CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- Stephen Colbert left no doubt about his solidarity with American troops when he taped the first of four Comedy Central shows he'll produce in Iraq this week.

Colbert, wearing a business suit made of the same camouflaged material used for soldiers' desert uniforms, submitted to a regulation military haircut as hundreds of U.S. troops cheered wildly Sunday.

The comedian, who satirizes conservative TV pundits on his "Colbert Report," began his "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando" USO tour Sunday in the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq.

"It must be nice in Iraq, because some of you keep coming back again and again," Colbert said, joking about the multiple tour many troops have had in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Some troops had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to earn them a free ticket to Afghanistan, he joked.

Colbert told his guest, Gen. Ray Odierno, he felt "a little intimidated" by him, not because he was he top U.S. commander in Iraq, but because it felt like he was "interviewing Shrek." Odierno is an imposing bald figure at 6-feet, 5-inches tall.

Odierno said the military is "not yet ready to declare victory" in Iraq and that there was a little more work to be done for long-term stability.

"I, Stephen Colbert, by the power invested in me by basic cable, officially declare we won the Iraq war," Colbert said, as his audience broke out into applause.

The interview was interrupted when President Obama appeared on large television screens. The commander-in-chief told his general it was time to "cut that man's hair."

With white electric hair clippers in his hand, Ordierno stood up and began shaving Colbert's trademark thick dark hair. The troops stood and cheered as a female member of Colbert's staff finished the job.

After the haircut, Colbert ran through the audience, high-fiving the troops as he showed off his new military look.

One Army major said that "shaving of the hair is an amazing show of support" that was "very touching."

Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain also made a pre-taped appearance on the show, jokingly reminding the troops to "take time to clean your muskets."

Lt. Col. Debra Shoemaker, a native of Colbert's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, said the show was a "nice break" from the monotony of service in Iraq.

USO Senior Vice President John Hanson said the shows are an important diversion for the troops.

Colbert's USO tour is unusual because it's the first time it has been a show taped in a combat zone has been edited and aired so quickly. The Sunday show will be televised on the Comedy Central network .

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/07/colbert.iraq/index.html

With white electric hair clippers in his hand, Ordierno stood up and began shaving Colbert's trademark thick dark hair. The troops stood and cheered as a female member of Colbert's staff finished the job.

After the haircut, Colbert ran through the audience, high-fiving the troops as he showed off his new military look.

One Army major said that "shaving of the hair is an amazing show of support" that was "very touching."

Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain also made a pre-taped appearance on the show, jokingly reminding the troops to "take time to clean your muskets."

However, we must ask the question: why are they there, now that we now know the Taliban had nothing to do with the events of 911?

he is wanted for the Embassy bombings and was in fact charged. As for 911, we do know that as head of Al Qaeda, he was responsible for that attack.

Offences
Categories of Offences: CRIMES AGAINST LIFE AND HEALTH, CRIMES INVOLVING THE USE OF WEAPONS/EXPLOSIVES, TERRORISM, TERRORISM CONSPIRACY
Arrest Warrant Issued by: MADRID (COURT NR 5) / Spain, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, NEW YORK / United States, TRIPOLI / Libya

UN information indicates that: 'Saudi citizenship withdrawn, now officially an Afghan national'.
Other POB: Yemen.

UN Sanctions
Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1267 (1999) and successor resolutions, including resolution 1822 (2008), the Subject is under the following UN Sanctions: Freezing of Assets, Travel Ban and Arms Embargo. The Subject has the following permanent reference number on the list maintained by the UN Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee (1267 Committee) which appears in the Special Notice for this subject: QI.B.8.01.

WANTED by Interpol
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONTACT

YOUR NATIONAL OR LOCAL POLICE

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http://www.interpol.int/Public/Data/Wanted/Notices/Data/1998/32/1998_20232.asp

what ever happened to inocent until proven guilty in a court of law?
just wondering,....

Bin Laden was one of the mujahadeen brought in to destroy the Taraki governemt and drive off the Soviets. While bushco accused him of the attack in newyork he has never been charged with that offense because of lack of evidence.

As well, he is wanted for the Embassy bombings and was in fact charged. As for 911, we do know that as head of Al Qaeda, he was responsible for that attack. I would imagine that the US has their reasons for not charging him with that crime and possibly has to do with not giving him any rights as a criminal rather than a terrorist which might inhibit any actions taken against him.

We also know that as a criminal responsible for the Embassy Attacks the Taliban refusedto turn him over and subsequently were subject to being classified as harboring a known terrorist and, attacked themselves.

UN information indicates that: 'Saudi citizenship withdrawn, now officially an Afghan national'.

UN information indicates that: 'Saudi citizenship withdrawn, now officially an Afghan national'.

Blood is thicker than water...or citizenship...or oil!

But this does raise a question: Bin Laden was a Saudi. All of the 9/11 bombers were Saudis. Not a one was an Afghan. Are we starting to build a picture about who really was behind 9/11?

His pocket litter contained two bank cards which showed he had access to Saudi and Kuwaiti bank accounts, which was considered rare since most al-Qaeda members used the preferred untraceable hawala banking.

