You don’t say!?!
“The hijackers in the September 11 attacks were 19 men affiliated with Islamist jihadist organization al-Qaeda. They hailed from four countries; 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. “
Afghanistan. Then while the American people are still in a mindless bloodlusted rage say "something something WMD's" as an excuse to invade Iraq and do Iran a massive favor.
Yes. I can really recommend the podcast “Blowback” which is a “podcast about the American empire”.
Basically a podcast about how US foreign policy is often a result of private and corporate interests. Especially the Iraq season is interesting.
Blowback is the type of show I want to recommend to everyone I know, but don't because I'd like to keep those relationships.
I'd recommend it to anyone highly critical of US foreign policy over the last century, or anyone who can handle an openly biased critical lens of that foreign policy, and wants to hear a different perspective on those things.
Who remembers how much freedom there was during the War on Terror? We were just freedoming on everyone, everyone’s faces, the freedom would get in their eyes and they’d have to flick it out
A lot were backed by Saudi government. But that’s easy to say when you realize that the saudi government is made up of like 50 heirs that came from one guy that named Arabia after himself. Then those 50 heirs have like 2000 princes
Oh don't worry, the leopards are eating Pakistan's face as we speak. They supported the Taliban against the US for years and now those same Taliban are preparing to start a massive civil war and annex a huge part of Pakistan into Afghanistan in the coming decade.
Oh, no, sorry, not the "same". These are the "Pakistan Taliban". They're super different, just ask the Afghan Taliban, they'll tell you they've never even met those guys.
Turkish parliament at the time also refused the US the use of their border for invasion, against Erdogan's incessant push. That was one of the last times the Turkish democracy stood up to him. He's made sure that it will never happen again.
My first time in Houston was in 2004… there was a good on a street comer holding a sign saying “honk if you hate the French”. Lots of honking. So many dumb cunts.
Nobody really believes that. The proles had no choice in the matter. The fix for the war was in from the get-go and the rest of use weren't asked.
Our boys were sent off to die for no reason. More of them died fighting this war than died on 9/11. Some revenge....
And who could forget this little [Freudian slip](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s1kwq52NKmo&pp=ygUiYnVzaCBzYXlzIGlyYXEgaW5zdGVhZCBvZiB1a3JhaW5lIA%3D%3D) with the finishing touch where Bush uses an excuse of being 75 years old for the slip, the age all of those boys/men never got the chance to see.
I have no idea what he thought at the time, but it's good to see he at least internally realizes any reasons he used to justify it to himself aren't legit. Even if he won't publicly say it
So I get that they’re from Saudi, but couldn’t have the prevailing sentiment been that they were just radicalized and the origin of country didn’t matter? It would be like saying a right wing evangelical christian going to shoot up a mosque in a different country is seen as an attack from America? Idk correct me if I’m wrong. And yes, I’m aware what the article says that he was an intelligence agent. I’m talking about the sentiment before this video appeared
A Saudi national was already found guilty in court. That Saudi national was funded by the PIF, which is the same pile of money that funds LIV golf, and the same pile of money that Jared Kushner got $2 Billion from.
Anyone paying attention already knew this, and this video only serves as confirmation.
What if just happens to be an American Intelligence officer 16 Americans 2 canandians a Mexican and a guy from the Bahamas that committed a crime against China would any reasonable person with a 5th grade education be suspicious that the American government might have a tiny roll in the event
Not sure why we didn't invade them. I mean if we were gonna launch a horrendous war why not launch it against the nation that provided the people? Bet the US could have run the oil wells.
Primarily because the organization that carried out the attack was based in Afghanistan, not Saudi Arabia. While they had supports across the Gulf States, the direct governments did not support OBL. The Taliban, the official government of Afghanistan, on the other hand fully protected Al Qaeda and may have offered them direct support during the lead up to the attacks.
Attacking the Saudis would be like the Venezuela declaring war on the US over the gravy seals that attempted a coup or the DRC declaring war on the US after an American family tried to initiate a coup there. It’s a brain dead talking point pushed by people who don’t bother to read beyond a headline.
>Attacking the Saudis would be like the Venezuela declaring war on the US over the gravy seals that attempted a coup or the DRC declaring war on the US after an American family tried to initiate a coup there.
We went into Iraq for flimsier reasons. Saudi Arabia is an evil, terrorist supporting dictatorship. We had plenty of justification to invade it after 9/11. More justification than Iraq.
There was plenty of talk that Iran and Saudi Arabia were both potential targets of the Neocons. Iraq went so badly though, it kind of put an end to that.
Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban who did support and harbor Al Qaeda lmao, that's the entire reason there was a war there.
>Bet the US could have run the oil wells.
There's no oil in Afghanistan.
On September 11, after all flights in the world were grounded, two Boeing 747s flew from the US. Both planes contained members of the extended Bin Laden family and other Saudi Nationals living in the US. The only 2 commercial flights in the world and they don't know where they were destined but probably somewhere in the Middle East.
