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 Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject: Was 9/11 an Inside Job? |
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Was 9/11 an Inside Job?
By Mark H. Gaffney
The following is an excerpt from Mark H. Gaffney's forthcoming book, THE 911
MYSTERY PLANE AND THE VANISHING OF AMERICA, to be released in September
2008.
15/08/08 "ICH" -- - - Regrettably, there is considerable evidence that
elements of the Bush administration were complicit in the 9/11 attack, and
may even have helped stage it. Let us now examine some of what I regard as
the most compelling evidence. However, the following discussion makes no
claim to be comprehensive.
We know that within minutes of the "worst terrorist attack" in US history,
even before the collapse of WTC-2 at 9:59 am, US officials knew the names of
several of the alleged hijackers. CBS reported that a flight attendant on AA
Flight 11, Amy Sweeney, had the presence of mind to call her office and
reveal the seat numbers of the hijackers who had seized the plane.[1] FBI
Director Robert Mueller later said, "This was the first piece of hard
evidence."[2] In his memoirs CIA Director George Tenet emphasizes the
importance of the passenger manifests, as does counter-terrorism czar
Richard A. Clarke.[3] All of which is very strange because the manifests
later released by the airlines do not include the names of any of the
alleged hijackers. Nor has this discrepancy ever been explained.
According to MSNBC, the plan to invade Afghanistan and "remove Al Qaeda from
the face of he earth" was already sitting on G.W. Bush's desk on the morning
of 9/11 awaiting his signature.[4] The plan, in the form of a presidential
directive, had been developed by the CIA and according to Richard Clarke
called for "arming the Northern Alliance...to go on the offensive against
the Taliban [and] pressing the CIA to...go after bin Laden and the Al Qaeda
leadership."[5]
A former Pakistani diplomat, Niaz Naik, tells virtually the same story.
During a BBC interview, three days after 9/11, Niak claimed that senior
American officials had informed him in mid-July 2001 that the US would
attack the Taliban "before the snows start falling in Afghanistan, by the
middle of October at the latest."[6] Niak said he received this information
in Berlin at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan. He
also predicted, correctly, that the US attack would be launched from bases
in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But how could US officials know in mid-July
that American forces would invade Afghanistan in October unless they had
foreknowledge of the attack?
Foreknowledge probably also explains why General Richard Myers, the acting
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on 9/11, announced at the first post-9/11
meeting of Bush's National Security Council, held on video-conference the
afternoon of the attack, that "there are forty-two major Taliban bombing
targets."[7] But how did Myers come to have such detailed information about
military targets in Afghanistan, so soon after the 9/11 attack? This
important detail belies oft-repeated claims that the US military was not
prepared to attack Afghanistan, and points to extensive war planning before
9/11. Journalist Steve Coll arrived at a similar conclusion while
researching his 2004 book, Ghost Wars, an excellent history of the period
leading up to the 9/11 attack. Coll interviewed two Clinton administration
officials who informed him that "the Pentagon had been studying possible
targets in the same spring [i.e., 1998] that the CIA had been drawing up its
secret plan to raid Tarnack Farm," located near Kandahar, Afghanistan, where
bin Laden had taken up quarters at the invitation of Taliban leader Mullah
Omar.[8]
According to Clarke, at the same meeting on the afternoon of 9/11, CIA
Director George Tenet informed the president that "Al Qaeda had committed
these atrocities."[9] But, again, how did Tenet know this so soon after the
attack, especially given that "security failures" had occurred, unless he
had foreknowledge?
No Hard Evidence
On September 20, 2001, the Bush administration officially declared that
Osama bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attack. Three days later,
Secretary of State Colin Powell announced on Meet the Press that the
government would soon release "a white paper" detailing the evidence against
bin Laden.[10] Later the same day, Bush faced questions from the press about
Powell's remark and backed away from releasing any additional information.
Bush explained that the government had a lot of evidence but that most of it
was classified and could not be made public. Bush emphasized, however, that
the evidence "leads to one person, as well as one global terrorist
organization."[11] National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made a similar
statement during an interview on FOX News. Said Rice: "We have very good
evidence of links between Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda operatives, and what
happened on September 11."[12] Rice refused to release any particulars,
however, and, like Bush, claimed that the evidence was "classified."
As we know, the US government never got around to releasing the promised
white paper. Why not? Was it because the evidence against bin Laden was too
weak to hold up in court? Such was the view of journalist Seymour Hersh, who
cited CIA and Justice Department sources to this effect in his regular
column in the New Yorker magazine.[13]
Foreign intelligence agencies were also busily investigating the case, but
fared no better. For instance, Germany's Chief Federal Prosecutor, Kay Nehm,
admitted that there was no hard evidence linking bin Laden with the
crime.[14] The lack of evidence prompted former German Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt to speak out against President Bush's decision to invoke Article V
of the NATO Treaty, mobilizing NATO's involvement in the war on terrorism.
