FTR#454—The War President in Action—(Two 30-minute segments) (Sources are
noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 4/4/2004.)
Note: FTR#’s 260-316, 317, 324,
FTR#325 and succeeding programs are streaming
on Real Audio at www.wfmu.org/daveemory.
FTR#’s 01-270, 316-324 are available
for download only, also on Real
Audio, on their Archive Page.)
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Summary of FTR#454—(Note: The massive
volume of “For The Record” programs about 9/11 and related topics is summarized
and analyzed in the periodically-updated description for FTR#391. It is recommended that listeners use this
description and e-mail it to others. Also: The book “Martin
Bormann: Nazi in Exile” is available at About
Paul Manning. In addition, the professional history of the late Paul
Manning, the book’s author, is presented in the description About Paul Manning. This enables listeners to acquaint
others with Mr. Manning’s journalistic credentials. Key material from the book
is synopsized in an extended description for FTR#305.
Understanding the Bormann organization is essential to comprehending the
concept of “the Underground Reich.”) Archiving
important material from past broadcasts about the Bush administration’s record
on combating terrorism, this program evaluates the performance of this “war
president” (as Bush characterized himself in a recent interview.) Not only has
the administration run interference for powerful Saudi interests (with which
the Bush family and much of the rest of the GOP have important business and
political alliances), but it has done so in such a manner as to utterly
neutralize intelligence efforts at interdicting Al Qaeda operations.
Furthermore, the administration and elements closely allied with it are deeply
implicated in the active frustration of investigations into Saudi complicity in
the financing of terrorism. At the foundation of the commercial, political and
national security relationships between Saudi and American power elite elements
is the petroleum and fossil fuels industrial complex. The CIA and petroleum
industry background of the elder George Bush, the petroleum industry background
of the younger George Bush and the structural relationships between the Bush
milieu and the Saudis have generated and perpetuated the political and economic
power embodied in this administration. Much as a mosquito--seeking
only to draw precious fluids through its pipeline—transmits the Malaria infection, so the Saudi/US
commercial and political relationship has
served to transmit the virus of terrorism. And it is within this “mosquito-like”
structural economic relationship between the US and the Saudis that the deadly,
conspiratorial elements behind the events of 9/11 have nurtured, operated and
thrived. Note the presence in the material that follows of both the Al
Taqwa/Al Qaeda link to the GOP and the links of the same elements to the
Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood. Both the Bush family and the Brotherhood have
historical relationships with the Third Reich, in both its aboveground and
postwar underground phases.
Program Highlights Include: The Bush
administration’s withholding of Clinton-era documents on Al Qaeda from the 9/11
commission; reports covering a decade prior to 9/11 of the projected use of
kamikaze-style terrorist attacks involving aircraft; the Bush administration’s
interdiction (through the State Department) of the FBI’s investigation into the
bombing of the USS Cole; the Bush administration’s interdiction of US
intelligence investigations into the Saudi link to Al Qaeda and Islamist
terrorism; the administration’s interdiction of US intelligence investigations
into the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and Abdullah bin Laden; the
administration’s interdiction of US intelligence investigations of the Saudi
financial interest backing the Pakistani-based Khan nuclear smuggling effort;
the Caspian Basin pipeline negotiations underway between Dick Cheney, Enron,
the Saudis and the Taliban; the role of the Enron/Cheny deal in neutralizing US
intelligence investigations into Al Qaeda; the role that the Enron/Cheney deal
appears to have played in facilitating the attacks of 9/11; the Bush
administration’s authorization of the evacuation of Abdullah bin Laden and
Khairallah bin Laden shortly after 9/11 (when no other civilians could fly);
the links of the GOP and Bush family to Islamists associated with the SAAR
network and the other targets of the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids; the
interference by Bush political and business allies in the Green Quest
investigations; the role of Harken Energy director and Bush political chum
Talat Othman in the frustration of Operation Green Quest; the dismissal of
former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil eight months after Talat Othman
interceded with him on behalf of the defendants in Operation Green Quest; the
links between the GOP/Bush/Operation Green Quest milieu and the that of the
Bank Al Taqwa/Muslim Brotherhood; the Justice Department’s frustration of Operation
Green Quest after the investigation was transferred from the Treasury
Department; the FBI and CIA surveillance of the investigators of Operation
Green Quest; intelligence reports indicating that Saddam Hussein had contacted
Al Qaeda about serving as a backup unit in the event of his ouster by the U.S.;
reports that the US invasion of Iraq had made the country less secure and more
at risk for terrorist attacks; predictions by US counter terrorist expert Rand
Beers that the Iraqi invasion would hurt the US and help the terrorists. Note that this program description contains material that
was not included in the original broadcast due to the limitations of time.
1.
The program begins with discussion of the Bush administration’s
withholding from the 9/11 commission of Clinton-era documents about Bin Laden,
Al Qaeda and terrorism. “The White House has agreed to allow the independent
commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to review thousands of Clinton
administration national-security documents that the White House acknowledged
this week it had withheld from the panel, the commission said Friday. But
even as the White House struggled to convince the panel that it was not
withholding valuable information, administration officials refused to make a
commitment to allow it to have copies of the Clinton-era documents.
[Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] And they suggested that similar, highly
classified Bush White House documents might have also been withheld from the
panel. . . .” (“9/11 Panel to Get Clinton Papers” by Philip
Shenon [New York Times]; San Francisco Chronicle; 4/3/2004; p.
A4.)
2.
“ . . . But the
final decision on whether the documents could be handed over to the commission
was left to the Bush White House, which decided to block transfer of
three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of material, according to former
Clinton aides who said they were concerned that so many of the documents had
been withheld from the panel.” (Idem.)
3.
“ ‘This is very
disturbing,’ said Richard Ben-Veniste, the former Watergate prosecutor who is a
Democratic member of the commission. The White house said on Thursday that it
decided to withhold the Clinton documents from the panel because they
duplicated other documents, were not relevant to the commission’s requests or
involved national security and were ‘highly sensitive.’’ (Idem.)
4.
‘” ‘Since all
of the commissioners and most of the staff have security clearances at the very
highest level, it puzzles me as to what would be withheld on the basis of
national security concerns,’ Ben-Veniste said.” (Idem.)
5.
