Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

[kuozzman]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer11jan11,0,5399604.story

Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?

To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.

• If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?

• How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?

• Why have we heard so much frightening talk about "dirty bombs" when experts say it is panic rather than radioactivity that would kill people?

• Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British and U.S. military forces later found no such thing?

[RandomKoolzip]

1. No, they exist.

The reason why they're so elusive is that they're fucking terrorists.

[pandorasox]

2. If Al Qaeda didn't exist, the BFEE would have had to create it

I'd still like to see what sort of cellphone calls were made between Kennebunkport and Saudi Arabia in the late '90s.

[Obviousman]

3. Um, good luck convincing yourself that Al Qaeda doesn't exist

That's all I'm gonna say about this.

[K-W]

6. "Al Qaeda, AS DEFINED BY PRESIDENT BUSH" get it now?

The argument is not that Al Qaeda doesnt exist. it is that Al Qaeda is not what Bush presents it as.

It is not an extremely centralized gobe dominating group at the head of an international terror conspiricy.

And he is absolutely right.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Well.... DUH!

If Bush didn't LET THEM succeed on 9/11, they would not have.

If you can't catch a 6 1/2 foot tall guy on a donkey with a dialysis machine...

And what about those WMDs????

ALL BOOGEYMEN.

[K-W]

5. Obvioulsy yes.

Youd have to be an idiot to buy into Bush's whacky globaly conspiricy theory.

You have to believe that people around the world are dedicating thier lives to the propagation of a tactic of violence. That would be like saying that every bank robber in the world was part of a bank robbing conspiricy and thier main objective was to get more people to rob more banks.

Bank robbers rob banks for money.

Terrorists use terror because it is a means to an end.

This isnt all the mystery the Bush administration would have you believe it is. Because when you know even a few of the facts it becomes clear that Bush is telling a complete fairy tale.

[Gay Ranger]

7. Well...

Over a dozen of my brother Rangers died in what is believed to be one of Al Queda's earliest planned and backed operations. This was the downing of two Blackhawk helicopters in Somalia. To this day I walk with a slight limp due to the injuries I suffered there. There is a consistency to their tactics that is hard to ignore. They exist, maybe just not in the all empassing way that we have been lead to believe.