George W. Bush knew!
All the desperate lies and spin don't change the fact that the Bush
administration had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks By Larry Chin - -
Online Journal Contributing Editor
May 19, 2002-George W. Bush knew. And his administration knew.
The transparently dishonest denials issued by the White House do not stand
up to the slightest scrutiny. They are lying. A simple examination of
existing information, gathered from reliable, open sources proves it.
Last night, Michael C. Ruppert of From The Wilderness was scheduled to
present his case for Bush 9/11 foreknowledge before a national TV audience
on Geraldo Rivera's Fox News program. At the last minutes, this live
appearance was cancelled.
Coincidence? Ruppert's appearance, which could have caused immeasurable
damage to the administration, was allegedly prompted by "breaking news" from
the White House suggesting "imminent new terrorist attacks." "Wag the dog"?
What desperate measures will this cabal resort to in order to remain in
power? How many more lives will they take?
Backed into a Corner at Every Turn
On May 15, Press Secretary and official White House liar Ari Fleischer
nervously stuttered, "The president did not receive information about the
use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers. This was a new type of
attack that was not foreseen."
This was followed by Condoleeza Rice, who repeated the spin: "I don't think
that anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane
and slam it into the World Trade Center."
Bush himself issued a statement that he had no indication beforehand that
"terrorists would hijack jets and deliberately crash them."
The White House would have us believe that not a single individual in the
entire US government, nor the entire Central Intelligence Agency, had
knowledge about a method of terrorism that has been routine for more than 20
years. And that not a single person in the entire national security
apparatus of the US had a shred of information on training camps in Iran (a
hotspot of intense US intelligence focus for decades) devoted to this method
of terrorism.
Yossef Bodansky is a director of the Task Force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare in the US House of Representatives, and the author of
the book "Bin Laden: The Man Who Targeted America." Bodansky is a Washington
insider whose views are sought after, respected and broadly disseminated
throughout the US government.
In a well-publicized paper from 1993, he stated, "The training of suicide
pilots started in the Busher air base in Iran in the early 1980s with some
90 Pilatus PC-7 aircraft purchased from Switzerland."
"According to a former trainee in Wakilibad (a base for the training of
kamikaze pilots), one of the exercises included having an Islamic Jihad
detachment seize (or hijack) a transport aircraft. Then trained air crews
from among the terrorists would crash the airliner with its passengers into
a selected objective," he wrote.
"The leading terrorists are known as 'Afghans,' having been trained with
the mujahadeen in Pakistan. Some fought in Afghanistan. Muslim volunteers
from several Arab and Asian countries were encouraged to come to Pakistan
and join the Afghan Jihad." (Source: Target America: Terrorism in the US
Today, 1993. "Islamic Terrorism in the United States" - National Security
Caucus, 1996.)
The Bush administration would have us believe that a subject that was
written about in books and discussed openly throughout Washington is
"unimaginable."
They would also have us believe that they, and their intelligence
operatives, have been unaware of some of the most spectacular and horrific
terrorist operations in recent history-many of them directed at the United
States.
Yet:
On December 29, 1994, four terrorists alleged to have ties to Osama bin
Laden hijacked Air France Flight 8969, a flight from Algiers to Paris. They
loaded the plane with explosives and filled it with extra fuel, with the
intent of ramming it into the Eiffel Tower. Commandos stormed the plane and
killed the hijackers. (Source: NBC News. September 30, 2001. Chris Hansen,
"The Lesson of Air France Flight 8969")
A full seven years before September 11, an al-Qaeda suicide hijacking is
partially executed and barely stopped by French intelligence. The Bush
administration would have us believe that no one in the CIA had ever heard
of such a thing.
Another suicide hijacking plot was discovered six years before September 11.
Ramsey Youssef, the terrorist who masterminded the 1993 bombing of the World
Trade Center had detailed plans to hijack and crash commercial airliners
into buildings in the US, and blow up 12 US airliners during international
flights over a two-day period. This plot, known as Operation Bojinka, was
discovered by Philippine intelligence agents in 1995, in the hideout of
Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad, a US trained pilot linked to bin Laden.
