Rich B (especially for Noise and anyone else interested in CIA)

[KJF]

Most of the stuff about Rich B has already been published. You can find it here:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=rich_b._1

There are some other bits that need to be added, especially around the time of the Malaysia meeting.

(thinking aloud) I don't get the NIAC cable (Bamford, p. 227). Why is it sent a day late? What could it possibly say? Why doesn't Bangkok station do anything with it? And why does the 9/11 Commission report say (p. 181) that Rich B was "unaware at first even that the Arabs had left Kuala Lumpur"?

Malaysian Special Branch followed them to the airport and reported to Kuala Lumpur station when they got on a plane. KL Station then got in touch with Bangkok Station that same day (although Wright p. 311 says Special Branch contacted the CIA's Bangkok station, implying it was direct, not through KL Station). According to the 9/11 Commission: "On January 12, the head of the CIA's al Qaeda unit told his bosses that surveillance in Kuala Lumpur was continuing. He may not have known that in fact Mihdhar and his companions had dispersed and in fact that tracking was falling apart." (p. 354)

I find it had to believe Alec Station was not copied on the cable about the flight to Bangkok on 8 January. In any case, the next day Alec sent a cable to Bangkok telling them to do something about it, so they must have known by then. So how can Rich B have failed to mention the flight to Bangkok in the January 12 briefing? As far as I can see his only wiggle room is:
(1) He just dropped the ball in the 12 January briefing (as well as dropping the ball on at least a dozen other Almihdhar-related matters) - he knew they had gone to Bangkok, but forgot to mention it;
(2) His subordinates at Alex Station knew about it, but failed to inform him for 4 days.

Neither explanation is very convincing. The question is: did Rich B fail to brief Black et al. because he didn't want them to know Almihdhar had "escaped", or because he knew they didn't want a paper trail showing they knew? My feeling the first option is correct.

Off-topic: I also see analysts stopped distributing reports about responsibility for the Cole bombing on 23 October 2000.

[JackRiddler]

1. kick for a light of investigative rationality on a confused board...

[noise]

2. Is there a way to make sense of Alec Station's conduct?

The failure to alert the FBI in early 2000 still makes absolutely no sense. It makes Alec Station look complicit in 9/11. Was that their goal?