AMERICA BETRAYED

Chapter 10

TREASON & THE 9-11 COVER UP: BUSH, FBI & CIA & SABOTAGE PRE-9-11 INVESTIGATIONS

The Bush administration and high ranking members of the FBI and CIA, have claimed that it is impossible for the CIA to plant or recruit spies from within terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda. That differences of language, religion, and ethnicity, make recruitment impossible. American spies would "stand out like a sore thumb" and would be killed and eliminated by "evil doers."

Thus, saith the Bush team, we are deaf, dumb, and blind as to what takes place within these organizations as they are nearly impossible to penetrate. And, the corporate-controlled American mass media repeats these absurdities despite even recent and well publicized evidence to the contrary; e.g. John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla.

Jose Padilla, for example, is not Arabic. He is not from Afghanistan. He was born in Puerto Rico and raised right here in the United States. Nor does he have a Muslim religious background or heritage. For much of his youth he was the member of a notorious Chicago-based gang. He was a punk. A "gang banger" who had been implicated in a gangland murder when he was 13. He had been arrested in 1991, after a road-rage shooting incident (1).

As he approached his 30th birthday, Jose Padilla, became interested in Islam. He became a Muslim and took a Muslim name, Abdullah al-Muhajir. In 1998, Jose Padilla journeyed to Pakistan in search of authentic Islamic teaching, and to make contact and join up with Islamic gang bangers, al-Qaeda. According to the U.S. Justice Department, in March of 2002, Jose Padilla met with senior al-Qaeda operatives in Karachi, including Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda commander. He also joined in discussions about the possibility of creating a radiological "dirty bomb."

He was arrested on May 8, 2002, after flying into Chicago's O'Hare airport from Pakistan.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has described Padilla, as an "al-Qaeda operative," and an "enemy combatant," thus stripping him of his legal and constitutional rights (1).

And yet, although a 31 year old Latino male, raised in the United States, was able to gain access to senior members of al-Qaeda, although he became involved in discussions of possible terrorist attacks on the U.S., the Bush administration wishes us to believe that it is nearly impossible to insert a spy into the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

And then there is John Walker Lindh (2). Although raised a Catholic from an affluent home, and despite having a father who once worked for the Justice Department, John Walker Lindh, a skinny, effeminate, "White boy" from Marin County, California, was readily accepted into the ranks of al-Qaeda. John Walker Lindh was in fact recruited while living in Marin County, and then twice traveled from the U.S to Yemen -- a haven for al-Qaeda operatives. Following the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, Walker traveled from Yemen to Pakistan, where, like Jose Padilla, he met with terrorists directly associated with al-Qaeda. From Pakistan he journeyed to Afghanistan, where he met personally, on five different occasions, with Osama bin Laden. He even stayed at Osama bin Laden's guest house, and attended lectures delivered by Osama (2). John Walker Lindh was still in Afghanistan on 9/11/2001, and was made privy to ongoing plans for terrorist operations in the United States.

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The FBI, CIA, and Bush administration have repeatedly claimed the 9/11 attacks could not have been anticipated and could not have been prevented. When confronted with the incredible body of evidence indicating the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies had more than enough evidence to conclude the obvious, the Bush White House, and the corporate controlled mass media have tried to explain that the terrorists had slipped through the cracks."

We have been assured that U.S. intelligence agencies were so overwhelmed with information, and have been so restricted by restrictive and unnecessary laws, that they were unable to penetrate al-Qaeda or connect the dots. The evidence indicates otherwise.

Several of the hijackers had been identified, and placed under surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies prior to 9/11. Four of them were even identified, as potential hijackers, by a passenger, in August, who became alarmed by their "obvious" intentions, and this information was passed on from the FAA to the FBI.

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The CIA (and other US intelligence agencies) had first established a relationship with Osama bin Laden in the late 1970s (3). That relationship continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s and even into the year 2001, when he allegedly met with a CIA agent in Dubai in July (4)--a city where 9/11 hijacker, Ziad al-Jarrah, was interviewed by the CIA seven months earlier (5).

