Q: What motivated the 9/11 hijackers to attack the US?
A: US foreign policy bias for Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and US government support for other oppressive regimes in the Middle East.
The MSM didn't make this clear to the public. See the new video: What motivated the 9/11 hijackers?
The video shows the 9/11 Commission Hearing where the question "What motivated them to do it?" was finally asked. See FBI Special Agent Fitzgerald explain the motive for the 9/11 attacks.
The 9-11 Commission held its twelfth and final public hearing June 16-17, 2004, in Washington, DC. On June 16 the Commission heard from several of the federal government's top law enforcement and intelligence experts on al Qaeda and the 9-11 plot. It was at this hearing that the question "
What motivated them to do it?" was finally asked. Lee Hamilton, vice chair of the 9/11 Commission said, "I'm interested in the question of motivation of these hijackers, and my question is really directed to the agents. ... what have you found out about why these men did what they did? What motivated them to do it?" The agents looked at each other, apparently not eager to be the one to have to say it. FBI Special Agent Fitzgerald stepped up to the plate and laid out the facts, "I believe they feel a sense of outrage against the United States. They identify with the Palestinian problem, they identify with people who oppose repressive regimes and I believe they tend to focus their anger on the United States." But this testimony was kept out of the 9/11 Commission Report and no recommendation was given to address the main motive for the 9/11 attacks.
After the report was issued, the ten commissioners formed the "9-11 Public Discourse Project." At the August 2, 2005 session on foreign policy, Lee Hamilton quickly tries to silence someone who asks why US support for Israel isn't being addressed. The questioner started to ask, "Mr. Hamilton? I had a quick question for you sir. I had spoken with you on C-SPAN about a month ago ..." Immediately Hamilton interrupts him, "I think we'd uh ..." The questioner persisted, "why aren't we addressing the gorilla in the room? The gorilla in the room is US support for Israel." He corrects Hamilton's claim that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute wasn't addressed in the 9/11 Commission Report by referring to page 147 of the report which says, "By his own account, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."
The questioner keeps getting interrupted by Hamilton as he pleads, "Why aren't we addressing that sir?" Hamilton didn't answer and dismisses the questioner, "Alright sir. Alright, this is a conversation you and I ought to have. Let's not take up the time of our resource people. May we go to the next question please?"
"This was sensitive ground," Hamilton and Kean say in their new book, "Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission," and some commissioners worried "listed U.S. support of Israel as a root cause of al Qaeda's opposition to the United States indicated that the United States should reassess that policy." There is a reason politicians don't want US support of Israel listed as a root cause of al Qaeda's terrorism. There is a reason politicians don't want the American people to "reassess that policy." If the public were to take a good look at the facts, if they researched what the policies actually do to people in the Middle East, they would be horrified. Politicians lie to us about "hatred of our freedoms" because they care more about serving special interests than about keeping us safe.The Commissioners were more interested in playing politics than in fulfilling the 9/11 Commission's mandate to "to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks." These politicians betrayed the American people. Dishonesty about the 9/11 motives robs us of the freedom to decide for ourselves if we want to put our lives at risk over specific foreign policies.
MSM often omits Israel as a grievance of bin Laden's. Thomas Friedman of the NYT covers up what bin Laden has said for years about Palestine. Friedman claims, "the fact is that bin Laden never focused on this issue. He only started talking about "Palestine" after September 11." What Friedman has written is a flat out lie. To give just one example that disproves what Friedman wrote: "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful. America has no shame." - Osama bin Laden May 1998
George Tenet, when he was CIA director, played the same game, he covered up the motives by selectively quoting the terrorists. In his written statement before the Congressional Joint Inquiry on 9/11, Tenet quotes the 1998 ruling "to kill Americans and their allies, both civilian and military" yet omits the rest of the key sentence which states why: "in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [in Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."
CNN playes the same game too. They played bin Laden's words but omited the referance to Israel and Palestine. (Notice how the reporter tries to steer bin Laden's grievances towards fixating on the US presence in Saudi Arabia, note the reporter's second question too.)
This is from the 1997 interview:
REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, you've declared a jihad against the United States. Can you tell us why? And is the jihad directed against the US government or the United States' troops in Arabia? What about US civilians in Arabia or the people of the United States?
