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“A STUNNING CONCATENATION OF EVIDENCE” Indeed, it was - according to the official report of the 9/11 Commission. On the 23rd of March, Condoleezza Rice was warned that multiple al-Qa'ida cells were operating on American soil. She did nothing.
On the 20th of April, the Counter-terrorism Security Group (CSG) warned that Bin Laden was planning several terrorist attacks.
In May, the FBI warned the Bush White House that Bin Laden would launch attacks on New York, Boston and London. The Bush White House did nothing.
On the 16th of May, the US embassy in London warned that the Bin Laden group was "planning an attack, in the United States using 'high explosives'."
The next day, on the 17th of May, the first item on the CIA's agenda was headlined: "UBL: Operation Planned in US".
On the 29th of May, The National Security Council's leading terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, directly warned Condoleezza Rice, "When these attacks occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them." Once again, she did nothing.
On the 12th of June, the CIA reported that al-Qa'ida was in the process of sending recruits to the US for terrorist operations.
On the 22nd of June, CIA station chiefs were warned of a, "possible al-Qa'ida suicide attack on a US target."
On the 25th of June, Condoleezza Rice was informed that six separate intelligence reports indicated the suspicious operations of, "al-Qa'ida personnel warning of a pending attack."
On the 30th of June, top US national security officials were briefed that Bin Laden planned high-profile attacks that would have "dramatic consequences of catastrophic proportions."
On the 2nd of July, the FBI warned law enforcement agencies of threats from Bin Laden.
On the 5th of July, Attorney General John Ashcroft was warned personally by the CIA that "preparations for multiple attacks (are) in late stages or already complete." He did nothing.
The next day, on the 6th of July, the CSG was warned by the CIA of a "spectacular" imminent attack.
In July, the FBI received the report from its Phoenix field office that Bin Laden might be coordinating a plan to send students to US aviation schools, and they reported an, "inordinate number of individuals of investigative interest" attending flight schools in Arizona.
On the 31st of July, the FAA circulated warnings to the aviation community of "possible near term terrorist operations."
On the 6th of August, George Bush was informed by the CIA that Bin Laden was determined to strike the US in a catastrophic attack on American soil. He did absolutely nothing, except to fell a tree on his ranch later that day.
On the 15th of August, the FBI launched an investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui after his arrest.
On the 23rd and 24th of August, George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence, received a report on Moussaoui titled, "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly", and the CIA sent a cable to Paris alerting European stations that, "subjects (were) involved in suspicious 747 flight training" in which Moussaoui was described as a potential, "suicide hijacker."
In late August and early September, Condoleezza Rice, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz were inflexibly unconcerned about this massive accumulation of reports of the threatening activities of al-Qa'ida. They were still focused on Iraq as the major enemy of America.
On the 11th of September, time ran out for America, and in the aftermath of terror, George Bush beseeched his top counter-terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, to pin the guilt on Saddam Hussein. One wonders whether Bush was merely stupid, the conventional theory, or whether there was another motive lurking behind his inexplicably obtuse focus on Iraq. Craig Unger's book, House of Bush, House of Saud, details the manifold, long-standing and intricate business associations between the Bush family and many Saudi Arabians. On 9/11, George W. Bush well knew that he and his family could be exposed to criticism and blame if the catastrophe was proven to be the work of his family's old friends, the Bin Ladens, or any of their many historic Saudi business connections. Rather than mere stubbornness, George W. Bush may have been desperate to conceal the fact that he and his family had been accepting large sums of money and doing business with the Bin Ladens and the Saudis, and he may have wanted to put the blame on a patsy, i.e. Saddam Hussein, in order to prevent embarrassment by covering up his and his family's personal and financial connections to known terrorists. The swift exit of the Bin Ladens and many other leading Saudi Arabians that was mediated by the White House which is now documented in the official report of the 9/11 Commission does nothing to alleviate the growing suspicions of a massive cover up by the Bushes and their political apparatchiks of their ill-conceived business history. The events leading up to 9/11 represent a stunning concatenation of criminal negligence, dereliction of duty - or something worse, potentially much worse, a premeditated search for a New Pearl Harbor predicated on the Project for a New American Century. The visionary right-wing agenda designed by William Kristol required a triggering event that he likened to "a new Pearl Harbor" designed to catapult America headlong into a fundamental reorientation of its social, political, constitutional and military cultures. Dr. Steven Jonas has recently contributed two important essays comparing 9/11 to the Reichstag fire which launched the Third Reich on its egregious course of catastrophe leading to World War Two and the Holocaust. In the near future, I will provide a comment on another striking parallel in history of a regime change followed by an act of terrorism that allowed the new government to tighten its grasp on power and to launch fundamental revisions in the social and political culture - the Gunpowder Plot. These two precedents may have been the models for the neoconservative dream of a new era of American military hegemony, legitimized by their dream scenario - a New Pearl Harbor. The Report of the 9/11 Commission contains all of the evidence from 2001 cited above. It is a baffling document. Like the Warren Commission Report, it will be painstakingly dissected for centuries to come. Unlike the Warren Commission report, it does not point the finger of blame at any one individual or group of individuals for the intelligence failure. Instead, it cites institutional failures of the collective "imagination". We were not too corrupt, it would have us believe, we were merely too stupid to prevent 9/11. However, after reading the chain of evidence that occurred in 2001 that is tightly encapsulated above, it becomes much more difficult to believe the conclusion of institutional failure. There remains the abiding river of doubt about the facts of 9/11. In the minds of many Americans, there is a sinister mystery palpitating somewhere beneath the rubble. While the report has many important attributes, it is condemned to live under the glaring light of suspicion and to suffer the fate of eternal interrogation. For many, its conclusions will seem to be fabricated out of the typical grade of bureaucratic whitewash that is being rolled out yet again to protect the guilty from the wrath of the innocent. ________________ This article is highly recommended to readers: Rupert Cornwell, 'The system was blinking red' Official investigation into 11 September admits US ignored obvious warnings and says attacks might have been prevented
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
