FBI INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT: MORE EVIDENCE OF COMPLICITY IN 9/11

[freedomburns]

You won't see ANY highlights from this groundbreaking report on CNN, Faux News, or MSNBC (the network that has more letters than it deserves).  The Democrats are just as widely at fault here as anyone else.  I have consistently stated this.



NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN -- from Info Clrng Hse:

[Excerpt: "The Democratic Party is deeply implicated, supporting both
the war in Iraq and the cover-up...of the... 9/11 attacks." (cf. final
three paras:)]


FBI INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT: MORE EVIDENCE OF GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS:

Without 9/11, there would be no US occupation of Iraq, putting an American army squarely at the center of the world's largest pool of oil.
Without 9/11, there would be no US bases across Central Asia, guarding the second largest source of oil and gas.
And without 9/11, the Bush administration would have been unable to sustain itself politically, faced with a deteriorating economy and widespread opposition to its tax cuts for millionaires and social measures to appease the fundamentalist Christian Right.

By Patrick Martin

06/15/05 "WSW" - - A report released June 9 by the FBI's Office of the Inspector General raises new questions about the role of the US government in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The internal FBI study provides several important revelations about how US intelligence agencies ignored and even suppressed warnings in the period leading up to the attacks  on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Press accounts published within hours of the report's release gave a very distorted picture of the document, which runs to more than 400 pages.  No follow-up reports, based on a thorough study of the text, have yet appeared  in the mass media.

The initial media commentary invariably voiced the now-standard claim that the FBI and CIA were guilty of a "failure to connect the dots," due to bureaucratic lethargy, individual incompetence, inter-agency rivalries, even  poorly performing software systems. This presentation of events
is utterly  unserious.

The US intelligence apparatus is the most powerful instrument for spying in  the world, not a group of Keystone Cops. If it ignored warnings and suppressed information, a legitimate presumption is that it did so willfully. The question must be posed: did one or more agencies or high-level officials provide protection for known Al Qaeda associates who ultimately participated in the hijack-bombings?

Exactly who knew what, and at what level of the government, is not yet clear. But the political benefits of 9/11 for the Bush administration are undeniable. It used the terrorist attacks as a lever to swing American public opinion behind a major shift in policy, both foreign and domestic.  Without 9/11, it would have been politically impossible for the government to embark on military interventions in Central Asia and the Middle East and  launch an unprecedented attack on civil liberties at home.


Phoenix and Minneapolis

The FBI internal report examines the three best-known episodes in which the  bureau, which is the lead agency for counterterrorist activities within the  United States, missed or ignored important signals of the coming terrorist attacks. Two of the cases involved local FBI agents who voiced suspicions  that were disregarded or suppressed by FBI headquarters. In the third case,  the CIA deliberately kept the FBI in the dark-with the assistance of certain  FBI officials.

The first instance is the electronic memo of July 10, 2001 from Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, noting the number of students with ties to radical Islamic fundamentalists enrolled at local aviation training schools, and suggesting that a nationwide canvass of these schools  be carried out to determine if there was a pattern.

The second is the bureau's response to the arrest of Zaccarias Moussaoui, an  Islamic fundamentalist who was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service after his attempts to obtain training on a Boeing 747  aroused suspicions at a Minneapolis-area flight school. Moussaoui was detained on immigration charges in early August 2001, but FBI headquarters  blocked efforts by Minneapolis agents to pursue an investigation that could  have identified other Al Qaeda operatives at US flight schools.

The third is the case of Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, believed to have participated in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77, which hit  the Pentagon on 9/11. Despite being on a CIA watch list because of
connections to Al Qaeda, the two lived openly in San Diego, California for a  year or more. The CIA only notified the FBI of their presence in the US on  August 27, 2001, 20 months after their arrival, and only two weeks before  September 11.

