I'm not sure what to make of this: New Chairman Of 9/11 Commission Had Business Ties With Osama's Brother In Law. Now, the more conspiratorially minded of us could read a lot into this. But it is useful to remember one thing: the bin Laden family is huge. I understand that Osama has something like 40-50 brothers and sisters. Many of them are in various business ventures all over the world. So, anyone with any significant business involvement is likely to be connected to a bin Laden by at least one or two degrees of separation. The fact that the alleged connection here is with an in-law makes the connection even less tenuous. I'm all for holding anyone appointed by Dubya up to close scrutiny. The fact that the first choice was Kissinger should tell us to be very careful about who the second choice would be. But I'll need more then this to immediately write him off as nothing more then a Saudi stooge.