AMERICA BETRAYED: BUSH, BIN LADEN & 9-11

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PART 1 OF 2

Chapter 9: OSAMA BIN LADEN, AFGHANISTAN, TALIBAN, AL-QAEDA, FLORIDA & GEORGE BUSH, 1996

George H.W. Bush was riding high in the polls, in 1992, and he was looking forward to his re-election, and the election of his two sons who were seeking the governorships of Texas and Florida. He had every reason to believe he would easily be re-elected. The Soviet Union had ceased to exist on December 21, 1991. Najibullah, the former secret police chief and the communist leader of Afghanistan had been overthrown by the mujahideen and was now hiding out. Iraq had been defeated and was slowly being strangled to death through economic sanctions. And Bush had a 90% approval rating.

Bush, the CIA, the Department of Defense, were making long range plans for the establishment of the "new world order" (1) -- echoing the words of Adolf Hitler some 60 years before.

The "new world order" is, however, a "Hegelian" concept, and the Hegelian dialectic requires controlled conflict, between opposing parties (2): thesis - anti-thesis = Synthesis (the New World Order). For the last half of the 20th century, the communist Soviet Union had made up half of that equation. But in December, 1991, the Soviet Union, the communist threat, and the "Cold War," had died and ceased to exist.

Bush, the CIA, the bankers, arms merchants, and the Wall Street elite, needed a new boogey man, other than just Saddam Hussein.

So Bush and team met with his Saudi friends ...

And they plotted and they planned ...

The American people did not know it yet ...

Terrorism was coming home, courtesy of the CIA and George Bush's Saudi friends.

The CIA, during the Reagan and the first Bush administration, imported foreigners into this country, where they were trained to conduct terrorist acts (3, 4). These CIA-trained terrorists, were then unleashed on other countries, such as Nicaragua, Afghanistan, East Timor, Salvador, Columbia, and so on.

During the Reagan and the first Bush administration, the CIA and the Saudis, via Pakistan, were also funding the education and the training of "Holy Warriors" the Mujahideen, who would then go forth and murder women, children, old men, and shoot down and blow up commercial airlines. Although the vast majority of the Mujahideen were trained in Pakistan (5), some of the more promising candidates for terrorist training, those destined to take leadership roles, were brought to the United States (6).

According to Michael Springman, the former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah: "While in Saudi Arabia, I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept. officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained bitterly at the time there. I returned to the US, I complained to the State Dept. here, to the General Accounting Office, to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and to the Inspector General's office. I was met with silence. What I was protesting was, in reality, an effort to bring recruits, rounded up by Osama Bin Laden, to the US for terrorist training by the CIA."

Some of them stayed.

But, on whose orders and why?

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The Saudis funded hundreds of madrassas (religious schools) many of which were located adjacent to the numerous squalid refugee camps in Pakistan where they preyed upon the tens of thousands of impoverished, unskilled young men who were without hope and without a future. This hopeless youth were lured to the madrassas which provided them a religious education that emphasized "jihad," "Islamism," "Wahhabism," and the harshest interpretations of Islam (7).

"Jihad" these young boys and men learned, meant holy war against all non-Muslim infidels. This training was in accordance with Ibn Taymiyya's classic and literal interpretation of jihad as laid out in his book, "al-Siyasa al-shariyya fi Islah al rai'i wa alra'iyya" (8). "Islamism" too emphasizes "jihad" and is likewise based in part on the work and thought of Ibn Taymiyya. Those adhering to Islamism believe it is permissible to kill those practicing other faiths including those Muslims who do not accept Sunni ideology, such as Shiits, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks.

"Jihad" is a religious duty (8,9,10).

"The command to participate in jihad and the mention of its merits occur repeatedly in the Koran and the Sunna. Jihad ... is the best voluntary act that man can perform ... Jihad implies all kinds of worship, both in its inner and outer forms. More than any other act it implies love and devotion for God, who is exalted ... trust in Him, surrender one's life and property to Him ... Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God's entirely and God's word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought" (10).

Their training complete, the Mujahideen were shipped off to Afghanistan, where they shot down civilian airliners with U.S.-supplied stinger missiles, and murdered doctors, nurses, teachers, and whipped and tortured women for not wearing the veil or for allowing a wisp of hair or a patch of bare skin to show (5, 6, 11).

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN

For decades the oil men and the Saudis have been lusting after the oil rich Caspian Basin and the undeveloped oil-riches beneath the soil of the Soviet central Asian republics (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan). However, the best oil-pipeline route to the Soviet underbelly, was, and is, through Afghanistan.

In the early 1970s, Afghanistan was being actively considered for international aid and assistance. "A model for development," recalled Amir Usman, a Pakistani ambassador in Afghanistan.

A lot of countries wanted a piece of the action.

Added Amir, "The Americans built the Kabul-Torkham road leading east to Pakistan and the Russians built the road to the Amu Darya leading north to the then-Soviet Union. It was a happy coexistence."

When it came to the Soviet Union, however, happy coexistence was not the aim of Republican foreign policy, which also explains the road being constructed to Pakistan. The ulterior goals of the United States were not so much to aid in the development of Afghanistan but to eliminate Soviet influence (28,30,31,32). Any oil pipeline that might someday link the oil-rich states to the sea, must pass through Afghanistan and then Pakistan. Pakistan was the key to Afghanistan and Pakistan never wanted an independent or Soviet-controlled Afghanistan. They wanted a Pakistani puppet.

However in 1973, the Soviets gained the upper hand, when a series of coups brought down Afghani King Mohammed Zahir Shah. A Marxist dictatorship later came to power in 1978.

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In the late 1970s, the CIA in conjunction with the Saudi Royal family, began to sketch out long ranged plans to destabilize Afghanistan, Iraq, and the southern Islamic states of the Soviet Union (28,30,31,32). It was believed that terror attacks and the importing of Sunni Wahhabism into these regions would create a Islamic fundamentalist uprising, causing the oil-rich southern states to break away (3,5). These uprisings, it was hoped would also cause the secular government of Iraq and the communist government of Afghanistan, to fall.

Once this was accomplished the oil of the Soviet central Asian republics could then be pumped along a pipeline leading across Afghanistan into Pakistan, and from there to the sea. Hence, not only the southern states, but Afghanistan would have to be freed from communist Soviet control.

The Soviets had been in Afghanistan since the Bolshevik revolution in 1919. When, a few years later, the Afghans broke the yoke of the English, the Russians invaded the country, setting up hospitals, schools, and telephone and telegraph communications systems (33). Nevertheless, the Brits remained interested parties and struggled with the Soviets to regain influence. They were soon joined by the Americans.

In 1929 Nader Shah became king of Afghanistan, and was then succeeded by his son Mohammed Zahir Shah who attempted to maintain a neutral relationship with the Soviets, the British, and the Americans. However, in 1947 when Pakistan became a state, the new Pakistani government began a political dispute with Afghanistan over the right of self-determination of the Pashtun and Baluch tribes who lived along the frontier between the two countries (43). Pakistan was making demands on Afghani territory. America and Britain began championing the Pakistani cause. Indeed, in 1953, Vice-President Nixon -- the Bush family's mouthpiece in the White House -- made a visit to Kabul and made demands that favored Pakistan which was aligned with Saudi Arabia, thus forcing Afghanistan into the arms of the Soviets (43).

In 1973 King Mohammed Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin, Prince Sardar Mohammad Daoud who made himself President. In April 1978 Daoud and his entire family were murdered during a bloody coup that also claimed the life of U.S. Ambassador Adolph "Spike" Dubs.

In 1978, the first Marxist government was established in Afghanistan (43).

In 1978, Osama bin Laden who was representing his family company in Istanbul, began working with the Saudi and Pakistani Intelligence Agencies, in conjunction with the CIA, providing support, funds and other assistance to develop an Afghani resistance movement that would overthrow the Soviet backed Afghan government (44). The "freedom fighters" would trek from Pakistan to Afghanistan along the roads constructed by the bin Ladens with the financial assistance of the Nixon-Ford, and the Bush CIA.

In 1979, the CIA and the Carter administration officially agreed to join in Saudi-backed efforts that were already underway in Afghanistan. As detailed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to the Carter Administration (13), in July 1979 the CIA and Carter administration began providing massive aid to the Afghan resistance in order to draw the Soviets into Afghanistan and to instill civil unrest in the central Asian countries it controlled.

As admitted by Brzezinski, "according to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980 after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. This aid was going to induce Soviet military intervention. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would."

As detailed by Peter Schweizer (12), "arms were being purchased on the international market with Saudi money and the CIA was flying them from Dhahran to Islamabad" where Osama bin Laden was headquartered. "The CIA was also flying in weapons and ammunition. Ten thousand tons of arms and ammunition were going through the channel every year. However, that this was done through the Wahhabi clan was top secret."

By 1979, Osama bin Laden had taken a leading role in recruiting "Arab-Muslim volunteers for Afghan's resistance against the Red Army" (34) and the launching of CIA-backed holy war which was to hopefully strip the oil rich regions of central Asia from the grasp of the Soviet Union. He was headquartered in Islamabad, the nexus for the intermingling of CIA, Pakistani, and Saudi support (45).

Islamabad, Pakistan, is the main route from the sea to Afghanistan, and Pakistan's rulers and the Pakistan military and Intelligence services were eager to play a role, not just because of the secret aid coming in from the Saudis and CIA, but the riches that would be theirs once a pipeline was built, linking the oil-rich Caspian basin with Pakistan -- a pipeline that would cross Afghanistan once these states were freed of Soviet control.

According to William Casey, Director of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration, the principle reason for training and funding the Afghan mujahideen, was to wage terrorism and war against the Soviet Union, "with Saudi cooperation," and to sow discord in the Soviet Central Asia, in order to stir an Islamic revolution and pry these states away from the Soviet sphere of influence (12).

As detailed by Casey (12): "The strategy included substantial financial and military support to the Afghan resistance, as well as supplying the mujahideen personnel to take the war into the Soviet Union itself with Saudi cooperation."

"Arms were being purchased on the international market with Saudi money and the CIA was flying them from Dhahran to Islamabad. The CIA was also flying in weapons and ammunition. Ten thousand tons of arms and ammunition were going through the channel every year" (12).

The CIA, under Reagan-Bush, also "ordered the Directorate of Operations to seek out and recruit Afghans living overseas to help run the international conduit of arms to the rebels." Hundreds of "Afghans were trained by the CIA in the art of international arms shipping" (12).

Soon covert assistance came to include sophisticated high tech military hardware, including "advanced night vision technology, special explosives and precision guided munitions" as well as "access to high-tech American intelligence" (5,12)

Saudi Arabia's King Faud, and other prominent Saudi families belonging to the Wahhabi clan, matched the CIA and the American government dollar for dollar in stirring up revolution not only in the incredibly oil rich Soviet states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan, but Afghanistan; and in this regard, the Saudis and the CIA, worked directly with Pakistan's Islamic government (45,46).

Why Pakistan and Afghanistan and not Iran?

Because the Muslim majority of Afghanistan, and the Muslim ruling class in Pakistan, were Sunni Muslims and thus closely associated with Sunni-Wahhabism (5). An oil pipeline, built across Afghanistan and Pakistan, would thus enable these states to become like oil-rich Saudi Arabia, as well as ruled by Muslims subscribing to the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam. By contrast, the Sunni-Wahhabis not only detested Iran, with its Shiit population, but hoped to someday conquer and convert its people to the Sunni branch of the Islamic faith (3,5).

Pakistan was therefore a key player, and the Saudi Royal family began pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Pakistan to build, equip and staff hundreds of orthodox, fundamentalist, Islamic schools, the madrasahs.

A madrasah specializes in teaching students to memorize the Koran and to correctly perform Islamic rituals, and initially these schools were established to teach the sons of the Afghan Mujahideen, whose families were in refugee camps in Pakistan.

The madrasahs would be employed to train young men in the strict Wahhabism branch of Islam, and to turn out thousands of holy warriors willing to martyr themselves on the battlefields of Afghanistan.

At the end of their schooling these young men then received military training after which they were sent back into Afghanistan to wage war and to help create a unified Mujahideen and a unified Afghanistan. However, it was never in the cards for Afghanistan to become an independent state. Afghanistan was to be under the control of the royal family of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-funded Pakistani Intelligence Service.

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In addition to providing financial aid to the mujahideen, the Saudis and King Faud provided funds to boost their religious and anticommunist radio broadcasts into Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia, the oil-rich underbelly of what had been the Soviet Union (12,13). One of the projects close to Faud's heart was the effort to support Islamic movements in Soviet Central Asia. This was done through the Wahhabi clan and was top secret (12).

Mujahideen fighters were becoming more deadly and more effective thanks to the numerous schools established in 1985 to train fighters in weapons use. Two-week courses in anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, mine laying and lifting, demolitions, urban warfare and sabotage were offered for thousands of fighters. Twenty thousand mujahideen were being pumped out every year by these schools dubbed 'CIA U' by some wags" (12).

Before the end of the first term of the Reagan-Bush administration, the CIA had trained tens of thousands of mujahideen.

Central to this effort was the Saudis and the bin Ladens. Osama bin Laden had been working for the CIA and the Saudi Intelligence service since 1978 (14) -- the same year that George W. Bush founded Arbusto, an oil drilling company that the Saudis/bin Ladens invested in (15).

In 1988, bin Laden was given a new assignment. Osama became the main financier for "Maktab al-Khidamat" ("the Office of Services"), which recruited Muslims from around the world to serve Islam through charitable donations or to come forward to fight as "holy warriors" against the Soviets. This assignment enabled bin Laden to recruit and organize an international network of Islamic radicals, which in turn gave rise to al-Qaeda.

In 1988, al-Qaeda was born -- the same year G.H.W. Bush was elected president.

Al-Qaeda was to be the Islamic version of the CIA, with intelligence operatives and an intelligence network that would span the globe and infiltrate every conceivable Islamic terrorist organization in the world. In 1988, however, the main target remained the oil-rich central Asian states and the progressive and socialist government of Afghanistan.

As summed up by Schweizer (12): "Osama bin Laden's organization was incubated by the CIA in the 1980's when the largest-ever covert operation by the CIA was carried out in Afghanistan against a newly born progressive and socialist-oriented government and then against Soviet troops who had come to the defense of that government."

Essentially, the CIA provided a model of training that was retained and employed by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, an organization that was established in the year George H.W. Bush was elected President, 1988.

THE SAUDI-BIN LADENS

It is the key role of the Saudi royal family which explains why Osama bin Laden was chosen to lead this mission. As noted in previous chapters, the bin Ladens have maintained an exceptionally close relationship with the Saudi royal family since the 1930s. This relationship is not based just on business ties, but on friendship, trust and shared secrets and goals (47).

The sons of the Saudi royals and the bin Ladens have attended the same schools and have followed the same paths. However, this relationship was never limited to just the Saudis and bin Ladens but includes the Kashoggi brothers (whose father was the king's personal physician), and Kamal Adham the director of the Saudi services (under King Faisal). The bin Ladens, being part of this network, are thus not just friends and business partners, but trusted advisors who act according to the best interests of the Saudi royals (47).

Thus, whereas Saladin bin Laden and other Saudis had gone into business with the Bush family, Osama bin Laden was acting in concert with the Bush family fingers which not only gripped the CIA, but were playing it like a violin.

Osama bin Laden thus became a major player due to his family's close ties with the Bush family and the Saudi Royal family. Osama brought money and the expertise of his family's construction business to Afghanistan, and, again, with CIA assistance, constructed roads and tunnels and provided funds for arms and munitions (47). However, it was not just money for arms and religious training that bin Laden provided, for in addition to his expertise in construction, bin Laden was also an expert at propaganda.

In an interview in the deserts near Kandahar, Osama bin Laden explained: "My job is to inspire, to organize people. My job is to provoke people. I'm not doing it myself, but I'm preaching so that others will do it" (48).

Osama bin Laden was an expert at Hegelian manipulation. Osama used religion to manipulate the Mujahideen so that they were willing to martyr themselves for a goal that was never revealed to them: oil.

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In February of 1989, the Soviet Union, after having sustained incredible losses, decided to withdraw from Afghanistan. Afghanistan, with its numerous tribes and ethnic groups, dissolved into civil war, with different factions of Mujahideen murdering, raping, and destroying one another (46).

THE FRACTIOUS MUJAHIDEEN: CIVIL WAR

By the end of 1992, although George H.W. Bush was out of a job, the mission of the Brotherhood remained the same: the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the seizure of the Iraqi oil-fields, the installation of cooperative regime in Afghanistan, the grabbing of the central Asian oil-prize, and the creation of a New World Order -- a New Order that would be governed by the defense and petro-pharmaceutical industries, and the Wall Street elite.

In 1992, the likelihood of a New World Order, still seemed a world away.

Clinton had been elected president. Saddam was still in power, as was the communist regime in Kabul. The oil fields of Iraq and the south central Asian states were still years beyond reach.

Finally, in April of 1992, as the mujahideen advanced on Kabul, the capital, Dr. Najibullah was forced to resign as President of the Republic of Afghanistan (16). He had been forced out by turncoats in his own party, including General Abdul Rashid Dostum (17).

No lover of democracy, in the 1980s, Dostum had served as a communist union boss on an Afghan gas field, acting as a collaborator with invading Russian forces. Later, he became a major commander for Afghanistan's Communist dictatorship and then joined the communist government, serving as defense minister under President Najibullah. But in 1992 Dostum decided to mutiny, and his betrayal led directly to the downfall of Najibullah and the mass murder of tens of thousands of Afghans living in Kabul.

Dostum, leaders of the mujahideen and other opposition groups, formed an agreement, through the UN, for the establishment of a broad based government that would be led by Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Najibullah, his wife and three daughters, spent the next four years hiding inside a United Nations compound.

However, because they belonged to so many different tribes and ethnic groups, the mujahideen couldn't stop fighting each other long enough to consolidate power (16). Indeed, in addition to the Pashtun majority, there were four other major ethnic groups all vying for power: the Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, and Turkmen. And then there were the dozen or so other tribes which had battled against one another for generations: the Aimaq, Kirghiz, Wakhi, Farsiwan, Nuristani, Baluch, Brahui, Qizilbash, Kabuli, and Jat.

Even the UN brokered government was fractured. Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and President Burhanuddin Rabbani began scheming against one another from the start. Their disagreements and infighting contributed to a growing civil war which killed about 50,000 people (16).

The civil war in Afghanistan was completely contrary to what the Saudis, Pakistanis, or the CIA had hoped for. Although they never wanted an independent Afghanistan, the chaos which ensued prevented them from creating a Pakistani/Saudi puppet, making it impossible to establish the stability necessary for the construction of an oil pipeline.

The Saudis and Pakistan's Interior Ministry in Islamabad again turned to the madrassas to create a new, unified fighting force which would be trained and then unleashed on the warring tribes of Afghanistan (5,6,16,18). This decision apparently caused some dissent within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which had run the Afghan operations since the late 1970s. The ISI were backing the regime of Prime Minister Hikmatyar which was at war with the Rabbani government. The ISI -- which represented Pakistan's military establishment -- also distrusted the Pakistani government of Benazir Bhutto, and were concerned that Bhutto might use this new fighting force for her own ends in Afghanistan (19).

The civil war in Afghanistan displaced tens of thousands of Afghans who, like their forebears, took up life inside the squalid refugee camps along the Pakistani-Afghan border. And like their forbears, the children of these refugees began studying, in increasingly larger numbers, in the numerous madrassas which had been established throughout Pakistan by the Saudis (5,6,16).

One of the largest and most important madrassas, "Jamiatul-Uloom-il-Islamiyyah," was located in Karachi. Over 8,000 students were enrolled, most from different nationalities. It has been said that future Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, studied at this seminary. Omar, in turn, was associated with Nabi Mohammadi's Harkat group, a "terrorist" organization which was funded by the Saudis.

The Saudis were coordinating the activities of the different madrassas, especially those belonging to the Wahhabi/Deobandi denominations (20). The intention was to form a cohesive group of students (Talibs) who could be trained, armed, and then unleashed on Afghanistan in order to purify the country of its corrupt Mujahideen leaders, and bring Afghanistan under Saudi/Pakistani control. Soon, a puritanical group of young men began to stream out of Pakistan into Afghanistan ( 16, 18, 19, 20). They were known as the Taliban ("the Koran students").

ENTER THE TALIBAN

The Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, stormed into Afghanistan in 1993, and in battle after battle they routed the mujahideen while serving Pakistani/Saudi needs. In November 1994, Benazir Bhutto utilized the Taliban to rescue a major trade caravan that had been captured and was being held for ransom by the local warlord of Kandahar.

The incredible success of the Taliban also caused a rethinking within Pakistan's ISI. The ISI joined with the Interior Ministry's special forces to train and equip the Taliban. However, much of that funding was coming from Saudi Arabia, as the Taliban were eating up almost $70 million a month.

On November 5, 1994, the Taliban captured Kandahar, and immediately set about establishing their brand of Islam on the conquered province. It was ordered that all girls and women were no longer to be educated nor allowed to work. Girls were allowed only to study the holy scriptures of the Koran -- and only up to age 8. Females could not leave their homes unless covered completely by a Burqa and accompanied by a male relative. The Taliban also banned music, movies, television, videos, kite flying, and the owning of pigeons, and ordered that all men must grow a beard and adopt Islamic names. Stoning, whipping, and executions became commonplace as the Taliban conquered more and more of Afghan territory (16,21)

The Saudis were most pleased with the Taliban's strict enforcement of the Wahhabi brand of Islam. By contrast, the Shiits and thus the Iranians, along with the Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks, feared them as it was a common practice for the Taliban to murder Shiit men, women, and children -- including virgins who would be raped first, as it is against Islamic law to kill a virgin.

In September of 1996, after fierce fighting, the Taliban seized Jalalabad, Sarobi, Asadabad, and drove General Abdul Rashid Dostum from Kabul. As they retreated, General Dostum's fighters reportedly slaughtered over 30,000 people and raped young girls and mutilated their bodies and breasts (17). Dostum would later become an ally of the George W. Bush administration.

General Dostum escaped the Taliban. Najibullah was not so lucky. The Taliban tortured him, cut off his genitals which were stuffed into his mouth, and then hanged him and his brothers and assistants (16). On the same day, the Taliban installed a ruling council of six men (a shura) which was commanded by the one-eyed, 6' 6" tall, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Afghanistan had a new government which was ruled by the Taliban whose goal was to establish a pure Islamic state.

Iran, Russia, India, and the central Asian states all condemned the takeover. But not the U.S., Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates gave diplomatic recognition to the Taliban. They were eager to do business with the Taliban, as Afghanistan held the key to the oil riches in the territories north of Afghan's border: Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The plan was, once Afghanistan was completely conquered and stabilized, an oil pipeline could be constructed, from the central Asian states, across Afghanistan, and then to Pakistan and thus to the sea and world markets.

Of course, there were other routes, such as through Russia or Iran -- but these were unacceptable to the Saudis, the U.S., and Pakistan. An oil pipeline, built across Afghanistan and Pakistan, would enable these states to become like oil-rich Saudi Arabia, as well as ruled by Muslims subscribing to the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam. By contrast, the Sunni-Wahhabis not only detested Iran, with its Shiit population, but hoped to someday conquer and convert its people to the Sunni branch of the Islamic faith.

Likewise, the U.S. had no interest in doing business with the Iranians, and thus favored the Afghanistan-Pakistan plan.

Islamabad, Pakistan, is the main route from Afghanistan to the sea, which is yet another reason Pakistan's rulers and the Pakistan military and Intelligence services helped to create and were eager to support the Taliban. A puppet-like Afghanistan would not only extend their control and power, but would serve as a conduit for incredible riches that would be theirs once a pipeline was built, linking the oil-rich Caspian basin and the central Asian states with Pakistan -- a pipeline that would cross Afghanistan once the Taliban conquered the country.

The Taliban, however, were not al-Qaeda. They were not only independent of Osama bin Laden, but as they continued to capture more and more of Afghanistan, and were closing in on Kabul, they were becoming more independent of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (16). As they captured more of Afghanistan, that independence increased even though Saudi Arabia and King Faud were providing additional financial help.

An independent Afghanistan was not what Pakistan or Saudi Arabia desired (16). They wanted a puppet, and the Taliban were refusing to allow the Pakistanis or the Saudis to pull the strings. In fact, the Taliban were casting a disdainful eye upon Pakistan's democratic government, democracy being the anti-thesis of a pure Islamic state. Saudi Arabia was also drawing their ire, due to the presence of the American military on Islam's most holy shores.

By 1996, it had become apparent to the Pakistanis and the Saudis that they may have created a monster they could not control (16).

Enter bin Laden who had established his credentials as a "friend" to Afghanistan, during the 1980s.

His mission: to infiltrate the Taliban and to buy friends and influence with incredible sums of Saudi money coupled with propaganda laced with his new found religious zeal.

But for what purpose?

To destroy them, help them, or bring them to heal?

OSAMA BIN LADEN: DOUBLE AGENT

Osama bin Laden, born in 1957, was one of the youngest of the 54 sons and daughters of Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, a former bricklayer turned billionaire construction magnate. Sheik Mohammed bin Laden died in 1968, leaving Osama with approximately $25 million as inheritance (22).

Many of the bin Laden brothers have different nationalities -- if determined via the maternal line -- the result of Sheik Mohammed bin Laden's forming strategic international alliances through numerous marriages. Thus there is a "Syrian group" (headed by bin Laden brothers Bakr and Yehia), a "Lebanese group" (headed by Yeslam), and an "Egyptian group" (headed by Abdul Aziz). Osama bin Laden is of the "Saudi group," as he was born of a Saudi mother (23 -- though some accounts say his mother was from Yemen.

In 1972, the bin Laden organization was given a group structure and name: the "Binladen Brothers for Contracting and Industry." Although it is headquartered in Jiddahh, it is also represented in a number of capital cities including Beirut, Cairo, Amman, Dubai, Paris, and Geneva (23).

The Bin Laden group, although primarily a construction concern, also has holdings in agriculture, steel production and distribution, auto-manufacturing, and petro-pharmaceuticals. It was also a major investor in the Carlyle group (24), as well as in businesses owned or run by the Bush family (15).

After his father's death, Osama bin Laden moved to Beirut where some say he lived like a spoiled playboy. There are reports of heavy drinking and womanizing, and occasional fights with other spoiled playboys, over some small slight, or because of a woman (25).

However, he also studied engineering in college, an indication that he intended to take an active role in the family company.

In the late 1970s, he was given the opportunity to take a major role in the joint Saudi-CIA mission to recruit, equip and train Afghan freedom fighters.

Osama was chosen for several reasons, such as his family's very close relationship with the Saudi Royal family. Indeed, "the relationship between the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family is quite exceptional in that its not simply one of business ties: it is also a relationship of trust, of friendship and of shared secrets. The ties of friendship binding bin Laden family members to King Faud and his brothers make them prime confidantes and advisors" (23).

And then there was another factor: The business relationship that had been established between the bin Ladens and the Bush family (15,24). As observed by PBS Frontline (24), there is evidence of "a long-standing connection of highly illegal behavior between the Bush and bin Laden families."

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Osama bin Laden was used as a recruiter, spymaster, and paymaster, buying "friends" and establishing relationships with a wide variety of Muslim groups throughout the world. Osama bin Laden apparently channeled hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of US/CIA and Saudi funds to the Afghan "freedom fighters" and other groups.

In 1988, the year George H.W. Bush was elected president, Osama used his international connections to establish al-Qaeda (the base).

In 1990, however, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. Osama wished to be part of any force that would repel Saddam, should he decide to invade Saudi Arabia.

To his chagrin, Osama's help would not be needed.

The United States was intending on stationing 230,000 American troops in Saudi Arabia to take up "defensive action" against Saddam Hussein as part of "Operation Desert Shield." This was to be followed by an additional 200,000 troops, who would be deployed to take offensive action by the U.S.-led coalition forces (26).

PRINCE BANDAR ON BIN LADEN

According to conventional wisdom, high ranking members of the Saudi military, the intelligence community, and the bin Laden and other powerful Arabian families, vehemently objected to American plans to establish military bases in Saudi Arabia (27). They argued that Saudi Arabia should defend itself, and that the presence of the Americans in Saudi Arabia would be an affront to Islam. Osama bin Laden, backed up by other leading families and members of the military, directly appealed to the Saudi royal family to rely on native fighters.

We have also been informed that King Faud was cool to the Bush plan to base hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops on Saudi soil, whereas Prince Bandar was pushing for the stationing of permanent U.S. ground troops, explaining to Faud that the troops would be necessary to protect Saudi Arabia from Iraq (27).

Prince Bandar, however. never believed that Iraq was a threat. Instead, he saw the presence of these troops as necessary to destroy Iraq, because "they betrayed us" (22).

As we also know, the Saud family has been eyeing Iraq for decades, as Iraq had at one time been part of Arabia. The Saudis not only wanted it back, but were offended by its secular government and the freedom provided to its women.

Prince Bandar also believed the U.S. would be useful for further joint military operations in the future. Indeed, Prince Bandar eagerly welcomed the U.S. because as he explained to PBS Frontline (22): "America has never been a colonizing power as far as we were concerned. Our relationship with America did not start in 1990. It started in the 1930s. And when the Americans came to Saudi Arabia, they didn't come as an invader. They came actually as a private sector, trying to help us find oil. They found the oil for us, and they've been our friends ever since."

Insofar as Bandar was concerned, this relationship was based on a business partnership, and he trusted his business partners, the Bush gang, to take care of his and their interests as they had been doing for half a century.

As detailed in chapter 6, Bandar was directly involved in working with Bush to illegally fund the Contras who were waging a bloody terrorist campaign in Nicaragua. According to the Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, "Bandar, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, had earmarked $25 million for the contras in $5 million increments." This same report also accused Bandar of repeatedly making false statements in an attempt to cover up these illegal activities.

Prince Bandar, like George H.W. Bush, and the bin Ladens, is also a major investor in the Carlyle Group.

As to the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein, Prince Bandar explained that he welcomed the destruction of Iraq. "We felt we are the injured party. We are the one who stood up with Iraq and the Iraqi people. We are the one who brought the whole West to them .... They betrayed us. But my point here is, with all of that betrayal, we did not treat Saddam as a Muslim country ....We treated them as somebody who betrayed Islam and Arab culture and religion" (22).

For almost a century the Saudis had been lusting for Iraq, to "liberate" it from its secular rulers, to seize its oil reserves, and make it again a truly Islamic state that was part of Arabia and ruled and exploited by the Saud family. The United States' intention to attack Iraq, was thus a source of extreme delight to Bandar and his clan.

Prince Bandar also disputes any and all claims that Osama bin Laden was angry with Saudi policy toward the Americans. "Bin Laden used to come to us when America -- underline, America -- through the CIA and Saudi Arabia were helping our brother mujahideen in Afghanistan to get rid of the communist, secularist Soviet Union forces, to liberate them .... Osama bin Laden came and said, "Thank you. Thank you for bringing the Americans to help us to get rid of the secularist, atheist Soviets" (22).

Thus we are told by no less than one of the future kings of Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar, that bin Laden did not hate the United States, nor did he object to the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia. He welcomed the U.S. And why not? The U.S. had given him funds, equipment, prestige, and his family stood to make millions of dollars by constructing barracks, housing, and other facilities for the Americans before and after they arrived to fight Saddam. Indeed, even when the Kobie towers were destroyed by "terrorists," and American troops killed and injured, the U.S. and the Saudis hired the bin Ladens to build new facilities.

Why should Osama bin Laden object? His family had been in business with the Bush family for decades (15,24), and the U.S. had helped to make him and his family very rich.

Although the Bush administration and the corporate-controlled mass media wishes us to believe otherwise, no less than Prince Bandar, the Saudi government's official representative to the U.S., has told us that: "Osama bin Laden came and said, "Thank you. Thank you for bringing the Americans to help us.'"

*******

Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's homeland, was soon overwhelmed by more than half a million American troops -- many of which were there to stay indefinitely.

There was outrage throughout the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is the home of Mecca -- Islam's holiest of sites -- and now the holy lands had been invaded and occupied by the American military.

This was sacrilege, an affront to god!

Worse, not only had the godless and polytheistic Americans invaded the Holy lands, but their women, female GIs, were prancing around "half naked," in shorts, revealing blouses, and with their faces painted with rouge and makeup.

These actions were an insufferable insult to the pious.

Female GIs, were soon ordered to dress more conservatively and to remain on base. But the damage was done.

The American infidels had arrived, bearing weapons, guns and innumerable gods. They had invaded the holy lands. It soon became clear that the Americans were here to stay.

Again, however, according to Prince Bandar (22), those who were unhappy with the American presence were in fact a minority.

As to bin Laden, Prince Bandar tells us, however, that the Saudi Royal family never considered Osama to be a threat. According to prince Bandar, Osama was "not expelled" from Saudi Arabia, but left on his own accord and went to the Sudan. "He left, but we didn't say, 'Get out.' He left." And when he moved to the Sudan he continued his relationship with his family who, along with the Saudi Royal family, did business with him in the Sudan (22).

During and after this same period, the bin Ladens and the Saudis were also still doing business with the Bush family and the Bush-connected Carlyle group. However, although bin Laden, who was also a business man, may have privately approved or at least accepted this relationship between his family and the Americans, publicly it was important that he maintain his persona as an Islamic purist, otherwise his credibility among those groups who truly hated America, would be lost.

BUSH & BIN LADENS: PARTNERS IN THE BUSINESS OF TERRORISM

The Bush family, the Saudis, and the bin Laden had established business relationships together back in the 1970s -- a relationship which included the illegal selling of arms to the terrorist regime of Iran, and the training of terrorists who were set loose on the men, women, and children of Central- and South America (see chapter 6).

In 1995, the bin Laden's again joined with the Bush family by becoming partners in the Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington investment bank and defense consortium, whose director is former CIA deputy director and Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci. The bin Ladens made an initial investment of over 2 million dollars in the Carlyle Group (28).

George H.W. Bush is a highly paid consultant to the Carlyle Group. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 per speech -- money which is then placed in the Carlyle group's investment fund. In other words, Carlyle gives Bush money which Bush then invests in the Carlyle group.

Likewise, during this same time period, when Bush Jr. was governor of Texas, the board that he appointed took 10 million dollars of the Texas school teachers' pension funds and invested that in the Carlyle Group. Later, that same Bush appointed school board would up the ante to $100 million. Like his father, Bush Jr. was also being paid by the Carlyle Group. According to BBC News (29), before he became President, George W. Bush "received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle," i.e., Caterair.

Thus George Jr. was paid by an investment group which included the bin Ladens.

As summed up by the Wall Street Journal (28): "Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party."

Of course, this was nothing new. The bin Ladens had bought into the Bush family back in the 1970s (15,24). However, in the late 1990s, what the bin Ladens and the Carlyle Group were banking on was war -- a war on terrorism and a war on Afghanistan and then Iraq -- a war which would result in all concerned making a healthy return on their investments (30).

The bin Ladens had in fact already made money off terrorism. After Osama's al-Qaeda reportedly blew up the U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia, the bin Laden family was paid to rebuild it. Ignoring for the moment that the explosive used was traced back to the U.S. military, from a business perspective it is a rather neat trick to have a member of one's family blowing up buildings that the same family will be paid to rebuild. It is like starting fires in order to be paid to put them out.

As bin Laden once said: "This is not jihad. Its business."

According to the Wall Street Journal (28), increases in U.S. defense spending, or any war that might be launched because of the actions of Osama bin laden, would directly "benefit Osama's family. If the United States boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, his family may be the unexpected beneficiary."

In 1996, Osama bin Laden, the business man, was sent to Afghanistan.

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PART 2 OF 2

THE SAUDIS & CIA SEND BIN LADEN ON A MISSION

In 1996, as election season began in earnest in the United States, Osama bin Laden received emissaries from the Saudi royal family (22). He was summoned from Sudan. Osama had a new mission. He was to travel to Afghanistan and ingratiate himself with the Taliban.

The official story is that the United States and the Saudi royal family asked the government of Sudan to expel Osama bin Laden. What has not been explained, however, is why?

According to Prince Bandar: "We sent people to him from his family, and we tried to reason with him" (22).