Among the topics the Bush White House might have been seeking to
obscure is the amount of forewarning that existed of the probability of an
attack of the nature of the one that occurred on 9/11. For years, intelligence
agencies (including American services) had been aware of the existence of
Islamist terrorist attempts involving the use aircraft as kamikaze weapons. “1994 EIFFEL TOWER
THREAT: ‘Algerian Armed Islamic Group terrorists hijacked an Air France flight.
. . and threatened to crash it into the Eiffel Tower.’” (“Kamikaze
Terrorism Wasn’t New Idea” by Scot J. Paltrow; The Wall Street Journal; 4/1/2004; p. A4; [Sidebar Titled “Warning
Signs”].)
6.
“1995 BOJINKA
PLOT TO BLOW UP AMERICAN JETS: ‘An accomplice of Ramzi Yousef told police in
the Philippines [and the FBI] that a variant of the plot involved flying a
plane on a suicide mission into CIA headquarters.’” (Idem.)
7.
“1996 IRANIAN
PLOT TO CRASH JAPANESE JET IN ISRAEL: ‘A passenger would board the plane in the
Far East, commandeer the aircraft order it to fly over Tel Aviv, and crash the
plane into the city.’” (Idem.)
8.
“1998 ALLEGED
PLAN BY AL QAEDA-LINKED TERRORISTS TO CRASH PLANE INTO WORLD TRADE CENTER: ‘. .
. A group, since linked to al-Qa’ida, planned to fly an explosives laden plane
from a foreign country into the World Trade Center.’” (Idem.)
9.
“1999 FEDERAL
RESEARCH DIVISION REPORT ON TERRORISM: “Suicide bomber(s) . . . could
crash-land an aircraft . . . into the Pentagon
. . . or the White House.’” (Idem.)
10.
In the early months of the Bush administration, former FBI agent John
O’Neill’s investigation into the bombing of the USS Cole (executed by Al Qaeda) was actively frustrated by US
ambassador (to Yemen) Barbara Bodine and her diplomatic staff. This was part of
a larger pattern of political protection of Saudi Arabia against criminal
investigations into Saudi complicity in the funding of Al Qaeda. O’Neill
attributed the interdiction of his investigation to the influence of US
corporations involved in business relationships with the Saudis. Key Saudi
backed charities and many important members of the Saudi elite are implicated
in the funding of Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist organizations. (For
more about O’Neill, who died in the 9/11 attacks, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 325, 326, 336, 337, 349, 370.)
11.
“John O’Neill was
a rebel in a world where the president and his administration called the shots.
In charge of investigating acts of terrorism by the Al Qaeda organization, he
went to Yemen in October 2000 after the attack on the USS Cole, in which seventeen U.S. servicemen died. He lambasted the
obstructionist attitude among American diplomats there. In the course of the
investigation, it became clear that diplomats from the State Department and FBI
investigators did not share the same approach. The diplomats wanted to comply
with the Yemenite regime in order to calm political relations, while the FBI
wanted to solve the crime and find those responsible for the attack as quickly
as possible. It was apparent that these two visions—these two cultures—could
not coexist. After another dispute over the FBI agents’ carrying of arms and
the turning over of second-level suspects to the American authorities, the
American ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, forbade John O’Neill and his team
(of ‘Rambos,’ as the Yemenite authorities called them) from entering Yemen.
This despite the fact that, according to O’Neill, the FBI had in hand all of
the evidence needed to implicate Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network in the
attack.” (Forbidden Truth; Jean-Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie; Copyright 2002 [SC];
Thunder’s Mouth/Nation Books; ISBN 1-56025-414-9; p. XXVIII.)
12.
“Sitting in the
China Club at the top of a building overlooking Manhattan, John O’Neill
recounted the heated exchange with the American ambassador, his disappointment
in the State Department’s impotence—feigned or not—and above all the threat of
Osama bin Laden. For him, everything originated in Saudi Arabia, and everything
could be explained and solved through this prism. ‘All of the answers, all of
the clues allowing us to dismantle Osama bin Laden’s organization, can be found
in Saudi Arabia’, he told me, emphasizing ‘the inability of American diplomacy
to get anything out of King Fahd’ concerning terrorist networks. The reason?
There was only one: corporate oil interests. Could this single explanation keep
the United States from investigating one of the principal terrorist networks in
the world? Yes—for the simple reason that the American administration had
refrained from using the investigation as a means of putting pressure on its
Saudi friends.” (Ibid.; pp. XXVIII-XXIX.)
13.
As will be seen in greater detail below, the restrictions on FBI
investigation of Saudi complicity in terrorism increased dramatically after the
ascension of George Bush to the presidency. “Since George Bush’s election, ‘the FBI was
even more politically engaged,’ O’Neill said, and that could be felt ‘even on
[his] own investigations’ regarding Osama bin Laden. ‘Saudi Arabia has much
more pressure on us than we have toward the kingdom,’ he said, considering the
United States’ dependency on its oil and thus the State Department’s need to
have a ‘secure and stable’ Saudi Arabia.” (Ibid.; p. XXIX.)
14.
“During
investigations into the attack on a military installation in Dharan on June 25,
1996, which killed nineteen American soldiers, O’Neill went to Saudi Arabia
himself to convince King Fahd to get the Saudi authorities to cooperate. But
that was a lost cause, because Saudi officials interrogated the principal
suspects themselves, while the FBI was relegated to collecting material
evidence from the bomb site. As for the relations between Al Qaeda and Saudi
Arabia, the conclusions of my report—which was commissioned by the French
intelligence service—did not surprise O’Neill, and he confirmed that bin Laden
had close ties with ‘high-ranking personalities and families of the Saudi
kingdom’ in July 2001, contrary to their public statements. He believed,
however, that the chances of getting the Saudis to cooperate were slim, and he
called into question the FBI’s extremely ‘political’ stance in this area, as
well as that at the interior level.” (Ibid.; p. XXX.)
15.
British journalist Greg Palast investigated Bush administration
suppression of investigation of the Saudi links to the Bin Ladens and Al Qaeda.
“ . . . What we
did discover was serious enough. To begin with, from less-than-happy FBI agents
we obtained an interesting document, some 30 pages long, marked ‘SECRET.’ I’ve
reproduced a couple of pages here (figure 2.1). Note the designation
‘1991’—that’s FBI-speak for ‘national security matter.’ According to insiders,
FBI agents had wanted to check into two members of the bin Laden family,
Abdullah and Omar, but were told to stay away by superiors—until September 13,
2001. By then, Abdullah and Omar were long gone from the United States.” (“See
No Evil: What Bush Didn’t (Want To) Know About 9/11” by Greg Palast; www.GregPalast.com; accessed at: http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=195&row=1
.)
