by Jim Fetzer
“I’m disappointed that he only had one of my books. He should’ve read The New Pearl Harbor Revisited!” — David Ray Griffin
It both surprised and pleased me when a reporter for The Guardian, a well-regarded paper in the UK, called to ask about the report that Osama bin Laden’s “library” had included a copy of David Ray Griffin’s The New Pearl Harbor, one of the first and best exposes of the orchestration of the attacks on 9/11 as having occurred very differently than we have been told.
Obsessed with plots to ruin America, terrified of bugs implanted intooth fillings or women’s clothing, and secluded away from even his confidants, Osama bin Laden may not have been in the most healthy frame of mind during his years in hiding.
It should perhaps come as no surprise, then, that his personal library included conspiracy theories about the occult, the Illuminati – and even 9/11.
Documents and details released by US intelligence officers on Wednesday from the raid that killed bin Laden in 2011 revealed the al-Qaida leader’s collection included The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, a book that aims to dismantle the official story of the September 11 attacks and alleges that president George W Bush was complicit in them.
“It’s such a crazy story,” Griffin said. “I’m disappointed that he only had one of my books. He should’ve read [The New] Pearl Harbor Revisited!”
Informed by the Guardian that Bin Laden owned a copy of his book, author and retired theologian David Ray Griffin said “it’s a surprise” and that he was at a loss for words.
“It’s such a crazy story,” Griffin said. “I’m disappointed that he only had one of my books. He should’ve read [The New] Pearl Harbor Revisited!”
Griffin’s book poses more questions than it does theories about what happened on September 11, arguing that the 9/11 commission and Bush administration concealed and distorted the truth in the service of larger geopolitical aims.
“I don’t doubt that Osama would have found Griffin’s brilliant book really informative,” said Jim Fetzer, a founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, “but Osama died on about 15 December 2001. He was suffering from serious diseases, including a kidney disease, and it’s hard to get those dialysis machines in and out of those caves in Afghanistan.
“Even Fox News reported this at the time, although I don’t regard that as an always reliable source,” Fetzer added.
Indeed, while the wrinkle of Bin Laden’s taste for tales about 9/11 truthers and the occult was “fascinating”, Fetzer said, the entirety of the documents released Wednesday, as well as the 2011 raid by US Navy Seals on Bin Laden’s Pakistan compound in which the al-Qaida leader was killed, constitute “elaborate political theater” in Fetzer’s mind.
“Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11,” Fetzer said, dismissing the 2004 videotape in which Bin Laden took credit for the attacks. “The whole story we’ve been told is a complete charade.”
The reaction at hubs of conspiracy theory was similarly unbowed by revelations from the 2011 raid.
“Am I the only one who thinks that a bunch of CIA documents released years after the fact are nothing more than propaganda?” asked Jesse Wyneck at InfoWars, the website of conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones.
“I wish they’d get more creative with this nonsense,” bemoaned another commenter.
“We live in a world of lies. Nothing more,” said another.
The commenter badgerpit suggested that Bin Laden’s possession of a book about 9/11 might be “a sort of wink”. “They get away with everything so I imagine their confidence to rub stuff in our face is high.”
Jones himself did not broach the disclosures on his Wednesday radio show, instead railing on about changing gender norms in American society and declaring: “The fall of humankind is here. It’s going down.”
On the other great center of truthers, Reddit, people were less credulous about conspiracy theories. There reactions ranged from “9/11 was a fraud” to blaming Nasa to “I bet they used to sit around the compound at night and read each other the theories for laughs.”
Bin Laden’s odd collection also included The Conspirators’ Hierarchy, a book about how an elite cadre of manipulators are somehow involved in everything from the Kennedy assassination to the East India trading company and the international drug trade.
Bin Laden also owned Bloodlines of the Illuminati, by Fritz Springmeier, an Oregon man who has written extensively about the eponymous semi-historical sect, mind control, Jehovah’s witnesses and Freemasons.
At least one believer maintains that the fatidic date of 1 May links the Illuminati to the deaths of Adolf Hitler and Bin Laden, even though Hitler killed himself on 30 April 1945 and Bin Laden was killed in the early hours of 2 May 2011, Pakistan time.
Jones has also linked Bin Laden to the Illuminati, albeit through the more tortuous route of the Mossad, CIA and MI6, among other agents.
The al-Qaida leader’s taste in rightwing perspectives on conspiracy did not end with Springmeier: he also had a copy of The Secrets of the Federal Reserve, a book by Holocaust denier Eustace Mullins, who during his life shared his antisemitic sentiments with Ezra Pound and wrote an article in praise of Hitler.
Mind control was also plainly a fixation for Bin Laden, whose reading materials included Senate testimony from 1977 on the CIA’s MK Ultra program on behavioral modification, and a book by Noam Chomsky titled Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.