Philippine authorities passed this information to the FBI. This plot was
disclosed again in the 1997 trial of Youssef. (Source: Kevin Cullen, Ralph
Ranalli. Boston Globe, Sept 18, 2001, "Flight School Said FBI Trailed
Suspect Prior to Hijackings")
Two years before 9/11, reports prepared for U.S. intelligence warned that
Osama bin Laden would hijack an airliner and fly it into government
buildings like the Pentagon. "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaeda's
Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives
(C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House,'' the September 1999 report
said.
(Source: Associated Press, May 17, 2002).
In July 2001, during the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, Deputy Prime Minister
Gianfranco Fini revealed that Italian intelligence had uncovered a plot to
crash a hijacked commercial airliner into either Air Force One or one of the
buildings used for the summit.
(Source: New York Newsday, Sept 19, 2001) This jetliner kamikaze plot was
directed at Bush himself. Taking the Bush denial to its logical extension,
the White House would have us believe that Bush and the CIA were not only
unaware of this plot, but also not warned by the Italian government.
During the investigation into the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania, intelligence officials and FBI were alerted that two bin Laden
associates had been trained as pilots. Airman Flight School in Oklahoma
became the focus of an FBI investigation. The FBI was warned in August 2001
that Zacarias Moussauoi, the notorious "20th pilot" who attended Airman was
only interested in steering a plane-and not taking off or landing. He also
specifically asked about New York City air space.
In June 2001, the German BND warned the CIA and Israel of plans by Middle
Eastern terrorists to "hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to
attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." Furthermore,
according to the same source, the Echelon spy network was used to break this
news, and that intelligence agents in the UK also had advance warning.
(Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001)
In the summer of 2001, Russian intelligence and President Vladimir Putin
warned the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots were going to hijack commercial
aircraft for suicide missions.
Attorney David Shippers, who led the impeachment case against Bill Clinton,
warned Attorney General John Ashcroft and Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert that he had proof from a credible source (that he has still not
revealed) about a plot to use hijacked commercial airliners to ram the White
House and Capitol.
(Source: Info Wars (radio program) Oct 10 2001) This list of specific
warnings about suicide hijackings is but the tip of the iceberg. The Bush
administration received many more warnings of an imminent attack from
foreign governments (Israel, Germany, Egypt, UK, Russia), FBI agents (whose
investigations were obstructed) and covert operatives who were studiously
silenced (Naval Intelligence Officer Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, for one)
Ari Fleischer's Lies About the CIA
As part of his clumsy May 15 damage control press conference, Fleischer
responded to a question about CIA foreknowledge by quoting from an address
given on April 11 at Duke University by CIA Deputy Director James Pavitt.
Fleischer quoted only selected passages from the Pavitt address that seemed
to deny 9/11 foreknowledge:
"What didn't we know? We never found the tactical intelligence, never
uncovered the specifics that could have stopped those tragic strikes that we
all remember so well. Against that degree of control, that kind of
compartmentation, that depth of discipline and fanaticism, I personally
doubt . . . that anything short of one of the knowledgeable inner circle
personnel or hijackers turning himself in to us would have given us
sufficient foreknowledge to have prevented the horrendous slaughter that
took place. Some of you out there may have heard bin Laden himself speak
about this on that shocking videotape."
But Fleischer failed to quote portions of the same speech in which Pavitt
admitted CIA clear foreknowledge of the September 11th attacks, deep
penetration of terrorist cells throughout Central Asia and the Middle East,
and longstanding presence in the region. This speech, which is posted at the
CIA web site, has already been dissected by Online Journal. Among the Pavitt
passages that Fleischer did not read to the press:
"We had very, very good intelligence of the general structure and strategies
of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. We knew and we warned that al Qaeda
was planning a major strike. There need be no question about that."
"If you hear somebody say, and I have, the CIA abandoned Afghanistan after
the Soviets left and that we never paid any attention to that place until
September 11th, I would implore you to ask those people how we were able to
accomplish all we did since the Soviets departed. How we knew who to
approach on the ground, which operations, which warlord to support, what
information to collect. Quite simply, we were there well before the 11th of
September."