The chapter in the inspector general's report on the Phoenix memo (called an  Electronic Communication or EC, in FBI jargon), reveals that the document  was sent to the attention of six people at FBI headquarters and two more at  the New York Division. The recipients included personnel and leadership of  both the Usama Bin Laden Unit and the Radical Fundamentalists Unit, the  latter comprising a separate group of agents assigned to investigate  Islamist militants not directly affiliated to Al Qaeda.

None of the agents who received the EC took any serious action. Several did  not even read it. The report attributes the inaction and inattention to the  lack of resources committed to anti-terrorist activities in the summer of  2001. For instance, there was only a single research analyst assigned to the  FBI's Bin Laden Unit in 2001, and she was transferred to another unit in  July 2001.

One agent at a field office who was sent the Phoenix EC replied that it was  "no big secret" that Arab men were receiving aviation training in the United  States. (Williams's concern, however, was not over "Arab men,"but rather  individuals affiliated with radical Islamic fundamentalists who publicly  justified terrorist attacks on US targets.) The FBI's New York Field Office,  which had the lead role in counterterrorism, flatly rejected Williams's  proposal for a more in-depth study of the flight school issue.

In passing, the inspector general's report notes that there was already considerable information "contained in FBI files about airplanes and flight  schools at the time the Phoenix EC was received at FBI HQ." It mentions four  examples, implying that many more could be cited.

One of these examples is the following: "In August 1998, an intelligence agency advised the FBI's New York Division of an alleged plan by unidentified Arabs to fly an explosive laden aircraft from Libya into the World Trade Center."

This previously unreported warning directly contradicts the claims, made repeatedly by Bush administration officials, especially Condoleezza Rice, that "no one could have imagined" hijacked airplanes being used as flying bombs against US targets.


The Moussaoui case

...

[Rob]

Impeach the war criminal Bush! He let 9/11 happen just to satiate Cheney's oil addiction. Screw those fascist Nazi warmongers!!!!!

[freedomburns]

Impeach the war criminal Bush! He let 9/11 happen just to satiate Cheney's oil addiction. Screw those fascist Nazi warmongers!!!!!

Now you've got the right idea. That's the spirit Bob!  But could you wait two minutes for me to post the rest of the report before mucking up the thread, please?

[Platypus]

Impeach the war criminal Bush! He let 9/11 happen just to satiate Cheney's oil addiction. Screw those fascist Nazi warmongers!!!!!

Now you've got the right idea. That's the spirit Bob! But could you wait two minutes for me to post the rest of the report before mucking up the thread, please?

+3 Brownies

[freedomburns]

Impeach the war criminal Bush! He let 9/11 happen just to satiate Cheney's oil addiction. Screw those fascist Nazi warmongers!!!!!

Now you've got the right idea. That's the spirit Bob!  But could you wait two minutes for me to post the rest of the report before mucking up the thread, please?

Forgive me for not taking trollish garbage seriously. It's a grave weakness of mine, I'm afraid.

Oh?  Well forgive me for not taking worthless and inane postings seriously.  It is incredible to me that you have nothing better to do than troll these boards looking for postings that you disagree with so that you can spout like a parrot and babble troll, troll, troll like a child rather than provide a cogent argument.  If you have some evidence with refutes the FBI Inspector General, then please present it.  Otherwise, kindly keep your bile and inane babble to yourself.  If you have something substantive to add to the debate, I'm sure that you will provide it now good sir.  Otherwise, kindly pipe down. 

Methinks he doth protest to much!  He's in on it!  He's part of the conspiracy!  Get him boys!!



lol

[freedomburns]

...

The Moussaoui case

The entire chapter on Moussaoui, 115 pages long, is redacted from the version published last week, at the order of the federal judge who has been  presiding over Moussaoui's terrorism trial. Only a few references to Moussaoui survive in other parts of the report.

A fuller analysis of this episode awaits the release of the redacted chapter, after Moussaoui's sentencing. But the gist of the situation is that  local Minneapolis FBI agents asked for permission to conduct further inquiries, including searching Moussaoui's computer, while supervisors at FBI headquarters cited the necessity for a warrant from a special court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA). The supervisors refused to apply for the FISA warrant, saying the case did not meet the court's criteria.

