It's already messed up that one of U.S. "allies" would be behind the 9/11 attacks, and that U.S. went ahead and invaded a whole other country for it anyway, but at least there could be an argument to be made that it wasn't the Saudi government behind it (which seems rather likely that it wasn't).
But protecting who the culpable parties were in the biggest attack on the U.S. since Pearl Harbor, because it "might endanger relationships" with that country (and after already invading Iraq for supposedly the same reason), is beyond messed up. Everyone involved in covering it up should be tried as traitors, as I don't just say that as a hyperbole.
It's interesting that this is the result of a country practicing a hands off policy, instead of the "cultural imperialism" many complain about. The Saudi's chose to work with the US over the brits because we agreed to firewall our operations to keep their culture/society "pure" as possible.
we invaded afghanistan because bin laden was residing there and those in charge, the taliban, were protecting him (or the other way around given real political strength). it's fun to imagine the entire us intelligence apparatus as corrupt and criminal, but reality's plenty interesting.
After 9/11, the Taliban also offered to hand bin Laden over to the US. The Bush administration rejected the offer, as it would require 1) proof of a connection and 2) an end to the bombing of Afghanistan. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.ter...
The Taliban and al Qaeda were not close allies. Mullah Omar, founder of the Taliban, actually despised bin Laden's tactic of attacks on the West and anywhere outside the area the Taliban ruled.
This is a lot of revisionism. The Taliban offered to "discuss" handing over bin Laden on the condition the US stopped bombing them. It was a clear delay tactic. They demanded evidence that he was responsible and would only turn him over to a neutral third party. Way too little too late.
It's totally false that Talbian and al Qaeda were not allies. Al Qaeda trained members of the Taliban army. If the Taliban despised al Qaeda tactics, why didn't they agree to the US demands after 9-11. Or why didn't they boot al Qaeda out of the country before 9-11.
Taliban were complicit before and after the attacks.
Offered him up during Clinton administration, too, with result being Clinton bombing some people. Got to the point that some people thought bin Laden was an informant.
In any case, bin Laden said he had nothing to do with 9/11 then a FBI spokesman in (2006?) said they had no evidence tying him to 9/11. I don't need any wild speculation to think they might be scapegoating him for something. Maybe simply tying up loose ends from CIA's prior work on things like training terrorists to beat superpowers. You bet they didn't interrogate him on purpose and not out of anger. ;)
I was quoting the FBI. You can tell them how crazy you think they are. Meanwhile, the 9/11 Commission Report itself indicated attackers were funded by and tight with Saudi elites. You might, based on official report, wonder why our Presidents and counterterror efforts are tight with the one country they said sponsored 9/11 and other terrorism. ;)
The report does claim that. It cites the government agencies whose declassified documents say they armed him in the first place. They lied about that for a long time. They were caught repeatedly lying, esp on torture or surveillance effectiveness, during that administration. Using CIA's own intelligence framework, their source integrity rating would be very, very low even if I trusted 9/11 Commission to faithfully do their part. I mean, think about it, do we really trust CIA and DOD to give us evidence that they're guilty of negligence with direct access to source materials by 9/11 Commission? Or should we reject those parts as tainted? The latter is standard in every criminal investigation in U.S. outside of cases involving "national security."
In any case, the other thing the report said was that Arab-Americans working for CIA posed as Saudi's to trick AQ operatives into cooperating. Turned out, they thought they were saved by their Saudi friends and gave all kinds of unlisted numbers to royalty, etc. The revelation that funding and connected personnel came from the Saudi's means we should've torn up Saudi Arabia looking for them if our goal was stopping/punishing terrorists. Instead, Afghanistan and... Iraq...? While giving arms and military training to the Saudis through private military companies? And sharing terrorist intelligence with them when they just funded 9/11? What... the... hell...?
Now, fast forward to today, the Obama Administration is still protecting the pages showing level of Saudi involvement. The Saudi's still don't want their info or people in a courtroom. You indicate OBL and Afghanistan are all we gotta worry about whereas the 9/11 report on Saudi involvement, that classified doc, and U.S. government working their ass off to protect Saudi's that funded 9/11 seems to suggest very opposite of your or official claims.
That is, if OBL did it at all, he was just a tool for a large, Saudi organization connected to their financial and political elites that murdered 3,000 Americans. That connection is in official report, but downplayed. And U.S. government, for whatever reason, is doing everything they can to cover that up and keep justice from happening. If that's not evidence of supporting terrorism or negligence re 9/11 then I don't know what is.
Note: We've been able to show complicity or U.S. support of terrorism without resorting to anything beyond their own official report and actions. No conspiracy sites, no thermite, nothing. Just their own claims and hard work to protect Saudi crooks.
Usually good. Fun part, though, is that doing ad hominem fairly would find all the times the FBI, DOD, CIA, NSA, and so on mislead the public or courts. Then, their credibility would be at zero just like some conspiracy nuts. Then, moderates like myself would win by default given we're the only ones presenting, but not forging, evidence. So, I tell them to bring the character assessments on but apply them fairly and equally.
Evidence was elsewhere. You know where to find it. You had already dismissed the whole topic with an ad hominem with plenty assumptions and no references whatsoever. If anything, I acted above your standard of discussion. I've replied in another comment with more details focusing on just one angle from government docs and activity only.
But protecting who the culpable parties were in the biggest attack on the U.S. since Pearl Harbor, because it "might endanger relationships" with that country (and after already invading Iraq for supposedly the same reason), is beyond messed up. Everyone involved in covering it up should be tried as traitors, as I don't just say that as a hyperbole.