The CIA (and other US intelligence agencies) had developed close working relationships with a number of men directly associated with bin Laden, and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization long before 9/11. In fact U.S. Intelligence agencies had a number of "agents who infiltrated al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies" (6).

Mohammed Khaksar, the Taliban's deputy interior minister and intelligence chief, was a CIA informant (7). Because of this relationship, following the U.S. led attack on the Taliban, he defected and became a trusted member of the U.S. backed Northern Alliance. As Khaksar later admitted to reporters, beginning in "1999" he "kept up a regular secret dialogue with [and] served as a clandestine contact for U.S. intelligence services while serving the Taliban and al-Qaeda. CIA agents disguised as journalists visited him to solicit inside information" (7).

Khaksar says that one of the reasons he began providing information to U.S. intelligence, is that he didn't trust bin laden and was suspicious of bin Laden's motives. He says he voiced his suspicions to other Taliban leaders that bin laden "would do something bad, and it will have a bad effect on Afghanistan" (7).

As detailed in court records, Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, was also a CIA spy and an FBI informant (8,9). Ali Mohamed trained Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, and was linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade center and the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa. He also helped al-Zawahiri, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda, enter the US a with a fake passport in 1995, and tour U.S. mosques, raising money later funneled to al-Qaeda. Ali Mohamed also helped plan the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Ali Mohamed, however, was a U.S. government informant during his entire terrorist career. In fact, he was trained in the United States, at a U.S. military installation and then served as a CIA operative in Afghanistan.

He was not alone.

According to a report that appeared in Newsweek (10) "five of the alleged hijackers... received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s. Three of the hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said a 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. The three foreign nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were among the four men who commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. The third man, Ahmed Alghamdi, helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75. Drivers licenses issued in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences."

After the 9/11 tragedy, Florida Democratic Senator Bob Nelson, upon reading these allegations fired off an indignant letter demanding an explanation from the FBI and John Ashcroft's Justice Department. The senator got nowhere. According to Senator Nelson's office, "In the wake of those reports we asked about the Pensacola Naval Air Station but we never got a definitive answer from the Justice Department" or "the FBI. Their response to date has been that they are trying to sort through something complicated and difficult."

Another 9/11 hijacker, Ziad al-Jarrah, also maintained a relationship with the CIA. Indeed, he met with CIA officials as recently as January of 2001, at which point he was debriefed.

As reported by CNN (5), "Jarrah had spent at least three weeks in January 2001, at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan." Upon completing his terrorist training, the CIA, which had been monitoring his movements, requested that intelligence officials based in the United Arab Emirates question him about "his terrorist activities." According to CNN, the CIA had "Jarrah stopped at the airport in Dubai on January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified officials that he would be arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe."

The CIA questioned, debriefed, and then allowed him to return to Europe and from Europe to the United States.

On 9/11, Ziad al-Jarrah piloted the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.

As was the case with the five 9/11 hijackers who were trained at U.S. military bases in the 1990s, the relationship between Ziad al-Jarrah and the CIA began in the 1990s.

In 1999, Ziad al-Jarrah, moved into a Hamburg apartment already shared by future 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi (11). In October, 1999, Ziad al-Jarrah, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, attended the wedding of al-Qaeda operative, Said Bahaji, a German-born Muslim of Moroccan descent. Also at the wedding: Mohammed Heidar Zammar, a known al-Qaeda recruiter (12).

This was all duly noted by the CIA (13).

On the morning of Nov. 29, 1999, U.S. Intelligence tracked and then followed Ziad al-Jarrah as he, Mohammed Atta, and Marwan Al-Shehhi left Germany, then boarded Turkish Airlines Flight 1662. In the company of another al-Qaeda operative also linked to Pakistan's intelligence service, bin al-Shibh, they flew from Istanbul to Karachi, Pakistan. These men remained under surveillance for several more days, and were then tracked to an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan (13).

Atta, it is believed, was the leader of the four 9/11 hijacking teams. During a phone conversation that was taped by the CIA, al-Jarrah referred to Atta as "boss."

