Thursday, June 5, 2025

The Far-Reaching Legacy Of Charles Manson

Let's first go to the other side of the world, to Saudi Arabia.

MANSON AND JUHAYMAN 

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, it is also called the "Sacred Mosque", which is the most important place in Islam. They pulled guns from under their robes, and from in coffins, 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 influences that it allowed in.

The operation had been well-prepared and well-planned. There are many 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.

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 provided diagrams and blueprints to the Saudi forces that were very helpful in facilitating the recapture of the mosque.

Salem Bin Laden had a younger brother, named Osama. Osama Bin Laden would 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.

But where did Juhayman and his militants come up with the idea of this cataclysmic event in order to announce the appearance of the Mahdi? Nothing like this had ever been done before. The so-called "Mahdist State" had existed in Sudan, in the late Nineteenth Century, although it wasn't globally recognized. But nothing at all like this seizure of the Grand Mosque.

I have suspected that Juhayman didn't just come up with this fantastic idea out of the blue. Sixteen days before the seizure of the Grand Mosque, the U.S. Embassy in Iran was similarly seized. But Juhayman's plan was large-scale and complex and was clearly in the works well before then.

Ten years before this seizure of the Grand Mosque a remarkably similar event happened on the other side of the world, in Los Angeles. It involved two sets of horrific murders, rather than the seizure of the Grand Mosque.

In the midst of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s a would-be musician, who had spent much of his life in jail, found that he had the ability to attract followers mostly among the many young runaways and dropouts who went to California. His name was Charles Manson.

The group, which became known as the Manson Family, believed that Charles Manson was Jesus. In the Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the "Son of Man". Manson changed his middle name to "Willis" so that his name spelled "Charles Will is Man son".

The original city of Jerusalem had come back under Jewish control, in 1967, which is foretold in Bible Prophecy, for the Last Days. There was a lot of racial tension in America at the time and the Manson Family decided that a race war would be the Apocalypse foretold in the Bible, that would be followed by the Return of Jesus to reign over the earth. 

They thought that the Beatles White Album was echoing their thoughts that Manson was Christ. The apocalyptic scenario was called "Helter Skelter", after the song on that album. They thought that the song on the album "Revolution 9" was referring to Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation. They would survive the Apocalypse underground, in Death Valley, which they thought that the abyss in Revelation 9 was referring to. They repeatedly tried to contact the Beatles, to get them to join the Manson Family.

(I verified facts with the Wikipedia article "Helter Skelter (Scenario)).

The Manson Family developed a plan to get the Apocalypse underway, after which Charles Manson would reign as Christ over the earth. They would commit two sets of horrific murders in Los Angeles, and set it up to look as if black militants had done it, by such props as writing "Pig" on the wall in blood of the victims. This was to prompt black militants to commit more such murders of wealthy white people, which would initiate the apocalyptic race war.

On August 8, 1969, the group killed everyone at a house party. The victims included the well-known actress, Sharon Tate. The following night they killed a grocer and his wife in their home. My information is that Charles Manson himself never actually killed anyone.

The country was horrified at the murders. America had the greatest day in it's history, putting astronauts on the moon for the first time, and then, within three weeks, this horror happened. 

No one knew who committed the murders. Maybe black militants did do it. But there is an old saying that "The life expectancy of a secret is inversely proportional to the number of people that are in on the secret". Susan Atkins, one of the Manson Family, was arrested on other charges. While in prison she reportedly boasted to her cellmates about the murders.

Back to Juhayman in Saudi Arabia. Juhayman was close to the same age as Charles Manson, two years younger. In 1969, when the Manson Family murders took place, he was serving in the Saudi National Guard. Saudi Arabia was an ally of America.

Could Juhayman have heard about this crazy, murderous, absurd attempt in Christian America to promote someone as Jesus Christ and set off the biblical Apocalypse that would bring Him to reign over the earth? Could the seizure of the Grand Mosque, and promotion of the Mahdi among them, ten years later be Juhayman's true Islamic version of this misguided insanity that had happened in Christian America?

One of Juhayman's most important objectives was to rid Islamic lands of negative American influences. To have that goal, he must have had some familiarity with American culture, and the Manson killings were very widely reported in the media during the 1970s.

According to some reports there were some black Americans, who had converted to Islam, among Juhayman's militants who seized the Grand Mosque. These would have been part of the racial uprisings that the Manson Family had tried to turn into the Apocalypse, and may have told Juhayman about it.

