title: Risk aversion

text: In modern portfolio theory, risk aversion is measured as the additional expected reward an investor requires to accept additional risk. If an investor is risk-averse, they will invest in multiple uncertain assets, but only when the predicted return on a portfolio that is uncertain is greater than the predicted return on one that is not uncertain will the investor will prefer the former. Here, the risk-return spectrum is relevant, as it results largely from this type of risk aversion. Here risk is measured as the standard deviation of the return on investment, i.e. the square root of its variance. In advanced portfolio theory, different kinds of risk are taken into consideration. They are measured as the n-th root of the n-th central moment. The symbol used for risk aversion is A or A.


title: Risk aversion

text: Using expected utility theory's approach to risk aversion to analyze "small stakes decisions" has come under criticism. Matthew Rabin has showed that a risk-averse, expected-utility-maximizing individual who,


title: Risk aversion

text: "from any initial wealth level [...] turns down gambles where she loses $100 or gains $110, each with 50% probability [...] will turn down 50–50 bets of losing $1,000 or gaining any sum of money."


title: Risk aversion

text: Rabin criticizes this implication of expected utility theory on grounds of implausibility—individuals who are risk averse for small gambles due to diminishing marginal utility would exhibit extreme forms of risk aversion in risky decisions under larger stakes. One solution to the problem observed by Rabin is that proposed by prospect theory and cumulative prospect theory, where outcomes are considered relative to a reference point (usually the status quo), rather than considering only the final wealth.


title: Risk aversion

text: Another limitation is the reflection effect, which demonstrates the reversing of risk aversion. This effect was first presented by Kahneman and Tversky as a part of the prospect theory, in the behavioral economics domain.


title: Risk aversion

text: The reflection effect is an identified pattern of opposite preferences between negative as opposed to positive prospects: people tend to avoid risk when the gamble is between gains, and to seek risks when the gamble is between losses. For example, most people prefer a certain gain of 3,000 to an 80% chance of a gain of 4,000. When posed the same problem, but for losses, most people prefer an 80% chance of a loss of 4,000 to a certain loss of 3,000.


title: Risk aversion

text: The reflection effect (as well as the certainty effect) is inconsistent with the expected utility hypothesis. It is assumed that the psychological principle which stands behind this kind of behavior is the overweighting of certainty. Options which are perceived as certain are over-weighted relative to uncertain options. This pattern is an indication of risk-seeking behavior in negative prospects and eliminates other explanations for the certainty effect such as aversion for uncertainty or variability.


title: Risk aversion

text: The initial findings regarding the reflection effect faced criticism regarding its validity, as it was claimed that there are insufficient evidence to support the effect on the individual level. Subsequently, an extensive investigation revealed its possible limitations, suggesting that the effect is most prevalent when either small or large amounts and extreme probabilities are involved.


title: Risk aversion

text: Attitudes towards risk have attracted the interest of the field of neuroeconomics and behavioral economics. A 2009 study by Christopoulos et al. suggested that the activity of a specific brain area (right inferior frontal gyrus) correlates with risk aversion, with more risk averse participants (i.e. those having higher risk premia) also having higher responses to safer options. This result coincides with other studies, that show that neuromodulation of the same area results in participants making more or less risk averse choices, depending on whether the modulation increases or decreases the activity of the target area.


title: Risk aversion

text: In the real world, many government agencies, e.g. Health and Safety Executive, are fundamentally risk-averse in their mandate. This often means that they demand (with the power of legal enforcement) that risks be minimized, even at the cost of losing the utility of the risky activity.


title: Risk aversion

text: It is important to consider the opportunity cost when mitigating a risk; the cost of not taking the risky action. Writing laws focused on the risk without the balance of the utility may misrepresent society's goals. The public understanding of risk, which influences political decisions, is an area which has recently been recognised as deserving focus. In 2007 Cambridge University initiated the Winton Professorship of the Public Understanding of Risk, a role described as outreach rather than traditional academic research by the holder, David Spiegelhalter.


title: Risk aversion

text: Children's services such as schools and playgrounds have become the focus of much risk-averse planning, meaning that children are often prevented from benefiting from activities that they would otherwise have had. Many playgrounds have been fitted with impact-absorbing matting surfaces. However, these are only designed to save children from death in the case of direct falls on their heads and do not achieve their main goals. They are expensive, meaning that less resources are available to benefit users in other ways (such as building a playground closer to the child's home, reducing the risk of a road traffic accident on the way to it), and—some argue—children may attempt more dangerous acts, with confidence in the artificial surface. Shiela Sage, an early years school advisor, observes "Children who are only ever kept in very safe places, are not the ones who are able to solve problems for themselves. Children need to have a certain amount of risk taking ... so they'll know how to get out of situations."


title: Risk aversion

text: One experimental study with student-subject playing the game of the TV show Deal or No Deal finds that people are more risk averse in the limelight than in the anonymity of a typical behavioral laboratory. In the laboratory treatments, subjects made decisions in a standard, computerized laboratory setting as typically employed in behavioral experiments. In the limelight treatments, subjects made their choices in a simulated game show environment, which included a live audience, a game show host, and video cameras. In line with this, studies on investor behavior find that investors trade more and more speculatively after switching from phone-based to online trading and that investors tend to keep their core investments with traditional brokers and use a small fraction of their wealth to speculate online.


title: Risk aversion

text: The basis of the theory, on the connection between employment status and risk aversion, is the varying income level of individuals. On average higher income earners are less risk averse than lower income earners. In terms of employment the greater the wealth of an individual the less risk adverse they can afford to be, and they are more inclined to make the move from a secure job to an entrepreneurial venture. The literature assumes a small increase in income or wealth initiates the transition from employment to entrepreneurship-based decreasing absolute risk aversion (DARA), constant absolute risk aversion (CARA), and increasing absolute risk aversion (IARA) preferences as properties in their utility function. The apportioning risk perspective can also be used to as a factor in the transition of employment status, only if the strength of downside risk aversion exceeds the strength of risk aversion. If using the behavioural approach to model an individual’s decision on their employment status there must be more variables than risk aversion and any absolute risk aversion preferences.


title: Risk aversion

text: Incentive effects are a factor in the behavioural approach an individual takes in deciding to move from a secure job to entrepreneurship. Non-financial incentives provided by an employer can change the decision to transition into entrepreneurship as the intangible benefits helps to strengthen how risk adverse an individual is relative to the strength of downside risk aversion. Utility functions do not equate for such effects and can often screw the estimated behavioural path that an individual takes towards their employment status.


title: Risk aversion

text: The design of experiments, to determine at what increase of wealth or income would an individual change their employment status from a position of security to more risky ventures, must include flexible utility specifications with salient incentives integrated with risk preferences. The application of relevant experiments can avoid the generalisation of varying individual preferences through the use of this model and its specified utility functions.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organic compounds. Hydrogenation typically constitutes the addition of pairs of hydrogen atoms to a molecule, often an alkene. Catalysts are required for the reaction to be usable; non-catalytic hydrogenation takes place only at very high temperatures. Hydrogenation reduces double and triple bonds in hydrocarbons.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Hydrogenation has three components, the unsaturated substrate, the hydrogen (or hydrogen source) and, invariably, a catalyst. The reduction reaction is carried out at different temperatures and pressures depending upon the substrate and the activity of the catalyst.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The same catalysts and conditions that are used for hydrogenation reactions can also lead to isomerization of the alkenes from cis to trans. This process is of great interest because hydrogenation technology generates most of the trans fat in foods (see below). A reaction where bonds are broken while hydrogen is added is called hydrogenolysis, a reaction that may occur to carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom (oxygen, nitrogen or halogen) bonds. Some hydrogenations of polar bonds are accompanied by hydrogenolysis.


title: Hydrogenation

text: For hydrogenation, the obvious source of hydrogen is H gas itself, which is typically available commercially within the storage medium of a pressurized cylinder. The hydrogenation process often uses greater than 1 atmosphere of H, usually conveyed from the cylinders and sometimes augmented by "booster pumps". Gaseous hydrogen is produced industrially from hydrocarbons by the process known as steam reforming. For many applications, hydrogen is transferred from donor molecules such as formic acid, isopropanol, and dihydroanthracene. These hydrogen donors undergo dehydrogenation to, respectively, carbon dioxide, acetone, and anthracene. These processes are called transfer hydrogenations.


title: Hydrogenation

text: An important characteristic of alkene and alkyne hydrogenations, both the homogeneously and heterogeneously catalyzed versions, is that hydrogen addition occurs with "syn addition", with hydrogen entering from the least hindered side. This reaction can be performed on a variety of different functional groups.


