Mark Karlin: Why Did US Invade Afghanistan, Anyway, When 9/11 Had Saudi Arabia Written All Over It?
Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis (Jeff Gates)
August 21, 2021
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld attacked Afghanistan in October, 2001, but their real targets should have likely been Saudi Arabia and the secret intelligence agency (ISI) in Pakistan.
After all, Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian, even though they initially trained in Afghanistan. Many analysts and surviving family members of 9/11 also argue that major funding for bin Laden, who came from a prominent and extremely wealthy Saudi family, was provided by members of the Saudi Royal Family. In fact, the “20th hijacker,” Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested prior to 9/11 and is currently in federal prison, claims that he has seen evidence of Saudi royal family involvement. Furthermore, survivors of 9/11 — who are suing Saudi Arabia — are currently pressuring President Biden to release classified evidence of alleged Saudi financial and other involvement or Biden will not be welcome at the 20th anniversary memorial of 9/11 next month.
In the days after 9/11, the Bush administration provided a plane for extended members of the Saudi royal family to leave the United States under cover of darkness, without FBI questioning and during a three day “no-fly” period, and Bush was very determined to deflect any blame for 9/11 from the Saudis. After all, there is all that oil to protect and keep flowing.
Bush was also, along with cover from Condi Rice, determined not to admit culpability for failing to stop the catastrophe. He said that he never received intelligence that Al Qaeda was determined to fly planes into buildings, even though in July of 2001, he stayed on a boat at a G-8 conference in Genoa, in part because just that scenario was feared as one of many possible terrorist attacks. He also didn’t mention until it was revealed three years later by Condi Rice that she and Bush had received a Presidential Daily Briefing, in August of 2001, entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” (Bush infamously kicked out the August 6 briefer out of his Texas ranch, telling him (paraphrased): “Now that you’ve covered your ass, get going.”)
Yet, no one in the Bush administration made any effort to increase efforts to prevent hijackings, which might have prevented the 9/11 tragedy — or to get the CIA and FBI to work together on all the evidence of terrorists enrolled in US flight schools.
Furthermore, the US, in a delicate diplomatic game with Pakistan, a nuclear power, had allowed the Pakistani secret intelligence service to play a supporting role with the Taliban, including in the border “tribal region” of Pakistan.
In short, when 9/11 happened, the Bush administration needed someone as a scapegoat, and the Taliban fit the bill because they let bin Laden train his foot soldiers in Afghanistan. However, invading the nation in October of 2001 ended up in bin Laden’s escape, and he was not found and killed until 10 years later in 2011, near an elite Pakistani military training base.
There are accusations that then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not vigorously pursue bin Laden in the hills of Tora Bora in the winter of 2001, leading to his escape to Pakistan.
At that point, there was no longer a reason to militarily be involved in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan, and bin Laden’s alleged financial backer, Saudi Arabia, was being welcomed to the White House.
However, the Taliban, whose predecessors — as was bin Laden and the mujahideen — were financed and armed by the United States in the ‘80s in their war against the Soviet Union occupation, was only committing acts of war against the US inside Afghanistan during a 20-year-occupation that lost its justification when bin Laden disappeared into Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia continues to get the “royal treatment,” as they recently did when the US took no action against the nation after one of our citizens, Jamal Khashoggi, was tortured and killed — it would appear at the behest of Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
Twenty years in Afghanistan was an utter tragic travesty that deflected blame from Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration’s incompetence and indifference in preventing 9/11, and it became a bloody war without a definable mission since the end of 2001. Biden may have bungled the exit strategy, in addition to being saddled with Trump’s “withdrawal agreement,” but it is time the bloodletting of this “ US forever war” comes to an end, even if the Taliban are grotesque, brutal and monstrous.
Mark Karlin is the editor and publisher of BuzzFlash.com, a legacy progressive website that paved the way for today’s online progressive community. It was founded in May of 2000 and has received 4 Project Censored Awards. In 2001, BuzzFlash had 4 million visits a month. In 2021, it has a much more modest but dedicated audience.
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