The Manson Family murders occurred less than a week before the greatest counter-culture event of the 1960s took place. This was the music festival at Woodstock. What is so interesting is that Woodstock very much resembled the Haj Pilgrimage to Mecca. Their hearts were certainly in the right place. 400,000 people got together at Woodstock for three days and there was not a single act of violence.

We can see the influence of the American 1960s counter-culture on the Middle East in how the Iranians protesting against America in 1979 very much resembled young Americans protesting against the Vietnam War ten years before. Bell-bottom pants were even in style in Iran at the time.

Juhayman and his militants were very much counter-culture at the time they seized the Grand Mosque and promoted the Mahdi among them. They were adamantly opposed to the Saudi Government.

I very much suspect that Juhayman had heard about the Manson episode and it was at least part of what gave him the idea of initiating his own event that would shock the world and introduce it to the Mahdi. I don't think it's logical that he would have come up with this idea out of the blue. His effort was to be the true Islamic version of this crazy, absurd, sinful and, drug-addled attempt to introduce Jesus in supposedly Christian America. 

There is a strong resemblance between Juhayman (top) and Manson (bottom), both pictured after their captures. From the Wikipedia articles "Juhayman al-Otaybi" and "Charles Manson". This was the most widely circulated photo of Charles Manson. Did Juhayman style himself as the Islamic version of Manson, who would get things right? This would prove the superiority of Islam over Christianity and America, and begin the reign of the Mahdi.


Many of Juhayman's associates supposedly had dreams that their candidate was the Mahdi. This would replace the Manson Family belief that the Beatles were indicating that Charles Manson was Jesus by coded messages in their White Album. 

MANSON AND ASAHARA 

Now let's go to the other side of the world.

On March 20, 1995, there was an attack on the Tokyo subway. On five different trains, bags of sarin were dropped and then punctured with umbrellas. Thirteen people were killed. On May 5, a burning bag was found in a bathroom at Shinjuku Station. It contained a chemical weapon that could have killed thousands of people. Other chemical weapons were later found.

The attack was found to have been carried out by a cult called Aum Shinrikyo, which means "Aum Supreme Truth". The cult had been founded by one Shoko Asahara, originally as a yoga class. Shoko Asahara supposedly had made pilgrimages to India and is believed to have met the Dalai Lama. 

On June 27, 1994, sarin had been released in Matsumoto, by way of a truck. Eight people were killed but Aum Shinrikyo was not suspected at the time. It was later found that the cult had tried to start an anthrax epidemic in 1993.

There are enough close similarities that we could describe Shoko Asahara as the Japanese version of Charles Manson. Image from the Wikipedia article "Shoko Asahara".

In 1993, Aum Shinrikyo began manufacturing sarin at a ranch in Australia, just as the Manson Family had lived at the Spahn and Barker Ranches. It reportedly attracted the young and disillusioned in the same way that the Manson Family did. Aum Shinrikyo used science fiction in a way similar to how the Manson Family had used Scientology, and both groups used drugs.

In a way very similar to Charles Manson, Shoko Asahara was interested in Bible prophecy. Asahara declared himself to be Christ and the Lamb of God, who could take away sins. There would be a nuclear apocalypse and only Aum Shinrikyo would survive, by retreating underground, just like the Manson Family in Death Valley.

(Source-Wikipedia)

Aum Shinrikyo was possibly alerted to pending raids on them and launched the attack on the Tokyo subway as a diversion. In the same way one reason the Manson Family is believed to have committed their two sets of horrific murders, on successive nights, is that Bobby Beausoleil had been arrested for the murder of Gary Hinman, and they wanted to make it look like the real killer was still at large.

The brother of a member of Aum Shinrikyo was killed just like Shorty Shea was murdered at Spahn Ranch. When captured, Shoko Asahara was found hiding in a wall just as Charles Manson had been found hiding in a cabinet. After being arrested, there were plots to free Asahara just as there had been to free Manson. 

THE MAHDI PLOT 

Now, let's go back to the seizure of the Grand Mosque, in Mecca. Here is what you have never read about 9-11.

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

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 the North Tower 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 in 1979 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?

Maybe Charles Manson really did move the world toward the Apocalypse, although not in the way that he planned and certainly not with him as Christ.

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