New info on 9/11 hijackers' links to GOP

[Frederik]

At least, by one degree of separation. In his latest article, Daniel Hopsicker takes a closer look at "professor" Abdussattar Shaikh, the man who had two of the hijackers living in his house in San Diego while operating at the same time as a confidential informant for the FBI. He was called the "best chance to uncover the Sept. 11 plot before it happened" by the Joint Congressional 9/11 Intelligence Committee, which was nevertheless not permitted to interview him.

"...a visit to the various locations around San Diego where he was said to have worked reveals that Abdussattar Shaikh never taught at San Diego State, has never been a Professor of English, and possesses a phony PhD from a bogus diploma mill run by people with U.S. military and intelligence connections."

And, "Abdussattar Shaikh" is not his real name.

and there's more:
"Shaikh’s supposed “employer,” American Commonwealth University (...) began life as William Lyon University, named for and founded by retired Air Force General William Lyon, a big wheel in California Republican circles as Chairman of the GOP’s “Team California Victory 2004” and a member of a group of wealthy, high-powered Orange County's Republicans called “The New Majority.” "

Abdussattar, Hopsicker uncovers, is also connected to an Iranian exile named Sam Koutchesfahani, who used to do arms deals for the Shah, and who was later infiltrating Middle Eastern men into the US for "the better part of a decade".

And that's not all Mr Koutchesfahani has been involved in:

"Koutchesfahani was the owner of a rented house in Rancho Santa Fe where 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult took their lives in 1997."

http://www.madcowprod.com/04112005.html

For those who missed it:
http://www.madcowprod.com/issue43.html
"The man who owned the ‘terror’ flight school in Venice, Florida is involved with false front airlines, dummy front companies, shadowy charter operations of dubious intent and a politically well-connected network..."

http://www.madcowprod.com/mc6312004.html
"Mohamed Atta’s ability to roam at will across America—despite having his name on the CIA’s terrorist watch list—was not due to official incompetence or bureaucratic snafu, but to Atta’s status as a good earner, in a lucrative drug trafficking operation which linked Osama bin Laden’s thugs and drug lieutenants to their equally-thuggish American counterparts."

http://www.madcowprod.com/01042004.html
"The troubling and sometimes criminal associations revealed in recent weeks about the shady pasts of the big election companies counting America’s vote can be seen to overlap with the cast of characters in the saga of the 9.11 terrorist hijackers associates while in America."

more: http://www.madcowprod.com/
The video interview with Amanda Keller, lead hijacker Mohammed Atta's girlfriend, is a must-see. Mrs Keller: "These guys had money flowing out their ass... They had massive supplies of cocaine" ... "When they (the bigger planes) would come in... they actually had the gates chain-locked and closed" ... "Mohammed and the people he was with were drunk and stoned out of their minds"...

[RBHam]

1. There you go again, trying to inform Americans

Good luck

[ladjf]

10. Trying to inform Americans is like attempting to pour

water into a jug that has a top on it. Nothing goes in. Their jug is already full of ignorance, arrogance and prejudice. Their problem has become ours and that's the big problem.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[indepat]

26. No need to try to inform the American people: their news comes from MSM

propaganda mills and the likes of Rush.

[Average American]

62. I don't get it.

I'm an American, and I like to be informed. That's why I watch CNN. Frankly, I didn't hear anything on CNN about what the OP posted, so I doubt that there's much validity to it. I'm sure if it were something that Average Americans like me needed to know about, I would have seen it on CNN.

Now, on the other hand, if you want to talk about the death of the Pope, or the recent Charles/Camilla wedding, I'm totally prepared. The MSM did a good job of keeping me informed about that.

[KitchenWitch]

66. Pope Death and Brit Royal reWeddings are a red herring

to keep you from finding out the real truth that our current administration is beyond corrupt.

[ananda]

67. huh?

"I'm an American, and I like to be informed. That's why I watch CNN."

LOL. Good one!

[Individualist]

71. So if it wasn't on the TV, it didn't happen?

Unless your post was intended as sarcasm, you certainly are an average American. Pathetic!

[Griffy]

73. cant believe "Average American" wasnt taken yet! WELCOME to DU!

and try this at the end of that message... :sarcasm:

glad to see you are already informed about the lack of real information and distraction news on the MSM, perhaps thats why your here, for news that is factual and relevant!

[New Dealer]

2. I don't think this means anything n/t

[librechik]

4. * n/t

[peacetalksforall]

17. What a wonderful presentation you made to support your opinion. 0 n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

40. I don't think No Dealer's opinion means anything. (nt)

[smirkymonkey]

51. That was a brilliant analysis.

Thank you.

[New Dealer]

53. From what I gather

He attended a college named after a GOP-supporter. This is hardly a connection.

[Frederik]

55. Not a real college

he got a diploma from a non-existing "mailbox" university, of the type that is used to create cover personas for intelligence assets. The media always titled him "professor", which he wasn't, and had him teaching at San Diego State, which he never did. The bogus "university" in question was not only founded by a local GOP bigwig who also happened to be a retired air force general, but was at some point run by Dr. Richard Crews, an M.D. from Harvard, who had previously been "Chief of Mental Hygiene Consultation Services" at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the US Special Forces. Dr. Crews has also headed several similar mailbox universities.

When Governor Wilson appointed a task force to investigate the "industry", "it was packed with owners of the bogus schools", and Dr. Richard Crews was the chairman of the committee:

"Helping to explain this laissez-faire Republican attitude toward crime might have been a story we found detailing Gov. Wilson’s flying around on private jets which had been paid for by special interest groups. All but one of the biggest contributors seemed predictable: the California Winegrape Growers, the California Independent Oil Producers, Merchants and Manufacturers Assn. of California.

