Torture gets you 9-11.

At one time the monsters behind 9-11 were not yet monsters. They were idealistic young men who wanted to have good careers and long lives and most of them went on to receive advanced degrees in science and engineering. They were smart, popular and well-to-do. These men who ended up as ultimate terrorists started as idealists who wanted great careers and large families and long lives lived under a government that reflected popular sentiment. They wanted the government of Saudi Arabia to reflect its citizenry and wished to see a democratically elected theocracy.

The problem was, that in the ultimate police state that is Saudi Arabia (which is to this day a full and true monarchy every bit as much so as that of Henry the Eighth) these dreams could not be pursued in any public fashion. They could not even be voiced.

Over the years as they shared their illegal ideas concerning altering the government of Saudi they also watched in horror as one after another of their friends and family members who shared their views were abducted by the Saudi police state and never heard from again... until they were returned from the Egyptian torture chambers where they had been sent.

Their loved ones came back mostly sound of body, but out of their minds. They had been tortured into a state of unrecoverable schizophrenic madness. These victims of torture were in a living hell and for their friends and loved ones their world view became just that. This group who would become the 9-11 plotters was changed forever by these incidents. They were no longer activists or revolutionaries; they were now vengeful bloodthirsty mass murderers, or 'terrorists'.

But as cold hearted and determined as they had become, they still could not crack the yoke of the Saudi police state monarchy.

They slowly removed themselves from mainstream Saudi culture, leaving behind lucrative careers and 'retired' to their new homeland; Afghanistan. And it was there that they began 'plan two' which was "If we cannot defeat the Saudi Arabian 'Oil Monarchs' then we must attack those who support them by buying their oil." They defeated Russia with our self-convenient help, but they had their eyes on the USA all the time. The US had backed the Saudi Monarchy, the Israeli Occupation and the Egyptian and Saddam Hussein tyrannies. We were there ultimate evil.

That's what torture gets you, it gets you 9-11.

Much of the above statement is corroborated by Lawrence Wright in his book The Looming Tower; and in interviews he did for it around its 2007 release. But I knew most of this tragedy from the mindblowing impression I had of a thirty minute conversation with a young Indonesian man studying civil engineering in Boston MA in 1992.

His name was Musa. He was very smart and funny with a biting wit and an active mind. We met at work and were fast friends. We philosophized and talked about pop music in the US. Musa almost worshipped me because I was casual friends with a few pop culture figures. Once, I was able to introduce him to Bob Mould (who he knew more as a solo artist than from Husker Du:). And though we only knew each other for about a year, we had a strong bond.

One day as Musa and I were parting after a hard afternoon of record shopping in Back Bay, he suddenly got my attention and stared hard into my eyes as he said 'Do you know that where I come from everybody just hates your guts...?' I stammered 'what do you...' and he said, 'Not just you, but all Americans, the USA is evil to us...'. I asked him what he meant and how he felt about WWII and he said "YES" that was the last time the US was good, we loved that, that was great, but then, you push in Israel and back all of these monarchies and police states just to protect your oil and make money...it's just sick.'

I nodded and signaled, 'let me think about this' throwing my hand over my head as in 'wow'.

We smiled, shook hands and parted, for the last time.

That's what torture gets you, it gets you 9-11.