In one passage, the inspector general's report cites a top FBI lawyer's statement that "he had never seen a supervisory special agent in Headquarters so adamant that a FISA warrant could not be obtained and at the  same time a field office so adamant that it could." The report
also notes  that the Minneapolis field office sought an "expedited FISA," which "normally involved reports of a suspected imminent attack or other imminent  danger."

While FBI supervisors were blocking action on Moussaoui, a CIA liaison officer in Minneapolis was reporting his arrest to the CIA. George Tenet, the CIA director, was briefed on the matter.

By the end of August, French intelligence officials had provided the US government with information on Moussaoui's connections to Islamic fundamentalist groups, but the FBI still took no action. Moussaoui, who was  being held on immigration violations, was not even transferred  from the  Immigration and Naturalization Service to FBI custody until after September  11.


The San Diego hijackers

By far the most damning material in the FBI inspector general's report relates to Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, two of the 9/11 hijackers who lived in the San Diego area for much of 2000 and 2001. The report details at least five instances during this period when the FBI could have or should have become aware of their presence and purpose.

The two men entered the United States on January 15, 2000, flying from Bangkok, Thailand to Los Angeles International Airport. Mihdhar was a  articipant at a January 5, 2000 meeting of Al Qaeda operatives in Malaysia,  where he and others were photographed by an unnamed intelligence service.  These photos were supplied to the CIA.

The US National Security Agency had separately identified Hazmi as an associate of Mihdhar. The two men were tracked by the CIA traveling from Malaysia to Thailand.

CIA cables contemporaneously discussed Mihdhar's travel and the fact that he  had a US visa in his Saudi passport. So intensive was the surveillance that  agents obtained a photocopy of the passport and visa stamp and delivered it  to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two months later, the Bangkok CIA  station identified Hazmi as Mihdhar's traveling companion and reported that  he had traveled on from Bangkok to Los Angeles on January 15, 2000.

The most critical information about Mihdhar and Hazmi was withheld from the  FBI for more than a year and a half. The FBI was informed about the Malaysia  meeting as soon as it happened, and even about Mihdhar's presence at it. But  there was no mention of his passport with a multiple-entry US visa, giving  him easy access to American territory, where the FBI had the principal  responsibility for counterterrorism. Nor did the CIA tell the FBI that Hazmi  had actually entered the country, which would certainly have triggered an  alert. The CIA itself did not put either man on any other security watch  list.

Two weeks after their arrival in Los Angeles, Mihdhar and Hazmi moved to San  Diego, apparently at the urging of a new acquaintance, Omar Bayoumi, a man  once under FBI surveillance and believed to be an operative or asset of the  Saudi intelligence service. He invited the two newly arrived Saudis to San  Diego, where they rented an apartment in the complex where he lived. Bayoumi  co-signed the lease and even wrote a check for the rent because the two had  only cash.

In May 2000, the two men rented a room from another San Diego man who was an  FBI informant, and who reported their arrival and their first names to his  handler. The handler did not ask the last names or show any other interest.

The informant is not named in the inspector general's report, but he has been identified in previous press accounts as Abdussattar Shaikh, another Saudi immigrant. (Both Shaikh and his FBI handler, now retired, refused to speak with the FBI inspector general probing the bureau's response to 9/11, a remarkable circumstance that is recorded in the report only in a footnote,  and without explanation.)

The actions of Hazmi and Mihdhar strongly suggest that they were being protected and were themselves aware of it. They conducted themselves, not as  underground conspirators, trying to keep one step ahead of the most powerful  spy apparatus in the world, but as men seemingly indifferent to threats to  their security.

According to the FBI report: "... they did not attempt to hide their identities. Using the same names contained in their travel documents and known to at least some in the Intelligence Community, they rented an apartment, obtained driver's licenses from the state of California
Department of Motor Vehicles, opened bank accounts and received bank credit  cards, purchased a used vehicle and automotive insurance, took flying  lessons at a local flying school, and obtained local phone service that  included Hazmi's listing in the local telephone directory."

