bin laden the magic bullet of our day

[brad]

rant on.

sure bin laden couldve masterminded 911 and it couldve gone down the way the US administration (immediately) proclaimed it did.

just like the magic bullet of jfk couldve happend (i guess).

but there is, as far as i am aware, absolutely no evidence of it. (except for a few videos of bin laden, some of which are proven fakes.)

rant off.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Follow the money. Of course the "neutral" Swiss won't open their bank records and let us do that.

[brad]

i believe it was louis freeh (spelling?) head of fbi that gave a press conference and stated that the hijackers left 'no paper trail' whatsoever.

he said that given this even their identities cannot be confirmed. (iirc)

now that i think about it maybe a better analogy is half burnt passport that fell from sky to magic jfk bullet.

anyway, given that, how can we follow the money?

------------------

http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress...ller050802.htm

...
The hijackers also apparently left no paper trail. In our investigation, we have not yet uncovered a single piece of paper –– either here in the U.S. or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere –– that mentioned any aspect of the September 11th plot. As best we can determine, the actual hijackers had no computers, no laptops, no storage media of any kind. They used hundreds of different pay phones and cell phones, often with prepaid calling cards that are extremely difficult to trace. And they made sure that all the money sent to them to fund their attacks was wired in small amounts to avoid detection.
...

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

bin Laden has the financial resources to front the operation, though Al Qaeda probably receives secret contributions from several other arab sources.

how can we follow the money?

Not easy, I admit. Step one would've been compelling the Swiss to open their banking records to us, something that I had hoped was part of the "you're either with us or with the terrorists" doctrine.

[brad]

yes but my point is that if you suspect me of being a terrorist you can track my financial stuff because you have an endpoint; you have me.

in the case of the hijackers, they had no paper trail. not even to be sure of their identities. (though that is not clear from my post's fbi link). in other words, could have been identity theft or something.

otoh, their residences (addresses) are known (at least some) so i guess that could be an endpoint.

--------

last question. so u agree with me that there is no evidence ?

[nicky g]

What exactly was the story with the passport? I've not heard anything about it for years. Do they really claim to have recovered a passport from the WTC site?

[Gamblor]

Even if they have a passport, is it inconceivable that an man of Arab nationality on that plane might not have been on his way to LA to visit family? Or perhaps a business meeting? A passport solves nothing.

[nicky g]

Wasn't it supposed to be the passport of a "known terrorist" or something?

[Gamblor]

[Ray Zee]

this was a small potatoes operation. any group of twenty or so people that were willing to die in the result could pull it off at any time anywhere. and if they can round up another bunch of misguided fools it will happen again. maybe not with airplanes but with some other medium.