September 29, 2001

Crisis in America #13: The News You Won't Get Anywhere Else


Hello everyone

As I was just browsing through the 1000+ still unprocessed emails I received since Sept 11, I realized once again the sheer volume of material generated by this crisis and that lots of stuff will never get my and your attention.

Anyway, here is some more to consider.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000

CONTENTS

1. The Real Enemy: in search of solutions that work
2. US pressures on Islamabad: As Chomsky sees it
3. It is a time to be keenly alert
4. Shocked and Horrifieds
5. Bin Laden's Older Brother Was Business Partner Of President Bush

Highly recommended: http://www.debka.com/

http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/taliban.htm
Three articles on the US grant of $43 millions to Afghanistan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,559585,00.html
Taliban fist tightens on city seized by panic and fear




1.

From: "Krista Herring" <heart4song@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Real Enemy: in search of solutions that work
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001

Dear Jean,

Below is an article I wrote in response to the reactions of the media and many people of this country toward the recent tragedies and what to do about them. I thought this might provide another perspective for some.

With love and blessings,

Krista Herring

---

The Real Enemy

Everywhere I look lately, in the articles I read, on the evening news, I keep hearing about how we must "steel our resolve," and show the world that we "will not tolerate such evil." Unfortunately, in our anger and pain, we have not stopped to think about what will really solve this problem, as opposed to making it worse. We are far too eager to run out and bomb "whomever was responsible," and we're not even sure who that is. Already our President is moving out the military, preparing to take action. And most of the country is supporting this. And I can't help but think, how sad it all is. How sad it is that we haven't yet learned our lesson, that we think we can fight fire with fire, hatred with hatred, and that by retaliating we will solve anything, or teach anyone a lesson? We are a passionate people when our safety is compromised, and it is well that we should band together. That is the beauty within us. But we must not let our anger overtake us and drive us to repeat past mistakes because of a new anger and rage welling within the nation.

I see people everywhere waving their flags, showing their patriotism and support for the American government. And as I, too, wore my patriotic colors, I couldn't help but wonder what I was really supporting. On the one hand, it is beautiful to see a nation band together, helping each other. That I certainly support. However, we must realize that patriotism is still a sign of immaturity. Because, while we must love our nation, we must not forget that we are One World, not just one nation. And we must think of the good and safety of all. How can it be good for anyone, least of all ourselves, to retaliate with violent, destructive force? We already know that if we choose such a course, we will be inviting more, and perhaps more deadly, attacks on our own people. How can we support this kind of decision from the government, when in reality it will not solve this problem, but create more. It will only fuel the fire for the hatred of those who attacked us in the first place, and many more will be killed, in our nation and in others. And no one will win. One day we will have to learn some humility and restraint, and begin to solve our problems from another level- one free of the volatility of emotions.

I realize that we are still hurt, still reeling from the pain, and it is natural for many to feel angry. But it is time for us now to move beyond this anger. It is time to make a shift in consciousness and start making decisions as One Humanity, from a level where all will benefit, where real change will be made in the world. For, we have to ask ourselves the question: What do we want to see in our ideal world of the future? Do we want more hate, more pain? If that is the case, then we are headed in the right direction, and we need make no changes. We can go on like we are now, re-enacting old behavior patterns, child-like and emotional. But if we want to see a world where people love each other, help one another, where everyone is thinking of everyone else's well-being, and there is true peace within the world because there is true peace within each person's heart, then it's time to make a change. We are at a crossroads now. We must look within to find the answers to these age old dilemmas. We can change the way the world works.

Gandhi said, "We must be the change we want to see in the world." We cannot BE peaceful, forgiving, and understanding when we are bombing, killing. Once we learn to truly stand for these principles by actually embodying them, then, and only then will we begin to see real, miraculous change in the world. It will happen some day, but why wait for "some day" when we can start now? Why don't we leave our children the kind of world we've always wanted to live in?