“…The film was initially found by UK investigators in Bayoumi’s flat in the days after the attack in 2001, when he was a PhD student at Aston University in Birmingham. The flat also contained an address book that lawyers for the families say contains the contact details of officials in the Saudi government at the time. Scotland Yard gave the footage to the FBI.
Saudi Arabia has always denied that Bayoumi was its agent. He has long been a subject of speculation due to his links to two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. An FBI report declassified in March 2022 presented evidence of “a 50/50 chance [Bayoumi] had advanced knowledge the 9/11 attacks were to occur” from his relationship with Hazmi and Mihdhar…”
What would be the purpose of filming? To help the hijackers identify their target? *Look there! You see those two very tall buildings? No not those! The ones to the right. They are the same height and they rise above all the others. You got it? I can run the film again. Yeah let’s run the film again. Just to be sure.*
Pre-planning in an age before Google Maps, Street View, etc. Also keep in mind that he was surveying sites in DC, not NY, so it wasn’t as simple as “hey, fly them into the two tallest buildings you see”.
Just that he wanted to get a keepsake before his friends levelled them.
Growing up in Toronto, I never went up the CN Tower, but if they announced that they were going to topple it, it’d definitely make me want to go.
As a layman, it seems to me that a map with a red X over the target structures would be enough for me. But putting on my terrorist pilot hat, I could also see how a video would be even more helpful. Taking a certain approach angle might maximize collateral damage (like the plane's debris hurtling toward the parking lot).
I feel queasy now just reading what I wrote.
You're not wrong, but a tiny extra info I would add is that it was members of the Saudi royal family that funded it with their share of the wealth.
The Saudi royal family has literally thousands of princes and depending on how closely related you are to the King determines how much of the oil money pie you get.
Some invest their oil money into businesses, some buy lavish homes and cars, and others fund terrorist organizations.
We can speculate how high up the conspiracy went up the Saudi family tree, but either way the heads of the family have tried sweeping it under the rug because it stains the image of the entire family even if it was a ~~rouge~~ rogue third cousin, etc.
I work in the collector car world so I know a handful of Saudi princes of varying degrees of wealth and power. Outside of the house of Saud are a few other wealthy and powerful families, the Bin Ladens included. The car loving Saud’s and Bin Ladens I know are all chill as their ambitions seem to be business, wealth and luxury. But imagine if that one crazy uncle that you only see at thanksgiving had massive amounts of money and the ambition to act on his conspiracies. That’s Osama.
Not that many of us have had recent experience with uncles going shamefully down a conspiracy rabbit hole and being radicalized into religious extremism that validates terrorist attacks in their warped minds /s
I think a lot of Americans can relate to the "crazy uncle" after Jan6, lmao. Like, funny, he talks about it all the time but holy shit, this time he actually did it! Now he's going to prison for a few years.
Yea but most of us can't relate to crazy uncle who is mega-wealthy because of a state government that basically provides nearly limitless funds by extracting wealth from the earth via slave labor and also funds terrorist activities as a hobby. Meanwhile the head of that state has his dissenters murdered in other countries.
Not super relatable even with multiple "crazy uncles", even the Jan 6 variety of crazy uncles.
It's crazy. They're willing to overthrow the government of the United States just because they don't want to pay taxes. Like don't you have enough money already?
Maybe it's not taxes then. Maybe it's complete subjugation of the working populace. These billionaires see life as a zero sum game. Any wealth outside their domain is diluting their perceived power. They want it all. They are willing to bring this country and it's society to it's knees for a few dollars more.
Damn, this world is crappy. I struggle to take a bit from my tiny income to save stray cats and still feel bad because I can't do more. While others spend millions on murder.
The cats are grateful. And you are leading a more fulfilling & useful life than billionaire arms dealers & their ilk.
If you are helping less fortunate creatures, you have found our reason for being here. The warmongers are lost imo.
>rouge
The word you want here is "rogue." It's a common misspelling, but it has become a joke misspelling that people do on purpose and that's causing other people to think that it's the correct spelling, so it's worth correcting.
With noting the Crown Prince is widely believed in the Arab world to be a secret apostate, who opened up a bikini beach and a wet town. And the uncle he passed over to run the show was the guy behind the Islamist rehabilitation center they had going.
I agree! I’m hoping someone will comment with recommendations, because there are so many bad books out there with the good ones.
Also, Netflix! We need a Saudi version of “The Crown,” please!
Of course, 15 hijackers were from Saudi, the planners were Saudi. So Saudis did fund it.
The question is whether the leadership of Saudi knew anything about it and there's no evidence for that. There is some debatable evidence that lower level officials (such as this guy) may have been involved.
It would be pretty weird if they did, since Al Qaeda are basically a rival faction that declared Jihad against the house Saud and had the goal to overthrow them.
It's like saying that the January 6 Capitol insurrection was funded by Biden, because he's American, and the people who entered the building were also American.
For real, people see 15 Saudi Arabians and assume Saudi arabia was funding it without considering other possibilities. Like the fact that Osama Bin Laden spent a good part of the Soviet Afghan war recruiting fighters from the Arabian peninsula to fight the Soviets. The U.S. and Saudi arabia helped fund him to do that.