In Schmidt's own words: "Proof had to be delivered that the September 11
terror attack came from abroad. [Yet,] that proof still has not been
provided."[15]
Osama did not cooperate by acknowledging his role in the attack; on the
contrary. In a statement on September 16, 2001 carried by Al-Jazeera, bin
Laden categorically denied any involvement. Days later, he repeated this
denial during an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Ummaut.[16] On
November 3, 2001 Al-Jazeera released a third statement, in which bin Laden
not only denied involvement but also accused the Bush administration of
waging a "crusader war" against the Muslim world. To the best of my
knowledge, none of these denials were reported in the US media. Why not?
On October 1, 2001 British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of
Commons that the case against bin Laden was proved beyond a shadow of doubt.
Said Blair: "I have seen absolutely powerful and incontrovertible evidence
of his [Osama Bin Laden's] link to the events of the 11th of September."[17]
Several days later (on October 4), Blair's government went public with the
evidence to which Blair had alluded: a "Bin Laden Dossier."[18] But the
evidence turned out to be short of "incontrovertible," and in fact was
shockingly thin. The Independent described it as "little more than
conjecture,"[19] and an editorial in the Guardian concluded that the dossier
was "almost worthless from a legal point of view."[20] The (London) Times
agreed, observing that "There is no evidence presented [in the dossier] that
directly links bin Laden to September 11."[21]
The Bin Laden Video and the personification of evil
Confronted with US demands to hand over bin Laden unconditionally, the
Taliban was initially defiant, and refused. However, in early October 2001
two Pakistani Islamic parties persuaded the Taliban leadership to extradite
bin Laden to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he would be held under house arrest
and tried by an international tribunal.[22] The deal even included the
extradition of bin Laden to the US in the event of a conviction. However,
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vetoed the arrangement, no doubt, under
heavy pressure from the Bush administration. But why would the US turn down
an opportunity to bring the arch villain of 9/11 to justice for the crime of
the century? Was it because, as I have already suggested, the US had
insufficient evidence to convict and faced the embarrassing likelihood of an
acquittal?
In fact, the only evidence the US government released linking bin Laden to
9/11 was a video-tape which supposedly turned up by chance in Afghanistan.
According to the State Department, US military forces found the hour-long
video in Jalalabad on December 9, 2001, shortly after the US invasion.[23]
It purportedly shows bin Laden and several of his al Qaeda comrades
ghoulishly celebrating their successful attack upon America. The US
government released the tape on December 13, 2001 along with an English
translation and a Department of Defense (DoD) press release. The latter
included the following statement by Rumsfeld: "There was no doubt of bin
Laden's responsibility for the September 11 attacks before the tape was
discovered."[24] The US media made much of this confessional tape, as did
political luminaries like New York City Mayor (and presidential hopeful)
Rudy Giuliani, who told CNN that the tape confirmed that the US military
campaign against bin Laden was "more than justified." Giuliani added:
"Obviously, this man [i.e., bin Laden] is the personification of evil. He
seems delighted at having killed more people than he anticipated, which
leaves you wondering just how deep his evil heart and soul really is."[25]
In the video bin Laden brags about al Qaeda's role in staging the attack.
But is the footage bona fide? Anyone who has seen the film knows that the
main character bears only the most superficial resemblance to bin Laden,
judging from well-known photos. In addition, there are major discrepancies.
For example, the video shows bin Laden writing with his right hand when
according to the FBI he is a southpaw.[26]
Two independent translators and a third expert on oriental studies also took
issue with the English translation of the Arabic released by the DoD. During
the program "Monitor," which aired on the German TV channel "Das Erste," the
three experts stated that "at the most important places where it [i.e, the
video] is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it [i.e., the translation]
is not identical with the Arabic."[27] The experts also disputed the US
claim that the tape proved foreknowledge. Gernot Rotter, professor of
Islamic and Arabic Studies at the University of Hamburg, stated that "The
American translators who listened to the tapes and transcribed them
apparently wrote a lot of things in that they wanted to hear but that cannot
be heard on the tape no matter how many times you listen to it." While this
does not necessarily exonerate bin Laden, it does raise questions. If, as
Bush claimed, the US had solid evidence of bin Laden's guilt, then why make
false claims?