Named right along with these traditionally big-spending lobbyists, however, was tiny (read: non-existent) William Lyon University, which soon thereafter changed its name to American Commonwealth University, the moniker trotted out by Shaikh's FBI handlers to provide their boy Abdu with a plausible legend, or 'cover.' "

As for the Iranian and fellow FBI informant, Mr. Koutchesfahani, who arranged for 100-200 Middle Easterners to come to San Diego on bogus student visas and who owned the mansion the Heaven's Gate people killed themselves in, he "boasts a bogus PhD as well. He has a doctorate in psychology (...) from a diploma mill called “Newport University.” "

What it means, in my opinion, when seen in light of the other things Hopsicker has uncovered in Venice, Florida, is that the hijackers do not appear to have been a "lone cadre slipping through Europe and America unnoticed", as Hopsicker quotes a PBS Front Line documentary as insisting.

[nolabels]

57. This PBS front line reporting angle seems to be a good place to look.

I am willing to bet this planted story is ready to be dug out and exposed also and that could produce some more dots to connect :think:

[Name removed]

60. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. What a crock! n/t

[RBHam]

6. see?

good luck

[smiley]

7. what exactly do you think is a crock?

The fact that the supposed 9/11 terrorists were allowed to move freely throughout the country even though they were on FBI watchlists.
Or the fact that the 9/11 panel was a whitewash.
Hopefuuly soon all americans will wake up to the fact that our government was to blame for 9/11 and not the conspiracy theory of 19 arab hijackers?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. Congratulations.

You found Republicans in Orange county.

[FreedomAngel82]

34. And don't forget

they were connected to GOP weren't they? I still remember reading this one "hijacker" wasn't even a real hijacker and he was a college student in California and his information was stolen. He told the police but they never got back to him. Maybe someone from this group stole his ID? :shrug:

[leftofthedial]

5. MIHOP

MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP
MIHOP

[SpiralHawk]

8. MIHOP

MIHOP

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."
- George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

[scarletwoman]

48. Yes, MIHOP. (n/t)

[BamaBecky]

72. MIHOP for sure! (n/t)

[BamaBecky]

75. Hopsicker is 'funny'...I cracked up reading this...love his humor! n/t

[Al-CIAda]

9. Excellent post. Recommended and kicked. -nt

[leveymg]

12. You can't go anywhere in San Diego and Venicewithout tripping over wealthy

Rightwingers with connections to the military and/or intelligence communities. That's where they live, in great numbers. I'm not sure that this necessarily proves there's a direct connection between the GOP and al-Qaeda. The fact that the Prof. isn't who he claims to be doesn't surprise me at all.

What this does help illustrate, however, is a pattern of networks that connected Atta, the int'l drug mafias, and some wealthy Right-wingers who operate within a milieu where int'l drug and gun smuggling, money laundering, terrorism, and fascist politics are routine. See the difference?

That the al-Qaeda cells flowed freely through this shady milieu is only to be expected. And, by the way, there is a very good reason -- drugs aside -- why Atta was seemingly acting with impunity. He was a double-agent for more than one intelligence agency, and was simultaneously being watched while he was being "run." He was untouchable, and some in the CIA/NSC/FBI were very much aware of who he was and what he intended to do (just not exactly when). Somehow, his handlers lost control -- why that happened is the untold story we very much need to learn. How else could he possibly have gotten as far as he did? Why else would they go to such lengths to try to cover up the obvious.

:bounce:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. It has also been stated in various sources that Atta attended the....

... International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, AL. This would strongly imply that Atta was a member of a foreign military...and since he was Saudi in origin, the Saudi military is the most likely suspect.

Air Force Officer Disciplined for Saying Bush Allowed September 11 Attacks
Hijacker Attended US military School
<http://www.sumeria.net/politics/bushknew/milschool.html>

QUOTES:

On September 15, Newsweek reported: "U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes used in Tuesday's terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s."

The magazine said that Saeed Alghamdi was among three who had taken flight training at the Navy Air Station in Pensacola, FloridaÑknown as the "cradle of US Navy aviation"Ñwhich also administers training of foreign aviation students for the Navy. The magazine, citing "a high-ranking Pentagon official" as its source, reported that two othersÑboth former Saudi air force pilots who had come to the USÑalso attended such facilities. One received tactical training at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama and the other language training at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Over the next few days, more detailed information appeared in several other newspapers. A September 16 article in the New York Times reported: "Three of the men identified as the hijackers in the attacks on Tuesday have the same names as alumni of American military schools, the authorities said today. The men were identified as Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz al-Omari and Saeed al-Ghamdi.

"The Defense Department said Mr. Atta had gone to the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama; Mr. al-Omari to the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas; and Mr. al-Ghamdi to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey, Calif."

[leveymg]

16. Atta was Egyptian

Seems unlikely the Saudi Gov't would send him through flight school in the US -- not as as a Royal Saudi AF pilot, anyway. There doesn't seem to be any record that Atta, unlike some of the other 19, had any links at all to the Saudi AF.

Can someone out there clarify this?

Thanks.

:bounce:

[leveymg]

19. Here are some links to the Newsweek and other articles

http://archives.zinester.com/15627/44380.html

http://www.WantToKnow.info/010915newsweek - Newsweek, September 15, 2001
Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases
The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI
By George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry


Sept. 15 — U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesday’s terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s.


THREE OF THE alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.—known as the “Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation,” according to a high-ranking U.S. Navy source.


Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source.


But there are slight discrepancies between the military training records and the official FBI list of suspected hijackers—either in the spellings of their names or with their birthdates. One military source said it is possible that the hijackers may have stolen the identities of the foreign nationals who studied at the U.S. installations.


