FTR#603—I Told You So, Part
III—Update on the Subversion of Operation Green Quest--(Two 30-minute segments.)
(Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 7/8/2007.)
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.)
Note!! WFMU is now
podcasting the For The Record Shows. For details, access: http://podcast.wfmu.org/
Listeners are emphatically encouraged to use the
internet to disseminate as much of the audio and printed material as possible. Note: all of this material is free.
Note: It is
recommended that listeners print the program descriptions for optimum
readability. It is emphatically encouraged
that listeners use the printed files on the Spitfire web site and the audio
files on the WFMU web sites to create their own research/teaching databases.
NEW!! A diligent listener is turning the For The Record
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a blog for the RFA descriptions: http://rfaSummary.blogspot.com/. Listeners
are emphatically encouraged to utilize these spots.
Listeners are
strongly encouraged to utilize the SPITFIRE search function in order to enhance
their understanding of the material. The search function can be accessed at: http://www.spitfirelist.com/FTR_search.html.
NOTE: TWO
LECTURES PRESENTING MR. EMORY’S VIEWS OF WHAT WE CAN EXPECT IN THE FUTURE ARE
NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWLOAD FOR FREE IN
BOTH REAL AUDIO AND MP3. These lectures are:
L-1: ‘The Political Implications of the UFO Phenomenon and the ‘ET’ Myth’; and
L-2: ‘The Future--Technology, Theocracy and the Thousand-Year-Reich.’
Descriptions are available in the Lecture Series section.
NEW!! A number of
vitally important books are now available for download for FREE. The books are:
Martin Bormann: Nazi in
Exile by Paul Manning; The Nazis Go Underground
by Curt Reiss; and All Honorable Men (parts 1 and 2) by James
Stewart Martin. Taken together, these books will provide a significant
understanding of the concept and reality of The Underground Reich, and they can
be downloaded with a modem Internet connection. They are available at: Spitfirelist.com/Books. In addition, we have added Cairo to Damascus by John Roy Carlson [1951], Germany Plots with the Kremlin by T.H. Tetens [1953], and Armies of Spies by Joseph Golomb [1939].
Yet another recent addition is Germany’s
Master Plan by Joseph Borkin and Charles Welsh. (Borkin is the author of
the 1979 classic The Crime and Punishment
of I.G. Farben.) Another anti-fascist classic about I.G. Farben supplements
the Borkin and Welsh text—Treason’s Peace
by Howard Watson Ambruster. Two more recently-posted gems are The Thousand-Year Conspiracy by Paul
Winkler and Falange by Alan Chase,
both published in 1943. The Winkler text documents the evolution of militant
Pan-Germanism from the Teutonic Knights to the Nazis and Falange documents the Third Reich’s geopolitical goals in the
Spanish-speaking world. By the time many of you read this description, more of
the long-out-of-print anti-fascist books that are more than 50 years old will
have been added to the Spitfirelist.com/Books URL. The Manning text’s URL also features a discussion of
Paul Manning’s career and professional credentials. Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile is also available in html. Note also that FTR#305
has a synoptic overview of the Bormann organization. An understanding of the
Bormann organization is essential for an in-depth grasp of the arguments
presented on For The Record.
Note also that U.S. Government documents proving Prescott
Bush Sr.’s Money-Laundering on behalf of the Third Reich before and after World
War II are available at a linked website, along with commentary by John
Buchanan, who located the documentation. This material is discussed in FTR#435.
The website containing the documents is www.debatecomics.org/BushFamilyFortune/.
New! The 1990
Archive Show “Uncle Sam and Il Duce: American Support for Mussolini and the
Mythology of the Corporate State” is now available for download for FREE on
MP3! This program is arguably the best post-World War II analysis of classical
fascism—what Mussolini called “The Corporate State.” Check it out at: http://www.spitfirelist.com/Archives/
For the
“Controlled Demolition Person” in your life: if someone you know is hooked on
the “controlled demolition of the World Trade Center” disinformation vis a vis
the 9/11 attacks, it is recommended that you refer them to this: http://www.implosionworld.com/Article-WTC%20STUDY%208-06%20w%20clarif%20as%20of%209-8-06%20.pdf
Summary of FTR#603—(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. FTR#’s 454, 455, 456 are compilations of much of the key documentation
culled from Mr. Emory’s investigation into 9/11. Along with FTR#391, they should give
listeners/readers a substantive grasp of this momentous event. It is
recommended that listeners use this description and e-mail it to others.) Illustrating investigative
and historical methodology, this program excerpts several of Mr. Emory’s
broadcasts recorded from 2001 to 2004. The excerpts document the suppression of
the 9/11 money trail. Beginning with FTR#310, the program
highlights the consequences of the appointment of Robert Mueller as FBI
director. In that program, Mr. Emory suggested that Mueller’s appointment may
have been realized in order to cover up the BCCI milieu. (For more about BCCI,
see—among other programs—FTR#589.)