title: Hydrogenation

text: With rare exceptions, H is unreactive toward organic compounds in the absence of metal catalysts. The unsaturated substrate is chemisorbed onto the catalyst, with most sites covered by the substrate. In heterogeneous catalysts, hydrogen forms surface hydrides (M-H) from which hydrogens can be transferred to the chemisorbed substrate. Platinum, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium form highly active catalysts, which operate at lower temperatures and lower pressures of H. Non-precious metal catalysts, especially those based on nickel (such as Raney nickel and Urushibara nickel) have also been developed as economical alternatives, but they are often slower or require higher temperatures. The trade-off is activity (speed of reaction) vs. cost of the catalyst and cost of the apparatus required for use of high pressures. Notice that the Raney-nickel catalysed hydrogenations require high pressures:


title: Hydrogenation

text: Catalysts are usually classified into two broad classes: homogeneous catalysts and heterogeneous catalysts. Homogeneous catalysts dissolve in the solvent that contains the unsaturated substrate. Heterogeneous catalysts are solids that are suspended in the same solvent with the substrate or are treated with gaseous substrate.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Some well known homogeneous catalysts are indicated below. These are coordination complexes that activate both the unsaturated substrate and the H. Most typically, these complexes contain platinum group metals, especially Rh and Ir.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Homogeneous catalysts are also used in asymmetric synthesis by the hydrogenation of prochiral substrates. An early demonstration of this approach was the Rh-catalyzed hydrogenation of enamides as precursors to the drug L-DOPA. To achieve asymmetric reduction, these catalyst are made chiral by use of chiral diphosphine ligands. Rhodium catalyzed hydrogenation has also been used in the herbicide production of S-metolachlor, which uses a Josiphos type ligand (called Xyliphos). In principle asymmetric hydrogenation can be catalyzed by chiral heterogeneous catalysts, but this approach remains more of a curiosity than a useful technology.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogenation are more common industrially. In industry, precious metal hydrogenation catalysts are deposited from solution as a fine powder on the support, which is a cheap, bulky, porous, usually granular material, such as activated carbon, alumina, calcium carbonate or barium sulfate. For example, platinum on carbon is produced by reduction of chloroplatinic acid "in situ" in carbon. Examples of these catalysts are 5% ruthenium on activated carbon, or 1% platinum on alumina. Base metal catalysts, such as Raney nickel, are typically much cheaper and do not need a support. Also, in the laboratory, unsupported (massive) precious metal catalysts such as platinum black are still used, despite the cost.


title: Hydrogenation

text: As in homogeneous catalysts, the activity is adjusted through changes in the environment around the metal, i.e. the coordination sphere. Different faces of a crystalline heterogeneous catalyst display distinct activities, for example. This can be modified by mixing metals or using different preparation techniques. Similarly, heterogeneous catalysts are affected by their supports.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In many cases, highly empirical modifications involve selective "poisons". Thus, a carefully chosen catalyst can be used to hydrogenate some functional groups without affecting others, such as the hydrogenation of alkenes without touching aromatic rings, or the selective hydrogenation of alkynes to alkenes using Lindlar's catalyst. For example, when the catalyst palladium is placed on barium sulfate and then treated with quinoline, the resulting catalyst reduces alkynes only as far as alkenes. The Lindlar catalyst has been applied to the conversion of phenylacetylene to styrene.


title: Hydrogenation

text: "Transfer hydrogenation" uses hydrogen-donor molecules other than molecular H. These "sacrificial" hydrogen donors, which can also serve as solvents for the reaction, include hydrazine, formic acid, and alcohols such as isopropanol.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In organic synthesis, transfer hydrogenation is useful for the asymmetric hydrogenation of polar unsaturated substrates, such as ketones, aldehydes and imines, by employing chiral catalysts.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Polar substrates such as nitriles can be hydrogenated electrochemically, using protic solvents and reducing equivalents as the source of hydrogen.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The addition of hydrogen to double or triple bonds in hydrocarbons is a type of redox reaction that can be thermodynamically favorable. For example, the addition of hydrogen to ethene has a Gibbs free energy change of -101 kJ·mol, which is highly exothermic. In the hydrogenation of vegetable oils and fatty acids, for example, the heat released, about 25 kcal per mole (105 kJ/mol), is sufficient to raise the temperature of the oil by 1.6–1.7 °C per iodine number drop.


title: Hydrogenation

text: However, the reaction rate for most hydrogenation reactions is negligible in the absence of catalysts. The mechanism of metal-catalyzed hydrogenation of alkenes and alkynes has been extensively studied. First of all isotope labeling using deuterium confirms the regiochemistry of the addition:


title: Hydrogenation

text: In the third step, the alkyl group can revert to alkene, which can detach from the catalyst. Consequently, contact with a hydrogenation catalyst allows "cis-trans"-isomerization. The "trans"-alkene can reassociate to the surface and undergo hydrogenation. These details are revealed in part using D2 (deuterium), because recovered alkenes often contain deuterium.


title: Hydrogenation

text: For aromatic substrates, the first hydrogenation is slowest. The product of this step is a cyclohexadiene, which hydrogenate rapidly and are rarely detected. Similarly, the cyclohexene is ordinarily reduced to cyclohexane.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In many homogeneous hydrogenation processes, the metal binds to both components to give an intermediate alkene-metal(H)2 complex. The general sequence of reactions is assumed to be as follows or a related sequence of steps:


title: Hydrogenation

text: The hydrogenation of nitrogen to give ammonia is conducted on a vast scale by the Haber–Bosch process, consuming an estimated 1% of the world's energy supply.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Oxygen can be partially hydrogenated to give hydrogen peroxide, although this process has not been commercialized. One difficulty is preventing the catalysts from triggering decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide to form water.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Catalytic hydrogenation has diverse industrial uses. Most frequently, industrial hydrogenation relies on heterogeneous catalysts.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The food industry hydrogenates vegetable oils to convert them into solid or semi-solid fats that can be used in spreads, candies, baked goods, and other products like margarine. Vegetable oils are made from polyunsaturated fatty acids (having more than one carbon-carbon double bond). Hydrogenation eliminates some of these double bonds.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In petrochemical processes, hydrogenation is used to convert alkenes and aromatics into saturated alkanes (paraffins) and cycloalkanes (naphthenes), which are less toxic and less reactive. Relevant to liquid fuels that are stored sometimes for long periods in air, saturated hydrocarbons exhibit superior storage properties. On the other hand, alkenes tend to form hydroperoxides, which can form gums that interfere with fuel handling equipment. For example, mineral turpentine is usually hydrogenated. Hydrocracking of heavy residues into diesel is another application. In isomerization and catalytic reforming processes, some hydrogen pressure is maintained to hydrogenolyze coke formed on the catalyst and prevent its accumulation.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Hydrogenation is a useful means for converting unsaturated compounds into saturated derivatives. Substrates include not only alkenes and alkynes, but also aldehydes, imines, and nitriles, which are converted into the corresponding saturated compounds, i.e. alcohols and amines. Thus, alkyl aldehydes, which can be synthesized with the oxo process from carbon monoxide and an alkene, can be converted to alcohols. E.g. 1-propanol is produced from propionaldehyde, produced from ethene and carbon monoxide. Xylitol, a polyol, is produced by hydrogenation of the sugar xylose, an aldehyde. Primary amines can be synthesized by hydrogenation of nitriles, while nitriles are readily synthesized from cyanide and a suitable electrophile. For example, isophorone diamine, a precursor to the polyurethane monomer isophorone diisocyanate, is produced from isophorone nitrile by a tandem nitrile hydrogenation/reductive amination by ammonia, wherein hydrogenation converts both the nitrile into an amine and the imine formed from the aldehyde and ammonia into another amine.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The earliest hydrogenation is that of platinum catalyzed addition of hydrogen to oxygen in the Döbereiner's lamp, a device commercialized as early as 1823. The French chemist Paul Sabatier is considered the father of the hydrogenation process. In 1897, building on the earlier work of James Boyce, an American chemist working in the manufacture of soap products, he discovered that traces of nickel catalyzed the addition of hydrogen to molecules of gaseous hydrocarbons in what is now known as the Sabatier process. For this work, Sabatier shared the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Wilhelm Normann was awarded a patent in Germany in 1902 and in Britain in 1903 for the hydrogenation of liquid oils, which was the beginning of what is now a worldwide industry. The commercially important Haber–Bosch process, first described in 1905, involves hydrogenation of nitrogen. In the Fischer–Tropsch process, reported in 1922 carbon monoxide, which is easily derived from coal, is hydrogenated to liquid fuels.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In 1922, Voorhees and Adams described an apparatus for performing hydrogenation under pressures above one atmosphere. The Parr shaker, the first product to allow hydrogenation using elevated pressures and temperatures, was commercialized in 1926 based on Voorhees and Adams' research and remains in widespread use. In 1924 Murray Raney developed a finely powdered form of nickel, which is widely used to catalyze hydrogenation reactions such as conversion of nitriles to amines or the production of margarine.


title: Hydrogenation

text: In the 1930s, Calvin discovered that copper(II) complexes oxidized H. The 1960s witnessed the development of well defined homogeneous catalysts using transition metal complexes, e.g., Wilkinson's catalyst (RhCl(PPh)). Soon thereafter cationic Rh and Ir were found to catalyze the hydrogenation of alkenes and carbonyls. In the 1970s, asymmetric hydrogenation was demonstrated in the synthesis of L-DOPA, and the 1990s saw the invention of Noyori asymmetric hydrogenation. The development of homogeneous hydrogenation was influenced by work started in the 1930s and 1940s on the oxo process and Ziegler–Natta polymerization.


title: Hydrogenation

text: For most practical purposes, hydrogenation requires a metal catalyst. Hydrogenation can, however, proceed from some hydrogen donors without catalysts, illustrative hydrogen donors being diimide and aluminium isopropoxide, the latter illustrated by the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction. Some metal-free catalytic systems have been investigated in academic research. One such system for reduction of ketones consists of "tert"-butanol and potassium tert-butoxide and very high temperatures. The reaction depicted below describes the hydrogenation of benzophenone:


title: Hydrogenation

text: A chemical kinetics study found this reaction is first-order in all three reactants suggesting a cyclic 6-membered transition state.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Another system for metal-free hydrogenation is based on the phosphine-borane, compound 1, which has been called a "frustrated Lewis pair". It reversibly accepts dihydrogen at relatively low temperatures to form the phosphonium borate 2 which can reduce simple hindered imines.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline has been reported to be catalysed by fullerene, its mono-anion, atmospheric hydrogen and UV light.