Osama bin Laden, in addition to his many business ventures and economic projects, was also providing funds for the establishment of training camps and guesthouses for Islamic militants. Why Prince Bandar and the Saudi royals found this objectionable, is not clear, as they and other leading Saudi families were providing funds to the same Islamic "terrorists."

Nevertheless, because they were unable to "reason with him," the Saudis and the U.S. had him expelled to Afghanistan.

But again, why?

What was to stop Osama from establishing training camps and guesthouses for Islamic militants in Afghanistan?

Or was that the goal?

Conventional wisdom proclaims that he left the Sudan because the Saudis issued an arrest warrant for him.

Prince Bandar says that is not true (22), and that the Saudis never considered Osama to be a threat. Bandar further admits that the Saudis had no interest in arresting Osama, even though the government of Sudan apparently offered him up.

Arrest Osama? Certainly not. According to Bandar, even after the events of 9/11, if Osama were to return to Saudi Arabia, "He's welcome," he would be "welcome if he comes" (22).

Likewise, U.S. officials declined any interest in arresting Osama. As will be detailed in chapter 13, the British secret service in fact quashed an international arrest warrant for bin Laden that had been issued by Libya.

It was important that Osama leave the Sudan, and that he not be arrested.

Some intelligence officials found this curious. As one later remarked: "We kidnap minor drug czars and bring them back in burlap bags. Somebody didn't want this to happen" (31).

Thus we should not be surprised that permission was granted for Osama to fly out of the Sudan, and to freely soar over Saudi airspace, after which he arrived in Afghanistan and began buying influence.

Again, why Afghanistan?

Is it because the Taliban, in 1996, were on their way to establishing a pure Islamic state?

Was it because the Taliban might someday pose a fundamentalist threat to Pakistan and the rulers of Saudi Arabia?

Was it because of those untapped oil reserves in the central Asian states north of Afghanistan?

Was it because an independent Afghanistan ruled by an independent minded Taliban, were not at all what the Saudis and the Pakistanis had in mind?

Or all of the above?

According to Prince Bandar, "the Taliban people double-crossed everybody. They double-crossed us and broke the oath they made in Mecca" (22).

The Taliban would not obey, and in 1996, Osama bin Laden was on his way.

Hamid Karzai, a CIA-sponsored "freedom fighter" and Afghanistan's first deputy foreign minister when Afghanistan was governed by the mujahideen, recalled that when Osama and his men showed up, so to did "the hidden hand of Pakistani intelligence" (33).

"The Taliban were good, honest people. They were connected to the madrassas in Quetta and Peshawar, and were my friends from the jihad against the Soviets. I had no reservations about helping them. I had a lot of money and weapons left over from the jihad. I also helped them with political legitimacy. It was only [later] that others began to appear at the meetings -- silent ones I did not recognize, people who took over the Taliban movement. That was the hidden hand of Pakistani intelligence" (33).

As detailed by Mohammed Khaksar, former Taliban deputy interior minister, and director of security, and as reported by the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and the BBC News (32) "Osama bin Laden" immediately began "buying the [Taliban] off with huge cash payments. Bin Laden freely distributed bundles of notes to officials." Indeed, it was not uncommon for bin Laden to hand out $50,000 and even $100,000 at a time. "He had the money in his pocket," Mr. Khaksar told the Washington Post. "Any time he wanted, he would just pull it out and give it to them."

Osama was not trusted, however, by Mohammed Khaksar, or Mohammed Omar. Both were suspicious of his motives.

In May 1998, when a Pakistan journalist arranged an interview with bin Laden, Mullah Omar became enraged. Although Osama's money was welcome, he was not trusted. In May of 1998, Mullah Omar issued a statement that bin Laden was not in Afghanistan "to conduct political or military activities."

Mohammed Khaksar, former Taliban deputy interior minister, told the Associated Press (32), that he feared Osama and Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency were trying to hijack the Islamic movement. He believed that the goals of bin laden and Pakistan had little to do with the spread of Islam, but that they had another agenda altogether. "Their promises were all lies. From the beginning, I was against [Osama] coming to Afghanistan. I felt our country would be destroyed."

Osama was dishing out more than cold cash, but propaganda. Osama preached about the need to create a pure Islamic state. He publicly castigated the United States for basing its troops in the holy lands of Arabia and criticized the royal family as "corrupt" and "hypocrites." In 1996 and again in 1998, Bin Laden issued his "Ladenese Epistle: Declaration of War," in which he publicly declared war on the U.S. and urged his Muslim brothers to "kill Americans." However, except for his brief public outburst against the Saudi royal family, in 1996 -- which we presume was designed to help establish his cover -- thereafter he described them as the injured party who were "helpless" against American aggression.

"For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples."

"If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless."

"So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors. The Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan into paper statelets, and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula."

"It is the individual duty for every Muslim to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- it is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God.'''

"We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson."

"It is the duty of every Muslim to kill the Americans."

-- Osama bin Laden, 1998.

Osama was an expert at propaganda. But he was not a leader (22).

As he admitted in a December 23, 1998, interview with Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai: "My job is to inspire, to organize people. My job is to provoke people. I'm not doing it myself, but I'm preaching so that others will do it."

As summed up by Prince Bandar (22), "He uses the right sentences that he thinks could touch the sentiments of the public." But Osama bin Laden "wouldn't impress me as somebody who would be a leader for anything. He couldn't lead eight ducks across the street."

Likewise, according to Osama bin Laden's hand-picked biographer, Hamid Mir, Osama was not a leader, and he was certainly not the leader of al-Qaeda. The real leader was Egyptian radical Ayman al-Zawahiri, often misidentified as bin Laden's top lieutenant (34).

Similarly, others who dealt with Osama have ridiculed his so called leadership abilities.

No, Osama was not a leader. He had not been sent to Afghanistan to lead. He had been kicked out of the Sudan at the behest of the US/CIA and Saudi Arabia because he had a mission to perform.

THE US IMPORTS & TRAINS 9/11 HIJACKERS & TERRORISTS AT U.S. MILITARY BASES

In 1996, Osama bin Laden, at the request of the United States and Saudi Arabia, resettled in Afghanistan, where he then began ingratiating himself with the Taliban and making terrorist threats against America.

Likewise, in 1996, four Saudi citizens arrived in the United States where they began receiving "training at secure U.S. military installations" (35). Two were former Saudi Air Force pilots, and all four of these men, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmad al-Nami, Ahmed al-Ghamdi, would later assist in the hijacking of four commercial jetliners on the morning of September 11, 2001.

As detailed in Newsweek magazine which gives their number as five (35): "Three of the hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. The three [who received] training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed al-Ghamdi and Ahmad al-Nami, who were among the four men who commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. The third man, Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75. Drivers licenses issued in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences. Another of the hijackers [received training] in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala. The fifth man received instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex."

Following the 9/11 tragedy, when contacted about these men, the Air Force offered a curiously worded denial: "Some of the FBI suspects had names similar to those used by foreign alumni of U.S. military courses. However, discrepancies in their biographical data, indicate we are probably not talking about the same people."

Probably not?

It was also suggested that some of the hijackers had stolen the identities of these five men. Why they would bother to perpetrate such a hoax is unclear, particularly in that the names given were in fact the names of five of the hijackers.

The FBI has been silent on the issue other than to issue a statement to the effect that "they are trying to sort through something complicated and difficult."

As revealed in court records (36) Ali Mohamed was yet another bin Laden operatives trained at a U.S. military installation. He was not only trained, but he became a lecturer at the United States Army's special-warfare school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And then, in 1989, while still in the U.S. Army, he traveled to and fought in Afghanistan where he also trained the mujahideen. Although the U.S. Army claims this illegal action was unauthorized, he was not disciplined, which is not entirely surprising as Ali Mohamed had been recruited by the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration. Indeed, according to his defense attorneys, Mohamed was serving as a CIA-link to U.S.-sponsored covert training and arming of Afghan rebels. Ali Mohamed taught group survival techniques, map reading, how to fire automatic weapons and build booby traps with explosives (36,37).

In 1992, he again traveled to Afghanistan, and, according to Court records, he "also conducted intelligence training for al Qaeda." "I taught my trainees how to create cell structures that could be used for operations." In addition, he helped Osama bin Laden become established in the Sudan (36).

In 1994, he was again dispatched from the U.S. to help Osama bin Laden: "In 1994, after an attempt to assassinate Bin Laden, I went to the Sudan to train Bin Laden's bodyguards." After completing this mission, he reported to FBI agents (36).

Ali Mohamed also reported to the CIA. According to his neighbors in California, where he lived during the 1990s, everyone "took for granted that Mr. Mohamed was helping the Central Intelligence Agency in its proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. At the time, the anti-Soviet jihad was a worldwide cause among Muslims. Everyone in the community knew he was working as a liaison between the CIA and the Afghan cause, and everyone was sympathetic" (37).

Indeed, for five years he was moving back and forth between the U.S. and Afghanistan, making contact with Osama bin Laden and collecting and providing information, as well as engaging in financial transactions on bin Laden's behalf -- and he reported all this activity to U.S. intelligence agents.

In 1995, he was given another important mission. He made arrangements and helped Osama's "lieutenant" al-Zawahiri to travel from Afghanistan to the United States (36,37).

When his connections to al-Qaeda were inadvertently and accidentally revealed, Ali Mohamed was arrested. However, he was then "held" with his permission for almost a year without charge, waved his right to a trial, pled guilty to five counts, but was never sentenced.

THE BIN LADEN BROTHERS IN THE USA

In 1995, two of Osama's brothers had also established themselves in the United States. In 1996, one of them, Abdullah bin Laden, had come to the attention of the FBI. FBI field agents were curious about the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) -- a suspected terrorist organization which Abdullah bin Laden directed. India, for example, was claiming that WAMY was funding a terrorist organization that had conducted bombings in Kashmir. The Philippine's military accused WAMY of funding Muslim insurgency and terrorism. As detailed in the British newspaper, The Guardian (38) WAMY "was named as a discreet channel for public and private Saudi donations to hardline Islamic organizations. One of the recipients of its largesse has been the militant Students Islamic Movement of India, which has lent support to Pakistani-backed terrorists in Kashmir and seeks to set up an Islamic state in India."

WAMY was directed by Abdullah bin Laden who lived with his brother, Omar, in Falls Church, Virginia, which is right outside Washington, DC (39). They both lived just a few miles from WAMY.

The World Assembly of Muslim Youth was located at 5613 Leesburg Pike. Four of the 9/11 hijackers lived just three blocks down the street, at 5913 Leesburg Pike (39).

However, when FBI headquarters learned of the investigation being conducted by lower level FBI field operatives, it was called off (39).

Why?

A high placed intelligence official told the London Guardian (38): "there were always constraints on investigating the Saudis. There were particular investigations that were effectively killed."

Another U.S. intelligence agent told the BBC: "There is a hidden agenda at the very highest levels of our government" (39).

AL-QAEDA SETS UP SHOP IN THE USA

The FBI and CIA has known for years that bin Laden associates have been streaming into the United States. In fact, the CIA, State Department, and other agencies during and after the first Bush administration, made special arrangement to allow terrorists into this country under clandestine conditions.

In an interview broadcast by BBC News (40), Michael Springman, the former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, admitted that "while in Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept. officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. I complained bitterly. I was met with silence. What I was protesting was, in reality, an effort to bring recruits, rounded up by Osama Bin Laden, to the US for terrorist training by the CIA."

Many of them received training, but then never left. Some left only to return to the U.S. in order to organize terrorist cells, conduct surveillance, and raise funds. At the time of the 9/11 hijackings, at least five hard core groups of al-Qaeda sympathizers were known to have been operating in the United States since 1996.

Some work as university professors. Some in restaurants as cooks. Yet others as cab drivers, such as Boston cab drivers, Nabil Almarabh and Raed Hijazi -- men directly linked to three of the hijackers and who may have acted as a conduit for the flow of money that helped fund the attack. Raed Hijazi is also a terrorist in his own right. He is accused of plotting to kill American tourists in Jordan, on January 1, 2000.

In cities in Florida, Massachusetts, California, and other communities scattered throughout the United States, al-Qaeda agents would meet together at homes late at night, plotting, formulating plans, discussing how best to kill innocent American people.

Al-Qaeda terrorist cells have also been identified in Santa Clara, California -- the heart of Silicon Valley, as well as Brooklyn, Tucson, Providence Rhode Island, Arlington Texas, South Florida, and Boston and surrounding Massachusetts towns (17,41). At least three of the hijackers lived in Massachusetts and two of them had obtained Massachusetts driver's licenses; Ahmed al-Ghamdi in Cambridge, and Saeed al-Ghamdi in Salem.

A number of groups established roots in the United States during the first Bush administration, in the early 1990s. Others arrived in 1996. Among the earliest arrivals: the 9/11/2001 hijackers.

Two of the 9/11 hijackers had been imported into the United States in 1990 and 1991. Ahmed Al-Ghamdi moved to Massachusetts in 1990. Hani Hanjour, arrived in New York on Oct. 3, 1991. Both 9/11 hijackers came to America from Saudi Arabia during the administration of George H.W. Bush (41).

In 1996, whereas five of the 9/11 hijackers may have been receiving training at U.S. military installations (35), Hani Hanjour began receiving pilot training at CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale, Arizona (41).

Two more hijackers, Saeed al-Ghamdi and Waleed al-Shehri arrived in 1993, and 1994. Waleed al-Shehri resided in Daytona Beach, Florida, and obtained a social security card in 1994. Mr. al-Shehri also had a pilot's license (41).

As noted, three other hijackers also resided in Florida, and in 1996 men with their names began receiving training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola (35).

It is standard procedure for the CIA to recruit and then plant agents in a community with orders to blend in. Consider again al-Qaeda terrorist Ali Mohamed who was recruited by the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration. Although Egyptian-born, he was granted U.S. citizenship and became a longtime Silicon Valley resident and an FBI and CIA informant. Ali Mohamed was provided "freedom to operate unchecked in the United States." In 1995, Ali Mohamed also assisted al-Zawahiri, a top al-Qaeda leader, to enter the United States to recruit volunteers and to raise funds (36,37).

Ali Mohamed also trained Osama bin Laden's bodyguards and helped plan the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. However, for almost as long as he was a terrorist, Mohamed also was in contact with U.S. intelligence, and served as a U.S. government informant according to court records (36). Indeed, he even informed U.S. intelligence, in advance, about the plans to bomb the two U.S. embassies in Africa.

As noted, several of the 9/11 hijackers also established roots and sought to blend in with the community, as they waited for instructions to strike. Ali Mohamed even married an American woman, and lived with her for years in California.

This CIA-inspired policy was also adopted by al-Qaeda.

In preparing for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, al-Qaeda agents rented houses, married local women and lived in nearby communities for years prior to the attacks. These men also acted as spies. They gathered data and information on potential targets and helped to establish a local network that could help them commit their foul deeds.

Again, the same pattern was implemented in the U.S., both during the first Bush administration, and after he had been voted out of office. However, let us not be so foolish to believe that "out of office" means "out of power." The CIA is a power unto itself, and the CIA, for almost 50 years, has had George H.W. Bush's paw prints all over it.

FLORIDA: BUSH COUNTRY, HIJACKER HAVEN

Florida is "Bush country" and Florida was to become hijacker heaven (41). In July 2000, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Atta, who carried a Saudi passport, traveled from Germany to Florida. They told people they were "cousins."

Waleed al-Shehri and Saeed al-Ghamdi, shared an address in Daytona Beach. Waleed al-Shehri and his brother Wail also shared yet another address with a woman living in Hollywood, Florida. The woman, Ms. al-Shehri, was also on the FBI's "watch list."

Abdul Alomari rented a $1400-a-month pastel stucco house in Hollywood Florida. Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi, lived in a two-bedroom apartment numbered 1504, at the Delray Racquet Club.

The hijackers may have chosen Florida for a number of reasons, including the warm weather, and perhaps the chance to ogle decadent Western females as they pranced nearly naked in string bikinis on south Florida's famed white sand beaches.

All that sand, it may have reminded them of their own desert kingdoms.

They may have also believed they were less likely to stand out and draw attention in Florida, as compared, for example, to Vermont or South Dakota. Over 30,000 Muslims live in South Florida, the vast majority of whom are foreign-born. In fact, several of the hijackers had been living in Florida for years, including Mohald al-Shehri who owned a luxurious condo at a private golf club in Delray Beach.

The dark skinned Arabs may have also felt they would be less conspicuous because Florida is also the home of millions of dark skinned Latin peoples.

Also, Florida attracts a flood of tourists year round, over 70 million in 2000, and the fact that these men were jobless and without any obvious means of supporting themselves financially, but were nevertheless spending gobs of cash, would have gone virtually unnoticed. They would have easily blended in with the millions of other rich foreigners who come to the U.S. every year to stay, play and have fun.

Florida also has a unique status second only to California, and it has nothing to do with Florida oranges.

Florida has an incredible concentration of flight schools offering aviation instruction. Florida boasts more than 225 flying schools, including those sponsored or offered at Florida's public airports.

Because Florida is number 2, they try harder, and prior to the 9/11 tragedy, anyone who wanted to learn how to fly a jet in order to commit mass murder could easily obtain the requisite training -- no questions asked, other than: Show me the money. In Florida, training in aviation is a $1-billion-a-year industry.

And as many as 30% of the students are foreigners.

Florida was a perfect location for terrorists -- especially those in the service of the CIA (42,43). Indeed, the CIA has been using south Florida since at least 1960, when a CIA-operation coded named "JM/WAVE" was established in preparation for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. "Fronts, proprietaries, suppliers, transfer agents, conduits, dummy corporations, blind drops, detective agencies, law firms, electronic firms, airlines," and so on, including banks, were all hooked up into the "secret nervous system twitching to stimuli supplied by the cortex in Clandestine Services in Langley" (43).

Florida has also been Bush country since the 1950s. In 1959 George H.W. Bush began running his Zapata oil company from a headquarters located in Houston. However, he also spent a lot of time in Louisiana and Florida, where Zapata was drilling offshore for oil (27). Indeed, George H.W. Bush was not only spending time in Florida when the CIA set up "JM/WAVE", but in a 1963 FBI memo written by FBI Director, Hoover (44), there is reference to "Mr. George Bush of the CIA," and activities related to the "Miami, Florida, Office."

Florida is Bush country, and Jeb Bush, the son of George H.W. Bush, was governor of Florida when many of the 9/11 hijackers began arriving.

Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Three of them may have received training in Florida, at U.S. military institutions, in 1996.

In 1996, not only were a number of 9/11 hijackers in the United States, but the Saudi government began making huge payments to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization (42) -- funds which were used to buy influence and to finance terrorism in the United States.

Following the 1996 elections, President Bill Clinton was preparing to serve his final term in office.

Likewise, in 1996, the son of G.H.W. Bush, George Bush Jr. won a second term as governor of Texas, and was being groomed to make a run for the Presidency in 2000.

It was also in 1996 that Mohamed Atta, the ostensible leader of the September 11 hijackings, wrote in his diary that he had decided to become a martyr (41).

1996 was a key year.

A terrorist attack was being planned, with the United States as the target, and top officials in the CIA, FBI, and the Clinton and both Bush administrations knew about it (41).

"You said that it is not true that we didn't know about these people? No, it's not true. It's not true. Everybody knew ... there was intelligence available that some of these people were taking flight school lessons in the United States ... And we had names, yes, all of us."

-- Prince Bandar, September, 2001 (22).

_______________

Notes:

1). Washington Post, "Bush: Out of These Troubled Times ... a New World Order," 9/12/1990; Washington Post, "Bush's Talk of a 'New World Order:' Foreign Policy Tool or Mere Slogan?" 5/26/1991.

2). Phenomenology of Spirit; Philosophy of History; Science of Logic; The Philosophy of Right; by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

3). The School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia, is notorious for training terrorists, torturers, and the future leaders of death squads, including SOA graduate Roberto D' Aubuisson who organized hundreds of right wing death squads which plagued Salvador during the Reagan-Bush administration. According to Human Rights Watch, in a report titled, "The Ties that Bind: Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links:" numerous officers implicated in recent cases of torture and murder were graduates of the SOA. In Guatemala, numerous SOA graduates have been arrested for terrorist acts and murder, including Colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada who was recently arrested for the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi. Gerardi was documenting the involvement of the SOA during Guatemala's thirty-year war and had written a report titled, "Guatemala: Nunca Mas," in which he detailed how SOA graduates had terrorized, tortured, and murdered untold civilians. Because the SOA is directly responsible for training terrorists, torturers and murderers, it has also been referred to as the "School of the Assassins." The SOA's reputation is so tarnished that administrators have decided to change its name to "The United States Defense Institute for Hemispheric Security Cooperation." Yet another terrorist training program was established when George H.W. Bush became CIA director, i.e. the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which funds training in "lethal" methods for foreign military personnel. In 1992, the U.S. was forced to suspend IMET training for Indonesia when graduates murdered hundreds of civilians and tortured two U.S. journalists.

4). Burton Hersh, "The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA," Tree Farm Books, 2001. Christopher Simpson, "Blowback." T. H. Tetens, "The New Germany and the Old Nazis." John Stockwell, "The Secret Wars of the CIA." Speech given on 10/10/1987.

5). B. Raman, "Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen: An Update, HUM," Paper 42, March, 1999; Central Intelligence Agency, "Special National Intelligence Estimate 37-89, Afghanistan: The War in Perspective," November 1989; Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."

6). Jason Burke, "Frankenstein the CIA created Mujahideen trained and funded by the US are among its deadliest foes," The Guardian, 1/17/ 1999. See also, Michael Parenti, "The Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond." William Blum, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower."

7). Earleen Fisher, "Rise of Taliban rooted in events of last 2 decades," Associated Press, 11/11/2001; Hamid Algar, "Wahhabism: A Critical Essay," Islamic Publications International, 2002.

8). Ibn Taymiyya, "Governance According to God's Law in Reforming Both the Ruler and his Flock."

9). Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia," Yale Univ Press, 2002; Hamid Algar, "Wahhabism: A Critical Essay," Islamic Publications International, 2002. Robert Spencer, David Pryce-Jones, "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith," Encounter Books, 2002; Stephen Schwartz, "The Two Faces of Islam," Double Day, 2002.

10). Rudolph Peters, "Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam," Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 1996.

11). Sayed Qasim Reshtya, "The Price of Liberty: The Tragedy of Afghanistan," Bardi Editore, Roma Italy, 1984.

12). Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."

13). Le Nouvel Observateur, 11/15-21/1998; Bill Blum, "Killing Hope."

14). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.

15). Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9/28/1999; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, "The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993; James H. Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press.

16). Earleen Fisher, "Rise of Taliban rooted in events of last 2 decades," Associated Press, 11/11/2001.

17). Sara Jess & Gabriel Beck, "John Walker Lindh, American Taliban," University Press, California, 2002.

18). Davis, Anthony. "Terrorism's Ground Zero; Afghan Camps Created a Muslim Brigade," Asiaweek, September 4, 1998.

19). Central Intelligence Agency, "Special National Intelligence Estimate 37-89, Afghanistan: The War in Perspective," November 1989.

20). B. Raman, "Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen: An Update, HUM," Paper 42, March, 1999.

21). John F. Bums, "New Afghan Rulers Impose Harsh Mores of the Islamic Code," New York Times, 10/1/1996; John F. Burns, "Stoning of Afghan Adulterers: Some Go to Take Part, Others Just Watch," New York Times, 11/3/1996.

22). PBS Frontline, Prince Bandar interview, 9/2001.

23). PBS Frontline, "About the bin Laden Family. Origins of the bin Laden Family," 2002.

24). PBS, Frontline, 2001; see also Peter Brewton, "Harken Energy: George W.'s Perfect Storm," 7/15/2002; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, "The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993; Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9/28/1999.

25). Weaver, Mary Anne. "The Real bin Laden," The New Yorker, 1/24/2000

26). Department of Defense, "21st Century Complete Guide to the Gulf War, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, from the Invasion by Iraq and Saddam Hussein to the Liberation of Kuwait, with Declassified Military and CIA Files," Department of Defense, Progressive Management, 2002.

27). Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, "George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography," The Executive Intelligence Review.

28). Daniel Golden et al. "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001.

29). BBC News, 6/11/2001.

30). Robert Scheer, Making Money, the Bush Way," Los Angeles Times, 2/20/2002; Baltimore Chronicle, "Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but 'News' Media ignore it," 10/4/01; Jason Nisse, "Carlyle Group, Employer of Bush Sr., Profits from Massive Weapons Program Signed by Jr. which the Pentagon had advised be Canceled," Independent, 1/30/02.

31). Village Voice, 10/31/01; Washington Post, 10/3/01.

32). Washington Post, 11/30/2001; Associated Press, 6/10/2002; BBC News, 12/1/2001.

33). Richard D. Kaplan, The Lawless Frontier," 9/2000.

34). Christian Science Monitor, 10/31/2001.

35). Newsweek, 9/15/2001.

36). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. ALI MOHAMED, New York, N.Y. October 20, 2000.

37). Peter Waldman, The Wall Street Journal, 11/26/2001; see also San Francisco Chronicle, 11/4/2001.

38). The Guardian, 11/7/2001.

39). BBC Newsnight, 6/11/2001; Guardian, 7/11/2001.

40). BBC New, Newsnight, Greg Palast, 6/11/2001.

41). Sara Jess, et al., "America Attacked," University Press, California, 10/11/2001; Joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-October, 2002.

42). Peter Kornbluh (Editor), "Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba, National Security Archive Documents Reader," New Press, 1998; James G. Blight & Peter Kornbluh (Editors), "Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined," Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. Syrokomsky, Vitaly, "International Terrorism and the CIA: Documents, Eyewitness Reports, Facts," Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1983.

43). Donald Freed, "Death in Washington," Westport Press, 1980.

41). "Date: November 29, 1963 To: Director Bureau of Intelligence and Research Department of State From: John Edgar Hoover, Director Subject: ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY NOVEMBER 22, 1963. Our Miami, Florida, Office ....The substance of the foregoing information was orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency ..."

42). New Yorker, 10/16/2001.

43). Sayed Qasim Reshtya, "The Price of Liberty: The Tragedy of Afghanistan," Bardi Editore, Roma Italy, 1984.

44). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.

45). John Prados, "Afghanistan lessons from the Last War. U.S. Analysis of the Soviet War in Afghanistan: Declassified," 10/9/2001.

46). Central Intelligence Agency, "Special National Intelligence Estimate 37-89, Afghanistan: The War in Perspective," November 1989; Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, Office of Political Analysis, "The Soviets and the Tribes of Southwest Asia," CIA Declassification Release, 9/23/1980.

47). PBS Frontline, 2001; Jean Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie, "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth."

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PART 1 OF 2

Chapter 10: BUSH, FBI & CIA & SABOTAGE PRE-9-11 INVESTIGATIONS

FBI/CIA Agents Working for Bin Laden?

The Bush administration and high ranking members of the FBI and CIA, have claimed that it is impossible for the CIA to plant or recruit spies from within terrorist organizations such as al- Qaeda. That differences of language, religion, and ethnicity, make recruitment impossible. American spies would "stand out like a sore thumb" and would be killed and eliminated by "evil doers."

Thus, saith the Bush team, we are deaf, dumb, and blind as to what takes place within these organizations as they are nearly impossible to penetrate. And, the corporate-controlled American mass media repeats these absurdities despite even recent and well publicized evidence to the contrary; e.g. John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla.

Jose Padilla, for example, is not Arabic. He is not from Afghanistan. He was born in Puerto Rico and raised right here in the United States. Nor does he have a Muslim religious background or heritage. For much of his youth he was the member of a notorious Chicago-based gang. He was a punk. A "gang banger" who had been implicated in a gangland murder when he was 13. He had been arrested in 1991, after a road-rage shooting incident (1).

As he approached his 30th birthday, Jose Padilla, became interested in Islam. He became a Muslim and took a Muslim name, Abdullah al-Muhajir. In 1998, Jose Padilla journeyed to Pakistan in search of authentic Islamic teaching, and to make contact and join up with Islamic gang bangers, al-Qaeda. According to the U.S. Justice Department, in March of 2002, Jose Padilla met with senior al-Qaeda operatives in Karachi, including Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda commander. He also joined in discussions about the possibility of creating a radiological "dirty bomb."

He was arrested on May 8, 2002, after flying into Chicago's O'Hare airport from Pakistan.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has described Padilla, as an "al-Qaeda operative," and an "enemy combatant," thus stripping him of his legal and constitutional rights (1).

And yet, although a 31 year old Latino male, raised in the United States, was able to gain access to senior members of al- Qaeda. although he became involved in discussions of possible terrorist attacks on the U.S., the Bush administration wishes us to believe that it is nearly impossible to insert a spy into the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

And then there is John Walker Lindh (2). Although raised a Catholic from an affluent home, and despite having a father who once worked for the Justice Department, John Walker Lindh, a skinny, effeminate, "White boy" from Marin County, California, was readily accepted into the ranks of al-Qaeda. John Walker Lindh was in fact recruited while living in Marin County, and then twice traveled from the U.S. to Yemen -- a haven for al-Qaeda operatives. Following the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, Walker traveled from Yemen to Pakistan, where, like Jose Padilla, he met with terrorists directly associated with al-Qaeda. From Pakistan he journeyed to Afghanistan, where he met personally, on five different occasions, with Osama bin Laden. He even stayed at Osama bin Laden's guest house, and attended lectures delivered by Osama (2). John Walker Lindh was still in Afghanistan on 9/11/2001, and was made privy to ongoing plans for terrorist operations in the United States.

*******

The FBI, CIA, and Bush administration have repeatedly claimed the 9/11 attacks could not have been anticipated and could not have been prevented. When confronted with the incredible body of evidence indicating the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies had more than enough evidence to conclude the obvious, the Bush White House, and the corporate controlled mass media have tried to explain that the terrorists had "slipped through the cracks."

We have been assured that U.S. intelligence agencies were so overwhelmed with information, and have been so restricted by restrictive and unnecessary laws, that they were unable penetrate al-Qaeda or "connect the dots."

The evidence indicates otherwise.

Several of the hijackers had been identified, and placed under surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies prior to 9/11. Four of them were even identified, as potential hijackers, by a passenger, in August, who became alarmed by their "obvious" intentions, and this information was passed on from the FAA to the FBI.

*******

The CIA (and other US intelligence agencies) had first established a relationship with Osama bin Laden in the late 1970s (3). That relationship continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s and even into the year 2001, when he allegedly met with a CIA agent in Dubai in July (4) -- a city where 9/11 hijacker, Ziad al- Jarrah, was interviewed by the CIA seven months earlier (5).

The CIA (and other US intelligence agencies) had developed close working relationships with a number of men directly associated with bin Laden, and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization long before 9/11. In fact U.S. Intelligence agencies had a number of "agents who infiltrated al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies" (6). Mohammed Khaksar, the Taliban's deputy interior minister and intelligence chief, was a CIA informant (7). Because of this relationship, following the U.S. led attack on the Taliban, he defected and became a trusted member of the U.S. backed Northern Alliance.

As Khaksar later admitted to reporters, beginning in "1999" he "kept up a regular secret dialogue with [and] served as a clandestine contact for U.S. intelligence services while serving the Taliban and al-Qaeda. CIA agents disguised as journalists visited him to solicit inside information" (7).

Khaksar say that one of the reasons he began providing information to U.S. intelligence, is that he didn't trust bin laden and was suspicious of bin Laden's motives. He says he voiced his suspicions to other Taliban leaders that bin laden "would do something bad, and it will have a bad effect on Afghanistan" (7).

As detailed in court records. Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, was also a CIA spy and an FBI informant (8,9). Ali Mohamed trained Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, and was linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade center and the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa. He also helped al-Zawahiri, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda, enter the US with a fake passport in 1995, and tour U.S. mosques, raising money later funneled to al-Qaeda. Ali Mohamed also helped plan the 1998 bombing ofthe U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Ali Mohamed, however, was a U.S. government informant during his entire terrorist career. In fact, he was trained in the United States, at a U.S. military installation and then served as a CIA operative in Afghanistan.

He was not alone.

According to a report that appeared in Newsweek (10) "five of the alleged hijackers ... received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s. Three of the hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said a high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source. The three foreign nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were among the four men who commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. The third man, Ahmed Alghamdi, helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75. Drivers licenses issued in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences."

After the 9/11 tragedy, Florida Democratic Senator Bob Nelson, upon reading these allegations fired off an indignant letter demanding an explanation from the FBI and John Ashcroft's Justice Department. The senator got nowhere. According to Senator Nelson's office, "In the wake of those reports we asked about the Pensacola Naval Air Station but we never got a definitive answer from the Justice Department" or "the FBI. Their response to date has been that they are trying to sort through something complicated and difficult."

Another 9/11 hijacker, Ziad al-Jarrah, also maintained a relationship with the CIA. Indeed, he met with CIA officials as recently as January of 2001, at which point he was debriefed.

As reported by CNN (5), "Jarrah had spent at least three weeks in January 2001, at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan." Upon completing his terrorist training, the CIA, which had been monitoring his movements, requested that intelligence officials based in the United Arab Emirates question him about "his terrorist activities." According to CNN, the CIA had "Jarrah stopped at the airport in Dubai on January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified officials that he would be arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe."

The CIA questioned, debriefed, and then allowed him to return to Europe and from Europe to the United States.

On 9/11, Ziad al-Jarrah piloted the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.

As was the case with the five 9/11 hijackers who were trained at U.S. military bases in the 1990s, the relationship between Ziad al-Jarrah and the CIA began in the 1990s.

In 1999, Ziad al-Jarrah, moved into a Hamburg apartment already shared by future 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi (11). In October, 1999, Ziad al-Jarrah, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, attended the wedding of al-Qaeda operative, Said Bahaji, a German-born Muslim of Moroccan descent. Also at the wedding: Mohammed Heidar Zammar, a known al-Qaeda recruiter (12).

This was all duly noted by the CIA (13).

On the morning of Nov. 29, 1999, U.S. Intelligence tracked and then followed Ziad al-Jarrah as he, Mohammed Atta, and Marwan Al-Shehhi left Germany, then boarded Turkish Airlines Flight 1662. In the company of another al-Qaeda operative also linked to Pakistan's intelligence service, bin al-Shibh, they flew from Istanbul to Karachi, Pakistan. These men remained under surveillance for several more days, and were then tracked to an al- Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan (13).

Atta, it is believed, was the leader of the four 9/11 hijacking teams. During a phone conversation that was taped by the CIA, al- Jarrah referred to Atta as "boss."

Based on information apparently supplied by al-Jarrah, or other spies within al-Qaeda, the CIA learned that Atta and the other men met with Osama bin laden and that Atta was treated as an honored guest (13). Subsequently Atta was tape recorded by the CIA discussing with another known terrorist, a forthcoming attack on the United States (14).

The three men did not return to Germany until February 2000, at which point they began using the internet to send and receive information from flight schools in the United States. Over 30 different schools were contacted (15). A Hamburg librarian later claimed she overhead al-Shehhi speaking of the World Trade Center and then boasting: "There will be thousands of dead. You will all think of me" (15).

Atta, al-Shehhi, and al-Jarrah were not the only 9/11 hijackers being closely monitored.

For example, we know that the FBI and CIA had also been observing two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, during this same time period (16). The CIA and FBI knew the men were linked to al-Qaeda and had met with Osama bin Laden. The CIA and FBI also knew that al-Midhar's father-in-law ran an al-Qaeda safehouse in Yemen, and that he had acted in the past to relay messages between al-Qaeda operatives (17).

The CIA tracked Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi to Malaysia, where a high level al-Qaeda conference was to be held, in January 2000 (16). The CIA ordered Malaysian Intelligence to photograph the participants, which included a one-legged member of al-Qaeda Tawfiq Attash Khallad. Khallad was a top al-Qaeda lieutenant and the chief planner of the bombing of the USS Cole.

Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were photographed talking with Khallad. After the meeting, Khallad is known to have provided funds, and to have paid for the plane tickets of al-Hazmi and AI- Midhar, to America (16).

Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were also photographed talking with bin al-Shibh, the same man who had accompanied Atta, al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah to Afghanistan. Bin al- Shibh -- acting in concert with Pakistan's Intelligence Service (ISI) -- would later wire $115,000 to the Florida bank accounts of Atta and al-Shehhi (16), and an as yet undisclosed sum of cash to Zacarias Moussaoui (the so called "20th hijacker").