"We predicted, we told the President, that there would be between five and
15 serious attacks against on U.S. soil. But we did much much more than
warn. With our allies and our partners around the world, we launched
immense efforts to counter those threats. Hundreds of terrorists were
arrested, multiple cells of terrorism were destroyed".
Indeed, according to a September 14, 2001, report from Reuters, "The CIA has
been authorized since 1998 to use covert means to disrupt and pre-empt
terror operations allegedly planned abroad by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin
Laden." Quoting government sources, "The CIA had used such force several
times to stop armed groups before they initiated attacks." As mentioned
previously, the CIA participated in a study that concluded that Osama bin
Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government
buildings.
And there is more proof of CIA foreknowledge and action.
The February 2001 trial of the al-Qaeda members responsible for the 1998 US
embassy bombings was based almost entirely on intercepted cell phone calls.
During the trial, prosecutors describe how US intelligence used Echelon, a
highly secret technical intelligence gathering system used to monitor
worldwide communications. On February 13, 2001, UPI quoted multiple agencies
saying that they had broken al Queda's codes.
It is inconceivable that, armed with a budget of over $30 billion, and
technologies such as Echelon (which tracks nearly all electronic
communication in the world), Promis (which monitors banking and financial
transactions in real-time), Carnivore (which intercepts e-mail) and other
tools, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies would have "no inkling."
This lie is further exposed by the fact that Mohammed Atta, the lead
hijacker, had been under constant CIA surveillance since January 2000.
(Source: Reuters Oct 22, 2001)
According to Le Figaro (October 31, 2001), bin Laden received treatment at
an American hospital in Dubai for kidney disease in mid-July 2001-and
reportedly met with a CIA official.
The More Important Questions They Are Not Asking
1. Who really is Osama bin Laden? What is al Qaeda? What really is "Militant
Islam?"
In a penetrating analysis by Professor Michel Chossudovsky titled "Who is
Osama bin Laden?" this question is answered clearly. Osama bin Laden and
the terror networks of the region are creations of the United States and
its CIA-and continue to serve the geostrategic purposes of the United
States government, which directly and indirectly controls their operations.
The CIA, using Pakistan's ISI, played a key role in training the mujahadeen.
In turn, the CIA-sponsored guerrilla training was integrated into the
teachings of Islam.
Pakistan's ISI is a proxy of the CIA by official government directive.
CIA covert operations in the region are conducted through the ISI. Terror
operations continue throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans
and Central Asia-which, in addition to holding coveted untapped oil and gas
reserves, produces three quarters of the world's opium.
The Islamic Jihad has been supported by the US and Saudi Arabia with a
significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade.
Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, and kept out of touch with
upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic warriors are unaware of
whose purposes they serve.
Since the Cold War, Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden,
while at the same time inflating his legend as the world's foremost terrorist.
Why did the director of the ISI transfer money to Mohammed Atta, and why has
no one investigated this connection?
2. Why were no fighter planes scrambled on the morning of 9/11?
With the full knowledge that four planes had been simultaneously hijacked,
the National Command Authority did not scramble fighter aircraft to
intercept for 75 minutes-an unprecedented breach of standard FAA procedure
that has been followed for 25 years. The bizarre air stand-down has been
analyzed at http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm.
3. What accounts for Bush's behavior on 9/11?
Bush was not 'formally' informed of the hijackings for 35 minutes-an
astounding irregularity all by itself. When White House Chief of Staff
Andrew Card "whispered into his ear," Bush displayed no shock and continued
to speak to a classroom of schoolchildren. Later reports confirm that Bush
knew about the first World Trade Center crash while in the presidential
limousine on the way to the school-and he did not act. Another report quoted
Bush as saying "When I saw the first plane hit, I thought 'what a terrible
pilot.'" Putting aside the callousness of his thought, was this another
garbled quote, or did Bush see the first plane? And if so, how did he see
it? In yet another report, after both World Trade towers were hit, Bush
joked to his budget director Mitch Daniels, "I've hit the trifecta." Is this
the behavior of a president who just found out about the horrific "first
attack of US territory since the war of 1812"?
