2003-03-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

I have decided to enter the realm of public discourse. The war on Iraq, the war on terror, the collapse of the U.S. economy, and the disturbing trend toward an American police state have brought me to the pulpit. I can't allow Dick Cheney's America roll over me without at least commenting on it.

In the coming days, visitors to the Black Lodge will be able to read my political analysis, my insights on items in the news, and my disturbing witticisms. There will be links to essays and fiction that I've written. There may even be links to outside sites, reviews, and my personal anecdotes.

I can't help but write about the war on Iraq. It's symptomatic of everything that's wrong with the current political, social, and economic climate in the United States. It's also the talk on everyone's lips, to the exclusion of all else. The main stream media won't even report, except in the most topical fashion, on anything but the war. They suffer from monomania, fixated along with Bush on Iraq.

One conspicuous absentee from the news is Osaama Bin Lauden. The culprit behind the 9/11 attacks has all but disappeared. You'd think that the search for the biggest mass murderer in American history would be on top of the Bush agenda. Just imagine the political gains for Bush if he captured Bin Lauden and brought him to trial. Even if he just brought a body back from some distant corner of the world, Bush would go down in the history books as the avenger of the worst loss of civilian life to ever have occurred in the United States. For some reason, Bush has seemingly forgotten all about Osaama. The only thing even close to a mention of him are references to his terror network and its supposed link to Saddam Hussein.

The last media blurb about Bin Lauden was when he released his most recent audio tape. On it, he goes beyond his usual vague threats against the United States to say that he will die as a martyr in an attack on the American people. I would think that such a statement from a man who attacked us once would have the American government at least concerned with him carrying the threat out, but not Bush's administration. Their concerned instead with an Iraqi terror attack on the U.S., even though Iraq has not once been behind a terrorist attack on the United States.

There are many things that one can infer from this. Maybe Osaama Bin Lauden never existed or had nothing to do with 9/11. This would explain the lack of concern for his threats. If he's imaginary, he can't hurt us and the Bush administration can ignore him because, after all, he has served his purpose. The Patriot Act passed and its evil offspring, the Patriot Act II, is on its way. The destruction of American civil liberties is in full swing.

I believe that Osaama exists, or did once, since there are sources outside the Bush administration and previous to the 9/11 attacks that confirm his existance. Still, where's the evidence connecting him with 9/11? Witnesses and documents are not made available to the public and trials are held in secret by military tribunals. The main suspect has not even been brought in for questioning much lest arrested, though we have blown up his house (and his neighbor's house, and the street he lives on, and the town he lives in, and so on....).

I predict that when there's another terrorist attack on the United States, it'll be on American soil and there'll be an unrecognizable body with DNA evidence to link it to Osaama Bin Lauden. There will be some kind of evidence of an Iraqi link as well. This future terrorist attack will occur when the United States is mired down in house-to-house fighting, or after the war during "nation building," and the American people are becoming predominantly opposed to further involvement in Iraq. Osaama won't mind the timing, since he has already outlived his usefulness and is just waiting to be retired.

Who do I think orchestrated the 9/11 attacks? I can't say for sure, but I know who didn't. It wasn't Saddam Hussein.

The Black Lodge