16.
“Why no
investigation of the brothers bin Laden? The Bush administration’s line is the
Binladdins (a more common spelling of the Arabic name) are good folk. Osama’s
the Black Sheep, supposedly cut off from his Saudi kin. But the official line
notwithstanding, some FBI agents believed the family had some gray sheep worth
questioning—especially these two working with the World Assembly of Muslim
Youth (WAMY), which the file labels ‘a suspected terrorist organization.’ . .
.” (Idem.)
17.
“No matter how
vile WAMY’s indoctrination chats, they are none of the FBI’s business.
Recruitment for terror, however, is. Before 9/11, the governments of India and
the Philippines tied WAMY to groups staging murderous attacks on civilians.
Following our broadcast on BBC, the Dutch secret service stated that WAMY,
‘support(ed) violent activity.’ In 2002, The
Wall Street Journal’s Glenn Simpson made public a report by Bosnia’s
government that a charity with Abdullah bin Laden on its board had channeled
money to Chechen guerillas. Two of the 9/11 hijackers used an address on the
same street as WAMY’s office in Falls Church, Virginia.” (Idem.)
18.
“Despite these
tantalizing facts, Abdullah and his operations were A-OK with the FBI chiefs,
if not their working agents. Just a dumb SNAFU? Not according to a top-level
CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of strictest anonymity. After Bush
took office, he said, ‘there was a major policy shift’ at the National Security
Agency. Investigators were ordered to ‘back off’ from any inquiries into Saudi
Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi
royals and their retainers. That put the bin Ladens, a family worth a reported
$12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off-limits for
investigation. Osams was the exception; he remained a wanted man, but agents
could not look too closely at how he filled his piggy bank. They key rule of
any investigation, ‘follow the money,’ was now violated, and investigations—at
least before 9/11—began to die.” (Idem.)
19.
“And there was a
lot to investigate—or in the case of the CIA and FBI under Bush—a lot to
ignore. Through well-known international arms dealers (I’m sorry, but in this
business, sinners are better sources than saints) our team was tipped off to a
meeting of Saudi billionaires at the Hotel Royale Monceau in Paris in may 1996
with the financial representative of Osama bin Laden’s network. The Saudis,
including a key Saudi prince joined by Muslim and non-Muslim gun traffickers,
met to determine who would pay how much to Osama. This was not so much an act
of support but of protection—a payoff to keep the mad bomber away from Saudi
Arabia. . . .”
(Idem.)
20.
Next, the program turns to recent disclosures of a nuclear smuggling
ring, involving Pakistan’s “father of the bomb” Dr. A.Q. Khan and the elements
that helped him smuggle the nuclear technology to other countries. The Bush administration blocked
investigation of this operation, once again to protect the Saudis, who were
helping to finance the creation of the so-called “Islamic Bomb.” “On November 7, 2001, BBC TV and The Guardian of London reported that the Bush administration
thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, who this week confessed selling
atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. The Bush Administration has
expressed shock at the disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on
terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the
British news team’s sources, Bush did not know of these facts because, shortly
after his inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) effectively stymied
the probe of Khan Research Laboratories. CIA and other agents could not
investigate the spread of ‘Islamic Bombs’ through Pakistan because funding
appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia. . . .” (“Khan Job: Bush
Spiked Probe of Pakistan’s Dr. Strangelove, BBC Reported in 2001” by Greg
Palast; Gregpalast.com; 2/9/2004;
accessed at: http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=312&row=0
.)
21.
“ . . . I
probed our CIA contact for specifics of investigations that were hampered by
orders to back off of the Saudis. He told us that the Khan Laboratories
investigation had been effectively on hold.” (Idem.)
22.
Among the potentially explosive investigations relating to the GOP/Bush
relationship with the Saudis concerns Al Qaeda’s awareness of (and probable
exploitation of) the Enron-brokered negotiations between the Taliban and the
UNOCAL consortium over a Caspian Basin pipeline through Afghanistan. It appears
that these negotiations were an enabling factor in facilitating the 9/11
attacks. The Bin Laden family construction firm was to have done the
construction work. Dick Cheney engineered the deal on behalf of Enron, which
was in terrible trouble at that point, though not yet bankrupt. (For more about
Enron, see—among other programs—FTR#’s
280, 362, 420, 422, 429. For more
about the UNOCAL pipeline deal, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 328, 334,
337, 362, 403.) “A highly reliable confidential source who wishes to remain
anonymous has promised to send me an FBI copy of a high-level Al Qaeda report
dating back to the embassy bombings in Africa several years ago. The email
report was captured in Africa from the computer file of a senior aid to Osama
Bin Laden. My client has obtained this document through lawful means. The email
report written by Al Qaeda’s head of military operations, Mohammed Atef,
describes Al Qaeda’s view of ongoing secret pipeline negotiations between the
US oil companies and the Taliban to build a pipeline through Afghanistan.” (“The
Enron Pipeline Connection to 9/11” by John Loftus; accessed at http://www.john-loftus.com/enron3.asp#congress
.)
23.
“This Atef report
was almost certainly reviewed by the late John O’Neill at the time of the
Embassy bombing, shortly after the Al Qaeda report was written. At the time,
O’Neill was the FBI agent in charge of the Embassy bombing investigation. The
shocking pipeline information may explain why O’Neill became fixated about the
Saudi-Taliban-Al Qaeda relationship for the remaining years of his life. After
O’Neill’s investigations were repeatedly shut down by his superiors, O’Neill
allegedly began making discreet inquiries to French intelligence using two
reporters as cut-outs. Both reporters were known consultants for French
intelligence and are specialists on both the oil industry and terrorism.” (Idem.)
24.
“It is plausible
that the French Government was upset at being shut out of the Caspian Basin
deal, and may have been helping O’Neill behind the backs of his superiors in
Washington. It does seem that the more that O’Neill learned, the less he was
allowed to do with it. The last straw was Cheney’s refusal to follow up on
O’Neill’s request to pursue the leads in the Phoenix memo in April 2001. After
resigning from the FBI in disgust, John O’Neill spoke candidly to several
people, including the two French authors, whom he met again in July.” (Idem.)
