[iwar] [fc:What.kind.of.Muslim.writes.like.this?]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-29 11:31:59
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 11:31:59 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:What.kind.of.Muslim.writes.like.this?]
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Fisk has been reporting from Middle East for more than 25 years. 
Presumably he knows something about Islam.  This story raises some very
provocative possibilities about the letter found by the FBI --
particularly the Maronite connection to CIA (and who else?).  Wash Post
says it was 4 (not 5) page letter and that three copies were found.  My
understanding is that one letter was found in baggage of prime suspect
(Atta) that failed to get checked. 

This raises important cultural intelligence questions including
possibility that we are being given false flag by our "enemies," by our
"friends," or by "ourselves" or some combination....?

Any insights from G-2 members???

What Muslim would write: 'The time of fun and waste is gone'? Robert
Fisk, The Independent, 29 September 2001

Fearful, chilling, grotesque - but also very, very odd.  If the
handwritten, five-page document which the FBI says it found in the
baggage of Mohamed Atta, the suicide bomber from Egypt, is genuine, then
the men who murdered more than 7,000 innocent people believed in a very
exclusive version of Islam - or were surprisingly unfamiliar with their
religion. 

"The time of Fun and waste is gone,'' Atta, or one of his associates, is
reported to have written in the note.  "Be optimistic ...  Check all
your items - your bag, your clothes, your knives, your will, your IDs,
your passport ...  In the morning, try to pray the morning prayer with
an open heart.''

Part theological, part mission statement, the document - extracts from
which were published in The Washington Post yesterday - raises more
questions than it answers. 

Under the heading of "Last Night'' - presumably the night of 10
September - the writer tells his fellow hijackers to "remind yourself
that in this night you will face many challenges.  But you have to face
them and understand it 100 per cent ...  Obey God, his messenger, and
don't fight among yourself [sic] where [sic] you become weak ... 
Everybody hates death, fears death ..."

The document begins with the words: "In the name of God, the most
merciful, the most compassionate ...  In the name of God, of myself, and
of my family.''

The problem is that no Muslim - however ill-taught - would include his
family in such a prayer.  Indeed, he would mention the Prophet Mohamed
immediately after he mentioned God in the first line.  Lebanese and
Palestinian suicide bombers have never been known to refer to "the time
of fun and waste'' - because a true Muslim would not have "wasted'' his
time and would regard pleasure as a reward of the after-life. 

And what Muslim would urge his fellow believers to recite the morning
prayer - and then go on to quote from it? A devout Muslim would not need
to be reminded of his duty to say the first of the five prayers of the
day - and would certainly not need to be reminded of the text.  It is as
if a Christian, urging his followers to recite the Lord's Prayer, felt
it necessary to read the whole prayer in case they didn't remember it. 

American scholars have already raised questions about the use of "100
per cent'' - hardly a theological term to be found in a religious
exhortation - and the use of the word "optimistic'' with reference to
the Prophet is a decidedly modern word. 

However, the full and original Arabic text has not been released by the
FBI.  The translation, as it stands, suggests an almost Christian view
of what the hijackers might have felt - asking to be forgiven their
sins, explaining that fear of death is natural, that "a believer is
always plagued with problems''. 

A Muslim is encouraged not to fear death - it is, after all, the moment
when he or she believes they will start a new life - and a believer in
the Islamic world is one who is certain of his path, not "plagued with
problems''. 

There are no references to any of Osama bin Laden's demands - for an
American withdrawal from the Gulf, an end to Israeli occupation, the
overthrow of pro-American Arab regimes - nor any narrative context for
the atrocities about to be committed.  If the men had an aspiration -
and if the document is above suspicion - then they were sending their
message direct to their God. 

The prayer/instructions may have been distributed to other hijackers
before the massacres occurred - The Washington Post says the FBI found
another copy of "essentially the same document'' in the wreckage of the
plane which crashed in Pennsylvania.  No text of this document has been
released. 

In the past, CIA translators have turned out to be Lebanese Maronite
Christians whose understanding of Islam and its prayers may have led to
serious textual errors.  Could this be to blame for the weird references
in the note found in Atta's baggage? Or is there something more
mysterious about the background of those who committed a crime against
humanity in New York and Washington, just over two weeks ago?

 From the start, the hole in the story has been the reported behaviour
of the hijackers.  Atta was said to have been a near-alcoholic, while
Ziad Jarrahi, the alleged Lebanese hijacker of the plane which crashed
in Pennsylvania, had a Turkish girlfriend in Hamburg and enjoyed
nightclubs and drinking.  Is this why the published text refers to the
"forgiveness'' of sin?

The final instruction, "to make sure that you are clean, your clothes
are clean, including your shoes,'' may have been intended as a call to
purify a "martyr" before death.  Equally, it may reflect the thoughts of
a truly eccentric - and wicked - mind. 

The document found in Atta's baggage ends with a heading: "When you
enter the plane".  It then urges the hijackers to recite: "Oh God, open
all doors for me ...  I am asking for your help.  I am asking you for
forgiveness.  I am asking you to lighten my way.  I am asking you to
lift the burden I feel ...''

Was this an attempt to smother latent feelings of compassion towards the
passengers on the hijacked planes - who included children among them -
or towards the thousands who would die when the aircraft crashed? Did
the 19 suicide bombers say these words to themselves in their last
moments?

Or didn't they need to. 

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