Mainstream media certainly has not made it easy

Mainstream media certainly has not made it easy to understand what motivated the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. If you are confused about what to believe, you should take note that pundits who push lies about what is motivating the terrorists resort to fraud to make their case. Thomas Friedman covers up what bin LAden has said for years about Palestine. Friedman claims, "the fact is that bin Laden never focused on this issue. He only started talking about "Palestine" after September 11." What Friedman has written is a flat out lie. To give just one example that disproves what Friedman wrote: "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful. America has no shame. " - Osama bin Laden May 1998

George Tenet, when he was CIA director, played the same game, he covered up the motives by selectively quoting the terrorists. In his written statement before the Congressional Joint Inquiry on 9/11, Tenet quotes the 1998 ruling "to kill Americans and their allies, both civilian and military" yet omits the rest of the key sentence which states why: "in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [in Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."

These pundits and politicians should not be suppressing or denying the facts.

President Bush said yesterday, "I know there is an international jihadist movement that desires to do us harm and they have territorial ambitions. The reason I know that is that's what they've told us. And part of their territorial ambition is to have safe haven in Iraq. That's what they've said. That's what the enemy has clearly said. And it seems like to me that the Commander-in-Chief ought to listen to what the enemy says." I agree, it makes sense that if we want to know their motives, we listen to what they have been saying. What they have been saying has been clear and consistent for years.

The terrorist behind the 1993 attack on the WTC sent a letter to the NYT which said: "This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel the state of terrorism and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region."

Osama bin Laden reminded people in May of 1999, "The International Islamic Front for Jihad against the U.S. and Israel has issued a crystal-clear fatwa calling on the Islamic nation to carry on jihad aimed at liberating holy sites. The nation of Muhammad has responded to this appeal. If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans in order to liberate Al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka'aba Islamic shrines in the Middle East is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal."

The 9/11 Commission reported on the motive of the "mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks." On page 147 of the 9/11 Commission Report, it says "By his own account, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."

The two terrorist pilots who crashed the two planes into the WTC shared the same motivation. Mohammed Atta, who flew into WTC 1, was described by one Ralph Bodenstein, who traveled, worked and talked with him, as "most imbued actually about Israeli politics in the region and about U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region. And he was to a degree personally suffering from that." Marwan al-Shehhi, the pilot who flew into WTC 2, was focused on the same thing, telling a friend, "How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?"

President Bush should do what he said, " the Commander-in-Chief ought to listen to what the enemy says." And what bin Laden says has been clear. In 2003, bin Laden reminded people again that "in 1998, the Mujahideen warned America to cease their support to the Jews and to leave the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries, but the enemy refused to heed this warning ..." He also pointed out that President Bush was hiding the truth about their motives, "the Mujahideen saw the black gang of thugs in the White House hiding the Truth, and their stupid and foolish leader, who is elected and supported by his people, denying reality and proclaiming that we (the Mujahideen) were striking them because we were jealous of them (the Americans), whereas the reality is that we are striking them because of their evil and injustice in the whole of the Islamic World, especially in Iraq and Palestine and their occupation of the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries."

You asked why other terrorists have attacked other countries. Their motives have been expressed. Most of the attacks you mentioned against those foreign countries had to so with those countries' participation in wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack on the oil tanker was motivated by one of the grievances bin Laden has mentioned years before 9/11, aggression against them. After the attack on the oil tanker, bin Laden congratulated "the Muslim Nation for the daring and heroic Jihad operations" which he said was "reminding the enemy of the bloody price they have to pay for continuing their aggression against our nation.”

This is the kind of response you will get from some people when you point out that we are being lied to about why we were attacked on 9/11.

Dishonesty about 9/11 motives robs Americans of the freedom to decide for ourselves if we want to put our lives at risk over specific foreign policies. http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/05/dishonesty-about-911-motives-robs.html