How did the CIA know of this meeting? There were multiple sources, one of which included listening in on intercepted phone calls made from a tapped-phone in al-Midhar's father-in-laws al-Qaeda safe house (17).

All this information, including the fact that Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had entered the United States soon after attending an al-Qaeda conference in Malaysia, was gathered by the CIA and was passed on to the FBI's counterterrorism center at FBI headquarters in January 2000 (16).

And yet, for the next 18 months, both agencies permitted these two terrorists to move about freely and to hold meetings with at least six of the other hijackers, including Mohammed Atta and Hani Hanjour (16). Hanjour would later hijack American Airlines Flight 77.

These men did not fall through the cracks. The FBI and CIA knew they were dangerous. One unidentified FBI agent from the agency's New York office, said that he warned his superiors that "someone would die" unless the government more aggressively investigated the mysterious trail of al-Midhar (16). Instead, top level officials in the FBI and CIA allowed these men to go about their activities with impunity.

Like Atta and the others, Khalid AI-Midhar and Nawaf al- Hazmi rented apartments, obtained credit cards and driver's licenses, set up bank accounts, listed their real names in the San Diego phone book, and even took flying lessons, while under "surveillance" (11).

In fact, they moved into the home of Abduss Attar Sheikh -- an FBI informant! Abduss Attar Sheikh, a Muslim they met at a Mosque in San Diego, helped them open a bank account and get internet access, while simultaneously reporting this to the FBI (16,17). Local FBI agents even visited the home, on a regular basis, while al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were present!

These individuals had little fear of being arrested. On one occasion, May I, 2001, Nawaf al-Hazmi called police to report that someone tried to rob him. He later declined to press charges.

Several others 9/11 hijackers also came to the attention of the police, including Atta (11) and Ziad al-Jarrah -- both stopped for speeding (16).

Atta was also held and questioned at length when he arrived at the Miami International Airport in January, on a tourist visa. Atta boldly told immigration officials that he was in the United States for flight training. Even though any kind of training would have required a student or vocational education visa, someone intervened on Atta's behalf and they let him enter the country illegally.

As noted, although al-Midhar and al-Hazmi were on a special "watch list" and were known to be associating with terrorists, they were allowed free entry into the U.S. (II, 16). In fact, even when al-Midhar left the U.S. to travel in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and although he had been videotaped meeting with one of the suspects in the Oct. 12, 2000 terrorist attack of the USS Cole, he was able to renew his visa after it had expired. He returned to the United States, unchallenged, on July 4, 2001.

Likewise, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah, were allowed to undergo pilot training, and to move about the country, and to meet with many of the other hijackers, and to board and then hijack American commercial jet liners and crash them into the World Trade Center.

Mohammed Atta, Al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah were not overlooked. They did not fall between the cracks.

Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 ring leader had been of special interest for years (11). His movements were tracked by the CIA, he was followed and photographed, and we know that even some of his phone conversations were tape recorded by the CIA and the National Security Agency (16).

Atta was well known to U.S. Intelligence. He had been implicated in previous terrorists attacks against Israel. He and his "cousin" Marwan, had been linked by German authorities to Islamic extremists and the bin Laden organization. He had been photographed allegedly meeting with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer, in April 2001, by the Czechoslovakian Intelligence Services -- information that was turned over to the CIA (11,16).

And then, after coming to this country, Mohammed Atta repeatedly drew attention to himself, driving recklessly without a license and getting a speeding ticket, getting drunk in public, making anti-American statements, spending money lavishly though the had no source of income, and failing to appear in court which resulted in the issuing of an arrest warrant (11). In fact, in July 2001, he was stopped again by police in Delray Beach, for speeding. And, although a warrant for his arrest had been issued in a neighboring county for failing to appear in court the officer let him go for reasons that have not been explained. And he did all this while being closely monitored by the CIA and FBI.

Atta was arrogant and supremely confident with no fear of being apprehended or arrested.

The behavior of Atta, Khalid al-Midhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and others, the fact that none of these men seemed to have any concern about U.S. authorities, raises the possibility that they were being shielded by those who were watching them. It raises the possibility that they knew they were being protected by those who made it possible for them and the other 9/11 hijackers to enter the country.

Consider, again the case of Ali Mohamed (8,9). Ali had been trained at the United States Army's special-warfare school in Fort Bragg, where he learned how to create terrorist cell structures that could be used for terrorist operations. And, with the blessing of the CIA, he taught all that he had learned to al-Qaeda operatives including group survival techniques, map reading, how to fire automatic weapons and build booby traps with explosives. He regularly reported to the FBI and CIA. However, when he was arrested after it was inadvertently revealed that he was linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the October 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies, he was such an important double agent that Federal officials came to his rescue. Thus we discover that he waved a trial and pled guilty to five counts, in October of 2000, and was never sentenced!

Ali Mohamed was being protected because he was an undercover CIA/FBI operative. He was protected by top officials in the FBI and CIA even though they knew he was involved in terrorist activities and assisting those who were planning to kill and who had killed Americans (18). He was protected because he was a double agent who informed U.S. Intelligence in advance of these these attacks, which top officials in the FBI and CIA then allowed to take place.

In 1999, a National Security Council staffer working for the Clinton administration, met with FBI officials at the White House and pointed out that Ayman al-Zawahiri, had visited the United States on a fund-raising trip (19) -- a trip arranged by Ali Mohamed (8,9). He then asked: "'Did you know that?" The FBI officials nodded warily. 'Well,' the staffer continued, 'if he was here, someone was handling his travel and arranging his meetings and someone was giving him money. Do you know who these people are? Do you have them covered? There are cells here and we need to know about them.' 'Yeah, yeah, we know. Don't worry about it,''' the F.B.I. officials replied. According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, the director and the senior director for counterterrorism on the security council staff during the Clinton administration, what these FBI officials were saying was: Back off (19).

Ali Mohamed was protected.

The behavior of al-Hazmi, al-Midhar, Mohammed Atta, and many of the other 9/11 hijackers, the fact that they made no attempt to conceal their actions or whereabouts, and the ease at which they were able to leave and reenter the country, suggests that they had no reason to be concerned about being caught, because they knew they were being protected. Atta in fact took seven international trips, some of which were to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and had no problem reentering the United States.

Mohammed Atta drank too much, drove too fast, flashed large wads of cash, and made anti-American statements while taking flying lessons, because he felt he was protected.

These individuals had so little fear of being arrested, they felt so protected, that they were even willing to drive recklessly, and in the case of Nawaf al-Hazmi, make calls to the police. Nawaf al-Hazmi, using his real name, even filed a police report, on May I, of an attempted robbery. Atta and Ziad al-Jarrah had both been stopped, and ticketed for speeding, and then failed to show up in court -- thus inviting an arrest.

They had no fear of arrest. They had no fear of being identified as terrorists.

They were being protected.

Protected by what? Allah, or by the CIA and FBI?

On August I, actor James Woods, while a passenger on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, became alarmed by the behavior of four men who he thought were intending on hijacking the plane. As he explained during a February 2002, television interview on Fox TV's O'Reilly Factor, the possibility that these men were planning a hijacking "would have been blatantly obvious to the most casual observer." Mr. Woods states that he informed one of the pilots, pointed out the four men, and that a report was filed by the flight crew in early August, and that the report went directly to the FAA regarding the suspicious behavior of the four men.

According to Mr. Woods, he contacted the FBI, following the 9/11 hijacking, and was "told unofficially ... that all four of them were terrorists involved" in the 9/11 attack. Woods was also told, however, that he should keep the details secret because of national security.

Hence, in August, four of the 9-11 hijackers had been identified as possible hijackers, and yet the FBI did nothing.

The men were being protected.

What we also know -- and as has been reported in the Wall Street Journal (20) and other publications (21) -- is that the Bush family and the Carlyle Group was in business with the bin Laden family. We also know that George H.W. Bush had stayed, as an honored guest, at the bin Laden palace. We know that after his son, George W. was elected President, that Bush Jr., Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor, Condaleezza Rice were receiving detailed phone calls from G.H.W. Bush -- a man who was in power when Osama bin Laden was first recruited, and who -- like the bin- Ladens and other Saudis -- stood to make an incredible sum of money if a terrorist attack on the United States was followed by a war on Afghanistan (22) and then Iraq.

And we know that George H.W. Bush, the former director of the CIA, had been with the agency since at least the early 1960s (23). And we know, no one ever really leaves the CIA -- certainly not G.H.W. Bush.

We also know that the Bush family were linked to the Nazis, that businesses directed by Prescott Bush were seized for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act, and that George H.W. Bush has been linked to terrorist atrocities throughout the world.

And then there is the Carlyle Group, which, like the Bush family is in business with the bin Ladens. There are so many ex- CIA agents on the payroll of Carlyle, that some have likened it to a CIA-front organization.

Thus we suspect that even after George Bush Sr. had been voted out of office, his hands, and the hands of his associates, were probably still wrapped tightly around the throat of the CIA, and no doubt the FBI-Intelligence organizations which actively sabotaged any meaningful investigation into al-Qaeda, bin Laden, or his terrorist operatives in the United states. Indeed, top FBI and CIA officials continued to hinder the efforts of lower ranking FBI agents, in the months, days, and even hours before the 9/11 tragedy (24,25,26,27,28).

Consider, again the Carlyle Group. Frank Carlucci is a former deputy CIA director, Bush is a former CIA director, and it has been said that dozens of former CIA agents are on the Carlyle payroll. The Carlyle Group expected to profit handsomely, and it has profited handsomely from the "war on terrorism" -- a war that would not have begun if al-Qaeda had been stopped.

According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon (19), when they and other Clinton staffers, including President Clinton, attempted to force the CIA and FBI to take action against bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and the terrorist threat they believed loomed on the horizon, the C.I.A., F.B.I. and even the military were uncooperative.

Likewise, when Clinton sought to utilize the unmanned Predator drone, to find al-Qaeda targets and fire missiles at them, George Tenet of the CIA as well as the Air Force refused to cooperate, arguing that assassination would be a bad policy. The FBI was uncooperative in the extreme (19,24,25,26,27,28).

GEORGE W. BUSH IS ELECTED PRESIDENT: THE COVER UP BEGINS

In January of 2001, in the first week after being sworn into office, the Bush team ordered the FBI and all intelligence agencies to "back off' investigations involving bin Laden and the Saudis.

Before Bush came into office there were several dozen analysts assigned to two operational units focused on Osama bin Laden and radical fundamentalists groups. After Bush came to power, these individuals were reassigned. In consequence, the F.B.I. had only one analyst working on strategic assessments of al-Qaeda (16).

In addition, the Bush team and National Security advisor, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, killed all plans, provided by the outgoing Clinton administration, to launch a major initiative to take on and destroy bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.

Specifically, in January of 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, Clinton National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, called a National Security meeting, the purpose of which was to brief incoming National Security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and her staff, including her deputy, Stephen Hadley, about the menace of bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

''I'm coming to this briefing" Berger told Rice, "to underscore how important I think this subject is. I believe that the Bush administration will spend more time on terrorism generally, and on al-Qaeda specifically, than any other subject."

During that meeting, which took place in the White House Situation Room, Rice and her deputy, were given a detailed "plan" outlining a major initiative to take on and destroy bin Laden's al- Qaeda organization. These included plans to arrest the leaders of all al-Qaeda terrorist cells and those providing financial aid to bin Laden, and to "eliminate" bin Laden's "sanctuary" in Afghanistan.

The Bush team wasn't interested and disregarded these recommendations. Instead they began ordering top FBI officials to slow down or halt all investigations into bin Laden or his Saudi connections. It was being made clear to all concerned that absolutely no action would be taken on any information regarding a terrorist threats posed by bin Laden or al-Qaeda.

Later, after 9/11 and when questioned by reporters, Rice (through a spokeswoman) claimed she had no recollection of such a meeting. Her top aids also denied ever receiving any such document or plan. Thus Rice, and therefore, the Bush administration would have us believe that they took absolutely no action because no one had given them a plan and because they didn't know bin Laden was such a threat.

"Never did we realize that the enemy was so well organized ..." Bush whined.

Right. And the cow jumped over the moon.

Indeed, the Bush team not only shifted the focus from al- Qaeda, bin Laden, and the Saudis, but ordered FBI and all intelligence agencies to "back off' investigations involving the bin Laden family and any links between Saudi Arabia and terrorism (26).

For example, in an interview broadcast by BBC News Newsnight (25), Michael Wildes, a former U.S. Attorney representing a Saudi diplomat, states that when he attempted to hand deliver documents which directly implicated Saudi citizens in financing terrorism, the FBI "refused" to accept them. Although lower level FBI agents wanted to examine the documents, they had been told that anything linking the Saudis to terrorism, was not to be explored.

It was not just documents, but terrorist activity that was not to be explored. Consider, for example, the case of Zacarias Moussaoui.

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI

In late August 2000, the FBI received repeated and insistent warnings from managers ofthe Pan Am International Flight School in Eagan, Minnesota about an Arab who was requesting training in a Boeing 747 simulator (11,24).

The Arab, Zacarias Moussaoui, only wanted to learn how to steer the jet and had no interest in learning about landings or takeoffs. "He just wanted to learn to steer the plane, which was very odd" (11).

This "odd" man, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested on August 17, for overstaying his visa. Because he was a French citizen, and based on the information received from the flight school, FBI field agents contacted French intelligence officials and were informed that Zacarias Moussaoui was a suspected terrorist and a fanatical believer in Islam (24).

This is the same Moussaoui, who, like Atta, received money transfers from al-Qaeda operative, bin al-Shibh. Moussaoui arrived in the United States with $35,0001n cash. On Aug. I and Aug. 3 bin al-Shibh wired him an additional $14,0001n money orders (16).

FBI officials also noted a "spike" in the cell phone usage of Mr. Atta, immediately after the arrest of Moussaoui (16).

Later, that evening, after he had been taken into custody, FBI agents were told by an informant that Moussaoui believed it was "acceptable to kill civilians who harm Muslims" and that it was a high honor to die as a "martyr" in such attacks (11).

Minnesota FBI agents were convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist and a direct threat to the United States, and that he was planning to possibly hijack a commercial jet in a terrorist attack. After compiling an alarming amount of evidence, they contacted FBI headquarters as well as the head of the bureau's Radical Fundamentalist Unit, David Frasca. This is the same David Frasca who was sent information from Phoenix about Islamic extremists with terrorist connections and who were seeking to learn how to steer but not land commercial jetliners.

FBI headquarters and the Radical Fundamentalist Unit immediately acted to "block" and "deliberately" prevent the Minnesota FBI office from continuing its investigation (24).

As related by 21-year FBI veteran, Coleen Rowley, agents at the Minnesota FBI office began making "desperate" attempts to obtain cooperation from FBI headquarters who instead were "deliberately thwarting" any investigation. The Minnesota office in fact became so worried and frustrated by the inexplicable barriers they were encountering, that they contacted the CIA directly about Moussaoui.

The CIA reacted at once. FBI headquarters was informed, and the agents of the Minnesota FBI field office were reprimanded in no uncertain terms.

According to Rowley (24): "When, in a desperate 11th-hour measure to bypass the FBI HQ roadblock, the Minneapolis division undertook to directly notify the CIA's counterterrorist center, FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents."

The message was clear: "Hands off Moussaoui."

FBI headquarters did not just put a stop to the investigation, they sabotaged it in no uncertain terms. Top officials in the FBI in fact rewrote the Minnesota agents' request for search warrants and permission to conduct additional surveillance, removing important information, and altering it in such a fashion that it became a "joke."

As recalled by Agent Coleen Rowley, Minnesota agents became so frustrated by the inexplicable roadblocks erected that some even suggested that FBI headquarters was an "accomplice" to Osama bin Laden's efforts to attack the United States.

"Accomplice?"

Inexplicably, and contrary to normal protocol, the FBI officials also failed to inform the Minnesota or Phoenix office that both had come up with similar cases and had similar suspicions.

Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix had concluded a painstaking investigation and had uncovered detailed information that linked a number of Middle Eastern flight students to Osama bin Laden and to a radical British Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun. Al-Muhajiroun is dedicated to the establishment of a global Muslim state through Islamic terror and the overthrow and destruction of all non-Islamic governments. Moreover, he discovered that one of the flight school students had communicated with Abu Zubaydah, one of bin Laden's top aides (16).

In July, Williams sent FBI headquarters a detailed report warning that Osama bin Laden's followers may be training in U.S. flight schools. He further reported that they had been inquiring about airport security, and that they may be planning to hijack commercial jetliners. Williams strongly urged that the FBI should canvass all flight schools in the United States to identify students with possible terrorist ties.

William's reported land on Ashcroft's desk in August. Ashcroft, the FBI, and the Bush administration, however, wish us to believe that the evidence did not seem credible, that Williams was just pursuing "a hunch."

"This was not a vague hunch," an unnamed congressional source told the Associated Press. "He was doing a case on these guys. He put in all the history about this pattern of radical Muslims and Osama (having) links to Arizona. He talked about fatwas (religious edicts) targeting U.S. airports. He noted that one guy was asking about airport security -- that's specific information, not guesswork. The memo was very specific. It named names," the official said.

In fact, two of the flight school students mentioned in William's report had direct links to al-Qaeda, and a third student had communicated by phone with Abu Zubaydah, a leader of al-Qaeda -- a phone call that was allegedly monitored by the CIA. Abu Zubaydah played a major role in organizing the 9/11 attacks and helped run a number of aI-Qaeda terrorist training camps.

William's five page report also included references to a "fatwa" issued by a man named Bakri, also known as Omar Bakri Fostok. Bakri had received a faxed letter from an al-Qaeda operative in Afghanistan, intercepted and copied by the CIA, which explicitly stated (16): "Bring down their airliners."

Ashcroft, however, claims that he never passed the information on to President Bush as he didn't think it was important.

Likewise, according to Ms. Hill of the joint House Senate Intelligence Committee, FBI personnel who reviewed Williams memo found it "speculative and not particularly significant." Ms. Hill also noted, however, that these same FBI agents knew that some flight students affiliated with bin Laden, were undergoing flight training in the United States, but they believed Osama's men were intending to fly goods and personnel in Afghanistan.

What?

They knew al-Qaeda was in the United States, taking flight lessons?

Of course they knew. That's the point. Although they knew, they not only let this flight training continue, but when informed that an al-Qaeda terrorist, Moussaoui, was in this country, and that he might be part of a plot to attack the World Trade Center with hijacked aircraft, top FBI officials sabotaged any further investigation (24). Indeed, one of the FBI agents who was thwarted by headquarters in fact warned he was trying to stop an attack on the "World Trade Center." His warning was dismissed.

Likewise, top officials in the CIA also conspired with top FBI officials to prevent any further investigation into Moussaoui (24). CIA officials falsely claimed they had no information linking him to terrorism. The CIA went to great lengths to dismiss the significance of the information provided by France's intelligence agencies. According to the CIA, the information provided by France did not provide "conclusive proof" of Moussaoui's ties to terrorism and thus any further investigation and any attempt to get a search warrant to examine Moussaoui's personal computer, should not be allowed.

But isn't that the purpose of conducting an investigation? To gather information?

Not according to FBI and CIA headquarters. Not when it comes to al-Qaeda. Not when it comes to an impending attack on the United States.

The Minnesota FBI field office would not back down. They made a second call to France. Their suspicions were again confirmed.

The FBI agents of Minnesota then rewrote their warrants and resubmitted them to headquarters. A supervisor in the Minnesota even followed up with a desperate phone call to FBI headquarters where he pleaded and then warned that they were trying to stop terrorists who planned "to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center" (24).

FBI headquarters responded angrily: "That's not going to happen."

The request for a warrant met the same fate as the first. Like the five-page report from Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams, top FBI officials considered the Moussaoui case closed. The Minnesota FBI field office was ordered to back off.

After 9/11 when Moussaoui's computer was finally examined, direct evidence linking him to the other hijackers and al-Qaeda was discovered. He has since been charged as being the "20th hijacker."

However, when FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked why Moussaoui's background and computer were not thoroughly investigated prior to 9/11, he responded, as is his custom, by dissembling. According to Mueller: The FBI did everything in its power to determine if Moussaoui was part of a terrorist plot; a brazen falsity which in turn triggered a detailed letter from Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel (and an FBI division legal advisor for 12 years) Coleen M. Rowley. Rowley indirectly accused Mueller and the FBI of a "coverup " for "political reasons." She went on to note that other agents were accusing FBI headquarters of "deliberate" sabotage. "Jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles .. who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden," she said.

[admin]

PART 2 OF 2

THE ROWLEY MEMO: FBI SABOTAGES AL-QAEDA INVESTIGATION

After Mueller -- an accused cover up artist -- repeatedly made false statements about the FBI's handling of pre-9/11 investigations into al-Qaeda terrorists, Ms. Rowley essentially called Mueller a liar.

Specifically, in her 13 page letter to Mueller, dated. May 21, 2002, Rowley wrote: "I feel at this point that I have to put my concerns in writing concerning the important topic of the FBI's response to evidence of terrorist activity in the United States prior to September II thoThe issues are fundamentally ones of INTEGRITY and go to the heart of the FBI's law enforcement mission and mandate. I have deep concerns that a delicate and subtle shading/ skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of FBI management has occurred and is occurring. I have heard ... your Congressional testimony and public comments. I feel that certain facts ... have ... been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mischaracterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons."

"The Minneapolis agents who responded to the call about Moussaoui's flight training identified him as a terrorist threat from a very early point. Within days of Moussaoui's arrest ... French Intelligence Service confirmed his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups and activities connected to Osama Bin Laden ... [Minneapolis agents] became desperate to search the computer lap top that had been taken from Moussaoui as well as conduct a more thorough search of his personal effects. The Minneapolis agents' initial thought was to obtain a criminal search warrant, but in order to do so, they needed to get FBI Headquarters' (FBIHQ's) approval in order to ask for DOJ OIPR's approval... FBIHQ personnel disputed with the Minneapolis agents the existence of probable cause. The two possible criminal violations initially identified by Minneapolis Agents were violations of Title 18 United States Code Section 2332b (Acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, which, notably, includes "creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to any other person by destroying or damaging any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States or by attempting or conspiring to destroy or damage any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States") and Section 32 (Destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities). It is obvious, from my firsthand knowledge of the events and the detailed documentation that exists, that the agents in Minneapolis who were closest to the action and in the best position to gauge the situation locally, did fully appreciate the terrorist risk/danger posed by Moussaoui and his possible co-conspirators even prior to September 11th. Even without knowledge of the Phoenix communication (and any number of other additional intelligence communications that FBIHQ personnel were privy to in their central coordination roles), the Minneapolis agents appreciated the risk. So I think it's very hard for the FBI to offer the "20-20 hindsight" justification for its failure to act! FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) who was the one most involved in the Moussaoui maner ... seemed to have been consistently, almost deliberately thwarting the Minneapolis FBI agents' efforts."

"Even after the [9/ 11] attacks had begun, the SSA in question was still attempting to block the search of Moussaoui's computer, characterizing the World Trade Center attacks as a mere coincidence with Minneapolis' prior suspicions about Moussaoui ... The fact is that key FBIHQ personnel whose job it was to assist and coordinate with field division agents on terrorism investigations and the obtaining and use of FISA searches (and who theoretically were privy to many more sources of intelligence information than field division agents), continued to, almost inexplicably, throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis' by-now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant, long after the French intelligence service provided its information and probable cause became clear. HQ personnel brought up almost ridiculous questions in their apparent efforts to undermine the probable cause. When, in a desperate 11th hour measure to bypass the FBIHQ roadblock, the Minneapolis Division undertook to directly notify the CIA's Counter Terrorist Center (CTC), FBIHQ personnel actually chastised the Minneapolis agents for making the direct notification without their approval! ... the FBIHQ SSA deliberately further undercut the FISA effort by not adding the further intelligence information which he had promised to add that supported Moussaoui 's foreign power connection and making several changes in the wording of the information that had been provided by the Minneapolis Agent ... These events [are] characterized in one Minneapolis agent's e-mail as FBIHQ is "setting this up for failure." The process of allowing the FBI supervisors to make changes in affidavits is itself fundamentally wrong."

"I do find it odd that (to my knowledge) no inquiry whatsoever was launched of the relevant FBIHQ personnel's actions ... Despite FBI leaders' full knowledge of all the items mentioned herein (and probably more that I'm unaware of), the SSA, his unit chief, and other involved HQ personnel were allowed to stay in their positions and, what's worse, occupy critical positions in the FBI's SIOC Command Center post September 11th. (The SSA in question actually received a promotion some months afterward!)

"In the day or two following September 11th, you, Director Mueller, made the statement to the effect that if the FBI had only had any advance warning of the attacks, we (meaning the FBI), may have been able to take some action to prevent the tragedy. I and others in the Minneapolis Office, immediately sought to reach you ... in order to quickly make you aware of the background of the Moussaoui investigation and forewarn you so that your public statements could be accordingly modified. When such statements from you and other FBI officials continued, we thought that somehow you had not received the message and we made further efforts. Finally when similar comments were made weeks later, in Assistant Director Caruso's congressional testimony in response to the first public leaks about Moussaoui we faced the sad realization that the remarks indicated someone, possibly with your approval, had decided to circle the wagons at FBIHQ in an apparent effort to protect the FBI from embarrassment and the relevant FBI officials from scrutiny."

"Everything I have seen and heard about the FBI's official stance and the FBI's internal preparations in anticipation of further congressional inquiry, had, unfortunately, confirmed my worst suspicions in this regard. The official statement is now to the effect that even if the FBI had followed up on the Phoenix lead to conduct checks of flight schools and the Minneapolis request to search Moussaoui's personal effects and laptop, nothing would have changed and such actions certainly could not have prevented the terrorist attacks and resulting loss of life. With all due respect, this statement is as bad as the first! I don't know how you or anyone at FBI Headquarters, no matter how much genius or prescience you may possess, could so blithely make this affirmation without anything to back the opinion up than your stature as FBI Director. It's at least possible we could have gotten lucky and uncovered one or two more of the terrorists in flight training prior to September 11th, just as Moussaoui was discovered. There is, therefore at least some chance that discovery of other terrorist pilots prior to September 11th may have limited the September 11th attacks and resulting loss of life."

"I think your statements demonstrate a rush to judgment to protect the FBI at all costs. I think you have also not been completely honest about some of the true reasons for the FBI's pre- September 11th failures ...."

"During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened to be recounting the pre-September 11th events concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone's first question was "Why? -- Why would an FBI agent(s) deliberately sabotage a case? (I know I shouldn't be flippant about this, but jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like Robert Hansen, who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis' effort ..." Coleen M. Rowley Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel.

LIES, LIES & MORE LIES:

The FBI and Bush team spin doctors have tried to contain public and congressional outrage by claiming that Rowley is well meaning but mistaken. Although admitting that maybe in the future they "should do things a little bit differently" these officials have falsely claimed that it was highly unlikely that the warrants sought by the Minneapolis FBI office would have been granted. For example, the FBI repeated the false claim that the information provided by the French was too sketchy to justify a search warrant.

However, one senior French intelligence officer told Time magazine that the FBI was given "everything they needed" to understand that Moussaoui was linked to Islamic terrorist groups, and that Moussaoui posed a significant danger. "Even a neophyte working in some remote comer of Florida, would have understood the threat based on what was sent."

The FBI also claims they did not pursue the Zaccarias Moussaoui investigation because they knew they would run into a brick wall of opposition from the special federal court dealing with intelligence spying.

Yet, that explanation, too, is a falsehood.

As reported in the June 3, 2002, edition of the New York Times, 100% of the 1,491 applications to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, by federal police agencies requesting authorization to wiretap phones was granted. Since 1991, 12,658 out of 12,661 requests have been approved.

The truth is: The FBI, CIA, and Bush administration knew since July that commercial jets would be hijacked by Islamic extremists directly linked to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. This startling fact, including that Bush knew that al-Qaeda planned on hijacking commercial jet liners, was even confirmed by Bush's White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer: "The president was also provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking in the traditional pre-9-11 sense, not for the use of suicide bombing."

They even knew the day on which these attacks would occur.

Although George W. Bush may claim that "Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people," the facts suggest that he and his administration did everything in their power to sabotage and block any meaningful investigation by FBI field agents, thus insuring that the attack would be a spectacular success.

JOHN O'NEILL: THE COVER UP CONTINUES

As has been well established, Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family, the bin Ladens, and a number of Saudi Arabia's richest families have also provided millions of dollars in aid to bin Laden and his terrorist network (28,29).

Instead of focusing on bin Laden or the Saudi connection to terrorism, the Bush team targeted John O'Neill. John O'Neill was the principle agent, and Deputy Director in charge of the FBI's National Security Division, specializing in terrorism. He commanded over 100 experienced agents and was an expert on bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In 1995, O'Neill orchestrated the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, who was apprehended in Pakistan. Ramzi Yousef was directly responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

According to former FBI director Louis Freeh "O'Neill was the paramount, most knowledgeable agent we had in the FBI, probably in the government, with respect to counterintelligence matters."

O'Neill had become obsessed with the belief that bin Laden was planning an attack on the United States (29): "No longer is it just the fear of being attacked by international terrorist organizations -- attacks against Americans and American interests overseas. A lot of these groups now have the capability and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to do so."

By the Spring of 2001, O'Neil began to suspect than an attack was imminent. He also believed that the FBI and his own offices were not receiving sufficient cooperation and support from the Bush White House (29).

By late Spring, he and his boss, Assistant FBI Director Barry Mawn, began pleading with John Ashcroft's Justice Department, begging for more funding and for more agents. The acting director of the FBI, Pickard, took up their cause, providing Ashcroft's Justice Department with a point by point detailed request for a $50 million infusion of cash for the bureau's counterterrorism program.

Ashcroft, and thus the Bush White House, turned them down. In August, direct appeals were made to Ashcroft, emphasizing a growing belief that the United States was in imminent danger of a terrorist attack by bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Ashcroft's reply was a defiant: "no."

It was more than "no." Ashcroft proposed a $65 million cut in counterterrorism grants (30).

O'Neill was outraged and disgusted by the roadblocks erected by the Bush administration. He repeatedly complained that the oil lobby who make up President Bush's entourage, were sabotaging his efforts to investigate al-Qaeda and bin Laden (31). The Bush administration, O'Neill believed, had taken a "hand's off" approach, because the Bush family and members of his administration were doing business with Saudis who were providing financial backing to al-Qaeda.

John O'Neil was convinced that "All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization can be found in Saudi Arabia."

The Bush administration, however, would not allow the Saudi connection to be explored.

And why is that?

The Bush family and members of both Bush administrations have business relationships with the Saudi royal family, and the number one factor in the Bush administration's hand's off policy, O'Neill believed, was the Saudi connection. O'Neill also thought that his investigation and that of other FBI agents was being stymied because the Bush family and members of both administration, were involved in negotiating a secret deal involving oil and that some of the Saudis the Bush clan had partnered with, were actively involved in the exportation of terrorism (29).

Indeed, according to The Council on Foreign Relations (10/ 17/2002): "The Saudis Fund Al Qaeda. It is worth stating clearly and unambiguously what official U.S. government spokespersons have not. For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al Qaeda."

Consider, for example, Bush-pal, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The Saudi government and Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, were making regular monthly payments and provided over $100,000.000, each, to Osama Bassnan, a Saudi agent who met with and made arrangements for Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq al-Hazmi, to settle in San Diego. Osama Bassnan even paid their rent.

The payments from the Saudi government and the Saudi royal family began in 1998 or 1999, and continued up until the 9/11 hijackings. Likewise, Osama Bassnan maintained his relationship with Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq al-Hazmi up until the weeks prior to 9/11.

The FBI knew of this monetary arrangement, but then covered it up. The Bush administration not only covered it up, but when Newsweek magazine learned of these payments, in late November of 2002, Osama Bassnan was immediately "deported" back to Saudi Arabia, thus making it impossible for the press or any investigative body, to question him.

And then there is Saudi banker, Khaled bin Mahfouz, who has invested millions of dollars in the Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington investment bank and defense consortium, whose director is former CIA-deputy director and Reagan-Bush Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci. George H.W. Bush is a consultant to the Carlyle Group, and his son (now President) George W. Bush has "received high fees as director of [Caterair] a subsidiary of Carlyle" (25). Khaled bin Mahfouz has been accused of funneling tens of millions of dollars each year into the bank accounts of Osama bin Laden.

In August of 2002, Khaled bin Mahfouz, along with 3 Saudi princes, was named in a trillion dollar lawsuit filed by families of some of the victims of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on America.

The Bush administration, in turn, is attempting to fight that suit, and have it thrown out of court in order to protect his Saudi friends, and in particular, the Saudi royal family who also helped fund the 9/11 hijackers.

And as has been repeatedly stressed and documented in this book, the Bush family has also been in business and was still in business with the bin Laden family -- as was the Carlyle Group on the morning of 9-11.

As detailed by reporters for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Frank Carlucci, the director of Carlyle, as well as other former Bush administration officials, such as former Secretary of State James Baker who is also on the Carlyle payroll, have "made repeated pilgrimages to the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia." In fact, according to the London Observor and other sources, they were meeting with at least one of the bin Ladens on the morning of 9/11.

Thus we should not be surprised that after the Bush administration took over in January of 2001, U.S intelligence agencies had been told to 'back off' from investigations involving the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links" to terrorism (27).

As summed up by BBC reporter, Greg Palast (25) the Bush administration "wanted to keep the pro-American Saudi royal family in control of the world's biggest oil spigot, even at the price of turning a blind eye to any terrorist connection. Intelligence agencies were told to "back off' investigating the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals."

According to O'Neill (29): "The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it."

In fact, even the joint Senate and House committee examining so called "intelligence failures" leading up to 9/11 concluded, in a draft report issued on 11/22/2001, that the CIA and FBI did not pursue leads which would have linked the terrorists to the government of Saudi Arabia.

From the perspective of the Bush administration, however, it was not al-Qaeda, the Saudis, or the bin Ladens who were a threat. John O'Neill, Osama bin Laden's main antagonist from within the FBI was a threat. It was increasingly made clear that he was to stand down and cease and desist from pursing his single minded obsession with bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The message was: Hands off al-Qaeda. Hands off bin Laden.

Numerous other FBI agents were receiving the same clear message.

On September 11,2001, one week after quitting the FBI in absolute disgust, John O'Neill was murdered. He was killed, on his first day on the job, as chief of security at the World Trade Center -- a building he was convinced would be attacked by terrorists.

*******

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The bin Laden family call Saudi Arabia their home. George H.W. Bush and members of his administration, are in business with the bin Laden family as well as many of the leading families of Saudi Arabia, including the Saudi royal family, who in turn are linked to terrorism.

The Bush administration, and the American mass media, wish us to believe that Osama bin Laden has no contact with his family -- for if he were that would be embarrassing since George H.W. Bush is not only in business with the bin Laden family, but has stayed at their palace, as recently as 2000 (31). As noted, two Bush associates, Frank Carlucci and James Baker, were meeting with one or more of the bin Laden brothers on the morning of 9/11 (32).

The bin Laden family is a direct link to Osama bin Laden.

Indeed, phone calls between Osama and his brothers and his mother, have been intercepted by U.S. Intelligence agencies (33). As detailed in the book, Body of Secrets, by National Security Agency expert James Bamford, and as reported in the Baltimore Sun and the San Antonio Express-News (33), bin Laden has been repeatedly tape recorded by the CIA and National Security Agency, talking with family members, including his mother. As reported by the San Antonio Express-News (33) and according to Yossef Bodansky, director of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, "Osama maintains connections" with several of his brothers.

It is precisely because of these links between the bin Laden family, the Bush family, and Osama bin Laden, that in the days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, although all commercial and private planes were grounded, George W. Bush personally approved the getaway of II members of the bin Laden family. The bin Laden's were allowed to escape justice and the United States and to fly back to Saudi Arabia where they could not be questioned.

George W. Bush and his administration did everything in their power to covertly sabotage any meaningful investigation that would have uncovered the 9/11 plot to hijack commercial jetliners and then slam them into the World Trade Center. Since 9/11 the cover up has continued.