BIN LADIN: We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of the Prophet's Night Travel Land (Palestine). And we believe the US is directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. The mention of the US reminds us before everything else of those innocent children who were dismembered, their heads and arms cut off in the recent explosion that took place in Qana (killings in Lebanon perpetrated by Israel). ...
REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, will the end of the United States' presence in Saudi Arabia, their withdrawal, will that end your call for jihad against the United States and against the US?
BIN LADIN: The cause of the reaction must be sought and the act that has triggered this reaction must be eliminated. The reaction came as a result of the US aggressive policy towards the entire Muslim world and not just towards the Arabian peninsula. So if the cause that has called for this act comes to an end, this act, in turn, will come to an end. So, the driving-away jihad against the US does not stop with its withdrawal from the Arabian peninsula, but rather it must desist from aggressive intervention against Muslims in the whole world.
Bin Laden has been angry about US support of Israel going back to at least 1982: "after the injustice was so much and we saw transgressions and the coalition between Americans and the Israelis against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it occurred to my mind that we deal with the towers. And these special events that directly and personally affected me go back to 1982 and what happened when America gave permission for Israel to invade Lebanon."
In fact: "Bin Laden's long-standing support for the Palestinians against Israel also appears to have been learned at his father's knee." p 82, Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam & the Future of America Michael Scheuer
Bin Laden has repeatedly made clear how critical US support of Israel is:
"We swore that America wouldn't live in security until we live it truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America won't get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula, and until it stops its support of Israel." -Osama bin Laden, October 2001
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's motivation was his objection to the US foreign policy of supporting Israel. The two terrorist pilots who crashed the two planes into the WTC shared the same motivation. Mohammed Atta, who flew into WTC 1, was described by one Ralph Bodenstein, who traveled, worked and talked with him, as "most imbued actually about Israeli politics in the region and about U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region. And he was to a degree personally suffering from that." Marwan al-Shehhi, was the pilot who flew into WTC 2. When someone asked why he and Atta never laughed, Al-Shehhi retorted, "How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?"
Abdulaziz Alomari, one of the hijackers aboard Flight 11 with Mohammed Atta, said in his video will, "My work is a message those who heard me and to all those who saw me at the same time it is a message to the infidels that you should leave the Arabian peninsula defeated and stop giving a hand of help to the coward Jews in Palestine." Ahmed Al Haznawi, a hijacker aboard Flight 93, said in his video will, "Here is Palestine for more than a half-century, its wound has continued to bleed."
"... the Mujahideen saw the black gang of thugs in the White House hiding the truth, and their stupid and foolish leader, who is elected and supported by his people, denying reality and proclaiming that we (the Mujahideen) were striking them because we were jealous of them (the Americans), whereas the reality is that we are striking them because of their evil and injustice in the whole of the Islamic World, especially in Iraq and Palestine and their occupation of the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries." -Osama Bin Laden , February 14 , 2003
These facts point to a motive for attacking the WTC in 2001 that is consistent with the motive expressed by terrorists in a letter sent to the New York Times after the 1993 bombing attack of the WTC, "We declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel the state of terrorism and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region."
It is also the same motive that Mir Aimal Kasi had for killing CIA employees Frank Darling and Lansing Bennett outside CIA headquarters in Langley,Virginia in 1993 . Mir Aimal Kasi said, "What I did was a retaliation against the US government for American policy in the Middle East and its support of Israel." Mir Aimal Kasi once professed a love for this country, his uncle testified. "He always say that 'I like America, I love America and I want to go there,'" Kasi's roommate told police that Kasi would get incensed watching CNN when he heard how Muslims were being treated. "After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Kasi said he did not approve of the attack on the World Trade Center because innocent were killed. He understood, however, the attack on the Pentagon, the symbol of government might."
Outline of the 9/11 Plot, Staff Statement No. 16, from the 9/11 Commission: "Atta was chosen as the emir, or leader, of the mission. He met with Bin Ladin to discuss the targets: the World Trade Center, which represented the U.S. economy; the Pentagon, a symbol of the U.S. military; and the U.S. Capitol, the perceived source of U.S. policy in support of Israel."