If properly investigated, the BCCI case would have revealed the elder George
Bush’s involvement with drug and weapons trafficking and the younger George
Bush’s business connections to the family of Osama bin Laden. In the Justice
Department of the elder Bush, Mueller proved less than vigorous in pursuing the
investigation. In the spring of 2002, Mr. Emory recorded FTR#356, which noted the
profound links between the Bush administration, the GOP hierarchy and the
individuals and institutions busted in the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest
raids on suspected terrorist funding sources. Bush associate Talat Othman
interceded with then Treasury Secretary O’Neill on behalf of the targets of the
raid. [Othman himself is a protégé of the BCCI milieu.] Much of this broadcast
consists of excerpts from subsequent For The
Record broadcasts chronicling the FBI and Justice Department
obstruction of Operation Green Quest, just as Mr. Emory foreshadowed in FTR#310. Note: this material is presented to illustrate investigative
methodology, as well as critical information linking the 9/11 money trail to
associates of the Bush administration. It is not presented as an exercise in
conceit or puffery.
Program Highlights Include: The fact that Mr. Emory’s prediction about
Mueller’s appointment aired right across the river from the World Trade Center
the night before the attacks; discussion of the frustration of John O’Neill’s
investigation of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole; O’Neill’s death the night after
the airing of FTR#310 on WFMU; Bush associate Talat Othman’s links to GOP
bigwig Grover Norquist and his Islamic Institute; the FBI and CIA’s
surveillance and harassment of Rita Katz and other Green Quest investigators;
the continuing cover-up of the 9/11 money trail by elements of the Department
of Homeland Security; the Bush administration’s early attempts at frustrating
investigations of Saudi financing of terrorism.
1.
The program begins
by reviewing information from FTR#310
[the information in paragraphs 1-3 is from that program’s
description]. Recorded in early July of 2001 [the recording date in the Spitfire
catalog is incorrect], the program was broadcast on Monday, 9/10/2001 at
6pm on WFMU-FM, right across the river from what was to become Ground Zero the
next day. Note that John O’Neill died in the attacks on 9/11. Mr. Emory’s
broadcast foreshadowed many aspects of the 9/11 investigation. In the early
summer of 2001, George W. Bush selected Robert Mueller, a member of his
father’s Justice Department, to be FBI director. ("S.F. Prosecutor Mueller
Picked to Lead FBI, Mend Its Image" by Zachary Coile and Bob Egelko; San
Francisco Chronicle; 7/6/2001; pp. A1-A12.)
2.
In his work for the
Bush Justice Department, Mueller was less than vigorous in his role overseeing
the prosecution of General Noriega of Panama and the BCCI case. (“In the
Running for FBI Director” by Stacy Finz; San Francisco Chronicle;
7/1/2001; pp. A1-A6.) Both the BCCI case and the Noriega case overlap the
Iran-Contra investigation and the elder Bush was principally involved in the
Iran-Contra imbroglio. Full disclosure concerning the BCCI case could lead to
investigation of James R. Bath, the Texas business representative of the Bin
Laden family and one of the financiers of George W.’s first oil venture. (See
also: FTR #’s 182, 186, 248, 256, 277, 292, 308, 315.) Bin Laden’s forces
have formally taken credit for bombing the U.S.S. Cole during the campaign.
("Islamic Militants Brag They Bombed Warship Cole" by Diana Elias
[AP]; San Francisco Chronicle; 6/20/2001; p. A8.) Mr. Emory has
speculated that the Cole bombing may have been executed for the benefit of the
Bush campaign. (See also: L
#’s 9, 10.)
3.