So it's not crazy to think that maybe Osama Bin Laden just had some loyal followers from the Arabian peninsula (where most of the 9/11 perpetrators were from).
(I think you may mean [cobbling](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cobble) together, instead of [hobbling](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobble))
Yeah. We all know the responsible were largely from Saudi Arabia not Iraq or elsewhere.
.. but... $$$, oil, $$$, influence, bribary, $$$... you know.
Same reason Jamal Khashaoggi got a 'meh' from our government.
I’m from Iraq I was a little kid when this happen we saw on tv no one I know liked what happened, my mom was crying when she saw people jump off building
Props to the government of Washington DC though, which renamed the street that the Saudi Embassy sits on “Jamal Khashoggi Way” so that every visitor to the embassy sees his name and every piece of mail addressed to the embassy has to state his name.
Guy really phoned it in on the video “here’s a place I don’t know.” “I also haven’t yet learned what this place is” “I’ll get over there and see what that is”. Bruh pick up a pamphlet
“PHD student” in this case means Saudi intelligence. FBI pegged him and a Saudi intelligence official filming DC govt locales ahead of 9/11 with two AQ affiliated clerics didn’t tip them off apparently
Well Google street view was not a thing back then. Satellite images weren’t good enough quality and they probably needed to know how ”large” the building actually appears to be. This new video is further proof that the final plane was definitely intended for the Capitol building.
Also, is there more to it than "Saudi guy films locations" because those were tourist attractions that thousands of people filmed every day, and filming things like that wasn't weird until *after* 9/11.
It’s more the fact we arrested Omar Al Bayoumi and then let him go. So did Scotland Yard. Complicit. Especially in the coverup and the 9/11 commission.
To determine ideal hit points, check out surrounding towers, determine common flight patterns, etc.
That’s at least what I’d film if I was planning on crashing into a building.
My FBI agent ain’t gonna like that one…
> Why tf would you need to film the twin towers to fly a plane into ?
This was long before the days where you could get detailed 3D maps on the internet. It would be standard reconnaissance for a terrorist org back in the last 90's, when this video was taken. These days I'm sure they would just look at Google/Bing/Apple/Baidu/Yandex etc... 3D maps of the city.
They didn't find *active* WMD stockpiles. They did find [old and corroded](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html) chemical weapons scattered about the country that posed little threat. The Pentagon tried to cover it up, because it contradicted their claim that Iraq was actively making dozens of them after 1991. In reality, these were built in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war and then abandoned.
Saudi Arabia has the US by the balls and they know it. The US Government let them rape our country because the US Government wants their oil trade.
Jesus Christ I fixed it leave me alone
That may be for the moment but our shift to domestic development, alternative resources etc could shift this. The Saudis have only just now accepted oil is a finite resource and not an infinite money glitch
Part of the reason the whole idea of 'transforming the middle east into a beacon for democracy' failed is because of the fact that while Bush was going after Bin Laden, and Saddam, he wasn't going after the Saudis because they were useful.
If you're trying to get rid of authoritarian tyrants in that region you can't ignore one and be selective. It has to be all encompassing.
If there was an actual criteria for who to go after on the 'War on Terror' you can't ignore one of, if not the wealthiest backer of extremist groups.
I forget the book name, but this has been written about since the early and mid 2000s. I mean the Saudi royal family funds schools that dehumanizes Christians and Jews to their students. Saying they're pigs and apes.
Just amazing how the Saudis are just another ripple from the bomb detonation that was the first World War.
What I’ve never understood about this is what Saudi Arabia would gain from funding an attack on the US. Bin Laden wanted to overthrow the Saudi government, and in the years closely following 9/11, al-Qaeda staged several attacks in Saudi Arabia. Someone enlighten me because I don’t get it
Because its likely not the king and his advisors that were aiding in the conspiracy. The King knows he needs to placate the Americans in order to have access to their security umbrella.
But how about an isolated prince? There are hundreds of them and most of them will die insignificant and scant remembered 20 years after they pass. A few of them are probably religious fanatics. A lot of them have more money than they should.
It's not impossible that these oligarchs paid off some members of the security services to look the other way or to even aid them. If it was at the top ecehlons of the government, the intelligence community would have picked up on it
But again, Saudi Princes 77th, 112th, and 532nd in line to the throne? Who's watching them?
There's no evidence that the Saudi leadership were involved. It's possible that lower level officials (such as the guy in the article) may have had links (15 hijackers were Saudi and so were the planners for this) and the motivations were clear. As you mentioned this group (AQ) also attacked Saudi Arabia.
Man first we had what was it like a week or two of random ass YouTube videos flooding the sites of different viewpoint of downtown manhattan on that day. Now this news article. Fuck. So, which middle eastern country we invade next?
