Robert Fisk on Afghanistan: Osama bin Laden: 9/11 to Death in Pakistan

How do you determine the integrity of a critical author? You examine the quality of arguments he or she tries to disprove. A person of integrity seeks to demolish the best arguments of his or her opponents. Others choose an easy opponent and demonstrate thereby their superiority by proving his stupidity. This technique is commonly known as knocking down a straw-man.Robert Fisk, widely respected for his empathy with Arabic and Muslim grievances, chooses in his book the easy way when attempting to dismiss skeptical attitudes towards the official account of 9/11. Instead of attacking the best scholarly critiques of the official account, Fisk prefers to deride Muslims who – without any evidence whatsoever – suspect Israel or the Mossad of having orchestrated 9/11. He thus relieved himself of the need to examine seriously the works of prominent scholars who have demonstrated the contrived nature of the official account on 9/11. Among such scholars figure, for example, Prof. David Ray Griffin, Dr. Graeme Macqueen, Dr. Niels Harrit and your truly.While purporting to inform the world about his knowledge of Osama bin Laden and related issues, Fisk not only espouses the official account on 9/11, and suggests that Bin Laden was somehow involved or at least inspired the attacks, but disregards entirely the fact that the U.S. authorities have never produced the slightest evidence that Muslims, let alone sympathizers of Osama bin Laden boarded any of the aircraft that were allegedly hijacked on 9/11. He does not mention, either, that Osama bin Laden was in fact the world’s first 9/11 truther as came out in an interview he gave on 28 September 2001 to the Pakistani newspaper Ummat. He therein not only condemned the 9/11 attacks as incompatible with Islam but called on Americans to search for the perpetrators of 9/11 inside the United States. That interview, incidentally, was published in a collection of Bin Laden texts of the CIA (FBIS).His book includes, incidentally, a number of factual errors, such as the number of victims of 9/11. These errors only indicate the casualty with which Fisk treats facts.I find it a great pity that a journalist, who spent decades defending the rights of Palestinians and of Arabs and is highly regarded in the Middle East, should undermine his reputation by such gross failures.

I wanted to read Robert Fisk's insightful analysis on this topic and period. However, this book is just a timeline of his articles covering the period. Not the type of book I wanted to read though the articles appear well written as you would expect with this reporter. It was returned.

Solid insight into what is really happening in Afghanistan.

interesting

Fisk's treatment of a complex subject is free of political jargon. It provides a bias-free discussion of the history of, and recent events within, a complex society. Highly recommended.

He is always an excellent commentator who is well acquainted with the area and the issues and is both passionate and compassionate choosing the put a personal face on those who suffer in the midst of tragedy.