FBI AND US SPY AGENTS SAY BUSH SPIKED BIN LADEN PROBES BEFORE 11 SEPTEMBER

[mom cat]

A timely flashback from Greg Palast....Enjoy.

FBI AND US SPY AGENTS SAY BUSH SPIKED BIN LADEN PROBES BEFORE 11 SEPTEMBER
The Guardian (London)
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
E-Mail Article
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Hmmm, in light of the President's "Press Conference" this week, the award winning article below, from the Guardian, details what George "Dubya" Bush knew and when he forgot it!
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2001 Project Censored Award Winner

Watch Greg Palast's Special Report for Newsnight

Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
by Greg Palast and David Pallister

FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of September 11.

US intelligence agencies have come under criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some are complaining that their hands were tied.

FBI documents shown on BBC Newsnight last night and obtained by the Guardian show that they had earlier sought to investigate two of Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and a Muslim organisation, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), with which they were linked.

The FBI file, marked Secret and coded 199, which means a case involving national security, records that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in Washington, had originally had a file opened on him "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist organisation".

WAMY members deny they have been involved with terrorist activities, and WAMY has not been placed on the latest list of terrorist organisations whose assets are being frozen.

Abdullah, who lived with his brother Omar at the time in Falls Church, a town just outside Washington, was the US director of WAMY, whose offices were in a basement nearby.

But the FBI files were closed in 1996 apparently before any conclusions could be reached on either the Bin Laden brothers or the organisation itself. High-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian this week: "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis".

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=103&row=0

[buycitgo]

1. forgot all about that story; so has all the media, of course

also, OF COURSE, so have the dems

they're too busy defending Berger to even THINK of going on the offensive

[Octafish]

2. Richard Clarke said War on Terrorism was #1 to Clinton Administration

...The guy was chief of counterterro for the National Security Council from 1992-2001. Clarke said Bush and Cheney just wanted to talk about Star Wars. Ashcan even dropped counterterrorism from his 2002 FBI priorities to-do list.

There were several others who said the same thing, the late FBI agent John O'Neill, Rand Beers, and a couple of retired generals who worked in counterterror for the NSC. And of course Sandy "Documents in my Pants(TM) Berger stated he used the briefing where he turned over the keys to Condescenda to emphasize Al Qaeda.

Clarke remembers telling Condi that Al Qaeda was the biggest threat. She stared back at him like she'd never heard the term.

[Wilber_Stool]

3. So that's what Sandy

did with those documents. Very clever.
In the FBI's defense, who would think you would have to investigate a Muslim group called WAMY.

[NecessaryOnslaught]

4. Was this in the 9/11 commission report?

Of course not.

[msmcghee]

5. The story says the files were closed . .

. . in 1996. Did I miss something, or doesn't that say that Clinton's FBI was prevented from investigating further?