The Star: Former U.S. spy linked 9/11 terrorists to Canada

[tuvor]

(Thanks to CHIMO for posting this earlier. A really interesting article.)

There has been a lot of huffing and puffing in the media and in Ottawa and Washington this week about the "9/11 myth." The myth, born in the hours after the terrorist attacks on the entrepreneurial, political and military epicentres of the United States, is that several of the 19 murderous fanatics who orchestrated the mayhem on Sept. 11, 2001, slipped into America from Canada.

That myth was given renewed life earlier this week when the newly minted and haltingly ill-informed U.S. homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, parroted the falsehood in a CBC interview.

Napolitano's remarks have provoked a flurry of diplomatic backtracking and tsk-tsking from the usual political and so-called national security pundits who populate the airwaves these days.

But lost in all the hyperbole and the media-propelled outrage has been an exploration of the myth's genesis. That's not surprising because many of the players in the media and in political capitals now hurling stones were complicit in promoting and providing sustenance to the myth. The hypocrisy has, at times, been breathtaking.

How do I know this?

I was one of the many reporters on both sides of the 49th parallel who relied – regrettably – on the top-tier and still unrepentant U.S. spy who was largely responsible for giving birth to the myth.

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http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/623559