One wonders about the timing of this AP article entitled "Bin Laden - Moussaoui Not Linked to 9/11". We had our trial, found him guilty, imprisoned him for life. And now Bin Laden basically says, we got the wrong terrorist.
He had no connection at all with Sept. 11," the speaker, claiming to be bin Laden, said in the tape posted on the Internet.
"I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission," he said, referring to the 19 hijackers.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
The al-Qaida chief said the Sept. 11 hijackers were divided into two groups, "pilots and assistants."
"Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning how to fly, he wasn't No. 20 in the group, as your government has claimed," bin Laden said. "It knows this very well," he added.
Bin Laden said Moussaoui was not a security risk for al-Qaida, because he did not have knowledge of the plot.
"Brother Moussaoui was arrested two weeks before the events, and if he had known something -- even very little -- about the Sept. 11 group, we would have informed the leader of the operation, Mohammad Atta, and the others ... to leave America before being discovered," Bin Laden said.
So, regardless of whether Bin Laden is telling the truth, now we'll have a news cycle with Bin Laden again...just after the CATO institute releases "Power Surge" and stories swirl around Karl Rove, NSA domestic datamining of phone records and survellience of ISP usage, and other bad news for GOP. Time to go to Orange Alert?
[Updated paragraph]
I smell counter-intel agit prop in this. We start off with Moussaouri trial being portrayed as our token victory of 'justice' over the 9/11 event. Then having Bin Laden 'reveal' this as foolishness could be calculated to incite (per Rovian logic) average Americans to want real blood, perhaps Iranian. Maybe we'll soon get tantilizing tidbit news from highly placed sources that Osama has been frequenting Iran and is 'on the border' with it frequently.
[Added]
Odd...it appears this diary picked up many more Little Green Football comments than DKos ones.
The below LGP post:
piglet's post
matches some interesting comments I got from other sources.