Evidently, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agrees with the
skeptics. The FBI's on-line web listing of "Most Wanted Terrorists" includes
a page devoted to Osama bin Laden. According to this official post, which
may be viewed by anyone with access to cyberspace, bin Laden is wanted by
the FBI for the August 1998 attacks upon US Embassies in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed over 200 people.[28] However, the
page makes no reference to the events of September 11, 2001. Nor is there
any mention of the video discussed above. In June 2006, when blogger Ed Haas
learned about this, he was understandably puzzled and contacted FBI
headquarters by phone seeking an explanation. Haas talked with Rex Tomb, the
FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, who informed him that "The reason
why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because
the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11."[29] Haas was
dumbfounded, and said: "But how is this possible?" Tomb replied that "bin
Laden has not been formally charged in connection with 9/11." He then
explained why not:
"The FBI gathers evidence. Once evidence is gathered, it is turned over to
the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice then decides whether it
has enough evidence to present to a federal grand jury. In the case of the
1998 United States Embassies being bombed, bin Laden has been formally
indicted and charged by a grand jury. He has not been formally indicted and
charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence
connecting bin Laden to 9/11." [my emphasis][30]
This admission by the FBI is astonishing and raises fundamental questions
about the war on terrorism, as well as the role of the US media. Was Osama
bin Laden convicted for the cold-blooded murder of nearly 3,000 innocent
Americans in the US court of public opinion by means of a media circus? Did
the US government and the corporate media collude to deceive the American
people? If so, then a colossal miscarriage of justice has occurred.
Consider also the strange statement made by President Bush at a press
conference on March 13, 2002. When asked about the progress being made to
catch bin Laden, Bush replied that "we haven't heard much from him. [i.e.,
bin Laden] And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command
structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I, I'll repeat what I said.
I truly am not that concerned about him." [31] [my emphasis] But why this
almost lackadaisical attitude about the arch-villain whom Bush had promised
to track down to the ends of the earth? What had become of the president's
laser-like determination? Bush explained that bin Laden had ceased to be a
terrorist threat due to the US occupation of Afghanistan. Yet, by at least
one account, the US forces at Tora Bora displayed almost unbelievable
incompetence during the pursuit of bin Laden, as a result of which the
accused and most of his entourage escaped.[32] Was this the plan, all along?
A no less strange remark made a few weeks later (April 6, 2002) by General
Richard Myers, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, suggests that bin Laden's
getaway had been approved at the highest level. Myers told CNN that "the
goal has never been to get bin Laden."[33] I personally found his statement
incomprehensible, since at the time Osama was public enemy number one. Did
the US allow bin Laden to escape because the Bush administration judged he
was more valuable at-large? We can't be certain, because by this time there
were also numerous reports that bin Laden was dead.[34]
Did President Bush know when he made the above statement that bin Laden was
already deceased? This would explain Bush's casual demeanor. Yet, either
way, from the standpoint of propaganda it hardly mattered whether bin Laden
was dead or alive. His larger-than-life reputation could be sustained simply
by neglecting to confirm his death, and the legend is what counted. His
persona could also be "spun" in various ways and made to serve political
expedience. Indeed, by this logic bin Laden was even more valuable dead
because a living breathing bin Laden might at some point be apprehended, in
which case the Bush administration faced the unwelcome prospect of a very
public trial at which the terrorist would have an opportunity to tell his
side of the story to a listening world. And this, of course, had to be
avoided.
If we can believe the 9/11 Commission Report, the case against bin Laden was
greatly bolstered by the capture and subsequent confession in 2003 of the
alleged 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM). The problem, of
course, is that the official story about the plot against America is wholly
based on secret CIA interrogations that have never been independently
confirmed, and must therefor be viewed as suspect. But even if we accept the
testimony of KSM in 2003, this does not explain the rush to war in 2001. Nor
does it explain President Bush's decision to go to war against Saddam
Hussein, a decision reportedly made in July 2002.[35]
Previous cases of terrorism had already demonstrated the wisdom of
proceeding with caution, since knee-jerk responses can (and do) misfire. For
example, after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
City, US investigators at first suspected a Mideast connection. But this was
proved false, and similar errors were made after the 1988 downing of Pan
American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Although initial evidence
pointed to Syria or Iran, a thorough forensic investigation ruled these out
and eventually implicated Libya. The 9/11 Commission Report itself describes
the latter case as "a cautionary tale about rushing to judgement in
attributing responsibility for a terrorist act."[36] So, why the rush to war
after the September 11 attack? If the Bush administration had conclusive
evidence that al Qaeda was responsible, why not release it? Was the Bush
White House tight-lipped because the actual evidence would have exposed the
complicity of the US military and intelligence community? A stunning story
that broke in the US press in 2005 points to such a conclusion.
