Re: [A-List] US imperialism: Mohammed as Mr. Big

["Christopher Black" <bar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim,

I dont think it is any coincidence that this man's arrest was suddenly
ballyhooed all over the place on the same day that the Turkish parliament
voted against permitting US forces to enter Turkey to attack Iraq. The
arrest of Mohammed was blown up in order to take attention from a serious
blow to US war plans and to give the US public something "positive" to think
about.  It is nothing more or less than a diversion from the Turkish story
which has been downplayed in the US ever since but which is viewed in Europe
as a major setback for the US. Iraq no longer has to face a two front war.
US forces now have to strike from one direction only. Something was needed
to divert US public opinion from their first catastrophe of the war.
Mohammed was it.

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [A-List] US imperialism: Mohammed as Mr. Big


>
> I suspect that it is both a case of US intelligence being clueless
> as how to Al Quida actually operates, and the political
> need for the Bush Administration to score a "big win"
> against terrorism, in order to jutify the attention it has
> been giving to Iraq rather than to Al Quida.  Remember,
> this guy, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had supposedly
> been already killed, a year ago.
>
> Jim F.
>
> On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 13:15:22 -0500 "annewilliamson"
> <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx> writes:
> > 'Terror Boss' Moves Up Ladder As US Sees Fit
> > Khalid Shaikh Mohammed -- From 22 To 2
> >
> > 3/10/03 10:52:15 AM
> > Chicago Sun-Times
> >
> > Chicago, Illinois --
> > http://www.suntimes.com/output/pickett/cst-nws-pickett04.html
> >
> > 'Terror boss' moves up ladder as U.S. sees fit
> >
> > March 4, 2003
> >
> > BY DEBRA PICKETT SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
> >
> > A month after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush released a list
> > of the
> > world's most-wanted terrorists. There were 22 names on it. Khalid
> > Shaikh
> > Mohammed was No. 22.
> >
> > And the list wasn't alphabetical.
> >
> > But, sometime between then and early Saturday morning, when Mohammed
> > was
> > captured in Pakistan, the U.S. government identified Mohammed as the
> > mastermind behind the al-Qaida plot.
> >
> > Osama bin Laden, we're now told, is pretty much a figurehead: It's
> > Mohammed who made things happen. Over the past 2-1/2 years, he's
> > climbed
> > from last
> > place to a photo finish for No. 1 on the most-wanted list.
> >
> > The cynical view on this is that Mohammed is still the relatively
> > small
> > fish we were first told he was, but the news of his arrest is being
> > hyped
> > because the Bush administration needs a victory in the war on
> > terrorism
> > before going to war in Iraq.
> >
> > The merely skeptical view is that we are clueless about how al-Qaida
> > really works.
> >
> > When Mohammed's name first made international news, he was described
> > as an
> > accomplice to Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind behind the
> > first
> > World Trade Center bombing, in 1993. In retrospect, that might have
> > been
> > Mohammed's stint in the terrorist-mastermind internship program.
> >
> > In the first intelligence reports following the 2001 attacks,
> > Mohammed was
> > named as an "al-Qaida operative," a couple of levels down the
> > organizational chart from bin Laden's top deputy, Egyptian doctor
> > Ayman
> > Zawahiri,
> > al-Qaida military commander Mohammed Atef and security chief Saif
> > al-Adil.
> > Those
> > were the big fish.
> >
> > Mohammed's name came up again when officials began to speculate
> > about how
> > al-Qaida might be reorganizing in the wake of the U.S.-led war in
> > Afghanistan.
> >
> > With bin Laden apparently on the run, and periodically presumed to
> > be
> > dead, it seemed to make sense that an operational guy, with a lower
> > profile,
> > might
> > step in to run things. Mohammed seemed to be that guy. He was
> > described as
> > "al-
> > Qaida's engineer," a nerdy, uncharismatic sort, a middle manager
> > who'd
> > probably never get the key to the executive washroom, no matter how
> > much
> > he sucked up to the boss.
> >
> > Then, in the summer of 2002, things started to change.
> >
> > News reports quoted U.S. officials as saying that Mohammed was like
> > the "Forrest Gump of al-Qaida." His name and fingerprints seemed to
> > be
> > everywhere. He'd been involved in all of al-Qaida's major attacks.
> > But no
> > one had noticed. The class nerd has a way of fading into the
> > background.
> >
> > Around the same time, the government started to release intelligence
> > information it had gathered from "various sources," which, we all
> > understood, included alleged al-Qaida members being held at
> > Guantanamo Bay
> > and other,
> > undisclosed, locations. Abu Zubeida, who was described as a top bin
> > Laden
> > lieutenant when he was captured in Pakistan last year, is widely
> > assumed
> > to be one of those sources. He's apparently the first person to have
> > told
> > U.S.
> > officials that Mohammed was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11
> > attacks.
> >
> > Here in Illinois, we've learned a little something about the
> > reliability
> > of jailhouse witnesses. It's not clear that U.S. intelligence
> > officers have
> > come to the same understanding. Soon after their first
> > interrogations of
> > Zubeida, the government offered a $25 million reward for Mohammed's
> > capture.
> >
> > Forrest Gump had become an official terrorist mastermind.
> >
> > For the first time in his long al-Qaida career, he appeared on
> > al-Jazeera
> > TV, the CNN of the Arab world. His bosses were nowhere to be found.
> > Mohammed had replaced bin Laden as the face of al-Qaida. He'd also
> > replaced
> > the
> > Rev. Jesse Jackson as the world's most famous North Carolina
> > Agricultural &
> > Technical State University alumnus.
> >
> > Mohammed's star fell, briefly, when a raid in Karachi, Pakistan,
> > last
> > September netted Ramzi bin al-Shibh. When we captured him, President
> > Bush
> > announced that bin al-Shibh was "one of the chief planners and
> > organizers"
> > of the Sept. 11 attacks. Then, like Zubeida before him, this alleged
> > big
> > shot
> > apparently told intelligence officers that no, he wasn't very
> > important
> > within al-Qaida; it was really Mohammed they wanted.
> >
> > Now, we have him. But no one seems to be breathing any great sighs
> > of
> > relief. We don't feel any safer. We're just waiting for the next
> > revision
> > to the most-wanted list.
> >
> > It seems that every time we capture one of these guys, we insist
> > that he's
> > the one we wanted all along. Then, he points a finger at Khalid
> > Shaikh
> > Mohammed. So you have to wonder who Mohammed himself will blame.
> >
> > A cynic might guess that he'd modestly decline to take credit and,
> > instead, tell us, finally, who was truly responsible for the Sept.
> > 11
> > attacks:
> >
> > Saddam Hussein.
> >
> > E-mail: dpickett@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today
> Only $9.95 per month!
> Visit www.juno.com
>
>