title: Hydrogenation

text: The original and still a commonly practised form of hydrogenation in teaching laboratories, this process is usually effected by adding solid catalyst to a round bottom flask of dissolved reactant which has been evacuated using nitrogen or argon gas and sealing the mixture with a penetrable rubber seal. Hydrogen gas is then supplied from a H-filled balloon. The resulting three phase mixture is agitated to promote mixing. Hydrogen uptake can be monitored, which can be useful for monitoring progress of a hydrogenation. This is achieved by either using a graduated tube containing a coloured liquid, usually aqueous copper sulfate or with gauges for each reaction vessel.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Since many hydrogenation reactions such as hydrogenolysis of protecting groups and the reduction of aromatic systems proceed extremely sluggishly at atmospheric temperature and pressure, pressurised systems are popular. In these cases, catalyst is added to a solution of reactant under an inert atmosphere in a pressure vessel. Hydrogen is added directly from a cylinder or built in laboratory hydrogen source, and the pressurized slurry is mechanically rocked to provide agitation, or a spinning basket is used. Recent advances in electrolysis technology have led to the development of high pressure hydrogen generators, which generate hydrogen up to 100 bar (1400 PSI) from water. Heat may also be used, as the pressure compensates for the associated reduction in gas solubility.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Flow hydrogenation has become a popular technique at the bench and increasingly the process scale. This technique involves continuously flowing a dilute stream of dissolved reactant over a fixed bed catalyst in the presence of hydrogen. Using established HPLC technology, this technique allows the application of pressures from atmospheric to . Elevated temperatures may also be used. At the bench scale, systems use a range of pre-packed catalysts which eliminates the need for weighing and filtering pyrophoric catalysts.


title: Hydrogenation

text: Catalytic hydrogenation is done in a tubular plug-flow reactor (PFR) packed with a supported catalyst. The pressures and temperatures are typically high, although this depends on the catalyst. Catalyst loading is typically much lower than in laboratory batch hydrogenation, and various promoters are added to the metal, or mixed metals are used, to improve activity, selectivity and catalyst stability. The use of nickel is common despite its low activity, due to its low cost compared to precious metals.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 1)

text: The first season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" premiered on the Logo network on October 22, 2012. Contestants from the original "RuPaul's Drag Race" show returned to compete again. Cast members were announced on August 6.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 1)

text: This season features 12 returning contestants representing all four seasons. It aired six one-hour episodes. Contestants were judged on their "charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent" and, since they competed in teams of two, also "synergy". The winner received a supply of MAC cosmetics, a "one of a kind trip" and $100,000. The theme song playing during the runway every episode is "Sexy Drag Queen" (dootdoot 'doot-swift' Remix) and the song playing during the credits is "Responsitrannity" (Matt Pop's Edit), the latter of which is originally from RuPaul's album "Glamazon".


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 1)

text: The first episode introduced several changes to the rules for the All Stars competition. Queens competed in teams of two, determined by the contestants themselves. Both members of the losing team would be eliminated each week. The bottom two teams chose one member to "lip synch for their lives". The non-lip synching teammates had the option during the first minute of the performance to declare a "she-mergency", hit a panic button and "tag in" to complete the performance. Mimi Imfurst and Pandora Boxx teamed up to form "Team Mandora", Tammie Brown and Nina Flowers teamed up to form "Team Brown Flowers", Latrice Royale and Manila Luzon teamed up to form "Team Latrilla", Yara Sofia and Alexis Mateo teamed up to form "Team Yaralexis", Raven and Jujubee teamed up to form "Team Rujubee" and Shannel and eventual winner Chad Michaels teamed up to form "Team Shad". RuPaul dedicated the first episode in memory of Sahara Davenport, a former competitor in season 2 of RuPaul's Drag Race who died due to heart failure.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 1)

text: The winner of the first season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" was Chad Michaels, with Raven being the runner-up.


title: Mack Brown

text: William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, when he left Chapel Hill to become head coach for the University of Texas. In 2018, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Two days after Carolina fired Larry Fedora in November 2018, Brown was announced to return as the Tar Heels' head coach after a five-year hiatus from coaching, which he spent as an ESPN analyst.


title: Mack Brown

text: Prior to his head coach positions at Texas and North Carolina, Brown was head coach for Appalachian State and later, Tulane. He is credited with revitalizing the North Carolina and Texas football programs.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown coached the Longhorns to victory against the top-ranked USC Trojans at the 2006 Rose Bowl game to cap off an undefeated season, win a second consecutive Rose Bowl, and the national championship in what has been considered the greatest game in college football history. Brown's Longhorns defeated Red River Showdown conference rival Oklahoma in 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2013.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 2006, he was awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award for "Coach of the Year". Brown achieved his 200th career win during the 2008 season, making him the first Texas coach to reach that mark. He resigned after the 2013 Alamo Bowl, leaving as the second-winningest coach in program history (11 wins behind Darrell Royal).


title: Mack Brown

text: Since returning to Chapel Hill, Brown has become Carolina's all-time winningest coach, passing Dick Crum for most wins in program history.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown was born as the middle of three boys (brothers Mel and Watson) on August 27, 1951, in Cookeville, Tennessee. During his teenage years, he attended Putnam County High School. Brown's family had a long history with football. His grandfather, Eddie Watson, was an athlete at Tennessee Tech and a coach at Putnam County High School for more than three decades. His father, Melvin Brown, was also a coach and an administrator. Mack's older brother Watson also coached, and was the head football coach at a total of six Division I football schools, ending his career with their hometown school, Tennessee Tech. Mack attended Vanderbilt University before attending Florida State University and graduating in 1974. He later received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1976. During his undergraduate years, Brown was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown was a three-sport star at Putnam County High School, playing football, basketball and baseball. After his senior season, he won All-State as well as Prep All-America honors and was selected one of the nation's top running backs by "Scholastic" Magazine his senior year. "The Tennessean" selected him as the state player of the year.


title: Mack Brown

text: He accepted a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where his brother Watson Brown was the starting quarterback. In his time playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores, he played for Bill Pace and rushed 82 times for 364 yards and three touchdowns, as well as catching seven passes for 50 yards and a touchdown during the 1970 season.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown then transferred to Florida State University. Brown played for Florida State under head coach Larry Jones. At Florida State he had 31 rushing attempts for 98 yards and 10 catches for 76 yards with no touchdowns in the 1972 season. Lettering twice as a running back for the Seminoles, he started his coaching career as a student coach after five knee surgeries ended his career prematurely.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's first experience coaching came as a student coach of wide receivers at Florida State, a position he held in 1973 and 1974. From 1975 to 1977, he was the wide receivers coach at Southern Miss. This was followed by a one-year stint as wide receivers coach at Memphis State.


title: Mack Brown

text: For the 1979 season, he joined the staff of Iowa State, again as a wide receivers coach, before a promotion to offensive coordinator. In 1980, after going 3–8 the year prior, Iowa State improved their record to 6–5 in large part due to running back Dwayne Crutchfield (1,312 yards with 11 TD) and the rest of Brown's offense. The team scored 108 more points that year than they had in 1979. In 1981, the team finished with a 5–5–1 record, despite starting out with a record of 5–1–1. RB Dwayne Crutchfield was again a key focal point in Brown's offense and ran for 1,189 yards with 17 TD.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 1982, Brown moved to LSU as the quarterbacks coach. The LSU Tigers improved their record to 8–3–1 from 3–7–1 the year prior in large part due to Brown's coaching of quarterback Alan Risher, who threw for 1,834 yards with 17 TD and 8 INT. He also completed 63.7% of his pass attempts. Risher had thrown 14 TD in the previous two seasons combined before Brown's arrival.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's first head coaching job came in 1983 when he led Appalachian State to a 6–5 record. In December 1983, he was seriously considered for the head coaching position at LSU which had been vacated after Jerry Stovall was fired, but the position instead went to Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown moved back to a role as offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners during the 1984 season under head coach Barry Switzer. Oklahoma would run for 2,376 yards as a team that season, averaging 216 yards a game. QB Danny Bradley also would throw for nearly 1,000 yards with 8 TD vs 5 INT. RBs Lydell Carr, Steve Sewell, and Spencer Tillman combined to run for 1,651 yards with 12 TD.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's second head coaching position came with Tulane in 1985, where he also became the school's athletic director in the wake of a point shaving scandal which led to the shutdown of the men's basketball program. Despite a slow start (a 1–10 record in his first year), he made gradual improvement, leading the Green Wave to a 4–7 record in 1986 and, in 1987, to a 6–6 record and a trip to the Independence Bowl, Tulane's fifth bowl game in over 40 years and last until 1998.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 1988, Brown was named the head coach at North Carolina. Brown's first two teams finished with identical 1–10 records, the worst two seasons that the Tar Heels have suffered on the field in modern times. However, the next two years saw a relatively quick return to respectability. In 1990, the Tar Heels finished 6–4–1. By comparison, the Tar Heels had won only seven games in the previous three years. Included in the 1990 total was a tie of Georgia Tech that proved to be the Yellow Jackets' only non-win that season en route to a share of the national championship. In 1991, the Tar Heels finished 7–4, narrowly missing a bowl bid.


