general thoughts on causes/whodunnit...

[attgig]

So, whodunnit?
I'm willing to go out on a limb and say it was a 'religious extremist' group...who exactly? perhaps from one of the Islamic countries - obviously that's the first assumption...
well, my explanation for that 'assumption' is that these were suicide/kamikazee attacks. Looking at the Ok. bombing, US militia 'fanatics' aren't willing to do that. They don't 'sacrifice' their lives...they're more willing to go down fighting, with guns blazing, rather than going out and taking out a building.
So, my guess is that they were either extreme cultists who commit suicide to go on to their higher life, or religious people who, well, do the same thing as the cultists do.....

as for causes....if it really does end up being Bin Ladin (from news reports, and general voice - the prime suspect, and perhaps only public suspect)...I think it all comes from the Truman Doctrine...
We've been fighting communism since the 50's and, well, did well in Korea, did poorly in Vietnam, and throughout the 80's did lots of 'covert' stuffs (b/c america didn't want any more wars), and went out to fight communism in the Middle east...
through all that (and Bin Laden was supposedly trained by CIA to help fight russians, and then felt betrayed by US after war was 'over')
Many of the people in that region felt US's hand, and well, didn't appreciate it. We've been hated by them ever since (i'm talking Afghans - other middle eastern countries hates us for many reasons.)


anyways,
my $.02

[sbp]

Bin Laden, millionaire with a dangerous grudge

Osama bin Laden, the man intelligence officials say is the prime suspect behind Tuesday's hijacking attacks, is the head of a shadowy organization that is believed to have been targeting the United States and its allies since the early 1990s.

Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist and the son of a Saudi billionaire, has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list since 1999, and the U.S. State Department has offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.

U.S. prosecutors say bin Laden is the leader of al Qaeda (Arabic for "the Base"), a worldwide network blamed for both successful and failed strikes on U.S. targets. These include the millennium bombing plot, last year's attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and the nearly simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Bin Laden's anger with the United States stems from the 1990 decision by Saudi Arabia to allow the U.S. to stage attacks on Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq. After the U.S. victory, the U.S. military presence became permanent.

In a CNN interview with bin Laden in 1997, he said the ongoing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia is an "occupation of the land of the holy places."

He left Saudi Arabia in 1991 after feuding with the Saudi monarchy, taking an inheritance worth an estimated $250 million with him.

In 1996, bin Laden issued a "fatwah," a religious ruling urging Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. A second fatwah in 1998 called for attacks on American civilians.

More here: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/binladen.profile/index.html