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"At present, the FBI is saying nothing in public about the contents of
the document - wisely, perhaps, since investigators originally described it
as a suicide note, which it is not.... Many of the juicy snippets published
over the last few days either do not appear at all in the Arabic version on
the FBI website or bear only a passing resemblance to what is written
there."
The Guardian
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Chilling document hints at 'Armageddon'
A letter, handwritten in Arabic and possibly the work of one of the
September 11 hijackers, raises many puzzling questions, writes Brian
Whitaker
By Brian Whitaker
Monday October 1, 2001
Four sides of paper, handwritten in Arabic, appeared on the FBI's website
last Friday. The words are thought to have been written by one of the
September 11 hijackers, possibly by Mohammed Atta whom the FBI now regards
as a central figure in the attacks.
The script, which slopes regularly to the left, is tight and controlled -
suggesting a writer with a strong sense of discipline - but every now and
then a word ends in a sweepingly dramatic flourish.
At first glance it's a little reminiscent of the rambling letters newspapers
occasionally received in English from people who describe how some vast
conspiracy involving the royal family, freemasons and creatures from outer
space has made their life a misery.
The FBI's website makes no comment on the document beyond a headline saying
"Hijack letter found at three locations".
Arrows indicate that copies were found in the wreckage of Flight 93 which
crashed in Pennsylvania, in a vehicle left at Dulles airport by a hijacker
whose plane hit the Pentagon, and in Mohammed Atta's suitcase, which somehow
failed to be loaded onto the plane that hit the north tower of the World
Trade Centre.
The FBI is very pleased with these finds because they are clear evidence -
of the sort that would convince a jury - that the hijackers on at least
three of the four planes were connected. The finds are certainly very
fortunate, though some might think them a little too fortunate.
At present, the FBI is saying nothing in public about the contents of the
document - wisely, perhaps, since investigators originally described it as a
suicide note, which it is not.
Nor has the FBI issued an English translation. This, again, is a sensible
precaution in the light of previous translation gaffes by the American
authorities. Remember the fuss when US investigators into the 1999 Egyptair
crash announced that the co-pilot had uttered a "suicide prayer" which
turned out to be nothing of the kind.
The FBI, incidentally, is desperately short of Arabic, Farsi and Pashto
translators for its investigation and is offering up to $38 (£25) an hour
(applicants must be US citizens and willing to take a lie-detector test).
Inclusion of the Farsi language suggests the FBI may be looking at Iranian
as well as Arab and Afghan connections.
In the absence of an official translation of the document, newspapers have
come up with their own versions, but many of the juicy snippets published
over the last few days either do not appear at all in the Arabic version on
the FBI website or bear only a passing resemblance to what is written there.
The only complete translation that I know of, which also seems to be
reasonably accurate, is on the Los Angeles Times website (see link below).
For anyone who wants an insight into the mentality of the hijackers, it is
well worth reading in full.
The first thing to note about the document - so obvious that you can easily
overlook it - is that it's almost totally unpolitical. There's one mention
of "Western civilisations" but not a word about Israel, Palestine, global
capitalism or any of the other issues that might be expected to concern
terrorists.
Instead, the document is a guide to mental - or spiritual - preparation for
the suicide attack, peppered with some bizarrely mundane advice, like what
kind of socks to wear on the big day.
The guide is in three sections: the Last Night; the Second Stage (setting
off from the airport to boarding the plane); and the Third Stage (boarding
the plane to the moment of death).
The instructions for the Last Night - there are 16 altogether - are as
follows.
1. Renew your convenant with God.
2. Know all aspects of the plan well and expect reaction and resistance from
the enemy.
Instruction No 3 is to read the ninth sura (or chapter) of the Koran. This
sura, usually known as al-Tawba (penitence) or al-Bara'at (immunity), is the
only one among the 114 suras in the Koran which does not begin with the
words: "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful." Some have
suggested that this is because of the stern injunctions it contains.
The sura relates to a specific situation that arose in year 8 of the Islamic
era, when the prophet Mohammed was still alive and sections of the Koran
were still being revealed.
That may seem a long time ago, but Muslims in general believe that
everything in the Koran can be relevant to the present day. The salafi
interpretation of Islam, which is popular in Yemen and parts of Saudi
Arabia, and which seems to have been adopted by Osama bin Laden and his
supporters, takes this idea a lot further.