title: Mack Brown

text: Everything finally came together for the Tar Heels in 1992. They finished 8–3 in the regular season and second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and with a victory over Mississippi State in the Peach Bowl, they finished the season at 9–3. The Peach Bowl was the program's first bowl appearance since 1986 and their first bowl win since 1982. They also notched their first appearance in a final Top 25 poll since 1982.


title: Mack Brown

text: The 1992 season was the start of UNC's most successful period since the Charlie Justice era in the late 1940s. Brown coached the Tar Heels to five consecutive bowl games, including UNC's only two New Year's Day bowl games in more than half a century (or three, if one counts the 1992–93 Peach Bowl, which was played the day after New Year's to avoid a conflict with the Sugar Bowl). They were ranked in the AP Top 25 every week from October 1992 through the start of the 1995 season. They finished in the final rankings in four out of five years, including two straight appearances in the top 10. They also won 10 regular-season games in 1993 and 1997, only the second and third times the Tar Heels have accomplished this. Largely due to Florida State joining the league in 1992, Brown was unable to win an ACC title—something the Tar Heels haven't done since 1980.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's time at UNC also saw renewed popularity for a team that had long played in the shadow of the school's powerhouse basketball team. Games at Kenan Memorial Stadium were almost always sold out, the highlight being a standing-room only crowd of 62,000 that watched the Tar Heels play Florida State in 1997, still the largest crowd to watch a college football game on campus in the state of North Carolina. Brown also spearheaded a major renovation to Kenan Stadium that featured upgraded team facilities and an expansion to 60,000 seats.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown was offered the head coaching position at Oklahoma in 1995. He turned the job down and it instead went to Howard Schnellenberger.


title: Mack Brown

text: Not long after the end of the 1997 season, Brown accepted the head coaching job at Texas. His defensive coordinator, Carl Torbush, coached the Tar Heels in that year's Gator Bowl. North Carolina credits the 1997 regular season to Brown and the Gator Bowl to Torbush.


title: Mack Brown

text: In his early years at UT, Brown was referred to as "Coach February," due to his success in bringing in high talent recruits. His detractors felt that with all the resources at his disposal at Texas, combined with the talent he was recruiting from high school programs, that he should have more to show for it than appearances in the Holiday Bowl or Cotton Bowl Classic. They felt that he should be playing for Big 12 titles or even National Championships instead.


title: Mack Brown

text: In five of the first seven seasons under Brown, the Longhorns were all but eliminated from either of these two goals due to losses in October to Big 12 rival Oklahoma. Since the two teams played in the same division of the Big 12, a loss by Texas to Oklahoma meant that Texas could not win the south division of the conference unless Oklahoma lost at least two conference games. However, in 1999 Brown led Texas to their second Big 12 title game where they were beaten by a higher ranked Nebraska team that they had beaten earlier in the year. In 2001, Brown took Texas to their 3rd Big 12 title game. In that year's campaign, the Longhorns lost to the Sooners, but were given another chance when the Sooners lost to both Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Texas lost the Big 12 Championship Game to Colorado, a school they had beaten by a substantial margin earlier in the year. Many felt that Texas would have played in the BCS Championship game had they beaten Colorado. A similar opportunity presented itself in 2002. After Oklahoma beat Texas, they lost to Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. However, Texas suffered a loss to Texas Tech, so they did not make the championship game.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 2003, Texas finished the regular season with a 10–2 regular season record, and most observers felt they had the resume to reach their first BCS bowl under Brown. However, when South Champion (and No. 1 ranked) Oklahoma lost to North Champion Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game, Kansas State received the Big 12 Conference's automatic BCS bid as conference champion and joined Oklahoma in the BCS. The BCS rules specified that no more than two teams from a single conference could receive bids. Texas was frozen out.


title: Mack Brown

text: Although Brown consistently led the Longhorns to a bowl game to cap off each season in his first six years, he was not able to lead them to a Bowl Championship Series game, having to settle each year for the Holiday Bowl or Cotton Bowl Classic. His record in these games was 3–3, with two of the three losses coming at the hands of supposedly inferior teams as judged by the rankings headed into the games.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 2004, the Longhorns began the season with a No. 7 ranking nationally and had risen to No. 5 coming into the annual matchup with then No. 2 Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. Oklahoma shutout the Longhorns 12–0. Texas dropped to No. 9, before rebounding with wins over No. 24 Missouri, 28–20, at No. 24 Texas Tech, 51–21, and at Colorado, 31–7. Then Texas set a record for the largest come from-behind-win in school history, beating No. 19 Oklahoma State, 56–35, after falling behind 35–7. After this performance, Texas again fell behind against Kansas, but squeaked out a win 27–23. Kansas head coach Mark Mangino stirred up controversy by claiming that the officials were biased in favor of Texas because the conference wanted a second team in a BCS bowl game and Texas was in position to gain an at-large BCS bid. The series of victories brought Texas back up to No. 5 in the rankings as they welcomed arch-rival Texas A&M to Austin and won 26–13. However, Oklahoma stood undefeated, which meant the Sooners would represent the Big 12 South in the championship game against a much lower ranked team from the North Division. Once again, the loss to Oklahoma had kept Texas out of playing for a national or conference title, and had seemingly destined them to a non-BCS bowl as well.


title: Mack Brown

text: With Texas and California both vying for a spot in the Rose Bowl, Brown received criticism for lobbying on behalf of his team, which many perceived was a factor in UT's Rose Bowl invitation. Cal was denied what would have been their first Rose Bowl bid since 1958. "I thought it was a little classless how Coach Brown was begging for votes," Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers told reporters in Berkeley. "I think a team's record and the way you play should speak for itself." Cal's only loss was a 23–17 nailbiter on the road at USC. Cal dominated the game statistically, more than doubling USC in total yardage. The Golden Bears had a first-and-goal from the 9-yard-line with roughly one minute left in the fourth quarter, but could not convert. Meanwhile, Texas's lone loss was a 12–0 defeat to Oklahoma on a neutral field. USC and Oklahoma, the teams Cal and Texas lost to, respectively, went on to play in the national championship. USC blew out Oklahoma 55–19 in that game. However, Texas fans point to the Holiday Bowl, where Cal was dealt a 45–31 loss at the hands of No. 23 Texas Tech, a team which Texas defeated 51–21 earlier in the season.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's Longhorns accepted the bid to play in the Rose Bowl. It was the first visit by the Longhorns, due mainly to the fact that the Rose Bowl traditionally pitted the winner of the Pac-10 against the winner of the Big Ten. Texas's opponent was Michigan, whom Texas was playing for the first time. Texas won the game, 38–37, on a last second field goal by kicker Dusty Mangum in what had been called one of the greatest Rose Bowl games of all time. Despite the success of the 2004 season, Coach Brown's resume was still lacking both a conference championship and a national championship.


title: Mack Brown

text: Texas opened the season ranked No. 2 behind USC in every preseason poll. Led by quarterback Vince Young, Texas defeated their early opponents easily, including a decisive 45–12 victory over Oklahoma. That marked the 6th time the Longhorns entered the contest ranked 2nd nationally, and they have won all six times. With the win, Texas started the season 5–0 for the first time since 1983. That season was the last time UT had national title hopes, when they ended the regular season 11–0 before losing to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl Classic.


title: Mack Brown

text: After a win over previously undefeated Texas Tech, Texas moved into first place in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings for the first time since its creation. However, the following week Texas fell back down to No. 2 in the BCS poll, while USC moved back into the #1 spot. Both teams won all their remaining games, with USC and Texas remaining ranked No. 1 and #2 throughout the rest of the regular season.


title: Mack Brown

text: The two teams finally met in the BCS National Championship Game at the 2006 Rose Bowl in a highly anticipated matchup. Texas and USC were the only two unbeaten NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) teams (Auburn was also undefeated in 2004), and the game marked the first time two teams averaging over 50 points per game had met. The combined 53-game win streak was an NCAA record for teams playing each other and the game was also the first to have teams ranked first and second in every iteration of the BCS standings. The game also featured USC's two Heisman winners (Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart) as well as a Heisman finalist in Vince Young. In an up and down game, Texas eventually defeated USC 41–38, highlighted by a 4th and 5 touchdown run and 2 point conversion by Vince Young in the final minute, giving the Longhorns their first national championship in 34 years.


title: Mack Brown

text: After defeating USC the year before in the BCS Championship game to finish with the undisputed No. 1 ranking, Texas began the 2006 season ranked No. 2 in the optimistic pre-season polls, having replaced the NFL-departed quarterback Vince Young with freshman Colt McCoy. The Longhorns however lost convincingly to No. 1 ranked Ohio State in the second game of the season in Austin. The Horns quickly rebounded to win seven straight games (including a second straight win over nemesis Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout) to climb into the Big 12 South driver's seat and entertain thoughts of a rematch with Ohio State in the national championship, but in the season's 10th game McCoy was injured and Texas was shocked on the road at Kansas State. After the loss, the Horns returned home still needing a final win to clinch the Big 12 South, and even though McCoy returned for the annual matchup Texas was again shocked, losing, 12–7, to intrastate rival Texas A&M. The loss snapped UT's six-game winning streak over the Aggies and the horns settled for the Alamo Bowl where Texas defeated a 6–6 Iowa team in a close game to cap off a 10 win season.


title: Mack Brown

text: Mack Brown entered his 10th season as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns with a record of 93–22 setting a new mark above 0.8 winning percentage (.809), the best in Longhorn history. The 2007 Texas Longhorns football team began play ranked third in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage, and were ranked in the Top 10 by numerous pre-season polls.


