Claim: Bin Laden Told Hamza Al-Qaeda Not Behind 9/11

Claim: Bin Laden Told Hamza Al-Qaeda Not Behind 9/11
Statement dovetails with Osama's previous attempts to distance himself from attack responsibility

Prison Planet | January 18, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson

A claim attributed to a friend of one of the six men accused of plotting to detonate bombs on London's underground tube system on July 21 2005, suggests that Osama bin Laden personally told hook handed cleric Abu Hamza that Al-Qaeda was not behind the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The London Independent today reports that Steven Bentley, a school friend of accused would-be suicide bomber Yassin Omar, was told by Omar that he did not think Bin Laden was behind 9/11. Omar based his conclusion on what he was told by extremist London cleric Abu Hamza, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, who had personally met Bin Laden.

Bin Laden's apparent attempt to distance himself from involvement in 9/11 dovetails with statements made shortly after the event in which he told a Pakistani newspaper that he was not involved in the attacks.

"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States," Bin Laden told Ummat , "As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle."

The supposed Osama "confession video" in which the terrorist leader discusses how the attacks were carried out has been widely debunked as a hoax . On closer analysis, the individual in the tape is clearly not Bin Laden and he makes statements completely inconsistent with Bin Laden's previous public comments. Other so-called Al-Qaeda tapes have been directly traced back to the Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld.

Though the information provided by Bentley is third or fourth hand, it makes interesting reading nonetheless when compared with previous statements from individuals with close ties to Bin Laden

The White House regularly intones that critics of President Bush are in some way aiding the enemy but it was not until recently that the media picked up on a similar tack in trying to smear anyone who questions the official version of 9/11 as being sympathetic with Al-Qaeda or even a recruiting aid for terrorists.

One day after the alleged liquid bomb plot to simultaneously blow up ten transatlantic airliners, CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour blamed alternative documentaries about 9/11 for radicalizing many Muslims in England and around the world, and leading them to 'succumb to conspiracy theories.'