The five men were on a list of 19 people identified as hijackers by the FBI on Friday. The three foreign nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were among the four men who allegedly commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. That flight crashed into rural Pennsylvania. The third man who may have trained in Pensacola, Ahmed Alghamdi, allegedly helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.


Military records show that the three used as their address 10 Radford Boulevard, a base roadway on which residences for foreign-military flight trainees are located. In March 1997, Saeed Alghamdi listed the address to register a 1998 Oldsmobile; five months later he used it again to register a second vehicle, a late model Buick. Drivers licenses thought to have been issued to the other two suspects in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences.


NEWSWEEK visited the base early Saturday morning, where military police confirmed that the address housed foreign military flight trainees but denied access past front barricades. Officials at the base confirmed that the FBI is investigating the three students.


http://www.WantToKnow.info/010916post - Washington Post, September 16, 2001

As the investigation gathered strength yesterday, unusual leads began to surface, among them the possibility that some of the hijackers may have received training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida or other U.S. military facilities.

Two of 19 suspects named by the FBI, Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi, have the same names as men listed at a housing facility for foreign military trainees at Pensacola. Two others, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami, have names similar to individuals listed in public records as using the same address inside the base.

In addition, a man named Saeed Alghamdi graduated from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, while men with the same names as two other hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, appear as graduates of the U.S. International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, respectively.

"Some of the FBI suspects had names similar to those used by foreign alumni of U.S. military courses," the Air Force acknowledged in a statement. "However, discrepancies in their biographical data, such as birth dates 20 years off, indicate we are probably not talking about the same people."



http://www.WantToKnow.info/010915nytimes - New York Times, September 15, 2001

Three of the men identified as the hijackers in the attacks on Tuesday have the same names as alumni of American military schools, the authorities said today. The men were identified as Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz al-Omari and Saeed al-Ghamdi.

The Defense Department said Mr. Atta had gone to the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama; Mr. al-Omari to the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas; and Mr. al-Ghamdi to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey, Calif.

[leveymg]

23. Here's Atta's Biography in The Guardian (UK)

Atta appears to have had a dual identity as Egyptian and as a UAE national. No mention here of military flight training. Anyone have details to the contrary, other than the early Newsweek and NYT articles?

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,556630,00.html

The terrorist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The shy, caring, deadly fanatic

Double life of suicide pilot

War on terrorism - Observer special
Special report: attack on America

John Hooper, Hamburg
Sunday September 23, 2001
The Observer

<SNIP>

Atta, 33, was the first of the alleged conspirators to enrol at the university on the outskirts of Hamburg which investigators believe was at the heart of the plot. It was he who remained throughout at the flat where at least three of the others lived. It was he who headed the university religious association to which they are all thought to have belonged. And on 11 September - investigators believe - it was Atta who led the attack on the World Trade Centre, piloting American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower at 8.45am.

In many respects, though, he led not one life, but two. He repeatedly switched names, nationalities and personalities. If in Egypt, and later in the US, he was Mohamed Atta, then at the Technical University of Harburg, he was Mohamed el-Amir. For the university authorities, he was an Egyptian, yet for his landlord, as for the US authorities, he was from the United Arab Emirates. And while it is not hard to see Atta, whose face gazes out from the passport photograph released by the FBI, as that of the mass murderer of Manhattan, el-Amir was a shy, considerate man who endeared himself to Western acquaintances.

Such indeed was the gulf between the two that some people, notably his father, insisted last week that Mohamed Atta's identity must have been stolen by the hijackers' leader. That view was given some credibility by a German press report, not denied by the government, that he and two other Hamburg suspects reported in 1999 that their passports had been stolen. However, the same report quoted the Interior Ministry as saying that the reason the three men did so was to obtain new passports, free of stamps that might have jeopardised their chances of obtaining US visas.

<SNIP>

[Frederik]

29. Could well be

two different individuals. The Mohammed Atta that lived in Venice was not a "shy, considerate man who endeared himself to Western acquaintances", if we are to believe Hopsicker and Amanda Keller.

"Ten things you didn't know about Mohammed Atta"

""Atta and his crew were always flush with lots and lots of money," said Stephanie Frederickson, a 50-year old housewife and foster mother who with her husband lived right next door to Atta’s apartment. “Those guys were all really party animals."

During their brief time together, Amanda and Atta went out almost every night, she said, and were part of a social scene at clubs like Margarita Maggie’s in Sarasota. “When we went out we would meet pilots from Africa, Germany, and there were always lots of Arabs.”

In fact, Atta was a heavy drinker, snorted coke, was a stylish dresser and wore enough expensive gold jewelry that a waitress in Venice thought he might be in the Mob."

http://www.madcowprod.com/index60bb.html

[Frederik]

20. Just one ting

Atta was Egyptian, not Saudi, if that isn't a cover story or a stolen identity. I remember seeing an interview with his father, who said it was unthinkable that Atta would do something like that. But Atta (the Egyptian) was gone, nonetheless, so either he was on that plane, or he died somewhere else and somebody stole his identity, or he's sitting in the Caribbean right now sipping Margaritas.

Mohammed Atta is also a fairly common name in the Middle East I think, so it's not too far fetched to imagine that another Atta attended the International Officer's School. But five of the hijackers' names being similar to foreigners trained at US military installations, that sounds a bit less like a coincidence. Three, well, that's not impossible.

In any case, Hani Hanjour's flying capabilities improved quite spectacularly from january to september 2001...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. Yes...my mistake. Atta was indeed Egyptian....

....but my comments still stand. To attend the International Officers School one would have to be a member of a foreign military...in this case, the Egyptian military.