It is our belief that the Bush administration and their cronies, covertly sabotaged these investigative efforts in order to allow the 9/11 attack to take place. We believe that top officials in the current and past Bush administration, did so for personal, financial, and political gain, to justify a war with Afghanistan and then Iraq, and because they were in business and trying to do business with people who kill Americans.

_______________

Notes:

1). BBC News, "Profile: Jose Padilla," 6/11/2002; Time Magazine, 6/16/2002.

2). Sara Jess & Gabriel Beck, "John Walker Lindh: American Taliban," University Press, California, 2002.

3). Le Figaro 10/31/2001;

4). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001; Radio France International, 11/1/2001. See also, United Press International, 11/1/2001.

5). CNN, 8/1/2002.

6). USA Today, 6/4/2002.

7). The Washington Post, 11/30/2001; Khilafah.com, 11/30/2001.

8). United States District Court, Southern District of New York, "United States of America v Ali Mohamed."

9). Peter Waldman, The Wall Street Journal, 11/26/2001.

10). Newsweek, 9/15/2001.

11). Sara Jess, et al., "American Attacked," University Press, California, 10/11/2001.

12). John Ashcroft, Press Conference, 10/23/2001.

13). Investigators have claimed (09/10/2002) that they somehow pieced this information together, and only recently came to these conclusions. However, some of this information, was made available to the authors of the book, America Attacked (by Sara Jess et al.,) and was mentioned in this book, which was published on October 11, 2001; see also, BBC News, "Atta Trained in Afghanistan" 2 8/24/2002; Douglas Waller, "Was Hijack 'Ringleader' in Bin Laden Orbit?" Time Magazine, 10/5/ 2001; CBS New, 9/13/2002.

14). On his last call to Germany, Atta alerted his friend Bin-al-shibh that a date for the attack had been selected, using the code words "Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down," meaning 11/9 or September II. Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-September 2002.

15). Kay Nehm, German Federal Prosecutor, News Conference, 8/ 29/2002.

16). Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-October 2002.

17). Oliver Schrom, Die Zeit, 10/2/2002

18). According to his attorney, Ali Mohamed was never sentenced. When asked, on November 5, 2002, to clarify if Ali Mohamed was out on bail, or if he had been set free, or was in a government protection program, the attorney refused to comment. When asked if Ali Mohamed had never been sentenced because he was an undercover CIA agent, the attorney stated he couldn't talk about that issue, and ended the conversation.

19). Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, "The Age of Sacred Terror, Random House, 2002.

20). Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001; Daniel Golden et at. "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001.

21). Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9/28/1999; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, "The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993; James H. Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press.

22). Robert Scheer, Making Money, the Bush Way," Los Angeles Times, 2/20/2002; Baltimore Chronicle, "Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but 'News' Media ignore it," 10/4/01; Jason Nisse, "Carlyle Group, Employer of Bush Sr., Profits from Massive Weapons Program Signed by Jr. which the Pentagon had advised be Canceled," Independent, 1/30/02.

23). Joseph McBride, '''George Bush,' CIA Operative," The Nation, 6/16/1988.

24). Coleen M. Rowley, Memo to Mueller, 6/21/2002.

25). BBC News Newsnight, 6/11/2001.

26). BBC News Newsnight, 11/7/2001.

27). The Guardian, 11/7/2001.

28). Kenneth Damm, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Treasury testified in Congress, in May of 2002, that the Saudi-based AI-Haramain Charity and a number of other Saudi-connected charities have abused its funds to finance terrorism. As detailed by Ben Barber, The Washington Times, 5/7/2002, "The Saudi government gave $135 million in.... 16 months to" fund terrorism. The money goes to a list of 13 charities, and seven of them fund Hamas," which the State Department lists as a terrorist organization. As detailed in The Washington Times, 8/24/2002, another Saudi charity, Al-Haramain also uses "its funds to finance terrorism.

29). Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie, "bin Laden: Hidden Truth."

30). Don Van Natta Jr. and David Johnston, "FBI's bureaucracy led to inaction, insiders say. A decade's changes in mission and structure created paralytic fear of risk," New York Times, 6/2/2002.

31). Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.

32). The Observer, "Dark heart of the American dream," 6/16/2002.

33). James Bamford, "Body of Secrets;" Baltimore Sun, 4/24/2001; San Antonio Express-News, 9/14/2001.

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PART 1 OF 2

Chapter 11: 9-11: BUSH KNEW & ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN

"Key FBI Headquarters personnel had to be spies or moles .. who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden,"

-- Coleen M. Rowley, FBI Special Agent & Chief Division Counsel.

*******

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile."

-- Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, September, 2001.

"Terrorists ... plan .... to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center"

-- Minnesota FBI Supervisor, August, 2001.

Despite their denials, high ranking officials in the FBI and CIA have known for years that men directly linked to al-Qaeda were receiving pilot training at U.S. schools in the United States. And, they have known since 1993, that the World Trade Center was a primary target. The FBI knew, because they, and the Bush administration, played a direct role in making the 1993 bombing and the attacks of 9/11/2001, possible.

Indeed, as detailed and documented in Part I of this text, the Bush gang have been partnering with terrorists for decades, using murderers, rapists, gangsters, and the like, in innumerable operations which were designed to increase the power and wealth of the Bush clan and their associates. It was only a matter of time before America and American citizens would also be targeted.

As documented in Part I, the Bush family even partnered with the Nazis, and maintained that partnership after Hitler declared war on the United States. For the Bush clan, it was business as usual. War is good for business, and if Americans are killed, then what of it, so long as in the end the Bush family and their associates make money and increase their power.

In 1990, George H.W. Bush and his administration -- which included Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and 300 other individuals who would 10 years later become part of the administration of his son -- began laying the ground work for the first major terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil. That attack took place in 1993 when the World Trade Center was first bombed.

The Bush team intended to blame the 1993 attack on Saddam Hussein -- when in fact the true culprits were the good friends and business partners of Bush and gang: the Saudis and the Pakistanis.

Indeed, just as the Bush family and their associates have partnered with the bin Laden family and a number of Saudis and Pakistanis who helped finance the 9/11 attack, George H.W. Bush, his CIA and FBI, the Saudis and Pakistanis were also linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.

******

As detailed in court records, books, newspaper and magazine articles (1,2,3), Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, and Rarnzi Yousef, spent several months planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. They fashioned their bomb using $3,000 worth of common ingredients.

The bomb was loaded into a rented Ryder van and then transported from Jersey City, through the Holland Tunnel, into Manhattan. The van with its massive bomb ready to go off, was left in an underground parking garage beneath the World Trade Center.

The terrorists were convinced they were about to murder 50,000 Americans.

Then they ran.

Yousef didn't remain in New York to savor the "triumph." He immediately grabbed a flight at John F. Kennedy Airport, flew to Frankfurt Germany and then made his way to Afghanistan -- what would eventually become the home base of al-Qaeda and bin Laden.

Abouhalima was too excited to flee. Instead he went to Tower Records in downtown Manhattan and waited patiently in the classical music section for the apocalypse.

Mohammad Salameh also waited and watched.

And then, the bomb exploded.

Although the World Trade Center shook and trembled, it did not collapse.

Although thousands were injured, only six people were killed.

The terrorists were angered and embittered.

They had failed.

Mohammad Salameh was so disgusted by the results, he felt so cheated, that he disobeyed orders and returned to the Ryder truck rental office in Jersey City.

He wanted his money back.

He demanded that his deposit on the van be returned.

He was immediately arrested.

Four suspects went on trial on September 13, 1993, and it lasted 6 months. Over 204 witnesses came forward and the prosecution presented more than 1,000 pieces of evidence. The defendants were convicted on March 4, 1994, in federal court on all 38 counts against them and all four were sentenced to 240 years in prison.

Two years later, master terrorist Ramzi Yousef who had helped to plan the bombing, was apprehended in Pakistan (2).

Following his capture, when FBI agents flew fugitive Ramzi Yousef back to New York to face justice, he glanced down at the World Trade Center and frowned.

"See," an FBI agent said as he pointed out the twin skyscrapers from the helicopter. "The Twin Towers are still standing."

Yousef replied, "They wouldn't be if I had enough money and explosives."

*******

"Yes, I am a terrorist, and I'm proud of it."

-- Ramzi Yousef.

Ramzi Yousef has an interesting history. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing he continued his campaign of terror. He bombed an Iranian Shiit shrine -- the Shiit religion and Islamic shrines being an anathema to the Sunni-Wahhabi sect and the Saudi royal family, which help fund his terror spree (2). He also tried to kill Benazir Bhutto -- the enemy of the Pakistani Intelligence Service. Benazir Bhutto, being a women, was also unacceptable to many of the ruling Islamic elite, in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim countries. Thus she had to go.

It is also alleged that he planned to assassinate the Pope and President Clinton, as well as bomb and destroy 11 airliners over the Pacific Ocean (2).

FBI agents dubbed Yousef "an evil genius."

According to Neil Herman, the FBI Supervisory Special Agent who led the New York Joint Terrorist Task Force (2): "Yousef was a pretty unique person. He liked the bar scene, he liked women, he liked moving around. Yousef was very good. He was well trained, very clever. He'll certainly be ranked right up there with the all-timers. Even to this day, he is a very shadowy figure that we really don't know that much about, even after all that's been done and all that's been investigated on him."

Yes, but who trained him?

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto blamed the United States and the CIA, which she accused of financing Pakistan's radical Muslim clerics and terrorist groups.

That the CIA was training and funding terrorists, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, including Osama bin Laden, is a well established fact (4). Indeed, according to Osama bin Laden (5): "I created my first [military] camps, where these volunteers underwent training led by Pakistani and American officers. The arms were supplied by the Americans and the money by the Saudis."

That the CIA was also training terrorists to conduct terrorist operations against the United States, is yet another unpleasant fact -- as detailed in this book.

Thus we should not be surprised to discover that the plan to bomb the World Trade Center, in 1993, has the FBI's and the CIA's fingers prints all over it.

"The Arab bombers in the [1993 World Trade Center bombing] case, who were tied to Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, received their training during the Afghan War from mujahideen groups trained and supplied by the CIA. The Sheik had been closely allied with Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, leader of one of the most radical anti- American elements of the Afghan mujahideen, and the one most favored by U.S. intelligence" (6).

Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, a man described as a "valuable" CIA "asset" (7) was summoned to the United States in July, 1990, during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush. He arrived in New York, via Saudi Arabia on "a tourist visa issued by an undercover agent of the CIA" (7).

Sheik Omar had been associated with the CIA for at least two decades, and possibly since the early 1960s. In 1979, his relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies and Pakistani intelligence officials became formalized. He had been chosen to help coordinate and unify the various mujahideen groups who were fighting against the Soviet backed regime in Afghanistan, and who had also been fighting among themselves.

The blind Sheik was a Muslim cleric. Like Osama bin Laden who had also began working with the CIA during the same period, he was an expert at propaganda and in providing direction to others by preaching holy war. CIA and Special Forces officers based in Pakistan, considered him a "valuable asset" (7,8).

While in Afghanistan during the "jihad," he once said: "I have never asked Allah for anything. But I am under a great disadvantage now. If only Allah could give me eyes for a couple of years, or for a couple of hours, so I could fight in the jihad!"

The administration of George H.W. Bush offered the Sheik the opportunity to conduct his "jihad" in the United States. Initially, "his primary purpose was to set up a U.S. infrastructure, a funding mechanism, and an organizational base for militant Islamic groups" (7,8). However, unbeknownst to the Sheik, once he arrived in the U.S., the CIA/FBI made arrangements for his entourage to be penetrated by informers -- men who would urge the Sheik and his followers, or Islamic groups he was associated with, to bomb New York landmarks (9).

One of those Islamic groups had been led by EI Sayyid Nosair.

In November of 1990, EI Sayyid Nosair, or members of his circle, shot and killed Rabbi Meir Kahane, a right-wing Jewish-hate monger and leader of the Jewish Defense League. Nosair was convicted and jailed in 1991.

In 1992, as the presidential election year kicked into high gear, and as Clinton began to overtake president George Bush in the polls, the FBI, via an undercover, FBI-informant, Emad Salem, began urging Sheik Omar and EI Sayyid Nosair's group, to bomb New York landmarks.

El Sayyid Nosair was, however, a small time thinker. El Sayyid Nosair suggested to Emad Salem, that they should use "pipe bombs" to extract revenge.

Salem, who was working for the FBI, offered to make the bombs (2). He also, apparently, at the urgings of the FBI, suggested that El Sayyid Nosair should think big, and that various New York landmarks, such as the World Trade Center would be a tempting target. Of course, to really make an impact, that would require more than a pipebomb.

The plot, however, fell apart, when the FBI asked Salem to play an even more active role, and to wear a body wire and to testify in a trial, following the bombing. He refused.

Enter Ramzi Yousef.

In Gov. Exhibit 55119-E , in the trial of Shaykh Omar et. al. (8) an FBI-informant. identified as "NY 28214-CW-C." detailed a conversation he had with Mahmoud Abu Halima -- one of the men convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. "Mahmoud advised NY 28214-CW-C in connection with the World Trade Center that the planned act was not as big as what subsequently occurred. Mahmoud informed that Ramzi Yousef showed up on the scene and brought a number of individuals together and escalated the initial plot. Mahmoud stated that Rarnzi Yousef used himself and others involved with the Trade Center blast as pawns and then immediately after the blast left the country."

Hence, when the plot fell apart, because an FBI-agent/ informant refused to participate further, Ramzi Yousef arrived on the scene and took his place.

Rarnzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing, appears to have been funded by Pakistan's Intelligence Service (ISI), and the Saudis via Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden's brother-in-law (2).

THE ISI

The ISI has had a long-standing relationship with al-Qaeda, and used al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan to train and conduct covert terrorist operations against other countries (10), As noted, after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, returned to Afghanistan. He would also frequently travel to Pakistan.

During the Reagan-Bush administrations, "while the C.I.A. supplied money and weapons, it was the ISI that moved them into Afghanistan. The Americans relied almost entirely on the Pakistani service to allocate the weapons to the rebel leaders, and the senior C.I.A. officials involved developed close relations with their counterparts" (10). It was more than a close relationship. The CIA sought to control the ISI.

In the early 1990s, ISI director, Hameed Gul, complained that he was removed as director, because the "Bush administration was demanding that the agency be placed at the disposal of the Americans, as if it were a mercenary force" (10).

The campaign to remove Gul began in 1992. He was eventually removed and replaced by someone that the Bush administration felt they could work with, Lt. General Asad Durrani who is now Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The ISI, although having maintained a long relationship with the Reagan-Bush administrations, was, in 1993, hostile to the Clinton administration- -- s was the Pentagon and American military establishment as they viewed Clinton as a draft dodger. As noted, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sought to assassinate Clinton. Likewise, because the ISI was also believed to be hostile to Clinton, the "Secret Service adamantly opposed a planned trip by President Clinton to Pakistan out of concern for his safety" (10).

In 1993, Pakistan's ISI was funding terrorist operations not only in Afghanistan, but in India and America (11):

"Former Pakistan Prime Minister Narwaz Sharif alleged that his Army Chief of Staff, General Aslam Beg, and General Asad Durrani, head of the Inter Service Intelligence agency, had informed him, while he was in office, that the Pakistani Army and ISI planned to conduct covert acts of terrorism in other countries" (12).

The World Trade Center was bombed on February 26, 1993. Two weeks later, there was a series of world trade center bombings, this time, in India. And just as the ISI was implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the ISI was directly implicated "in the bombings that devastated central Bombay on March 12, 1993, killing over 300 people" (12). Lt. General Asad Durrani was in charge of the ISI when these bombings occurred.

Again, let us recall that Lt. General Asad Durrani had been placed at the head of the ISI at the urgings of the Bush administration and CIA, in the early 1990s, and was thus head of the ISI in 1993 (13).

Coincidentally, yet another ISI General is linked to the second attack on the World Trade Center. Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad became a "US approved appointee" of the ISI, in 1999 (14) and was still head of the ISI on the morning of 9/11/2001.

ISI director, General Mahmoud Ahmad also just happened to be in the U.S. when the 9/11 attacks occurred (15,16,17).

Ahmad arrived on 9/4/2001 and had a series of meetings with his counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon and at the State Department both before and after the attacks on the WTC (15,16). According to the New York Times (16), "he happened to be here on a regular visit of consultations."

Just an innocent little visit, we are told.

In fact, ISI director, General Mahmoud Ahmad was having breakfast with Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) when the 9/11 attacks occurred (17). Graham and Goss (a veteran of the CIA) were later appointed co-chairmen in charge of the commission to investigate the events and intelligence failures behind September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center (WTC).

Yet another coincidence, it was subsequently revealed by India's intelligence agencies, that ISI director General Mahmoud Ahmad had ordered his aide, Ahmad Vmar Sheik, to wire $100,000. to Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackings (18). Although the corporate controlled U.S. media have tried to obfuscate the revelation, by trying to imply that the ISI was not directly involved, General Ahmad was forced to step down from the ISI soon after this charge was made. Naturally, the Bush administration and the FBI and CIA have shown no interest in questioning him much less arresting him.

Even if we accept the clumsy attempts of the corporate controlled American media to dissociate General Ahmad from the 9/ 11 attacks, the fact nevertheless remains that the ISI has been funding terrorists and al-Qaeda for years -- as even the New York Tunes admits (10).

Thus, the ISl's General Ahmad, whose ISI, is linked to al- Qaeda and bin Laden, was meeting with his CIA and Pentagon counterparts, as well as the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees on the day of and in the days just before and after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the WTC and Pentagon, on September 11, 2001.

And, of course, that's just a coincidence. Nothing suspicious about that. No siree.

*******

Immediately following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the Justice Department issued a "gag order" ordering all agencies to remain silent and not speak to reporters. Nevertheless, one reporter got a question in. The reporter wanted to know if it was true the FBI had advance notice of the bombing, but let the bombing go forth, for as yet unspecified reasons.

The same questions would arise following the 9/11 attack.

Of course there was advanced knowledge of the 1993 bombing, as was revealed in court documents (8) and as was also alleged by the New York Times (3). The FBI had several informants working on the inside, one of whom, at the request of the FBI, offered to make the bomb, and who suggested possible targets. Indeed, there are allegations that the FBI was providing funds, equipment, supplies, support and training to the actual perpetrators. According to tapes of conversations made by one informant, the contents of some of which were revealed in court and also reported by the New York Times, the FBI had planned on "building the bomb with a phony powder and grabbing the people who were involved in it." After the 1993 bombing, the informant also went on to say: "Guys, now you saw this bomb went off and you both know that we could avoid that."

Several months later, Sheik Omar, a Saudi- ISI- and CIA-financed cleric was arrested in connection with the February, 1993, World Trade Center bombing, and for conspiring to attack several New York landmarks. Rahman and nine others were convicted on October 1, 1995.

*******

The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was eventually blamed on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden -- and as detailed in pervious chapters, Osama bin Laden had been working with the CIA since 1978 or 1979.

It is bin Laden's association with the CIA which might explain why "the Pentagon gave permission" for the sale of a commercial jet to a bin Laden representative, in 1993. "The plane had a range of around 1500 miles -- close to the distance between Boston and Los Angeles -- and it was purchased in Arizona. One of bin Laden's main men in America was Essan Al-Ridi, who worked as a flight instructor in Texas. He was contacted that year by Wadih El-Hage -- who was later jailed for his part in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa which killed 244 people -- and asked to help buy jets" (19).

"The deal went through for about $250,000, and bin Laden offered Al-Ridi a job as a pilot. The plane was bought at the 'bone yard' in Tucson, Arizona -- the local name for the storage unit at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Centre at the Davis- Monthan Air Force Base where retired aircraft are kept. The US military, therefore, sold the plane to bin Laden -- and it was the Pentagon which gave permission for the aircraft to leave the base" (19).

"The plane was flown out of the US to bin Laden's base, at that time, in Khartoum in Sudan. America aided bin Laden ... This aircraft was used to transport the missiles from Pakistan which killed American special forces in Somalia" (19).

Presumably the CIA and the Pentagon did not know the bin Laden and al-Qaeda were planning to target U.S. special forces in Somalia -- that is, unless they were trying to embarrass Clinton. However, in 1993, they did know that the World Trade Center was the number one target of terrorists, including al-Qaeda.

*******

U.S. officials have known since 1993 that the World Trade Center was at the top of al-Qaeda's list of potential targets of terrorism. Indeed, New York City and the Trade Center were attacked in 1993 and 2001 for some of the same reasons.

For one, New York is believed to be a "Jewish city."

Two, New York city and the World Trade Center were heavily populated. The World Trade Center was a city in-itself, with offices that could house over 50,000 people. Terrorists knew that if the World Trade Center could be destroyed, there would be an enormous and devastating loss of life.

Three, New York is one of the most recognizable cities in the world. It is thus one of the most recognizable and memorable targets. It would make for a prestigious trophy.

Four, the World Trade Center, the heartbeat of lower Manhattan, was viewed as a symbol of America's wealth. To strike at the World Trade Center, would be a slap across the face of America's powerful financial elite.

Years after the 1993 bombing, despite their denials, the FBI, the CIA and Bush administration officials knew that a major target for a second terrorist attack was still the World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center was an obvious target whose destruction would strike terror into the hearts of America, generate incredible publicity, and draw hundreds of new recruits eager to join a successful cause. The attack could also be used as a campaign gimmick by the Republicans to increase their power, as a lever to increase defense spending, thus benefiting the Bush-connected Carlyle group, and as an excuse to go to war, first in Afghanistan, and then in Iraq where the world's second largest oil reserves can be found.

As is the case in the 1993 attack, the evidence indicates that top officials in the FBI and CIA, also had foreknowledge of the 9/ 11/2001 attack. Indeed, they and the Bush administration not knew in advanced, they welcomed the attack and thus allowed it to happen.

THE FBI & CIA KNEW FOR YEARS

"Terrorists ... plan .... to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center"

-- Minnesota FBI Supervisor, August, 2001.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center."

-- Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, September, 2001.

Despite their denials, the FBI and CIA had known for many years that men with links to bin Laden and his organization were attending U.S. flight schools. And, they had known since 1995 that Islamic terrorists were planning on hijacking U.S. commercial airlines and crash them into U.S. cities.

For example, in 1995 and 1996, the FBI learned that al-Qaeda associate, Abdul Hakim Murad and two other men, had received flight training at four different flight schools in the U.S. during the early 1990s: Coastal Aviation, Richmor Aviation, Schenectady flight school and Alpha Tango Flying Services in San Antonio. Murad was in fact recruited by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the al-Qaeda operative who had plotted and carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (20). Murad was subsequently convicted of plotting to crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters and blow up a dozen U.S. commercial jetliners over the Pacific.

Specifically, it was determined in 1996, that Yousef and Murad had been plotting to train and deploy five-man terrorist teams who were to hijack and bomb 12 different commercial jetliners, including Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. Some of the hijacked jets were to be crashed into U.S. cities, including New York and Washington (2,20).

As detailed in a Jan. 20, 1995, report issued by the Manila police, Murad had attended flight schools in New York, Texas, California and North Carolina. He earned a commercial pilot's license. As he explained to authorities, it was his intention to "board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. Then he will hijack said aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the C.LA. headquarters. There will be no bomb or any explosive that he will use in its execution. It is simply a suicidal mission that he is very much willing to execute." U.S. government prosecutors described the plot as "one of the most hideous crimes anyone ever conceived."

According to the Washington Post, "Since 1996, the FBI had been developing evidence that international terrorists were using US flight schools to learn to fly jumbo jets" (21).

In 1996, the FBI again received information that Arab pilots were plotting with Pakistani terrorists to plant bombs on a number of U.S. airliners, and that terrorists were planning on using crop-dusters and other planes for a suicide attack from the air during the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. U.S. Customs Service jets and Black Hawk helicopters were deployed, during the games, to intercept any suspicious aircraft (22).

In October of 1996, FBI agents in Phoenix were informed by an undercover agent, Harry Ellen, that a number of Arab extremists at a local mosque were receiving aviation training. Ellen was alarmed and informed the Phoenix office "that it would be terrible if the bad guys were able to gain this kind of access to airplanes, flight training and crop dusters. You really ought to look at this, it's an interesting mix of people."

Indeed, one of the bad guys may have been Hanji Hanjour, one of the September II hijackers. Hanjour was living in Phoenix in 1996, and taking flight lessons at two different local schools: Professional Pilot Training and Cockpit Resource Management. Yet another suspected terrorist, Lotti Raissi, was also in Phoenix, and later was briefly jailed in Britain on suspicion of training some of the 9/11 terrorists (23).

In 1998, there was additional evidence that terrorists trained as pilots were planning an attack on the U.S. Numerous references to pilot training and flight schools were discovered in documents uncovered during the investigation of the terrorists who had committed the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (24).

Two participants in the 1998 bombings, who subsequently turned government informant, also informed the FBI that they and other men directly linked with bin Laden had received pilot training.

For example, Essam al-Ridi, had taken classes at the Ed Boardman Aviation School in Fort Worth. L'Houssaine Kerchtou, admitted that bin Laden had sent him to a flight school in Nairobi (24,25,26).

In addition. the FBI learned that one of bin Laden's associates, Ihab Ali Nawawi, received flight training at Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma. This same Ihab Ali Nawawi was linked to the 1998 embassy bombings.

According to Ms. Hill, in reviewing evidence before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, investigating 9/11 intelligence lapses, the FBI received yet another report in late 1998, that al-Qaeda or a related terrorist organization was planning to bring students to the United States to train at flight schools. Their purpose was to obtain skills that would enable them to use the planes as weapons.

In 1999 an analysis prepared for U.S. intelligence explicitly warned that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization might hijack a commercial jet and then crash it into public and government buildings: "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House."

In 1999, and as detailed in court records (27), the FBI learned that Ihab Mohammed Ali, a suspected coconspirator in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, had received pilot training in Norman, Oklahoma. Ali, the FBI learned, had received detailed briefings from an al-Qaeda operative, on the lingo of American air traffic control procedures, i.e. what to say and how to say it, so that he could pretend to be the designated pilot following a hijacking.

In November of 1999, U.S. Intelligence began tracking and then later followed Mohammed Atta, Ziad al-Jarrah, and Marwan Al-Shehhi as they traveled from Germany to bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan (28).

In December of 1999, an Algerian terrorist, Ahmed Ressam, was apprehended at the U.S.-Canadian border (29). Ressam had orders to assist in the bombing of Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations.

The plot was defeated when authorities were tipped that Ressam was going to enter Washington state from Canada in a car loaded with explosives.

Ressam was linked to bin laden.

Ressam took his orders from Haydar Abu Doha, who had close ties to bin Laden (29). Haydar Abu Doha, who was arrested after the 9/11 attack on terrorism conspiracy charges, is a key figure in bin Laden's network.

According to Federal prosecutors, in 1998, Haydar Abu Doha met with bin Laden in Afghanistan. The purpose of these meetings was "to discuss cooperation and coordination between al-Qaeda and a group of Algerian terrorists whose activities Abu Doha coordinated and oversaw."

Ressam was later provided a skeletal briefing of what was discussed in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda was planning to carry out coordinated terrorist assaults on high profile American targets (29). Ressam was to take an active part in these attacks. He had also journeyed to Afghanistan to receive special training.

As part of a plea bargain, Ahmed agreed to provide FBI agents with details.

The special training he received in bin Laden's camps included urban warfare, assassination, sabotage, hijacking and the destruction of the U.S. infrastructure. Targets included airports, airlines, the financial markets and New York City. American airports and commercial jetliners would be used as weapons in the attack.

Bin Laden, he warned, would soon unleash an incomprehensible horror on the people of the United States (29).

During November/December of 1999, and January/February of 2000 U.S. Intelligence tracked and then followed Ziad al-Jarrah, Mohammed Atta, and Marwan al-Shehhi as they left Germany, then boarded Turkish Airlines Flight 1662. In the company of another al-Qaeda operative, bin al-Shibh, they flew from Istanbul to Karachi, Pakistan where they met with officials of the ISI. These men remained under surveillance for several more days, and were then tracked to an al-Qaeda training camp Afghanistan (30). Atta, it is believed, was the leader of the four 9/11 hijacking

teams. Based on information apparently supplied by al-Jarrah, or other spies within al-Qaeda, the CIA learned that Atta and the other men met with Osama bin laden and that Atta was treated as honored guest. Subsequently Atta was tape recorded by the CIA discussing with another known terrorist, a forthcoming attack on the United States. On his last call to Germany, in September of 2001, Atta alerted his friend Bin-al-Shibh that a date for the attack had been selected, using the code words "Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down," meaning 11-9 or September 11 (31).

Following their visit in 1999, the three men did not return to Germany, until February 2000, at which point they began using the internet to send and receive information from flight schools in the United States. Over 30 different schools were contacted (32). A Hamburg librarian later claimed she overhead al-Shehhi speaking of the World Trade Center and then boasting: "There will be thousands of dead. You will all think of me" (32).

During January of 2000, the CIA tracked Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi to Malaysia, where a high level al-Qaeda conference was to be held (33). The CIA ordered Malaysian Intelligence to photograph the participants, which included a one-legged member of al-Qaeda, Tawfiq Attash Khallad. Khallad was a top bin Laden lieutenant and the chief planner of the bombing of the USS Cole.

Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were photographed talking with Khallad. After the meeting, Khallad provided funds, and paid for the plane tickets of al-Hazmi and al-Midhar, to America (33).

Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were also photographed talking with bin al-Shibh, the same man who had accompanied Atta, al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah to Afghanistan. Bin al-Shibh would later wire $115,000 to the Florida bank accounts of Atta and Al-Shehhi (33), and an as yet undisclosed sum of cash to Zacarias Moussaoui (the so called "20th hijacker").

All this information, including the fact that Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had entered the United States soon after attending an al-Qaeda conference in Malaysia, was passed on to the FBI's counterterrorism center at FBI headquarters in January 2000 (33). The plotters proceeded to carry out their activities unmolested, on the orders of FBI headquarters, much to the distress of FBI field operatives.

In fact, one unidentified FBI agent from the agency's New York office, speaking from behind a glass partition, said that he warned his superiors that "someone would die" unless the government more aggressively investigated the mysterious trail of al-Midhar (33).

Khalid al-Midhar would later take part in the 9/11 hijackings.

The FBI and CIA were again made aware of the possibility that terrorists linked to bin Laden might hijack jets and crash them into public buildings, early in 2000. Prior to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the FBI and CIA officials were consulted about the danger of "a fully loaded, fueled airliner crashing into the opening ceremony before a worldwide television audience," during the 2000 Olympic Games. Sydney police superintendent Paul McKinnon reported that Osama bin Laden was considered the number one threat. According to IOC officials plane-crash catastrophes have been incorporated into security planning for every Olympics since 1972. "That was our nightmare scenario" (34).

IOC officials again held detailed discussions with the FBI about the dangers of hijacked airlines crashing into buildings and crowded stadiums. These discussion were held in 2000/2001 in preparing security for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (34).

On August 12, 2000, Italian police and U.S. Intelligence officials, using wiretaps, listened as a Yemeni al-Qaeda operative explained to an Egyptian operative based in Italy, about a massive strike against the enemies of Islam involving aircraft, an attack that "will be written about in all the newspapers of the world ...This will be one of those strikes that will never be forgotten ....This is a terrifying thing. This is a thing that will spread from south to north, from east to west: The person who came up with this program is a madman from a madhouse, a madman but a genius. He is fixated on this program; it will leave everyone turned to ice. In the future, listen to the news and remember these words: The danger in the airports .... in that country, the fire has been lit and is awaiting only the wind."

In January of 2001, Ziad al-Jarrah was tracked and then intercepted by CIA officials. As reported by CNN (35), "Jarrah had spent at least three weeks in January 2001 at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan." Upon completing his terrorist training the CIA, which had been monitoring his movements, requested that intelligence officials based in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, question him about "his terrorist activities." According to CNN (35), the CIA had "Jarrah stopped at the airport in Dubai on January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified officials that he would be arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe."

The CIA questioned, debriefed, and then allowed him to return to Europe and from Europe to the United States where he began taking flight training lessons.

On 9/11, Ziad al-Jarrah piloted the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.

In February of 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration's annual report on Criminal Acts Against Aviation, warned that "bin Laden ... has both the motivation and the wherewithal to .... attack civil aviation. Bin Laden's anti-Western and anti-American attitudes make him and his followers a significant threat to civil aviation, particularly to US civil aviation."

In May, June and July of 2001, the Bush administration received specific and credible information indicating that commercial jetliners would soon be hijacked by Islamic terrorists. Specifically, in May and June, American intelligence intercepted a number of communications between al-Qaeda members. The upcoming attacks were repeatedly discussed. One al-Qaeda operative is quoted as stating that it would be more devastating than "Hiroshima" (33).

In June of 2001, Osama bin Laden openly boasted of a horrific attack that would soon take place in the United States.

In June, according to the German daily Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung (36), German intelligence agencies, the BND, relying on information gleaned from an electronic eavesdropping system known as Echelon, warned the CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture."

In July, Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix concluded a painstaking investigation. He had uncovered detailed information that linked a number of Middle Eastern flight students to Osama bin Laden and to a radical British Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun. Moreover, he discovered that one of the flight school students had communicated with Abu Zubaydah, one of al-Qaeda's senior leaders (33).

On July 10, Williams sent FBI headquarters a detailed report warning that Osama bin Laden's followers may be training in U.S. flight schools. He further reported that these men had been inquiring about airport security, and that they may be planning to hijack commercial jetliners. Williams strongly urged the FBI to canvass all flight schools in the United States and to identify students with possible terrorist ties.

On July 15, 2001, while receiving treatment for liver and renal dysfunction, at the American hospital in Dubai, Osama bin Laden was interviewed by a CIA agent. As detailed by United Press International (44), Radio France International (45) and Le Figaro (43), Bin Laden reportedly checked into the American Hospital on July 4, received dialysis and related treatment, and checked out on July 14. During his 10 day stay, bin Laden met with family members and a stream of local dignitaries, including a well known local CIA agent. These publications, citing French intelligence officials, claim that similar meetings had been taking place for years: "the CIA maintained contacts with bin Laden ...Those contacts didn't end after bin Laden moved to Afghanistan" (43).

According to French Intelligence officials, bin Laden provided "precise information" to the CIA about an imminent attack on the US" as well as details about an attack on the U.S. embassy in Paris which two weeks later resulted in the arrest of Djamel Beghal who later "confessed to receiving his orders from bin Laden" (44).

After the meeting with bin Laden, on July 15, the CIA agent was called back to the CIA's McLean, Virginia headquarters.

In July, National Security Advisor, Rice, and "terrorism czar" Richard Clarke, met with other security officials, and then issued a secret "super alert" warning that the U.S. would soon be attacked and that U.S. aircraft might be hijacked as part of a coordinated terrorist assault.

Attorney General, John Ashcroft took the warnings so seriously that on July 26, 2001, he broke with tradition and refused, from that day on, to ever again fly on any commercial jets.

When the Justice Dept. was questioned by CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart, about this unusual move, they issued a terse reply: Because of a "threat assessment" by the FBI. Yet when pressed by CBS, "neither the FBI nor the Justice Department... would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it."

When Ashcroft was directly asked by reporters about the "threat" he replied with a straight face: "Frankly, I don't," know anything about it, he told reporters.

Are we supposed to believe that Ashcroft quit flying commercial and instead would only fly on a $1,600-plus per hour private G-3 Gulfstream, because of a "threat" that he knew nothing about?

Of course, the Bush administration, and the corporate controlled American mass media, would have us believe that it is absolutely preposterous that bin Laden would have met with a CIA agent. After all, he is an outcast who is even shunned by his family -- or so we are told. Indeed, if bin Laden wasn't an outcast, if he was in contact with the CIA and his family who stood to make a lot of money following 9/11, that would be embarrassing to the Bush administration given that Bush Sr. has stayed at the bin Laden palace, as recently as 2000 (40). In fact, Frank Carlucci, former assistant director of the CIA, held a meeting with at least one of the bin Laden brothers on the morning of 9/11/2001 (41). Frank Carlucci, who is closely plugged in to the current Bush administration, may have even held meetings with Osama bin Laden back when Frank was a deputy director of the CIA.