title: Mack Brown

text: Despite expectations, prior to and during the season a total of seven UT players were suspended for various infractions. Brown said “I am extremely disappointed that four of our student-athletes have had issues with the law this summer. That is not reflective of the high standard of class, character and integrity we have established at Texas for many years. It’s a shame that these recent events have generated a great deal of negative attention, because I do think that overall, this is as good of a group of kids that I’ve ever coached. I think that will show over time.” The negative publicity was more extensive than in past instances but Mack Brown publicly supported the players while denouncing their actions.


title: Mack Brown

text: For the second straight year, UT merchandise were the top-selling products among buyers of Collegiate Licensing Company. UT used part of the money to give Mack Brown a raise: the University of Texas Board of Regents voted unanimously to raise Brown's salary by $300,000, bringing his annual compensation to $2.81 million and keeping him among the five highest paid coaches in the sport. The package also contained provisions for up to $3 million in bonuses, including "$100,000 if he wins the Big 12 Championship and $450,000 if he wins this year's national championship, as well as bonuses based on the percent of players who graduate." Brown's contract was extended through the 2016 season and includes buy-out clauses should another school attempt to hire Brown.


title: Mack Brown

text: For the football season, Texas won their first four games although three of them were closer than analysts had expected. In their next game Texas was beaten for a second year in a row by the Kansas State Wildcats 41–21 through play with no turnovers and 21  combined points from defense and special teams. The Kansas State Wildcats scored one touchdown on a punt return, one on a kick return, and one on an interception; Previously, Texas had never allowed all three types of scores in a single season. The 41 points were the most scored against Texas in Austin since UCLA handed the Longhorns a 66–3 loss in 1997, and it was the worst home defeat in the Mack Brown era at Texas. Texas lost again the following week in the 2007 Red River Shootout, 28–21. With that loss, Texas opened conference play 0–2 for the first time since 1956, when they were in the Southwest Conference and one year before Darrell Royal became head coach of the Longhorns. But that was as bad as it got for Mack Brown during the first decade of the 21st century. In their ninth regular season game, Texas outscored Nebraska 28–25, marking Brown's 100th win at Texas. In their next two games, the Longhorns would defeat Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, but in their final matchup against archrival Texas A&M, the Longhorns lost 30–38. This marked the Longhorns' second straight loss to the Aggies. Despite the loss, Texas went to the Holiday Bowl to defeat 11th-ranked Arizona State 52–34. The Longhorns finished the season 10–3, marking their seventh consecutive 10-win season, the third longest of all time in FBS history, trailing Florida State's 14 from 1987 to 2000 and Miami's 8 from 1985 to 1992.


title: Mack Brown

text: The 2008 Texas Longhorns football team entered the season ranked 10th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. They won their first four games to rise to number 5 in the national rankings. Texas began Big 12 Conference play on October 4, 2008, with a trip to Boulder, Colorado and a win over the Colorado Buffaloes. On October 11, 2008, they defeated the number-one ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the 103rd Red River Shootout. It was the third UT win in four seasons, and the first time in Brown's tenure for either team to upset the other in the Red River Shootout.<ref name="TX/ou recap"></ref>


title: Mack Brown

text: Following the victory over OU, the Longhorns vaulted up the standings to first place in the AP, ESPN/USA Today, and Harris Polls. In their next game they secured a win over No. 11 Missouri in Austin, setting a new school, state, and conference attendance record in the process. It was the first time since 1977 for the Longhorns to play a home football game as the No. 1 team in the AP. Texas's reign at the top of the BCS standings was soon brought to an end; however, by the then seventh-ranked Red Raiders of Texas Tech. In a game played before a record-setting national television audience on November 1, 2008, the Longhorns, who trailed the entire game, took the lead with one minute and twenty-eight seconds remaining on the clock. Texas Tech then scored a comeback touchdown with one second remaining to win the game 39–33, keeping Texas out of the Big 12 Championship Game and national title pictures. Texas finished the 2008 regular season with a win over Texas A&M, the Longhorns' longest-running rivalry opponent. The biggest margin of victory in the history of the series occurred when Texas beat A&M 48–0 in 1898. Texas nearly equaled that record in 2008 by producing a 49–9 victory, the second-largest margin of victory for this rivalry series. It was also the 200th career win for Mack Brown, and it set a new attendance record for UT, the State of Texas, the Big 12 Conference, and the southwest region. Texas would go on to win the 2009 Fiesta Bowl by beating Ohio State, 24–21.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 2009, Texas went undefeated in the regular season to win the Big 12 South Division. They defeated Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game to earn a berth in the national title game against Alabama. QB Colt McCoy was injured early in the game and did not return, leaving the offense in the hands of inexperienced true freshman Garrett Gilbert. Alabama dominated Texas to win the national title. Brown would coach the Longhorns for four more seasons. However, the teams would not match the success of the previous years. In 2010, the team had a losing record and did not play in a bowl game for the first and only time under Brown. On December 14, 2013, he announced his resignation as Texas's Head Coach effective following that season's bowl game.


title: Mack Brown

text: On November 27, 2018, Brown was named head coach at North Carolina after a 5-year absence from coaching and 21 years after he left UNC for Texas. In his first game coaching in 6 years and first game as North Carolina's coach in 22 years, the Tar Heels upset the South Carolina Gamecocks in Charlotte 24–20. Coincidentally his first game as North Carolina's coach in 1988 came against South Carolina. In the home opener a week later, the Tar Heels defeated the Miami Hurricanes on a last-minute touchdown. Two weeks later, they nearly upset No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Clemson, but what would have been the go-ahead two-point conversion failed. It proved to be the only close game Clemson had in the regular season.


title: Mack Brown

text: The following week, Brown's Tar Heels defeated Georgia Tech 38–22. It was Brown's 72nd win with the Tar Heels, tying Dick Crum as the winningest coach in school history. He broke the record two weeks later with a 20–17 victory over Duke. On November 30, UNC defeated NC State 41–10 to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. They then routed Temple 55–13 in the Military Bowl.


title: Mack Brown

text: Brown's second tenure as Tar Heel coach has seen a significant uptick in recruiting. Shortly after returning to Chapel Hill, Brown convinced Sam Howell, a highly touted high school quarterback from Indian Trail, North Carolina (a suburb of Charlotte) to de-commit from Florida State. Chazz Surratt, one of the team's quarterbacks for the previous two seasons under Larry Fedora, switched to the defensive end of the ball and became an all-ACC linebacker. Despite losing six games in his first season back, Brown's influence was evident by the team's performances on the field.


title: Mack Brown

text: In 2020, Brown led the Tar Heels to a tie for third place in the ACC (divisional play had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic). With both Clemson and Notre Dame selected for the College Football Playoff, the Tar Heels received a berth in the Orange Bowl as the highest-ranked remaining ACC team. It was the Tar Heels' first major-bowl appearance since after the 1949 season. Brown's Tar Heels lost 41–27 to No. 5 Texas A&M, but held the lead early in the fourth quarter.


title: Mack Brown

text: Entering the 2021 season, Brown's Tar Heels were ranked 9th in the preseason AP Poll and were picked by the media to win the ACC Coastal Division. Junior quarterback Sam Howell was poised to be one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy and was picked as the preseason ACC Player of the Year. The Tar Heels entered the season with the highest expectations in over a decade.


title: Mack Brown

text: However, a week one loss to unranked Virginia Tech and subsequent losses to Georgia Tech and Florida State derailed the season. Despite falling short of expectations, Brown was able to guide the Tar Heels to bowl eligibility for the third straight season, thanks in part to a dramatic comeback win over a top ten Wake Forest team in Kenan Stadium. It was only the third time the Tar Heels have ever defeated a team ranked in the top 10 of a major media poll. Despite losing the Duke's Mayo Bowl to South Carolina and finishing the season with a losing record for the first time since his return, Brown signed the second consecutive top-15 recruiting class of his second stint as the Tar Heel head coach.


title: Mack Brown

text: Going into the 2022 season, Brown's Tar Heels were plagued with a number of question marks on both sides of the ball. Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman was let go, following the worst defensive performance of Bateman's tenure in Chapel Hill the previous season. Hired to replace him was Gene Chizik, who had previously been on Brown's staff at Texas before winning a National Championship at Auburn in 2010 as a head coach. Chizik's last coaching job prior to taking a five-year hiatus was under previous Tar Heel coach Fedora as the Heels' DC in 2015 and 2016. The biggest question mark was who would replace Sam Howell at quarterback. Redshirt-freshman Drake Maye and sophomore Jacolby Criswell competed in what was described as a "heated" position battle through spring practices and training camp. Maye would win the job, and was officially named the starter the week of the season opener against FAMU. Maye would go on to challenge for, and break, several of the Tar Heels' single season QB records in his first full season under center. Maye and Brown led the team to a 9–3 regular season and North Carolina's first ACC Coastal Division championship since 2015. This would also be the final Coastal Division championship, as in 2023 the ACC will abandon divisions for footbal). Brown's 2022 Tar Heels also acheived an undeafeated road record for the first time in school history. The Tar Heels' six road wins in 2022 are even more remarkable when considering how a year prior, they lost every road game they played.


title: Mack Brown

text: Since returning to Chapel Hill, Brown has started a tradition of lighting the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower Carolina blue after every win. He carried this tradition over from his time at Texas; for many years the Texas Tower has been lit burnt orange after Longhorn wins.


title: Mack Brown

text: Mack Brown's wife is named Sally. They have four children: Matt Jessee, Katherine Ryan, Barbara Wilson, and Chris Jessee.


