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Old 09-11-2001, 01:25 PM   #1
Memnoch
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: February 28, 2001
Location: Boston/Sydney
Posts: 11,771
Discussion on why these attacks took place and what its purpose was.

OK, now I've had a few hours to absorb what's just happened in the US. As an expatriate American now living in Sydney, my heart goes out to all the people who lost relatives and friends. I myself have an aunt who lives in Manhattan and a number of friends that live and work around the Wall Street/Battery Park area. My sister works for Salomon Smith Barney (investment bankers) who until recently were located at the WTC (they recently relocated to Tribeca). My sister worked at the WTC till a year and a half ago when she relocated to Sydney which I am eternally grateful for.

I am starting this thread as a discussion thread for all of us to try and make sense out of this (senseless) attack on America. I realize it's a very emotional subject but please, no flaming or racial/hate attacks on others in this thread, ok?

The question now has to be asked: why was this done? What were the perpetrators expecting to get out of this? What was the motivation behind their attack? There are a number of facts that I will outline for you:

- cost of executing this attack must have been considerable
- the professionalism in executing was very high, to be able to coordinate hijacking different aircraft and bringing them to bear near-simultaneously
- the US was caught totally off-guard, with NO intelligence that this was about to happen

The following groups have been mooted as possible suspects (UNCONFIMED):

- Islamic Jihad
- Hamas/Hezbollah
- Taliban
- Osama Bin Laden

Blame has already started to be laid at the Palestinians' door, but I for one find it very difficult to believe that the upper echelons of the Palestinian authority would condone such an attack. It makes no sense whatsoever and they cannot hope to gain anything from being remotely associated with it. In fact they will lose a lot of leverage as a result of this, irrespective of their involvement.

Bin Laden sounds like a more credible suspect. He's tried it once before and he has the resources and the command/control experience to do it. He may have used a number of smaller groups to execute the actual sub-operations. The question is: why? What are the perpetrators trying to accomplish here? Who stands to benefit the most from this tragedy?

Your thoughts would be welcome as long as they are put forward in a reasonable, civilized and sensible manner.

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