As detailed in previous chapters, Osama's association with the CIA and the U.S. began in the late 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s, where he served U.S. and Saudi interests in the proxy war with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (38). In 1996, at the request of the U.S., and the Saudi government, he left the Sudan, and then flew to Afghanistan (38). Saudi Prince Bandar denies that an arrest warrant was ever issued for Osama bin Laden (39).

In 1996, Osama was still working with Western Intelligence and was given several assignments by British, Saudi, and U.S. Intelligence agencies, one of which included an assassination plot against Libyan leader, Colonel Gadaffi (39). As detailed by The Observer (39) "British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi."

As noted, and as confirmed by Saudi Prince Bandar, the Saudi government never issued an arrest warrant for Osama bin Laden. As we independently confirmed, it was Libya which issued the warrant! However, British intelligence, in consultation with the CIA, quashed the "Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden" issued by Libya (39).

We should also remember that Osama bin Laden is a business man.

As to Bush administration and corporate news accounts claiming there is no contact between Osama and his family, this is nonsense. Calls between him and his brothers and his mother, have been repeatedly intercepted by U.S. Intelligence agencies (42). Bin Laden has been repeatedly tape recorded by the CIA and National Security Agency, talking with family members, including his mother.

Moreover, bin Laden family members, including some of the Princes of the Saudi Royal family, have visited Osama in Afghanistan, and in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates (43), where Osama and his family, and the Saudis have banking and business interests.

It is precisely because it is so well known to all but the American public, that bin Laden regularly spends time in Dubai, on business, coupled with our knowledge of the close working relationship he has maintained in the past with the CIA, that we find reports that he met with a CIA agent in Dubai, in July, 2001, highly credible.

Again, and as will be detailed in chapters 12 and 13, Osama bin laden is not the leader of al-Qaeda. He is a business man, and his family, like the Bush family, like Prince Bandar, stood to make a lot of money following the 9/11 attacks.

*******

During the following weeks, and continuing up to the very day before 9/11, the Bush administration received an avalanche of warnings that commercial jets would be hijacked and slammed into U.S. cities, including New York and the World Trade Center.

In August of 2001, Israeli intelligence services, including the Mossad, became aware that al-Qaeda was planning a large-scale terror attack on America.

The Los Angeles Times subsequently discovered that Israel's Mossad had passed on warnings to U.S. officials that as many as 200 terrorists linked to al-Qaeda had slipped into the country and were preparing to launch a major assault on the United States.

"Everybody knew about a heightened alert, and knew that bin Laden was preparing a big attack," admitted an administration official on conditions of anonymity.

When asked by reporters if it was true that Israel had shared this frightening information with U.S. intelligence agencies, Mark Regev, Israel's ambassador to the United States reluctantly admitted that: "Israel routinely shares with the U.S. intelligence information concerning the field of counter terrorism. We also have been closely watching bin Laden and people were aware of the threat he poses."

After the September 11 assault, when confronted by newspaper reporters about this startling revelation, the CIA officially denied receiving advance warning: "That is utter nonsense," responded Bill Harlow, CIA spokesman.

CIA denials were seconded by senior Israeli government officials: "There was no specific information about the intention to carry out such an attack," the official said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, however, told the New York Times that his country's intelligence service also warned U.S. officials during the first days of August. They warned that al-Qaeda was in the advanced stages of an attack on America.

On August 1, actor James Woods, while a passenger on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, became alarmed by the behavior of four men who he thought were intending on hijacking the plane. Later, it was determined that all four were among those who hijacked the 4 commercial jet liners on 9/11.

According to Mr. Woods, during a February 2002, television interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox TV's O'Reilly Factor, " ....what made me suspicious of these four men ... would have been blatantly obvious to the most casual observer. I took it upon myself to go to the flight attendant and ask to speak to the pilot of the plane. The first officer came out. I reported to him that I felt that the four men .... I said I think they're going to hijack this plane .... I explained to him these details, which I've been asked to keep private ..."

Woods insists that a report was filed by the flight crew in early August, and that the report went directly to the FAA regarding the suspicious behavior of the four men.

It is standard procedure for the FAA to pass this information on to the FBI.

According to Mr. Woods, after he contacted the FBI, following the 9/11 hijacking, to see if the men he had been identified were in fact the hijackers, he had been cautioned to keep this information secret because it might compromise national security. However, the FBI agent he spoke to, informed him that "I have identified for sure two of them as two of the terrorists."

Woods then went on to say: "I've been told unofficially, not by the FBI, but by someone else in a higher level of government ... that all four of them were terrorists involved."

O'Reilly: "So it was basically a rehearsal, what these guys were doing?

Woods: "Right. But what's significant about this is that it was a rehearsal with four men."

Thus, in early August, four of the 9/11 hijackers had been identified as obviously planning to hijack a commercial jet! This information was passed on to the FBI.

On August 6, the CIA warned President Bush, in a detailed memo, that al-Qaeda was planning to hijack commercial jets.

In mid-August 2001, the FBI received repeated and insistent warnings from managers of the Pan Am International Flight School in Eagan, Minnesota about Zacarias Moussaoui, who was requesting training in a Boeing 747 simulator but who only wanted to learn how to steer the jet and had no interest in learning about landings or takeoffs (46,47).

On August 17, Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested. Based on the information received from the flight school, FBI field agents contacted French intelligence officials and were informed that Zacarias Moussaoui was a suspected terrorist and a fanatical believer in Islam (47). When FBI headquarters was contacted, high level officials then proceeded to block and "sabotage" any attempt to continue investigating Moussaoui. A supervisor in the Minnesota FBI field office warned FBI headquarters that they were trying to stop terrorists who are planning "to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center" (47).

FBI headquarters responded angrily: "That's not going to happen."

Later, Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel Coleen M. Rowley, accused FBI director Mueller and the FBI of a "coverup " for "political reasons" and stated in a letter that other agents were accusing FBI headquarters of "deliberate" sabotage. "Jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles .. who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden" (46).

In late August, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings (48).

On September 7, the French Secret Service warned U.S. officials of an attack that was being orchestrated from Afghanistan (43). French officials were puzzled that the U.S. did not take the warnings seriously.

Between September 6-10, 2001 there was a dramatic and abnormal 600% increase in sales of put options on commercial air line stocks -- betting that the stock will go down (49,50). Over 4,700 put options were purchased on United Air Lines stock as opposed to only 396 call options (betting the stock will go up). On September 10, 200] over 4,500 put options were purchased on American Airlines as compared to 748 call options.

When purchasing Put options, one is buying, for a very minimal fee, the right to sell a stock, at a fixed price, for a limited time period. For example, if a stock is selling at $50.00 per share, one might buy the right to sell that stock at $45.00 per share. The right to sell the stock at this price, might cost $1.00 per share instead of $45.00 per share. If the stock goes up, one loses a dollar. But if the stock drops, say to $35.00, and if one has bought the equivalent of a thousand shares, for one thousand dollars, then by selling the stock at $45.00 per share (when its value is now $3S.(0) this would result in nearly a $10,000 profit. If one has purchased the equivalent of 10,000 shares, and the value drops by 50%, the profits would be staggering.

After 9/11, United Airlines and American Airlines stock dropped propitiously. The individual or individuals who had purchased those puts, stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Wall Street Journal reports (49) that 2,000 United Airlines put option were purchased through Deutschebank-Alex Brown on September 6, 2001. According to the magazine, Baron's (SO), another 2,500 puts purchased through Deutschebank were "split into 500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S. exchanges around the country simultaneously."

Obviously, those purchasing these put options knew that their value would soar on 9/11.

Unusual stock trades are actively monitored, in real time, via highly advanced computer software programs, by U.S. and foreign Intelligence Services, including the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department. In this instance, we are supposed to believe that this activity went unnoticed.

For reasons that the Bush administration refuses to explain, the Security and Exchange Commission, the FBI, and the CIA, have been unable to determine who purchased these Put options.

It has been suggested that Deutschebank-Alex Brown, where many of these options were purchased, is either being uncooperative or it lost or misplaced any records that would shed light on the purchaser's identity -- which is a brazen absurdity, and which raises questions about Deutschebank-Alex Brown.

According to articles in the German news weekly Der Spiegel (51), the Asian Wall Street Journal (52), and Britain's The Guardian (53), the bin Laden family maintains a least 10 different accounts with Deutschebank, with a value of over $100 million dollars. Funds from some of these 10 accounts, German authorities suspect, have funded the terrorist activities of bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

The Deutschebank is also in business with the CIA. One month before 9/11, the Financial Times of Asia, Wire-Business Line (54), carried an article which directly linked Deutschebank to the CIA, as well as to unnamed individuals in Afghanistan.

The CIA connection is not a secret. As openly admitted by the CIA, that connection goes by the name of "Buzzy" Krongard. On March 26, 2001, "Buzzy" Krongard was named Executive Director of the CIA. "Buzzy" has an interesting history. He had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown which was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown -- a banking company many, including Senator Carl Levin, have accused of being involved in money laundering. The same has been said of Deutschebank (54).

Just 32 days before the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Financial Times of Asia Wire-Business Line, published an article linking Deutschebank to the CIA, and to Pakistani and Afghani heroin smuggling. High level officials at Deutschebank were involved in money laundering of narcotics proceeds (54).

Deutschebank owns Banker's Trust-AB Brown, whose former chairman and vice-chairman is the current Executive Director of the CIA, "Buzzy" Krongard.

According to the CIA, "Mr. Krongard had previously worked in various capacities at Alex Brown Incorporated, the nation's oldest investment banking firm and assumed the additional duties of Chairman of the Board in 1994, and in September 1997, Mr. Krongard became Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust and served in such capacity until joining CIA."

On September 7, 2001, the French secret service warned the CIA of possible attacks, provided very precise information as to the targets, and revealed that the order to act would come from Afghanistan (43).

On September 9, 2001, the NSA intercepted a telephone call between Osama Bin Laden and his mother, Al Kalifa bin Laden, in which he said "In two days you're going to hear big news, and you're not going to hear from me for a while" (33)

On September to, 2001, the NSA overheard and tapped two phone calls from al-Qaeda operatives, one of whom said: "the match will be lit [begins] tomorrow" whereas in the second call it was stated: "Tomorrow is zero day" (33).

On Sept. 10, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns.

On September 11, 2001, approximately two hours before the first jet struck the World Trade Center, employees of an Israeli company, Odigo, Inc. one of the world's largest instant messaging companies, with offices in New York, received warnings of an imminent attack on the WTC. Odigo, Inc., is headquartered in the city of Herzliyya, which is also the headquarters for the Israeli Institute for Counter Terrorism (55,56). "Officials at instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two employees received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks" (56).

In other words, everybody knew about the attack -- everybody, except the Bush administration.

[admin]

PART 2 OF 2

EVERYBODY KNEW EXCEPT BUSH?

Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the CIA, FBI, and the Bush administration have repeatedly denied having any advanced warning, even though. as we know, in July, Ashcroft became too frightened to fly on commercial jetliners.

"My view is that the information we now have do not indicate that there was a substantial likelihood of detecting this," Ashcroft said on ABC's "This Week."

"It's hard to envision a plot so devious as the one that they pulled off on 9/l1," Bush said in a January interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw. "Never did we realize that the enemy was so well organized."

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that ... they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"We were unable to marry any information from investigations or the intelligence community that talked to their use of this expertise in the events that we saw unfold on the 11th," an administration official said.

Not only had the Bush administration received specific, detailed information, and innumerable warnings from a variety of sources, but they had been repeatedly warned that al-Qaeda was training pilots and planning to hijack commercial jetliners -- which is why Attorney General Ashcroft refused to ever step foot in a commercial jet again.

The Bush administration knew with absolute certainty there would be an attack. The claims to the otherwise are absurdities.

"We all predicted this," said Jerry Bremer, a former State Department terrorism expert and former chairman of a national commission on terrorism. "We had strategic warnings. This is not something the analysts missed."

As summed up by Larry Johnson, former deputy director of the State Department's office of counterterrorism, Bush, Ashcroft, and "Rice are foolish in saying that. Intelligence analysts are paid to imagine the unimaginable. That information was in their files, and if they weren't imagining it, that is a failure of intelligence and a failure of imagination."

Other former terrorism experts agreed. The warning signs were not only obvious but a 1999 analysis commissioned by The National Intelligence Agency and written for the CIA, predicted that Osama bin Laden would attack the U.S. "in a spectacular way. Suicide bombers belonging to al Qaeda's martyrdom battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, or the White House," the report said.

When the credibility of these obvious Bush administration falsehoods were challenged, FBI director, Mueller, was willing to offer only the most feeble of excuses:

"We have to do a better job pulling these pieces together, analyzing them and disseminating them," Mueller told CBS's "Face the Nation."

Excuses, of course, are like assholes, and everyone in the Bush administration has one. Even some Republicans were not buying the Bush administration excuse-machine.

"They don't have any excuse because the information was in their lap and they didn't do anything to prevent it," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of connecting the dots. I think they had a veritable blueprint and we want to know why they didn't act on it."

-- Republican Senator Arlen Specter, 6/6/2002.

Finally, the truth, and from Republicans: The Bush administration knew in advance, "they had a veritable blueprint... and they didn't do anything to prevent it."

"Of course President Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. His daddy had Saddam and he needed Osama. His presidency was going nowhere. He wasn't elected by the American people, but placed into the Oval Office by the conservative Supreme Court. The economy was sliding into the usual Republican pits and he needed something on which to hang his presidency ... This guy is a joke. What is sleazy and contemptible is the President of the United States not telling the American people what he knows for political gain."

-- Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Butler, Monterey Herald (5/26/02).

Even Bush's White House Spokesman, Ari Fleischer admitted that Bush knew in advance: "The president was provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking."

Of course he knew.

However, he claims that although he knew, what he didn't know was that the planes would be used to kill people.

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning," Bush said, "I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people."

In other words, Bush has basically admitted that he knew that aircraft would be hijacked "on that fateful morning," but that he didn't know "the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill."

What the Bush White House also knew in advance, is that the nation was about to undergo yet another terrorist attack, this one involving military grade anthrax.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TAKES CIPRO ON 9/11/2001

Top officials in the Bush administration began taking the anti-anthrax medication, Cipro, weeks before the first attack was made public, that is, on the morning of 9/11/2001 (57,58). "On the night of the September 11 attacks, the White House Medical Office dispensed Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David, and told them it was a 'precaution,' according to one person directly involved" (57).

By taking Cipro on 9/11/2001, one week before the first anthrax was even mailed, and three weeks before the first anthrax attacks became public, the Bush White House has essentially "ducked before the bomb went off' thus demonstrating that they knew that an anthrax bomb had been planted and was about to go off. The Bush administration obviously had advanced knowledge that the anthrax attacks were about to begin and the manner in which the anthrax would be dispersed: that is, through the mail -- a dispersal method that would have put the White House at risk. Indeed, on October 16, twelve senate offices were forced to close due to fear of or actual contamination, and within days, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court shut down.

"We believe that the White House knew or had reason to know that an anthrax attack was imminent or under way."

-- Larry Klayman, Chairman of Judicial Watch (58).

Of course the Bush administration knew in advance that an anthrax attack was in the works. Note that they did not take antidotes for smallpox or other biological weapons. Only anthrax.

The Bush administration not only knew in advance, they welcomed the fact that the American public would be terrorized, which is why they were careful to ensure that they, and they alone, would be protected.

BUSH UNLOCKS & OPENS DOOR TO TERRORISTS: AIR FORCE & FAA TOLD TO STAND DOWN

A super terrorist alert was issued in July of 2001, and there followed an avalanche of warnings, including those delivered by the French and the Presidents of Egypt and Russia. Inexplicably, in the midst of this super terrorist alert, the Bush administration began ordering the FAA and Air Force to step down and to relax their vigilance.

By the morning of 9/11, the step down was not just complete but was so relaxed it was in violation of all normal operating procedures. That morning, in direct contravention of established policy, only eight aircraft were assigned "ready" duty for air patrol for the entire continental United States. And, in direct contravention of established policy, none of the eight were military, and all were sitting on the ground. None of the eight planes were in the air that morning.

At 8: 13, on the morning of 9/11, the pilots of Flight 11 stopped responding to air traffic controllers. Flight 11 had been hijacked, and most certainly this had been communicated to controllers while the hijackings were in progress some minutes before. However, exactly what was said is unknown as the Bush administration refuses to release the tapes.

Seven minutes later, at 8:20, Flight 11 stopped transmitting its IFF beacon signal while over the Hudson River.

At 8:24, one of the hijackers accidentally activated the aircraft's radio instead of its public-address system, and then said: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move."

An Air traffic controller then responded: "Who's trying to call me?" Then from Flight 11, "Everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet."

At 8:25 Boston Air Traffic Control notifies several air traffic control centers that a hijack is in progress.

At 8:27, Betty Ong, a flight attendant on Flight 11, calls American Airlines reservations from the seat-back phone. "Two flight attendants had been stabbed," she said. "A passenger had his throat slashed and looked dead ... the hijackers ... had gotten into the cockpit."

Another 13 minutes go by, 26 have passed in total. In direct contravention of established policy, all interceptor craft were still on the ground. Neither the National Guard, the FAA, or the Air Force had responded.

At 8:40 Boston's air traffic control center notified NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector in Rome, N.Y. that Flight 11 has been hijacked.

At the same time, Flight 175 is in the process of being hijacked. Still, there is no response from NORAD et al.

At 8:42 Flight 175 veered from it's course over New Jersey.

At 8:43 the FAA notified NORAD that Flight 175 has been hijacked.

At 8:46 Flight 11 slams into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Thirty three minutes (or more) have elapsed since Flight 11 was hijacked and all interceptor flights are still grounded.

For the last 30 years it has been standard FAA procedure to immediately scramble U.S. fighters to immediately intercept any errant or non-responsive aircraft.

For example, on October 25, 1999, when a jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart flew off course and toward the White House, it was intercepted 21 minutes later by two F-16s.

On July 16, 2002, two F-16s were dispatched and intercepted a transcontinental flight, within 17 minutes after being alerted that a group of entertainers from India on a flight to New York were getting boisterous and overly excited.

On the morning of 9/11, it was not until 8:46 that NORAD awakened from its slumber. Inexplicably, another six minutes passed, and then at 8:52 two F-15 fighters were finally scrambled from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, 153 miles from New York in a failed effort to intercept the two hijacked planes.

Thus, we see that whereas it usually takes 17 to 21 minutes, on average, to intercept a plane after being notified of problems, on the morning of 9/11, it took 39 minutes before the military even put a single plane into the air, and only after the first jet struck the north tower.

The result of the Bush-ordered stand-down in the middle of a super terrorist alert, and this inexplicable delay in reaction on the morning of 9/11, was to allow all hijackings to proceed and to enable the hijackers to complete their mission and to maximize casualties.

DID THE FBI "GOOF"?

The CIA and FBI want us to believe that they "goofed." The Bush administration asks us to believe that unnecessary and restrictive laws, which prevent American intelligence agencies from looking at magazines, going to Mosques, or visiting websites on the internet, are the reasons for these "goof ups."

We are told that we have too much freedom, too many civil liberties, that there are too many laws protecting unnecessary "rights" and that it is these overly restrictive laws which have prevented the FBI and CIA from connecting the dots; and the corporate controlled American media repeats these absurdities unchallenged.

On the contrary, the reason top officials in the CIA, FBI, and Bush administration failed to connect the dots, is because they are the dots.

Indeed, the Bush family has been partnering with terrorists for decades, using murderers, rapists, gangsters, and the like, in innumerable operations which were designed to increase the power and wealth of the Bush clan and their associates.

The Bush family even partnered with the Nazis, and maintained that partnership after Hitler declared war on the United States and began killing Americans. For the Bush clan, it was business as usual. War is good for business, and if Americans are killed, then what of it, so long as in the end the Bush family makes money and increases their power.

In 1990, George H.W. Bush and his administration, began laying the ground work for the first major terrorist attack ever, on U.S. soil. That attack took place in 1993, when the World Trade Center was first bombed. Their intention was to blame the attack on Saddam Hussein (59), so as to justify war with Iraq during Bush's second term.

Unfortunately, for the Bush gang, they were unable to capitalized on the carnage, as Bush lost the 1992 elections. George H.W. Bush, his business partners, and the criminals that were part of his administration, would have to wait another 8 years to strike again, which they did, on 9/11/2001.

And just as the Bush gang originally planned to blame Saddam (57) and hide the involvement of their 1993 co-conspirators, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the Bush gang, post 9/11, has again followed the same recipe. Instead of going after those who financed the attack, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they have hidden and shifted the blame, away from their partners in crime, in order to target Afghanistan, and then Iraq -- and they have done so in order to reap the profits of war and to hide their own complicity.

THE COVER UP: THE GHOSTS OF NIXON'S PAST

"Key FBI HQ personnel... continued to, almost inexplicably, throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis' desperate efforts ... to stop terrorists ...." who planned "to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center."

After 9/11, there was a "Cover up."

"A shading/skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of FBI management has occurred. Facts ... have ... been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mis-characterized in an effort to avoid personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or ... for improper political reasons."

"Key FBI Headquarters personnel had to be spies or moles .. who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden."

The words above are those an FBI supervisor, and Coleen M. Rowley, FBI Special Agent & Chief Division Counsel, used to describe the FBI and FBI Director Mueller in the weeks before and during the aftermath of 9/11.

Mr. Mueller, as Coleen M. Rowley's has pointed out, has also promoted and rewarded the top level FBI officials who sabotaged the efforts of the Minneapolis' FBI office, thus preventing them from investigating the "20th" hijacker.

Mr. Mueller is an accused "coverup" artist (60), who was brought into the Bush administration, and made FBI director, by Mr. George Bush. Mr. Mueller has a history of impeding justice, and covering up crimes committed by the Bush family and their associates (60). Mueller, was appointed by Mr. Bush for exactly that purpose.

The same is true of the November 2002, appointment of Mr. Henry Kissinger, as the new Chairman of the Commission to investigate so called intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. Kissinger is no fan of democracy, and has been implicated in a variety of crimes. For example, Mr. Kissinger was accused by Congress, of obstruction of justice. In 1975, Otis Pike's Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, issued a contempt of Congress citation against Henry Kissinger for his refusal to provide documentation of covert operations. Kissinger and gang thumbed their noses at Pike.

Obstruction of justice is the least of his crimes. Mr. Henry Kissinger, as detailed in chapter 5, is one of those responsible for the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children in East Timor, East Asia, and Chile (61,62,63). Kissinger is also one of those responsible for the assassination of Chile's democratically elected president, Allende (63). Kissinger and gang not only had Allende murdered, but Chile's top general after he announced he would uphold Chile's constitution.

With Kissinger, Rumsfeld, and Cheney, George Bush had resurrected the ghosts of Nixon's past and the inner circle of an administration which engaged in a host of nefarious crimes and impeachable offenses. In fact, the last time Kissinger, Rumsfeld, and Cheney worked together in the same administration, criminal wrong doing became so rampant, a Vice-President and a President had to resign.

Instead, on December 13, 2002, Henry Kissinger resigned.

Despite the so far, successful cover-up of the Bush administration's involvement in the crimes of 9-11, there remains the possibility that the current president and vice-president might suffer the same fate as the last ones Kissinger, Rumsfeld and Cheney served.

WE CHARGE YOU WITH TREASON & MASS MURDER

We believe it is clear that the Bush administration knew of these planned hijackings in advance, and conspired to allow this tragedy to take place, in order to profit from it financially and politically.

For example, although the Bush administration was overwhelmed with an avalanche of detailed warnings of the upcoming hijackings, this same administration and top FBI officials repeatedly interfered with FBI agents, such as John O'Neil, including in particular those who were making "desperate efforts ... to stop terrorists ...." who planned "to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center." Some of these FBI agents accused officials at headquarters of being "spies or moles ... working for bin Laden."

After issuing a "Super Alert" in July this same Bush administration not only interfered with lower level FBI agents who were about to uncover the plot, but they ordered the FAA and the nation's military to stand down in the days before the 9/11 attack. The Bush administration essentially unlocked the door to our nation's security, and left it wide open.

The Bush family and Bush associates including the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family, stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars in the aftermath of this tragedy. Indeed, these people are not only in business together, and some not only provided funds that ended up in the pockets of the hijackers, but they were holding high level meetings on the morning of 9-11.

Following 9-11, the Bush administration allowed the bin Ladens to escape back to Saudi Arabia, where they cannot be questioned (64). As explained by Prince Bandar, to CNN, in October of 2001, "His Majesty said it's not fair for these innocent people to be subjected to any harm. On the other hand, we understood the high emotions. So with the coordination with the FBI, we got them all out."

Likewise, Prince Bandar, and the Saudi government refused to allow the FBI to question the families of the 15 9/11 hijackers who were Saudi citizens. When it was discovered that the Saudi government and Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, was making regular monthly payments and provided over $100,000.000 each, to Osama Bassnan -- a Saudi agent who in turn passed this money on to 9-11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq al- Hazmi -- Osama Bassnan was immediately "deported" back to Saudi Arabia, thus making it impossible for the press or any investigative body, to question him.

The Saudis are knee deep in terrorism which they support in the United States and other countries. For example, according to Israeli Intelligence estimates, in a single 18-month period, between 200 1and 2002, the Saudi government gave $135 million to the families of suicide bombers.

We believe the evidence is clear.

Members of the current and past Bush administrations are in business with and have been in business with men and governments which kill Americans. Members of the current and past Bush administrations, including President Bush, made it possible for the 9- 11 tragedy to take place, and they did so for personal and political gain.

The reason the FBI, CIA, and Bush administration failed to "Connect the Dots," is because they are the dots.

The only other alternative is to accept that the Bush administration, et al., are so incredibly incompetent, and so impossibly negligent, that they failed to take action and allowed this to happen out of foolishness and extreme stupidity. If that is the case, then this administration is so dumb that they pose a danger to themselves as well as the public.

We do not accept an explanation of criminal negligence.

Rather, based on the above and the wealth of facts detailed and documented in Part II of this book, we believe there is evidence sufficient to charge high ranking officials in the FBI, CIA, and Bush administration, with treason and the mass murder of nearly 3000 Americans on 9-11-2001.

We recommend the appointment of a special prosecutor and a new director of the FBI. We recommend Coleen M. Rowley, FBI Special Agent & Chief Division Counsel, as the ideal candidate to fill both posts.

If we allow these men to get away with this despicable crime, with the mass murder of 3000 Americans, no one will be safe again.

_______________

Notes:

1). Charles J. Shields, "The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing," Chelsea House, 2001; Peter Caram, The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing," Janus Publishing Company, 2001; Laurie Mylroie, "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America."

2). Simon Reeve, "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism," Andre Deutsch publishers, 1999.

3). New York Times, Oct. 28, 1993.

4). Kurt Lohbeck, "Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the CIA's Secret War in Afghanistan," 1993; John Cooley, "Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism." According to Colley, a former journalist with the US ABC television network, Muslims were also recruited in the US for the mujahadin, and were sent to Camp Peary, the CIA's spy training camp in Virginia, where young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and Jordan, and even some African-American "black Muslims" were taught "sabotage skills" as well as torture, interrogation, and terrorist techniques.

5). Reuters, 8/27/1995; France Soir, August, 1995.

6). William F. Jasper, " Islamic Extremists: U.S.-Financed, Enflamed, Seeking Revenge," The New American, 10/12/1998.

7). Mary Anne Weaver, "Blowback," The Atlantic Monthly; May 1998.

8). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK vs Shaykh Abdul Rahman, et al.

9). Edward C. Coughlin, Jr., New Trends, January/February 1996.

10). James Risen & Judith Miller, "Pakistani Intelligence Had Links to Al Qaeda, U.S. Officials Say," 10/28/2002. The New York Times.

11). Hindustani Times, 11/411994;The New York Times, 10/28/2002.

12). United States Senate, "Senate Resolution 278 -- Relating to Pakistan, 10/7/1994.

13). Hindustani Times, 9/12/2001; The Times of India, 9/10/1999; The New York Times, 10/28/2002.

14). Christian Science Monitor. 9/3/1999.

15). Reuters, 9/13/2001.

16).The New York Times, 9/13/2001.

17). Scripps Howard News Service, 9/12/2001.

18).The Times of India, 10/9/2001; Agence France Press, 10/10/2001.

19).Neil Mackay The Sunday Herald, 9/16(2001; see also: United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., S (7) 98 Cr. 1023 (LBS), Sworn testimony of Essam Al-Ridi at the Southern District Court of New York, February 14, 2001; Deborah Feyerick & Phil Hirschkorn, "Witness Says He Bought Plane, Made Shipments for bin Laden," CNN, 2/14/2001.

20). Transcript from: Abdul Hakim Murad Interrogation by Philippines Police, January, 7, 1995; see also: Doug Struck, et al., ""Borderless Network of Terror, Bin Laden Followers Reach Across Globe," Washington Post, September 23; John Cooley, "Unholy Wars," New York, 2000.

21). Steve Fainaru & James V.Grimaldim "FBI Knew Terrorists Were Using Flight Schools," Washington Post, 9/23/2001.

22). Mark Fineman and Judy Pasternak, "Suicide Flights and Crop Dusters Considered Threats at '96 Olympics," Los Angeles Tunes, 11/17/2001.

23). Associated Press 5/3/2002

24). United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., Southern District Court of New York, 2001.

25). United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., S (7) 98 Cr. 1023 (LBS), Sworn testimony of Essam Al-Ridi at the Southern District Court of New York, 2/14/2001.

26). Deborah Feyerick & Phil Hirschkorn, "Witness Says He Bought Plane, Made Shipments for bin Laden," CNN, 2/14/2001; ABC News/ Primetime, "Strictly a Business Deal" Transcript: Osama Bin Laden's Pilot, Essam Al-Ridi, 7/2/2002.

27). United States District Court, Southern District of New York, "United States of America v Ali Mohamed."

28). CNN, 8/1/2002; see also, Magazine, 10/5/2001; CBS New, 9/13/ 2002.

29). United States District Court, Southern District of New York, "United States of America v Ahmed Ressam; United States District Court, Western District of Washington at Seattle, "United States of America v Ahmed Ressam, December, 1999.

30). BBC News, "Atta Trained in Afghanistan" 8/24/2002; Douglas Waller, "Was Hijack 'Ringleader' in Bin Laden Orbit?" Time Magazine, 10/ 5/2001; CBS New, 9/13/2002; Sara Jess, et al., "American Attacked," University Press, California, 10/11/2001.

31). CBS New, 9/13/2002; Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-September 2002.

32). Kay Nehm, German Federal Prosecutor, News Conference, 8/29/ 2002.

33). Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-September 2002.

34). Jacquelin Magnay, "Jet crash on stadium was Olympics nightmare," Sydney Morning Herald, 9/20/2001.

35). CNN, 8/1/2002.

36). Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, 9/14/2001.

37). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001; Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."

38). PBS Frontline, Prince Bandar interview. 9/2001.

39). The Observer, 11/10/2002.

40). Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9/28/1999; Daniel Golden et al. "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001; Robert Scheer, Making Money, the Bush Way," Los Angeles Times, 2/20/2002; Baltimore Chronicle, "Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but 'News' Media ignore it," 10/4/01; Jason Nisse, "Carlyle Group, Employer of Bush Sr., Profits from Massive Weapons Program Signed by Jr. which the Pentagon had advised be Canceled," Independent, 1/30/02.

41). The Observer, "Dark heart of the American dream," 6/16/2002; see also, Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.

42) James Bamford, "Body of Secrets;" Baltimore Sun, 4/24/2001; San Antonio Express-News, 9/14/2001.

43). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.

44). United Press International, 11/1/2001.

45). Radio France International, 11/1/2001.

46). Coleen M. Rowley, Memo to Mueller, 6/21/2002.

47). Sara Jess et al., "America Attacked," University Press, California, 11/11/2001.

48). MS-NBC interview with Putin, 9/15/2001.

49). The Wall Street Journal, 10-19-2001.

50). Baron's 10/8/2001.

51). Der Spiegel, 9/27/2001.

52). Asian Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2000.

53). The Guardian, 10/1/2001.

54). Financial Times of Asia, Wire-Business Line, 8/10/2001.

55). Daniel Sieberg, CNN 9/28/01; Ha'aretz, 9/26/01.

56). Newsbytes, Brian McWilliams, 9/27/01.

57). Associated Press, "White House Mail Machine Has Anthrax," 10/ 23/2001.

58). Judicial Watch, 6/7/2002.

59). James Fox, the FBI's chief investigator into the February 26, 1993 bombing proposed that an Iraqi agent had masterminded the bombing. See also Laurie Mylroie, "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America."

60). Federation of American Scientists, "BCCI AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: The Justice Department;" Al Martin, "The Conspirators. Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider;" American Free Press, "New FBI Head Is Old Bush Cover-Up Man," 8/20/2001. See also: Alan Friedman, "The Neil Bush Bailout," Vanity Fair, October, 1990; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, "The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993.

61). Tim Weiner, "How the CIA Took Aim at Allende," New York Times, 9/12/1998; Paul M. Sweezy, "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Chile," Monthly Review Press, 1974; Miguel Gonzalez Pino, et al., "Los mil dias de Allende II,," Santiago, Chile: Centro de Estudios Preblicos, 1997; Gonzalez Pino, "Allende concita atenci-n de la prensa mundial," La Tarde, 9/ 7/1970.

62). Embassy Jakarta Telegram 1579 to Secretary State, 6 December 1975 [Text of Ford-Kissinger-Suharto Discussion], Gerald R. Ford Library, Kissinger-Scowcroft Temporary Parallel File, BoxA3, Country File, Far East- Indonesia, State Department Telegrams 4/1/75-9/22/76; Enclosure to Document 3, State Department Briefing Paper, "Indonesia and East Timor," ca. 21 November 1975, National Archives, Record Group 59, Department of State Records, Executive Secretariat Briefing Books,1958-1976, Box 227, President Ford's Visit to the Far East - Indonesia Nov-Dec. 1975; Ford, Kissinger and the Indonesian Invasion, 1975-76; National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 62 Edited by William Burr and Michael L. Evans December 6, 2001.

63). Kissinger Orders Allende's Murder: "CIA, Operating Guidance Cable on Coup Plotting, October 16, 1970." In this cable, Thomas Karamessines, CIA deputy director, conveys Kissinger's orders to Henry Hecksher, CIA station chief in Santiago, and includes the following statements: "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup." The "operating guidance" is to hide the "American hand." The CIA is instructed to ignore any orders which are not consistent with this guidance cable. "CIA, Memorandum of Conversation of Meeting with Henry Kissinger, Thomas Karamessines, and Alexander Haig, October IS, 1970." This Memorandum includes a discussion of covert plans promoting a coup in Chile, and the overthrow of Allende, known as "Track II." Kissinger orders the CIA to "continue keeping the pressure on every Allende weak spot in sight."

64). Bryon York, "The bin Ladens' Great Escape. How the U.S. helped Osama's family leave the country after 9/11," National Review, 9/11/2002; London Telegraph, "My brother Osama," 12/16/2001. The plane was chartered by the Saudi government, and the excuse for the great escape from the U.S. to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was that bin Laden family members were afraid they might suffer retribution. With the help of the FBI, a chartered aircraft picked up family members in Los Angeles, Horida, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

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Chapter 12: TERROR FOR OIL

The Bush administration and top officials in the CIA and FBI did all in their power to prevent lower level FBI agents from investigating or pursuing evidence that might have uncovered and prevented the four hijackings and the subsequent terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The Bush administration, and top officials in the CIA and FBI prevented lower level FBI agents from pursuing leads that might have enabled them to uncover and stop al-Qaeda terrorists who were living and training in the United States. They sabotaged these efforts in order to reap the political and financial benefits of a war on terror and its aftermath.

"I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of connecting the dots. I think they had a veritable blueprint and we want to know why they didn't act on it." - Republican Senator Arlen Specter, 6/6/ 02.

"Of course President Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism."

-- Air Force Lt. Cot. Steve Butler

The Bush team has been needing and planning on this "war on terrorism" since the last Bush administration. And why is that? Money, power, and oil: Fabulous riches that would be theirs after gaining control over Afghanistan and the oil reserves of central Asia and Iraq; and the tens of billions of dollars that will flow into their coffers when the U.S. government and Department of Defense, make multi-billion dollar purchases from the weapon's industries and defense-related companies controlled by the Bush family, the Carlyle Group, and their associates.