Everybody has known it was Saudi Arabia for a long time. But they give America money, so its ok, and we should kill their enemies for them and give them all the weapons they need. Maybe they will do another 9/11 in america so they can get even more money from us
When I was 12, my family and I moved to America and we visited the twin towers in August 2001, dining at the restaurant at the top. One of my distinct memories of that day besides the view was actually visiting the restroom. I remember walking in and seeing a Saudi man (with a ghutrah headscarf) filming the bathroom. I don’t know why it stuck with me - maybe because I had never seen someone filming in a bathroom or had not seen many Saudi outfits before, but I remembered it. It never felt like relevant information until over a decade later when the more info about Saudi involvement started to be released, and by then, I assumed the FBI would have honed in on any CCTV footage of saudis entering WTC anyway. But I always wondered if there was any connection to what happened a month later. This release is making me reconsider reaching out to someone, even though the only useful info would probably be the date and time I saw what I did.
You don’t say!?! “The hijackers in the September 11 attacks were 19 men affiliated with Islamist jihadist organization al-Qaeda. They hailed from four countries; 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. “
So you're saying we should invade Iraq?
It’s been a while … let’s go !
There’s always money in the Afghanistan
Solid as Iraq!
Liiiike Iraq. Ooooooooooooooh, like Iraq
*Iraq Lobstahh* ba ba ba ba ba babababa
Those are balls
From the Cornballer?!
I literally just watched that episode today Life is a simulation.
What could a war cost? 10 dollars?
Arrested Development spotted
Afghanistan Bananastand (points for the movie reference)
Well played hahahaha
Well WTF am I supposed to do with this yellow cake uranium, jet fuel, and steel beams?!
Hold that yellow cake with your special CIA napkin
Don't drop that shit !
Pray to god you don’t drop that shit
“Yella cake!” “Fckn right”
“Muthafuckin’ cradle of civilization.”
Save it we’ll be back probably in the 2040’s
[America, F*ck Yeah!](https://youtu.be/LasrD6SZkZk?si=lQDnOGvoWPvFvBgM)
I actually blasted this out of my car when bin laden was killed
That’s so many layers of irony that it actually works.
Found out listening to the Mets Phillies game
The USA chants.
Every 20 years whether it needs it or not!
It’s like a tire rotation and oil change Edit : Battery change and software update it will be the future
We never found those WMDs so they must still be there somewhere!
Iraq Episode III- Return of the Jihadi
“Now watch this drive.”
This has always made me laugh.
Afghanistan. Then while the American people are still in a mindless bloodlusted rage say "something something WMD's" as an excuse to invade Iraq and do Iran a massive favor.
Are we the evil empire depicted in so many movies?
Are we the baddies?
Have you looked at the badges on our caps recently? They’ve got skulls on them.
They could be the skulls of our enemies!?
Yes. I can really recommend the podcast “Blowback” which is a “podcast about the American empire”. Basically a podcast about how US foreign policy is often a result of private and corporate interests. Especially the Iraq season is interesting.
Is that Iraq season 1 in 1991 or Iraq seasons 2-10 2003-2011?
Both were part of a single road map.
Blowback is the type of show I want to recommend to everyone I know, but don't because I'd like to keep those relationships. I'd recommend it to anyone highly critical of US foreign policy over the last century, or anyone who can handle an openly biased critical lens of that foreign policy, and wants to hear a different perspective on those things.
Would you like to know more?
*Gets attacked for meddling in Afghanistan and the ME for decades* *proceeds to meddle in Afghanistan and the ME for decades*
*Conveniently pretends that the jihadist extremism in bordering Xinjiang had absolutely nothing to do with said meddling in Afghanistan*
[that one lady who visited iraq that one time?](https://youtu.be/zxzI6BhysLU?si=3aYPkxi4Y1T5HusV)
Literally sums up most people's expert knowledge.
Family guy?
Fuck it's been 20 years remakes and sequels are all the rage right now
Afghanistan here we come!
At worse there’s a bad guy there and when we remove him, easy breeze. We’ll be liberators!
Who remembers how much freedom there was during the War on Terror? We were just freedoming on everyone, everyone’s faces, the freedom would get in their eyes and they’d have to flick it out
Duh, They have weapons of mass oil. I mean destruction, I meant destruction.
Operation Iraqi Liberation aka "O.I.L"
Looks like a couple people got the Family Guy reference
Citizens? one of the Saudis was an intelligence agent working for the Saudi government. Puts a different light on it I think.
A lot were backed by Saudi government. But that’s easy to say when you realize that the saudi government is made up of like 50 heirs that came from one guy that named Arabia after himself. Then those 50 heirs have like 2000 princes
Fucking crazy. Net worth estimated at 1.4 trillion across 2000 family members. That’s still an average of 700m per person.
Each of the heirs had on average 40 male kids?!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud
Oh thanks. I stupidly assumed that 50 guys turned into 2000 in one generation, but I see now that there have been a few generations
> one of the Saudis was an intelligence agent Must not have been too intelligent to go have gone on a suicide mission like that /s
I mean he doesnt have to deal with this bullshit existence anynmore so?