Able Danger
As it happened, a legitimate US military counter-terrorist operation known
as Able Danger was tracking Mohamed Atta and his cohorts as early as
January-February 2000. The operation, based at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, was
small but extremely high-tech, as it employed advanced computers to sweep
the internet, a methodology known as as data-mining. In May 2000, however,
when Able Danger's success became known throughout the Defense Department,
the officers who ran it were ordered to shut it down and destroy their
data.[37] One officer reportedly was threatened with prison if he refused.
Later, the Pentagon attempted to block Senate Judiciary Committee hearings
on Able Danger, and in 2005, when this failed, the Pentagon refused Able
Danger staffers permission to testify before the committee.[38]
One intelligence officer who later testified anyway, Lt. Col. Anthony
Shaffer, was targeted for harassment. The question is why? Of course, the
standard explanation is that the military bureaucracy made gross blunders
and later sought to cover up their incompetence. But there is another
possibility. Was Able Danger shut down because this honest operation
threatened to unmask the covert planning for the September 11 "attack"?
What is clear is that the Pentagon's self-serving attempts to gag and
discredit Lt. Col. Shaffer are not to be believed. In February 2006 Shaffer
told the House Armed Services Committee that during the summer of 2000 he
and other officers involved in Able Danger attempted on three separate
occasions to warn the FBI about the terrorist threat posed by Mohamed Atta.
But the meetings never happened. Each time they were canceled at the last
minute by high-level Pentagon attorneys.[39] Nor has the Pentagon ever
provided a satisfactory explanation as to why.[40]
Some time after the dissolution of Able Danger Shaffer was reassigned to
Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan, where in October 2003 he succeeded in
bringing the existence of Able Danger to the attention of the 9/11
Commission. This apparently happened due to a chance encounter with Philip
Zelikow, Executive Director of the commission, and several commission
staffers who were then on tour, gathering firsthand information about the US
war on terrorism. Lt. Col. Shaffer told the House committee that after he
briefed the commission staff about Able Danger's success in identifying
Mohamed Atta and other alleged 9/11 hijackers, Zelikow came up, handed him
his card, and asked him to "please contact me upon your return to the states
so we can continue this dialogue."[41] However, three months later when
Shaffer did just that he was surprised to discover that Zelikow was no
longer interested in Able Danger. But why wouldn't he be?
Then, all hell broke loose when Shaffer dutifully informed his commanding
officer about the contact. From that point on Lt. Col. Shaffer was subjected
to the sort of military hazing that is usually reserved for green recruits.
His security clearance was cancelled. He lost access to his office computer
and all of his classified materials about Able Danger, which, he later
learned, were destroyed. Subsequently, the Pentagon dismissed his testimony,
claiming it was unsupported by hard evidence, an obvious example of
Catch-22. Shaffer also learned that he was under investigation, although no
formal charges were ever filed against him. He was told "off the record"
that he had "pissed off" one or more high-ranking officers. Several of
Shaffer's colleagues from Able Danger corroborated his story, but it didn't
matter. His military career was over, destroyed.[42] Shaffer's testimony
before Congress is riveting and is essential reading for anyone interested
in 9/11 truth.
In their 2006 book Without Precedent, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton,
co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, deny that Able Danger had ever identified
Mohamed Atta before 9/11.[43] But their assertion, much belated, is just not
credible. Their own final report on 9/11 makes no mention of Able Danger. It
is abundantly clear that even though Lt. Col. Shaffer notified the panel
about this important counter-terrorism operation the commissioners made no
attempt to investigate it, and since Kean and Hamilton failed to do so how
can they now credibly claim to know? Obviously, their denial is based on
information they received, much later, from the Pentagon.