25.
“They have now
written about the pipeline deal in ‘The
Forbidden Truth.’ The book, not yet translated into English, quotes O’Neill
as saying that his Al Qaeda investigations were blocked to protect the Saudis.
The Caspian Basin pipeline issue is discussed at length as the motive for the
coverup. I do not think that the French authors have the Atef document or they
would have released it in their book. The Atef memo may indeed be a smoking
gun, but I need to see the exact text to be sure before I release it to
Congress. This Al Qaeda document may be the first hard evidence to break the
Enron pipeline cover-up apart. I need your advice and confidential assistance
in making a discreet collection of all Afghan pipeline research for a memo to
present to Congress.” (Idem.)
26.
The Saudis—political and commercial allies of the Bush family and
administration were at the epicenter of the pipeline negotiations with the
Taliban. “Here
is my investigative hypothesis which needs to be greatly fleshed out and
footnoted before I go to Congress. I have presented my thoughts by topic,
rather than in chronological order. Back in the 1970’s and 80’s, Saudi
intelligence (not the CIA as has been reported) funded the early Taliban
faction and later Al Qaeda as part of the insurgency to throw the Russians out
of Afghanistan. A few years afterwards, US energy companies (Enron, as the
Afghan pipeline consultant for UNOCAL) used the Saudi intelligence connection
to the Taliban to begin negotiations for a pipeline across Afghanistan.” (Idem.)
27.
“Prince Turki,
chief of Saudi intelligence, has publicly admitted making several trips into
Afghanistan to negotiate a peace mission with the Taliban. My sources say he
was the pipeline mediator for Enron. Prince Turki was fired as head of Saudi
intelligence immediately after the pipeline across Afghanistan. Prince Turki is
allegedly close to the Bin Laden family, which was allegedly promised the
construction contract in return for a percentage to the Saudi Royal family. This
is a common business practice initiated by the Carlyle Group’s contracts in
Saudi Arabia. . . .” (Idem.)
28.
“ . . . But, if
the Taliban pipeline had been built, Enron might have owned some of the most
valuable oil exploration sites in the world, and rescued itself from
insolvency. Any White House insider who helped Enron would have gotten rich,
filthy rich. When Bush’s son came into office, Enron allegedly approached
Cheney in late January and told him vaguely about the secret Saudi-Taliban
investigations for a while. For the sake of the Caspian Basin pipeline, Cheney
passed the word inside the beltway not to allow anyone in the Government to
connect the dots.” (Idem.)
29.
“All across
America, ongoing Saudi-Taliban investigations were hindered, obstructed, or closed
down, just as the Clinton administration had done before them. What no one did
was check Enron’s accounting. The pipeline deal made little economic sense in
view of Russian cooperation. To Enron’s horror, the pipeline deal collapsed in
August. Then came 9/11. Then came the Enron collapse. Then came the Cheney
coverup.” (Idem.)
30.
“Cheney’s biggest
problem is the two fairly senior intelligence officials who rebelled and became
whistleblowers: Robert Baer of CIA and John O’Neill of FBI. The rest of the FBI
and CIA higher- ups have kept their mouths shut, although a lot of lower level
people are now coming forward to question their superior’s strange behavior.
The two rebels, Baer of CIA and O’Neill of FBI, were of course, driven into
retirement. . . .” (Idem.)
31.
Author Loftus’ sources feel that Cheney may well have kept both
Condoleeza Rice and Bush in the dark about much of this. As Loftus, says, if
Congress ever connects the 9/11 investigation with that of Enron, the results
are likely to be dramatic. “ . . . Cheney was not the first to block the
investigations, but he is probably the last to be involved with the coverup.
That could explain why he is resisting Congress on both the Enron and the
pre-9/11 intelligence documents. If Congress ever connects the two
investigations, the whole house of cards will collapse. Most of my sources say
that Bush and Rice may have been deliberately kept out of the loop by Cheney.
For example, it was Cheney, not Rice, who saw the Phoenix memo before 9/11. It
is, however, theoretically possible that the President may have known about the
pipeline deal from his own sources.” (Idem.)
32.
“President
Bush’s father was the leading lobbyist for the Saudis and may have been told
everything by his Carlyle Group partners, the Bin Laden family, who were
supposedly in line to get the Taliban pipeline construction contract. But it is
doubtful we will ever know what Bush senior told his son while the pipeline
negotiations were underway. In terms of the upcoming Congressional
investigation, the Al Qaeda document is the first direct written evidence to
confirm the existence of secret pipeline negotiations with the Taliban.
Moreover, it confirms that Al Qaeda was informed of these negotiations from the
earliest stages.” (Idem.)
33.
Al Qaeda’s knowledge of the pipeline negotiations and the apparent lack
of reaction to the capture of the Atef document may well have convinced the
planners of the 9/11 attack to proceed, in confidence that they would not
experience too much interference. “This raises an interesting question. The Al Qaeda author,
Mohammed Atef, must have known that his report had fallen into American hands
when his operative’s computer was captured by the FBI. Atef may have been
surprised that his pipeline report was never made public to embarrass the
Taliban. Atef may have suspected merely from the surprising silence that the
CIA and FBI were not being allowed to pursue or reveal their Afghanistan
investigations while the pipeline negotiations were under way. The Saudis could
certainly have tipped off the Taliban that the fix was in. It is hard to
believe that the Bin Laden construction company did not learn anything from
their Carlyle group partners about the pipeline.” (Idem.)
34.
“Whatever the
source, the early date of the Atef report shows that the highest levels of Al
Qaeda certainly knew about the pipeline secret from the beginning. The pipeline
coverup could have convinced Atef that Al Qaeda could exploit the lack of
coordinated intelligence against them.” (Idem.)
35.
“In addition to
the usual inter-agency bungling, the Enron cover-up was the real reason for the
black hole in US intelligence about events in Afghanistan, and plausibly
explains why no US agency was allowed to connect the dots. Moreover it explains
why honest officials like Baer and O’Neill were driven into retirement. Bottom
line: Baer and O’Neill were right. There was a pipeline coverup and it very
likely contributed to 9/11. The Atef report raises the founded suspicion, based
on specific articulable facts, that Al Qaeda might have piggy backed on the
Enron secrecy blackout to launch their surprise attack, confident in their
knowledge that US intelligence had been deliberately blinded by Enron’s cronies
in Washington.” (Idem.)