title: Mack Brown

text: In Austin, Mack and Sally continue to be active in community affairs, serving as honorary co-chairpersons of the Capital Campaign for the Helping Hands of Austin. They have also been instrumental in the opening of The Rise School of Austin (an early childhood education program that integrates children who have disabilities with their typically developing peers) and serve on the school's board of directors. They lent their name along with legendary UT QB James Street to the First Annual James Street/Mack Brown Golf Tournament benefiting The Rise School. The Browns have endorsed a new Texas license plate, which is designed to raise public awareness for child abuse and neglect, and the need for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) volunteers. After the Aggie Bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M in 1999, the couple initiated a blood drive on the UT campus that attracted more than 250 blood donors. Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell pronounced January 30, 2014, "Mack and Sally Brown Day" in honor of the many contributions the Browns had made to the city of Austin during Mack's time as head coach of the Longhorns.


title: Mack Brown

text: In October 2006, Mack Brown made a cameo appearance in the television pilot for "Friday Night Lights". Early in the show, a resident is heard to say "Who does <nowiki>[</nowiki>Coach Taylor<nowiki>]</nowiki> think he is? Mack Brown? He's no Mack Brown." Later in the pilot, the real Mack Brown plays the role of a local football booster quizzing high school coach Eric Taylor on his pre-game preparation. As Longhorn coach, Brown also appeared in commercials for "College GameDay" where he sang "Texas Fight" with the "GameDay" crew.


title: Mac Mohan

text: Mohan Makijany (24 April 1938 – 10 May 2010), popularly known as Mac Mohan, was an Indian actor, who worked in Hindi cinema. He was known for his villainous roles in films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He appeared in over 200 films, including "Don", "Karz", "Satte Pe Satta", "Zanjeer", "Rafoo Chakkar", "Shaan", "Khoon Pasina", and "Sholay".


title: Mac Mohan

text: Mac Mohan was born in Karachi in British India. Mohan came to Bombay to become a cricketer, but joined theatre and became a Bollywood actor. He learned acting in the "Filmalaya School of Acting" in Bombay.


title: Mac Mohan

text: Mac Mohan started his Hindi film career as an assistant with director Chetan Anand, before making his debut as an actor in his film, "Haqeeqat" in 1964. His last appearance was in "Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge" in a guest appearance.


title: Mac Mohan

text: Besides Hindi movies, he also acted in Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali and Sindhi films. He had delivered dialogue in almost all Indian languages except Odia, as well as in English, Russian and Spanish films.


title: Mac Mohan

text: In November 2009, a day before he could start the shooting for Ashwini Dheer's "Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?", Mac Mohan was admitted to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri in Mumbai after his health deteriorated. He had a tumour in the right lung, which grew to be lung cancer and finally killed him on 10 May 2010, aged 72.


title: Mac Mohan

text: Asian Academy of Film & Television had a special prayer meeting on 14 May at Noida Film City. There was also a prayer meeting on the same day at Ajivasan Hall for family and friends, and people from the oldest of his spot boys to Amitabh Bachchan attended the prayer meeting to pay their respects.


title: Mac Mohan

text: Mac Mohan married Minny in 1986 and they had two daughters; Manjari Makijany, Vinati Makijany and a son Vikrant Makijany. He was the maternal uncle of actress Raveena Tandon. Mac Mohan's wife Minny is an Ayurvedic Doctor. It was when Mac Mohan's father was admitted to Arogya Nidhi Hospital in Juhu that their interaction first started and later the relationship culminated into marriage. In the interview taken by professional writer Niilesh A Raje we learn that Mac Mohan had an excellent command over spoken and written English. Apart from reading newspapers at length, he loved reading Reader's Digest magazine a lot.


title: Mac Mohan

text: 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20170517041609/http://www.merinews.com/article/actor-mac-mohan-cricketer-who-became-sambha-in-sholay/15884493.shtml at Merinews.com (April 2013)


title: Flags of Asia

text: An incomplete list of flags representing intra-Asian international and supranational organisations, which omits intercontinental organisations such as the United Nations:


title: Responsibility for the September 11 attacks

text: At around 9:30pm on September 11, 2001, George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told President George W. Bush and U.S. senior officials that the CIA's Counterterrorism Center had determined that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the September 11 attacks. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation connected the hijackers to al-Qaeda, a militant Salafist Islamist multi-national organization. In a number of video, audio, interview and printed statements, senior members of al-Qaeda have also asserted responsibility for organizing the September 11 attacks.


text: The FBI investigation into the attacks, codenamed operation PENTTBOM, was able to identify the 19 hijackers within days, as they made little effort to conceal their names on flight, credit card, and other records. By checking flight manifests and comparing them with other information, like watch lists, customs officials were able to find the names of all 19 hijackers quickly.


text: Passengers and crew aboard the flights provided information about the hijackers while the hijacking was in progress. Two flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 11, Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney, contacted airline personnel on the ground. Sweeney provided the seat numbers of the hijackers, and descriptions of the men, identifying Mohamed Atta as one of the hijackers. A flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 175 called a United Airlines mechanic and reported that hijackers had killed the crew. While the hijacking was in progress on American Airlines Flight 77, several passengers, including a flight attendant, Renee May, contacted and reported details of the hijacking to persons on the ground. Sales clerks identified two individuals to whom they sold tickets on Flight 77 as the hijackers Hani Hanjour and Majed Moqed. During the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, Jeremy Glick identified the hijackers as Arabic-looking and carrying box-cutters.


text: Mohamed Atta's luggage did not make the connection from his Portland flight to American Airlines Flight 11. In his suitcase, authorities found a handwritten letter in Arabic. As well, a handwritten letter was found at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and another in Hazmi's vehicle. When examining Mohamed Atta's left-behind luggage, the FBI found important clues about the hijackers and their plans. Atta's luggage contained instructional videotapes for flying large aircraft, a fuel consumption calculator, and a flight plan, along with a copy of the Quran. His luggage also contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, along with a copy of Atta's last will and testament. The passport of hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari was also found in Mohamed Atta's left-behind luggage.


text: Various items of evidence were found in vehicles left behind at the airports, in luggage that did not make it onto the flights, and at the crash scenes. A rental car belonging to the hijackers was found at Boston's Logan International Airport, which contained an Arabic language flight manual and documents from Huffman Aviation in Florida. There, investigators were able to find Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi's previous address in Hamburg, Germany. Nawaf al-Hazmi's 1988 blue Toyota Corolla was found on September 12 in Dulles International Airport's hourly parking lot. Inside the vehicle, authorities found a letter written by Mohamed Atta, maps of Washington, D.C., and New York City, a cashier's check made out to a Phoenix flight school, four drawings of a Boeing 757 cockpit, a box cutter-type knife, and a page with notes and phone numbers.


text: In New York City, a passport belonging to Satam al-Suqami was found by a passerby before the towers collapsed, and given to a NYPD detective. The passports of two of the hijackers of Flight 93 were also found intact at the crash site.


text: On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many.


text: For several months following the September 11 attacks, no one, nor any group, claimed responsibility for the attacks, so the primary responsibility fell solely upon the hijackers, all of whom were killed and all of whom left no message or any claim of responsibility, explaining why they had carried out the attacks. As the media covered the 9/11 attacks unfolding, many quickly speculated that bin Laden was behind the attacks. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies. This helped rule out other immediate suspects, such as Croatian nationalists, who had planted a bomb in Grand Central Terminal on September 10, 1976.


text: Authorities in the United States and Britain also obtained electronic intercepts, including telephone conversations and electronic bank transfers, which indicate that Mohammed Atef, a bin Laden deputy, was a key figure in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. Intercepts were also obtained that revealed conversations that took place days before September 11 between bin Laden and an associate in Pakistan. In those conversations, the two referred to "an incident that would take place in America on, or around, September 11" and they discussed potential repercussions. In another conversation with an associate in Afghanistan, bin Laden discussed the "scale and effects of a forthcoming operation." These conversations did not specifically mention the World Trade Center or Pentagon, or other specifics.


text: The investigators were quickly able to link the 19 men to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, also by accessing material in their intelligence agency files. The "New York Times" reported on September 12 that: "Authorities said they had also identified accomplices in several cities who had helped plan and execute Tuesday's attacks. Officials said they knew who these people were and important biographical details about many of them. They prepared biographies of each identified member of the hijack teams, and began tracing the recent movements of the men." FBI agents in Florida investigating the hijackers quickly "descended on flight schools, neighborhoods and restaurants in pursuit of leads." At one flight school, "students said investigators were there within hours of Tuesday's attacks." The "Washington Post" later reported that "In the hours after Tuesday's bombings, investigators searched their files on [Satam] al-Suqami and [Ahmed] al-Ghamdi, noted the pair's ties to [Nabil] al-Marabh and launched a hunt for him."


text: Based on the evidence, authorities in the United States quickly asserted that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization were solely responsible for the attacks, and other suspects were ruled out. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion. Although he denied involvement in the attacks at first, Osama bin Laden claimed full responsibility in a 2004 video.


text: Author Laurie Mylroie, writing in the conservative political magazine "The American Spectator" in 2006, argued that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his family are the primary architects of 9/11 and similar attacks, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's association with Osama bin Laden is secondary, and that Al-Qaeda's claim of responsibility for the attack is after the fact and opportunistic. In an opposing point of view, former CIA officer Robert Baer, writing in "Time" magazine in 2007, asserted that George W. Bush Administration's publicizing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's claims of responsibility for 9/11 and numerous other acts was a mendacious attempt to claim that all of the significant actors in 9/11 had been caught.