Take for example, the Carlyle Group, whose portfolio ranks it as one of the major defense contractors in the country (1,2,3). According to the New York Times (3), "Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies which last year employed more than 70,000 people and generated $16 billion in revenues. About 450 institutions -- mainly large pension funds and banks-are Carlyle investors."

The Carlyle Group is a merchant of mayhem and makes money off war, terrorism, and by feeding on human misery.

Some of the principle investors in the Carlyle Group include the bin Laden family, Prince Bandar and the Saudi royal family, the Bush family, as well as former Reagan-Bush cabinet members, such as James Baker and a phalanx of former CIA and Pentagon officials such as Frank Carlucci (1,2,3,4). Carlucci is a former deputy director of the CIA, and former Secretary of Defense.

Carlucci is the chairman and George H.W. Bush is a highly paid consultant to the Carlyle Group. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 per speech -- money which is then placed in the Carlyle group's investment fund. In other words, Carlyle gives Bush money which Bush then invests in the Carlyle group.

Colin Powell has been on the Carlyle Group's payroll, receiving "speaking fees" as recently as September 2000.

James Baker, the former Secretary of the Treasury, is a senior counselor at the Carlyle Group -- a role he also played for George W. Bush during the disputed 2000 presidential elections. Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake in the Carlyle group is estimated to be worth about $180 million.

Before he became President, George W. Bush "received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle," i.e., Caterair (4). When governor of Texas, Bush appointed the Board that oversees the Texas Teacher's Pension fund, which then invested $100 million dollars into the coffers of the Carlyle Group (3). This is in addition to a $10 million dollar investment made at a time when Carlyle was desperately in need of a big infusion of cash, in order to attract foreign investors, such as the bin Ladens.

As detailed in previous chapters, the Bush family has been in business with the bin Ladens since at least the 1970s.

Dick Cheney's Halliburton, the corporation he headed until becoming Bush's Vice-President, had also partnered with the bin Ladens. According to the Wall Street Journal (5) a subsidiary of Halliburton (H.C. Price/Bredero Shaw, Inc.) had formed a joint venture with the bin Laden family to do oil pipeline-related construction business in Afghanistan.

"Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending,"

-- The Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001

The bin Laden's are also partners in the Carlyle group.

In 1995, the bin Laden's made an initial investment of over 2 million dollars in the Carlyle Group. Since then they, as well as other leading Saudis, including members of the Saudi royal family have steadily increased their stake and their holdings (2,6,7).

According to the Wall Street Journal (6), increases in U.S. defense spending, or any war launched because of the actions of Osama bin laden, will thus directly "benefit Osama's family. As the United States boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, the bin Laden family may be the unexpected beneficiary."

The Wall Street Journal then goes on to say (6): "Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party."

The Carlyle group, and thus the bin Ladens, are not only directly plugged into the Republican party, but the current administration of George W. Bush. According to Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington based, nonprofit public interest group, "Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be."

As summed up by Tim Shorrock, writing for The Nation (8), "By hiring enough former officials to fill a permanent shadow cabinet, Carlyle has brought political influence to a new level and created a twenty-first-century version of capitalism that blurs any line between politics and business. In a sense, Carlyle may be the ultimate in privatization: the use of a private company to nurture public policy -- and then reap its benefits in the form of profit. Although the fund claims to operate like any other investment bank, it's undeniable that its stable of statesmen-entrepreneurs have the ability to tap into networks in government and commerce, both at home and abroad, for advance intelligence about companies about to be sold and spun off, or government budgets and policies about to be implemented, and then transform that knowledge into investment strategies that dovetail nicely with US military foreign and domestic policy."

Almost the exact same charges were made about IG Farben and its role in putting the Nazi government in power, helping to direct foreign policy, and then reaping the benefits when Nazi Germany went to war (see chapter 8).

Indeed, secret and not so secret meetings are regularly held between the Carlyle group and the current Bush administration to chart strategies which are designed to boost Carlyle's bottom line. For example, in February, 2001, Frank C. Carlucci met with Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and Vice President Dick Cheney (9). Although they deny it, many suspect that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about military matters and the multibillion- dollar defense projects that the Carlyle group wanted approved.

The Saudis and the bin Laden family are also regularly consulted, by no less than former President G.H.W. Bush, as well as former Bush cabinet members. In November of 1998, and in January of 2000, former President Bush journeyed to Saudi Arabia in the bin Laden's private plane and stayed overnight at the bin Laden palace (6). In 2000, he also met with "Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a luxurious desert compound outside Riyadh to talk about American-Saudi business affairs" (10).

Mr. Carlucci, the Reagan-Bush Secretary of Defense, and former deputy director of the CIA, and a past chairman of Nortel Networks Corp. is reported to have partnered with the bin Ladens in a number of telecommunications ventures, and is said to also meet with them on a regular basis, as do other former Bush cabinet members. For example, Mr. Baker has also repeatedly visited the bin Laden family including in 1998 and 1999 (10).

In fact, one of the most recent meetings took place on the morning of September 11, 200 1.As commercial jets slammed into the World Trade Center, Frank Carlucci, James Baker, and others associated with Bush, were celebrating at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Washington, DC with members of the Bin Laden family (11).

Osama bin Laden is a business man, and once, during an unguarded moment, he made the comment: "this isn't terrorism. It's business." Thus, perhaps we should not be surprised to discover that the 9/11 terrorist attack on America may have also been just another way of doing "business." Indeed, Osama's family, like the family and associates of President George W. Bush, made an incredible amount of money and they expect to make even more money because of that terrorist attack.

As noted, on 9/11/2001, the bin Laden's were heavily invested in the Carlyle Group.

Consider, for example, United Defense Industries (UDI), a company controlled by the Carlyle Group. Following 9/11, the Army signed a $665 million contract with UDI. With contract in hand, coupled with a defense appropriation bill, signed by Bush, which included an additional $487 million, the Carlyle Group was well positioned to make a major stock offering for UDI, and on 12/13/ 2001 sold $225 million of shares, while retaining a 54% stake worth $560 million (12).

According to UDI Press Releases, on January 4,2002 United Defense received $32.9 million as part of the Defense Department budget for 2002. On Jan. 31, 2002 UDI was awarded a $21.2 Million U.S. Army contract. On the same day UDI announced its revenue has increased 28% since September 2001. On February 4, 2002 the U.S. Army kicked in another $78 Million to develop a prototype for its "Crusader program." According to UDI, "this latest contract ... brings the total funding to United Defense for contracts on the Crusader program to approximately $ 1.8 billion." On March 27, 2002 -- UDI "received contract modifications worth $208.5 million to remanufacture 142 Bradley Fighting Vehicles." On April I, another $22.2 Million Contract, and another $23.4M on April 12. April 15: $58.4 million, and on and on ... By July 25, 2002 UDl's "second-quarter net Income has risen by 74%." By October 2002, net income again rises sharply. On "October 31, 2002 - United Defense Industries, Inc. received a contract...from the U.S. Navy ... valued in excess of $ 40 million, bringing the total contract value to over $190 million."

Likewise, after Bush took office, his administration awarded tens of millions of dollars to the Vinnell Corp. which is partly owned by Carlyle, including a $10,841,990.00 contract in June of 2001 (13). Vinnell, although a private corporation, is in the business of training and arming foreign militaries (14). For example, in May of 2002, Vinnell received $170 million for training Saudi Arabia's national guard and air force (15). Vinnell is also being paid, by U.S. taxpayers, to train Afghanistan's new army -- an army which will protect the oil pipeline that will soon be constructed across Afghanistan.

These are just two of the 160 plus Carlyle companies which stand to profit from the "war on terrorism."

As summed up by the Guardian (2) "since the start of the 'war on terrorism: the firm - unofficially valued at $3.5 billion - has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father ....and members ofthe family ofOsama bin Laden."

Once the United States invades Iraq, the Carlyle Group including the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family, will also benefit handsomely.

The Carlyle group is also in the business of drugs, publishing, telecommunications, and spying. They own book publishers, 50% of Baker and Taylor a major book distributor, and who knows how many reporters and editors. In addition, the "Carlyle Realty Partners have major investments in four of the 8 major Network Access Points in the U.S., including MAE-West, Lakeside Technology Center in Chicago, and the new Atlantic Technology Center in Brooklyn. This may be part of an attempt by Carlyle (which looks like a CIA venture capital front company) to expand US intelligence snooping capabilities on the Internet" (16).

That this relationship between Bush, his father, the bin Ladens and the Carlyle group, is unethical, dangerous to U.S. interests and probably illegal, has not been lost on a number of independent observers. Even prior to the 9/11 tragedy, groups, such as the conservative Judicial Watch, had already begun to complain. In May of 2001, Judicial Watch, a highly conservative, highly respected public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, strongly criticized Bush and the Carlyle Group, for a "conflict of interest (which) could cause problems for America's foreign policy in Middle East and Asia."

On 9/28/01, seven days after the 9/11 attack, Judicial Watch again complained: "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group" (17).

In February of 2002, the complaints grew even louder. As described by San Francisco Chronicle reporter, David Lazarus (18): "Critics of the Carlyle Group have grown increasingly vocal in recent weeks, particularly over the perception that a private organization with unmistakable links to the White House is benefiting from America's military action in Afghanistan."

In November of 2002, Bush announced a $10 billion dollar increase in defense spending. The Carlyle group will be a major beneficiary.

Yes -- the attack which left 3000 Americans dead and a nation traumatized, has been very good for business -- that is, so long as that business is linked to the Bush family and their associates.

OIL FOR TERROR

The expected dividend from the 9/11 attack on America was not limited to increases in defense spending, but included gold -- black gold, oil that is -- central Asian and Bagdad tea.

The Bush family and many of their associates have been in the oil business for decades.

Until he became vice president, Dick Cheney spent five years as director of Halliburton, one of the top companies providing service to the oil industry. Dick Cheney, who has never served in the military, has been one of the loudest voices screaming for oil and blood. And for good reason: war and oil are worth billions of dollars to Halliburton -- a company that gave Cheney a $37 million dollar going away present when he left to become vice president.

Are we supposed to believe he is not acting in the interests of Halliburton?

Indeed, in the months before 9/11, and with their former director serving now as vice president, Halliburton signed a 12-Year contract with KASPMORNEFTELOT. As detailed in a published press release, "KASPMORNEFTELOT, the marine division of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, have entered into a 12- year contract for a marine base and associated services to support Halliburton Subsea offshore construction activity in the Caspian region. The acquisition of the marine base is a further indication of our commitment to the Caspian region and to the success of the partnership arrangements with SOCAR,' says Edgar Ortiz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Halliburton's Energy Services Group" (19).

American Petroleum Institute has called the Caspian region, "the area of greatest resource potential outside of the Middle East." Likewise, while director of Halliburton Cheney told a gaggle of oil industry executives in 1998, "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."

However, in 1998, one of the best ways to get at that oil, was through Afghanistan. And to do that, would require a regime change, which in turn, would require a war to remove the Taliban.

As pointed out by Marjorie Cohn of the Chicago Tribune (20), gaining access to "Caspian oil presents formidable obstacles. Landlocked between Russia, Iran and a group of former Soviet republics, the Caspian's 'black gold' raises a transportation dilemma. Although the cheapest route would traverse Iran to the Persian Gulf, U.S. sanctions against Iran block this alternative. Cheney has lobbied long and hard for the lifting of those sanctions, to lubricate the Iran-Caspian connection. This is consistent with his position, described in a 1997 article in The Oil and Gas Journal, that oil and gas companies must do business in countries with policies unpalatable to the U.S."

Indeed, Cheney, like Bush, is willing to do business even with people who kill or finance the mass murder of Americans. As to outlaw regimes who practice genocide? No problem. For example, Cheney has urged the "repeal of section 907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act, which severely restricts U.S. aid to Azerbaijan because of its ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh ... Cheney chooses to ignore Azerbaijan's human-rights violations because Azerbaijan is key to the richest Caspian oil deposits" (20).

Yes, indeed. Dick Cheney sees no problem with mass murder and genocide, so long as Dick Cheney can make a buck.

And then there is Bush National Security Advisor and former oil-company consultant and Chevron Oil board member, Condoleezza Rice. During the first Bush administration, Rice became an expert on the oil-rich region of Kazakhstan, a country in which Chevron has invested more than $20 billion. Rice became a member of Chevron's board of directors, and it was during her tenure and with her assistance that the company partnered with a consortium including Kazakhstan and ExxonMobil to complete a pipeline carrying oil from the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiisk. Chevron was so thankful for her assistance that it named one of their supertankers the SS Condoleezza Rice.

Ms. Rice, being national security advisor, is one of the senior Bush administration officials who undoubtedly had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attack. Her complicity (or if we are kind: Her negligence) allowed that attack to occur which in turn justified the war with Afghanistan, which gave her oil friends access to the central Asian oil reserves. And Ms. Rice has also been one of the loudest voices demanding that we attack Iraq -- a country with the second largest known oil reserves in the world.

*******

The Bush family, and their cronies in the oil, banking, and defense industries, have had their eyes on the oil fields of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Basin, including landlocked Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, for decades. And for decades they have plotted how best to maintain control over the Saudi oil-spicket and how to take control of those resources north of Afghanistan and in Iraq.

Before even taking office in January of 2001, the Bush team had already decided to go for a "hostile takeover:" First Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then ...

However, to declare "war for oil" would not only be unseemly and transparent, but most Americans would not support it.

Terrorism would be the key, and the "war on terrorism" would be the justification for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq -- terrorism bought and paid for by Bush friends and associates including the CIA, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan's intelligence service.

As summed by Frank Viviano, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle (21): "Beyond current issues and strategies ...the hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can be summed up in a single word: oil. The map of terrorist sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world's principal energy sources. The defense of these energy resources-rather than a simple confrontation between Islam and the West-will be the primary flash point of global conflict for decades to come. It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America's Chevron, Exxon, and Arco; France's TotalFinaElf; British Petroleum; Royal Dutch Shell and other multinational giants, which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region. There is no avoiding such a linkage or the rising tide of anger it will produce in developing nations already convinced they are victims of a conspiratorial collaboration between global capital and U.S. military might."

And yet, it is not just the developing nations which have been victimized, but the citizens of America -- nearly 3,000 murdered on one day alone, and all for the sake of money, oil, and a political power grab unprecedented in the history of the United States. Indeed, the terrorist attack which took place on 9/11, as expected, transformed an inept, incompetent, former drug-addled alcoholic (22), into a war time leader who would immediately set about attacking not just Afghanistan, but American civil liberties and the constitution of the United States (23).

*******

Having been in the oil-business for decades, Bush and associates have long had their greedy eyes on the oil reserves of Iraq and those of the now independent countries that had once been part of the Soviet Union.

It has been known since the turn of the 20th century, that the Caspian basin held incredible oil reserves. However, by the late 1970s, data began to emerge indicating that incredible amounts of oil might also lie beneath the soil of central Asia, which, at that time, was part of the Soviet Union.

For example, the Tengiz field was discovered in 1979 -- the same year the U.S. decided to begin funding the mujahideen. The Tengiz field, located in Kazakhstan "is one of the largest in the world" -- Richard Matzke, Vice-Chairman, Chevron Corp. It offers incredible "opportunities for investment in the discovery, production, transportation, and refining of enormous quantities of oil and gas resources."

By the mid-1990s, some experts began to estimate that the region might contain as many as 200 billion barrels of oils.

John J. Maresca, vice president of Unocal, in his February 12, 1998 testimony before a House of Representatives committee, reported that "The Caspian region contains tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves, much of them located in the Caspian Sea basin itself. The region's total oil reserves may reach more than 60 billion barrels of oil. Some estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels."

Two hundred billion barrels of oil would be worth $40 trillion dollars!!

In 1998, however, there was just one small problem: The Taliban. In order to get that oil, the Taliban would have to go.

As detailed by John J. Maresca: "A route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil. The territory across which the pipeline would extend is controlled by the Taliban, an Islamic movement that is not recognized as a government by most other nations. Construction of our proposed pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place."

A "hostile takeover" to use business jargon, seemed to be the only answer. The oil men would have to put their own government on the throne, if they were to get their hands on that oil.

*******

Since the late 1970s, and continuing through the Reagan- Bush years, it has been American policy to pry the central Asian oil-states from the grasp of the Soviet Union. The method of choice? Terrorism.

One of the original purposes in funding and arming the mujahideen was to launch terrorist attacks on the underbelly of the Soviet Union in order to destabilize and eventually destroy the world's number 2 superpower (24). Islamic and anti-Russian propaganda was also distributed and broadcast into these countries, the purpose of which was to cause civil unrest among the Muslim population and turn them against the Soviet Union. It was hoped that with war, terrorism, and propaganda that the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the U.S. and would be able to tear these particular countries away from the Soviet sphere of influence, thus making their oil reserves ripe for western exploitation.

In the 1970s, 1980s, and I990s, Afghanistan was the key. Afghanistan was the battle ground where the Soviets and the US and their allies, would fight a proxy war (24,25). The purpose of this war was not just to break the central Asian states from the Soviet grasp, but to gain access to Afghanistan through which an oil-pipeline could be built, thus depriving the Soviets of any say over the oil-revenues.

As noted in early chapters, the CIA had provided secret aid to the "freedom fighters" in the 1970s. This became official- U.S. policy in 1979, when President Carter approved CIA efforts underway in Afghanistan to topple the Soviet backed regime. The purpose of this aid, was to draw the Soviets into Afghanistan and to instill civil unrest in the central Asian countries it controlled.

It was July 3, 1979, when President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. This aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would" (24).

And once the Soviets intervened, then the Soviets themselves could be attacked, thus paving the way for a "hostile takeover" of Afghanistan followed by the central Asian states.

According to William Casey, Director of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration (25), the principle reason for training and funding the Afghan mujahideen, was to wage terrorism and war against the Soviet Union, "with Saudi cooperation," and to sow discord in the Soviet Central Asia, in order to stir an Islamic revolution and pry these states away from the Soviet sphere of influence. Saudi Arabia's King Faud, and other prominent Saudi families belonging to the Wahhabi clan, matched the CIA and the American government in providing funds and stirring up revolution not only in the incredibly oil rich Soviet states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan, but Afghanistan; and in this regard, the Saudis and the CIA, worked directly with Pakistan's Islamic government.

Central Asia, of course, is a vast territory. There are several land routes through which oil could be piped, such as through Turkey to the Mediterranean sea. Yet another option, is through Iran -- which is the shortest route -- to the Arabian sea. The prospect of doing business with Iran, however, is an anathema to the Saudis who wish to destroy Iran's Shiit government and either convert or murder its Shiit population (26).

The only other way to get the oil from what had been the underbelly of the Soviet Union, to the sea and thus to world markets, is to build a pipeline across Afghanistan and then into Pakistan, in order to reach the Arabian Sea.

Afghanistan is also known to have modest oil reserves, as does Pakistan. According to the Asian Times (27) "Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at around five trillion cubic feet... 95 million barrels."

THE OIL PIPELINE

When the Soviet Union finally crumbled, it was hoped that the mujahideen would quickly conquer Afghanistan, so that an oil pipeline could get underway.

Bush and his oil-company friends slavored over the riches and power that would soon be theirs. Once they built and gained control over the extraction and shipping of oil via pipelines from the oil rich regions north of Afghanistan they would not only have their hands on 40 trillion dollars worth of oil, but would wield a dagger pointed directly at the throats of China and India -- emerging industrial nations who would become increasingly dependent on oil from the region.

But then, the mujahideen couldn't stop killing each other.

Enter the Taliban.

But as the Taliban conquered more and more of Afghanistan they became increasingly independent of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and of course the USA.

Enter bin Laden.

In 1996, bin Laden the business man, was "expelled" from the Sudan, and with hundreds of millions of Saudi-dollars in hand, he landed in Afghanistan. In 1996, bin Laden and his organization were receiving funds from the Saudis, Pakistan's ISI, and Western intelligence agencies -- and these funds were used not only to finance terrorism but to buy influence among the leadership of the Taliban. Bin Laden was a key player for several reasons, such as his family's close ties to the Saudi royals, and the Bush family. Moreover, he had already established his credentials as a friend to the Afghan "freedom fighters" during the 1980s. Beginning in 1996, through the riches he bestowed on the Taliban it was hoped that he would be able to wield influence over all government decisions, and bend them in a direction favored by his Saudi masters.

The bin Laden family, in conjunction with a subsidiary of Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton -- with whom they were in business -- also stood to make billions of dollars in construction fees if the oil pipeline was built. Osama, of course, is also a business man.

In 1996, soon after the Taliban took Kabul, and following the arrival of bin Laden, the Taliban leaders were persuaded to start talking business with the Bush clan, and to agree to the construction of an oil pipeline. Soon, the Taliban were on their way to Houston, Texas -- Bush country. The Taliban were then dined and lavishly entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal (28), the same Unocal that has extensive ties to the current administration of George W. Bush.

Unocal was desperate to get the oil pipeline contract. Unocal had already formed agreements with landlocked Turkmenistan to sell its gas, and the only acceptable way to move Turkmenistan oil, was through Afghanistan. The pipeline would run from the old Soviet Union, through Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and could then be shipped to the world market via the Arabian sea.

As detailed by John Pilger, writing for the London Mirror (28), "with secret US government approval, the company offered the Taliban a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build from Soviet central Asia through Afghanistan." What Unocal and the Bush oil men intended, was for the Taliban to become like the Saudis, whereas "Afghanistan would become an American oil colony. There would be huge profits for the West, no democracy and the legal persecution of women."

No democracy? The persecution of women?

"We can live with that," oozed one oil-man.

The Talibans listened, and then turned them down (29). The Taliban believed they could get a better deal from an Argentinean firm, Bridas. Bridas was actively competing against Unocal for the right to build the pipeline which would carry gas 1,300 kilometers from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan (30). In fact, Bridas had already signed one agreement with the previous Afghan government in 1996, and that same year, had filed suit against Unocal/Delta for interference in its oil business in Turkmenistan. A few weeks after that suit was filed, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Tom Simmons, met with Pakistan's Prime Minister, Bhutto, and urged her to give exclusive rights to Unocal. Bhutto was offended and refused to cooperate.

In November of 1996, Bridas signed an agreement with the Taliban and General Dostum to build the pipeline (30).

If Bridas got the deal, however, not only would Unocal be left out in the cold, but Haliburton. Likewise, the Saudis and the bin Laden family would be cut out of the deal. Haliburton, through its subsidiary H.C. Price/Bredero Shaw, Inc, and thus the bin Ladens, stood to make hundreds of millions in construction fees if Unocal signed a deal with the Taliban.

Enter bin Laden. Exit Ms. Bhutto who was replaced by the Sharif government which was more willing to follow U.S. directives. In June of 1997, the Sharif government signed an agreement with Unocal, and in November of 1997, the Taliban again sent a delegation to the United States. There they met with Unocal and U.S. State Department officials (30). Unocal offered millions of dollars to the Taliban, including one million for Afghan charities.

The Taliban were ready to deal.

And then everything collapsed following the 1998 embassy bombings and US missile reprisals. These incidents, coupled with the Taliban's barbaric treatment of women -- the public whipping of women being a form of Taliban entertainment -- and their atrocious human rights records, left Unocal with no choice but to formally withdraw from the project-which they did in December of 1998.

However, the real problem was the Northern Alliance which controlled northern Afghanistan and thus all routes into central Asia. Unocal said until peace was established in the region, and unless the Taliban cleaned up their public image, the pipeline could not be built.

As per Bridas International, which is headquartered in Argentina, managing director, Mario Lopez Olacireegui, immediately went on record saying he is not concerned about the Taliban 's human rights violations. "We are just an oil and gas company. We are not bothered by human rights or politics."

Bridas, however, was unable to complete the deal. The Pakistan government refused to cooperate, and the Taliban were unable to dislodge the Northern Alliance, which blocked access to the oil-rich territories of central Asia.

The Northern Alliance controlled northern Afghanistan, and thus they controlled all routes into the oil rich regions of what had been the southern states of the Soviet Union. Until the Northern Alliance was defeated, there would be no pipeline.

*******

Soon after taking office, the Bush team sought to establish a business relationship with the Taliban, and called upon the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the CIA -- including those who helped train and fund the Taliban and mujahideen during the Bush-Reagan administration -- to set up meetings. Since the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan, the Bush administration were happy to do business with these "terrorists."

Some of these meetings were arranged by Laili Helms (29), who was married to the nephew of former CIA director, Richard Helms. Prior to 9/11, Laili Helms served as executive director of Friends of Afghanistan, which generated support for the effort against the Soviets. Later, Ms. Helms served as the Taliban's unofficial representative to the United States (31).

The Bush team also called upon Hamid Karzai and Zalmay Khalilzad a top advisor to Unocal.

Khalilzad served as undersecretary of defense during the first Bush administration. When Bush Jr. came to power, Zalmay Khalilzad became a member of the National Security Council and an aid to Condoleezza Rice.

Hamid Karzai had been Afghanistan's first deputy foreign minister when Afghanistan was governed by the mujahideen. Although of Afghanistan royalty, he is one of those CIA-sponsored "freedom fighters" who came to the U.S. and did not leave-that is, until the defeat of the Taliban after which he was made Prime Minister. Karzai, too has Unocal connections, and before 9/11, he maintained close ties with the Taliban.

"The Taliban were good, honest people," Karzai is quoted as saying (32). "They were connected to the madrassas in Quetta and Peshawar, and were my friends from the jihad against the Soviets. They came to me in May, 1994, saying, 'Hamed, we must do something about the situation in Kandahar. It is unbearable.' I had no reservations about helping them. I had a lot of money and weapons left over from the jihad. I also helped them with political legitimacy. It was only in September of 1994 that others began to appear at the meetings -- silent ones I did not recognize, people who took over the Taliban movement. That was the hidden hand of Pakistani intelligence."

In March of 2001, Islamic extremists, including senior members of Pakistan's Jamiaat-i-Islami Party (who helped arm and fund the Taliban), and the Taliban's ambassador-at-large, Rahmatullah Hashami, began paying invited visits to Washington and CIA headquarters. As widely reported in the press, Hashami attended meetings at the State Department, as well as with top CIA and Pentagon officials.

Those who sat in on these meetings, included Richard Armitage, a former Unocal oil executive and chief deputy to Secretary of State Colin Powell (29,33). Also in attendance: CIA veteran Christina Rocca who also serves as assistant secretary of state for South Asia. Rocca also held meetings with the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul.

The Bush administration was eager to do business with terrorists and their representatives (29,30,34). Doing business with terrorists is a Bush family tradition.

As we have repeatedly stressed, the Bush oil men have long had their eyes on the landlocked oil-rich regions of the old Soviet union, just north of Afghanistan. One of the best ways to exploit these oil riches, was to build a pipeline linking the Caspian basin and landlocked Turkmenistan with the Arabian sea. Afghanistan was the key. Since the Northern Alliance were allied with Russia and Iran, and since they appeared to be losing the civil war, the Bush team were eager to do business with the Taliban.

In exchange for building an oil pipeline across Afghanistan, the Taliban-terrorists were told, the new Bush administration was prepared to remove most if not all trade restrictions and to award them with an initial payment of over $43 million dollars.

The Taliban were interested.

However, although the Taliban controlled 90% of Afghanistan, there still remained a serious problem which prevented the oil companies from fulfilling their dreams, and it wasn't bin Laden. It was the Northern Alliance, which was still allied with Russia and Iran, and fighting the Taliban for control of Afghanistan.

The Northern Alliance would have to be defeated.

Thus the Bush administration not only openly signaled their willingness to reestablish "friendly" relationships with the Taliban, but made it clear that the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance of Gen. Ahmed Shah Massoud, and former mujahideen leader Abdul Haq was no longer in favor.

And why was that?

Neither man was associated with any of the big western oil consortiums. Both were seen as too close to the Russians and Iran. And both were on unfriendly terms with Hamid Karzai who was on friendly terms with the Taliban. And, the Northern Alliance was making it impossible to construct an oil pipeline.

On 9/10/2001, Massoud was assassinated. Abdul Haq was assassinated the following month.

Would the Bush administration like access to Osama bin laden in return for these largesses, asked Sayed Hashimi, one of Taliban leader, Mullah Omar's top aids.

The Bush administration assured the Taliban that as to Osama bin laden, they did not share the views of the Clinton administration who had "overblown" and exaggerated his involvement in terrorism (35). If the Bush administration could get its pipeline, a pipeline that would be built by a consortium of companies headed by Texas based Unocal, Osama would no longer be considered a threat.

Indeed, according to Hamid Mir, Osama's official biographer, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban was absolutely "convinced that the Americans were not interested in Osama Bin Laden" (36). Not all members of the Bush administration, we are told, were happy with the Bush stratagem. Colin Powell and his aid Richard Armitage, are said to have argued against reestablishing ties with this terrorist regime (29).

Of course, that pose could be the same '01 good cop - bad cop routine used by both Bush administrations, to fool journalists and the American public.

In any case, if they had opposed those meetings, they were overruled by the CIA and the Bush oil lobby.

In May of 2001, Colin Powell announced that the U.S. would provide the Taliban with over $43 million dollars in emergency aid. This influx of cash was followed by pledges of an additional $89 million dollars "including $10 million for... other livelihood and food security programs."

As detailed by the Washington Post (37), the "$43 million in assistance to Afghanistan," raises the "total aid this year to $124 million, making the United States the largest humanitarian donor to the country."

As admitted by Colin Powell, this money was provided despite "their support of terrorism, their violation of internationally recognized human rights -- especially their treatment of women and girls -- and their refusal to resolve Afghanistan's civil war through a negotiated settlement."

"The Taliban government" oozed George Bush, are "a source of stability in Central Asia."

Bush then sweetened by the pie by offering to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan (29).

IN BUSINESS WITH THE TALIBAN

The Taliban, Bush believed, would soon yield to pressure and bribes for the construction of an oil pipeline that would enable U.S. oil companies, directly tied to the Bush administration, to gain access to the vast oil resources in the Caspian Basin. If the Taliban could be bought off, and the oil pipeline ran through Afghanistan, the oil-companies connected with both Bush administrations, would be able to control it, and thus achieve incredible power over the emerging industrial nations in the region: China and India.

Afghanistan was the key.

Echoing their policy toward Iraq up until the onset of the Gulf War, the Bush administration gave a "green light" and lots of cash to the Taliban. The message was unmistakable: Enslave your women, export drugs and terrorism, call for the destruction of America, provide safe harbor and a base of operations for Osama bin Laden, allow your country to be a base for training terrorists and the launching of terrorist attacks against American interests, and the Bush administration will be your very best friend.

The Taliban, however, were proving to be difficult negotiators and were making impossible demands, including $100 million a year in rent for the pipeline, a tap in the pipeline to supply gas and oil for Afghanistan, as well as the construction of roads, water supplies, telephone lines, and electricity power lines.

The Bush team went to work on the Taliban, to convince them that it was in their best interests to accept the terms offered.

Ambassador to Pakistan Tom Simons began holding regular meetings with high ranking Taliban officials (29). The Taliban were told that if they abandoned their extravagant demands for rent, and gave approval for the construction of an oil and gas pipeline by a consortium of oil companies led by Unocal, the U.S. would remove all sanctions. The Taliban could sell oil on the open market, they would receive a significant increase in direct foreign aid, and the U.S. would formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The Taliban, through their own initiative, and without the payment of rent, and through foreign aid, paid for by American taxpayers, would be enriched beyond their wildest dreams; but only if they accepted one other provision.

Which was? they asked.

The Taliban would have to accept a large U.S. military presence and the establishment of U.S. military bases, to guard the pipeline and the workers who would build it (36).

In the eyes of the Bush team, not only would they and their associates reap incredible riches from the oil they extracted and sold, but they would receive an incredible payoff in the form of global hegemony. If the U.S. could establish a permanent military presence in the oil-rich underbelly of Central Asia this in turn would put emerging industrial and increasingly energy starved countries such as China and India, at the mercy of the U.S. It would also place the resource-rich region of Siberia within the grasp of U.S. corporations and the U.S. military.

The U.S. military presence, and increased U.S. power and influence in the region, would lead to the further balkanization and fragmentation of Russia, whereas the oil-rich, former Soviet states, as well as Afghanistan, would be reduced to easily controlled emirate-like entities, devoid of any real sovereignty.

In some respects, the Afghan pipeline was but the icing on the cake, the "cake" being Russia, China, India.

The Taliban said they weren't interested. No matter how much money the U.S. offered to throw their way, they would not accept a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. According to Hamid Mir, Osama's official biographer, Mullah Omar, rejected the American offer, because he was convinced that "their real objective was to install a government of their own choice in Kabul which will take control of all the road links to Central Asia" (36).

The clock was ticking.

In July, the CIA made direct contact with Osama bin Laden.

As first reported by the highly respected French newspaper, Le Figaro (38), in July of 2001, bin Laden flew from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and was then transported to the American Hospital in Dubai for treatment of his well known and quite serious renal insufficiencies. He "remained in this hospital from the 4 to July 14. He was accompanied by his personal doctor and faithful lieutenant, Ayman AI-Zawahari, four bodyguards, and an Algerian male nurse. He was treated in the Department of Urology by Doctor Terry Callaway, specialist in renal disorders, who did not wish to answer our questions. During his hospitalization, Osama Ben Laden received the visit of several members of his family and Saudi emiraties. During this same stay, the local representative of the CIA, that many people know in Dubai, was seen to go in the room of Osama Ben Laden. The agent of the CIA was recalled on July 15, shortly after the departure of bin Laden for Quetta."

According to Le Figaro (38), bin Laden and the CIA agent discussed events in Afghanistan, American policy, and the upcoming 9/11 attack by al-Qaeda. The CIA may have also received assurances that the order for the attack would come from Afghanistan.

On August 2, the Bush administration tried one last time to convince the Taliban to accept U.S. terms (29).

Time was running out. The Bush administration had an agenda and a time table: first Afghanistan, and then Iraq. With Afghanistan, they would negotiate, but not so Iraq. They needed Afghanistan only as a foundation upon which a pipeline would be laid. Iraq was a different matter. Iraq, with its second largest oil reserves in the world, was a prize unto itself.

Time was running out. Decisions had to be made. Events were unfolding which could be stopped, or allowed to run their course and interpreted one way or another if the Taliban did or did not agree.

A post 9/11 "war on terrorism" could be used as justification for an attack on Afghanistan or it could just as easily become justification for an attack on the Iraq-and it all depended on the Taliban.

As detailed by Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie (29): Christina Rocca director of Asian affairs at the State Department, met with the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad carrying an offer the Bush team hoped the Taliban could not refuse.

After much discussion, she finally laid her cards on the table: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs."

The Taliban ambassador was insulted. He walked out. No deal.

But what would be the pretext for bombing the Taliban back into oblivion?

A terrorist attack on America!

Although the Taliban probably didn't know it, the Bush administration had an ace in the hole, and his name was Osama bin Laden.

TERROR AND THE HOSTILE TAKE OVER

On September 10, one day before the 9/11 attack National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and other unnamed Bush administration officials, were handed a report, outlining options for attacking Afghanistan and destroying the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

On 9/11/2001, 19 men, fifteen of them from Saudi Arabia, hijacked 4 commercial jetliners, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center, and one into the Pentagon.

By the next day, the United States government announced that it had unequivocal proof that al-Qaeda terrorists, based in Afghanistan, were responsible for this horrific crime and the mass murder of thousands of American citizens.

On 9/14/2001, Unocal issued the following statement: "The company is not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan in any way whatsoever. Nor do we have any project or involvement in Afghanistan. Beginning in late 1997, Unocal was a member of a multinational consortium that was evaluating construction of a Central Asia Gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Pakistan [via western Afghanistan]. Our company has had no further role in developing or funding that project or any other project that might involve the Taliban."

Over the following days, in response to U.S. declarations of war on terrorism, and thus, war on Afghanistan and its Taliban rulers, the Taliban government repeatedly offered to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third country for trial. The Bush administration angrily rejected this offer outright.

Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban was absolutely "convinced that the Americans were not interested in Osama Bin Laden" (36).

Although the Taliban probably didn't know it, Osama bin Laden had long ago made arrangements to escape Afghanistan once the United States attacked. He was already on his way to Pakistan.