36.
Recapitulating information from FTR#423,
the program documents the Al Qaeda/terror connections of Abdullah, Omar and
Khalil Bin Laden, two members of the family among the powerful Saudis flown out
of the country by the Bush administration a few days after 9/11. These Saudis
were the only civilians able to fly in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
They were flown out of the country before the FBI could adequately investigate
them. Note that Abdullah and the World
Assembly of Youth had been among the areas deemed “off-limits” by the Bush
administration. (See the first of the two Greg Palast articles highlighted
above.) “In fact, the F.B.I. had been keeping an eye
on some of the bin Ladens. A classified F.B.I. file examined by Vanity Fair and marked ‘Secret’ shows
that as early as 1996, the bureau had spent nearly nine months investigating
Abdullah and Omar bin Laden, who were involved with the American branch of the
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a charity that has published writings by
Islamic scholar Sayyid Qutb, one of Osama bin Laden’s intellectual influences.”
(“Saving the Saudis” by Craig Unger; Vanity Fair; October/2003; p. 175.)
37.
In addition, Khalil bin Laden has interests in the tri-border area
discussed in—among other programs--FTR#402.
“Khalil bin
Laden, who boarded a plane in Orlando that eventually took him back to Saudi
Arabia, won the attention of Brazilian investigators for possible terrorist
connections. According to a Brazilian paper, he had business connections in the
Brazilian province of Minas Gerais, not far from the tri-border region, an
alleged center for training terrorists. . . .” (Ibid.;
p. 176.)
38.
“F.B.I. officials
declined to comment on the investigation, which was reported in Britain’s The Guardian, but the documents show
that the file on Abdullah and Omar was reopened on September, 19, 2001, while
the Saudi repatriation was still under way. ‘These documents show there was an
open F.B.I. investigation into these guys at the time of their departure,’ says
David Armstrong, an investigator for the Public Education Center, the Washington,
D.C., foundation that obtained the documents.” (Idem.)
39.
Next, the program reviews information from FTR#415 concerning Karl Rove’s role in helping to coalesce the
Islamist element in the Republican Party. It should be noted that the Islamist,
Al Qaeda and Al Taqwa elements that were raided on 3/20/2002 were linked
directly to the Republican party’s ethnic outreach organization. As will be
seen below, people connected to the GOP/Islamic Institute milieu were part of
the WAMY operation discussed above. Bush business partner and business partner
Talat Othman interceded on behalf of the institutions and individuals targeted
by the Operation Green Quest raids. (For more about the GOP/Al Taqwa/Al Qaeda
connection, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 435. In addition, see “ ‘Countdown
with Keith Olberman’ for Oct. 23”; MSNBC
News; 10/23/2003; accessed at: www.msnbc.com/news/984616.asp
.) “ . . . That
brief conversation [between Norquist and Karl Rove] in Austin, Texas, helped
start a new chapter in Mr. Norquist’s career—and in the political lives of
Muslims in this country. The following year, Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit
Islamic Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. Rove, now Mr. Bush’s
chief political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters
for the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among
Muslims with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest
. . . To run the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to
Khalid Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an
official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The
institute’s founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had
served with Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the
president in the White House, according to records obtained by the National
Security News Service.” (“In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On
Unlikely Advocate” by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson; The Wall Street Journal; 6/11/2003; pp. A1-A8.)
40.
On April 4, Treasury Secretary O’Neill met with powerful Islamist
Republicans whose spheres of interest overlap those of the institutions and
individuals targeted on March 20, 2002. (“O’Neill Met Muslim Activists Tied to
Charities” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Roger Thurow]; Wall Street Journal; 4/18/2002; p. A4.)
41.
A principal figure in the group that interceded on behalf of the
(alleged) Al Qaeda/Al Taqwa-connected targets of the Operation Green Quest
raids was Talat Othman, a close business and political associate of President
Bush. (For more about the Bush/Othman relationship, see—among programs—FTR”s 356, 368, 376, 447.) “Among the Muslim
leaders attending [the meeting with O’Neill] was Talat Othman, a longtime
associate and supporter of President Bush’s family, who gave a benediction at
the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August 2000 . . . But he
also serves [with Barzinji] on the board of Amana Mutual Funds Trust, an
investment firm founded by M. Yacqub Mirza, the Northern Virginia businessman
who set up most of the entities targeted by the Treasury and whose tax records
were sought in the raid.” (Idem.)
42.
As Mr. Emory hypothesized in FTR#353,
the Norquist/GOP/Islamist links are part of the Republican Party’s ethnic
outreach program. Again, one should note
that these elements are directly connected to Al Qaeda and exemplify the
Saudi/petroleum/GOP/Bush structural economic and political relationships at the
core of the corruption of investigations into Al Qaeda and 9/11. “The case also highlights conflicts between the Bush
administration’s domestic political goals and its war on terror. GOP officials
began courting the U.S. Muslim community intensely in the late 1990’s, seeking
to add that ethnic bloc to the party’s political base.” (Idem.) (For
more about the fascist heritage of the GOP’s ethnic outreach organization, see,
among other programs, RFA #37, FTR#’s
29, 48, 113, 248, 346, 353.)
43.
The Amana organization (on the board of which Othman serves) has
numerous areas of overlap with organizations described as being implicated in
terrorism and the milieu of Al Queda. “Two nonprofits affiliated with Mr. Mirza and named in the
search warrant, the SAAR Foundation Inc. and the Heritage Education Trust Inc.,
held large blocks of shares in Amana’s mutual funds in 1997, according to SEC
records. The SEC documents and other records detailing connections between Mr.
Othman and the Islamic Institute [on the board of which Mr. Othman serves] and
the raided groups were compiled by the National Security News Service, a
Washington based nonprofit research group.” (Idem.)
44.
Further details have emerged about the links between Al Taqwa and the
GOP/Bush administration. “Mr. Othman also is on the board of Mr. Saffuri’s [and
Norquist’s] Islamic Institute, the GOP-leaning group that received $20,000.00
from the Safa Trust, one of the raid’s targets. The president of the Safa
Trust, Jamal Barzinji, is a former
business associate of Switzerland based investor Youssef Nada, whose assets
were frozen last fall after the Treasury designated him a person suspected of
giving aid to terrorists. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)
45.
