Speaking Ali Soufan, author, The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda, in re the fail of the CIA and FBI from the WTC 1993 onward, and especially af the Cole attack, October 2000. The warrants support the general finding of the 9/11 Commission that the failure to share specific logical information permitted the ops al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar to enter the US and prepare from July 2001. Soufan also documents how he was denied an opportunity to knot together the clues that would have led to the so-called courier Abu Ahmed, who was the final connection to bin Laden's hiding hole in Abbottabad. It is a stunning tale of paper-chasing fools and bullies who withheld information without common sense. No one has yet explained why al-Mihdhar and al-Hamzi were permitted to enter, leave, re-enter, and use their real names to initiate credit cards, rentals, tickets -- despite the fact that they could be linked to characters who were linked to the Cole attack. It is maddening to see how the CIA fought hard to keep the FBI ignorant or misdirected. There is also the ridiculous, such as how, in September 2002, Soufan was permitted only 45 minutes to interrogate major alQ op Binalshibh (below, captured by Pakistanis in 2002), despite the fact that Soufan and his colleagues had critical information that could interpret the alQ twisted infrastructure. Why did it take so long to solve the bin Laden hideout? Soufan argues that EIT (torture) and rendition hardened the sources who had the most critical information and let false information cloud the path. The center of the al Q plans was a group of Yemenis (bin Laden family hails from Yemen). The cluttered pattern of the CIA paper storm kept the FBI from focusing on the Yemen connections evident since Cole.
What makes people think for one minute that this counter-productive and self-destructive behavior is limited to the CIA and the FBI? We incentivize it in every corner of government, from State to HUD to Edumacation to Energy to Agriculture to... you name it. Government at all levels is about protecting funding and turf. It's only secondarily (and it's a distant second) about serving the taxpaying public. Why on earth does anyone believe for a single minute that sending more money to Washington can possibly be good or accomplish anything?
A demanding, middle-class, taxpaying public constituency is behind every boondoggle, every bloated pork barrel, every entitlement. The public is the problem. The government is only a reflection of the public demands.
Don't forget, a wall of Separation exists/existed between the Bureau and the Agency. This wall was built during a previous administration, and the "masons" who constructed it have NEVER been called to testify.
Spoke Ali Soufan, smart, charming, quick, perfect memory for detailf rom his 1997-2009 FBI tour in NY and with the JTTF. Mystery of CIA not giving critical detail of Khallad, al-Mihdhar, al-Hazmi to FBI. Time frame December 1999 to July 2001, including the Kuala Lampur meet Jan 2000, and the delivery of $36k cash by Khallad Bin-Attash (Bin Laden courier) to al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, who likely used it to buy First Class tickets. Arrival in US not flagged by CIA. Explanation so far is that the Agency says it dropped the ball. Other possibility is that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were apparent doubles being run by Saudi intelligence to penetrate Al Q, who then became triples for Al Q and joined the 9-11 crew. Mirrors within mirrors. Case not closed. Soufan will go so far as to say that the case is open on how al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi entered US, obtained driver's licenses, bank accounts, credit cards, rentals under their own names, lived many months in San Diego with help of locals, including Imam, and how al-Mihdhar left the US for Pakistan and returned in July 2001 on a valid visa. Mysteries to be solved. Is the answer in Riyadh? Is the Kingdom the author of our Al Q curse? Did the Kingdom turn Al Q against "the Far Enemy" (US) in order to keep Al Q impotent against "the NEar Enemy" (House of Saud)? Was Bin Laden a useful distraction since the end of the Cold War?
"Other possibility is that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were apparent doubles being run by Saudi intelligence to penetrate Al Q"
Wasn't a plane with bin Laden's family and other Saudis the only one that was allowed to take off, while everything else was grounded, immediately after 9/11?
Whoever ok'd this flight knew there was a reason to get them out of the US.
"Is the Kingdom the author of our Al Q curse?"