No, the U.S. had no interest in capturing Osama and no interested in negotiating with the Taliban. Instead, the U.S. would join forces with the Northern Alliance, insert troops and establish military bases throughout Afghanistan, win agreements to base troops and take over former Soviet military bases in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrghyzstan and Kazakhstan, and then destroy the Taliban.

It would be a "hostile take over."

Iraq would be next.

*******

The Taliban were ridiculously easy for the United States to defeat.

Soon thereafter, and after the fall of Kabul, and then the Taliban, Hamid Karzai, a top advisor to Unocal, was named interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan.

In December of 2001, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited the region and commented that he "was particularly impressed" with the incredible amounts of money that American oil companies would be investing. He estimated that "$200 billion" could flow into the region during the next 5 to 10 years (39).

On December 15, it was reported that "the State Department is exploring the potential for post-Taliban energy projects in the region, which has more than 6 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent of its gas reserves" (40).

On January 31, 2002, the Bush administration announced that "we will support the construction of the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline."

*******

The Bush team were in heaven. They had won.

In return for the small down payment of 3,000 American lives and the maiming of thousands of innocent women and men during the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the Bush administration and its associates in the oil industry, finally received the icing and the cake they had long been slavering for.

Iraq would be next.

And it only cost 3,000 American lives.

_______________

Notes:

1). Melanie Warner, Fortune, 3/08/2002; Tim Shorrock, The Nation, 3/15/2002; Steve Gelsi, CBSMarketWatch, 3/21/02; Esther Schrader, Los Angeles Times, 4/14/2002; Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times, 4/25/2002.

2). Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger, "The ex-presidents' club," The Guardian, 10/31/2001.

3). New York Times, 3/5/2001.

4). BBC News, 6/11/2001.

5). Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2001.

6). D. Golden et al., "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/ 27/2001; see also Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.

7). Hindustani Times, 9/28/2001.

8). Tim Shorrock, The Nation, 3/15/2002.

.9). Judicial Watch; Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001. Geoffrey Gray, "The Carlyle Connection, 5/1/2002.

10). Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.

11). The Observer, "Dark heart of the American dream," 6/16/2002.

12). Jason Nisse, Independent, 1/30/02; Steve Gelsi "Carlyle Group cashing in again on IPO," CBSMarketWatch, 3/21/2002.

13). Loren Data Group, Commerce Business Daily Issue of June 18, 2001.

14). Adam Zagorin. Time magazine, 5/26/1997.

15). Loren Data Group, Commerce Business Daily Issue of August, 2001.

16).A. Huffington, "The usual suspects d'plutarch Bush "tax reform" budget," Contra Costa Times, 4/17/2001.

17). Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel, 9/28/2001.

18). David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/04/2002.

19). Haliburton Press Release, 5/15/2001.

20). Marjorie Cohn, "Cheney's Black Gold: Oil Interests May Drive US Foreign Policy," Chicago Tribune, 8/10/2000.

21). Frank Viviano, "Energy Future Rides on U.S. War," San Francisco Chronicle, 9/26/2002.

22). James Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press, 2000.

23). Nancy Chang, Senior Litigation Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, 10/1/2001.

24). Le Nouvel Observateur, 11/15-21/1998; Bill Blum, "Killing Hope."

25). Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."

26). Stephen Schwartz, "The Two Faces of Islam," Double Day, 2002.

27). Asian Times, 10/6/2001.

28). John Pilger, London Mirror, 10/31/2001.

29). Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie "Forbidden Truth: U.S.- Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden," Avalon Books, 2002.

30). Ahmed Rashid, "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," Yale University Press, 2000; see also: Alexander's Oil and Gas Connections, Company News, Central Asia, 1996, 1997, 1998.

31). Alessandra Stanley, "She Spoke for Taliban and Now Pays a Price," New York Times; 11/27/2001; Camelia Fard & James Ridgeway, "Richard Helms's Afghani Niece Leads Corps of Taliban Reps. The Accidental Operative," The Village Voice, 6/6/2001.

32). Richard D. Kaplan, "The Lawless Frontier," 9/2000. See also: The Washington Post, 11/30/2001; Khilafah.com, 11/30/2001.

33). When we contacted Richard Armitage's office his top aid would neither confirm nor deny that these meetings took place.

34). Robert Scheer, "Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban," Los Angeles Times, 5/22/2001.

35). It has been alleged that the Bush administration was demanding that deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah be reinstated as ruler of Afghanistan, and that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from the pipeline. However, this is unlikely, for after the Taliban were overthrown, the Bush administration successfully opposed the reinstatement of the Shah. As per Osama bin Laden, the Bush administration also turned down repeated offers by the Taliban to turn him over to a third country where he could have then been easily apprehended.

36). Hamid Mir, "The Taliban will never surrender" 9/16/2001.

37). Washington Post, 5/25/2001.

38). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.

39). "As the War Shifts Alliances, Oil Deals Follow," New York Times, 12/15/2001.

40). New York Times, 12/15/2001.

[admin]

PART 1 OF 2

Chapter 13: BIN LADEN THE BUSINESSMAN

"This is Not Terrorism. This is Strictly Business!'

"This is not jihad. This is strictly business"

-- Osama bin Laden

On September 1, 2001, Osama bin Laden had become America's Enemy Number 1. The Bush administration repeatedly denounced him as a "terrorist" and a "coward" and blamed him, and al-Qaeda, for this terrorist attack which killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Yet, curiously, although Bush, Cheney, and others in the Bush administration announced their intention to destroy the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, they also made it clear they had absolutely no interest in capturing or bringing Osama bin Laden to trial.

The notion of a "trial" for Osama was an anathema to the Bush team, and soon, the Republican leadership, and even some Democrats picked up the theme. Osama was not to be taken alive. There would be no trial and no public disclosures. The Bush administration and thus the United States government would be better off if Osama was never brought to trial (1,2).

"I want his head on a platter."

-- Vice-President Dick Cheney.

"If he's alive, I'd like him to stick his head up and let us get a good look at him. And then I'd take it off."

-- Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott.

"Kill him. Shoot him. I mean it...I don't want to capture him. I'd shoot him."

-- Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

"The best thing is for bin Laden to go down with the cause. He would save us all a lot of trouble."

-- Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.

They wanted him dead, not alive. He should never be given the opportunity to testify in court or tell why he did what he did, to the American public (1).

Given this attitude, we should not be entirely surprised that when the Taliban offered to turn bin Laden over to a third country, the Bush administration blanched.

Oh yes, most certainly, the Bush team spouted rhetoric, duly reported by the corporate controlled media, that the U.S. was demanding the Taliban immediately hand over Osama. However, these blustering demands were for American consumption only. This same Bush team refused to enter into discussions with the Taliban on this issue because, "we do not negotiate with terrorists."

However, according to Hamid Mir, Osama's official biographer, the Taliban leadership were absolutely "convinced that the Americans were not interested in Osama Bin Laden."

It wasn't just Osama, whom the Bush administration feared putting on trial -- as they did not want him to be publically questioned -- but anyone and everyone even remotely associated with al-Qaeda or bin Laden. Because of "National Security," there would be no public trials, and no access even to an attorney for those subsequently captured. In violation of international law and the Geneva convention, men, including even American citizens associated with al-Qaeda, were "enemy combatants" and would only be questioned, tried, judged, and then executed by a secret military tribunal (3).

The public would be kept ignorant.

And why was that?

Because the Bush administration was afraid.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS AFRAID

Immediately following 9/11, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice, made it vehemently clear that they opposed any public or congressional inquiry into the so called "intelligence failures" which led to this horrible tragedy. Bush, Cheney, and Rice, all mouthed the same self-serving absurdities: an investigation would interfere with the war on terrorism.

"I'm concerned about distractions. I don't want to tie up our team when we're trying to fight this war on terror. So I don't want our people to be distracted."

-- George W. Bush

Dick Cheney, also attacked the patriotism of anyone who favored an inquiry (4). He was particularly upset that anyone would think the Bush administration or the FBI or CIA, might have had advanced knowledge of the attack, calling the idea "incendiary" (4,5). And, because, of course, there was no advanced knowledge, and as only the unpatriotic enemies of America were asking for an investigation, there was thus no need for any inquiry into the events that led up to 9/11 (5).

Bush and Cheney therefore repeatedly sought to derail any Congressional inquiry into the events and intelligence failures which led up to the 9/11 tragedy. Both men made repeated phone calls to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and argued that there should not be any investigation into the events of Sept. 11.

Daschle appearing on the NBC program "Meet the Press," said that he received a call from Cheney on Jan. 24 and that on January 28 Bush told him during a breakfast meeting at the White House, that there should not be any inquiry or investigation into the so called intelligence failures which led to the 9/11 tragedy.

Both Cheney and Bush denied Daschle's charges. They did not wish to kill any Congressional inquiry, they claimed, but only wanted an inquiry that would be narrow in focus and conducted in secret. They also did not want FBI director Mueller, or CIA director, Tenet, to testify. Mueller even sought to get a court order that would prevent him or his agents, from appearing before Congress (6). Mueller's excuse was that if they testified, it might disclose information that would effect Moussaoui's trial. The federal district judge in the case, refused Mueller's absurd request.

Mueller, an accused cover-up artist (7), also repeatedly made false statements to the press and the public, claiming there was no advanced knowledge and that the FBI had done all its power to follow up any lead, no matter how insignificant.

Mueller continued to brazenly lie, even after he received a detailed letter from FBI agent, Rowely a 21-year FBI veteran (8). In that letter, Rowley accused Mueller and the FBI of engaging in a coverup and of "deliberately thwarting" FBI agents who were seeking to investigate the so called "20th hijacker" Moussaoui (see chapter 10). When Congress learned of the memo, Mueller initially refused to release it -- and the Bush administration backed him up 100%.

Indeed, it is precisely because of Mueller's history of covering up Bush family and Bush administration wrong doing, that he had been appointed to head the FBI. For example, Mueller had previously been installed in the Justice Department during the second term of the Reagan-Bush administration, in order to help cover up their involvement in the illegal selling of weapons to the terrorist regime of Iran.

Likewise, when G.H.W. Bush was elected President, Robert Mueller was called upon again to cover up Bush family and friend complicity in the BCCI scandal. As was the case with Iran-Contra, Mueller was accused by many critics, including democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The American Free Press, and the Federation of American Scientists of having shredded documents that would have implicated Bush and other senior Bush officials in illegal BCCI transactions.

In a detailed report by the Federation of American Scientists, it was concluded that" Under Assistant Attorney General Mueller ... the [Justice] Department sought to impede the investigations of others through a variety of mechanisms, ranging from not making witnesses available, to not returning telephone calls, to claiming that every aspect of the case was under investigation in a period when little, if anything, was being done" (46).

Similar to statements he would make following the 9/11 terrorist attack on America, Mueller responded to his critics by stating in testimony before the Senate, that "At no time, to my knowledge, has anyone from the CIA, or any agency, attempted to obstruct or interfere with the Department of Justice's investigation and prosecution of BCCI."

Mr. Tenet of the CIA, also behaved uncooperatively -- which is not surprising given how deeply the CIA is implicated in 9-11. Tenet also sent an angry letter to the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committee, accusing members of the staff as being motivated by "bias, preconceived notions and apparent animus."

Several Republicans on the joint Committee, also sought to sabotage any inquiry, arguing that any investigation might effect the war on terrorism. Former CIA agent, Porter J. Goss, the Florida Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee, was instrumental in the attempt to block any investigation (5).

Finally, a compromise was reached between the Bush administration and the Senate and House. Ms. Eleanor Hill would be appointed to be the lead investigator and almost all hearings would be conducted in secret to prevent the American public from learning the facts. A sigh of relief went up from all those afraid of the truth.

A longtime Washington insider, Ms. Hill had previously been appointed by President Bill Clinton to become inspector general (IG) of the Department of Defense where she was responsible for investigating "fraud, waste and abuse in the programs and operations of the department." However, when the Clinton administration was caught transferring defense-technology to the People's Republic of China -- presumably in return for illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese military, Ms. Hill, it has been alleged, participated in a coverup. Peter Leitner, a senior strategic trade adviser to the Dept. of Defense, reported to Insight magazine, that instead of investigating, Ms. Hill delivered "a politicized response intended to protect President Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen." Ms. Hill's "report ... significantly misrepresented and failed to report the facts and evidence we provided them."

Likewise, the U.S. Air Force complained about Ms. Hill, and also implied a coverup: "Based on word usage, semantics and omission of significant and relevant documentation [Ms. Hill] substantially misrepresented the documented facts submitted by the Air Force."

The Bush administration relented. Ms. Hill could be counted on to protect the status qua. A joint House-Senate intelligence committee began holding, for the most part, secret hearings.

Nevertheless, Bush, Cheney, Ms. Rice, Mueller, Tenet, and other individuals of "interest" were still frightened and continued to do all in their power to limit public disclosure and to prevent the committee from gaining access to pertinent information and necessary documents.

Likewise, the Bush administration remained adamantly opposed to the creation of an independent Commission to investigate the events leading up to 9/11.

However, during the Summer of 2002, following demands of many of the families of 9/11 victims, and disclosures that leaked out of the joint House and Senate investigating committee regarding numerous inexplicable "intelligence lapses," the Bush administration signaled a willingness to consider a 9/11 Commission. Of course, there was also a catch. Everyone on the Commission would have to have worked closely, in the past, with the CIA and FBI. Also, the Bush administration would pick the chairman and help determine the direction of any investigation.

"The manner in which the commission is created is vital to its outcome," said the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer.

Nevertheless, Bush, Cheney, Rice, and their co-conspirators, continued working secretly and behind the scenes to kill and undermine an independent commission. In the days before the midterm 2002 elections, the White House finally killed any agreements that might have led to the formation of a 9/11 Commission (5).

As detailed by the New York Times (5) in October former CIA agent, Porter J. Goss, the Florida Republican involved in the final negotiations for the creation of a Commission, "received a call from Vice President Dick Cheney." "I am not going to get into who called me," Gross said, "but it was very clear there had not been leadership sign-off, and it was very clear there was still angst at the White House."

"Angst?" According to the American Heritage Dictionary, angst is anxiety, and anxiety is a state of uneasiness and distress, apprehension, worry, including "intense fear or dread."

The Commission was dead. There would be no investigation. The White House had killed it because Bush and Cheney were afraid.

"'I just don't get it,' said Kristen Breitweiser of September 11th Advocates, whose husband, Ronald, died at the World Trade Center. 'It is very disheartening that this has gone on for over a year and we still have not had a comprehensive investigation. If there is a car accident, you do an investigation '" (5).

Let us ask a simple question: Who benefits by killing an investigation into the events leading up to 9/11?

Answer: Those who are guilty. Those who have something to hide.

Question: Who were at the forefront of killing the Commission?

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, et al.

Of course, Bush, Cheney, Rice, and their co-conspirators, wish us to believe that they killed the Commission, and have demanded extraordinary secrecy, in order to protect, "national security."

The evidence indicates, however, that what they were most concerned about hiding, was their own complicity.

Finally, after the November elections, when Republicans gained control over both the Senate and the House, and in response to continued demands from 9/11 families, the Bush administration agreed to a Commission. The Commission would be comprised of five democrats and five republicans, and all 10 would be closely associated with the CIA or FBI. However, it would require six votes to subpoena records and the Bush administration still would not have to turn over sensitive records deemed vital to "national security."

And, of equal importance: Secrecy.

SECRECY & WHAT WE KNOW

Secrecy, of course, is a hallmark of the Bush administration and fascist governments. Two generations of Bush, and now two Bush administrations have repeatedly resorted to secrecy especially when there is a suspicion that their actions are in violation of the law.

Thus we see. that in another oil and energy related matter involving massive fraud and injury to the American people, the Enron scandal, that Dick Cheney and the Bush administration, have refused to turn over to congress, or to the General Accounting Office, records sought to determine if there had been fraud or wrong doing when Cheney held secret meetings with Enron executives (8) -- the bankrupt power company which defrauded California consumers during the summer of 2001.

The General Accounting Office (GAC) is the auditing arm of congress and required these records, regarding Enron, to do its job. Because the Bush administration refused to cooperate, the GAC was forced to file suit in Federal Court, for the records of Cheney's energy meetings. As summed up by the GAC, it has a "legislative right to investigate how public money is spent."

Bush and Cheney claim instead that it is their right to keep this information from the public (8).

Those who demand secrecy, by definition, have something to hide.

We can guess at why Cheney and Bush wish to hide their involvement in the Enron scandal -- given that so many former Enron executives work for the Bush administration. We need not guess as to their motives when it involves Osama bin Laden and the events leading up to 9/11.

What the Bush team has been unable to hide, is that George H.W. Bush, his son, George W. Bush, as well as Dick Cheney, and members of the Reagan-Bush and first Bush administration, have been in business with the bin Laden family (9). And not just the bin Ladens but Bush and associates have been in business with individuals directly implicated or accused of funneling tens of millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network ( 10), including Prince Bandar -- a man who provided millions of dollars to Nicaraguan terrorists during the Iran-Contra fiasco, and whose "wife" and government provided at least $200,000.00 to a Saudi man who financially assisted two of the 9/11 hijackers.

What they cannot hide, is that the CIA, during the Reagan- Bush administrations, funneled money and arms and provided military and terrorist training to Afghan "Freedom fighters," i.e., the mujahideen, the Taliban, and the foreign fighters who would become al-Qaeda (11).

What is also beyond dispute is that the administration of George W. Bush, provided and pledged over $100,000 million dollars to an illegitimate, "outlaw regime" that had been denounced by the world. The Bush team provided these funds, even though the Taliban were known to be harboring bin Laden, al-Qaeda, terrorist training camps, and hundreds of terrorists who had pledged to kill Americans (12).

And, as detailed in previous chapters, what we also know is that:

1) The CIA had recruited spies within the Taliban leadership.

2) the CIA had listening devices installed in al-Qaeda safe houses and regularly eavesdropped on al-Qaeda conversations.

3) The CIA followed, monitored, and photographed several of the 9/11 hijackers in Malaysia in January of 2000.

4) The CIA had tracked, monitored, and then questioned a 9/11 hijacker after he left an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp in February of 2001.

5) The CIA monitored phone conversations between members of al-Qaeda as they spoke of the plot and gave the day on which the attack would occur.

6) The CIA monitored phone conversations between Osama bin Laden and his mother.

7) The CIA monitored phone conversations between Osama and his brothers.

8) The Bush family and members of the previous Bush administration, were not only in business with the bin Ladens, but Frank Carlucci and James Baker were holding a meeting with at least one bin Laden brother on the morning of 9/11.

9). The Bush and bin Laden family, the Saudi royal family, Prince Bandar, as well as Frank Carlucci, James Baker, et al., as part of the Carlyle Group, would earn hundreds of millions of dollars because of the 9/11 attack.

10). In the days before and after 9/11, high ranking administration officials in the State Department, CIA, and FBI met with a Pakistani ISI general, who was subsequently accused of being responsible for wiring $100,000 to 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta.

11). Five of the hijackers may have been trained, during 1996, at U.S. military installations.

12) Four of the hijackers were identified, as a hijacking threat, on August I, and an FAA report was issued to the FBI.

13). The FBI and Bush administration did everything in their power to prevent lower level FBI agents from investigating and uncovering the 9/11 plot; and then ordered the FAA to stand down in the weeks before 9-11 despite receiving an avalanche of warnings.

14). The 9/11 attack provided the Bush administration with a rationale for attacking the Taliban and conquering Afghanistan so that a long sought after oil-pipe line could be constructed.

15). The subsequent "war on terror" would be used to justify an attack on Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil-reserves.

16).The "war on terror" including the war against Afghanistan and Iraq, would generate billions of dollars in revenue for companies controlled by the Carlyle group the membership of which includes George H.W. Bush, Prince Bandar, and the bin Ladens.

17). The 9/11 attack provided Bush with a rationale for attacking civil liberties, and consolidating and increasing his power in defiance of the U.S. constitution.

18). Osama bin Laden had been working with the CIA since 1978 or 1979.

19). Osama bin Laden and his organization had been employed by British Intelligence to kill Libyan leader Gaddafi, in 1996.

20). On July 15,2001, Osama bin Laden met with a CIA agent, and provided details about the forthcoming 9/11 attack.

BIN LADEN BUSINESSMAN

The CIA has known for over a decade that Osama bin Laden often conducted business and banking at the Islamic Bank in Dubai', United Arab Emirates. The CIA also knew that these banking accounts were used to funnel Saudi money to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in order to fund terrorist attacks (13).

As first reported by the highly respected French newspaper, Le Figaro (14) and then confirmed by UPI (15) and Radio France International (16), the CIA held clandestine meetings with Osama bin Laden, in July, 2001, while he was undergoing treatment, in Dubai', for liver and renal dysfunction.

The CIA had known for years that because Osama bin Laden suffered from renal insufficiencies and kidney and liver failure. It was also well known that he frequently traveled from Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and then to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he maintained a number of bank accounts, and where he would receive treatment and dialysis at the American Hospital (17). This was so well known that in March, 2000, the Hong Kong based, weekly magazine Asia Week published a detailed report on Osama bin Laden's life threatening physical problems, including a "renal infection which is propagated with the liver and requires specialized care." His business activities in Dubai were also mentioned in this same article.

Asia Week (17) and other sources (14,15,16), report that although bin Laden regularly had shipments of dialysis-related equipment and supplies sent to Kandahar, he also made several trips to the American Hospital in Dubai for treatment, including in July 2001, when he was met, at the hospital, by a CIA agent.

According to Le Figaro (14), United Press International (15), and Radio France International (16), the CIA not only knew he sought and received treatment in Dubai, the CIA held clandestine meetings with him while he underwent treatment.

As detailed by United Press International and Le Figaro: A CIA agent met with Osama bin Laden in July, while the Saudi underwent treatment for kidney problems at the American hospital in Dubal. Bin Laden reportedly checked into the American Hospital on July 4, received dialysis and related treatment, and checked out on July 14. During his 10 day stay, bin Laden met with family members and a stream of local dignitaries, including a well known local CIA agent. After the meeting, on July 15, the CIA agent was called back to the CIA's McLean, Virginia headquarters.

According to Le Figaro (14), the meeting between bin Laden and the agent from the CIA, was not all that unusual, and that similar meetings had been taking place since 1979.

Le Figaro, claiming that its source included a hospital administrator, unnamed French intelligence officials, and United Arab Emirates security agents, went on to report that the CIA agent and bin Laden discussed the upcoming attacks on the U.S., and a planned attack on the U.S. embassy in Paris. Bin Laden even provided the CIA agent and other security officials with the name and identity of the man who would carry out the Paris plot.

As reported by United Press International (15): On July 15, the day after Osama checked out of the American hospital, "United Arab Emirates security agents arrested the alleged mastermind of a plot to blow up the American Embassy in Paris. The suspect, a French- Algerian named Djamel Beghal, confessed to receiving his orders from bin Laden, according to French news media citing his written confession.

Le Figaro (14), United Press International (15), and Radio France International ( 16) also reported that based on the information Osama bin Laden provided, that "an emergency meeting in Paris" was arranged, in August, "between high level French and American intelligence officials" allegedly about the forthcoming 9/11 hijackings. To the surprise of all concerned, the Americans seemed disinterested in whatever information was provided. When United Press International sought out a high ranking "American diplomat in Paris" he "refused to comment" other than to say: "We can't talk about meetings like that, which may or may not have happened."

The CIA, which normally never responds to press inquiries, other than to say no comment, in this case, vehemently dismissed these reports as "total absurdity."

How credible is Le Figaro? Credible (or dangerous) enough that the Bush-bin Laden-connected Carlyle Group, has subsequently purchased a controlling interest in the paper.

Radio France International (16), citing French Intelligence sources, provided additional details of what took place during the meetings between Osama bin Laden and the CIA agent, even giving the agent's name, Larry Mitchell. Radio France also provided the exact date in which the meeting between Mitchel and bin Laden took place, "July 12," two days before Osama checked out of the hospital.

Several days later, Attorney General, John Ashcroft, broke with precedent and announced he would no longer fly on commercial jets.

According to Radio France International, Larry Mitchell's business card reads: "consular agent" and he is reported to be "a connoisseur of the Arab world and specialist of the (Arab) peninsula." It is alleged that he is attached to the U.S. embassy, and is a well known figure in Dubai's expatriate community.

Was Osama bin Laden a double agent?

Or was he just a politically connected, highly skilled, crooked businessman out to make a buck for himself, his family, and their associates?

Indeed, his family, and his Saudi and Pakistani backers, will make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars because of the 9/ 11 attack, the "war on terrorism" and the subsequent construction of an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.

"This is not jihad. This is strictly business"

-- Osama bin Laden (18).

*******

On the morning of 9/11/2001, a horrifying crime was committed against the American people.

Why did this happen?

The mass murder of 3000 Americans was not the product of a momentary, spontaneous whim. It was not a crime of passion or an irrational act, but highly organized, well planned, well thought out, and coordinated with military precision.

To solve this crime, we need to know not only why it happened, but who benefits.

That bin Laden is a "terrorist" is irrelevant in solving these mysteries as that term, in-itself, explains nothing.

What we know is that Bin Laden is a wealthy business man. He is in business to make money. Like his family, like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Ms. Rice, and their cronies, his eyes were trained like two beacons in the night, on the oil-rich underbelly of the former Soviet Union. According to UNOCAL, the total oil reserves may be almost 200 billion barrels -- 40 trillion dollars in oil!

The Saudi Royal family, the CIA, and the Bush family and their associates in the oil business, have been drooling over these riches for decades.

However, to get at these riches, Afghanistan would have to be conquered, and the oil-swollen underbelly of the Soviet Union, ripped away.

The plot to dismember the Soviet Union and grab those oil reserves, was first hatched by the CIA and then implemented in 1979, during the Iran-hostage crisis and the waning days of the Carter administration (19). On July 3, 1979, President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul (19). This aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention so as to drag the Soviet Union into a destabilizing war.

It was also in 1979 (or earlier), that Osama bin Laden, who was representing his family company in Istanbul, began working with the CIA to recruit "Arab-Muslim volunteers for Afghan's resistance against the Red Army" (14). In 1979, Osama bin Laden, the business man, also helped launch the holy war which would topple the Soviet backed regime, and hopefully strip the oil rich regions of central Asia, from the grasp of the Soviet Union.

As detailed by Peter Schweizer (19), "arms were being purchased on the international market with Saudi money and the CIA was flying them from Dhahran to Islamabad. However, that this was done through the Wahhabi clan was top secret."

Islamabad, Pakistan, is the main route from the sea to Afghanistan, and Pakistan's rulers and the Pakistan military and Intelligence services were eager to playa role. The Pakistanis cooperated not just because of the secret aid coming in from the Saudis and CIA, but the riches that would be theirs once a pipeline was built, linking the oil-rich Caspian basin with Pakistan-a pipeline that would cross Afghanistan once these states were freed of Soviet control.

William Casey, Director of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration (20) has admitted that Saudi Arabia's King Faud, and other prominent Saudi families belonging to the Wahhabi clan, matched the CIA and the American government dollar for dollar in stirring up revolution not only in the incredibly oil rich Soviet states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan, but Afghanistan; and in this regard, the Saudis and the CIA, worked directly with Pakistan's Islamic government (21).

Why Pakistan and Afghanistan and not Iran?

Because the Muslim majority of Afghanistan, and the Muslim ruling class in Pakistan, were Sunni Muslims and thus closely associated with Sunni-Wahhabism. An oil pipeline, built across Afghanistan and Pakistan, would thus enable these states to become like oil-rich Saudi Arabia, as well as ruled by Muslims subscribing to the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam. By contrast, the Sunni- Wahhabis not only detested Iran, with its Shiit population, but hoped to someday conquer and convert its people to the Sunni branch of the Islamic faith (22).

Moreover, according to John J. Maresca, vice president of Unocal: "A route through Afghanistan [was] the best option with the fewest technical obstacles that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil. The territory across which the pipeline would extend is controlled by the Taliban."

In the summer of 2001, President George Bush announced: "The Taliban government are a source of stability in Central Asia."

Unfortunately, for Bush and bin Laden, despite the incredible influx of cash from the CIA, the U.S. government (over $100 million pledged in 2001 alone), and despite the incredible sums provided by the Saudis (21), the Taliban were unable to conquer the Northern Alliance which controlled the northern half of the country and the land routes to the underbelly of the former Soviet Union. And, the Taliban, despite threats from the Bush administration, would not agree to allowing the establishment of U.S. bases, or the stationing of U.S. troops on the "Holy Land" of Afghanistan, which the Taliban fancied to be a "pure Islamic state."

*******

In 1996, at the beginning of President Clinton's second and final term, Osama bin Laden, reestablished himself Afghanistan, and became a major source of funds to the cash-strapped Taliban. Osama also preached about the need to create a pure Islamic state, and he publicly castigated the United States for basing its troops in the holy lands of Arabia. In 1996 and again in 1998 he publicly declared war on the U.S. and urged his Muslim brothers to "kill Americans."

And yet, despite his bluster, he said not a peep of protest, when in the months after his arrival, the Taliban left home for Houston, Texas, where they were then dined and lavishly entertained by executives of the oil company, UNOCAL. Curiously, Osama did not object to the idea that a western oil-company might set up shop in the pure Islamic state of Afghanistan.

Likewise, although he had taken credit for previous terrorist attacks on the U.S., and was still calling for the death of Americans, he was surprisingly silent about the $43 million dollars the U.S. granted to the Taliban in March. He also did not publicly object to the meetings being held between the Taliban government and Bush administration, the purpose of which was to hammer out a deal for the construction of an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.

Why should he object? Because he was a terrorist? Because he hated Americans? Because he hated our freedom?

Despite the hateful religious rhetoric spouted by this man, Osama bin Laden was a business man, and he was in business to make money.

[admin]

PART 2 OF 2

OSAMA THE BUSINESS MAN

Osama bin Laden settled in the Sudan, in 1992. He was there to do business. According to court documents and trial testimony (18) and as reported by several independent newspapers (23), bin Laden set up a corporate headquarters, north of Khartoum. It was much like any other corporation. There were offices, secretaries, workers, accountants, and management. Like any other business, there were rules, contracts, salaries, company newsletters, and even fringe benefits which included treatment at a private medical clinic.

Osama, "the chairman" occupied the largest office, where he presided over dozens of companies. Osama ruled over a wide ranging business empire (18). His fingers were into everything: farming, investment banking, import-export, construction, land acquisition and development (23). He also dabbled in diamonds, timber, and even owned an ostrich farm. Bin Laden also owned a tannery and ran the mar al Mubaraka and the Blessed Fruits farming businesses, growing wheat, fruit, sesame, white corn, peanuts, and sunflowers.

Some of his holding were also in the oil-rich state of Tajikistan.

The bin Ladens made their fortune in construction, and Osama continued that tradition in the Sudan. He built roads and bridges all over the country. His el-Hijrah Construction and Development firm built a 750-mile highway linking the Port of Sudan to Khartouman where he also built an airport (23).

Osama also owned banks and an investment company which speculated on global stock markets: Taba Investment Company Ltd. He is also said to have invested $50 million dollars in the "el-Shamal Islamic Bank" in Khartoum. Bin Laden is also linked to numerous western banks, and maintained bank accounts at Barclay's Bank in London, Girocredit in Vienna, and the bank in Dubai where he did a lot of business. The Paris-based newspaper Al Watan Al Arabi has also reported that bin Laden operates through holding companies in Luxembourg and Amsterdam.

As is the case with any company, there was also grumbling and complaints. Some of the men in Osama's employee, complained that others with lower titles and less responsibility were making more money. In response to the constant grumbling, Osama tried to smooth ruffled feathers by explaining that those of his employees with foreign citizenship, including men from U.S. and Israel, were paid more to compensate them for living abroad and far from home (18).

*******

Osama bin Laden was a business man and he had been in business with the CIA since at least 1978 or 1979.

Osama bin Laden was not only working with the CIA and related intelligence agencies, but was assigned a major role in recruiting, equipping and providing funding to train Afghan freedom fighters. Osama bin Laden was used as a recruiter, spymaster, and paymaster, buying "friends" and establishing relationships with a wide variety of Muslim groups throughout the world. In 1988, the year George H.W. Bush was elected president, Osama used his international connections to establish al-Qaeda (the base).

In 1996, while still living in the Sudan, Osama bin Laden was given yet another mission by U.S. and British intelligence agencies. He was to arrange the assassination of Libya's president, Colonel Gadaffi (24). According to David Shayler, a renegade British MI5 agent, and two French intelligence experts, and as confirmed by the British newspaper, The Observor, British intelligence paid large sums of money to bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, to kill Gadaffi.

However, according to the Observor, they and Shayler were prevented, by British law, from disclosing all the details, as "Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw signed Public Interest Immunity certificates to protect national security."

Lets be clear: The Brits would not have tried to keep this secret if it were not true.

*******

Osama, however, not only failed to kill Gadaffi, but it has been suggested that he was also a failure at business -- that he had lost anywhere from $50 million to $150 million, and that by 1996, he was nearly broke.

*******

In 1996, as election season began in eamest in the United States, and after the Gadaffi assassination plot failed, Osama bin Laden received emissaries from the Saudi royal family (25). He was to leave Sudan. He had a new mission. He was to travel to Afghanistan and ingratiate himself with the Taliban.

The official story is that the United States and the Saudi royal family asked the government of Sudan to expel Osama bin Laden. What has not been explained, however, is why expel him and not arrest him?

According to Prince Bandar: "We sent people to him from his family, and we tried to reason with him" (25).

Because they were unable to "reason with him," the Saudis and the U.S. had him expelled to Afghanistan.

However, we must ask: Why expel him? If the reason was because of terrorism, what was to stop Osama from establishing training camps and guesthouses for Islamic militants in another country, such as Afghanistan?

Or was that the goal?

Conventional wisdom proclaims that he left the Sudan because the Saudis issued an arrest warrant for him.

Prince Bandar says that is not true (25). He further admits that the Saudis had no interest in arresting him, even though the government of Sudan apparently offered him up.

The CIA and the government of Britain also had no interest in arresting bin Laden. It was important only that he leave the Sudan. In fact, Britain acted to quash an international arrest warrant for bin Laden that had been requested by Libya.

Arrest Osama? Certainly not. Osama had been working for the CIA, British Intelligence, the Pakistani Intelligence, and the Saudi royal family for years. Osama was a valued asset. According to Bandar, even after the events of 9f11, if Osama were to return to Saudi Arabia, "He's welcome," he would be "welcome if he comes" (25).

Thus we should not be surprised that permission was granted for Osama to fly out of the Sudan, and to freely soar over Saudi airspace, after which he arrived in Afghanistan and began buying influence.

Osama bin Laden had been sent to Afghanistan to perform a mission, and he was sent at the request of Saudi Arabia and the good 'ol USA.

*******

Money equals power, and bin Laden loved the power of money and what it could buy, including the trust of the Taliban leadership.

As detailed by Mohammed Khaksar, former Taliban deputy interior minister, and director of security, and as reported by the Washington Post (26), the Associated Press (27) and the BBC News (28)"Osama bin Laden had Taliban leaders in his pocket, frequently buying them off with huge cash payments. Bin Laden freely distributed bundles of notes to officials to buy freedom of movement for his al-Qaeda network."

It was not uncommon for bin Laden to hand out $50,000 and even $100,000 at a time. "He had the money in his pocket," Mr. Khaksar told the Washington Post (26). "Any time he wanted, he would just pull it out and give it to them."

Milt Bearden, former CIA's station chief in Pakistan, in a January 24, 2000, interview with the New Yorker, also reports that "bin Laden was bringing $20-$25 million a month from other Saudis and Gulf Arabs. And that is a lot of money. It's an extra $200-$300 million a year. And this is what bin Laden did."

And it was not just cash, but fleets of luxury automobiles, trucks and jeeps.

"Al-Qaeda was very important for the Taliban because they had so much money. They gave a lot of money. And the Taliban trusted them," Khaksar told the Washington Post.

Money brings power. Osama bin Laden loved the power of money, the power of untold riches. "There wasn't anybody who had power over Osama. He did whatever he wanted," Khaksar's complained.

Not everyone trusted him, though.

