The Mahdi Plot

Here is what you have never read about 9-11. Part of this was once posted as "The Forgotten Event Of The Modern Middle East". 

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE EARTH OR STREET VIEW UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED 

THE 1979 SEIZURE OF THE GRAND MOSQUE IN MECCA 

In 1979 the year 1400, on the Islamic Calendar, was soon to begin. There were those who thought this meant someone would show up to revitalize and purify the Islamic religion. On November 20, hundreds of militants entered the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which is the most important place in Islam. It is also called the "Sacred Mosque". They pulled guns from under their robes and from caskets and took over the mosque. Many of the other pilgrims were taken as hostages, although most of those were soon released.

The leader of the seizure was named Juhayman. A proclamation was made that his brother-in-law, who was among the militants, was the Mahdi, a messianic figure, and all Moslems were to obey and follow him. They considered the Saudi Government as illegitimate because of the western influence that it allowed in.

The operation had been well-prepared and well-planned. There are underground rooms at the mosque, that had been stocked with food and ammunition. The minarets made an ideal position for snipers. The first efforts to regain control of the mosque were futile, and suffered heavy casualties. Both the king and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia were out of the country at the time.

This event didn't register with Americans more than it did simply because it was going on at the same time as the Iran Hostage Crisis, which began with the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the taking of it's staff as hostages on November 4. I remember when this seizure was on the news every night. The lead story would be whatever new developments there were in the hostage crisis, and then this would follow.

The two events were not connected, although it might be said that they were part of the same general atmosphere. Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, accused America of being behind the seizure of the Grand Mosque. The militants who seized the Grand Mosque were Sunni Moslems and expressed no support or solidarity with Khomeini's Shiite revolution.

The seizure went on for two weeks. French special forces were used as advisors, according to the official account of the story, and supplied grenades and chemicals with which to assault the militants in the underground rooms of the mosque. Only Moslems are officially allowed in the city of Mecca, although curious non-Moslems have long made a game of having a look at it in disguise.

It was no easy task. Many of the militants had military experience. They were well prepared and trained, and highly motivated. They were ready for martyrdom. The Saudi forces tasked with recapturing the mosque suffered heavy casualties. What might finally have dampened the spirit of the militants was that the one who was supposed to be the Mahdi was killed.

This event changed Saudi Arabia. It put more emphasis on it's strict Wahhabist strain of Islam than it had during the 1970s. Later in the month of December would come the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This would provide the battle theater for the new atmosphere of Jihad, or holy war.

THE BIN LADEN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY 

It just so happens that the Grand Mosque was being renovated when the seizure took place. The name of the construction company was Bin Laden. Salem Bin Laden ran the company after the patriarch had died in a plane crash.

Salem Bin Laden had a younger brother, named Osama. Osama Bin Laden would soon join the Jihad in Afghanistan. In 2001, 22 years after the seizure of the Grand Mosque, Osama Bin Laden would launch his own operation, the attacks of 9/11.

Do you really believe that the seizure of the Grand Mosque, in 1979, isn't what put the idea in the youthful Osama Bin Laden's mind about someday launching his own earth-shaking operation against what he considered to be opposing his version of Islam?

I have always thought that this event deserves more attention. 

THE COMPLETION OF THE MISSION BY THE 9-11 ATTACKS 

During the 1980s and 90s, the militants who seized the Grand Mosque had gotten some of what they had wanted as Saudi Arabia became more strict with Islamic law, to forestall such an event from happening again. But there was still the connection with the West. The worst outrage had been when western military forces had invaded Moslem lands, in 1990, in order to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

Osama Bin Laden, a son of the construction company family that was renovating the Grand Mosque at the time of the seizure, had fought as a Jihadi against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Although I have never seen it written, my belief is that he developed a plan to complete their mission by severing relations with the West, and bringing about the coming of the Mahdi.

His plan was to repeat the pattern of the seizure, in order to honor the militants, in such a way that would get the West, and America in particular, to sever relations with Moslem countries, and leave them alone, and to set events in motion that would bring about the arrival of the Mahdi.

The result was the attacks of 9-11.

One thing that was striking about 9-11 was the nationalities of the hijackers. Investigators had no difficulty in obtaining the identities of the hijackers, photos of them, and their nationalities. This was done purposely.

The hijackers were all from countries that were allies of America. Mostly Saudis, two Emeratis, one Egyptian and one Lebanese. This was calculated to alienate Americans from their allies in the Middle East.

Mohammed Atta was the ringleader of the attack and the pilot of the plane into the North Tower. He was the only Egyptian among the attackers. But if 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, as was Osama Bin Laden, why would they choose a foreigner as the ringleader? The obvious answer is that Egypt is the largest Arab country and they wanted to separate it from America by angering the American people.