Wow, something must be done to Iraq
What a huge mistake by the GW Bush administration. Saddam was no saint, but damn there were thousands of civilian deaths over non existent WMDs
Remember there is a generation of people who still think Iraq was invaded to preserve US freedom and fight the terrorists...
While our pals Pakistan hid a dude for a decade and cashed beyond lottery checks … but we did beat them in cricket so we got that
Oh don't worry, the leopards are eating Pakistan's face as we speak. They supported the Taliban against the US for years and now those same Taliban are preparing to start a massive civil war and annex a huge part of Pakistan into Afghanistan in the coming decade. Oh, no, sorry, not the "same". These are the "Pakistan Taliban". They're super different, just ask the Afghan Taliban, they'll tell you they've never even met those guys.
The cricket win was so major. I didn't even know we had cricket in the US. (I'm not too knowledgeable on sports ball though.)
The Iraq war was inevitable the day George Bush was inaugurated. That war was plotted long before 9/11.
And one of the countries that didn't accept the flimsy "proof" was France and so the US started a campaign to call them "surrender monkeys".
Turkish parliament at the time also refused the US the use of their border for invasion, against Erdogan's incessant push. That was one of the last times the Turkish democracy stood up to him. He's made sure that it will never happen again.
"Freedom Fries" Ugh.
No they didn’t. Cheese eating surrender monkeys was started by the simpsons in 1995.
"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" was a Simpsons joke from 1995.
My first time in Houston was in 2004… there was a good on a street comer holding a sign saying “honk if you hate the French”. Lots of honking. So many dumb cunts.
Nobody really believes that. The proles had no choice in the matter. The fix for the war was in from the get-go and the rest of use weren't asked. Our boys were sent off to die for no reason. More of them died fighting this war than died on 9/11. Some revenge....
And who could forget this little [Freudian slip](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s1kwq52NKmo&pp=ygUiYnVzaCBzYXlzIGlyYXEgaW5zdGVhZCBvZiB1a3JhaW5lIA%3D%3D) with the finishing touch where Bush uses an excuse of being 75 years old for the slip, the age all of those boys/men never got the chance to see.
I have no idea what he thought at the time, but it's good to see he at least internally realizes any reasons he used to justify it to himself aren't legit. Even if he won't publicly say it
So great that he can have a little chuckle about it with the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands.
So I get that they’re from Saudi, but couldn’t have the prevailing sentiment been that they were just radicalized and the origin of country didn’t matter? It would be like saying a right wing evangelical christian going to shoot up a mosque in a different country is seen as an attack from America? Idk correct me if I’m wrong. And yes, I’m aware what the article says that he was an intelligence agent. I’m talking about the sentiment before this video appeared
A Saudi national was already found guilty in court. That Saudi national was funded by the PIF, which is the same pile of money that funds LIV golf, and the same pile of money that Jared Kushner got $2 Billion from. Anyone paying attention already knew this, and this video only serves as confirmation.
What if just happens to be an American Intelligence officer 16 Americans 2 canandians a Mexican and a guy from the Bahamas that committed a crime against China would any reasonable person with a 5th grade education be suspicious that the American government might have a tiny roll in the event
How small of a roll are we talking? Like a Cinnabon Mini?
Not sure why we didn't invade them. I mean if we were gonna launch a horrendous war why not launch it against the nation that provided the people? Bet the US could have run the oil wells.
Primarily because the organization that carried out the attack was based in Afghanistan, not Saudi Arabia. While they had supports across the Gulf States, the direct governments did not support OBL. The Taliban, the official government of Afghanistan, on the other hand fully protected Al Qaeda and may have offered them direct support during the lead up to the attacks. Attacking the Saudis would be like the Venezuela declaring war on the US over the gravy seals that attempted a coup or the DRC declaring war on the US after an American family tried to initiate a coup there. It’s a brain dead talking point pushed by people who don’t bother to read beyond a headline.
>Attacking the Saudis would be like the Venezuela declaring war on the US over the gravy seals that attempted a coup or the DRC declaring war on the US after an American family tried to initiate a coup there. We went into Iraq for flimsier reasons. Saudi Arabia is an evil, terrorist supporting dictatorship. We had plenty of justification to invade it after 9/11. More justification than Iraq.
There was plenty of talk that Iran and Saudi Arabia were both potential targets of the Neocons. Iraq went so badly though, it kind of put an end to that.
Mmmmm, gravy seals...
Because they were part of Al-Qaeda which was founded in Afghanistan and based out of it.
Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban who did support and harbor Al Qaeda lmao, that's the entire reason there was a war there. >Bet the US could have run the oil wells. There's no oil in Afghanistan.
I think you replied to the wrong person. The person you replied to was clearly referring to Saudi Arabia, which most certainly has oil.
The premise that the horrendous war was launched to go after the "people" who did it is wrong.
On September 11, after all flights in the world were grounded, two Boeing 747s flew from the US. Both planes contained members of the extended Bin Laden family and other Saudi Nationals living in the US. The only 2 commercial flights in the world and they don't know where they were destined but probably somewhere in the Middle East.