Even though this is not the first time the actions of Hazmi and Mihdhar have  been detailed, one rubs one's eyes in astonishment at this passage. Hazmi  could only have made himself more obvious if he had taken out an ad in the  Yellow Pages under "T" for terrorist. But the CIA, which knew who he was,  chose not to expose him to the FBI.

In June 2000, Mihdhar left the US, not returning until July 4, 2001, when he  flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Hazmi  lived in San Diego for several more months, then moved to Phoenix and  eventually the East Coast.

Following the bombing of the USS Cole in December 2000, interest in Mihdhar  and Hazmi revived. A US intelligence source identified one of the participants in the January 2000 Malaysia meeting as the ringleader of the  Cole attack, and the FBI, which had lead responsibility for the
investigation, began to review all those who attended that meeting.

However, in discussions in January 2001 and again in May and June 2001, CIA  officials did not tell the FBI that Mihdhar, now known to be associated with  the suspected organizer of the Cole bombing, had a US visa, or that Hazmi,  Mihdhar's associate, had entered the United States.

Much of this material in the report is difficult to follow, partly
because of bureaucratic complexities, partly because of the large amount of redaction, apparently to conceal the nationality of the intelligence agency  that had monitored the Malaysia meeting (most likely the Israeli Mossad).  The inspector general's report cites cooperation by Malaysian, Thai and  Yemeni security services without redaction.

The CIA finally told the FBI what it knew about Mihdhar and Hazmi on August  27, 2001, five days after the FBI had discovered independently, on August  22, that Mihdhar might be in the US, and the agency had opened its own  investigation. The New York FBI office was notified, but the job of tracking  down Mihdhar was assigned to a novice agent as his first intelligence case,  an indication of the low priority given to the investigation. Only  perfunctory steps to locate Mihdhar and Hazmi had been taken by September  11, when the two men boarded the American
Airlines jet.


Indications of a CIA cover-up

...

[freedomburns]

Indications of a CIA cover-up

The FBI inspector general's report reveals for the first time that the CIA  not only failed to inform the FBI about Mihdhar, but that CIA officials intervened to suppress a memorandum drafted by an FBI agent detailed to the  CIA-run Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC), who wanted to notify the FBI about  the suspected terrorist with a US visa. The blow-by-blow account of this  incident in the FBI report strongly implies a CIA cover-up.

The FBI agent, dubbed "Dwight" in the inspector general's report, drafted the memorandum, a Central Intelligence Report (CIR), on January 5, 2000, only hours after the Malaysia meeting had taken place. The same day, a CIA desk officer, dubbed "Michelle," relayed instructions from her supervisor barring distribution of the CIR to the FBI.

Three hours later, "Michelle" drafted and circulated an internal CIA cable which summarized the information on Mihdhar, including his multiple-entry US  visa. This cable declared that his travel documents had been copied and  passed "to the FBI for further investigation." This was a lie, which was  later used by the CIA to substantiate its initial claim that it had notified  the FBI about Mihdhar.

This cable could not possibly be an innocent mistake, since it was sent but  after its author had relayed the instructions to "Dwight" that his memo to  the FBI not be sent. Under questioning from the inspector general, no one at  the CIA or the FBI could corroborate the claim in the
cable by "Michelle"  that the CIA had notified the FBI about Mihdhar-a claim that was diametrically opposed to what the CIA was doing in practice.