I pray that the light within each one of us shines bright enough to overcome the shadows of fear, anger and hatred that so often guide our decisions. I pray that we realize once and for all that this fear, anger and hatred is our true enemy, not some person, group, or thing. And once we overcome these shadows within ourselves, all the other "enemies" will disappear, and Heaven will be one with earth.

God Bless America,
and God bless all nations and all people,

In all ways,
Always.




2.

From: "Kerry" <successmachine@home.com>
Subject: US pressures on Islamabad: As Chomsky sees it
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001

To get the entire transcript ask it from Aftermath-11-September-2001-owner@yahoogroups.co.uk

CLIP

Q: After the first shock, came fear of what US answer is going to be. Are you afraid, too?

A: Every sane person should be afraid of the likely reaction - the one that has already been announced, the one that probably answers Bin Laden's prayers. It is highly likely to escalate the cycle of violence, in the familiar way, but in this case on a far greater scale.

The US has already demanded that Pakistan terminate the food and other supplies that are keeping at least some of the starving and suffering people of Afghanistan alive. If that demand is implemented, unknown numbers of people who have not the remotest connection to terrorism will die, possibly millions. Let me repeat: the US has demanded that Pakistan kill possibly millions of people who are themselves victims of the Taliban. This has nothing to do even with revenge. It is at a far lower moral level even than that.

The significance is heightened by the fact that this is mentioned in passing, with no comment, and probably will hardly be noticed. We can learn a great deal about the moral level of the reigning intellectual culture of the West by observing the reaction to this demand. I think we can be reasonably confident that if the American population had the slightest idea of what is being done in their name, they would be utterly appalled. It would be instructive to seek historical precedents.

If Pakistan does not agree to this and other US demands, it may come under direct attack as well - with unknown consequences. If Pakistan does submit to US demands, it is not impossible that the government will be overthrown by forces much like the Taliban - who in this case will have nuclear weapons. That could have an effect throughout the region, including the oil producing states. At this point we are considering the possibility of a war that may destroy much of human society.

Even without pursuing such possibilities, the likelihood is that an attack on Afghans will have pretty much the effect that most analysts expect: it will enlist great numbers of others to support of Bin Laden, as he hopes.

Even if he is killed, it will make little difference. His voice will be heard on cassettes that are distributed throughout the Islamic world, and he is likely to be revered as a martyr, inspiring others. It is worth bearing in mind that one suicide bombing - a truck driven into a US military base - drove the world's major military force out of Lebanon 20 years ago. The opportunities for such attacks are endless. And suicide attacks are very hard to prevent.

Q: "The world will never be the same after September 11". Do you agree?

A: The horrendous terrorist attacks on Tuesday are something quite new in world affairs, not in their scale and character, but in the target. For the US, this is the first time since the War of 1812 that its national territory has been under attack, even threat. It's colonies have been attacked, but not the national territory itself.

During these years the US virtually exterminated the indigenous population, conquered half of Mexico, intervened violently in the surrounding region, conquered Hawaii and the Philippines (killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos), and in the past half century particularly, extended its resort to force throughout much of the world. The number of victims is colossal.

For the first time, the guns have been directed the other way. The same is true, even more dramatically, of Europe. Europe has suffered murderous destruction, but from internal wars, meanwhile conquering much of the world with extreme brutality. It has not been under attack by its victims outside, with rare exceptions (the IRA in England, for example). It is therefore natural that NATO should rally to the support of the US; hundreds of years of imperial violence have an enormous impact on the intellectual and moral culture.

It is correct to say that this is a novel event in world history, not because of the scale of the atrocity - regrettably - but because of the target. How the West chooses to react is a matter of supreme importance. If the rich and powerful choose to keep to their traditions of hundreds of years and resort to extreme violence, they will contribute to the escalation of a cycle of violence, in a familiar dynamic, with long-term consequences that could be awesome. Of course, that is by no means inevitable. An aroused public within the more free and democratic societies can direct policies towards a much more humane and honourable course.

(End)

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus of MIT

"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."




3.