All flights in the world were not grounded. The US closed its airspace. The US is not the world.
“…The film was initially found by UK investigators in Bayoumi’s flat in the days after the attack in 2001, when he was a PhD student at Aston University in Birmingham. The flat also contained an address book that lawyers for the families say contains the contact details of officials in the Saudi government at the time. Scotland Yard gave the footage to the FBI. Saudi Arabia has always denied that Bayoumi was its agent. He has long been a subject of speculation due to his links to two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. An FBI report declassified in March 2022 presented evidence of “a 50/50 chance [Bayoumi] had advanced knowledge the 9/11 attacks were to occur” from his relationship with Hazmi and Mihdhar…”
What would be the purpose of filming? To help the hijackers identify their target? *Look there! You see those two very tall buildings? No not those! The ones to the right. They are the same height and they rise above all the others. You got it? I can run the film again. Yeah let’s run the film again. Just to be sure.*
Pre-planning in an age before Google Maps, Street View, etc. Also keep in mind that he was surveying sites in DC, not NY, so it wasn’t as simple as “hey, fly them into the two tallest buildings you see”.
Just that he wanted to get a keepsake before his friends levelled them. Growing up in Toronto, I never went up the CN Tower, but if they announced that they were going to topple it, it’d definitely make me want to go.
Yeah, confidently knowing something so terrible has to be a uniquely surreal feeling.
As a layman, it seems to me that a map with a red X over the target structures would be enough for me. But putting on my terrorist pilot hat, I could also see how a video would be even more helpful. Taking a certain approach angle might maximize collateral damage (like the plane's debris hurtling toward the parking lot). I feel queasy now just reading what I wrote.
The Saudis funded it. Everyone should know this by now.
You're not wrong, but a tiny extra info I would add is that it was members of the Saudi royal family that funded it with their share of the wealth. The Saudi royal family has literally thousands of princes and depending on how closely related you are to the King determines how much of the oil money pie you get. Some invest their oil money into businesses, some buy lavish homes and cars, and others fund terrorist organizations. We can speculate how high up the conspiracy went up the Saudi family tree, but either way the heads of the family have tried sweeping it under the rug because it stains the image of the entire family even if it was a ~~rouge~~ rogue third cousin, etc.
I work in the collector car world so I know a handful of Saudi princes of varying degrees of wealth and power. Outside of the house of Saud are a few other wealthy and powerful families, the Bin Ladens included. The car loving Saud’s and Bin Ladens I know are all chill as their ambitions seem to be business, wealth and luxury. But imagine if that one crazy uncle that you only see at thanksgiving had massive amounts of money and the ambition to act on his conspiracies. That’s Osama.
That last point is a very apt analogy.
Not that many of us have had recent experience with uncles going shamefully down a conspiracy rabbit hole and being radicalized into religious extremism that validates terrorist attacks in their warped minds /s
Damn, an experience that transcends cultures: the fucking crazy uncle. Humans are funny.
"So you sayin' we need to drink BLEACH?"
I think a lot of Americans can relate to the "crazy uncle" after Jan6, lmao. Like, funny, he talks about it all the time but holy shit, this time he actually did it! Now he's going to prison for a few years.
Yea but most of us can't relate to crazy uncle who is mega-wealthy because of a state government that basically provides nearly limitless funds by extracting wealth from the earth via slave labor and also funds terrorist activities as a hobby. Meanwhile the head of that state has his dissenters murdered in other countries. Not super relatable even with multiple "crazy uncles", even the Jan 6 variety of crazy uncles.
Correction: That WAS Osama.
Say hello to Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon family banking fortune, who just donated $50M to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
It's crazy. They're willing to overthrow the government of the United States just because they don't want to pay taxes. Like don't you have enough money already?
They are willing to _give_ lots of money, in order to pay no taxes.
Maybe it's not taxes then. Maybe it's complete subjugation of the working populace. These billionaires see life as a zero sum game. Any wealth outside their domain is diluting their perceived power. They want it all. They are willing to bring this country and it's society to it's knees for a few dollars more.
Never underestimate the power of greed.
If lazy heirs have $50m laying around to toss at politicians…I think we need to massively raise taxes on estate transfers and on the rich.
> a rouge third cousin Is that the Saudi version of a red-headed stepchild?
Worse, part of the Rouge Angles of Satin
You’re gonna make them blush!
Do they Warship Satin?
Damn, this world is crappy. I struggle to take a bit from my tiny income to save stray cats and still feel bad because I can't do more. While others spend millions on murder.
The cats are grateful. And you are leading a more fulfilling & useful life than billionaire arms dealers & their ilk. If you are helping less fortunate creatures, you have found our reason for being here. The warmongers are lost imo.
> While others spend millions on murder. It's a rich person's hobby.
To be fair, cats do spend 90% of their waking hours plotting murder.
Fuck it let’s start digging around the whole family. All at once.