Othman’s links to Bush are profound. “Mr. Othman has ties to the Bush family going
back to the 1980’s, when he served with George W. Bush on the board of a Texas
petroleum firm, Harken Oil & Gas Inc. Mr. Othman has visited the White
House during the administrations of both President Bush and his father George
H.W. Bush.” (Idem.) (For more about Harken Oil and George W. Bush,
see FTR’s 284, 355, 356, 368, 376.)
46.
Next, the program reviews other areas of intersection between the
labyrinthine network attacked in the 3/20 raids, the Al Taqwa milieu, and the
Republican Party. [FTR#342 documented
the role of six members of the Bin Laden family in the founding of Al Taqwa.] A
recent Wall Street Journal article
described some of the organizations targeted in the raids: “These include Al-Taqwa Management, a
recently liquidated Swiss company the U.S. government believes acted as a
banker for Osama bin Laden’s al Queda terrorist network. . .Two people affiliated with the companies and
charities are linked by records to entities already designated as terrorist by
the U.S. government. Hisham Al-Talib, who served as an officer of SAAR, the
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Safa Trust Inc., another Mirza
charity, during the 1970’s was an officer of firms run by Youssef M. Nada,
records show. Mr. Nada is a Switzerland-based businessman whose assets have
been frozen by the U.S. for alleged involvement in terrorist financing, and is
alleged by U.S. officials to be a key figure in the Taqwa network. . .Jamal
Barzinji, an officer of Mr. Mirza’s company Mar-Jac and other entities, also
was involved with Mr. Nada’s companies in the 1970’s, according to bank
documents from Liechtenstein. A message was left yesterday for Mr. Barzinji at
his address in Herndon. Mr. Barzinji and Mr. Talib live across the street from
each other. A third business associate of Mr. Nada, Ali Ghaleb Himmat (who also
has been designated by the Treasury as aiding terrorism), is listed as an
official of the Geneva branch of another charity operated by Mr. Mirza, the
International Islamic Charitable Organization. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (“Funds Under Terror
Probe Flowed From Offshore” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Michael M. Phillips]; Wall Street Journal; 3/22/2002; p. A4.)
47.
Reviewing information from FTR#343,
we note that Nada himself is alleged to have been agent of the Abwehr, the
military intelligence service of the Third Reich. “But Yussef Nada is even better-known to the
Egyptian [intelligence] services, who have evidence of his membership in the
armed branch of the fraternity of the Muslim Brothers in the 1940’s. At that time,
according to the same sources, he was
working for the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and took part in a plot
against King Farouk. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] This was not the first time
that the path of the Muslim Brothers crossed that of the servants of the Third
Reich.” (Dollars for Terror:
The United States and Islam; by Richard Labeviere; Copyright 2000 [SC];
Algora Publishing; ISBN 1-892941-06-6; pp. 140-141.)
48.
Next, the program reviews information first presented in FTR#432. This part of the broadcast
highlights the administration’s frustration of Operation Green Quest--the law
enforcement/intelligence community operation aimed at interdicting funding for
Islamist terrorists, including Al Qaeda. (For more about Operation Green Quest,
see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356,
357, 359, 382, 387, 389, 406, 423, 425, 432, 433, 435, 439, 442, 447, 450.)
In addition to the profound business connections between the Bush milieu and
the Saudis implicated in terrorist funding, Operation Green Quest uncovered
concrete links between the GOP and Muslim elements involved with the Muslim
Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Al Taqwa and Hamas. “ . . . But despite those efforts, the United States has
made only limited progress in blocking the funding of terrorists. Al Qaeda and
other Islamic terrorist groups remain well financed. And one of their major
sources of funding, a network of Islamic charities financed by Saudi Arabia,
remains relatively uninterrupted. Its tough talk notwithstanding, the Bush
Administration has failed to take decisive action against this significant
source of terror financing—in part, it seems, to protect the government of
Saudi Arabia and its friends in Washington.” (“Charity Cases: Why
Has the Bush Administration Failed to Stop Saudi Funding of Terrorism?” by
David Armstrong; Harper’s;
March/2004; p. 81.)
49.
Among the many concrete efforts by the Bush administration on behalf of
Saudi-related elements implicated in Al Qaeda activities was the
administration’s redaction of 28 pages of a congressional report on 9/11. Those
pages related to Saudi charities and individuals believed to be financing Al
Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. “The Bush Administration has adopted an approach to Saudi
terrorist funding that would best be described as hands-off. For example, last
summer it censored the twenty-eight pages on the subject from a congressional
report on the September 11 attacks and refused to release the names of Saudi
entities suspected to be financiers of terrorism . . . .” (Idem.)
50.
“ . . . In
other cases, the Bush Administration made a conscious decision not to pursue
major Saudi conduits for terrorist funding. The clearest example involves two
ostensible charities that are long known to have funneled money to Al Qaeda—the
International Islamic Relief organization (IIRO) and the Muslim World League
(MWL). Both are financed directly by the Saudi government. MWL is an
evangelical organization that was created to help spread Wahhabism, the Saudi
brand of Islamic fundamentalism; IIRO is a humanitarian relief organization
that operates primarily in Muslim countries. Yet a 1996 CIA report alleged that
IIRO helped to fund six militant training camps in Afghanistan, and noted that
the former head of the group’s Philippines office—Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law—had
been linked to plots to ‘target the pope and U.S. airlines.’ U. S. intelligence
officials also believe that MWL employees were involved in the 1998 bombing of
two U.S. embassies in Africa. Although both IIRO and MWL were known to have funded
Al Qaeda, U.S. government sources indicated to Newsweek in October 2001 that the Bush Administration left the two
organizations off the list of designated terrorist group in order to spare the
Saudi government from embarrassment.” (Idem.)
51.
