http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8444069.stm

Is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive?
By Mike Rudin
The Conspiracy Files

The face of Bin Laden has become instantly recognisable around the world

Osama Bin Laden died eight years ago during the battle for Tora Bora in Afghanistan, either from a US bomb or from a serious kidney disease.

Or so the conspiracy theory goes.

The theory that has developed on the web since 9/11 is that US intelligence services are manufacturing the Bin Laden statements to create an evil bogeyman, to justify the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and back at home.

So is the world's most wanted man still alive?

For a decade, Osama bin Laden has managed to evade the world's superpower and the biggest manhunt in history.

Bruce Riedel, who chaired President Barack Obama's Afghanistan/Pakistan policy review, and who has seen the intelligence on Bin Laden, says the trail has not so much gone cold as "frozen over".

"We don't have a clue where he is," he says.

By Paul Craig Roberts

What are we to make of the failed Underwear Bomber plot, the Toothpaste, Shampoo, and Bottled Water Bomber plot, and the Shoe Bomber plot? These blundering and implausible plots to bring down an airliner seem far removed from al-Qaida’s expertise in pulling off 9/11.

If we are to believe the U.S. government, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaida "mastermind" behind 9/11, outwitted the CIA, the NSA, indeed all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies as well as those of all U.S. allies including Mossad, the National Security Council, NORAD, Air Traffic Control, Airport Security four times on one morning, and Dick Cheney, and with untrained and inexperienced pilots pulled off skilled piloting feats of crashing hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers, and the Pentagon, where a battery of state of the art air defenses somehow failed to function.

After such amazing success, al-Qaida would have attracted the best minds in the business, but, instead, it has been reduced to amateur stunts.

A convenient bomb plot
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=267937

By FINIAN CUNNINGHAM , Posted on » Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Washington's blame game over the lapse of security that enabled a young Nigerian man to nearly set off explosives as an aircraft prepared to land in Detroit raises suspicions over how and why the incident happened.

President Obama and his aides have blasted the Pentagon and the CIA for a "catastrophic" failure in security measures. Yet - and this is telling - a miffed CIA has subsequently let it be known that it passed on information about the alleged bomber as early as November to the homeland security office, which works closely with the White House.

The official bluster in Washington suggests that elements within the US executive are looking for a scapegoat to blame in order to give an otherwise incredible bomb plot a semblance of credibility. A plot which would have us believe that a Nigerian militant with links to Al Qaeda in Yemen was able to evade global US security and surveillance in an attempt to kill some 300 air passengers on Christmas Day.

Source: Air America
The Ron Reagan Show
Url: http://airamerica.com/theronreaganshow/blog/01-07-2010/listen-republicans-continue-forget-911-happened/?p=1

Ron Reagan follows the lead of Chris Matthews and takes the GOP to task for their fudging of facts.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: What have they done, the Republican Party, for the people?

Good question! In the wake of the retirement announcements of Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, “Hardball” host Chris Mathews had a couple of campaign strategists on to discuss the political implications for both parties. Republican Todd Harris was the target of that pointed query and he didn’t seem eager to offer an answer. I suppose he should have known better; when Chris gets his dander up, ducking his questions is a bit like waving a pork chop under the muzzle of a pit bull:

TODD HARRIS: Well Chris, as you well know, voters don’t decide elections.

MATTHEWS: No, I’m asking you a question: what has the Republican Party done for the people in the last ten, twelve years?