Based on information apparently supplied by al-Jarrah, or other spies within al-Qaeda, the CIA learned that Atta and the other men met with Osama bin laden and that Atta was treated as an honored guests (13). Subsequently Atta was tape recorded by the CIA discussing with another known terrorist, a forthcoming attack on the United States (14).

The three men did not return to Germany, until February 2000, at which point they began using the internet to send and receive information from flight schools in the United States. Over 30 different schools were contacted (15). A Hamburg librarian later claimed she overhead Al-Shehhi speaking of the World Trade Center and then boasting: "There will be thousands of dead. You will all think of me" (15).

Atta, Al-Shehhi, and al-Jarrah were not the only 9/11 hijackers being closely monitored.

For example, we know that the FBI and CIA had also been observing two of the hijackers, Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, during this same time period (16). The CIA and FBI knew the men were linked to al-Qaeda and had met with Osama bin Laden. The CIA and FBI also knew that al-Midhar's father-in-law ran an Al-Qaeda safehouse in Yemen, and that he had acted in the past to relay messages between al-Qaeda operatives (17).

The CIA tracked Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi to Malaysia, where a high level al-Qaeda conference was to be held, in January 2000 (16). The CIA ordered Malaysian Intelligence to photograph the participants, which included a one-legged member of al Qaeda Tawfiq Attash Khallad. Khallad was a top al-Qaeda lieutenant and the chief planner of the October 1998 bombing of the USS Cole.

Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi were photographed talking with Khallad. After the meeting, Khallad is known to have provided funds, and to have paid for the plane tickets of Alhazmi and Al-Midhar, to America (16).

Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were also photographed talking with bin al-Shibh, the same man who had accompanied Atta, Al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah to Afghanistan. Bin al-Shibh--acting in concert with Pakistan's Intelligence Service (ISI)-- would later wire $115,000 to the Florida bank accounts of Atta and al-Shehhi (16), and an as yet undisclosed sum of cash to Zacarias Moussaoui (the so called "20th hijacker").

How did the CIA know of this meeting? There were multiple sources, one of which included listening in on intercepted phone calls made from a tapped-phone in al-Midhar's father-in-laws al-Qaeda safe house (17).

All this information, including the fact that Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi had entered the United States soon after attending an al-Qaeda conference in Malaysia, was gathered by the CIA and was passed on to the FBI's counterterrorism center at FBI headquarters in January 2000 (16).

And yet, for the next 18 months, both agencies permitted these two terrorists to move about freely and to hold meetings with at least six of the other hijackers, including Mohammed Atta and Hani Hanjour (16). Hanjour would later hijack American Airlines Flight 77.

These men did not fall through the cracks. The FBI and CIA knew they were dangerous. One unidentified FBI agent from the agency's New York office, said that he warned his superiors that "someone would die" unless the government more aggressively investigated the mysterious trail of al-Midhar (16). Instead, top level officials in the FBI and CIA allowed these men to go about their activities with impunity.

Like Atta and the others, Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi rented apartments, obtained credit cards and driver1s licenses, set up bank accounts, listed their real names in the San Diego phone book, and even took flying lessons, while under "surveillance" (11).

In fact, they moved into the home of Abduss Attar Sheikh--an FBI informant! Abduss Attar Sheikh, a Muslim they met at a Mosque in San Diego, helped them open a bank account and get internet access, while simultaneously reporting this to the FBI (16,17). Local FBI agents even visited the home, on a regular basis, while al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were present!

These individuals had little fear of being arrested. On one occasion, May 1, 2001, Nawaf al-Hazmi called the police to report that someone tried to rob him. He later declined to press charges. Several others 9/11 hijackers also came to the attention of the police, including Atta (11) and Ziad al-Jarrah--both stopped for speeding (16).

Atta was also held and questioned at length when he arrived at the Miami International Airport in January, on a tourist visa. Atta boldly told immigration officials that he was in the United States for flight training. Even though any kind of training would have required a student or vocational education visa, someone intervened on Atta's behalf and they let him go.