Salafis seek to revert to what they regard as the purest form of Islam,
based on a very literal interpretation of the Koran and copying the
behaviour of the first three generations of Muslims.
It follows from this that events in the early years of Islam were very much
alive in the minds of the hijackers - perhaps to the point where the events
of year 8 became as much part of their own view of reality as the previous
day's lesson in the flight simulator.
The ninth sura is mainly about conflict with idol-worshippers and
unbelievers. It begins with a dispensation allowing Muslims to kill
idol-worshippers, despite the existence of treaties, since the
idol-worshippers had not kept their side of the bargain.
"When the sacred months have passed away, slay the idolaters wherever you
find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them
in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the
poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is forgiving,
merciful," reads the fifth verse. (It is worth noting that the idolaters of
Mecca were given an opportunity to repent, unlike the occupants of the World
Trade Centre and the hijacked planes.)
The sura also contains an important ruling which excluded idol-worshippers
altogether from Mecca. At the time it signalled a triumph of religious
principle over commerce, since the traders of Mecca were worried about
losing business if the idol-worshippers were no longer allowed in.
Verse 28 reads: "O you who believe! The idolaters are nothing but unclean,
so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year." This verse
has been interpreted as providing religious grounds for opposing the
presence of unbelievers (US forces, for example) in the Arabian peninsula
and it is one of the foundations on which Bin Laden's whole political
outlook is based.
About the time the sura was delivered, the Muslims, having consolidated
their position in Arabia, were beginning to expand their empire beyond the
pensinsula, which brought them into conflict with Christians to the north -
something that strikes a chord today among those who talk of a "clash of
civilisations".
In one incident, a tiny band of Muslims confronted a huge army at M'utah in
Syria. Despite the enormous odds against them - they were outnumbered 33-1 -
the Muslims were not defeated. This idea, that a small number of people can
make a great impact when supported by God, obviously appealed to the
hijackers.
It is echoed elsewhere in the hijack document, which quotes another passage
from the Koran, Sura III, verse 173. "Men say to them: 'A great army is
gathering against you, so fear them,' but it only increased their faith.
They said: 'God is our sufficiency ...'"
The ninth sura also refers to the Tabuk campaign - the last military action
in which the prophet Mohammed personally took part. It severely rebukes
those lukewarm Muslims who refused to take part and were unwilling to risk
losing their wealth or sacrificing their lives for the sake of jihad.
There's a lot more that might be said about the ninth sura, but suffice it
to say that - like the Book of Revelation in the New Testament - it has an
obvious appeal to fringe elements and offers a good deal of scope for
extreme interpretations.
What seems to emerge from the document released by the FBI, and from the
hijackers' favourite passages in the Koran, is that they were more deeply
engrossed in the early days of Islam than in the politics of the 21st
century. In that respect they have a lot in common with the Armageddon cults
that appear from time to time on the fringes of all religions.
There are a few other hints of cultish behaviour, too. Witnesses have
described how, before the attacks, the hijackers usually moved about in
pairs - as if each was watching the other, and always there to reassure him
if doubts ever crept in.
As often with new disclosures, the FBI document has thrown up several
additional mysteries.
A question that puzzles some academics who have read it is where, exactly,
the hijackers stood in the spectrum of Islamic thought. One professor
suggests that the numbered instructions for the last night resemble a Sufi
rule for novices (Adab al-Salikin), and that the language is full of
terminology from mystical Islam. Bin Laden, so far as is known, has no
interest in Sufism or Islamic mysticism, and Sufis are generally peaceful.
It is also clear that the four sides of writing on the FBI's website are not
the whole document. The first page does not begin with the words "In the
name of God", which is the way a devout Muslim would always begin such an
important piece of writing.
The Washington Post seems to have had sight of at least one extra page,
which would explain how it came to publish quotations which do not appear in
the Arabic version released by the FBI.
Among these, presumably from the missing first page, it quotes the document
as saying: "In the name of God, of myself and of my family ...", a formula
that orthodox Muslims would regard as heretical.
The Washington Post also describes a doodle on the paper "of a small,
arrowhead-like sword. Two circles entwine the shaft, which also has
serpentine swirls drawn on to it. The doodle also resembles a key." It adds
that the word "room" is written vertically in large letters at the end. None
of these marks are visible on the pages released by the FBI.
All this raises some puzzling questions, and I hope to return to it in a
future column. In the meantime, I would be interested to receive emails from
any religious scholars or psychologists who can contribute further to the
analysis of this strange and chilling document.
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