Deficient scholarship

The credibility of the author is heavily dented because of his deficient evaluation of Osama bin Laden. The author claims that OBL bears responsibility for inspiring, authorizing or directing the mass-murder of September 11, 2001. This unsubstantiated accusation is expressed throughout the present book. A cautious and serious scholar would refrain from expressing such an accusation against a person who has not been charged by any public authority for complicity in this mass-murder. The author has totally ignored the following facts:

1. The US Government has never officially accused Osama bin Laden for his alleged role in the mass-murder of 9/11.

2. In its formal letter to the UN Security Council of 7 October 2001, where it announced the initiation of the military attacks on Afghanistan, the United States did not attribute in any way the mass-murder of 9/11 to Osama bin Laden. His name does not even figure in the letter. The letter did not contain any evidence that that crime had anything to do with Afghanistan.

3. The US authorities have not produced any evidence, whatsoever, that the mass-murder of 9/11 was carried out by a group of 19 Muslims, let alone that these individuals had any link to Osama bin Laden. Even the names of these 19 persons do not figure on authentic passenger lists. No one has testified to have seen them in the respective airports. And their bodily remains were not identified.

4. Osama bin Laden told the Pakistani newspaper Ummat in an interview on 28 September 2001, (a) that he was “not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States”; (b) “had no knowledge of these attacks”; (c) does not “consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act”; (d) that “Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle;” and (e) that “the United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself.”

These facts should have been taken into consideration by authors writing books on Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The present author has apparently not revised his unsubstantiated accusations against Osama bin Laden at a later date. Because of the author’s gross failure on this crucial account, readers are justified to be circumspect regarding other aspects of this author’s work.