Spiiderweb™: Osama Bin Laden Tape About WTC

I'm very late to this, but hadn't seen it before nor read anything about what's on this tape.

The story isn't dated so I can't tell you when this tape was discovered and broadcast. They mention November 9 so it might be 2001. It's a tape of Osama bin Laden gloating over the WTC attacks.

Reveling in the details of the fatal attacks, bin Laden brags in Arabic that he knew about them beforehand and says the destruction went beyond his hopes. He says the attacks "benefited Islam greatly."

Bin Laden -- branded by U.S. authorities as the mastermind behind the attacks -- indicates during the recording that he knew for several days that September 11 would be the date of the attacks.

He says he turned on his radio in advance to listen to coverage of the attacks and that he underestimated the damage that would be inflicted on the World Trade Center.

"I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only," he said, according to a U.S. government translation. "This is all that we had hoped for."

...

Bin Laden says on the tape that while the hijackers knew they were on a "martyrdom operation," some did not know anything about the plot until just before they boarded the planes. He also says those who were trained to fly didn't know the others.

Bin Laden's associates heap praise on him, fawning over his leadership and insisting that the attacks would draw hundreds of new followers and help showcase Islam.

Even as he showers compliments on bin Laden, one man apologizes for even speaking in bin Laden's presence.

"You have given us hope," said the lieutenant, identified as Shaykh, who apparently hosted a visit by bin Laden at a guest house in Kandahar, according to U.S. officials, who also told CNN he was a Saudi.

Bin Laden talks in detail about the hijackings, saying "Mohamed from the Egyptian family" -- presumed by the U.S.-hired translators to be a reference to alleged hijacker Mohamed Atta -- was in charge of the group. Translators described that as a reference to the Egyptian cell of bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

The jovial, carefree nature of the conversation captured on the videotape contrasts with the gravity of the subject matter. As bin Laden and his colleagues talk about the collapse of the twin towers, they appear to take delight in the destruction. "Allah be praised," said one man, a phrase repeated throughout the tape. "Overjoyed" is how bin Laden describes the reaction of others.

An elder congratulates bin Laden on the attacks, stating: "The elderly ... everybody praises what you did, the great action you did, which was first and foremost by the grace of Allah. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad."

...

Before the attacks, bin Laden said some associates had dreams about tall buildings in the United States.

"At that point, I was worried that maybe the secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing it in their dream," bin Laden said.

Officials said the approximately hour-long tape, dated November 9 and made in Kandahar, was not shot in chronological order. The later part of the meeting is seen first, followed by unrelated shots of a downed U.S. helicopter and then the first part of the meeting that bin Laden had with associates. [emphasis mine]

Here's my take on this which could be entirely wrong:

Bin Laden either 1) Ordered a massive terrorist attack on the US, but not specifically the WTC and his lieutenants planned and executed it or 2) He was not aware of the plan until the last minute and it may not even have been al-Qaeda.

My reasoning is this. How long does it take to pull this off? Why would he know only "several days before", the date for the attack?

To accomplish something like this you start with the planning. Extremely detailed planning. Planning which would all be geared toward one date. That's how you plan a project. You pick your necessary completion point and work backward or you put together all the details chronologically and determine what your final target will be. Either way, you know at the planning stage what your target date will be.

Next you recruit. This is probably the easiest task and quickest to accomplish.

The planning included long lead time because pilots had to be trained.

Then you lay out all the logistics of getting the recruits into the US well ahead of your target date.

Just the training time alone dictates the planning was completed many months before September 11 and possibly years earlier. If bin Laden had planned all this, he would have known more than "several days before", what that target date would be.

As you read above, one man apologized for even speaking in bin Laden's presence. Now if bin Laden is just letting everyone believe he planned all this and basking in the glory, no one there would dare point out his limited or non-exsistent participation.

Maybe this is why this headline over at TRUE BLUE LIBERAL.