[JohnyCanuck]

24. Information hinting Mohammed Atta's identity was stolen

This is from Minstrel Boy's post on the Hopsicker book "Welcome to Terrorland."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1433886

10. One day when Atta was rummaging through his flight bag, Keller got a look inside. Her words:

"The thing the FBI was most interested in was his pilot bag. They asked about it a lot. He kept it locked, and they wanted to know whether I had ever seen anything in it. I told them yes. One day he opened it briefly, and there were a lot of papers in it, and there was a blue log book in a different language. Mohamed was fluent in almost any language you can think of. He had a kind of Daytimer in there, too. And a folder with all these different ID’s in it. And that’s when I saw one – because it fell out – a little blue and white thing the size of a driver’s license. It had his picture on it, and it looked like a mug shot, or a prison shot. And it didn’t look like him, and I asked him, 'Who is this?' (emphasis mine /jc)

"And he said, 'that’s me.' He told me it had been taken back when he was in some kind of militia-type deal, like a military-type deal, he said. He compared it to our military only they teach you different tactics. He didn’t elaborate.

"He didn’t say where it was from, either. But the writing looked like a cross between Hebrew and Arabic, those frilly little lines. He told me he spoke Hebrew. I said bullshit. So he started speaking it, and I guess he did.

"He told me that he went to different countries and studied. He had pilot’s license from several different countries. But all the pictures looked different. All the names were different. He had a license to fly from just about every country he had been to. He went to pilot’s school in all these countries."

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Was that

the college student in Cali who had his ID stolen?

[Frederik]

45. No

Mohammed Atta was (allegedly) the lead hijacker, he lived in Venice, Florida and attended a flight school there.

[Frederik]

44. Thanks, that is extremely interesting

"He told me that he went to different countries and studied. He had pilot’s license from several different countries. But all the pictures looked different. All the names were different. He had a license to fly from just about every country he had been to. He went to pilot’s school in all these countries."

If she's telling the truth, that is interesting to say the least. I think she's being truthful - she is not seeking publicity, in fact Hopsicker had to track her down and persuade her to do the interview. She claims to have been warned by the FBI not to talk to the media. I don't see what she would gain by lying, and as far as I understand things she said were corroborated by things Hopsicker learned elsewhere.

We haven't exactly gotten to the bottom of what happened that day.

[JohnyCanuck]

50. Anything is possible these days,

but it appears Atta's behaviour was pretty damn strange for a Muslim fundamentalist about to martyr himself in a history making terrorist strike against the heathen infidels believing this will assure his consequent direct passage into heaven and the presence of Allah (as is reputed to be the thinking of these fanatical terrorist types).

"Sex with Mohammed was horrible," Amanda Keller remembers. "He had no passion."

That's one of the more explosive sentences in the book "Welcome to Terrorland" by U.S. journalist Daniel Hopsicker on the life of Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta in Florida in 2000.

The 33-year-old, who is alleged to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Center in an attack that killed thousands, is portrayed by Hopsicker in the book as a swinging party animal, partial to alcohol, cocaine and night clubs and far removed from the devout Muslim student in Hamburg that the press largely focused on. (emphasis mine /jc)

<snip>

Keller says she met Atta at the pizza restaurant in Venice where she worked. Atta began to frequent the restaurant and engage Keller in conversation, frequently complimenting her on her "natural beauty." It developed into what Keller recalls as a rollercoaster relationship, that featured long trawls through local bars, cocaine snorted through rolled-up dollar bills and large amounts of beer, wine and liquor.

From the blurb on Hopsicker's book at the German Deutsche Welle web site. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1152077,00.html

The American pilot who Hopsicker intereviews on the video presentation posted on his www.madcowprod.com web site (links below) claims to have met some of the hijackers in Vencie and was surprised to have smelt alcohol on their breath.

Windows Media Player http://www.madcowprod.com/show5.wmv

Apple Quick Time http://www.madcowprod.com/5show1.mov

[FreedomAngel82]

36. Notice

that two states were Florida and Texas. Why am I not surprised?

[Frederik]

14. Absolutely

I never meant to imply that "this proves Bush did it" or anything like that.

"What this does help illustrate, however, is a pattern of networks that connected Atta, the int'l drug mafias, and some wealthy Right-wingers who operate within a milieu where int'l drug and gun smuggling, money laundering, terrorism, and fascist politics are routine."

You take the words out of my mouth. None of what Hopsicker has uncovered during the last three years or so is proof of Bush junta or whoever's complicity in the 9/11 attacks - and several interpretations are possible - but it does show that the hijackers were not a "lone cadre slipping through Europe and America unnoticed". And any real investigation of those attacks should proceed from there: the alleged perpetrators, their lives and their connections. Not just in America, but in the equally important other ends of the conspiracy; the Pakistani and European "crime scenes". But instead of investigating for themselves, news organistations are simply relying on anonymous intelligence sources, and the credibility of their reporting is accordingly. Daniel Pearl was doing just that kind of old-fashioned field work and paid for it with his life. Since that tragic incident, no one has attempted to do any real on-the-ground investigative reporting on this save Hopsicker, and that's a damn shame.