At first glance, the 9-11 attacks had room for improvement in efficiency. The strike on the North Tower killed by far the most people, and evacuation of the adjacent South Tower began as soon as it was hit. The South Tower was hit 17 minutes later but the death toll was much lower, even though the South Tower would collapse first, because many people had been evacuated. The death toll could have been much higher if the two strikes had been as close together as possible.

But there was a reason for the delay. By the time of the second impact, many cameras would witness it because they would be focused on the impact that had just occurred on the North Tower.

The Pentagon was symbolic, as the headquarters of the U.S. military, but it was a low and broad building and far fewer people were killed there than at the two towers of the World Trade Center. It would have been much more efficient, in terms of casualties inflicted, to have hit another skyscraper.

I presume that the target of the fourth plane was the U.S. Capitol Building. But the attack did not succeed because it had a long way to fly and, by this time, people knew that the country was under attack. Passengers on the plane stormed the cockpit and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. In tactical terms it would have been better to aim at a closer target.

The attacks could have killed twice as many people if it had been more tactically efficient. But what I want to present is that there is more to it than this. The attacks were also planned to honor the militants who had seized the Grand Mosque in 1979, and complete their mission.

The way they would be honored is with symbolism, and this is how the targets of 9-11 were chosen, not with tactical efficiency as the primary consideration. 

The minarets of the Grand Mosque were important in the 1979 siege. It was difficult for Saudi forces to get close to the mosque because the militants had snipers in the minarets, and the Saudi authorities were hesitant to risk damaging the mosque. Look at the resemblance between the twin minarets and the twin towers that were selected as the target for 9-11. The top image is from Google Street View and the bottom image from the Wikipedia article "World Trade Center".

The way that the hijackers of 9-11 seized control of the planes is strikingly similar to how the militants seized control of the Grand Mosque in 1979, waiting for the flight to take off and then pulling out box cutters.

The surviving militants who had seized the Grand Mosque were all martyred by public beheading. This attack would honor them by the planes slicing into the buildings representing the knives slicing into their necks.

Look at how the Grand Mosque (top) is roughly the same shape as the Pentagon.

Look at how the dome of the Tomb of Muhammad resembles the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The tomb is at Medina, not the Grand Mosque.

There were two plane strikes each planned for New York City and Washington. The two holiest cities in Islam are Mecca and Medina. The distance between the two cities, 340 km, is just about exactly the same as the distance between New York and Washington.

The attacks of 9-11 were most certainly done to honor the militants who had seized the Grand Mosque in 1979, and to complete their mission. 

The militants in 1979 had announced that one of their number was the Mahdi. This is a messianic figure would is to appear in the Last Days. Apparently they were mistaken as the would-be Mahdi was killed during the siege. 

But no matter, Osama Bin Laden would take care of that too. The 9-11 attacks were an earth-shaking event that would be a major step toward the Last Days of the world, when the Mahdi would appear. I have given my Christian version of this in the postings "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Inducing The Apocalypse".

It has always been clear that the militants must have had assistance from inside the Grand Mosque. There were hundreds of militants and the siege went on for two weeks. An exact number isn't known because some of the militants escaped. The militants were well supplied with food, water and, ammunition from stores in the basement of the Grand Mosque. There must have been tons of supplies brought in. The supplies would have to be placed so that no one would find them. But I can't find that it was ever established exactly where that assistance came from.

At the time of the siege the Bin Laden Construction Company was doing renovation work on the Grand Mosque. This work on the vast mosque must have required tons of supplies. They wouldn't have driven the supplies across the sacred area. There would have been a back entrance where supplies could be driven into the basement.

I cannot see that anyone has ever "put two and two together" here. Doesn't it look like Osama Bin Laden was in on the seizure of the Grand Mosque? He arranged for the militants to bring in and store supplies so that it would appear to be construction materials being brought in. How else could they have gotten in tons of necessary supplies and not had anyone notice them?

Osama Bin Laden (born 1957) was about the same age as the average militant in the siege, in his early twenties. There were hundreds of militants and he moved in the same circles that they did. It is very probable that Osama Bin Laden would have contact with the militants. I am sure that he was in on this seizure and, twenty-two years later, would set about completing the mission. 

One more thing is interesting. All of the biographical information that I can find on Osama Bin Laden is that he finished school in 1979 and then joined the Jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. King Abdulaziz University operates on a Spring and Fall Semester. If he finished with the Spring Semester, the invasion of Afghanistan didn't happen until Christmas. I cannot find anything about where he was in the meantime. The siege of the Grand Mosque lasted from November 20 to December 4.

Could Osama Bin Laden have been one of the militants that escaped? We can see his Jihad spirit in that he signed up for Afghanistan almost immediately after the invasion. He is remembered as a capable warrior in Afghanistan. But I don't see in any biography of him that he had any military or paramilitary training or experience before going to Afghanistan. Could he have gotten his experience with these militants?