From: Michael Lightweaver <Lightweave@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001
Subject: It is a time to be keenly alert

Hello,

This is the time of the separation of the sheep and the goats; those who are only wearing the robes of a new consciousness and those who are living it's principles. It is a time to be keenly alert. It is a time to ask deep questions, of ourselves, our government, our deepest values. It is a time to ask very profound "Whys?" and not succumb to the temptation of easy answers that the media, our government, or others with agendas may want to provide.

Terrorism is a cancer. Cancer can sometimes be controlled with chemotherapy (chemical warfare), radiation (nuclear attack) or surgery (removing the terrorist). This is the conventional approach and does save some lives. But the war on Cancer has failed to defeat cancer. Why? Because it has failed to find the real cause of cancer which is more than physical. Our politics and approach to terrorism follows consistently with our War on Cancer model. To find out what causes cancer does not justify it or excuse it, but it often does explain WHY you are experiencing it. Until you know this, you can not truly & permanently eliminate it - only perhaps control it for a time. Cancer is not "evil" per se. It, like all disease, is the natural outcome of being out of balance at some level. All disease, physical, spiritual, mental, social, political, is telling us something. We can demonize and attack it as the enemy, or we can make the effort to go deep and seek the cause. The former may destroy or impede it for a time but the latter can recreate balance and harmony and remove the cause. This is true for our physical bodies as well as for the body politic.

I'm sure you have been around long enough not to be naive as to why NYC and the USA and the particular targets were chosen and not, lets say, Sweden, Uruguay or New Zealand. But just in case.... it would be well to consider the items below, remembering that there is a HUGE difference between justification and an explanation. There is never any justification for violence or terrorism as a solution, whether it is commited by an underground group or an established government. But in both cases there ARE reasons... The government is preparing us with all the reasons why we should go to war. A few of the items below will help us to understand why were already at war and didn't even know it.

Blessings,

Michael




4.

Shocked and Horrified

Larry Mosqueda, Ph.D.
The Evergreen State College
September 15, 2001

Like all Americans, on Tuesday, 9-11, I was shocked and horrified to watch the WTC Twin Towers attacked by hijacked planes and collapse, resulting in the deaths of perhaps up to 10,000 innocent people.

I had not been that shocked and horrified since January 16, 1991, when then President Bush attacked Baghdad, and the rest of Iraq and began killing 200,000 people during that "war" (slaughter). This includes the infamous "highway of death" in the last days of the slaughter when U.S. pilots literally shot in the back retreating Iraqi civilians and conscripted soldiers. I continue to be horrified by the sanctions on Iraq, which have resulted in the death of over 1,000,000 Iraqis, including over 500,000 children, about whom former Secretary of State Madeline Allbright has stated that their deaths "are worth the cost".

Over the course of my life I have been shocked and horrified by a variety of U.S. governmental actions, such as the U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.

Last Tuesday's events reminded me of the horror I felt when the U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people. And it reminded me of the shock I felt in 1973, when the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against the democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people, including U.S. citizens.

Last Tuesday's events reminded me of the shock and horror I felt in 1965 when the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with th direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissenger.

I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt during the U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbors) against Nicaragua in the 1 980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term "collateral amage" was invented--"soft targets").

I was reminded of being horrified by the U. S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or "soft targets".

I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt during the U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970's and continues to this day and has resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000. I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt as the U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 8,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush's CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.

I was reminded of the horror I felt when I learned about how the Shah of Iran was installed in a U.S. sponsored brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1979. And the continuing shock as I learned that the Ayatollah Khomani, who overthrew the Shah in 1979, and who was the U.S. public enemy for decade of the 1980s, was also on the CIA payroll, while he was in exile in Paris in the 1970s.

I was reminded of the shock and horror that I felt as I learned about how the U.S. has "manufactured consent" since 1948 for its support of Israel, to the exclusion of virtually any rights for the Palestinians in their native lands resulting in ever worsening day-to-day conditions for the people of Palestine. I was shocked as I learned about the hundreds of towns and villages that were literally wiped off the face of the earth in the early days of Israeli colonization. I was horrified in 1982 as the villagers of Sabra and Shatila were massacred by Israeli >allies with direct Israeli complicity and direction. The untold thousands who died on that day match the scene of horror that we saw last Tuesday. But those scenes were not repeated over and over again on the national media to inflame the American public.

