"To THIS day, there is NO PROOF who really plotted and was responsible for 9/11"

I disagree. We have him (OBL) on video tape with an Afghani Imam discussing the particulars of the operational details: You would sort of have to be in on the planning to know those. Unless he was lying in the tape- which is a hard case to make.

We have ties between the Hijackers and Al-qaeda, post-facto, from evidence left in their vehicles and residences.

We have phone records, and calling procedures (throw away phones, etc) identical to those used by Al-Qaeda operatives.

We have information from before the attack indicating something was planned involving running planes into buildings.

We have other Al-Qaeda folks who were training (Moussoui) 'just to fly planes, not land them'.

The hijackers were known to be, or strongly suspected to be Al-Qaeda operatives before the event took place (if one is so inclined to make the 'it was a plant' argument, this sort of nips it).

In fact, as many people state- we had an obscene level of information, BEFORE HAND, that Al-qaeda was about to do this, and failed to act on it. This is why the so-called 'patriot act' annoys me. There was no failure in gathering intellegence and having data about who was about to do what and when- especially not one arising from a 'burden' of individual rights. Instead, there was a massive failure to comprehend, compile and act on intelligence.

Compose that together with what was known materially before-hand and you have a level of evidence that is massive and undeniable. Al-Qaeda did this, whoever else MIGHT have been involved is another issue.

I suppose it is possible that OBL did not no his own organization was planning the attcks- such a thinmg would be reasonable to believe give Al-Qaedas need-to-know basis. It could even be the case that the organizations, for political ane nefarious purposes, witheld the data of Al-Qaedas role from OBL... It would make him more convincing if he really believed it.

However, that aside- we took down the taliban because it was sheltering the Al-Qaeda organization(and over-lapped al-qaeda in some cases). It was the right thing to do- morally, logically, legally- it was air-tight. We even did it in a way that minimized civilian casualties. Kudos for us... Hooray for our side and all that.

Bushes mistake was to make this ABOUT OBL. it was a stupid move on a lot of levels. As long as OBL is out there, its hard to claim we met our objectives, which emboldens our enemies. It also morally confuses what is going on. We are not punishing a 'criminal'- Osama is MUCH more than JUST a criminal. we're kicking the hell out of a group of people that attacked us. Collateral dammage for that sake is reasonable. It is also LOGICALLY confusing what is going on- its more emotionally and personally appealing to have a boogey-man: but if Al-Qaeda prospers and OBL dies, America will suffer greatly.

Davin L.