Kean and Hamilton write that their staff "received all of the Department of
Defense documents on Able Danger and had found no mention of Atta."[44] But
their claim is not persuasive, since we know that 2.5 terabytes of
intelligence data about Able Danger had already been destroyed (in 2000),
not to mention the information on Shaffer's hard drive (in 2004). The
question for the co-chairs is simple: What assurance could they possibly
have that the documents they received from the DoD about Able Danger tell
the full story? Obviously, they do not. More to the point, why would Kean
and Hamilton believe the Pentagon over the testimony of Lt. Col. Shaffer? By
this time the co-chairs already had good reason to suspect that the
Pentagon, not Shaffer, had deceived them in the hearings.[45]
Eavesdropping on bin Laden
The fact that Able Danger was shut down in May 2000, long before Bush
entered office, raises disturbing questions. Was covert planning for 9/11
already underway during the Clinton administration? It is curious that in
2002 CIA Director George Tenet told a closed session of a joint House-Senate
panel investigating the 9/11 "security failure" that al Qaeda's planning of
the September 11, 2001 attack started as early as 1998.[46] But how could
Tenet know this unless the CIA had been tracking bin Laden, all along? As a
matter of fact, we know they were! According to several UPI reports, the
National Security Administration (NSA) acknowledged in February 2001 that
the use of advanced Echelon software enabled the US intelligence community
to eavesdrop on thousands of bin Laden's cell phone calls over a period of
years. US officials disclosed that even after bin Laden began to encrypt
certain calls in 1995, his "codes were broken."[47]
The date 1998 is doubly curious. That same year Tenet informed the Senate
Intelligence Committee that the CIA's strategy to defeat al Qaeda included
the recruiting of al Qaeda operatives.[48] In his memoirs Tenet goes even
further with an assertion that is remarkable for its candor. He writes: "the
[9/11] commission failed to recognize the sustained comprehensive efforts
conducted by the intelligence community prior to 9/11 to penetrate the al
Qaeda organization."[49] I had to re-read this passage several times just to
believe my own eyes. Did the CIA recruit terrorists who were then used as
patsies on 9/11?
Bush officials, of course, have steadfastly denied that the US successfully
penetrated al Qaeda before 9/11. But their denials are less than persuasive
in light of Lt. Col. Shaffer's testimony about Able Danger, and also because
there is no doubt: we know that the monitoring of phone calls continued.
After al Qaeda bombed two US embassies in East Africa in August 1998, FBI
investigators got lucky and stumbled upon an al Qaeda communications hub in
Yemen. According to writer Lawrence Wright, this proved to be "one of the
most important pieces of evidence the FBI would ever discover, allowing
investigators to map the links of the al Qaeda network all across the
globe."[50] The hub was a private telephone, anything but high tech. The
switchboard operator turned out to be the brother-in-law of Khalid
al-Midhar, one of the nineteen alleged hijackers. His job in Yemen was
simply to relay messages to-and-from various al Qaeda operatives, including
bin Laden.[51]
From phone records US investigators confirmed a flurry of calls through the
hub before the embassy bombings, and this pattern was repeated before the
attack on the USS Cole in October 2000.[52] Indeed, it is unclear why US
intelligence agencies failed to prevent the attack on the Cole because, by
this time, they were listening. The al Qaeda hub was allowed to operate
right up until September 11, 2001, and even after. Incredibly, US and Yemeni
authorities did not finally move in and close it down until 2002.[53]
Based on this evidence, gleaned from open sources in the US media, we must
conclude that the US intelligence community was tracking al Qaeda's nearly
every move before 9/11, and had been for years, probably including the entry
of the alleged hijackers into the US, their "flight training" and subsequent
movements. The phone intercepts certainly continued.
In June 2002 both the Miami Herald and the Dallas Star-Telegram reported
that in the summer of 2001 the NSA even monitored phone conversations
between alleged 9/11 lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and alleged 9/11 mastermind
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).[54] The papers reported that the NSA "did not
recognize the significance of what they had." Evidently, we are supposed to
believe that the NSA did not pass along this important intelligence to the
CIA. But this is absurd. After all, the NSA is a part of the US Department
of Defense and exists for the purpose of providing intelligence to the CIA
and the US military. The story in the Miami Herald even acknowledges this,
citing an NSA official who stated under condition of anonymity that it was
"simply not true" that the NSA failed to share the information with other
intelligence agencies.[55] Of course they shared it. Incidentally, a google
search failed to locate the full text of either of these articles, which
apparently have long since been scrubbed from the internet. To the best of
my knowledge they survive in cyberspace only as thumbnails.
What are we to make of all of this? Did elements of the US intelligence
community know about al Qaeda's multiple hijacking operation, all along?
Did they, then, covertly piggy-back their own planning on top of it, thereby
insuring the attack's "success" while also manipulating it for their own
ignoble ends? If true, this would easily explain why the Pentagon shut down
Able Danger in May 2000. It would explain the Pentagon's gag order imposed
upon the Able Danger staffers, which blunted a Congressional inquiry. It
would also explain the carefully orchestrated smear campaign aimed at Lt
Col. Shaffer, who did his patriotic duty and was made to pay a terrible
price. It would explain why the DoD fed phony or incomplete information
about Able Danger to co-chairs Kean and Hamilton, and other members of the
commission, to persuade them that the data-mining effort was
"insignificant." It would also explain why, time and again, during the
period before 9/11, the CIA withheld critical information from the FBI,
information, which, had it become known, would have enabled the FBI to foil
the 9/11 attack. The FBI was always just one or two critical pieces of
information short of putting together the plot. Nor has the CIA disconnect
ever been adequately explained.[56] The standard excuses, bureaucratic
bungling and interagency rivalry, are simply not persuasive.