The events and images of last Tuesday have been appropriately compared to the horrific events and images of Lebanon in the 1980s with resulted in the deaths of tens of thousand of people, with no reference to the fact that the country that inflicted the terror on Lebanon was Israel, with U.S. backing. I still continue to be shocked at how mainstream commentators refer to "Israeli settlers" in the "occupied territories" with no sense of irony as they report on who are the aggressors in the region.

Of course, the largest and most shocking war crime of the second half of the 20th century was the U.S. assault on Indochina from 1954-1975, especially Vietnam, where over 4,000,000 people were bombed, napalmed, crushed, shot and individually "hands on" murdered in the "Phoenix Program" (this is where Oliver North got his start). Many U.S. Vietnam veterans were also victimized by this war and had the best of intentions, but the policy makers themselves knew the criminality of their actions and policies as revealed in their own words in "The Pentagon Papers," released by Daniel Ellsberg of the RAND Corporation. In 1974 Ellsberg noted that our Presidents from Truman to Nixon continually lied to the U.S. public about the purpose and conduct of the war. He has stated that, "It is a tribute to the American people that our leaders perceived that they had to lie to us, it is not a tribute to us that we were so easily misled."

I was continually shocked and horrified as the U.S. attacked and bombed with impunity the nation of Libya in the 1980s, including killing the infant daughter of Khadafi. I was shocked as the U.S. bombed and invaded Grenada in 1983. I was horrified by U.S. military and CIA actions in Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan, Brazil, Argentina, and Yugoslavia. The deaths in these actions ran into the hundreds of thousands.

The above list is by no means complete or comprehensive. It is merely a list that is easily accessible and not unknown, especially to the economic and intellectual elites. It has just been conveniently eliminated from the public discourse and public consciousness. And for the most part, the analysis that the U.S. actions have resulted in the deaths of primarily civilians (over 90%) is not unknown to these elites and policy makers. A conservative number for those who have been killed by U.S. terror and military action since World War II is 8,000,000 people. Repeat--8,000,000 people. This does not include the wounded, the imprisoned, the displaced, the refugees, etc. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in 1967, during the Vietnam War, "My government is the world's leading purveyor of violence."

Shocking and horrifying.

Nothing that I have written is meant to disparage or disrespect those who were victims and those who suffered death or the loss of a loved one during this week's events. It is not meant to "justify" any action by those who bombed the Twin Towers or the Pentagon. It is meant to put it in a context. If we believe that the actions were those of "madmen", they are "madmen" who are able to keep a secret for 2 years or more among over 100 people, as they trained to execute a complex plan. While not the acts of madmen, they are apparently the acts of "fanatics" who, depending on who they really are, can find real grievances, but whose actions are illegitimate.

Osama Bin Laden at this point has been accused by the media and the government of being the mastermind of Tuesday's bombings. Given the government's track record on lying to the America people, that should not be accepted as fact at this time. If indeed Bin Laden is the mastermind of this action, he is responsible for the deaths of perhaps 10,000 people-a shocking and horrible crime. Ed Herman in his book The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda does not justify any terrorism but points out that states often engage in "wholesale" terror, while those whom governments define as "terrorist" engage is "retail" terrorism. While qualitatively the results are the same for the individual victims of terrorism, there is a clear quantitative difference. And as Herman and others point out, the seeds, the roots, of much of the "retail" terror are in fact found in the "wholesale" terror of states. Again this is not to justify, in any way, the actions of last Tuesday, but to put them in a context and suggest an explanation.

Perhaps most shocking and horrific, if indeed Bin Laden is the mastermind of Tuesday's actions; he has clearly had significant training in logistics, armaments, and military training, etc. by competent and expert military personnel. And indeed he has. During the 1980s, he was recruited, trained and funded by the CIA in Afghanistan to fight against the Russians. As long as he visited his terror on Russians and his enemies in Afghanistan, he was "our man" in that country.