[Al-CIAda]

18. networks that connected Atta, the int'l drug mafias, money laundering...

terrorism-


State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade
 -FBI Whistleblower

Sibel Edmonds- FBI Whistleblower, interview
SE: Everything – from drugs to money laundering to arms sales. And yes, there are certain convergences with all these activities and international terrorism.
CD: So with these organizations we're talking about a lot of money –
SE: Huge, just massive. They don't deal with 1 million or 5 million dollars, but with hundreds of millions.
CD: From your previous testimony and the examples I want to bring up next, it would seem that organized crime with terrorist links is really holding the reins inside powerful governments, even the American one. No?
SE: That may be, but I don't know. I didn't get high enough up on the ladder to find out. With all of this suspicious and unprecedented "state secrets" obstructionism from Ashcroft, it might seem that way, but I don't have any direct information.
CD: But what do think, within departments such as the Pentagon and the State Department. Do you suspect certain high officials may be profiting from terrorist-linked organized crime?
SE: I can't say anything specific with regards to these departments, because I didn't work for them. But as for the politicians, what I can say is that when you start talking about huge amounts of money, certain elected officials become automatically involved. And there are different kinds of campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared.
CD: Could this apparent toleration of dangerous criminal groups in the midst possibly be interpreted to mean that American policy is driven by the "ends justify the means" philosophy?
SE: But how are the ends possibly met by such activities? To this day, I just can't see how. What is happening does not benefit 99.9 percent of Americans – just a very small elite.
I'm no expert, but from what I have personally seen I can say that our national security is being compromised every day, because important investigations are being stopped, and potentially important clues are being overlooked. It's absolutely incredible that even after 9/11, certain individuals, foreign businessmen and others, among others, are still escaping scrutiny.
Okay, perhaps talking about the pre-9/11 world they could get away with saying "we didn't know," but to continue doing so – I mean, what if we are attacked by nuclear or chemical weapons, what will be their next excuse? That "we didn't know" it could happen? Come on! I can prove they are lying, because they know."
http://www.breakfornews.com/Sibel-Edmonds-Story.htm

[Frederik]

27. Hopsicker said

that what Sibel Edmonds saw while working in the FBI is another side to what he uncovered in Florida. Drugs, money laundering, and powerful people plugged into covert, transnational networks, within which the 9/11 hijackers also operated.

http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=2917

www.justacitizen.com

http://www.selvesandothers.org/view131.html

BTW - this just in!

"D.C. Circuit to Hear Case of National Security
Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds on April 21

Washington, DC — As a preview to the appellate argument in Sibel Edmonds’ case, secrecy and legal experts will hold a press briefing on Wednesday, April 20th to address the far-reaching impact of Edmonds’ case and the disturbing trend of excessive government secrecy aimed at avoiding accountability.

Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist hired by the FBI shortly after 9/11, was fired in 2002 after repeatedly reporting serious security breaches and misconduct. Edmonds challenged her retaliatory dismissal by filing a lawsuit in federal court, but her case was dismissed last July after Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the so-called "state secrets privilege," and retroactively classified briefings to Congress related to her case.

The government has argued that every aspect of Edmonds' case involves state secrets--including where she was born and what languages she speaks--and therefore cannot go forward. Edmonds is appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reinstate her case. Several 9/11 family member advocacy groups filed a friend-of-the-court brief in her support. Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU National Office, will argue on behalf of Edmonds. Oral arguments will be heard on April 21."

- link from justacitizen.com

[leveymg]

32. If the Edmonds case were allowed to proceed, there might

be a chance to get these obvious truths -- which we hold to be self-evident -- out to the general population.

The Courts are unlikely to allow that. Hope I'm wrong.

:bounce:

[FreedomAngel82]

39. No wonder

he was fired. He was doing his job. :eyes: The Bush people are so backwards.

[KurtNYC]

70. Edmunds is female

Sibel Edmunds

[FreedomAngel82]

38. Will this

information be presented at the CSPAN event that's supposed to be this week where someone is trying to prove the "official" 9/11 information was wrong and all that? Will they also show the article where BinLaden claims he didn't do 9/11? I still wonder about that. I stil don't get why the NRA isn't having it to where they can make it more difficult for terrorists to get guns. Isn't that giving yourself away?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Although I never mentioned it, I do believe the NeoCons, including....

...Herr Busch, played a significant role in allowing the 911 attacks to happen. As the late L. Fletcher Prouty explained in his book "The Secret Team", the operations of others can be allowed to succeed by simply doing nothing at all, and/or reassigning protective units to other activities. Prouty was specifically referring to the assassination of JFK when he wrote those words, but they still apply today. He was made even more famous as the technical advisor on Oliver Stone's movie, "JFK".

The NeoCons let the cat out of the bag several years ago when they stated in their PNAC document "Rebuilding America's Defenses" that the only way they could achieve their goals of global domination was to motivate the American people with "another Pearl Harbor". That statement is frightenly clear, and the actions of the NeoCons in the years following 911 have done nothing but prove the point.

[leveymg]

30. the operations of others can be allowed to succeed by simply doing nothing

Exactly.

The charges would be: 3000 counts of Negligent Homicide and Reckless Endangerment; Perjury; and Obstruction of Justice.

:bounce:

[jus_the_facts]

31. discussion here could use your opinion....

....I completely agree with your assessment of the situation. :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1728785&mesg_id=1728785

[Frederik]

33. Chaim Kupferberg

of the Center for Reasearch on Globalization, theorizes that the neo-cons are just useful idiots that provide plausible deniability for the real culprits behind their policy, those being people like Poppy, James Baker III, George Shultz etc. There may be something to that.

Anyway, about the "looking the other way" theory, what Greg Palast has uncovered concerning a "back off" order regarding investigations of Saudi links to terrorism is very interesting:
http://www.gregpalast.com/blog.cfm and click on "Bush Blocked Bin Laden Probes" to see a BBC newsnight documentary on the subject.

[FreedomAngel82]

41. Yep

After I read all the PNAC stuff I was convienced they MIHOP. They might not have specifically been involved in the planning but what about Poppy?

