader approach that hates Islam and Muslims. Does this sheikh and the others
who held these conspiratorial theories and spread them - do they have the
courage to apologize for their words, mistakes, and misleading of other people
after all the facts have now been clarified, or are they going to continue with
their arrogant stubbornness as if this whole matter doesn't relate to them?
"One of the absurdities is that while Al-Qa'ida and its supporters are proud of
their deeds, calling them the 'Manhattan Raid,' and even printing advertisements
in London in commemoration of the 9/11 attacks, with pictures of the
'Magnificent 19' - our religious, cultural, and political elite [are] struggling
to deny that [the Arabs] could have had anything to do with it.
"Do we have the courage to criticize ourselves, to admit to our fault, and to
apologize as many people do, or is it one of our hidden qualities that we are a
people that are incapable of apologizing? Why won't we take the opportunity of
the appearance of the 9-11 Commission's report to ponder why destructive
violence and a culture of destruction have taken root in our society? Why won't
we take this opportunity to reconsider our educational system, our curricula,
including the religious, media, and cultural discourse that causes our youth to
live in a constant tension with the world?"
Endnote:
(1) Al-Hayat (London), August 2, 2004. |
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| dj_ilan_yosef |
Does Arab/Muslim culture have what it takes to suck up their pride/intolerance/hate and work on the inside before trying to take over the outside?
We see and hear Arabs and Muslims yelling and screaming for equality - a word not known back in their respective countries. We hear them blaming the west, east, north and south - but never looking at one another and saying "maybe we should look at ourselves."
The mentality of the west is to always progress and re-evaluate our way of life, reassure ourselves that what we're doing is moral and good. Our adversaries are NOT doing the same within themselves. We are at war with an enemy that does not care to change and adapt to the ever so different world around it. No matter how hard we try and globalize in tune with every nation, we'll never be able to see eye to eye with those who don’t try and come to par with the rest of civilization.
Instead of fighting one another, we should be fighting ourselves - for one thing, I know the countries of the west are doing it and are doing it for the whole world to see. It’s unfortunate we can't say that for the other side of today’s world conflicts. |
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| dj_ilan_yosef |
so thats how it is huh... no one likes me anymore :(
*hides under a rock* |
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| Q5echo |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_ilan_yosef
so thats how it is huh... no one likes me anymore :(
*hides under a rock* |
i can't say whether or not people here lke you anymore. (as if you care)
but your posts fly in the face of a lot if the ideology here. good for you, good for us.
cheers. |
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| ierxium |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_ilan_yosef
so thats how it is huh... no one likes me anymore :(
*hides under a rock* |
It's hard to reply to that. Not because it's a delicate issue but because it's just information. Plus, commenting on what should be done because of what happened over here or over there is a task for the elite. In any case, I thank you for sharing that information. Honestly. |
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