The same is true of Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who was a CIA asset in Iraq during the 1980s. Hussein could gas his own people, repress the population, and invade his neighbor (Iran) as long as he did it with U.S. approval.

The same was true of Manuel Noriega of Panama, who was a contemporary and CIA partner of George H. Bush in the 1980s. Noriega's main crime for Bush, the father, was not that he dealt drugs (he did, but the U.S. and Bush knew this before 1989), but that Noriega was no longer going to cooperate in the ongoing U.S. terrorist contra war against Nicaragua. This information is not unknown or really controversial among elite policy makers. To repeat, this not to justify any of the actions of last Tuesday, but to put it in its horrifying context.

As shocking as the events of last Tuesday were, they are likely to generate even more horrific actions by the U.S. government that will add significantly to the 8,000,000 figure stated above. This response may well be qualitatively and quantitatively worst than the events of Tuesday. The New York Times headline of 9/14/01 states that, "Bush AndTop Aides Proclaim Policy Of Ending States That Back Terror" as if that was a rationale, measured, or even sane option. States that have been identified for possible elimination are "a number of Asian and African countries, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and even Pakistan." This is beyond shocking and horrific-it is just as potentially suicidal, homicidal, and more insane than the hijackers themselves.

Also, qualitatively, these actions will be even worse than the original bombers if one accepts the mainstream premise that those involved are "madmen", "religious fanatics", or a "terrorist group." If so, they are acting as either individuals or as a small group. The U.S. actions may continue the homicidal policies of a few thousand elites for the past 50 years, involving both political parties.

The retail terror is that of desperate and sometime fanatical small groups and individuals who often have legitimate grievances, but engage in individual criminal and illegitimate activities; the wholesale terror is that of "rational" educated men where the pain, suffering, and deaths of millions of people are contemplated, planned, and too often, executed, for the purpose of furthering a nebulous concept called the "national interest". Space does not allow a full explanation of the elites Orwellian concept of the "national interest", but it can be summarized as the protection and expansion of hegemony and an imperial empire.

The American public is being prepared for war while being fed a continuous stream of shocking and horrific repeated images of Tuesday's events and heartfelt stories from the survivors and the loved ones of those who lost family members. These stories are real and should not be diminished. In fact, those who lost family members can be considered a representative sample of humanity of the 8,000,000 who have been lost previously. If we multiply by 800-1000 times the amount of pain, angst, and anger being currently felt by the American public, we might begin to understand how much of the rest of the world feels as they are continually victimized.

Some particularly poignant images are the heart wrenching public stories that we are seeing and hearing of family members with pictures and flyers searching for their loved ones. These images are virtually the same as those of the "Mothers of the Disappeared" who searched for their (primarily) adult children in places such as Argentina, where over 11,000 were "disappeared" in 1976-1982, again with U.S. approval. Just as the mothers of Argentina deserved our respect and compassion, so do the relatives of those who are searching for their relatives now. However we should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by the media and U.S. government into turning real grief and anger into a national policy of wholesale terror and genocide against innocent civilians in Asia and Africa. What we are seeing in military terms is called "softening the target." The target here is the American public and we are being ideologically and emotionally prepared for the slaughter that may commence soon.

None of the previously identified Asian and African countries are democracies, which means that the people of these countries have virtually no impact on developing the policies of their governments, even if we assume that these governments are complicit in Tuesday'sactions. When one examines the recent history of these countries, one will find that the American government had direct and indirect influences on creating the conditions for the existence of some of these governments. This is especially true of the Taliban government ofAfghanistan itself.

The New York Metropolitan Area has about 21,000,000 people or about 8 % of the U.S. population. Almost everyone in America knows someone who has been killed, injured or traumatized by the events of Tuesday. I know that I do. Many people are calling for "revenge" or "vengeance" and comments such as "kill them all" have been circulated on the TV, radio, and email. A few more potentially benign comments have called "justice." This is only potentially benign since that term may be defined by people such as Bush and Colin Powell. Powell is an unrepentant participant in the Vietnam War, the terrorist contra war against Nicaragua, and the Gulf war, at each level becoming more responsible for the planning and execution of the policies.

