Comments on: calling for a retranslation

By: O'Brien

O'Brien — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:18:59 +0000

Bin Laden has released several tapes since 9-11 don't you think that if he had authorised one of his terrorists to inform the US adminstration of an impending attack and the administration had done nothing Bin Laden would have made much more of an issue of this in other tapes?

Considering everything Bin Laden says and does is intended to incite hate towards Bush and villify him as a cruel evil man if he thought that Bush refrained from acting to save so many lives surely he would have mentioned it at every opportunity he could.

Also don't you think that Bush is quite a rash character his impulsive nature in deciding to attack Iraq would definately imply that he is. Surely if such an impulsive character had notice of such an attack he would not just sit there listening to kids reading about goats!

As for the confused look it is George W your talking about maybe he was just struggling to keep up with the story!

By: Stuart Buck

Stuart Buck — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:27:34 +0000

Larry --

I read bin Laden's comments -- for what it's worth -- as saying this (the brackets are explanatory):

"[A]ll the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice [i.e., notice that something wrong is happening and have time to respond in some fashion].

"[But in fact, we didn't carry out the attacks in 20 minutes. Flight 93 was late taking off, and it was 1.5 hours between the time of the first hijacking and the time that Flight 93 crashed.] It never occurred to us that [we wouldn't need to finish in 20 minutes because] the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him."

Make sense?

By: Noor

Noor — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:40:16 +0000

Having read that paragraph in the Arabic transcript, I think Bin Laden is saying that they had agreed with Atta to conduct/complete all operations in twenty minutes, before Bush and his administration find out about the attacks. I don't think Bin Laden is saying that he informed Bush of the attacks. The word that Bin Laden used is literally translated as "notice" but in this context, it really means "informed" or "find out."

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 11:37:02 +0000

Max,

I believe you. I haven't read about those reactions recently, but have in the past and I understand how people project onto others their own feelings (good or bad). I realize that my critical view of Bush is likely to color how I viewed his sitting there.

By: Max Lybbert

Max Lybbert — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 11:23:18 +0000

Nate, I found accounts by people actually in the room with Bush at the time to be very inspiring. One is on Fahrenhype 9/11, by a lady who clearly states that she voted for Gore, and will vote for Kerry.

By: Nate

Nate — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:51:04 +0000

Here's a good site with lots of translations of the message:

http://cryptome.org/us-eu-gap.htm

By: Nate

Nate — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:27:22 +0000

Remember, nobody expected the towers to collapse, so it's not as if we had foresight about twenty minutes. At the time we figured the buildings would stand. As it happens, it took close to an hour for them to fall. Plenty of time for evacuation, if they had only told people to do it. What could Bush have done? For a start, talk to his people and get the whole details about what was going on. Maybe they could have scrambled jets earlier and prevented the Pentagon attack. Who knows? We'll never know now, but c'mon! What kind of leader just sits there mutely after being told that his country was under attack? Whoa! Real inspiring.

By: douglass truth

douglass truth — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:50:01 +0000

Perhaps Juan Cole will translate.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:19:35 +0000

I had a couple of reactions while reading the different translations of the bin ladin message. One is that I think most times when he says Bush he is referring to George H. W. Bush and not our current president. The other is that Iraq feels like it was a setup.

If we had real intelligence that showed a link between Iraq and Al-Queda, is it possible that they wanted us to think there was a link? Bin Ladin has been telling the Arab world for years that we were going to invade and occupy an oil-rich Arab nation. He knew of our dislike for Saddam and the history of Saddam and G.H.W. Bush. Could he have used that to get us to attack?

By: Robyn Moondancer

Robyn Moondancer — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 13:22:56 +0000

Perhaps Bush did know. By the time he was given the twenty minute warning. he evacuated the towers. What then? There were still several hundred passengers on those planes. Was he maybe supposed to have them taken down?? Was he being set up to be the most horrid and uncaring President in history??

Mind you I am no fan of Bush's but I dont understand what he really could have done in tweny minutes. He could have caused a mass panic in the towers. Twenty minutes is not enough time to evacuate buildings the size of the towers. It is not enough time to mobilize.

Either way it was a "comedy of errors" or prehaps tagedy would be a better word.

Love and Light