According to James Risen

"It is not clear whether an investigation of the cards simply fell through the cracks, or whether they were ignored because no one wanted to know the answers about connections between al Qaeda and important figures in the Middle East -- particularly in Saudi Arabia." One of Risen's sources chalks up the failure to investigate the cards to incompetence rather than foul play: "The cards were sent back to Washington and were never fully exploited. I think nobody ever looked at them because of incompetence." When American investigators finally did get around to looking into the cards, they worked with "a Muslim financier with a questionable past, and with connections to the Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda, and Saudi intelligence." He reported back that "Saudi intelligence officials had seized all of the records related to the card from the Saudi financial institution in question; the records then disappeared. There was no longer any way to trace the money that had gone into the account."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah

Author Gerald Posner, controversial for his books dismissing JFK assassination and other conspiracy theories, will claim that a remarkable interrogation of al-Qaeda prisoner Abu Zubaida begins at this time. Zubaida, arrested three days earlier (see March 28, 2002), is flown to a US Special Forces compound outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan. There, he is tricked into thinking the US has handed him to the Saudis for a more brutal interrogation, but in fact “the Saudis” are still American agents. Zubaida expresses great relief at this and, under the influence of the “truth serum” sodium pentothal, tells his interrogators to call Prince Ahmed bin Salman, a nephew of the Saudi king. He provides telephone numbers from memory and says, “He will tell you what to do.”

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=fahd_bin_turki_bin_saud_al-kabir

On January 15, 2000, future 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar flew to Los Angeles, California from Bangkok, Thailand, just after attending the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The final 9/11 Commission Report noted:

Hazmi and Mihdhar were ill-prepared for a mission in the United States. . . Neither had spent any substantial time in the West, and neither spoke much, if any, English. It would therefore be plausible that they or [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] would have tried to identify, in advance, a friendly contact for them in the United States. . . We believe it unlikely that Hazmi and Mihdhar. . . would have come to the United States without arranging to receive assistance from one or more individuals informed in advance of their arrival."

Al-Bayoumi met the hijackers at a restaurant after their landing; he claims he met them by accident. He invited the two hijackers to move to San Diego with him, and they did. Al-Bayoumi found them an apartment, co-signed the lease, and gave them $1500 to help pay for their rent. Al-Bayoumi also helped the two obtain driver's licenses, rides to Social Security, and information on flight schools. Al-Bayoumi says he was being kind to fellow Muslims in need, and had no idea of their plans. But according to Newsweek magazine a former top FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "We firmly believed that he had knowledge [of the 9/11 plot], and that his meeting with them that day was more than coincidence."

Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdar's neighbors later reported that the two struck them as quite odd. They had no furniture, they constantly played flight simulator games, and limousines picked them up for short rides in the middle of the night.[8] [9] During this time, al-Bayoumi lived across the street from them. Throughout this period, the payments from Dallah Avco, his titular employer, greatly increased. Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdar later moved into the house of Abdussattar Shaikh, a friend of al-Bayoumi's, who was secretly working as an FBI informant at the time.

In July 2001, Omar al-Bayoumi moved to England to pursue a PhD at Aston University. Ten days after the September 11 attacks he was arrested by British authorities working with the FBI. He was held on an immigration charge while the FBI and Scotland Yard investigate him. His phone calls, bank accounts, and associations were researched, but the FBI says they found no connections to terrorism. He was released, and went back to studying at Aston,and later moved to Saudi Arabia. Anonymous British officials suggest al-Bayoumi must have been protected by the FBI, because "giving financial aid to terrorists is a very serious offense and there is no way [the FBI] would have let him go scot-free."

The issue was reopened when the potential links between al-Bayoumi and the Saudi Embassy were reported in the press. Under pressure from Congress, the FBI re-examined the case. They concluded that the allegations were "without merit," and they "abandoned further investigation." But contemporary news accounts reported that "countless intelligence leads that might help solve [the case] appear to have been under investigated or completely overlooked by the FBI."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bayoumi

That is fairly obvious. Just look at a couple of not generally well known events, connected to Abu Zubaydah and his capture.

As I also posted a long time ago, it seems that the Saudis also have nuclear weapons and missiles.

BAER: I'd always been fascinated by Saudi Arabia. And I'd always noticed that on general intelligence reports that are sent around in the field, and in Washington, there's virtually nothing said about Saudi Arabia. Every Arab that I talked to , and I know a lot of them , kept on talking about the disputes in the royal family, huge contracts, the Wahhabi's funding Lebanese politics. It became clear to me, even though I wasn't seeing much in the CIA traffic, or State Department, or anywhere else, that this was a key country.

So when I got back to Washington in 95 and I stayed there until I resigned from the CIA , I said, all right, I don't know a whole lot about Saudi Arabia. What about Saudi Arabia? And I got onto the computer and I took a look around, and there just wasn't anything useful. I mean, you, as a journalist, would have looked at this and said: It�s junk. There�s nothing here. And especially nothing that goes deep into the problems in Saudi Arabia.

BAER: There's a lot that we really don't know. There are a lot of people in the royal family that sympathize with bin Laden. There are people in the royal family that feel humiliated by colonialism -- call it what you want -- by the United States, by Israel. And they're humiliated that they are citizens or subjects of a country that has never fought a war, and yet spends so much money on defense. They're humiliated that they don't take the Israelis on, because their army is worthless. And maybe they're not humiliated but rather disenfranchised because they can never advance up the ranks of the family, and it's a very tough culture. They sit around and they read the Koran. And they get on these Islamic websites, and they watch Al-Jazeera. And they go to the mosque, and I think they're believers.

BAER: I could have sat down and done a list of all my former colleagues from the CIA who ended up on the Saudi Arabian payroll. Some of them are known, like Ray Close. Others have gone public, but there are others that haven't. A bunch of my colleagues went to work for a public consulting firm where the initial capital was paid for by the Saudi embassy to lobby the Hill for the Gulf countries. A former member of the National Security Council under Reagan set this up. And it's not like it's a secret. Even Bandar [Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi prince and U.S. ambassador] has said, according to the Washington Post, that if I take care of people coming out of office, the new ones coming in are going to be a lot friendlier to Saudi Arabia once it gets known.

- Robert Baer, Former CIA Case Officer and Author of "Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude."
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/09/12_baer.html