Having our troops on 'sacred' Saudi soil was Al Q's original explanation for the 9/11 attack. Of course, whoever allowed our troops in Saudi Arabia in the first place may have had political reasons for changing his mind -- and then wanted us out, using Al Q to do so. [But I'll also buy the 'Near Enemy' explanation that the Kingdom turned Al Q against us to protect itself.]
December 28, 2011
Dear “Ron Paulians,”
Ever been to Iowa? I haven’t. I would like to go some day though. I love being around people who know how to live off of the land. There is something noble and good in that. It is an American renewal and restoration that takes place. Iowans reap and sow, year in and year out, to feed America and the world beyond. Vote harvesting is a similar operation, and from New York I can smell a load of malarky that is being dropped on that state from every politico that I wished dropped in there without a parachute. I’ve little doubt many Iowans share my feelings on this. Against this river of politically induced manure Ron Paul is standing tall. I give him credit for this achievement. His only guardians have been what Mr. Obama has done and what Ron Paul has worked for nearly his whole life. Getting our government back in line with what our founding fathers laid out for us and stopping every con game that is set upon her people under the guise of fear. I’ve never given in to fear. I remember when I first started writing these letters I said to myself, “You do realize that by doing this you are, in all likelihood, completely screwing yourself.” My reply to myself? Fine. If that’s what it takes to wake up common sense America, I’m going to keep writing until I drop. So you Paulians are about to clear the first hurdle. Congratulations. Good work. Unfortunately as you are well aware a government that uses the TSA to feel an individuals genitalia is not unwilling to do just about anything to secure it’s power. I’m not talking whacko stuff. Who needs to when all they need to do is make people scared. Then they give it up voluntarily.
Frankly, I do not know what is worse. Watching “conservatives” try to prove that Mitt Romney is not a liberal or watching liberals try to prove that Mr. Obama is not a “compassionate conservative” cut in the exact mold of George W. Bush. This leads me to what’s next. If you Paulians think winning one, or even every primary from now until doomsday, matters to these people you’ve got another thing coming. Remember, that the Democratic Party is organized to keep people poor, and the Republican Party is organized to keep people rich, they fundamentally agree on everything that will make either happen more regularly, and with less effort, from either. In short, these dogs have got our bone and they aint letting go. Think of all that they have invested in this little national project of graft and legalized theft. Turn the tables around, if any of you were running that “casino;” What would it take for you to let that go? Would you let an election stop it? Have any of you noticed that Donald Trump is now a registered “Independent;”
Wonder why that is?
In closing, like I’ve said before, I will do my duty and vote on election day. I will vote for who ever is the Republican nominee, if it is that liberal illegal alien loving Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, or George Pataki, I, like all of you, am at the end of my rope. No matter what I believe in the interim, and spew forth on the bathroom walls of the internet, it is vital that we change the political underwear of this nation to maintain a legitimate government so that we can keep the peace in a nation that is being torn from it’s foundations with every syllable that Mr. Obama utters. I’ll settle for a truly divided federal government, as we have had through most of the 90’s. In that crucible our liberty is best cooked. Remember though that beyond our shores there is evil brewing, it would be entirely fitting that President Paul, after he has withdrawn all of our troops from their assigned duties to securing the peace; that in the ensuing nightmare of death and destruction it would be he that instituted a draft. I only ask this, take us old guys first, leave the 18 year olds alone, they at least should have their turn in the sun before that awful perpetual night is forced upon them. Often times what you most want to achieve in politics is what, in hindsight, you wish you never attempted, if you are Obama, read “Obamacare,” if you are a Paulian read retreat.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
CC: President Obama
"Why did it take so long to solve the bin Laden hideout?"
JB, you said years ago when you were on XM radio that it wouldn't happen until the people who were hiding him and knew where he was needed a deal of some kind to preserve themselves. That was the gist of the comment as I understood it, anyway. I assumed in May that was what happened. Hiding in Pakistan makes perfect sense.