Part 19 (B): ROOTS -- AN IRAN-CONTRA/AL QAEDA READER
Edited by Alex Constantine
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Dick Cheney, Vice President:
Cheney said today that he would advise President Bush not to turn over to Congress the August intelligence briefing that warned that terrorists were interested in hijacking airplanes, and he insisted that the investigation into Sept. 11 should be handled by the Congressional intelligence committees, not an independent commission.
In appearances on several television news programs, Mr. Cheney said "it would be a mistake" to give broad Congressional access to the Aug. 6 memorandum to the president, which ignited a political uproar over whether the nation could have anticipated the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Alison Mitchell , "Cheney Moves to Block 9-11 Probe")
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.21A. ... .911.p.htm
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Thomas Kean, 911 Commission Chairman:
Not mentioned on Kean's official Commission biography was his role as director of Amerada Hess Corporation, which in 1998 formed joint venture Delta-Hess, with Delta Oil, in part owned by Khalid bin Mahfouz. Mahfouz inherited a controlling interest in the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, the country's largest bank, and was a director with 20% interest in BCCI, the now defunct financial conglomerate involved in money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism, arms trafficking and other crimes. Mahfouz paid $225 million to escape prosecution for his role in the BCCI scandal. Mahfouz also inherited the assets of the Saudi bin Laden group when Salem bin Laden died in a 1988 plane crash. These included an interest in Arbusto Energy, a Houston, Texas oil company founded by George W. Bush. Bin Mahfouz's interests were managed in part by James R. Bath, a close friend of Bush, who served in the Texas ANG with him. Bath's name was inexplicably redacted in Bush's Air National Guard military medical reports.
(http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/K/Khal ... Mahfuz.htm).
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Osama bin Laden:
The emergence of William Casey and his 'off-the-shelf' (meaning unaccountable and invisible) covert operations as Director of the CIA led from the arming of the fundamentalist Islamic mujehaddin to the intricacies of Contragate. This covert funding included profits from the sale of opium and illicit drugs, and half was funneled through BCCI at the behest of the Saudi Arabian government, working closely with the American CIA that used a proxy to cover its involvement, Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency, or ISI. These funds went to a drug dealer named Hekmyatar and to his protégé, Osama bin Laden. CIA funding is reported to have stopped when the USSR withdrew, and the Taliban came to power. However, the US continued to fund the Taliban as well, giving them $43 million in 2001 to stop growing opium. ISI funding to Mohammed Atta, allegedly linked to bin Laden continued as late as August, 2001
http://www.williambowles.info/911/911_critique.html
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Lee Hamilton, 911 Commission Vice Chairman:
Lee H. Hamilton brings to the commission the "damage control" procedures followed during the Iran Contra investigation, which broadly served to uphold the practices of US foreign policy.
- "Who's Who On 911 Commission," by Michel Chossufdovsky
http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/96732.php
Chairman of the House select committee investigating the Iran-contra affair, was shown ample evidence against Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but he did not probe their wrongdoing (See Khashoggi, Part XVIII)
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/911_i ... ission.htm
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911 Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste:
According to Dan Hopsicker, author of "Barry and the Boys: The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History", Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste "has made a career of defending political crooks, specializing in cases that involve drugs and politics." Ben-Veniste was the attorney for CIA narco-trafficker Barry Seal.
http://www.williambowles.info/911/911_coverup.html
Works at the international law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, is a former New York prosecutor and was chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office (1973-75). Watergate was another massive scandal that was never fully investigated or revealed. He was also chief counsel of the Senate Whitewater Committee, and served as attorney for CIA-linked and drug smuggler and pilot Barry Seal. (The Washington Monthly – 06/09/97)
http://www.williambowles.info/911/911_critique.html
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Colin Powell, Secretary of State:
Both Colin Powell and his Deputy Richard Armitage, who casually accuse Baghdad and other foreign governments of "harboring" Al Qaeda, played a direct role, at different points in their careers, in supporting terrorist organizations. Both men were implicated --operating behind the scenes-- in the Irangate Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration, which involved the illegal sale of weapons to Iran to finance the Nicaraguan Contra paramilitary army. (Michel Chossudovsky, "Colin Powell's Role: From Iran-Contra to September 11")
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO303D.html
[Colonel Oliver] North set up a team including [Richard] Secord; Noel Koch [Armitage's deputy] , then assistant secretary at the Pentagon responsible for special operations; George Cave, a former CIA station chief in Tehran, and Colin Powell, military assistant to U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger... (The Guardian, December 10, 1986)
Colin Powell [was] was among "at least five men within the Pentagon who knew arms were being transferred to the CIA." (The Record, 29 December 1986). Lieutenant General Powell was directly instrumental in giving the "green light" to lower-level Irangate officials in blatant violation of Congressional procedures. According to the New York Times, Colin Powell took the decision (at the level of military procurement), to allow the delivery of weapons to Iran: Hurriedly, one of the men closest to Secretary of Defense Weinberger, Maj. Gen. Colin Powell, bypassed the written "focal point system" procedures and ordered the Defense Logistics Agency [responsible for procurement] to turn over the first of 2,008 TOW missiles to the C.I.A., which acted as cutout for delivery to Iran" (New York Times, 6 February 1987)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO303D.html
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Powell, Poindexter, Reich, Negroponte, Armitage, Abrams, Secord, Tripp, etc.:
The Contragate team that was only partially exposed by the Congressional investigations continued to operate in the deeper politics that combine drugs, oil and war. Linda Tripp, whose taping of Monica Lewinsky was eportedly inspired by Lucianne Goldberg, was in Army intelligence, held a GS-16 federal job rating, and transferred into the White House from her job with President Bush, Sr. He had of course presided over the White House operations with Ronald Reagan at the time of the Contragate operations, and was involved in them. Linda Tripp at the time was a personal secretary to Richard Secord of the Army's secret Delta Force team, and a partner in Oliver North's company that assisted in illegally passing funds through to the Nicaraguan rebels against yet another socialist government. Another covert operation run by William Casey at the CIA.
It is in this deeper context that others responsible for the Iran-Contra secret and illegal shipments of missiles, guns and drugs came back into the new Bush White House in the months prior to 9/11. They include Powell, Poindexter, Reich, Negroponte, Armitage, Abrams, among others. (See Drugs, Oil and War, Peter Dale Scott)
http://www.williambowles.info/911/911_critique.html
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Henry Kissinger, Bush's First Choice for Chairman of the 911 Commission:
At one point Kissinger & Associates members were considering a merger with the infamous Bank for Credit & Commerce International (BCCI), which was deeply involved in the covert funding of both the Afghan resistance and Contragate (Congressional Report, December 1992, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Kerry-Brown).
http://www.williambowles.info/911/911_critique.html
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John Poindexter & Syntek:
Poindexter was recruited by Syntek Technologies, a firm in bed with DARPA. His hand was back in the hi-tech cookie jar. As a company vice-president, Poindexter helped develop Genoa -- an "intelligence mining, information harvesting" system designed to explore (clandestinely) large computer databases. Listen in on America's electronic conversations, that is.
Poindexter is, once again, one of the most powerful men in America. His job description is "crisis manager".
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/NoMoreMrSguy.html