Among the fish netted by Operation Green Quest is Abdurahman Alamoudi,
himself very close to the GOP. (For more about Alamoudi, see—among other
programs—FTR#’s 433, 435.) Note that
the responsibility for Operation Green Quest has been given to the FBI, which
has been less than forthcoming with those involved in the investigation. This has largely neutralized the Operation
Green Quest investigation. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 425, 433, 435.) Note that Robert
Mueller, head of the FBI, is compromised by his past (and less than vigorous)
investigations into the Saudi/Bush/intelligence connection. (For more about
this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s
310, 424.) “On
top of this, the most promising domestic inquiry into these Saudi groups has
been dismantled. In March 2002, as part of a Customs Service investigation
known as Operation Green Quest, government investigators raided the Virginia
offices of IIRO and MWL, along with a number of other Saudi-backed charities
and businesses. Although the raids turned up concrete evidence that elements of
the network had funded individuals and groups designated as terrorists by the
United States, no assets have been frozen and that the few, belated arrests in
this case have been made on charges unrelated to terrorist financing. In
particular, Abdurahman Alamoudi, who heads a group called the Success
Foundation—which in the late 1990’s absorbed the U.S. operations of IIRO—has
been charged only with accepting money from Libya and with immigration
violations, despite evidence, seized from the offices of Success and other
groups he controls, of their material support not just for Hamas but for two
known Al Qaeda fronts. (Alamoudi was once caught on tape remarking that he
disapproved of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa only because no
Americans were killed, and that instead he preferred more ‘strategic’ targets
such as the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which had been bombed in
1994.) Now, under an agreement between Attorney General John Ashcroft and
department of Homeland Security head Tom Ridge signed in May 2003, the Customs
Service—part of Homeland Security since last March—has relinquished control of
its counterterrorism investigations to the FBI, which repeatedly had refused to
turn over critical investigative files to Green Quest agents. This deal between
Ashcroft and Ridge effectively shut down Green Quest, quashing the one
serious—if flawed—probe into domestic terrorist financing. . . .” (Ibid.;
pp. 81-82.)
52.
In the context of the frustration of Operation Green Quest, the program
notes again the connections between the institutions and individuals targeted
in the 3/20/2002 raids and the GOP. (For more about this subject, see—among
other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 368,
376, 415, 433, 435.) “ . . . But the dilemma, for the Bush Administration,
extends far beyond issues of history. Many prominent politicians—not least
among them the Bushes—have for years maintained close political, business, and
personal dealings with the Saudi royal family and, more generally, Saudi
interests. The extent of the administration’s difficulties on this front became
clear shortly after the Green Quest raids in March 2002. Just two weeks after
the Customs task force raided the Saudi-backed groups in northern Virginia, two
leading Muslim activists with ties to the groups were allowed to meet with Paul
O’Neill, then secretary of the Treasury Department (which, at the time,
controlled Customs) to complain about the conduct of the raids. The meeting was
arranged by Grover Norquist, the influential Republican activist; Norquist is
also the founder and former chair of the Islamic Institute, a conservative
Muslim outreach group in which both of the men who met with O’Neill are
officers and which has received funding from some of the raided individuals and
groups, including Abdurahman Alamoudi.” (Idem.)
53.
As discussed above, Talat Othman (a close associate of Both Georges
Bush) interceded on behalf of the targets of Operation Green Quest. (For more
about this, see FTR#’s 356, 376, 415.)
“And the
connections do not end there. One of the Muslim activists who met with O’Neill
was Talat Othman, a longtime friend and former business associate of President
Bush. The two served together on the board of the Texas-based oil company
Harken Energy starting in the late 1980’s and have remained close ever since.
Othman sat on Harken’s board as the representative of Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a
Saudi business magnate and a close associate of suspected terrorist financier
Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bakhsh now heads an oil company that is a subsidiary of
Halliburton, the energy giant formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney.” (Idem.)
54.
“In addition to
his work at the Islamic Institute, Othman serves on the board of Amana Mutual
Funds Trust, an Islamic investment group that had close ties to raided entities
and yet was not itself targeted. At the time of the Green Quest raids, in March
2002, at least four figures from the targeted groups were affiliated with
Amana, icluding M. Yaqub Mirza, the individual who set up the U.S. branch of
MWL, the fund-raising arm of the U.S. branch of IIRO, and many of the other
raided organizations. Despite Mirza’s presence on the board, and despite the
fact that large sums of money from the suspect groups have moved through Amana,
Green Quest agents chose not to raid the firm.” (Idem.)
55.
As noted in—among other broadcasts—FTR#’s
356, 357, 376, 390, 415, 423, 433,
435, the milieu of the
3/20-targeted SAAR network and the other objects of the Green Quest raids
significantly overlaps the GOP’s ethnic outreach organization and the Bush
administration. The fact that elements of the Al Qaeda milieu appear to have
been involved in Western intelligence covert operations in the Balkans, as well
as the inconvenient GOP ethnic/Green Quest connection may well explain the
FBI’s and CIA’s hostile interest in the investigators
of Operation Green Quest. The investigators who were so harassed included Rita
Katz, A.K.A. “Anonymous.” “The CIA was investigating me and the SAAR investigators
from Green Quest and Customs. The CIA and the FBI investigated everyone who had
anything to do with the SAAR investigation. White vans and SUV’s with dark
windows appeared near all the homes of the SAAR investigators. All agents, some
of whom were very experienced with surveillance, knew they were being followed.
So was I. I felt that I was being followed everywhere and watched at home, in
the supermarket, on the way to work . . . and for what? . . .” (Terrorist
Hunter by “Anonymous” [Rita Katz]; CCC [imprint of Harper Collins];
Copyright 2003 by Harper Collins [HC]; ISBN 0-06-052819-2; p. 328.)
56.
“ . . . The
Customs agents were questioned. So were their supervisors. So was the U.S.
attorney on the SAAR case. One of the questions they were all asked was whether
they’d leaked material to me. They all kept saying that this was the most
preposterous idea; they all said that before I came, none of them had the
slightest clue about SAAR and 555. They said that there was nothing of value
they could give me that I didn’t have already. That it was I who gave them the
material, not the other way around. None of the investigated parties has the
slightest clue as to the real reason they were being investigated.” (Ibid.; p. 329.)
57.
“Risking
criticism for being unfoundedly paranoid, I must convey my theory about the
investigation and CIA’s involvement in it, I don’t know for certain what’s the
deal with the CIA investigating the SAAR investigators, but it sure feels as if
someone up in that agency doesn’t like the idea that the Saudi Arabian boat is
rocked. The raids on 555 had taken place already—the CIA couldn’t change
that—but investigating and giving the people behind the raids a hard time is a
most efficient way of making sure the SAAR investigation stops there. Which,
come to think of it, may be the reason the government looks so unfavorably on
the lawsuit filed by 9-11 victims’ families against several Saudi entities and
individuals, accusing them of funding terrorism and seeking damages.” (Idem.)