This interpretation would also explain why George Tenet lied during the 9/11
Commission hearings when he denied his meetings with President Bush in
August 2001. Indeed, it might even explain why President-elect G.W. Bush
retained Tenet, a Clinton appointee, as his CIA chief. The move was one of
Bush's first decisions as president and was most unusual, especially given
the neocons' scarcely concealed scorn for the Clinton administration.
However, it makes perfect sense, assuming that when Bush took office
elements of the CIA and US military were already deeply involved in the
covert planning for the 9/11 attack. Continuity at the CIA would have been
essential. As far as I know, writer Ian Henshall was the first to make this
connection.[57] And let us not forget: during the period before 9/11 the CIA
Director visited the White House on a daily basis. Tenet personally briefed
Bush on intelligence issues, an unusual chore for a CIA Director.[58] But,
again, this becomes understandable, assuming that a major covert operation
was in the works, one that entailed extreme compartmentalization. Only a
very few individuals at the top would have been fully briefed.
bin Laden in Dubai?
A no less shocking story that appeared in the prestigious French paper Le
Figaro on October 11, 2001 points to the same conclusion. The story claimed
that bin Laden was actually under the protection of US security agencies
prior to the 9/11 attack. According to Le Figaro, bin Laden checked in to
the American Hospital in Dubai on July 4, 2001, just two months before 9/11,
where he received medical treatment over a ten-day period for a serious
kidney ailment.[59]
Dubai is one of the Arab Emirates located in the Persian Gulf. The story
cannot be based on just rumor or hearsay because it includes many details:
Bin Laden was reportedly accompanied by his personal physician, a nurse,
four body guards, and at least one of his lieutenants. It also states that
the local CIA station chief, evidently a well known figure in the tiny
country, was seen entering bin Laden's hospital suite during his stay, and
immediately after the meeting caught a flight back to the US. If the story
is accurate, bin Laden held court from his hospital room, welcoming various
members of his extended family, as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. It
is no secret that bin Laden suffered from kidney disease. Pakistani Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif had informed the Clinton administration about bin
Laden's deteriorating health as early as 1998, during a state visit to
Washington.[60]
A follow-up report in the Guardian (UK) on November 1, 2001 confirmed the
above story and added further details, noting that bin Laden's Saudi guests
included Prince Turki al Faisal, who was then head of Saudi intelligence.
The article in the Guardian names French intelligence as the source of the
story in Le Figaro. It also claims the information was leaked because the
French were "keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA and to restrain
Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere." Given that bin
Laden was already wanted at the time for the US embassy bombings in Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam, why did the US not arrange to have local authorities
snatch the terrorist in Dubai, in order to bring him to justice? Of course,
it goes without saying that bin Laden would never have visited the US
hospital in the first place had he not been confident of his protected
status. Do we dare to connect these dots? Surely the story in Le Figaro
suggests that elements of the US intelligence establishment knew about the
coming 9/11 attack and allowed bin Laden to remain free to play his assigned
role. As shocking as this sounds, if the story is correct there is no other
plausible explanation.
Such a conclusion is further supported by powerful evidence that first came
to light on November 6, 2001, when the BBC program Newsnight produced FBI
documents on British television proving that soon after G.W. Bush entered
office the White House ordered the FBI to "back off" from ongoing
investigations of Osama bin Laden and other members of his family, some of
whom were living in the US at the time.[61] To the best of my knowledge,
none of these stories from European and UK press were ever reported in the
US media. Again, why not?
Were elements of the US government and intelligence community complicit in
the events of September 11, 2001? Did they allow the attack to happen, or
even help to stage it, in order to generate the pretext for a much more
aggressive US foreign policy which the American people would not otherwise
support? Either way, the implications are shocking, indeed, so shocking that
many of our fellow countrymen (and women) cannot bring themselves to think
such thoughts. Yet, it is a matter of record that the neoconservatives
openly advocated an imperial shift in US foreign policy before the November
2000 election.[62] Moreover, Clinton was already moving in this direction.
These are grave questions for our nation and we must not fail to address
them. If there is any truth in them we face a Constitutional crisis unlike
anything in our history.