text: Intelligence experts speak of a "short list" of prime suspects—groups that possess both the means and the motive to carry out the crime. Two of the passengers had been identified as al-Qaeda members and were on the FBI's terrorist-alert list prior to 9/11: Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi. It appears certain that all hijackers had Arab origins, and none were Afghan; moreover, both in their immense scale, careful planning and refraining from claiming responsibility, the attacks are reminiscent of al-Qaeda's previous attacks such as the 1998 US embassy bombings that killed over 200 people.


text: In the World Trade Center bombing (February 26, 1993) a car bomb was detonated by Arab Islamist terrorists in the underground parking garage below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The urea nitrate-fuel oil device killed six and injured over a thousand people. It was intended to devastate the foundation of the North Tower, causing it to collapse onto its twin.


text: The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, El Sayyid Nosair, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Ahmad Ajaj, and Abdul Rahman Yasin. They received financing from al-Qaeda member Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle, who would later allegedly admit to planning the September 11 attacks.


text: Starting in 1996, Osama bin Laden stated in public proclamations ("fatwas") and in interviews with journalists his common list of grievances which he cited as the reason for his declaration of war against the United States.


text: In 1998, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad) co-signed a "fatwa" (binding religious edict) in the name of the , declaring:


text: In an interview with journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai published in "TIME Magazine" on January 11, 1999, Osama bin Laden was quoted as saying:


text: According to interviews by Al-Jazeera as well as United States interrogations of al-Qaeda members Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (captured in 2002 and 2003 respectively), Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the instigator and prime organizer of the attacks. Bin al-Shibh may have been picked as a hijacker but he failed to get into the United States.


text: Khalid Mohammed had provided funding to his nephew Ramzi Yousef for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. In addition, he collaborated on "Oplan Bojinka" which called for ten or more airliners to be bombed in mid-air or hijacked for use as missiles. Planning for Oplan Bojinka began in 1994, and was funded in part by Osama bin Laden, but was thwarted by an accidental fire in 1995.


text: In mid-1996, Khalid Mohammed presented a new plan to the leadership of al-Qaeda that called for several airplanes on both east and west coasts to be hijacked and flown into targets.


text: According to the bin al-Shibh and Khalid Mohammed, six of the hijackers played active parts in the planning, including the four who became the pilots. The other two were Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. CIA operatives reportedly monitored the movements of these two known militants when they visited the US but did not notify the FBI or gain an inkling of what the hijackers were planning. However, during a 2006 Moussaoui trial cross-examination, FBI agents stated that the bureau was aware, years before the attacks in 2001, that al-Qaeda planned to use planes to destroy important buildings. Philippine Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon had noted such plans during the 1995 investigation of Oplan Bojinka, of which Razon said


text: The targets ultimately chosen were the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the United States Capitol. Flight 93 was apparently meant to crash into the Capitol. The White House was considered as a target; initially dismissed as being too difficult to locate from the air, it was later included in the plans. In the communications that developed as the scheme took form, the Pentagon's code name was the "Faculty of Arts", Capitol Hill was the "Faculty of Law", and the World Trade Center was coded as the "Faculty of Town Planning".


text: Al-Qaeda's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, said in a video sent to al Jazeera and broadcast in October 2001 the following:


text: Prior to his death on May 2, 2011, the FBI listed bin Laden as one of the "10 Most Wanted" in connection with several incidents including the USS Cole bombing and the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. The FBI's "FBI Most Wanted Terrorists" poster does not specifically hang responsibility for 9/11 on bin Laden, instead it only states "Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world." FBI spokesman Rex Tomb said, however: "There's no mystery here. They could add 9/11 on there, but they have not because they don't need to at this point. ... There is a logic to it", namely, the long-standing practice of only putting criminal charges on the notice. Bin Laden was charged with the 1998 embassy bombings, not 9/11. David N. Kelley, the former U.S. attorney in New York who dealt with terrorism-related cases at the time of bin Laden's indictment for the 1998 bombings, explained that, "It might seem a little strange from the outside, but it makes sense from a legal point of view. If I were in government, I'd be troubled if I were asked to put up a wanted picture where no formal charges had been filed, no matter who it was."


text: Immediately after September 11, 2001, bin Laden praised the attacks, but denied responsibility for them. On September 16, 2001, an Al Jazeera news presenter read a message purportedly signed by Osama bin Laden, in which the following words were stated: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation."


text: In an interview with bin Laden, published in the Pakistani newspaper "Ummat Karachi" on September 28, 2001, he stated: "I have already said that I am not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act." There was reportedly no way to prove the e-mail published in Pakistan came from bin Laden. The Taliban denied he had access to any communications.


text: In late October 2001, Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Allouni conducted an interview with Osama bin Laden which was videotaped. Al-Jazeera refused to broadcast it and terminated its affiliation agreement with CNN due to CNN's broadcasting of the interview on January 31, 2002. In the interview, bin Laden addressed the September 11 attacks, saying:


text: In November 2001, US forces recovered a videotape from a bombed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan which showed a man purported to be Osama bin Laden talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden talks of planning the attacks. Translations from the tape include the following lines:


text: In May 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller noted that his organization had not uncovered a single piece of paper, "either here in the U.S. or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere", that mentioned any aspect of the September 11 plot.


text: In late November 2002, a letter attributed to bin Laden and translated by British Islamists surfaced, often called bin Laden's "letter to America". It states the motive behind the September 11 attacks as being: "because you attacked us and continue to attack us" and justifies the selection of a civilian target. Itemizing a list of perceived Western wrongdoings, the letter concludes that "the oppressed have a right to return the aggression" and hinted at further attacks. Also included are a list of demands, advice, and a statement of grievances against the American government and its people.


text: Shortly before the US presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the US, and claimed a direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because "we are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."


text: In an audio message that surfaced on the Internet in May 2006, the speaker, who is alleged to be Osama bin Laden, defends Zacarias Moussaoui, who was undergoing a trial for his participation in the September 11 attacks. The voice in the audio message says


text: , several people—including Mohammed, bin al-Shibh, and Mohammed al Qahtani, the 20th hijacker—were being held by the US as illegal combatants; however, the United States had no one on trial for the attacks. In Germany, Mounir El Motassadeq was convicted of over 3000 counts of accessory to murder for helping finance the hijackers but the verdict was put aside and a new trial scheduled. Abdelghani Mzoudi was acquitted in Germany on the same charges.


text: Imam Anwar al-Awlaki has been linked to Al-Qaeda and persons involved in the attacks, though he denied any connections. In 1998 and 1999, he served as vice president for the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) in San Diego, founded by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani of Yemen, who has since been placed on many terrorism lists. During a terrorism trial, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Brian Murphy testified that CSSW was a "front organization to funnel money to terrorists," and US federal prosecutors have described it as being used to support Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The FBI investigated al-Awlaki beginning in June 1999 through March 2000 for possible fundraising for Hamas, links to al-Qaeda, and a visit in early 2000 by a close associate of "the blind sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman (who was in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center attack until his death in 2017). The FBI's interest was also triggered by the fact that he had been contacted by a possible "procurement agent" for bin Laden, Ziyad Khaleel, who helped purchase a satellite phone to call his Yemen communications hub that was used in planning the attacks. But the FBI was unable to unearth sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.


text: While al-Awlaki was an imam in San Diego, witnesses told the FBI he had a close relationship with two of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks (Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Almihdhar) in 2000, and served as their spiritual advisor. The 9/11 Commission Report indicated that the hijackers also "reportedly respected [him] as a religious figure." Authorities say the two hijackers regularly attended the mosque he led in San Diego, and al-Awlaki had many closed-door meetings with them, which led investigators to believe al-Awlaki knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. He left San Diego in mid-2000, traveling to "various countries".


text: In January 2001, he headed east and served as Imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. Esam Omeish hired al-Awlaki to be the mosque's imam. Fluent in English, known for giving eloquent talks on Islam, and with a mandate to attract young non-Arabic speakers, al-Awlaki "was the magic bullet", according to mosque spokesman Johari Abdul-Malik; "he had everything all in a box." "He had an allure. He was charming."


text: Shortly after this, his sermons were attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers (Al-Hazmi again, and Hani Hanjour; which the 9/11 Commission Report concluded "may not have been coincidental"), and by Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. Furthermore, when police raided the Hamburg, Germany, apartment of Ramzi bin al-Shibh (the "20th hijacker") while investigating the 9/11 attacks, his telephone number was found among bin al-Shibh's personal contact information. "In my view, he is more than a coincidental figure," said House Intelligence Committee member Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA).


text: Writing on the "IslamOnline.net" website six days after the 9/11 attacks, he suggested that Israeli intelligence agents might have been responsible for the attacks, and that the FBI "went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default."


text: On August 31, 2006, al-Awlaki was arrested with a group of five Yemenis by Yemeni authorities. He claims it was with regard to a "secret police investigation" over "tribal issues", but it has been reported to relate to charges of kidnapping a Shiite teenager for ransom, and involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to kidnap a U.S. military attaché. Al-Awlaki blames the U.S. for pressuring the Yemeni authorities to arrest him, and says that in approximately September 2007 he was interviewed by FBI agents with regard to the 9/11 attacks and other subjects. Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert, noted that his name was on a list of 100 prisoners whose release was sought by al-Qaida-linked militants in Yemen.