[leveymg]

28. You are so right about the impact that the Pearl murder had.

It shut off the most promising line of journalistic inquiry: the ISI-al Qaeda connection. Before that,the WSJ also did some excellent work on the bin Laden-Bush Carlyle Group nexus. There's been no follow-up on that, either.

A really big problem is that the money trail interlinks the mafia and spook worlds, which make a living off of each others existence. I don't know which is more dangerous. Both have a vested interest in keeping the wraps on terrorism finance.

The only institution that is conceivably powerful enough to do the investigation and arrests is the US military. I know the DIA is quite interested in determining guilt and consequences, particularly for Flt. 77 that slammed into south-west side of the Pentagon.

In the end, however, our last best hope is new civilian leadership, and the eventual restoration of lawful, democratic government in the United States. Even 9/11 doesn't seem sufficient cause for a coup. And that's what it would take to get any justice before 2008.

:bounce:

[Frederik]

35. Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmad

is possibly the key to the whole 9/11 conspiracy.

"If the 9-11 Commission is really looking for a smoking gun, it should look no further than at Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Ahmad, the director of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at the time. In early October 2001, Indian intelligence learned that Mahmoud had ordered flamboyant Saeed Sheikh - the convicted mastermind of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl - to wire US$100,000 from Dubai to one of hijacker Mohamed Atta's two bank accounts in Florida.... Mahmoud's involvement in September 11 might be dismissed as only Indian propaganda. But Indian intelligence swears by it, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed the whole story: Indian intelligence even supplied Saeed's cellular-phone numbers. Nobody has bothered to check what really happened.

The 9-11 Commission should pose very specific questions about it to FBI director Robert Mueller when he testifies this month. In December 2002, Graham said he was 'surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States ... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now.' He could not but be referring to Pakistan and Mahmoud. If Mahmoud was really involved in September 11, this means the Pakistani ISI -'the state within the state' - knew all about it. And if the intelligence elite in Pakistan knew it, an intelligence elite in Saudi Arabia knew it, as well as an intelligence elite in the US."
(...)
"Mahmoud did meet with his counterpart, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet. Tenet and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had been in Islamabad in May, when Tenet had 'unusually long' meetings with Musharraf. Armitage for his part has countless friends in the Pakistani military and the ISI. Mahmoud also met a number of high officials at the White House and the Pentagon and had a crucial meeting with Marc Grossman, the under secretary of state for political affairs.

Rice maintains she did not meet Mahmoud then.... Million-dollar questions remain. Did Mahmoud know when and how the attacks of September 11 would happen? Did Musharraf know? Could the Bush administration have prevented September 11? It's hard to believe high echelons of the CIA and FBI were not aware of the direct link between the ISI and alleged chief hijacker Mohammed Atta.

On October 7, Mahmoud was demoted from the ISI. By that time, Washington obviously knew of the connection between Mahmoud, Saeed Sheikh and Mohamed Atta: the FBI knew it.... as Asia Times Online has reported, Mahmoud did disappear. He lives in near seclusion in Rawalpindi....The families of September 11 victims, US public opinion, the demonized Islamic world, the whole world for that matter, all everybody wants to know is what really happened on September 11.... The genie - the crucial information - is still in the bottle."
9-11 AND THE SMOKING GUN
Asia Times, 8 April 2004

[Al-CIAda]

52. Operation Diamond Back-

Did Bush's New Homeland Security Nominee Protect Terror-Linked Doctor from Prosecution?
Daniel Hopsicker
January 12, 2005 - Venice, FL

Michael Chertoff, appointed by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from criminal prosecution a former client suspected by law enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars directly to Osama Bin Laden while in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9.11 investigation.

Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.

-El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

-His brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to buy weapons from an American undercover agent for Islamic militant groups.

-Before being arrested in a terrorist deal involving oil and heroin for guns and training, arms smuggler Diaa Mohsen was paid at least $5,000 by one of Dr. el Amir's companies, NBC’s Dateline reported.

And his HMO was suspected by law enforcement of being used to funnel money directly to Osama bin laden.  


Wire Transfers to "Unknown Parties"

Chertoff’s client "caused more than $5.7 million to be paid by wire transfers to unknown parties," said the lawsuit filed shortly before the state took over his failing HMO. News accounts about el-Amir’s legal difficulties contain unanswered questions about undue political influence and its effect on national security.
For example, how did el-Amir, who only the month before had been granted a state license to operate an HMO, finagle a lucrative contract from the state of New Jersey in 1995?

“Why was this doctor allowed to start a health plan?” asked the October 25, 1999 issue of the medical trade journal Medical Economics.

“How could this medical entrepreneur, who had no experience running a managed-care or health insurance company, receive a license for an HMO that now provides care to 44,000 of New Jersey's most vulnerable citizens?" asked The Bergen Record. “Moreover, how could the state pay such a novice $ 6 million a month in taxpayers money to take on such a responsibility?”

Why did Michael Chertoff even take the case? 