In that context, the
broadcast suggests the possibility that some of the difficulties that the FBI
(among other institutions) has encountered in connection with the investigation
of the Cole bombing may result from obstruction by the Bush camp. An
investigation of the Saudi backers of Osama bin Laden leads to individuals and
institutions connected to the GOP and powerful American-based transnational
corporations. ("U.S. Faces Hurdles in Approach to USS Cole Probe" by
David S. Cloud and Neil King, Jr.; Wall Street Journal; 7/6/2001; p.
A10.)
4.
Next, the program
highlights information originally presented in FTR#356, recorded in April
of 2002. On April 4 of 2002, Treasury Secretary O’Neill met with powerful
Islamist Republicans, whose spheres of interest overlap those of the
institutions and individuals targeted by the Operation Green Quest raids 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.)
5.
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. As Mr. Emory
foreshadowed in FTR#310,
when the money trail to 9/11 was investigated, it revealed links between the
terror financing structure and the milieu of the Bush administration. Othman is
deeply involved with the BCCI milieu. Again, for more about the Othman/BCCI
milieu, see FTR#356
(For more about the Bush/Othman relationship and the GOP/Islamist connection,
see—among programs—FTR#s 356,
368, 447, 454, 462, 464, 467, 515.) “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.)
6.
Othman has links to
Gaith Pharoan of the BCCI. “Sheikh Abdullah
Bakhsh, in turn, was a business associate of BCCI front man Gaith Pharoan; he
bought a chunk of Harken’s stock and placed his representative, Talat Othman,
on Harken Energy’s board of directors.” (“Bush Family Value$: The
Bush Clan’s Family Business” by Stephen Pizzo; Mother Jones;
September/October 1992; accessed at www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html
.) (For more about Nugan Hand, see RFA#’s 4, 25, 30.)
7.
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.)
8.
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.)
9.
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.)
10.
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.)
11.
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.)
12.
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.)
13.
Next, the program
reviews information first presented in FTR#432 [5/30/04], and
analyzed at greater length in 454
[4/4/04]. 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, 462, 464, 467.) 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.)
14.
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.)
15.
“ .
. . 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.)
16.
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. As foreshadowed
by Mr. Emory, Mueller and his bureau have been less than vigorous in their
investigation of the financial trail to the 9/11 attacks, as well. (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.)
17.
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, 368, 447, 454, 462, 464, 467, 515.) “ . . . 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.)
18.
As discussed above,
Talat Othman (a close associate of Both Georges Bush) interceded on behalf of
the targets of Operation Green Quest. “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.)
19.
“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, including 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.)
20.
Recapping information presented in FTR#’s 425, 569 [among other
programs], the broadcast notes how the FBI and CIA turned on the investigators
of Operation Green Quest, including investigator Rita Katz, the author of Terrorist
Hunter. Rita’s associates in Green Quest were investigated and harassed by
the FBI. In FTR#310 (recorded
in July of 2001) Mr. Emory hypothesized that Robert Mueller was appointed head
of the FBI in order to safeguard the Bush administration’s links with the
milieu of the BCCI and George W. Bush’s business links to the Bin Laden family. “ . . . For two months after the raids I didn’t hear a
word from Green Quest. Then one day Mark suddenly called and asked to see me.
‘Why?’ I said cynically. ‘Your investigation is over. You don’t need me
anymore.’ He understood. ‘Please don’t be cross,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t talk to
you. I too was under investigation. I was being followed, my phones were
tapped, and I was questioned. I was miserable. They gave me a very hard time. Please don’t give
any more grief. I don’t deserve it.’ What was this, I thought, another rerun of
the story with John Canfield? What’s wrong with these people who keep
investigating the investigators? ‘If you don’t believe me,’ he continued, ‘talk
to the U.S. attorney you worked with. He’ll tell you. He and everyone else on
the team were under investigation.’ Mark, I knew, was not a guy to make
something like that up. But I was curious, and I called the U.S. attorney to
get his take. I didn’t press him too, much, because the whole thing was—and
probably still is—under investigation. But he did verify everything Mark had
told me. Practically everyone involved with the SAAR investigation had been
under surveillance. The FBI was among the agencies conducting that
investigation.” (Terrorist Hunter
by “Anonymous” [Rita Katz]; CCC [imprint of Harper Collins]; Copyright 2003 by
Harper Collins [HC]; ISBN 0-06-052819-2; p. 327.)
