A large number of Americans still don\u2019t believe the official version of the 9\/11 attacks on New York and Washington. I am one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n The government and tame media version \u2013 that crazed Muslims directed by Osama bin Laden attacked New York\u2019s twin towers and the Pentagon because they hated \u2018our freedoms\u2019 and our religions \u2013 is wearing very thin as contrary evidence piles up.<\/span><\/p>\n Ever since the attacks, I\u2019ve held the belief that neither bin Laden nor Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban were involved, though bin Laden did applaud the attacks after the fact and remains a key suspect. Unfortunately, he was murdered by a US hit squad instead of being brought to the US to stand trial. Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, was adamant that bin Laden was not behind the attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n So who did it? In my view, the attacks were financed by private citizens in Saudi Arabia and organized from Germany and possibly Spain. All the hijackers came from states nominally allied to the US or its protectorates.<\/span><\/p>\n Fifteen of the 19 were Saudis. Two came from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and one each from Egypt and Lebanon. Amazingly, during the national uproar after the attacks, little attention was focused on Saudi Arabia, a key US ally (or protectorate) even though most of the hijackers were Saudi citizens, and a planeload of important Saudis were quietly ushered out of the US by the CIA soon after the attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n Saudi Arabia was too important to US domination of the Mideast to point any fingers at the Saudis. The Saudi royal regime in Riyadh did not appear to have been involved \u2013 why would it since their survival and gravy train depended on US protection?<\/span><\/p>\n But the royal regime does not represent all Saudis, as many people believe. Saudi Arabia is a collection of tribes played off against one another by Riyadh and kept in line by the US Air Force from its bases in Saudi and a tribal force, \u2018the white army,\u2019 led by American \u2018advisors.\u2019 Saudi Arabia has little in the way of a regular army because its rulers fear coups by the armed forces such as occurred in Egypt, Iraq and Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n In addition, over 40,000 Americans live and work in Saudi. Another 5,000 US military personnel are stationed there. Much of the kingdom\u2019s technology \u2013 banking, telecommunications, airports and flights, trains, military affairs, TV and radio \u2013 are supervised by foreigners. This process began in the 1920\u2019s when the British moved into Arabia and helped promote the Saudi tribe to prominence.<\/span><\/p>\n A sizeable Yemeni community lives in Saudi. The bin Laden family originally hailed from Yemen. Saudi also has an important Shia Muslim minority, about 20% of the population, with smaller numbers of other Muslim sects. Most important, the reactionary, ultra rigid Wahabi religious sect still dominates the nation and royal family. The Wahabis hate Shia, calling them apostates and heretics. A similar dim view is taken of the nine million foreign workers, principally Indians, Pakistanis and other South Asians, who do all of the Kingdom\u2019s dirty work.<\/span><\/p>\n Within the complexities of Saudi Society lie bitterly anti-western groups who see the nation as being militarily occupied by the US and exploited \u2013 even pillaged \u2013 by foreigners. Arabia was originally the holy land of Islam. Today, it has been westernized, occupied by US military power, and given marching orders by Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n While covering the Afghan War in the 1980\u2019s, I met Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a fiery nationalist leader and anti-communist who was bin Laden\u2019s teacher and spiritual mentor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we succeed in kicking the Russians out of Afghanistan,\u201d Azzam told me, \u201cwe will go on and kick the Americans out of Saudi Arabia.\u201d I was shocked, never having heard of Americans called \u2018occupiers\u2019. Azzam was murdered by a bomb soon after, but his words kept ringing in my ears. He thought of the Americans as much colonialists as the Soviets.<\/span><\/p>\n Private nationalist groups in Saudi who bitterly opposed foreign domination of their country could very well have financed and organized 9\/11. But, of course, Washington could not admit this. That would have brought into question the US occupation of Saudi.<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s also pretty clear is that Israel \u2013 at minimum \u2013 knew the attack was coming yet failed to warn its American \u2018allies.\u2019 Israel was the chief beneficiary of the 9\/11 attacks \u2013 yet its bumbling Arab foes and bin Laden were blamed for this crime.<\/span><\/p>\n