As noted, although al-Midhar and al-Hazmi were on a special "watch list" and were known to be associating with terrorists, they were allowed free entry into the U.S. (11,16). In fact, even when al-Midhar left the U.S. to travel in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and although he had been videotaped meeting with one of the suspects in the Oct. 12, 2000 terrorist attack of the USS Cole, he was able to renew his visa after it had expired. He returned to the United States, unchallenged, on July 4, 2001.

Likewise, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah, were allowed to undergo pilot training, and to move about the country, and to meet with many of the other hijackers, and to board and then hijack American commercial jet liners and crash them into the World Trade Center.

Mohammed Atta, Al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah were not overlooked. They did not fall between the cracks.

Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 ring leader had been of special interest for years (11). His movements were tracked by the CIA, he was followed and photographed, and we know that even some of his phone conversations were tape recorded by the CIA and the National Security Agency (16).

Atta was well known to U.S. Intelligence. He had implicated in previous terrorists attacks against Israel. He and his "cousin" Marwan, had been linked by German authorities to Islamic extremists and the bin Laden organization. He had been photographed allegedly meeting with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer, in April 2001, by the Czechoslovakian Intelligence Services--information that was turned over to the CIA (11,16).

And then, after coming to this country, Mohammed Atta repeatedly drew attention to himself, driving recklessly without a license and getting a speeding ticket, getting drunk in public, making anti-American statements, spending money lavishly though the had no source of income, and failing to appear in court which resulted in the issuing of an arrest warrant (11). In fact, in July 2001, he was stopped again by police in Delray Beach, for speeding. And, although a warrant for his arrest had been issued in a neighboring county for failing to appear in court the officer let him go, for reasons that have not been explained. And he did all this while being closely monitored by the CIA and FBI.

Atta was arrogant and supremely confident with no fear of being apprehended or arrested.

The behavior of Atta, Khalid al-Midhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and others, the fact that none of these men seemed to have any concern about U.S. authorities, raises the possibility that they were being shielded by those who were watching them. It raises the possibility that they knew they were being protected by those who made it possible for them and the other 9/11 hijackers to enter the country.

Consider, again the case of Ali Mohamed (8,9). Ali had been trained at the United States Army's special-warfare school in Fort Bragg, where he learned how to create terrorist cell structures that could be used for terrorist operations. And, with the blessing of the CIA, he taught all that he had learned to al-Qaeda operatives including group survival techniques, map reading, how to fire automatic weapons and build booby traps with explosives. He regularly reported to the FBI and CIA. However, when he was arrested after it was inadvertently revealed that he was linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the October 1998 bombings of the U.S, embassies, he was such an important double agent that Federal officials came to his rescue. Thus we discover that although he waved a trial and pled guilty to five counts, in October of 2000, he was never sentenced!

Ali Mohamed was being protected because he was an undercover CIA/FBI operative. He was protected by top officials in the FBI and CIA even though they knew he was involved in terrorist activities and assisting those who were planning to kill and who had killed Americans (18). He was protected because he was a double agent and had informed them, in advance, of these attacks, which top officials in the FBI and CIA then allowed to take place.

In 1999, a National Security Council staffer working for the Clinton administration, met with FBI officials at the White House and pointed out that Ayman al-Zawahiri, had visited the United States on a fund-raising trip (19)--a trip arranged by Ali Mohamed (8,9). He then asked: '"Did you know that?'' The FBI officials nodded warily. ''Well,'' the staffer continued, ''if he was here, someone was handling his travel and arranging his meetings and someone was giving him money. Do you know who these people are? Do you have them covered? There are cells here and we need to know about them.'' ''Yeah, yeah, we know. Don't worry about it,'' the F.B.I. officials replied. According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, the director and the senior director for counterterrorism on the security council staff during the Clinton administration, what these FBI officials were saying was: Back off (19).

Ali Mohamed was protected.

The behavior of Alhazmi, al-Midhar, Mohammed Atta, and many of the other 9/11 hijackers, the fact that they made no attempt to conceal their actions or whereabouts, and the ease at which they were able to leave and reenter the country, suggests that they had no reason to be concerned about being caught, because they too knew they were being protected. Atta in fact took seven international trips, some of which were to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and had no problem reentering the United States.