text: Although al-Awlaki was covered as relatively minor figure in the 9/11 attacks, his involvement was noted again in 2009 after the Fort Hood shooting where the suspect had been found to be communicating by e-mail to Awlaki in Yemen, he was later linked to several terror plots and attacks in the US, Canada and UK, including the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 attack by his former student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.


text: On October 4, 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair released information compiled by Western intelligence agencies connecting Osama bin Laden to the Afghanistan's Taliban leadership as well as being the leader of the al-Qaeda organization. The Taliban government gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the attack, and his al-Qaeda network may have had a close relationship with the Taliban army and police. On the day of 9/11, the Taliban foreign minister told the Arab television network Al Jazeera: "We denounce this terrorist attack, whoever is behind it."


text: The United States requested the Taliban to shut down all al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, open them to inspection and turn over Osama bin Laden. The Taliban refused all these requests. Instead they offered to extradite Osama bin Laden to an Islamic country, for trial under Islamic law, if the United States presented evidence of his guilt. The Taliban had previously refused to extradite bin Laden to the United States, or prosecute him, after he was indicted by the US federal courts for involvement in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The Taliban deemed eyewitness testimony and satellite phone call recordings entered in the public record in February 2001 during a trial as insufficient grounds to extradite bin Laden for his involvement in the bombings.


text: Invoking the Bush Doctrine, which stated "We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them", the United States and Britain invaded and overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001, using air power, special forces and the Northern Alliance as a land army.


text: On November 29, 2007, a videotape was released that The Central Intelligence Agency says is likely to be from bin Laden. In it the speaker claims sole responsibility for the attacks and specifically denies any prior knowledge of them by The Taliban or the Afghan people.


text: According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the 9/11 plotters spent between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct the attack:


text: al-Qaeda funded the plotters. KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammad] provided his operatives with nearly all the money they needed to travel to the United States, train, and live ... The US government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately the question is of little practical significance.


text: The 9/11 Commission Report concludes: "we have seen no evidence that any foreign government – or foreign government official – supplied any funding." The difficulty in tracking the funding is due to the traditional means of zakat, a Muslim form of charitable giving essential to proper following of the faith and hawala, another ancient system of transferring funds based on trust and connections, including family, clan, and regional affiliations.


text: CNN and other news outlets reported in September and October 2001 that $100,000 was wired from the United Arab Emirates to lead hijacker Mohamed Atta prior to the attacks, by Ahmed Omar Saeed (Syed) Sheikh, a long time Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence asset.


text: The report, which was later confirmed by CNN, stated that "Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida ... In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars – believed to be excess funds from the operation – back to Syed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11. Syed also is described as a key figure in the funding operation of al-Qaeda"


text: The day after this report was published, the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, was fired from his position. Indian news outlets reported the FBI was investigating the possibility that Gen. Mahmood Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta, while most Western media outlets only reported his connections to the Taliban as the reason for his departure.


text: "The Wall Street Journal" was one of the few Western news organizations to follow up on the story, citing the "Times of India": "US authorities sought [Gen. Mahmood Ahmed's] removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 [was] wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the insistence of General Mahmood."


text: There have been suggestions that Saudi Arabia has some responsibility, having helped finance al-Qaeda, and allowing the organization to flourish. There have been claims that pre-9/11 investigations into al-Qaeda were deliberately blocked via high-level interference from Washington, and that this extends to other groups outside al-Qaeda, in particular individuals from Saudi Arabia. In June 2001, a "high-placed member of a US intelligence agency" told BBC reporter Greg Palast that "after the [2000] elections, the agencies were told to 'back off' investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals."


text: In May 2002, former FBI Agent Robert Wright, Jr. delivered a tearful press conference apologizing to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. He described how his superiors intentionally obstructed his investigation into al-Qaeda financing. Agent Wright would later tell ABC's Brian Ross that "September 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit," specifically referring to the Bureau's hindering of his investigation into Yasin al-Qadi, who Ross described as a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman with extensive financial ties in Chicago. One month after the attacks, the US government officially identified al-Qadi as one of Osama bin Laden's primary financiers, through his Muwafaq Foundation, and they declared him to be a global terrorist. A former FBI Counter Terrorism Agent commented that for someone like al-Qadi to be involved in 9/11 is "of grave concern."


text: In June 2009 lawyers for 9/11 victims' families provided documents to "The New York Times". The families of the victims formed an organization called Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism and filed a civil suit in U.S. federal court that sought to hold The Saudi Royal family responsible for supporting Al Qaeda. On June 29, 2009 the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that held that the Royal Family are immune from suits in U.S. courts due to a 1976 law. According to The Times "The documents provide no smoking gun connecting the royal family to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. And the broader links rely at times on a circumstantial, connect-the-dots approach to tie together Saudi princes, Middle Eastern charities, suspicious transactions and terrorist groups". According to the Royal families lawyer "In looking at all the evidence the families brought together, I have not seen one iota of evidence that Saudi Arabia had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks".


text: In February 2012, former U.S. senators Bob Graham and Bob Kerrey made sworn statements filed in federal court as part of this litigation commenced by the 9/11 victims' families in which the former senators stated that the government of Saudi Arabia might have played a direct role in the 9/11 attacks. The two senators had reviewed top secret information concerning the 9/11 attacks when they were in the Senate. "I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia," stated former senator Graham in his sworn court document. According to Graham's sworn statement, unanswered questions remain regarding Saudi-sponsored financial links to Al Qaeda and the role of Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi citizen living in San Diego with ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers and to officials of the government of Saudi Arabia. There remains substantial unreleased documentation related to these issues.


text: On February 4, 2015, former al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Mousaoui who is imprisoned for life for his role in 9/11 attacks, told lawyers that members of the Saudi royal family, including former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, supported al-Qaeda to carry out its attacks.


text: According to a May 2017 Foreign Agents Registration Act document, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia hired Qorvis MSLGROUP for monitoring and campaigning against the news media coverage on JASTA or Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act and the alleged role of the government of Saudi Arabia in the September 11 attacks. Qorvis MSLGROUP filed a Foreign Agents Registration Act document of the contract, stating activities it conducted on behalf of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. The services included, coordinating with veterans visits to Capitol Hill concerning JASTA, managing grassroots campaign against JASTA and its reporting in news media like CNN, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, etc.


text: Although the wealthy bin Laden family disowned Osama in 1994 after his alleged involvement in terrorism like the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, the events of 9/11 brought to attention connections between the bin Laden family and the Bush family. It has been alleged that Osama was never disowned and that his family were aware of his activities in the years preceding 9/11. The connections between the bin Laden family and Bush family have led to conspiracy theories that President George Bush was also aware of Osama's activities and deliberately allowed 9/11 to take place.


text: The movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" shows some business connections between the Bush family and the bin Laden family. It relates how Salem bin Laden invested heavily in Arbusto Energy, a company run by George W. Bush, through his friend James R. Bath. Several members of the Bush family are investors in the Carlyle Group, a defense contractor and investment fund with numerous interests in the Saudi Arabia and the Middle East and connections to the Saudi Binladen Group, run by former Reagan administration Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. On September 10, 2001, former President George H. W. Bush and several members of his cabinet had been present at a Carlyle Group business conference with Shafig bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, at the Ritz-Carlton hotel located several miles from the Pentagon. The conference was continuing with the remaining cabinet members and bin Laden's brother at the time of the Pentagon attack. George H. W. Bush remained an advisor to the Carlyle Group for two years after the attacks.


text: "The New York Times" reported that members of the bin Laden family were driven or flown under Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks. The 9/11 commission later concluded that "the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights" and that the exodus was approved by special advisor Richard Clarke after a request by Saudi Arabia who feared for the safety of their nationals. On June 20, 2007, the public interest group Judicial Watch released FBI documents that it says suggested that Osama bin Laden himself may have chartered one of the flights. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton accused the FBI of conducting a "slapdash" investigation of the flights.


text: Author Steve Coll in his 2008 book "The bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century" writes that most members of the family barely know Osama. Richard Clarke in a column about the book notes that because it was custom at that time for successful Muslim men to have multiple wives this claim rings true. Clarke also theorizes that the FBI did not question the bin Ladens before they were flown out of the US and have not questioned them since because they already had extensive knowledge about them.


text: Immediately after the attacks, rumors began that Iraq could have played a role. The state-run Iraqi media praised the attacks but denied that Iraq was responsible. In September 2003, President Bush told the press, "we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."


text: On June 29, 2005 Robin Hayes, a Republican Congressman from North Carolina and vice chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism at that time, stated "evidence is clear" that "Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11". Senator John McCain reacting to the Congressman's statement said "I haven't seen compelling evidence of that." The 9/11 Commission Report stated that there is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al-Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States. In September 2006, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that "there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein had prewar ties to al-Qaeda and one of the terror organization's most notorious members, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" and that there was no evidence of any Iraqi support of al-Qaeda or foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks.


text: Despite this, a number of 9/11 opinion polls have shown that a significant minority of the American public believe that Saddam was "personally involved". The theory extended from the one advanced by investigative journalist Jayna Davis in her book "The Third Terrorist" linking Hussein to the Oklahoma City Bombing. It was discussed in a 2002 op-ed piece in the "Wall Street Journal".


text: The U.S. indictment of bin Laden filed in 1998 stated that al-Qaeda "forged alliances ... with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies." On May 31, 2001, Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes wrote in "The Wall Street Journal" that "Officials of the Iranian government helped arrange advanced weapons and explosives training for Al-Qaeda personnel in Lebanon where they learned, for example, how to destroy large buildings."