21.
Note that the FBI gave more documents to Zacarias Moussaoui for his
defense than to the Green Quest investigators. “No
wonder! The FBI had long set its sights on this investigation, which became so
major and so famous. The Bureau had already been meddling in the SAAR
investigation in a manner less than gentlemanly; after the raids, people who
had information about the SAAR network called to offer their tips. Unaware of
who was in charge of the investigation, some of those people called and gave
their tips to the FBI. The FBI, instead of forwarding the tips to the people in
charge—Green Quest—kept the leads to themselves and initiated their own probes
into those leads, sharing neither with Customs. Moreover, at some point, the
two FBI agents in Virginia stopped helping Green Quest abruptly and completely.
It was obvious that they’d been instructed to do that. The FBI continues to
refuse to give Green Quest documents needed for its investigation. The FBI
treats Green Quest worse than it does the enemy; Zacarias Moussaoui received
from the FBI more documents pertaining to his investigation—including a good
number of classified documents—than did Green Quest! And of course the ultimate
scandal is that all this is taking place after 9-11. . . .” (Idem.)
22.
The inconvenient GOP
ethnic/Green Quest connection cited in paragraph #5 may well explain the
FBI’s and CIA’s hostile interest in the investigators of Operation Green
Quest. “Yet the FBI wasn’t the worst part in that
sticky affair. The CIA was. 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? .
Now—I was being watched 24/7. It’s a terrible sensation to know that you have
no privacy. . . . and no security. That strange clicking of the phones that
wasn’t there before. . . the oh-so-crudely opened mail at home in the office. .
.and the same man I spied in my neighborhood supermarket, who was also on the
train I took to Washington a week ago. . .Life can be miserable when you know
that someone’s always breathing down your neck.” (Ibid.; pp.
328-329.)
23.
“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.)
24.
“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.)
25.
The program
concludes with review of information from FTR#462 [5/30/04].
Supplementing previous discussion of the FBI’s failure to cooperate with other
agencies in pursuing Operation Green Quest (FTR#’s 432, 433), the program notes
that the effort has largely been frustrated, courtesy of the Bureau. “While the U.S. military wages war in Iraq, the FBI and
the new Department of Homeland Security are fighting their own fierce
battle—against each other. The causus belli of this conflict is Operation Green
Quest—the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al
Qaeda and other international terrorist groups. Ever since Green Quest was
created by former U.S. Customs chief Robert Bonner just after the September 11
terror attacks, Green Quest agents have conducted some of the Bush
administration’s best-publicized and most controversial terrorist-finance
cases—including a series of raids against the offices of Islamic charities in
the Washington area last year that drew strong protests from American Muslim
and civil-rights groups. [These were the Operation Green Quest raids of
3/20/2002—D.E.]” (“Whose War on Terror?”; Newsweek;
12/10/2003; p. 1; accessed at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3068377/
.)
26.
“But
as the Green Quest team made headlines, its investigations triggered a bitter
dispute within the government. Internally, FBI officials have derided Green
Quest agents as a bunch of ‘cowboys’ whose actions have undermined more
important, long-range FBI investigations into terrorist financing. Green Quest
sources, in turn, accuse the FBI of jealousy. Now that the Customs-led Green
Quest operation has been folded into the new Homeland Security Department, Newsweek
has learned, the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice Department, have
demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Green
Quest. One senior law-enforcement official called the lack of coordination between
the FBI and Green Quest ‘an intolerable situation’ and noted that the
bureau-not Homeland Security—has been formally designated by President Bush as
the ‘lead agency’ for terrorism investigations. ‘You can’t have two lead
agencies’ conducting terror cases, the official said.” (Idem.)
27.
Green Quest
investigators from the Department of Homeland Security charge that the FBI is
deliberately sabotaging their investigations. “The
FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and
Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security
officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Green Quest
investigations—by failing to turn over critical information to their agents—and
trying to obscure a decades long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed
to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.” (Idem.)
28.
“
‘They [The FBI] won’t share anything with us,’ said a Homeland Security
official. ‘Then they go to the White House and they accuse us of not sharing .
