I'm not sure that Bush wasn't the cause of 9/11 ?

[kentuck]

As I recall, thru August of his first year in office, he had spent more time at Crawford than he had spent at the White House. Also, he had pulled the ships back from the coast of Pakistan that Clinton had used to lob missiles at Osama over in Afghanistan. He was withdrawing from Kyoto treaties and refused to go along with any international protocol. He had Colin Powell to visit the Taliban and had given or offered them $43 million dollars for something that is still not clearly known. At this time, he had befriended Sharon of Israel and more or less told him he could do what he wanted to do with the Palestinian "problem". And Sharon was acting very aggressively against the Palestinians for the first 6 or 7 months of the Bush presidency. The Arab world wanted the US to intervene but Bush refused. Israel had Arafat cornered and were having their way with him. Still, Bush refused to intervene. Then 9/11 happened...

That's the way I recall the first few months of 2001 and the Bush presidency...Perhaps others have different recollections?

[Webster Green]

1. The 43 million was to stop opium production in Afghanistan...

The Taliban had a 5 year supply stashed away, so they took the money and cut back production to some extent.

[Mr Rabble]

2. Maybe. Or it may have been for the pipeline deal...

[kentuck]

4. It was supposedly at this time, as reported by the French journalists...

that the US told the Taliban they could accept a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs or something to that effect??

[Al-CIAda]

11. Secret Negotiations with The Taliban

Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth About Bush, Oil and Washington's Secret Negotiations with The Taliban
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At Democracy Now! we have often called the Bush administration the Oiligarchy. Vice-President Dick Cheney of course was the president of Halliburton, a company that provides services for the oil industry. For nearly a decade,National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice worked with Chevron, while secretaries of commerce and energy, Donald Evans and Spencer Abraham, worked for another oil giant. Many of the US officials now working on the administration's Afghanistan policy also have extensive backgrounds in the world of multinational oil giants.

An explosive new book published originally in France is revealing some extraordinary details of the extent to which US oil corporations influenced the Bush administration's policies toward the Taliban regime prior to September 11th.The book is called Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth. And it paints a detailed picture of the Bush administration's secret negotiations with the Taliban government in the months and weeks before the attacks on theWorld Trade Center. It charges that under the influence of US oil companies the Bush administration blocked U.S.secret service investigations on terrorism. It tells the story of how the administration conducted secret negotiations with the Taliban to hand-over Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and economic aid.The book says that Washington's main aim in Afghanistan prior to September 11th was consolidating the Taliban regime,in order to obtain access to the oil and gas reserves in Central Asia.

Con't-
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0253220&mode=thread&tid=40

======

Bush, oil and the Taliban- article on Salon.com.
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/02/08/forbidden/

[bpilgrim]

3. they were waving their dicks in EVERYONES face, you got that right!

http://media.globalfreepress.com

peace

[punpirate]

5. Bush's familiarity with Sharon...

... dates further back than his date of inauguration. Bush vacationed in Israel in the early `90s and stayed at Sharon's ranch. He got the guided tour of the country in one of Sharon's helicopters at the time.

[applegrove]

6. No. The history of bin Laden & others say that they wanted an arab

islamist revolution in arab countries (Iran is persian). They spend 10 years attacking & bombing their own people (Algeria). The last ten Algerian Islamist terrorists sat around saying that if anyone was not a follower of their sect - they should be roadkill. They counted up to 10 the number of Algerians who did not deserve to die for crimes against Allah. Just the ten of them.

Civilians in the Middle East did not take too kindly to being terrorized. Funny how that policy didn't pan out for the Islamists. They thought they could start a popular movement if they just scared people into it. They were too overt.

So they changed policy. Bin Laden had watched the Russians crumble in Afghanistan. And decided if they can focus the terror on the great evil outside..then they would get their popular Islamist revolution across all Islamist states (including Asia). And it would make for one big country.

So bin Laden was building and blowing up embassies and stuff - all targeted against the USA.

George Bush got into office and took "GET BIN LADEN" down from the CIA List. Bin Laden had been #1 on the "get" list under Clinton by the late 1990s. Whether bin Laden was dropped lower in the list and actually replaced with Saddam Hussein, I do not know. But in practice & in policy - Bush did ignore bin Laden in favor of doing what Cheney, Rummy et all wanted.. and get Saddam for making them look like such fools. To save their legacies. "Encased in amber". Tunnel vision. They virtually ignored the bin Laden issue. Clinton had drawn up an invasion plan for Afghanistan after the Cole. Handed it over the Bush.

[kentuck]

8. As I recall also....

Bush was busy reversing every executive order or action that Clinton had done while he was in office, and most of his supporters approved of it.. Anybody remember that differently?

[Cleita]

9. The first time I read about bin Laden was during Bush I's

administration. There was an op ed about the star wars missile program that first Reagan and then Bush tried to push through. The writer (sorry I don't remember) explained that the star wars program was a waste of money because this isn't where our future threats would come from. Instead it would come from militants and terrorist cells that were low tech but deadly. He specifically mentioned bin Laden as one to watch.

[applegrove]

10. He was the "top of the list" at the CIA - under Clinton at the end.

[Cleita]

7. He definitely dropped the ball.

But I think there was work being done behind the scenes for the PNAC to get its Pearl Harbor. Bush just stayed out of the way.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. People forget that ME tensions were at a fever pitch at that

moment. Powell had just said "go get 'em" to the IDF a few days before 9/11. It was clear that something was about to happen. I think they knew it, but I believe that they, just like Bin Laden, didn't think it would be as gigantic as it was.

[kentuck]

13. That is true...

Whereas Clinton was involved in trying to find a settlement right up to his last day in office, Bush ignored it and turned a blind eye to what Sharon was doing to Arafat and the Palestinians...I see nothing, he seemed to say...

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. It would have been one thing if he had done nothing

But there was a strong sense that he was all for Israel, and so was Powell. It is also clear that bush "call off the dogs" on UBL and all Saudis, and it has remained that way till this day.

[kentuck]

15. And that, quite possibly, was the straw that broke the camel's back...

so to speak. The Arab world was incensed at Bush. It is very possible, in my opinion, that his incompetence and arrogance and acceptance of violence led directly to 9/11 happening. It was the catalyst. That is just my opinion, but one must ask, why did it not happen under Clinton??