4. If 9/11 was an unprovoked surprise terror attack, what was the Bush
administration doing provoking the Taliban and threatening war with
Afghanistan?
In July 2001 Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik is told by senior US
officials that military actions against Afghanistan would begin by October.
This threat, which was triggered in part by the Taliban's refusal to accept
the Bush administration's terms for a trans-Afghan oil pipeline, is made
directly to the Taliban during a meeting in Berlin, attended by the Taliban,
officials of Russia, Iran, Pakistan and the Northern Alliance. New memos
reveal that Bush had an Afghanistan war plan on his desk on September 9.
5. What did Wall Street know? And if Wall Street knew, what wasn't known
within the Bush administration? What wasn't known by the CIA and
intelligence agencies, which track stock trades on a real time basis?
The highly abnormal insider trading that occurred immediately before the
9/11 attacks involving only companies hardest hit by the attacks-UAL,
American Airlines, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others-and were clearly
the result of foreknowledge. Despite these trades, which Dylan Ratigan of
Bloomberg Business News described as "insider trading at the worst, most
horrific, most evil use you've ever seen . . . one of the most extraordinary
coincidences in the history of mankind if it was a coincidence." To those
who would place the blame on bin Laden, consider this: according to an
October 6 National Public Radio report, Britain's Financial Services
Authority cleared bin Laden and al Qaeda of this insider trading.
6. Why have the insiders and whistleblowers been silenced and intimidated?
In August 2001, a US Navy Lieutenant and Naval Intelligence officer, Delmart
"Mike" Vreeland, who was jailed in Canada on US fraud charges, which were
later proven false, repeatedly warned US and Canadian intelligence officials
about the pending suicide hijack attacks (complete with the listing of
targets), based on information he had gleaned from documents that he had
couriered from Russia before his arrest. US and Canadian officials refused
to debrief him. Vreeland, whose identity was verified in court, was cleared
of all charges and is in Canada fighting extradition to the US. In light of
increasing evidence of Bush administration foreknowledge, Vreeland's case,
and his claims to have detailed information regarding total US intelligence
penetration of al Qaeda, takes on even greater significance. His case can be
studied at www.copvcia.com.
For more unasked questions, and links to articles in which the answers are
fully or partially answered, www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html.
Letting It Happen: A New Smoking Gun
On CNN Inside Politics (May 17, 2002), Senator Dianne Feinstein responded to
Ari Fleischer's outrageous accusation that she did not provide the White
House with information about terrorist threats.
Feinstein stated that on September 10, 2001, she discussed the lack of
protection against terrorist attacks against targets within the US with the
staff of Vice President Dick Cheney and practically begged for some action
from the administration. She was told by the Cheney staffer it would have to
wait at least six months.
A Limited Hangout or Something More? The Mushrooming Scandal in Context
Since September 11, and until just days ago, the Bush empire appeared to be
invincible, unchallenged and marching the world towards escalating worldwide
war, and dictatorship in the United States. The Bush oligarchy appeared
dominant over a sold-out and servile Congress, and a corporate consensus
marching in lockstep to the orders of the administration's
oil/military/intelligence hierarchy.
What has caused certain members of Congress to find a voice and a spine?
What has caused the major corporate American media, which until days ago was
the most aggressive supporter of the White House version of 9/11, to turn on
the Bush administration?
Who gave the orders, the signal, that is was time to go after Bush-in a way
that they had not done since George W. Bush announced his candidacy for the
presidency?
The answers at this early stage are not clear. But recent events suggest
that 1) the rampant criminality of the administration is becoming too
obvious to cover up, 2) resistance to the brute force of Bush unilateralism
is becoming too great to ignore, 3) political and social instability
throughout the world is becoming a problem in key strategic regions where a
modicum of finesses is needed, 4) a segment of the ruling elite has grown
tired of being shut out of the deal.
Consider the embarrassing failures of the Bush administration since
September 11:
Despite the success of restarting the Unocal pipeline, Afghanistan remains a
hotbed of warlordism and anti-US hostility that US-installed Hamid Karzai is
having difficulty controlling.
Osama bin Laden has not been found. Al Qaeda has not been dismantled.