58.
Recently, Richard Clarke has been highly visible because of his
criticism of the Bush administration’s 9/11 investigation. He also discussed
the counterproductive effect of turning the Operation Green Quest investigation
over to the FBI. “The US effort to shut down financial support for terrorist networks is
being seriously hampered by a government reorganization that has left the most
experienced agencies without any real power, the US government’s former top
counter-terrorism official said yesterday. Richard Clarke, who headed
counter-terrorism at the White House for the Clinton and Bush administrations
before leaving government earlier this year, said the decision to put the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in charge of terror finance investigations, and
to give new powers to the Department of Homeland Security, had set the campaign
back.” (“Shake-Up Amid War on
Terror ‘Has Hit Campaign’” by Edward Alden; Financial
Times; 10/23/2003; p. 2.)
59.
Of paramount importance in the context of the program is Clarke’s
analysis that the Bush administration’s reorganization of the government has
actually hampered the fight against
terror financing. He specifically cites the shifting of responsibility for
Operation Green Quest to the FBI as a reason to fear what is taking place.
Recall that the Operation Green Quest milieu is inextricably linked to the
GOP/Bush administration/Bush business nexus. (For more about the Bush/GOP/Green
Quest links, see—among other programs—FTR#’s
356, 357, 359, 368, 376, 382, 405, 407, 412, 415, 425, 433.) Recall that
Bush (Senior) Justice Department official Robert Mueller was placed in charge
of the FBI in July of 2001. His “oversight” of the BCCI investigation
compromises his ability to investigate Green Quest and the vitally important
links between Bush and the Saudis. (See FTR#’s
310, 424.) “
‘Reorganizing the federal government in the middle of the war on terrorism was
perhaps not the brightest thing we could have done,’ he told the committee. The
administration agreed earlier this year to designate the FBI as the lead
organization for investigating terror finance networks, moving a separate
investigative team, known as Operation Green Quest from the Customs Service to
the FBI. In addition, Customs was moved to the new Homeland Security
department, breaking it away from other agencies in the Treasury department
that play a key role in terror finance investigations and enforcement. The move
came at a sensitive time when the Treasury was leading a series of actions,
including the investigation into a broad network of Saudi-backed charities based
in northern Virginia.” (Idem.)
60.
“ ‘Having the
current structure where the FBI is in charge and tells everybody else what to
do, is a recipe, I think for failure,’ said Mr. Clarke. He added: ‘The FBI by
tradition doesn’t co-operate well with other federal agencies and it doesn’t
share information. It treats other federal agencies as second-class
participants in the overall effort.’” (Idem.)
61.
The broadcast closes with discussion of the Iraq war. Reviewing
information from FTR#404, the
program highlights disturbing indications of Saddam Hussein’s possible
recruitment of Al Qaeda as a “backup unit” in the event of an American
invasion. Is this part of the
Underground Reich’s conspiracy against the United States? Have we walked into a
trap? “It appears, however, that this version is only
the publicly admissible one, the one that can pass political muster. According
to the same sources, there was another scenario more in keeping with the
calculating mentality of Saddam Hussein and his secret services. In 1998, after
declining all offers that had to them through official diplomatic channels,
those services are reported to have established a secret operational
‘connection’ with bin Laden in Manila and in Kashmir. It was indeed difficult
for Iraq to ignore an Arab like Osama bin Laden who ‘so effectively humiliated
the Americans.’ Colonel Khairallah al Takiriti, brother of the head of
Mukkhabarat, the intelligence services, is reported to have been named case
officer for the connection. The arrest of two Morroccan associates of bin Laden
in Rabat on November 11, 1998, made it possible to establish to establish the
link with certainty. According to Western sources, the Iraqi services have
sought to secure the assistance of bin Laden’s networks, in case Iraq were again
to be attacked by the United States, in order to carry out attacks against
American targets in Arab countries.” (In the Name of Osama Bin Laden; by
Roland Jacquard; Copyright 2002 [SC]; Duke University Press; ISBN
0-8223-2991-3; pp. 112-113.)
62.
“According to
Arab sources, in anticipation of a foreseeable reversal of alliances in Kabul,
bin Laden had been in discreet contact since September 2000 with associates of
Oudai Hussein, another of Saddam’s sons; the ground for agreement was the
anti-Israeli and anti-American battle. Bin Laden and the Iraqis are said to
have exchanged information about chemical and biological weapons, despite the
opposition of some of the Baghdad leadership, including Tarik Aziz.” (Ibid.;
p. 113.)
63.
U.S. intelligence analysts have noted that the US invasion of Iraq
accelerated the recruitment of Islamists to the Al Qaeda cause. “The U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama bin Laden’s
anti-Americanism among once local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger
to the United States as the al Qaeda network is becoming less able to mount
attacks, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and State
Department. At the same time, the Sunni Triangle has become a training ground
for foreign Islamic jihadists who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam
Hussein loyalists to test themselves against U.S. and coalition forces, these
officials say.” (“Spread of Bin Laden Ideology Cited” by Walter
Pincus; Washington Post; 4/4/2004; p.
1; accessed at: www.washingtonpost.com
.)
64.
That this would be part of the outcome of the US invasion was predicted
by Rand Beers, a NSC counter-terror expert. He has noted that the Bush
administration has made this country less safe, not more safe. “ ‘The
administration wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism.
They’re making us less secure, not more secure,’ said Beers, who until now has
remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as
special assistant to the president for combating terrorism. ‘As an insider, I
saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the
more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out . . .’” (“Former
Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror” by Laura Blumenfeld; The Washington Post; 6/16/2003; p. 1; accessed at www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62941-2003Jun15?
.)
65.
“ . . . Much of
what he knows is classified and cannot be discussed. Nevertheless, Beers will
say that the administration is ‘underestimating the enemy.’ It has failed to
address the root causes of terror, he said, ‘The difficult, long-term issues
both at home and abroad have been avoided, neglected or shortchanged and
generally underfunded.’ The focus on Iraq has robbed domestic security of
manpower, brain power and money, he said. The Iraq war created fissures in the
United States’ counterterrorism alliances, he said, and could breed a new
generation of Al Qaeda recruits. Many of his government colleagues, he said,
thought Iraq was an ‘ill-conceived and poorly executed strategy.’” (Idem.)