Perhaps the oddest book in Bin Laden’s collection was The Secret Teachings of All Ages, a 1928 tome by the Canadian mystic Manly Palmer Hall. The son of a dentist and a chiropractor, Hall became a famous spiritualist and lecturer, and filled his book with ideas about tarot readings, alchemy and Shakespe
are trutherism.
Despite the eager discussion of conspiracy theories, few online dared to theorize what Bin Laden might have made of Hall.
Virtually all the most popular theories about 9/11 have been thoroughly debunked by both the investigators of the 9/11 commission and independent experts in aviation, engineering, the military and other fields.
What The Guardian didn’t tell you
So when I discovered that The Guardian had omitted my premises and only published my conclusion, I composed a comment on the article, which was still there the last time I checked. Here is what I published about the article and my interview:
None of the residents of the town in which the compound was situated had ever seen Osama bin Laden, where the man using the remote to watch TV was identified as the compound’s owner, who was not Osama bin Laden. As I explained in “Zero Dark Thirty: The deeper, darker truths”, the raid was a piece of political theater that had no correlation with reality.
There is an irony here because, when I concluded my conversation with the reporter for The Guardian who had called me, I expressed my admiration for The Guardian as one of the few newspapers in the world that continued to show dedication to the truth and determination to pursue its publication. I noticed he seemed to be affected by my remarks but, in retrospect, it does not appear to have been for the reasons foremost in my mind at the time.
Osama was suffering from debilitating kidney disease and was also reported to have Marfan syndrome. It’s tough to get those dialysis machines in and out of those caves in Afghanistan. His purported burial at sea was not in accord with Muslim traditions and the claims to have DNA confirmation of his identity were far too fast to have been scientifically possible. The death photos were faked. None of the official account warrants belief. It’s all a fabrication.
The Guardian, a "well regarded paper"…lol.? not by those with a brain.
That Fetzer is a loon is an established fact, nothing controversial about it.
Interesting how the conversations turns from when Osama died, to whether or not Fetzer is a "loon." I want to know just where they landed the helicopters, and who carried the body out. What about the one that crashed? The initial reports of Osama's death could be as fake as the more recent raid. I thought the Shrub declared "Mission Accomplished" a long time ago. How come the FBI never declared Osama as being wanted for 9/11. If you believe Kevin Barrett, the Abbodattabod raid may have been a rescue mission, since the Pakistani's had imprisoned Osama. Personally I think the thing is a PSYOP to equate 9/11 seekers of justice to Osama. I guess they are all CIA agents.
How did Osama purportedly procure all of these English language books in Pakistan?
Have you spoken to former colleagues of his at Duluth? The one I talked to thinks his conspiracy ideas are WAY out there.
Correction: epistemology
It is not true that every professional philosopher I ask considers Prof. Fetzer "nutty as a loon". None of his former colleagues said that. Your claim about his reputation as "decent philosopher of science" is wrong. Prof. Fetzer belongs to a particular interpretation of science which must find contradiction and refutation by those who understand epistomology differently. Obviously, those who agree with Prof. Fetzer's views on philosophy and science respect and may praise his scholarship in that domain. What Prof. Fetzer writes OUTSIDE that domain may have connections to what he wrote WITHIN it, but the particular current of philosophical thinking to which Prof. Fetzer belongs does not understand itself as obliged to contribute to questions of power and justice in human society. You see Osama Bin Laden had an excellent selection of books, but do such authors as Springreiter view academic philosophy as an instance of conscience for society? The German academy was largely silent.
Prof. Fetzer must know your belief studying philosophy alows those big picture deep insights is wrong. Where are Prof. Fetzer's colleagues who instruct and research at numerous institutions – do any publicize their solidarity? Prof. Fetzer's studies in particular currents of Euroamerican theory of science enable him application in such domains about which he conducts investigation. His own character seems to include disposition to productive dissatisfaction and his academic retirement protects him from such criticism Prof. John Mack suffered when he researched abduction.
Anonymous, if Fetzer is right how come every professional philosopher you ask about Fetzer thinks he's nutty as a loon? More precisely, they usually think he was a decent philosopher of science but don't believe a word he says about conspiracies. You would think more would be with him if he was indeed so correct.
Dr Fetzer's conclusion is right on AS USUAL. Studying philosophy allows those big picture deep insights — and it is heartening to know that he is using those insights (derived from facts) for the cause of TRUTH, not propaganda.
Sandy Hook was about victim rights and sealing of juvenile records. Juvenile Justice John MacArthur foundation promotes juvenile record sealing, Bilderberg, Rockefeller are connected. Juvenile records were used in identity theft on derivatives per Stew Webb guest parent of juvenile. Tatum states dropping records of mortgages in Denver (MERS). Derivatives will used in markets to bring in Hybrid Infrastructure Banking to get around ANTITRUST LAWS. Hybrid banking brings big profits through public private partnerships in times of high inflation. FETZER please get on this. Also look into Burisma Holding Inc. Board members