The report notes that the CIA initially withheld information about the existence of the January 2000 memorandum by "Dwight" from the inspector general's office. Quoting from the report:

"In February 2004, however, while we were reviewing a list of CIA documents  that had been accessed by FBI employees assigned to the CIA, we noticed the  title of a document that appeared to be relevant to this review and had not  been previously disclosed to us. The CIA OIG
[Office of the Inspector  General] had not previously obtained this document in connection with its  review. We obtained this document, known as a Central Intelligence Report  (CIR). This CIR was a draft document addressed to the FBI containing  information about Mihdhar's travel and possession of a US visa. As a result  of the discovery of this new document, a critical document that we later  determined had not been sent to the FBI before the September 11 attacks (see  Section III, A, 4 below), we had tore-interview several FBI and CIA  employees and obtain additional documents from the CIA. The belated  discovery of this CIA document delayed the completion of our review."

The aggrieved tone is unmistakable. First the CIA withheld the document from  the FBI, then the CIA attempted to conceal the existence of the document  from the FBI's postmortem probe.

The cover-up was followed by a curious epidemic of amnesia. No one who worked on, received or read the draft CIR from "Dwight," including "Dwight"  himself, could remember anything about it. Again the report:

"When we interviewed all of the individuals involved with the CIR, they asserted that they recalled nothing about it. Dwight told the OIG that he did not recall being aware of the information about Mihdhar, did not recall  drafting the CIR, did not recall whether he drafted the CIR on his
own  initiative or at the direction of his supervisor, and did not recall any  discussions about the reason for delaying completion and dissemination of  the CIR. Malcolm said he did not recall reviewing any of the cable traffic  or any information regarding Hazmi and Mihdhar. Eric told the OIG that he  did not recall the CIR.

"The CIA employees also stated that they did not recall the CIR. Although James, the CIA employee detailed to FBI Headquarters, declined to be interviewed by us, he told the CIA OIG that he did not recall the CIR. John  (the deputy chief of the Bin Laden Unit) and Michelle, the desk officer who  was following this issue, also stated that they did not recall the CIR, any  discussions putting it on hold, or why it was not sent."

Again, the tone of incredulity is clear. None of these people remember anything, and one of them actually refuses to be interviewed! And this is not about a minor matter, but concerns the first report on a man who was one  of the 19 hijackers on 9/11.


A politically motivated whitewash

...

[Rob]

Forgive me for not taking trollish garbage seriously. It's a grave weakness of mine, I'm afraid.

Oh?  Well forgive me for not taking worthless and inane postings seriously.  It is incredible to me that you have nothing better to do than troll these boards looking for postings that you disagree with so that you can spout like a parrot and babble troll, troll, troll like a child rather than provide a cogent argument.  If you have some evidence with refutes the FBI Inspector General, then please present it.  Otherwise, kindly keep your bile and inane babble to yourself.  If you have something substantive to add to the debate, I'm sure that you will provide it now good sir.  Otherwise, kindly pipe down. 

Methinks he doth protest to much!  He's in on it!  He's part of the conspiracy!  Get him boys!!



lol

I find it amazing that you spent all that time typing a conspiracy theory someone cooked up, presumably with the aid of generous amounts of hallucinogens (I assume you typed, since you took so long between posts).

I want a link, please. From a reputable source. Oh, wait. They "don't cover it", right? LOL

[freedomburns]

Wrong again, on every count.  Nice chatting with you...BOB!

LOL

[freedomburns]

A politically motivated whitewash

The FBI inspector general's report is, like all previous official investigations into the events of 9/11, a cover-up for the state apparatus.  These investigations share one common feature: they completely exclude, a  priori, any question of government complicity in terrorist attacks. Instead,  we have the familiar litany of breast-beating over mistakes, complacency,  inattention and inadequate resources.

Despite the all-purpose explanation that "mistakes were made," names are never named in any of these probes. No one is ever held accountable. No one  is shamed or punished.

There is a definite reason for this: the US government does not want to generate a Watergate syndrome, in which punishment meted out at a lower level leads to people implicating higher-ups and focuses attention on the role of top officials.

There can hardly remain any serious doubt that a section of the
American intelligence apparatus functioned as the guardian angels for at least some of the suicide hijackers. The question is: why?

Until there is an investigation of 9/11 by a genuinely independent
body-one  wholly free of the US military/intelligence apparatus-it is
impossible to  specify precisely the role of the government in these
events.

