A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Most L

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

That may or may not be true. The one thing IMO we can't do though is take the word of the 9-11 commission as it was nothing more than a dog and pony show for the reasons I noted early on.

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

DrunkenAsparagus said:

Much of Al Qaeda's support structure was in Afghanistan. Also, the 15 Saudi high-jackers were literally less than one-in-a-million in their home country. The nature of our response, especially in Iraq, is questionable, but Saudi Arabia's government has been a useful, if brutal, ally in the War on Terror.

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"Private individuals in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states friendly to the United States are the chief source of funding for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups, according to leaked US diplomatic cables."

Wikileaks: Saudis 'chief funders of al-Qaeda' - Telegraph

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

Catawba said:

"Private individuals in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states friendly to the United States are the chief source of funding for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups, according to leaked US diplomatic cables."

Wikileaks: Saudis 'chief funders of al-Qaeda' - Telegraph

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The command structure was located in Afghanistan, and the Saudi government has been a useful ally. They certainly have not been perfect, but invading them would make far less sense.

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

DrunkenAsparagus said:

The command structure was located in Afghanistan, and the Saudi government has been a useful ally. They certainly have not been perfect, but invading them would make far less sense.

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I never suggested invading Saudi Arabia. My point is that it would have made more sense than invading Afghanistan and Iraq.

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

What if...? said:

Actually, everyone believes everything they read, AS THEY READ IT. It goes straight past our "filters" and has to be corrected afterwards. Usually as it is incorporated into our larger knowledge base. But if you distract someone just after they read something, whatever they just read ends up in the "true" column by default. And can end up "permanently" "true" if not thought about before it ends up in longer term memory.

Your Cognitive Linguistics lesson for the day!

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No frigging way! I did not know that and know I did not believe it from the first time you said everyone believes everything they read, AS THEY READ IT. So this is not true:shock::doh

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

Kali said:

No frigging way! I did not know that and know I did not believe it from the first time you said everyone believes everything they read, AS THEY READ IT. So this is not true:shock::doh

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Its not nonsense, just an odd side effect of how we assimilate new information. When we hear language, it enters our brains through one set of pathways. Which include an innate skepticism system.

The written word is MUCH newer, and hasn't resulted in evolutionary adaptations like spoken words have. When you read something, the information enters your brain through different pathways. And these don't include our spoken word filters.

The information IS filtered, AFTER the fact. Usually immediately after, but AFTER its already "in" your head. Not before it can get in in the first place, as when we hear information.

Check out Cognitive Linguistics for your self. Frank Luntz's PR companies' slogan is "Its not what you say, its what they hear." He gave us the term "death tax". Cognitive linguistics is a real science that has been advancing by leaps and bounds since realtime brain activity scans became available.

Make no mistake: what others know about how your brain works, that you don't, can be and is being used against you by those who stand to gain by influencing your feelings and beliefs.

You can't swing a cat in political discourse and not find applications of this science. ALL political messages are constructed using it.

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

Catawba said:

I never suggested invading Saudi Arabia. My point is that it would have made more sense than invading Afghanistan and Iraq.

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I figured. I agree that invading Iraq over Al Qaeda made no sense. Let's just ignore the whole WMD and Blood for Oil thing; I agree that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and anything else is based on crap. As for Afghanistan, most of the command structure of Al Qaeda was in the country and actively supported by the government. They openly harbored the organization. Meanwhile, despite the desires of many of their citizens, Saudi Arabia has arrested and turned over to the US government many suspected terrorists.

However, from a policy standpoint I don't think that we differ too much on this, so we are kind of quibbling here.

Re: A Year Before 9/11, Intelligence Unit Determined World Trade Center, Pentagon "Mo

DrunkenAsparagus said:

I figured. I agree that invading Iraq over Al Qaeda made no sense. Let's just ignore the whole WMD and Blood for Oil thing; I agree that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and anything else is based on crap. As for Afghanistan, most of the command structure of Al Qaeda was in the country and actively supported by the government. They openly harbored the organization. Meanwhile, despite the desires of many of their citizens, Saudi Arabia has arrested and turned over to the US government many suspected terrorists.

However, from a policy standpoint I don't think that we differ too much on this, so we are kind of quibbling here.

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I am glad we agree on Iraq, and you are entitled to your opinion on Afghanistan. For myself, I agree with the assessment by the Rand Corp, that war was not the best way to deal with the terrorists.