Con't-
http://www.madcowprod.com/01122004.html

=====

Operation Diamond Back
Interview with FBI Whistblower Randy Glass
Originally aired: 07/02/04
http://innworldreport.net/video/2004-07-02/glass.html

----
Glass was an FBI informant working deep cover sting operations to net illegal arms deals. In the summer of 1999 he met, while wearing a wire, two men with ties to Pakistan's ISI, one of whom pointed to the World Trade Center and said "those towers are coming down." One of the dealers he met was Elamir's brother.
In July 2001, Glass took warning of imminent attacks to public officials, including Senator Bob Graham. His fax to Graham read "I've told you repeatedly about my terrorist case...the threats of blowing up the World Trade Center…Airplanes being used."
Glass believes, given his experience and what he saw from agents, that the FBI thwarted investigations which could have revealed 9/11. He also believes that Pakistan provided state sponsorship for the attacks.
A couple of excerpts from Paul Thompson's timeline:
July 14, 1999: US government informant Randy Glass records a conversation at a dinner attended by him, illegal arms dealers Diaa Mohsen and Mohammed Malik (see June 12, 2001), a former Egyptian judge named Shireen Shawky, and ISI agent Rajaa Gulum Abbas, held at a restaurant within view of the WTC. FBI agents pretending to be restaurant customers sit at nearby tables. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Abbas says he wants to buy a whole shipload of weapons stolen from the US military to give to bin Laden. (Cox News, 8/2/02) Abbas points to the WTC and says, "Those towers are coming down." This ISI agent later makes two other references to an attack on the WTC. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, Cox News, 8/2/02, Palm Beach Post, 10/17/02) Abbas also says "Americans are the enemy," and, "We would have no problem with blowing up this entire restaurant because it is full of Americans." (MSNBC, 3/18/03) The meeting is secretly recorded, and parts are shown on television in 2003 (see also August 17, 1999). (MSNBC, 3/18/03)
...
June 12, 2001: Operation Diamondback, a sting operation called uncovering an attempt to buy weapons illegally for the Taliban, bin Laden and others, ends with a number of arrests. An Egyptian named Diaa Mohsen and a Pakistani named Mohammed Malik are arrested, and accused of attempting to buy Stinger missiles, nuclear weapon components and other sophisticated military weaponry for the Pakistani ISI. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8/23/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02) Malik appears to have had links to important Pakistani officials and Kashmiri terrorists, and Mohsen claims a connection to a man "who is very connected to the Taliban" and funded by bin Laden. (Washington Post, 8/2/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Some other ISI agents came to Florida on several occasions to negotiate, but they escaped being arrested. They wanted to partially pay in heroin. One mentioned that the WTC would be destroyed (see July 14, 1999 and Early August 2001). These ISI agents said some of their purchases would go to the Taliban in Afghanistan and/or terrorists associated with bin Laden. (New York Times, 6/16/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02 (B), MSNBC, 8/2/02) Both Malik and Mohsen lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Jersey Journal, 6/20/01) A number of the people held by the US after 9/11, including possible al-Qaeda members Syed Gul Mohammad Shah and Mohammed Azmath (see September 11, 2001) are from the same Jersey City neighborhood. (New York Post, 9/23/01) Mohsen pleads guilty after 9/11, "But remarkably, even though he was apparently willing to supply America's enemies with sophisticated weapons, even nuclear weapons technology, Mohsen was sentenced to just 30 months in prison." (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's case appears to have been dropped, and reporters find him working in a store in Florida less than a year after the trial ended. (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's court files remain completely sealed, and in Mohsen's court case prosecutors "removed references to Pakistan from public filings because of diplomatic concerns." (Washington Post 8/8/02)

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/randyglass.html

=========

Flashback:Chertoff headed the anthrax investigation

The legislation allows intelligence officials to share information with prosecutors for the first time. The immediate effect will be that a bundle of intelligence files from the CIA and other agencies on terrorism suspects will be shipped to a Justice Department terrorism task force headed by Attorney General Michael Chertoff.
Files on prior attacks and radical groups gathered before the Sept. 11 attacks are of particular interest for what they may reveal about possible new attacks, Justice Department officials said.
While new intelligence information will be available, investigators are still waiting for tests that will show whether the anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was treated with chemical additives. That would indicate the anthrax probably is produced in a sophisticated state-sponsored lab. Officials have cited early indications that the anthrax attacks might be the work of a domestic terrorist. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the anthrax sent to Daschle was altered to make it more easily inhaled.

http://www.courttv.com/assault_on_america/1026_terrorlaws_ap.html

[Frederik]

77. Glass is an interesting case

It's another example of how relatively well-known this plot seems to have been in certain circles, months and even years before it happened. That US intelligence didn't know while it was common knowledge among their close associates in the ISI as early as 1999, is very hard to believe. And the US military anthrax sent to Democratic senators is quite the giveaway. I never really bought the "lone biowarfare specialist" theory anyway...

[hector459]

15. What? No links to Saddam? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!!

eom

[HysteryDiagnosis]

42. I heard that Saddam read an article about Bin Laden's dislike for

his former handlers.... does that count?

[FreedomAngel82]

46. LOL

Shh. Might give Bushie an idea.

[TWiley]

64. This is shocking, but not suprising.

History will probably reveal that the neo-cons were more involved in 9/11 than Saadam Hussien.

Oh wait, many folks already do.

[iconoclastNYC]

59. That's another theory.

I hope the MIHOP theory bares fruit and takes these crooks down. We know they are crooks. Iran Contra?

[JohnyCanuck]

22. Muslim fundamentalists who drank alcohol, swore (and ate pork chops).

Check out Daniel Hopsicker's 20 minute video presentation on the www.macowprod.com web site (page down halfway and click on the link underneath the TV screen for either Windows Media Player or Quick Time).

He has an interview with a pilot who said he met some of the terrorists in Venice Fla. and smelt alcohol on their breath and heard them swearing. This guy had worked as a marine corps US embassy guard in Saudi Arabia and spoke some Arabic. He said he was surprised to see how they seemed to get spooked when he spoke Arabic and told them he had lived in Saudi Arabia. He, however, was surprised when he heard them swear as well as to smell alcohol on their breath (swearing and drinking alcohol not being practices one associates with religious Muslims). He was concerned at how little interest the FBI showed in following up with him when he had his lawyer call them after 9.11 to pass on his concerns about what he had seen in Florida re. questionable goings on at Rudi Dekker's flight school etc.