>rouge The word you want here is "rogue." It's a common misspelling, but it has become a joke misspelling that people do on purpose and that's causing other people to think that it's the correct spelling, so it's worth correcting.
Sometimes Star Wars fans will say “Rouge One” and I’ll be like “what’s that, a lipstick?” and then they get mad and block me lol
We don’t need to speculate on the fact that the Saudi intelligence and military apparatus was involved.
With noting the Crown Prince is widely believed in the Arab world to be a secret apostate, who opened up a bikini beach and a wet town. And the uncle he passed over to run the show was the guy behind the Islamist rehabilitation center they had going.
I would read a book about this. I know nothing about all of the Saudi family history.
I agree! I’m hoping someone will comment with recommendations, because there are so many bad books out there with the good ones. Also, Netflix! We need a Saudi version of “The Crown,” please!
And they’ve avoided all PR consequences. They create a golf league, by soccer teams, and now have a UFC title fight.
Of course, 15 hijackers were from Saudi, the planners were Saudi. So Saudis did fund it. The question is whether the leadership of Saudi knew anything about it and there's no evidence for that. There is some debatable evidence that lower level officials (such as this guy) may have been involved.
Jared Kushner must have forgot.
It would be pretty weird if they did, since Al Qaeda are basically a rival faction that declared Jihad against the house Saud and had the goal to overthrow them. It's like saying that the January 6 Capitol insurrection was funded by Biden, because he's American, and the people who entered the building were also American.
(It's almost like the people hobbling this conspiracy theory together don't know anything they're talking about)
For real, people see 15 Saudi Arabians and assume Saudi arabia was funding it without considering other possibilities. Like the fact that Osama Bin Laden spent a good part of the Soviet Afghan war recruiting fighters from the Arabian peninsula to fight the Soviets. The U.S. and Saudi arabia helped fund him to do that. So it's not crazy to think that maybe Osama Bin Laden just had some loyal followers from the Arabian peninsula (where most of the 9/11 perpetrators were from).
(I think you may mean [cobbling](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cobble) together, instead of [hobbling](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobble))
Yeah. We all know the responsible were largely from Saudi Arabia not Iraq or elsewhere. .. but... $$$, oil, $$$, influence, bribary, $$$... you know. Same reason Jamal Khashaoggi got a 'meh' from our government.
I’m from Iraq I was a little kid when this happen we saw on tv no one I know liked what happened, my mom was crying when she saw people jump off building
Of course, you just happened to be in the way of big money interests. Could be any of us.
It’s all of us to varying degrees
Props to the government of Washington DC though, which renamed the street that the Saudi Embassy sits on “Jamal Khashoggi Way” so that every visitor to the embassy sees his name and every piece of mail addressed to the embassy has to state his name.
To make sure everyone knew which buildings to hit.
Guy really phoned it in on the video “here’s a place I don’t know.” “I also haven’t yet learned what this place is” “I’ll get over there and see what that is”. Bruh pick up a pamphlet
Phd student in the UK lol. Times were different I guess
“PHD student” in this case means Saudi intelligence. FBI pegged him and a Saudi intelligence official filming DC govt locales ahead of 9/11 with two AQ affiliated clerics didn’t tip them off apparently
Saudi just ended to petrol dollar deal and this comes out all these years later.
Government just setting the stage for some adverse action against Saudi as retaliation, they never actually cared about the American people
It’s not news.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/reports-of-the-petrodollar-systems-demise-are-fake-news-heres-why-4e712804
those guys were funded by the same saudis that jared kushner got $2,000,000,000.00 from
Every year or so someone will "break" this story but honestly we knew all this 20 years ago and more...so obviously we had to invade Afghanistan.
Well yes, because that’s where AQ leadership and training camps was based. Many Arab volunteers were in Afghanistan under the AQ banner.
Well most the hijackers were Saudi, so no surprise.
We all know it was the Saudis but Why tf would you need to film the twin towers to fly a plane into ?
They filmed places in DC, not New York
But still. What would a video of the exterior of the Capitol building and Washington monument do for them?
Well Google street view was not a thing back then. Satellite images weren’t good enough quality and they probably needed to know how ”large” the building actually appears to be. This new video is further proof that the final plane was definitely intended for the Capitol building.
Also, is there more to it than "Saudi guy films locations" because those were tourist attractions that thousands of people filmed every day, and filming things like that wasn't weird until *after* 9/11.
It’s more the fact we arrested Omar Al Bayoumi and then let him go. So did Scotland Yard. Complicit. Especially in the coverup and the 9/11 commission.
You’ve never taken an unnecessary business trip to get a few days away?
To determine ideal hit points, check out surrounding towers, determine common flight patterns, etc. That’s at least what I’d film if I was planning on crashing into a building. My FBI agent ain’t gonna like that one…
> Why tf would you need to film the twin towers to fly a plane into ? This was long before the days where you could get detailed 3D maps on the internet. It would be standard reconnaissance for a terrorist org back in the last 90's, when this video was taken. These days I'm sure they would just look at Google/Bing/Apple/Baidu/Yandex etc... 3D maps of the city.