Khaksar was suspicious of Osama 's motives. He feared Osama was planning to do something which would bring ruin to the Taliban and Afghanistan. He claims he told the Taliban leadership that Osama wasn't needed, and argued against allowing Osama and his Arab fighters to set up training camps: "From the beginning, I was against Arabs and other foreigners coming to Afghanistan. I felt our country would be destroyed. And now you see what's happened," Mr. Khaksar said.

Likewise, Mohammed Omar was suspicious of his motives.

In May 1998, after a Pakistan journalist interviewed bin Laden, Mullah Omar became enraged and issued a statement that bin Laden was not in Afghanistan "to conduct political or military activities."

Mohammed Khaksar, former Taliban deputy interior minister, told the Associated Press (27), that he feared Osama and Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency were trying to hijack the Islamic movement. He believed that the goals of bin laden and Pakistan had little to do with the spread of Islam, but that they had another agenda altogether. "Their promises were all lies. From the beginning, I was against [Osama] coming to Afghanistan. I felt our country would be destroyed."

Mohammed Khaksar told the Associated Press (27), that he feared the Islamic movement had been hijacked by bin laden and Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency. Khaksar believed that the goals of bin laden and Pakistan had little to do with the spread of Islam, as they claimed. Increasingly, Khaksar came to believe that Osama, and a clique of Afghan clerics who were graduates from Pakistani religious schools controlled by Pakistani intelligence, were trying to manipulate Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban and Afghanistan, for their own purposes. They were "telling him he could be the leader of all the Muslims, bring all Muslims together," but that their promises were all lies.

Osama was extremely important to the Taliban. And yet, although he claimed to hate America, although he claimed he wanted to help the Taliban establish a pure Islamic state, he did not utter a whimper of protest when the Taliban began negotiating with the Bush administration and Western oil consortiums, to build an oil pipeline across the "pure Islamic state of Afghanistan."

The silence, the lack of opposition, reveals the lie.

Osama's family, with whom he maintained close contact, were in business with the Bush family and with Dick Cheney's former oil company, Haliburton. Like Bush and associates, the bin Ladens, as well as the Saudis and the Pakistanis, had their greedy eyes on the 40 trillion dollars in riches which lay within grasping distance, to the north of Afghanistan. The bin Laden family stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars in construction fees alone.

The Taliban, however, would not agree to the Bush demands. American bases and American troops would never be allowed in Afghanistan to guard the pipeline. The Taliban realized that once the American military arrived, they would lose control of their country. Even when the Bush administration made the Taliban an offer they could not refuse, a carpet of riches or a carpet of bombs, the Taliban refused (29).

The Bush-Cheney-Rice-bin laden oil consortium would lose billions, even trillions of dollars.

The Taliban would have to be destroyed.

******

To understand the tragedy of 9/11 we need to know not only why it happened, but who benefits,

The primary beneficiaries included the oil-consortium headed by UNOCAL, the Carlyle Group, and George W. Bush.

Yet another question: if bin Laden truly wished to drive America from the Middle East, if he truly sought to create and maintain a "pure Islamic state" free of American influence, why would he launch an attack so horrendous that the consequences would be exactly the opposite of what he claimed he most desired?

If bin Laden wanted to drive the "American Crusaders" from the Middle East and the Holy Lands, why would he engage in an act designed to draw tens of thousands of American Crusaders to a country he claimed he wished to purify?

Are we to believe that bin Laden did not realize the Americans would invade Afghanistan and destroy the Taliban?

Are we to believe that bin Laden did not realize the Americans would build military bases in Afghanistan and the surrounding Islamic countries?

Are we to believe that bin Laden did not realize the Americans would establish a permanent military presence?

Are we to believe that bin Laden did not realize the Americans were looking for an excuse to occupy and exploit the riches from that oil-rich region?

Certainly it could be argued, that based on past experience with the Clinton administration, Osama may have believed that retaliation would be minimal.

For example, in 1998 when al-Qaeda organized the successful attacks on the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, maiming thousands and killing some 224, the response of the Clinton administration was limited, ineffective, and embarrassing. Clinton authorized the launching of Tomahawk cruise missiles which struck a number of empty tents in the deserts of Afghanistan. He also took out a milk formula factory in Sudan.

The terrorists laughed.

Late in 1999, when a plot by al-Qaeda to strike during the U.S. millennium celebrations was discovered, the Clinton administration did nothing.

Likewise, when al-Qaeda attacked the USS Cole as it was entering the harbor in Yemen, killing seventeen U.S. sailors, the Clinton administration did nothing.

Did bin Laden think that a Bush administration, commanded by the same men who had launched and won the Gulf War, the same Bush men who had sent the U.S. military to occupy Saudi Arabia in 1991, would also do nothing? Did he think that if he knocked down the World Trade Center and killed 3,000 Americans that Bush and team would not retaliate?

Although Osama is an evil man, he is not stupid.

Why did the attack occur on September 11, 2001, during the first year of the Bush administration, and not on, say September 10 of the previous year, when a lame duck president was in power?

As to the date, 9/11, that may have been picked for symbolic reasons. Americans dial "911" when calling for help, when under attack, in emergencies. "911" would thus be much more memorable, than say, August 26.

9/11/2001 may have also been picked because it fell on a Tuesday. Tuesday is an optimal day for a hijacking. Typically, most people traveling cross-country do not chose Tuesdays to take their flights. Often these jets are less than half full. A commercial jet with just a few passengers would be easier to hijack with just a few men armed with knives and a fake bomb. Thus perhaps the hijackings took place on 9/11 because September 11, 2001 fell on a Tuesday.

On the other hand, why not attack on a Tuesday in September of 2000? Why not attack during the Presidency of a man whose response to terrorism was at best tepid and inconsequential?

Why pick the first year of the Bush presidency? Although Osama is an evil man, he is not stupid. Certainly he and his organization would have realized, based on the actions of the first Bush administration, that he, al-Qaeda. and his beloved Taliban would be severely punished if not destroyed, and that the "pure Islamic" state of Afghanistan would be invaded and occupied by the hated "American Crusaders."

Osama was not stupid. That a Bush administration would act differently from a Clinton administration was perfectly clear.

During the week of September 1-7, 2001, 230,000 British troops began steaming toward the Persian Gulf, in an exercise called, "Operation Swift Sword." This exercise had been planned for over a year and was well publicized. Also, at the same time, two U.S. carrier battle groups were steaming toward the Gulf of Arabia and the Pakistan, which abuts Afghanistan. This coming exercise was also well known in advance.

Logic would demand that you would not pick a date which coincided with a time of year in which British and U.S. forces were amassing nearby.

Logic would demand that you would not pick a time of year which provides optimal conditions for U.S. forces to attack Afghanistan, i.e. in the relatively cool winter months.

Logic would demand that a terrorist attack of this magnitude should take place during the presidency of a man who does nothing.

Although craven and cowardly, the 9/11 attack was meticulously planned and ingeniously carried out with military precision. Likewise, we can surmise that the decision to attack during the first year of the Bush administration, during a period in which the U.S. was demanding access to Afghanistan in order to build a pipeline, during a time when U.S. and British forces were massing nearby, and during the coming winter season which would make life so much easier for U.S. and British ground troops, that all this was also well thought out and based on meticulous planning.

That a Bush administration would act differently from a Clinton administration was perfectly clear. That the Bush administration had been threatening to destroy the Taliban if they did not accept the Bush team terms for an oil pipeline, would have been well known to Mr. bin Laden.

Although a murderer and a terrorist, Osama was not stupid. Osama not only knew the Bush administration would launch a massive retaliatory attack, he not only knew that the Western "crusader forces" would invade and occupy Afghanistan, he planned on it.

In the days prior to the 9/11 attack, bin Laden had already made detailed plans for his escape. He would be assisted by Pakistan's Intelligence Service, which, according to bin Laden's driver, delivered "four passports" and travel documents, directly to bin Laden in the days immediately following 9/11 (30). And when the U.S. military arrived in force, bin Laden made his escape, right under their noses, and right before their eyes.

And once he escaped, the Bush administration declared that Osama bin Laden, was no longer a major concern:

"Bin Laden himself isn't that big a threat."

-- Dick Cheney, 1/27/2002

"I truly am not that concerned about him"

-- George W Bush 3/13/2002

"The goal has never been to get bin Laden"

-- General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 4/6/2002.

Yes, the "goal" was "never to get bin Laden." The goal was to conquer Afghanistan, and then Iraq. The goal was to fight a costly "war on terrorism." The goal was oil, 40 trillion dollars worth of oil.

*******

Despite media accounts which depict Osama bin Laden as the leader of al-Qaeda, this is just not so. Osama was a spymaster, a paymaster, a businessman, an expert at propaganda, and part of al- Qaeda's inner circle. But he was not a leader (25).

As he admitted in a December 23, 1998, interview with Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai: "My job is to inspire, to organize people. My job is to provoke people. I'm not doing it myself, but I'm preaching so that others will do it.'"

As summed up by Prince Bandar (25), "He uses the right sentences that he thinks could touch the sentiments of the public." But Osama bin Laden "wouldn't impress me as somebody who would be a leader for anything. He couldn't lead eight ducks across the street."

Likewise, according to Osama bin Laden's hand-picked biographer, Hamid Mir, Osama was not a leader, and he was certainly not the leader of al-Qaeda. The real leader was Egyptian radical Ayman al-Zawahiri, often mis-identified as bin Laden's top lieutenant.

No, Osama was not a leader. He had not been sent to Afghanistan to lead. He had been kicked out of the Sudan at the behest of the US/ CIA and Saudi Arabia because he had a mission to perform.

Mission accomplished, Osama bin Laden then made arrangements to leave Afghanistan, and he would do so with the help of not only Pakistan's ISI, but the U.S. military and CIA.

THE GRAND CHARADE

Osama bin Laden had been planning for all eventualities since 1996 when he arrived in Afghanistan, from the Sudan, bearing money and arms. Now, mission accomplished, he would leave the Afghan people, and his Taliban and al-Qaeda allies, to their fate.

Well before 9/11 or the routing of the Taliban and al-Qaeda by U.S. and British forces and their Northern Alliance allies, Osama bin laden had already begun making his final preparations for his escape from Afghanistan (31). He had even had paid Afghan villagers to begin work on a dirt road which would lead from what he knew in advance would be his last public hiding place, a road leading to Pakistan. However, it was important that his exit not be construed as a cowardly act, or as something planned in advance, but as a fight to the finish! A fight in which he would emerge unscathed, only to escape -- courtesy of the good 'ol USA.

The grand finale would take place near the Pakistan border, a mountain top known as Tora Bora. The CIA knew all about Tora Bora. And, as amazed Afghan villagers pointed out, it should have been obvious to the U.S. military that Osama would use his Tora Bora hideaway as a last stop before making his exit into Pakistan.

Tora Bora was not just a mountain. There were deep caves that had been carefully prepared as sophisticated office and defensive complexes. They had initially been built with CIA assistance and then expanded and reinforced by Osama bin Laden.

In November, and accompanied by his most elite al-Qaeda fighters, Osama bin Laden began making final preparations for what the London News Telegraph (31) referred to as "a grand charade" and "a deliberate ploy" conducted with the helpful assistance of the U.S. military, "to cover bin Laden's quiet escape."

In American newspapers the charade would not be mentioned. Instead, the American people would be told of the heroic battle of Tora Bora. Little or no mention would be made of the "blunders that let bin Laden slip away" (31).

As gathered from eye-witness accounts and reports published in various European and Middle Eastern newspapers, in early November, at a gathering near Jalalabad, bin Laden, guarded by 15 of his elite Arab and Yemeni commandos, addressed a crowd of his Pakistani and Afghan al-Qaeda fighters. He told them "the Americans have a plan to invade Afghanistan, but we will teach them a lesson -- the same one we taught the Russians." He then delivered a diatribe on "holy war" explaining that "unity and belief in Allah would lead to victory over the Americans"(31).

But he knew he was lying. In just a few more days he would abandon them. It was all part of a well prepared charade.

Abu, one of his elite commandos, recalled him saying: "hold your positions firm and be ready for martyrdom." And then Osama made it clear that he was leaving: "I'll be visiting you again, very soon." As he departed, his loyal followers stood up and threw flowers, shouting: "Zindabad Osama! Long Live Osama!"

And then, although he was now the world's most wanted man, although he was supposedly being hunted by the CIA, the U.S. military, and Pakistani troops, bin Laden made his way, right under their noses, right before their eyes, to the Tora Bora enclave, and then to freedom.

The London News Telegraph (31) reports that in preparing his final exit strategy, Osama proceeded to make contact with local tribal leaders and gave each a "white envelope full of Pakistani rupees, the thickness of which was proportional to the number of extended families that each leader oversaw in the Gor Giori Valley." Osama needed the help of these tribal leaders. The Gor Giori Valley led directly to the Pakistani border. "The cash was a down-payment to local leaders against the day bin Laden and his followers needed to leave Tora Bora. Work had already started on a dirt road leading from the cave network towards Pakistan."

The presence of bin Laden in Tora Bora was not a secret. The Northern Alliance, the U.S. military, and the American public were soon made aware that bin Laden, and perhaps as many as 1,500 of the best Arab and Chechen al-Qaeda fighters were holed up in the mountain stronghold.

On November 15, and goaded on by the media, the U.S. began a heavy bombardment of Tora Bora. However, it was not al-Qaeda who the U.S. military attacked, but "shepherds, said Malik Osman Khan, a one-eyed tribal chief whose 16-year-old son Wahid Ullah was one of more than 100 Afghan civilians killed in the intense US bombing" (31).

In fact, and as related by Northern Alliance fighters, and some of the reporters who were observing, the U.S. campaign to bomb Tora Bora seemed designed to prevent Alliance fighters from reaching bin Laden and his men. The bombing of Tora Bora left obvious escape routes unscathed and instead worked against the ability of the Northern Alliance to surround or advance up the mountain. Indeed, the U.S. military bombed only one side of the mountain, the side on which the Northern Alliance were trying to advance. The other side of the mountain, the obvious escape route which led to the Gor Giori Valley and the dirt road to Pakistan, went unscathed.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a Skull and Bones alumni, Vietnam veteran, and Democratic presidential aspirant, had this to say: "The strategy of Tora Bora failed to target al-Qaeda in an appropriate way to do the job,. Troops were literally held out of certain kinds of actions that might have made a difference."

As summed up by the London News Telegraph (31), "the battle for Tora Bora looked more like a grand charade, a deliberate ploy to cover bin Laden's quiet escape."

While the U.S. military continued to bomb Tora Bora, not only bin Laden, but his top lieutenants slipped away. The Pakistani border, and freedom, was just a short distance away.

"The eastern Afghanistan intelligence chief for the country's new government, Pir Baksh Bardiwal, was astounded that the Pentagon planners of the battle for Tora Bora had failed to even consider the most obvious exit routes. He said: 'The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it. And there were plenty of landing areas for helicopters had the Americans acted decisively. Al-Qaeda escaped right out from under their feet."

"Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run."

-- George W. Bush 3/13/2002.

And yet, we should be wary: Although on the run, bin Laden, the businessman, will someday return at the behest of and to serve the same interests of those who benefited the most from the 9/11 attack. Indeed, this is precisely why the Bush administration engaged in this grand charade and let Osama bin Laden escape.

THE GOAL WAS OIL

On January 8, 2002, the commander of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, told the Associated Press that his men had failed to find bin Laden. And, because they could not find bin Laden, that the search for him would end.

And why is that?

"Bin Laden himself isn't that big a threat."

-- Dick Cheney, 1/27/2002

"I truly am not that concerned about him"

-- George W. Bush 3/13/2002

"The goal has never been to get bin Laden."

-- General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 4/6/2002.

Then what was the goal?

Oil, stupid. Forty trillion dollars worth of oil! The goal was always about oil.

Consider: 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. The wife of Prince Bandar and the Saudi government gave over $200,000 to a San Diego man who in turn provided financial support to two of the 9/11 hijackers. Other Saudis, including Saudi-sponsored charities, also contributed funds to al-Qaeda. However, following 9/11, Saudi Arabia wasn't blamed. Instead, Afghanistan was attacked and the Taliban, who had nothing to do with 9/11 were deposed. Likewise, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and yet, although it is the Saudis who provided hundreds of thousands of dollars and supplied 15 of the hijackers, it it Iraq which the Bush administration wishes to go after.

Osama bin laden, the tragedy of 9/11, was never about terrorism. It was about oil. It was about money. It was about the Bush presidency. It was about a political power grab. It was about enriching the Bush family and the Carlyle group with a war on terrorism. It was about building an oil pipeline across Afghanistan. It was about attacking Iraq. It was about achieving U.S. military dominance over the oil rich Gulf states and central Asia.

The goal had nothing to do with terrorism.

The goal was grabbing 40 trillion dollars worth of oil.

And it only cost 3000 American lives.

Iraq would be next.

_______________

Notes:

1). CBS News, "Do We Want Him Dead, Or Alive? 11/16/2001.

2). Fox News, "Wanted dead or alive: Usama bin Laden," 6/24/2002.

3). Representative John Conyers of Michigan, House Judiciary Committee: "The very purpose of the (Bush) directive appears to be to skirt the usual constitutional and criminal justice rules that are the hallmark of our democratic form of government."

4). CBS News, "Cheney Warns Democrats," 5/17/2002; Bill Press, "Don't ask what went wrong, it's unpatriotic!" CNN, 5/21/2002

5). York Times, 11/2/2002.

6). The New York Times, "Aggressive 9-11 probe angers FBI, CIA officials," 9/29/2002.

7). Federation of American Scientists, "BCCI AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: The Justice Department;" Al Martin, "The Conspirators. Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider;" American Free Press, "New FBI Head Is Old Bush Cover-Up Man," 8/20/2001. See also: Alan Friedman, "The Neil Bush Bailout," Vanity Fair, October, 1990; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, ''The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993.

8). New York Times, 1/31/2002, 2/6/2002, 2/28/2002, 9/28/2002.

9). Marjorie Cohn, "Cheney's Black Gold: Oil Interests May Drive US Foreign Policy," Chicago Tribune, 8/10/2000; D. Golden et al., "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001; 4). BBC News, 6/11/2001; Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2001.

10).Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9/28/1999; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, ''The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993; James H. Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press.

11). Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union," 1994.

12). Washington Post, 5/25/2001.

13). On 9/27/2001, after most of this money had been withdrawn, the central Bank of the Arab Emirates, acting at the behest of the U.S., ordered the freezing of bin Laden's accounts at Dubai Islamic Bank.

14). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.

15). United Press International, 11/01/2001.

16). Radio France International, 11/1/2001.

17). Asia Week, March, 2000.

18). United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., S (7) 98 Cr. 1023 (LBS), Sworn testimony of Essam Al-Ridi at the Southern District Court of New York, February 14,2001; see also Court testimony ...Federal District Court in Manhattan ... vs Wadih El-Hage, et al.

19). Le Nouvel Observateur, 11/15-21/1998; Bill Blum, "Killing Hope".

20). Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."

21). Ahmed Rashid, "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," Yale University Press, 2000; see also: Alexander's Oil and Gas Connections.

22) Hamid Algar, "Wahhabism: A Critical Essay," Islamic Publications International, 2002; Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia," Yale Univ Press, 2002.

23). John Mintz, "Bin Laden's Finances Are Moving Target," Washington Post, 8/28/1998; UPI, 2/14/2001; Devlin Barrett, New York Post, 2/15/2001; Sean O'Neil, "On the trail of bin Laden's money," Telegraph, 91 25/2001; Associated Press, 10/1/2001.

24). The Observer, 11/10/2002.

25). PBS Frontline, Prince Bandar interview, 9/2001.

26).Washington Post, 11/30/2001.

27).Associated Press, 6/10/2002.

28). BBC News, 12/1/2001.

29). Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie "Forbidden Truth: U.S.- Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden," Avalon Books, 2002.

30). Fox News, 8/28/2002.

31). Philip Smucker, "Blunders that let bin Laden slip away," London News Telegraph, 2/23/2002.

[admin]

Chapter 14: A TAIL OF TWO "HEROES"

Drunk, Drugged & Getting Out of Harm's Way.

I ran for my life because "I was trying to get out of harm's way."

-- George W. Bush.

At 8:45 am, Eastern Standard Time, American Airlines Right II, a Boeing 767 en route from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles International with 92 people onboard, slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Over a thousand men and women were incinerated, crushed, or fell a thousand feet and died.

George W. Bush, the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief, was in Florida. He was taking advantage of a photo op, a publicity stunt, at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, and cameras were trained on his face. At 9 A.M., soon after the jet crashed into the World Trade Center, Bush received a phone call and was provided details. For a brief moment, his face tightened. Then, inexplicably, he smirked, and went on with the publicity stunt.

Dick Cheney, the Vice President, was at the White House, sitting in front of a television, watching the nightmare unfold. There were no cameras trained on his sinister, bully boy's face.

At 9:03 am, United Airlines Right 175, a Boeing 767 enroute from Boston to Los Angeles with 65 people onboard, barreled into the south tower of the World Trade Center. Another thousand lives were instantly consumed.

The cameras are still trained on the face of George W. Bush. At 9:07 AM, he received the news of yet another plane crash. There is no sign of shock. There is no expression of surprise. Not a hint of sadness crosses his face. His face tightens, and then, there is the smirk. He looks as if he is suppressing an urge to laugh. And then: He does nothing. He just sits there, smirking. Twenty three minutes later, at 9:30, Bush makes a statement, describing the attacks on the World Trade Center as an "apparent terrorist attack" and asks for a moment of silence.

And what does the Commander-in-Chief, the President of the United States, the "Leader of the Free World" do next?

He continues with his visit at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida.

Next on the agenda? Money -- a meeting with supporters to raise campaign contributions.

And what of the Vice President? On the morning of 9/11, he is still watching TV.

Later, in a television interview, the normally dour-face of Dick Cheney, is all smiles. He is exuberant. Animated. Excited. His happy face seems incongruent with the tragedy that he is discussing. He tells us that when the second jet struck, "Immediately that triggered in my mind, the thought of terrorism." He tells us that he called President Bush (1).

What else did Cheney do the morning of 9/11, in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy? Like Bush, he did nothing. He continued watching TV.

But then, a surprise, the unexpected.

White House aids entered the room where Cheney was still enjoying the spectacle on TV. They told him that a Boeing 757, an American Airlines commercial jet had been hijacked by terrorists. They feared that it might be headed directly toward Washington, the nation's capital.

Cheney was surprised. Shocked. Frightened.

And what did Cheney do?

Did he warn White House staff they might be in danger?

No.

Did he issue orders warning congressional staff that they might be in danger?

No.

Did he issue orders warning the Pentagon?

The answer is no.

Did he warn anyone that their lives might be in danger?

No. No. And, no!

Dick Cheney thought only of himself. Dick Cheney's first thought was the he was being targeted, that he had been double crossed. Dick Cheney was scared to death.

Then he ran, and he hid (1).

He was literally air borne. He ran so fast that his "feet touched the floor periodically ..." as he ran "very rapidly down the hallway" (1).

Dick Cheney, the classic bully boy, turned rabbit and ran for his life. His behavior was that of the classic bully who is all mouth but then backs down and panics, and then runs away when faced with danger.

While three hundred brave men and women were racing up those Twin Tower stairs to save the lives of those who could not save themselves, Dick Cheney abandoned his post, and he ran for his life. While brave men and women were heroically risking their lives to save the lives of those who could not save themselves, Dick Cheney sought only to save his own skin. When told that the jet had entered the "danger zone" he made a mad dash for safety. He ran for the White House basement. And there, like a scared rabbit, he hid (1).

It was only after he reached the safety of the White House basement, that he reached for a phone.

Was he about to warn the people of the nation's capital that a hijacked plane was headed their way.

No.

Did he warn congress?

No.

Did he warn the Pentagon.

No.

Dick Cheney, as he cowered in the White House basement, was speed dialing George Bush.

"It looks like we've been targeted," he cried. "Delay your return. We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been targeted" (1).

What did he mean by: "We don't know what's going on here"? Didn't they just make an announcement that terrorists had hijacked and crashed two commercial jets?

Hadn't Cheney been enjoying the spectacle all morning?

Hadn't he just been sitting there, watching TV, doing nothing?

Now, at all once, he doesn't know what's going on?

WE DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WE'VE BEEN DOUBLE CROSSED

Let us review the facts. The Bush team had been receiving detailed warnings since July that commercial jets were to be hijacked by terrorists. John Ashcroft took the warnings so seriously that he got weak kneed and refused to ever fly again on a commercial jet.

On the morning of 9/11, two jets crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. After the second jet strikes, Bush is told to announce that the attacks are due to terrorists.

Bush then continues with his photo op, and Cheney settles in to watch some more TV.

So far, everything has gone according to plan.

But, according to Dick Cheney, when told of a third jet, he was surprised.

He wasn't surprised or alarmed about the first jet.

Ditto for the second jet.

But as to a third jet? Maybe even a fourth jet?

Wait a minute -- we don't know what's going on here -- nobody told us about a third jet. Nobody told us that we would be targeted, that Washington would be a target.

They've known for months about the impending attack. They received an avalanche of warnings in the days and weeks before 9/ 11. They just announced that the two jets which struck the Twin Towers, was the work of terrorists. But then, when told of a third jet, Cheney suddenly doesn't know what's going on?

"We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been targeted."

Translation: We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been double crossed.

Translation: We were told that the Twin Towers would be attacked. Nobody told us that Washington would be attacked.

Cheney: "We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been targeted."

Cheney: We've been double crossed! Run for your life!

And what did Bush do? He ran: "I was trying to get out of harm's way," Bush said (2).

"Harm's way?" You were in Florida, you chuckle head.

In New York, firemen and police didn't lose their nerve. Rudolf Giuilliani, the mayor of New York didn't lose his nerve. Rudolf Giuilliani immediately sped off for ground zero.

At the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld didn't lose his nerve. As flames engulfed portions of the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld was in the thick of things. He was right there assisting victims of the attack.

If Dick Cheney and George Bush had been at the Pentagon, they would have knocked each other down in their panic to escape and "get out of harm's way" because: "we've been targeted!"

And so, while fire fighters and police were risking their lives, while brave men and women were climbing those burning, smoke-filled stairwells to save the lives of those who could not save themselves, Cheney and Bush thought only of saving their own skin. These two "Leaders of the Free World," these two war mongers who have never, ever, been in harm's way, the Commander-in-Chief, and his second in command, turned tail and ran.

I RAN FOR MY LIFE BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO GET OUT OF HARM'S WAY.

Bush had been told of both crashes, that early 9/11 morning. And he did nothing. He sat there, in that classroom, and smirked.

Everything so far, had gone according to plan.

But then the unexpected.

"It looks like we've been targeted!" Cheney cried.

*********

At 9:55 am, Bush and his entourage sped off to the Sarasota- Bradenton airport, and from there it was to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. In order to make him feel more protected, the still shaking president of the free world was immediately surrounded by Air Force personnel with M-16s at the ready.

Bush still didn't fee safe. He was still scared. He was frightened half to death.

Only an underground command bunker that could withstand a direct hit by an atomic bomb would suffice. He was whisked away to Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base and ground zero of the U.S. Strategic Command. Bush would hide out in an atomic bomb-proof bunker until assured that his life was no longer at risk.

At 9:43 am, as Bush was heading full throttle for safety, and as Cheney hid in the White House basement, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, with 58 passengers and six crew members on board, slammed into the Pentagon.

Ten minutes later, the White House was evacuated.

A few minutes later, high level officials in the Bush administration began taking the anti-anthrax medication, Cipro (3). The American public didn't know it yet, but they were soon to be subject to additional terrors, that, like 9/11, high level officials in the Bush administration already knew about.

As to Mr. Bush, as the day wore on, he was still hiding.

BUSH: DRUNK, STONED, AND AWOL

This was not the first time that George W. Bush shirked his duty and deserted his post. In 1972, during the height of the Vietnam war, Bush deserted his Houston Air National Guard unit. He was AWOL (Absent Without Leave) for a period of between 11 to 18 months. As reported in the well researched book, "Fortunate Son" (4) and as detailed in the Boston Globe (5): "In his final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973, Bush was all but unaccounted for: For a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen. William Turnipseed, the retired general who commanded the unit, said that Bush never appeared for duty. His two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base could not perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973 because, they wrote, '''Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.'''

Desertion is a crime. But Bush had an "excuse." In 1972 he had been arrested for cocaine possession. George W. had a very serious drug problem. His "dad," however, came to the rescue and made arrangements with a Dallas judge to have his son's conviction for possession of cocaine expunged from the records in return for performing community service. The judge agreed to this arrangement and ordered George W. to perform community service and to work for an inner-city, antipoverty outreach program for teenagers.

George W. was also a drunk. In an interview published in the Greenwich Village Gazette (6), President G. H. W. Bush's Chief of Staff Michael C. Dannenhauer admitted that George W. had been "out of control since college. There was cocaine use, lots of women, but the drinking was the worst." He also admitted that George W. had suffered quite a few "lost weekends in Mexico." Dannenhauer also confirmed that George W. also had a serious cocaine problem. George's past drug use was inadvertently confirmed by George W. himself, when he blurted out at a press conference that he hadn't taken drugs "since 1974."

Should we be surprised that a rich man with a low IQ (7), and a history of alcoholism, drug addiction, and desertion, who has never in his life been held accountable for his actions, would also run away on the morning of 9/11?

LAUGHING BOY: THE COMPASSION CONSERVATIVE

It has been said that a picture says a thousand words. Pictures are revealing. Pictures can also be worth a lot of cash.

After Bush emerged from his hidey hole, after he had been told that he was safe, the boy wonder paid a visit to ground zero. And then the inexplicable: he laughed. He was all chuckles. While standing atop the rubble, atop the grave of nearly 3,000 souls. Bush yucked it up, laughing, smiling, cracking jokes.

Among the numerous schemes hatched by the White House and Republican party, to capitalize on the 9/11 disaster, was the solicitation of campaign contributions in return for a signed photo of George W. Bush, as he flew to safety aboard Air Force One on the morning of 9/11. George, we are told, was speaking by phone to Dick Cheney -- or just as likely, his "dad."

A picture says a thousand words.

The Bush family, George and Barbara Bush were also unable to contain themselves in public, laughing it up at a 911 ceremony. It's an inside joke and the joke on is you -- the American People.

The picture of George Bush, the morning of that terrible tragedy, is the picture of a man of conflicting emotions, as if he is being simultaneously congratulated and admonished -- perhaps by his father, for running away.

There is no sign of sadness on the face of George Bush. There is no sign of compassion or concern for those who died. As he later admitted to reporters, he thought only of his own safety, and that of his own family (2). And now, his safety assured, he is smirking.

Is it possible that Bush would gloat over the death of others? Is it possible that George Bush would derive pleasure from causing death?

The answer is yes.

While Bush served as Governor of Texas, he oversaw a penal system that became, under his administration, a veritable assembly-line death machine. Bush took a perverse delight in killing people. He enjoyed executing the retarded, the abused, those with severe learning disorders, and men with histories of alcoholism and drug abuse -- men just like George Bush. Bush joked about killing people. He mocked them. Laughed at them. Killing his fellow man, killing old women, gave George Bush a perverse pleasure. In Texas he killed over 150 of them -- and it made him feel good!

In November of 2001, just weeks following the 9/11 tragedy, as he presided over the annual pardoning of the White House turkey, George W. Bush made yet another a joke about killing people: "It's nice to finally get a chance to issue a pardon. Unfortunately, I was unable to give any out in Texas. You know how it is, you pardon one and then everyone has a sob story about how they were abused as kids, or were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or they're retarded or dyslexic, stuff like that. My philosophy was not to discriminate. We killed everyone of them when I was governor."

Texas death row inmate, Karla Faye Tucker, a grandmother and "born again Christian" hoped that George W. Bush, a man who claims his "favorite philosopher is Jesus Christ" might act mercifully and save her from death. When asked by Talk magazine what she might like to say to Governor Bush?" she replied, "Please don't kill me."

George Bush thought this was funny. He mocked her. He laughed at her, just like he mocked and laughed at all the others who were killed by the state of Texas when he was governor. Bush thought her request was so hilarious, that he went on the popular Larry King talk show and publicly ridiculed her by laughing and whimpering in mock imitation of her voice: "Please! Don't kill me!"

That many of those Bush ordered killed were completely innocent, is probably beyond dispute. Dozens of people sentenced to death in recent years have subsequently been found to be innocent, based, for example, on DNA evidence. Dozens of innocent men have been released from death row and prison, after prosecutorial and police misconduct and evidence tampering were made public.

Between 1900 and 1992, there have been 416 documented cases of innocent persons who have been convicted and given a death sentence. In 23 of these cases, the person was executed (8). According to Amnesty International, "since 1973, over 100 people have been released from death rows throughout the country after evidence of their wrongful convictions emerged."

While Bush was laughing about killing people, Illinois Governor George Ryan -- a pro-death penalty Republican and Bush's campaign chairman in Illinois -- called a moratorium on executions. Ryan issued this order in January 2000 after 13 condemned men were exonerated by DNA evidence. In Illinois and other states including Texas, there was growing evidence that innocent people were being sent to death row.

Calvin Burdine, spent 16 years on death row in Texas before a federal judge threw out his conviction. Randall Dale Adams and Clarence Brandley, two former Texas prisoners came within days of being executed before they were exonerated and freed.

Dozens of other Texas inmates were not so lucky.

Texas, under George Bush, was a veritable death machine that gloried in denying legal rights and competent legal counsel to the accused. In Texas, under Bush, only the wealthy could receive a "fair trial." One federal judge, after hearing cases in which court -appointed attorneys slept in court or abused cocaine, called the Texas system a "farce" and a "travesty."

In 1998, while George Bush was still governor of Texas, Amnesty International reported that "at every step in the death penalty process in Texas, a litany of grossly inadequate legal procedures fail to meet recognized minimum international standards for the protection of human rights."

When asked about the Texas death machine and Karla Faye Tucker's plea for clemency, on the David Letterman TV show, Bush again laughed it up: "People like that make me sick."

Pleas for mercy, make George W. Bush sick.

People about to be put to death, make George W. Bush laugh.

George Bush was still laughing it up, on the morning of 9/11.

WE WON

At 10 am, that nightmarish September 11 morning, a jet soared above the clouds, a thousand miles from the raging fires that burned in New York city. Inside that jet stood a smirking man. And in that moment of triumph, his picture was taken -- which would later be sold and distributed to his supporters. The picture was of George Bush as he spoke by phone to Dick Cheney. And what were they talking about? "We were concerned about threats to the President."

A picture says a thousand words.

There is no sign of sadness on the smirking face of George W. Bush. There is no sign of compassion or concern for those innocent women and men who burned to death or who fell a thousand feet and died. There is not a hint of sympathy for the thousands of grieving families, for the wives, sons, mothers, fathers, husbands daughters, or friends of those who died. As he later admitted, he thought only of his own safety and that of his family. And now, safe at last, although there is fear in his face, he is smirking. -- what a hero!

A picture says a thousand words.

He seems to be saying: ''I'm safe! We won."

_______________

Notes:

1). Dick Cheney, interview, NBC's "Meet the Press," 11/16/2001.

2). Edwin Chen, "Bush Fled 'Harm's Way' After 911 Attacks," Los Angeles Times, 5/22/2002.

3). Associated Press, 10/23/2001: "Some White House personnel were given Cipro six weeks ago. White House officials won't discuss who might be receiving the anthrax-treating antibiotic now. On the night of the September 11 attacks, the White House Medical Office dispensed Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David, and told them it was a 'precaution,' according to one person directly involved." See also: Judicial Watch, 6/8/2002; Associated Press, 6/8/2002.

4). James H. Hatfield, "Fortunate Son." St. Martin's Press. New York.

5). Boston Globe, 5/3/2000; See also, The New Republic, 10/16/ 2000, 11/13/2000.

6). The Greenwich Village Gazette, 9/13/1999.

7). Bush scored at the 25% rank on an Air Force IQ test. A ranking of 25% means that on this dumbed down test, 75% of military recruits score higher than George W. Bush. This score places him in the "Low Average Range" of intellectual functioning, which means that Mr. Bush, has an IQ that is probably between 85 and 90.

8). Michael L. Radelet, et al., "In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases." Northeastern University Press, 1994.