. . If they can’t take it over, they want to kill it.’ If nothing else, the
battle over Green Quest illustrates the bureaucratic tensions that still plague
the war on terror. The creation of the Homeland Security Department was
supposed to put an end to such turf fights. The new department took over a
diverse assortment of federal agencies that had various responsibilities for
combating terrorism, including the Customs Service, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and the U.S. Border Patrol.” (Ibid.;
pp. 1-2.)
29.
Among the more
alarming details about the Ptech debacle concerns a statement attributed to the
president of Ptech. He allegedly told a subordinate that Yaqub Mirza—a member
of the board of directors—had connections high up in the FBI! Mirza set up
the organizations targeted in the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002! Ptech
developed the threat-assessment software architecture for the Air Force, the
FAA, NORAD and the Department of Energy [among other agencies]. It is Mr.
Emory’s belief that the Ptech situation may well have had much to do with the
anomalous performance of air-defense units on 9/11. For more about Ptech,
see—among other programs—FTR#’s 462, 464, 467. Note that the FBI
dragged its feet in the Ptech investigation and it was the Customs department
that ultimately moved on Ptech, despite indications that the company had been
financed by people linked to terrorism, Al Qaeda in particular. “Furthermore, the FBI was aware that Ptech provided computer
software for several government agencies, including the FBI itself, the FAA,
the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Defense, the IRS, and the White House,
proving a visible and viable threat to national security. The FBI ignored the
repeated requests of concerned employees. Frighteningly, when an employee
told the President of Ptech he felt he had to contact the FBI regarding Qadi’s
involvement in the company, the president allegedly told him not to worry
because Yaqub Mirza, who was on the board of directors of the company and was
himself a target of a terrorist financing raid in March 2002, had contacts high
within the FBI. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s]. After months of the FBI refusing
to do anything substantive, it took the efforts of U.S. Customs, now a part of
Homeland Security, to raid the business in December 2002 and jumpstart the
investigation into the alleged terrorist financial network.” (Idem.)
30.
The FBI had
previously ignored the organizations set up by Mirza and targeted in the
3/20/2002 Green Quest raids (the SAAR network). “Perhaps
the FBI’s biggest blunder was in ignoring the enormous alleged terrorist
financial network of companies and nonprofit organizations mostly in Herndon,
Virginia, named by investigators as the ‘SAAR Network.’ The FBI had been aware
of the SAAR Network was funneling money to [Sami] al-Arian. The FBI chose to
ignore the case for unknown reasons, though some have speculated it was due to
the SAAR Network’s close association to wealthy Saudis who funded the network.” (Idem.)
31.
“It
was not until Operation Green Quest, a joint task force headed by U.S. Customs
which sought to disrupt terrorist financing, picked up the scent of the SAAR
Network that a raid occurred. In March, 2002, Green Quest, in a victory for
Americans everywhere, raided the SAAR Network in 15 locations in the largest
terrorist financial bust in U.S. history. . . .” (Ibid.;
pp. 2-3.)
32.
More about the frustration
of Operation Green Quest: “ . . . Now, the FBI is
attempting to wrest the SAAR Network investigation from Green Quest and take
all the credit for Green Quest’s dedication and hard work. The agreement
between Ashcroft and Ridge is a crushing blow to Green Quest, as it effectively
dissolves the outstanding task force. According to the memorandum, ‘The
secretary of [Homeland Security] agrees that no later than June 30, 2003,
Operation Green Quest (OGQ) will no longer exist as a program name.’ [Italics
are Mr. Emory’s].” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
33.
“Green
Quest, the most successful antiterrorist-financing task squad in history of the
United States, is being disbanded because of the FBI’s lust for power and
glory. At a time when al Qaeda is resurging, the more agencies we have sharing
information and investigating terrorism, the better off this nation will be.
Given the FBI’s track record, the bureau should be punished, not rewarded for
unjustifiably bullying a new department into giving it more power, especially after
FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted the bureau does not have the analytical
capability to provide effective counterterrorism. . . .” (Idem.)
34.
Two video productions are being generated by a couple of
documentary filmmakers. One is a DVD of a three-lecture series called “The
First Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Relationship Between Fascism and Religion.” To
learn more about this, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4YPCdFu7OE.
In addition, there will soon be a documentary about Mr. Emory, titled “The
Anti-Fascist.” For more about this project, visit: http://www.theantifascist.com/.