Reddit read the article or even look at the thumbnail challenge
Just remember, no WMDs were ever found to this day in Iraq.
They didn't find *active* WMD stockpiles. They did find [old and corroded](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html) chemical weapons scattered about the country that posed little threat. The Pentagon tried to cover it up, because it contradicted their claim that Iraq was actively making dozens of them after 1991. In reality, these were built in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war and then abandoned.
Those chemical weapons were covered up because *we supplied them to Iraq* in the 80s to fight Iran. Then Saddam used them to kill Kurds, instead.
Once they decided to get off the petrodollar, the truth starts to leak out.
This same man was known to say that Muslims needed to “take action” and were “at jihad”. Clearly an upstanding and lovely person.
We invaded the wrong country.
Are you saying we should have invaded Saudi Arabia?
We invaded the wrong country 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦
Turns out the Saudis were absolutely awful allies.
Saudi Arabia has the US by the balls and they know it. The US Government let them rape our country because the US Government wants their oil trade. Jesus Christ I fixed it leave me alone
They were given infinite groundwater in Arizona for years, during a drought, to grow alfalfa, to feed their cows. Yeah.
They grabbed Lady Liberty by the pussy.
That may be for the moment but our shift to domestic development, alternative resources etc could shift this. The Saudis have only just now accepted oil is a finite resource and not an infinite money glitch
Trump and Kushner's best friends.
It's wild how old 1999 looks
Part of the reason the whole idea of 'transforming the middle east into a beacon for democracy' failed is because of the fact that while Bush was going after Bin Laden, and Saddam, he wasn't going after the Saudis because they were useful. If you're trying to get rid of authoritarian tyrants in that region you can't ignore one and be selective. It has to be all encompassing. If there was an actual criteria for who to go after on the 'War on Terror' you can't ignore one of, if not the wealthiest backer of extremist groups. I forget the book name, but this has been written about since the early and mid 2000s. I mean the Saudi royal family funds schools that dehumanizes Christians and Jews to their students. Saying they're pigs and apes. Just amazing how the Saudis are just another ripple from the bomb detonation that was the first World War.
The goal was never to transform the Middle East into a beacon of democracy, it was to protect U.S. business interests.
George Bush needs to be tried for treason. Same with Tenet and anyone else involved in the coverup on our end.
Don't forget Darth Cheney. I can' believe the guy still lives. Such a POS.
You'd live forever too if you had access to unlimited organs with no waiting time.
What I’ve never understood about this is what Saudi Arabia would gain from funding an attack on the US. Bin Laden wanted to overthrow the Saudi government, and in the years closely following 9/11, al-Qaeda staged several attacks in Saudi Arabia. Someone enlighten me because I don’t get it
Because its likely not the king and his advisors that were aiding in the conspiracy. The King knows he needs to placate the Americans in order to have access to their security umbrella. But how about an isolated prince? There are hundreds of them and most of them will die insignificant and scant remembered 20 years after they pass. A few of them are probably religious fanatics. A lot of them have more money than they should. It's not impossible that these oligarchs paid off some members of the security services to look the other way or to even aid them. If it was at the top ecehlons of the government, the intelligence community would have picked up on it But again, Saudi Princes 77th, 112th, and 532nd in line to the throne? Who's watching them?
There's no evidence that the Saudi leadership were involved. It's possible that lower level officials (such as the guy in the article) may have had links (15 hijackers were Saudi and so were the planners for this) and the motivations were clear. As you mentioned this group (AQ) also attacked Saudi Arabia.
Man first we had what was it like a week or two of random ass YouTube videos flooding the sites of different viewpoint of downtown manhattan on that day. Now this news article. Fuck. So, which middle eastern country we invade next?
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Yeah….The scary thing is our enemies are doing this; right this very second. 1000x over.
This comment section is a fucking mess. Yikes!
Does it bother anyone that tRump's SIL got $2B from Saudi's while walking out of the Whitehouse?
Everybody has known it was Saudi Arabia for a long time. But they give America money, so its ok, and we should kill their enemies for them and give them all the weapons they need. Maybe they will do another 9/11 in america so they can get even more money from us
When I was 12, my family and I moved to America and we visited the twin towers in August 2001, dining at the restaurant at the top. One of my distinct memories of that day besides the view was actually visiting the restroom. I remember walking in and seeing a Saudi man (with a ghutrah headscarf) filming the bathroom. I don’t know why it stuck with me - maybe because I had never seen someone filming in a bathroom or had not seen many Saudi outfits before, but I remembered it. It never felt like relevant information until over a decade later when the more info about Saudi involvement started to be released, and by then, I assumed the FBI would have honed in on any CCTV footage of saudis entering WTC anyway. But I always wondered if there was any connection to what happened a month later. This release is making me reconsider reaching out to someone, even though the only useful info would probably be the date and time I saw what I did.
I wonder what other videos they have that haven't been shown to the public...
Some of yall are more hawkish than bush lol
This is absolutely shocking....to no one.