Mark's forthcoming book, THE 9/11 MYSTERY PLANE will feature, among other
disclosures, the first published discussion and analysis of the NORAD/FAA
radar data from 9/11, released last October thanks to a FOIA request. Mark
Can be reached for comment at markhgaffney@earthlink.net
Mark's book can be pre-ordered at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/11-Mystery-Plane-Vanishing-America/dp/0979988608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216184222&sr=1-1
1 According to another account the stewardess was Betty Ong. Lynn Spencer,
Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the Skies
over America on 9/11, Free Press, New York, 2008, p.18.
2 "The President's Story," CBS News, September 10, 2003.
3 George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, My Years at the CIA,
HarperCollins, New York, 2007, pp.xix and 167; Richard A. Clarke, Against
All Enemies, Free Press, New York, 2004. pp. 13-14.
4 Jim Miklaszewski and Alex Johnson, "US planned for attack on al-qaida,"
MSNBC and NBC, May 16, 2002,
5 Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies, Free Press, New York, 2004, p. 26.
Evidently the name of the plan was "Blue Sky." George Tenet, At the Center
of the Storm, My Years at the CIA, HarperCollins, New York, 2007, pp. 171
and 130-131.
6 The three US officials were Tom Simmons, a former US Ambassador to
Pakistan, Karl Inderfurth, former Assistant Secretary of State for Asian
Affairs, and Lee Coldren, a former State Department expert on south Asia.
George Arney, "US 'planned attack on Taliban'," BBC news, September 18,
2001.
7 At the Center of the Storm, My Years at the CIA, HarperCollins, New York,
2007, pp.. 23.
8 Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and
bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin Press,
New York, 2004, p. 409, also see note 21, p. 628.
9 Ibid.
10 "White House Wavers on Publicizing bin Laden Case," UPI, September 24,
2001.
11 Transcript: President Freezes Terrorists' Assets: Remarks by the
President, Secretary of the Treasury O'Neill and Secretary of State Powell
on Executive Order, The Rose Garden, September 24, 2001, posted at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010924-4.html
12 News Sunday, FOX News, September 23, 2001.
13 Seymour Hersh, "What Went Wrong: The C.I.A. and the failure of American
intelligence, New Yorker, October 1, 2001
14 The Guardian, September 17, 2001, p. 11; also see The (London) Times,
September 28, 2001, p. 5.
15 Schmidt reportedly made the statement on German television on December
10, 2001. See the Webster Tarpley segment in the video by Barrie Zwicker,
"The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw," 2004.
16 Ummaut, September 22, 2001. The pertinent text reads, as follows: "I was
not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States nor did I have
knowledge of the attacks. There exists a government within a government
within the United States. The United States should try to trace the
perpetrators of these attacks within itself; to the people who want to make
the present century a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity.
That secret government must be asked as to who carried out the
attacks....The American system is totally in the control of the Jews, whose
first priority is Israel, not the United States ... I have already said that
we are not hostile to the United States. We are against the system, which
makes other nations slaves of the United States, or forces them to mortgage
their political and economic freedom."
17 The (London) Daily Telegraph, October 1, 2001.
18 The full transcript may be viewed at
http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2001/10/05
19 The Independent (UK), October 7, 2001, p. 7.
20 The Guardian, October 5, 2001, p. 23
21 The (London) Times, October 5, 2001, p. 8.
22 The (London) Daily Telegraph, October 4, 2001, p. 9; also see Milan Rai,
"Afghanistan: The Unnecessary War," Znet, October 13, 2004.
23 The full video is posted at http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2001/12/14
24 As of this writing the press release is still posted and may be viewed at
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=3184
25 "Bin Laden on tape: Attacks 'benefited Islam greatly'," CNN, December 14,
2001, posted at
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/
26 http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm
27 Georg Restle, Ekkehard Sieker, "Bin-Laden-Video: Falschübersetzung als
Beweismittel?", MONITOR Nr. 485 am, December 20, 2001. posted at
http://web.archive.org/web/20021218105636/www.wdr.de/tv/monitor/beitraege.phtml?id=379
28 The page is posted at
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm
29 "FBI says, "No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11," Muckraker
Report, June 6, 2006, posted at http://www.teamliberty.net/id267.html
30 Ibid.
31 President Bush Holds Press Conference, The James S. Brady Briefing Room,
March 13, 2002. Posted at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html
32 John F. Burns,"10-Month Afghan Mystery: Is bin Laden Dead or Alive?," New
York Times, September 30, 2002.
33 Evans, Novak, Hunt and Shields, "Interview with General Richard Myers,"
CNN, April 6, 2002.
