Osama bin Laden said he did not plan 9/11, or have advance knowledge of the attacks - I believe him.
Osama bin Laden’s statement issued via al Jazeera in September 2001:
"The U.S. government has consistently blamed me
for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it.
I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks,
which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons,"
My acceptance of Osama bin Laden’s (OBL) declaration is principally based on my 1997 business trip to Yemen when I met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and was taken to ’the Base’, 1-mile from Al Qa’idah town. But it is also based on irrefutable evidence that shows OBL was not KSM’s boss - that was Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Sayyaf is an Afghan graduate of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University who lectured as a professor in Kabul university before helping to lead a failed coup there in 1975. He was released from prison before the 1979 Soviet invasion and became a significant Mujahideen figure, using his Saudi Wahhabi affiliations to recruit Arab Mujahideen and to become the principle conduit of donations to the Mujahideen cause from Gulf nations:
1985 CIA report titled: Abdul Rasul Sayyaf: The Decisive Unifier:
"Sayyaf has used his role as principle conduit of Arab money to the Jihad (HolyWar) to build his
own insurgent organisation, in competition with and at the expense of other resistance leaders.
They in turn accuse him of corruption and misuse of funds, resent his position as
the Arab's "fair-haired" boy, and have increasingly refused to cooperated with him."
After qualifying as a bachelor in mechanical engineering in North Carolina USA in 1986, KSM travelled to Pakistan / Afghanistan and was introduced to Sayyaf by his Uncle in 1987. Such a high level introduction shows KSM’s family’s high standing and good connections within the Mujahideen. I’ve read that two of KSM’s other Uncles fought and died with the seperatist Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) insurgency in Pakistan which may explain both his family’s high standing and his father’s move to Kuwait - seeking sanctuary from reprisals because of the family’s links to the BLA terrorist insurgency in Pakistan. KSM grew up in Kuwait with his nephew Ramzi Yousef, the 1993 World Trade Center bomber. And with them was KSM’s other nephew Ammar al Baluchi, a Guantanamo detainee accused of many crimes. Baluchi was born in 1977 Kuwait when KSM was twelve years old and had decided he wanted to become involved in Jihad. Following his Uncle’s example KSM always wanted to be an 'international freedom fighter’, and he led his nephews down the same path. He also says he first heard Abdul Rasul Sayyaf in 1982, likely a recorded speech recruiting Mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan. But rather than respond to that call for volunteersin Afghanistan, KSM went to America in 1983 instead, to study engineering. Clearly KSM wasn’t a hot headed radical - he was on a career path
And his introduction to Sayyaf upon his arrival in Afghanistan, and that
where an attempt to recruit me was made. which is where and when the 9/11 plot began, based on a travel warning I gave in when KSM’s associates (two Pakistani chemistry graduates) asked me about visiting New York as tourists, and specifically the World Trade Center
I do believe Afghan Walord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf authorised Khalid Sheikh
Evidence Against Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
There’s a mountain of 9/11 evidence against 1980s Mujahideen leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf:, principally from declassified CIA reports and the 9/11 Commission’s findings. Sayyaf employed, trained and mentored 9/11’s Engineer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) from 1987 till 1992, right-up until KSM embarked on his global terrorist spree. The February 1993 World Trade Centre bomber was managed by KSM’s nephew Ramzi Yousef. Yousef trained in Sayyaf’s camps, learning bomb making skills during his holidays from technical college in Britain where he was studying electronics. Both KSM and Yousef were in the Philippines in 1994, planning and preparing the Bojinka plot.
Sayyaf also sent the assassins who murdered the West’s best ally in Afghanistan - Ahmad Shah Massoud - two days before 9/11. Massoud was killed by assassins posing as journalists, journalists Sayyaf had hosted and vouched for.
Evidence Against Osama bin Laden
There is also a mountain of evidence against OBL, much of it originating from prisoner statements made under duress in Guantanamo Bay military prison and other torture centres. There’s also incriminating statments, purportedly issued by OBL himself.
In November 2001 US Special Forces found a video cassette in the ruins of a bombed house in Jalalabad Afghanistan. The video appears to show OBL recounting the planning of the 9/11 attacks and it was released to the media in December 2001.
My Conclusion
NOTHING about our invasion of Afghanistan can be judged in perspective until the veracity of the above video is confirmed and until Abdul Rasul Sayyaf has been interviewed.