But on the basis of a political analysis alone, it is clear that 9/11
did not come as a bolt from the blue. As in the investigation of any crime, a critical question to be posed is: who benefits? For powerful sections of the  US ruling elite and its state apparatus, a major terrorist attack on US soil  was anticipated, desired and, most probably, facilitated in order to provide  the necessary climate of fear and patriotic fervor to implement a sweeping  program of political reaction, both at home and abroad.

Without 9/11, there would be no US occupation of Iraq, putting an
American army squarely at the center of the world's largest pool of oil.
Without 9/11, there would be no US bases across Central Asia, guarding the second largest source of oil and gas. And without 9/11, the Bush administration would have been unable to sustain itself politically, faced with a deteriorating economy and widespread opposition to its tax cuts for millionaires and social measures to appease the fundamentalist Christian Right.

The Democratic Party is deeply implicated, supporting both the war in
Iraq and the cover-up of the role of the state in the 9/11 attacks. The Clinton  administration sought to provoke a confrontation with Iraq in
1998, but had  to back off in the face of public opposition to a new war
in the Middle  East-opposition that was only overcome in the wake of September 11.  Moreover, the connection between US intelligence agencies and reactionary  Islamic fundamentalists like bin Laden goes back nearly two decades,  involving Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

Despite its tactical differences with the White House and squabbles
over positions of influence, the Democratic Party accepts the basic program of the Bush administration. Should the Democrats return to power, they would not withdraw US forces from Iraq or Central Asia, nor rescind Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, nor repeal the USA Patriot Act or attacks on democratic rights.///end//

[Rob]

Oh, man. You're brilliant, you really are.

But I'm still waiting for that link.

[freedomburns]

Oh, man. You're brilliant, you really are.

But I'm still waiting for that link.

Go read the FBI Inspector General's report brainchild.  Then you may again be worthy of debate.

fb

[Rob]

Heh, I don't think you've read it, "brainchild". Try again.

[freedomburns]

Heh, I don't think you've read it, "brainchild". Try again.

Damn, using my own insults back at me.  Don't strain your one brain cell now.  I wish I had thought of that, TROLL!

Ok, since you are obviously too lazy (or perhaps too inept) to do your own research, here is a link to the Department of Justice's webpage and another link that also has the report.

http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=consp_911&Number=293693302

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/igspecr1.htm


Now, kindly take the time to refute even one small point made in my original posts.  I am sure that you can do better than closing your eyes, pointing your finger and piously screeching out "TROLL TROLL TROLL!".  Although the truth seems to burn your eyes and your feeble brain so badly that you must jerk yourself into paroxysms of orgiastic name calling and bile spewing, I can only hope that someone, (perhaps someone with more than two brain cells to rub together like JohnFord) can form a rebuttal that is not a facistic monotone of droning drivel.

fb

[Jake]

Still grasping at this. Someoen should slam your head in a car door.

[freedomburns]

Still grasping at this. Someoen should slam your head in a car door.

BIG chuckle.

Two points for Jake.

lol

[freedomburns]

Still grasping at this. Someoen should slam your head in a car door.

Seriously though, don't just jerk your knee.  Go read the post.  Open your mind.  You might just learn something.  This is the FBI speaking, not me.

[Jake]

I read it and it's interesting. I still don't believe that any US government could set up an attack that kills 3,000 citizens and this doesn't change that.

[??????????]

Still grasping at this. Someoen should slam your head in a car door.

Seriously though, don't just jerk your knee.  Go read the post.  Open your mind.  You might just learn something.  This is the FBI speaking, not me.

Quit trolling with your nonsense.

[freedomburns]

Still grasping at this. Someoen should slam your head in a car door.

Seriously though, don't just jerk your knee.  Go read the post.  Open your mind.  You might just learn something.  This is the FBI speaking, not me.

Quit trolling with your nonsense.

That is an extremely well thought out rebuttal SR.  ::rolls eyes::