Recent talks between the US, Russia, Iran and former Soviet republics to
forge a multilateral agreement regarding oil and gas in the Caspian Sea
region collapsed, leaving the western oil companies in a precarious position
with unrequited investments throughout the Caspian region.
Israel's American-approved and American-assisted butchery and criminal
occupation of Palestine, pushed to nightmarish extremes by Ariel Sharon, has
triggered outrage and anti-US hostility throughout the world. Islamic
outrage is worsening.
The threat of oil embargos from OPEC nations and threats of boycotts of US
goods are real.
Bush has failed to maintain multinational "coalitions"-the key to continued
US military and neoliberal economic primacy.
A war against Iraq is impossible without a coalition.
The US-orchestrated coup of Venezuela failed. Evidence of the Bush
administration's participation in this coup is clear, blatant, and
embarrassing.
The US-led Plan Colombia/Andean Initiative is meeting with continued
resistance throughout Latin America.
The world economy is floundering.
Outside of the tightly controlled US, America is hated.
Enron, Enron, Enron.
The constitutional crisis triggered by Bush's refusal to reveal documents
relating to the energy task force has worsened.
A continuing grand jury investigation of corruption in Kazakhstan,
implicating oil companies tied to the Bush administration.
More FBI agents are coming forward with lawsuits exposing Bush
administration obstruction of anti-terror operations. Former President Jimmy
Carter's visit to Cuba was a loud rebuke to Bush, and a loud signal to the
world that an opposing faction of the New World Order-one which includes
prominent conservative Democrats-is a making a move. The crafty Carter, he
of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, was the
consummate world diplomat-a stark counter to the relentless unilateral
militarism of the Bush faction.
Clearly, Bush and his administration would not be under pressure unless
powerful people wanted it to happen. The corporate media, which has gotten
the green light to make noise, would not be engaging in a feeding frenzy
without an incentive.
Is this another limited hangout? How far will this go? Is it a palace coup?
Is it a "wag the dog" fake?
The Lies Will Not Stand
In the months since September 11, the defining moment of recent history,
neither the Bush administration, nor its surrogates and allies, have
produced one shred of credible evidence supporting the White House version
of the events of that day. Instead, the Bush administration has mass
marketed a total fabrication based on accusations, fear mongering, infantile
comic book bluster, and duplicitous lies about US policies, geo-strategic
agenda, and worldwide operations. Their evidence has amounted to the weakest
conspiracy theory and, in the case of the "notorious bin Laden video" that
is trotted out at the first sign of controversy, televised conspiracy fantasy.
Meanwhile, in the past eight months, hundreds of independent researchers,
journalists and scholars have done what neither Congress nor the White House
has done: investigate. This already substantial body of evidence is being
exponentially strengthened and enhanced by new evidence coming to light in
the mushrooming scandal. The points presented in this article are but the
tip of the iceberg.
The courageous Ruppert has thoroughly and dispassionately examined the
September 11 case. Read his powerful analyses:
The Lie Won't Stand
The Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks
"Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta 'Splainin To Do"
Ruppert has dissected the events of the day, but also the geostrategic
agenda preceding and following the event. The Bush version of events is
utterly smashed to pieces.
A recently published and excellent collection of investigative journalism,
Everything You Know Is Wrong, offers another thoroughly documented,
meticulously sourced examination of 9/11 titled "September 11, 2001: No
Surprise."
Given the voluminous evidence (from reliable open sources) now amassed
against the Bush administration, this much is clear: the administration of
George Walker Bush cannot claim a lack of intelligence, technology or human
resources capable of predicting or preventing the attacks of September 11.
Nor can it disown the criminal activities and policies that preceded and
followed the day, and the mass slaughter that has continued to be waged
around the world in its name.
In fact, the Bush oligarchy had both the motive and the means to facilitate
the most spectacular atrocity in modern American history, and open the
Pandora's box of world war without end.
Bush knew.
Now, the entire world knows.
It is up to the people of the world to seize this moment, and send the Bush
administration into the bowels of history.
= = = = = = =
Larry Chin is a freelance journalist and an Online Journal Contributing Editor.
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