Mohammed Atta drank too much, drove too fast, flashed large wads of cash, and made anti-American statements while taking flying lessons, because he felt he was protected.

These individuals had so little fear of being arrested, they felt so protected, that they were even willing to drive recklessly, and in the case of Nawaf al-Hazmi, make calls to the police. Nawaf al-Hazmi, using his real name, even filed a police report, on May 1, of an attempted robbery. Atta and Ziad al-Jarrah had both stopped, and ticketed for speeding, and then failed to show up in court--thus inviting an arrest.

They had no fear of arrest. They had no fear of being identified as terrorists.

They were being protected.

Protected by what? Allah, or by the CIA and FBI?

On August 1, actor James Woods, while a passenger on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, became alarmed by the behavior of four men who he thought were intending on hijacking the plane. As he explained during a February 2002, television interview on Fox TV's O'Reilly Factor, the possibility that these men were planning a hijacking "would have been blatantly obvious to the most casual observer." Mr. Woods states that he informed one of the pilots, pointed out the four men, and that a report was filed by the flight crew in early August, and that the report went directly to the FAA regarding the suspicious behavior of the four men. According to Mr. Woods, he contacted the FBI, following the 9/11 hijacking, and was "told unofficially... that all four of them were terrorists involved" in the 9/11 attack. Woods was also told, however, that he should keep the details secret because of national security.

Hence, in August, four of the hijackers had been identified, and yet the FBI did nothing.

The men were being protected.

What we also know --and as has been reported in the Wall Street Journal (20) and other publications (21)-- is that the Bush family and the Carlyle Group was in business with the bin Laden family. We also know that George H.W. Bush had stayed, as an honored guest, at the bin Laden Palace. We know that after his son, George W. was elected President, that Bush jr., Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor, Condaleezza Rice were receiving detailed phone calls from G.H.W. Bush--a man who was in power when Osama bin Laden was first recruited, and who--like the bin-Ladens and other Saudis-- stood to make an incredible sum of money if a terrorist attack on the United States was followed by a war on Afghanistan (22) and then Iraq.

And we know that George H.W. Bush, the former director of the CIA, had been with the agency since at least the early 1960s (23). And we know, no one ever really leaves the CIA--certainly not G.H.W. Bush.

We also know that the Bush family were linked to the Nazis, that business directed by Prescott Bush were seized for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act, and that George H.W. Bush has been linked to terrorist atrocities throughout the world.

And then there is the Carlyle Group, which, like the Bush family is in business with the bin Ladens. There are so many ex-CIA agents on the payroll of Carlyle, that some have likened it to a CIA-front organization.

Thus we suspect that even after he'd George Bush Sr. had been voted out of office, his hands, and the hands of his associates, were probably still wrapped tightly around the throat of the CIA, and no doubt the FBI--Intelligence organizations which actively sabotaged any meaningful investigation into al-Qaeda, bin Laden, or his terrorist operatives in the United states. Indeed, top FBI and CIA officials continued to hinder the efforts of lower ranking FBI agents, in the months, days, and even hours before the 9/11 tragedy (24,25,26,27,28).

Consider, again the Carlyle Group. Frank Carlucci is a former deputy CIA director, Bush is a former CIA director, and it has been said that dozens of former CIA agents are on the Carlyle payroll. The Carlyle Group expected to profit handsomely, and it has profited handsomely from the "war on terrorism"-a war that would not have begun if al-Qaeda had been stopped.

According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon (19), when they and other Clinton staffers, including President Clinton, attempted to force the CIA and FBI to take action against bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and the terrorist threat they believed loomed on the horizon, the C.I.A., F.B.I. and even the military were uncooperative.

Likewise, when Clinton sought to utilize the unmanned Predator drone, to find al-Qaeda targets and fire missiles at them, George Tenet of the CIA as well as the Air Force refused to cooperate, arguing that assassination would be a bad policy. The FBI, was uncooperative in the extreme (19,24,25,26,27,28).

GEORGE W. BUSH IS ELECTED PRESIDENT: THE COVER UP BEGINS

In January of 2001, in the first week after being sworn into office, the Bush team ordered the FBI and all intelligence agencies to 3back off2 investigations involving the bin Laden family.