Those affected, all of us, must do everything in our power to prevent a wider war and even greater atrocity, do everything possible to stop the genocide if it starts, and hold those responsible for their potential war crimes during and after the war. If there is a great war in 2001 and it is not catastrophic (a real possibility), the crimes of that war will be revisited upon the U.S. over the next generation. That is not some kind of religious prophecy or threat, it is merely a straightforward political analysis. If indeed it is Bin Laden, the world must not deal only with him as an individual criminal, but eliminate the conditions that create the injustices and war crimes that will inevitably lead to more of these types of attacks in the future. The phrase "No Justice, No Peace" is more than a slogan used in a march, it is an observable historical fact. It is time to end the horror.

In a few short pages it is impossible to delineate all of the events described over the past week or to give a comprehensive accounting of U.S. foreign policy. Below are a few resources for up to date news and some background reading, by Noam Chomsky, the noted analyst. The titles of the books explain their relevance for this topic.

For the most current information see http://www.commondreams.org/.
For information on how the media distorts the news see http://www.fair.org/.
For excellent links on the Middle East see http://al-awda.org/newyork/links.html.

For background reading by Noam Chomsky see:
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Ed Herman)
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians Deterring Democracy

* Noam Chomsky is known throughout the world. He teaches Linguistics at M.I.T.




5.

From: "Kerry" <successmachine@home.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001

Bin Laden's Older Brother Was Business Partner Of President Bush

The Times Of India

9-26-1

LONDON - A 30-year-old photograph of Osama bin Laden, wearing purple flared trousers, a skinny-rib jumper and leaning against a pink Cadillac, that enduring symbol of America, is being hawked around by a Swedish picture agency at 1,000 pounds a copy.

Meanwhile, Western security agencies are reported to believe that one of the hijackers who flew into the World Trade Centre (WTC) was part of the team that seized Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu, and took it to Kandahar in 1999.

According to The Times, London, the Indian Airlines hijacking and the WTC attacks are thought to bear the fingerprints of senior Hizbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, who is now believed to be somewhere in Iran.

The paper said Mughniyeh's whereabouts are likely to be raised with the Iranian government by British foreign secretary Jack Straw during his ongoing visit to Teheran.

Mughniyeh, who has proven expertise in hijackings, is especially prone to using pocket knives and scissors in hijacks, rather than guns.

The paper recalled that the Indian Airlines hijack was accomplished by a similarly-armed gang, who stabbed 25-year-old Rupin Katiyal, while other passengers were ordered to watch him bleed to death. It said that intelligence officers discerned the same pattern in the American hijackings, with a stewardess and a business-class passenger being stabbed on the flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The other passengers were told to keep watching.

Investigators say Mughniyeh is linked to Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, through the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is known to be close to Bin Laden.

But even as intelligence agencies investigate the extent of Bin Laden's links with terrorist outfits around the world, the West is digesting quite a different image of the young boy through a family photograph, taken in the Swedish town of Falun in the summer of 1971.

The photograph, which appeared in several British tabloids on Monday, accompanies media revelations that not only was the young Bin Laden fairly Westernised before he embraced Islamist radicalism, he also had a close family link with American President George W. Bush.

According to The Daily Mail newspaper, Salem, the eldest of Bin Laden's 55 brothers and sisters, invested heavily in Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.

The paper said that Salem, who died in a plane crash in 1983, became Bush's business partner through James Bath, a close friend of the future American president.

Salem, says the paper, appointed Bath as his representative in Houston, Texas. It was Bath who invested 50,000 dollars in Bush's company and also bought Houston Gulf Airport on behalf of Osama's elder brother.

The paper said a White House spokesman was unavailable for comment on the subject on Sunday night.

The Swedish owner of the hotel Osama Bin Laden stayed at all those years ago, is quoted to say "they (Osama and Salem) were such nice boys, beautiful boys, so elegantly dressed. Everybody loved them". She added that the innocent young Osama often played with her two sons.







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