Then of course there's Minstrel Boy's post from last year in which he recounts some of the hi lights from Hopsicker's book "Welcome to Terrorland." One claim being that Atta's former girlfriend said Mohammed Atta was fond of pork chops and doing drugs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1433886

[HysteryDiagnosis]

43. "Peaking is at hand, not years away...

www.CH2BC.org

[scarletwoman]

47. "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

Thank you for keeping the search for the truth alive.

So many of us wore ourselves out in 2001 trying to get folks to drop the scales from their eyes regarding 9/11. I'm very grateful that there's people like you still willing to challenge DUers to look deeper.

Many thanks,
sw

[Number_6]

49. Double agents

Certainly the investigations of 9/11 by the FBI and other spooks and then the Warren Commission, er, I mean the 9/11 Commission were worse than incompetent. This started me thinking along the lines of at least LIHOP from the outset, when the investigations failed to answer some of the gaping big questions. The only answer was basically Osama bin Laden, so he obviously had not much to do with it. The linkages between the named hijackers (and they may just be names) and U.S. and other govt. military training reminds me strikingly of a statement in Jayna Davis's book about Ok. City (but sorry, I don't have the page number right now). It's an FBI "investigator" saying that to pursue the case for real would just come back and bite the FBI.

[elehhhhna]

54. Re; The Heavens Gate Cult House--weird but the guys who own

zaba.com, which gives one free lookup services & cheap background checks, also have a connection to owning that house. Zaba.com says at it's website that it's creation was a response to 911 or some baloney like that...

[Frederik]

56. Really?

How weird is that... What strikes me as interesting is the commonalities between what happened there and on sept 11, despite all the obvious differences: In both instances it was a matter of relatively resourceful people who were manipulated into killing themselves, possibly by making them believe in some wonderful afterlife awaiting them.

And now you have these two FBI informants who both seem to have been part of the same covert op involving bogus universities run by high-ranking military types, involving Middle Easterners coming into San Diego, and one housed two 9/11 hijackers and the other housed the Heaven's Gate cult... It's enough to make you go, "hmmm".

[elehhhhna]

69. More on Zaba & Heavens Gate:

You remember Heaven's Gate. Thirty-nine members of the Southern California cult committed suicide together in 1997. They apparently believed this would allow them to rendezvous with a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

The bodies of the cultists, who had funded their activities with computer work, were discovered in a mansion near San Diego by a former Heaven's Gate member, Richard Ford, who'd been sent a videotape by cult leaders explaining their rationale for mass suicide.

At the time, Ford was working as a Web designer for a Beverly Hills computer company owned by ZabaSearch's Matzorkis. About a dozen cult members reportedly had worked for Matzorkis at various times.

Matzorkis couldn't be reached for comment by e-mail or through Zakari.

But according to news reports, he drove Ford to the mansion to check on the cult's circumstances. He reportedly waited in the car while Ford went inside.

"They did it," Newsweek quoted Ford as saying as he returned to the car.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/15/BUG3JC8U341.DTL

[Al-CIAda]

58. kick

[mogster]

63. This must be the thread of the week or something

Recommending! :-)

[Swamp Rat]

65. ... connecting dots...

[oblivious]

68. Great thread. Nice to see some people are still working hard on this.

[RBHam]

74. Despite my earlier sarcastic response..."good luck"...

I was posting the truth about 9-11 on Bartcop and Mediawhoresonline.com immediately after the event - and started posting here on DU soon after...

I have found there is no shortage of inside disruptors and deceivers to try and sabotage your efforts. You can tell them by their insulting attempt to label us truth seekers as "delusional, paranoid whack jobs"...

That's exactly WHY I know we're on the right track - the desperate attempts to de-legitimize the 9-11 truth movement proves our point...

Also, they never refute the mountains of evidence that this was an inside job. They simply respond, "That's absurd! Beyond the pale! I wouldn't even DARE think that! Etc...."

Yet, conspiracies to manipulate citizens into supporting Wars has such a long, historical track record that to think anything ELSE would seem to me to be the true aberration...

Carry on, Frederik. We're on your side. Perhaps enough people will wake up before it's too late.

Unfortunately, I think our chance to stop the coming Desolation are slim now. The Neo-Cons have too mcuh power, are too entrenched.
Short of revolution, America's golden goose is cooked.

[Independent_Liberal]

76. Personally...

...I think we're making some headway. We can't stop now. I really think we're getting closer and closer to bringing it out with each passing day.

We can't let them scare us. We need to keep motivating people.

[Frederik]

78. I have to disagree

regarding the neo-cons. I think they're basically done. I don't agree with the people who say they achieved exactly what they wanted in Iraq, I think they blew it. They were supposed to be in Iran by now, and the whole world was supposed to tremble in awe and terror. Instead, the world is mostly ignoring them, going about its business. The US were much more powerful 10 years ago, under Clinton, than they are today. But I also tend to think that the neo-cons are just useful idiots for the real power brokers. I tend to doubt the idea that there was a neo-con coup and suddenly these morons had taken over everything. Who brought them to power? The good, old GOP villains, like James Baker and George Shultz.

The thing about 9/11 is that, no matter what end of the story you choose to zoom in on, you'll quickly find the official story falls apart. Whether it's foreknowledge, the ISI connection, the lives and connections of the hijackers, the supposed "masterminds" and "paymasters", the bogus "War on Terror", the extensive insider trading in airline, insurer etc stocks, Treasury bonds, oil and gold etc, which was at first investigated and then disappeared completely from the media, and the strange fate of WTC7. It would take any real journalist half an hour to figure that out. So why aren't they doing it?