The Osama Award

Submitted by Bill the Rake

I asked Cleo about this and she said, "Hollywood should create a special sort of annual award to the producers selected for producing the least believable trick-film of the year. The name of that award should be The Osama, presented in memory of the authors of the hoax known as the so-called Hitler Diaries."

[Source: EIR, Cairo, simultaneous English translation, Jan. 5, 2002]

Egyptian Military Strategy Expert Says Bin Laden Could Not Have Done It

Dr. Mahmoud Khallaf, an expert in strategic issues, and currently at the Nasser Academy for Defense Studies, presented his analysis of the events of September 11, at a seminar January 5, organized by the Center for Asian Studies of the Cairo University, Faculty of Economics and Political Science. Dr. Khallaf followed Muriel Mirak-Weissbach of EIR, who had presented LaRouche's analysis of those events, from the standpoint of his recent paper on "Brzezinski and September 11." Saying he found the presentation very fruitful, as it had "answered many questions," Dr. Khallaf went through his own independent considerations of the events on that day. He said that strategic military analysis, which he has been working in for twenty years, is a separate branch of study, with its own rules; what he wanted to present, he said, was an "autopsy of the events," a summary of which follows:

As for the operational aspect, there must have been at least a hundred planning technicians involved. Each phase had many technical details, and each required a deception operation, directed against numerous specialized agencies, of which there are eleven. For example, the DIA has very highly specialized capabilities; the NSA records every square meter of U.S. territory audio-visually, and so forth. How could Osama Bin Laden have organized such an operation, which eluded all this surveillance? How could he have operated undercover, undetected, for two years, the length of time it must have required?

There was definitely penetration of American military and intelligence sectors, on the side of the planners. Questions raised include the following - NORAD, a very complicated system, is informed of the movements of every plane in flight. Reportedly, one plane did issue a warning, giving information that the plane had been hijacked. The DIA was informed. Andrews Air Force base, where Air Force One is usually based, has twenty-eight fighter planes, capable of scrambling in such cases, and being in the air within minutes. Although informed, they did not fly.

President Bush was in a situation for ten hours, during which he could not return to Washington, and to do so, he had to have the Marines deploy to clear the area.

Then there is the question of radar systems, which every country has. The United States has AWACS for external air space. Every plane has a transponder, so that its schedule and flight route are known and controlled. According to schedule, the first plane, flight 11, left at 7:58, then the second, at 8:10. All four planes took off within fourteen minutes. The first plane flew forty-six minutes, made a maneuver, a curve, then headed towards the World Trade Center tower and hit it.

According to the passenger lists released by the FBI, the suspected hijackers were between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-two, which is too young for them to have trained long enough on these planes. How could it be possible to hijack them and pilot them? The high technological and technical level of the operation is not matched by the evidence shown, which is on a much lower level.

Another question regards the targeting science, which involves capabilities, including computerized programs, prioritizing what is to be hit first. The timing is elementary and the results can be calculated. You need a highly skilled team to decide what to hit, when, and how.

The first plane leaving Boston for New York was flight 11, followed by flight 175. The first hit the World Trade Center tower after forty-six minutes, the second, after sixty-seven minutes, that is, with a twenty-minute time lag. Why? Probably because they calculated that, after the first hit, rescue teams would be rushed to the scene; by waiting for the second hit, they could impact the rescue teams as well. This constituted an escalation of the hits.

Take the case of the plane which left Dulles airport at 8:10 and hit the Pentagon at 9:43. Between Dulles airport and the Pentagon, there are only a few minutes of flight time, but the plane flew west for forty-five minutes. Why? Because they knew (they must have been military personnel) that, by that time, inside the Pentagon, there would have been a group of experts meeting to discuss the reported hits in New York, and they wanted to strike then, to target them. The assailants hit where the helicopter pad is, also to prevent any emergency helicopter rescue. They knew there would be a briefing going on, with the CIA present, and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, which they targeted. Thus, they had to allow them the time to convene the meeting.

The fourth plane, which crashed in Pittsburgh, flew outwards to Cleveland, then turned around and headed for the White House after two and a half hours because they knew Bush and the National Security Council would be there by that time. The American leadership knew this, and was in a state of shock. It took Bush ten hours to get back to Washington.

One puzzling thing is the training of the assailants. How were they chosen? When were they trained? How was the piloting and intelligence done?

It is impossible that the Osama Bin Laden organization could have done this.