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.
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"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.
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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."
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
