news/propaganda & the Playboy Japan Pynchon interview

[Doug Millison]

I guess the Bush Administration decided to spare the Saudis the
embarrassment -- and keep Americans from knowing more about bin Laden's
connections to our biggest Middle East ally and business partner -- by
accident, surely nothing to do with an effort to manage the news ...
What was that comment attributed to Pynchon in the Playboy Japan interview,
about the news being what they're trying to suppress, and propaganda being
what they want us to know?


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/abc/20011220/ts/obltape_missing011220_1.html

A new ABCNEWS translation of the Osama bin Laden videotape released last
week reveals information that may be embarrassing to Saudi Arabia, a very
important U.S. ally.

  When the videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sept. 11 terror
attacks was released by the United States government on Dec. 13,
administration officials spoke at length about the extensive effort to
achieve a full and accurate transcript.


The translation commissioned by ABCNEWS, however, reveals new elements that
raise questions about what the government left out of the official version
and why.

The new translation uncovers statements that could be embarrassing to the
government of Saudi Arabia, a very important U.S. ally. Bin Laden's
visitor, Khalid al Harbi, a Saudi dissident, claims that he was smuggled
into Afghanistan by a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police.

He also tells bin Laden that in Saudi Arabia, several prominent clerics -
some with connections to the Saudi government - made speeches supporting
the attacks on America.

"Right at the time of the strike on America, he gave a very moving speech,
Sheikh Abdulah al Baraak," bin Laden said on the tape. "And he deserves
thanks for that."

Sheikh al Baraak, to whom the visitor refers, is a professor at a
government university and a member of an influential council on religious
law.

"It shows that bin Laden's support is not limited to the radical side of
Islam but also among the Saudi religious establishment," says Fawaz Gerges,
professor of Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College. "And that is
bad news for Saudi Arabia."

The new translation reveals bin Laden's intimate knowledge of the hijackers
themselves. Bin Laden mentions not just the ring leader Mohamed Atta but
several of the hijackers by name, including the al Hazmi brothers: "So
these young men, may God accept their action, Nawaf Al Hazmi, Salim Al
Hazmi Š"

A member of the team that translated the tape for the U.S. government said
the ABCNEWS translation is consistent with portions of the government's
transcript that have not been released to the public.