34 Giles Tremlett (in Madrid), "Al-Qaeda leaders say nuclear power stations
were original targets," The Guardian, September 9, 2002; also see "Report:
Bin Laden Already Dead," FOX News, December 26, 2001; "Israeli Intelligence:
Bin Laden is dead, heir has been chosen," Special to World Tribune.com,
October 16, 2002; "Musharraf: bin Laden likely dead," CNN, January 19, 2002.
35 George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, My Years at the CIA,
HarperCollins, New York, 2007, p. 309.
36 The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Norton & Co., New York, 2004, pp.
75-76.
37 Army Major Eric Kleinsmith destroyed 2.5 terabytes of intelligence data
about al Qaeda in May and June 2000, at the order of Tony Gentry, general
counsel of the Army Intelligence and Security Command. This is an enormous
amount of data. To get an idea just how large the number is, wrap your mind
around this: It is the equivalent of 25% of the Library of Congress.
Patience Wait, "Data-mining offensive in the works," Government Computer
News, October 10, 2005, posted at
http://www.gcn.com/print/24_30/37242-1.html?topic=news
38 Philip Shenon, "Pentagon Blocks Testimony at Senate Hearings n
Terrorism," New York Times, September 20, 2005; also see Philip Shenon,
"Second Officer Says 9/11 Leader was Named Before Attacks," New York Times,
August 23, 2005.
39 Prepared statement of Anthony A. Shaffer, Lt Col., US Army Reserve,
Senior Intelligence Officer, before the House Armed Services Committee,
Wednesday February 15, 2006, full transcript posted at
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_hr/021506shaffer.pdf
40 The official explanations are so ridiculous they do not even deserve
comment.
41 Ibid.
42 Will Dunham, "Three more assert Pentagon knew of 9/11 ringleader,"
Reuters, September 1, 2005; "Navy Captain Backs Able Danger Claims," FOX
News, August 23, 2005; also see Thom Shanker, "Terrorist Known Before 9/11,
More Say." New York Times, September 2, 2005.
43 Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, Without Precedent: The Inside Story
of the 9/1 Commission, Alfred A, Knopf, New York, 2006, pp. 294-295.
44 Ibid.
45 Dan Eggen, "9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon," The Washington
Post, August 2, 2006.
46 John Diamond and Kathy Kiely, "Officials: Sept. 11 attacks were planned
since 1998," USA Today, June 18, 2002.
47 Richard Sale, "NSA Listens to bin Laden," UPI, February 13, 2001; also
see John C.K. Daly, "Analysis: US Combs Airwaves for bin Laden," UPI,
February 21, 2001; also see "US Makes Cyberwar on bin Laden," UPI, February
9, 2001.
48 See the final report of the Joint Inquiry Committee, Appendix, p. 21,
cited in Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 413., also see note 30, p. 629.
49 George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, HarperCollins, New York, 2007,
p.121.
50 Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Alfred
A. Knopf, New York, 2006, pp.277-278.
51 By Lisa Myers, "Hindsight and the attacks on America," NBC News, July 21,
2004, posted at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5479799/
52 David Enser, Chris Plante and Peter Bergen, "USS Cole plot began after
embassy attacks, investigator says, CNN News, December 20, 2002, posted at
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/20/terrorism.threat.02/
53 "US links Yemen clan to Sept. 11 and East Africa attacks," MSNBC,
February 14, 2002. archived at
http://www.bouwman.com/911/Operation/Yemen/Feb-15.html
54 Dallas Star-Telegram, June 7, 2002; also see Miami Herald, June 6, 2002.
55 Miami Herald, June 6, 2002.
56 For an excellent discussion of the many cases where the CIA withheld
information, see Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road
to 9/11, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006. See chapters 16-20.
57 Ian Henshall, 9/11 Revealed: The New Evidence, Carroll and Graf, New
York, 2007, p.64.
58 Tenet mentions this in his memoirs. At the Center of the Storm, p. 137.
59 Alexandra Richard, "The CIA met bin Laden while undergoing treatment at
an American Hospital last July in Dubai, Le Figaro, October 11, 2001.
(translated by Tiphaine Dickson)
60 Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and
bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin Press,
New York, 2004, p. 442, also see note 14, p. 633.
61 Greg Palast and David Pallister, "FBI claims Bin aden Inquiry was
frustrated: Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11,"
Guardian (UK), November 7, 2001.
62 The neocon strategy for global US empire was outlined in a 2000 briefing
paper, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a
New Century." It may still be viewed at the Project for a New American
Century (PNAC) web site:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm |
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