Now that the US has moved away from a mode of pure shock and is allowing the government to carry out its response and campaign, the issues confronting the interested (on this topic) citizen have evolved from merely interpreting the information as presented to finding our own information and evaluating it. An ongoing issue is, naturally, the investigation into who was behind the attacks. While the government's first moves have been against bin Laden, I am skeptical that he is truly the man behind the attacks. I don't doubt his involvement, I'm convinced (as I've said before) that there were others, including at least one state, involved. Today, Jane's profiles Ayman Al-Zawahiri and paints a portrait of not only a more sophisticated criminal than I believe bin Laden to be, but one who would have more connections to intelligence agencies in the middle east. As I've noted, I believe bin Laden's motivation to be destabilizing the region and the US's control of peace in Saudi Arabia so that he (bin Laden) can mount a coup and take control of the Saudi oil fields. I don't know enough about al-Zawahiri to yet deduce any future goal. My initial thought is that he may wish to overthrow the Egyptian goverment and for a religious state along the lines of Iran.
- posted by levinson @ 10/03/2001 10:24:00 AM