Before Bush came into office there were several dozen analysts assigned to two operational units focused on Osama bin Laden and radical fundamentalists groups. After Bush came to power, these individuals were reassigned. In consequence, the F.B.I. had only one analyst working on strategic assessments of al-Qaeda (16).

In addition, the Bush team and National Security advisor, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, killed all plans, provided by the outgoing Clinton administration, to launch a major initiative to take on and destroy bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.

Specifically, in January of 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, Clinton National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, called a National Security meeting, the purpose of which was to brief incoming National Security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and her staff, including her deputy, Stephen Hadley, about the menace of bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

"I'm coming to this briefing" Berger told Rice, "to underscore how important I think this subject is. I believe that the Bush Administration will spend more time on terrorism generally, and on al-Qaeda specifically, than any other subject."

During that meeting, which took place in the White House Situation Room, Rice and her deputy, were given a detailed "plan" outlining a major initiative to take on and destroy bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. These includes plans to arrest the leaders of all al-Qaeda terrorist cells and those providing financial aid to bin Laden, and to "eliminate" bin Laden's "sanctuary" in Afghanistan.

The Bush team wasn't interested and disregarded these recommendations. Instead they began ordering top FBI officials to slow down or halt all investigations into bin Laden or his Saudi connections. It was being made clear to all concerned that absolutely no action would be taken on any information regarding a terrorist threats posed by bin Laden or al-Qaeda.

Later, after 9/11 and when questioned by reporters, Rice (through a spokewoman) claimed she had no recollection of such a meeting. Her top aids also denied ever receiving any such document or plan. Thus Rice, and therefore, the Bush administration would have us believe that they took absolutely no action because no one had given them a plan and because they didn't know bin Laden was such a threat.

"Never did we realize that the enemy was so well organized..." Bush whined.

Right. And the cow jumped over the moon.

Indeed, the Bush team not only shifted the focus from al-Qaeda, bin Laden, and the Saudis, but ordered FBI and all intelligence agencies to 3back off2 investigations involving the bin Laden family and any links between Saudi Arabia and terrorism (26).

For example, in an interview broadcast by BBC News Newsnight (25), Michael Wildes, a former U.S. Attorney representing a Saudi diplomat, states that when he attempted to hand deliver documents which directly implicated Saudi citizens in financing terrorism, the FBI "refused" to accept them. Although lower level FBI agents wanted to examine the documents, they had been told that anything linking the Saudi's to terrorism, was not to be explored.

It was not just documents, but terrorist activity that was not to be explored. Consider, for example, the case of Zacarias Moussaoui.

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI

In late August 2000, the FBI received repeated and insistent warnings from managers of the Pan Am International Flight School in Eagan, Minnesota about an Arab who was requesting training in a Boeing 747 simulator (11,24). The Arab, Zacarias Moussaoui, only wanted to learn how to steer the jet and had no interest in learning about landings or takeoffs. "He just wanted to learn to steer the plane, which was very odd" (11).

This "odd" man, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested on August 17, for overstaying his visa. Because he was a French citizen, and based on the information received from the flight school, FBI field agents contacted French intelligence officials and were informed that Zacarias Moussaoui was a suspected terrorist and a fanatical believer in Islam (24).

This is the same Moussaoui, who, like Atta, received money transfers from al-Qaeda operative, bin al-Shibh. Moussaoui arrived in the United States with $35,000 in cash. On Aug. 1 and Aug. 3 bin al-Shibh wired him and additional $14,000 in money orders (16).

FBI officials also noted a "spike" in the cell phone usage of Mr. Atta, immediately after the arrest of Moussaoui (16).

Later, that evening, after he had been taken into custody, FBI agents were told by an informant that Moussaoui believed it was "acceptable to kill civilians who harm Muslims" and that it was a high honor to die as a "martyr" in such attacks (11).

Minnesota FBI agents were convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist and a direct threat to the United States, and that he was planning to possibly hijack a commercial jet in a terrorist attack. After compiling an alarming amount of evidence, they contacted FBI headquarters as well as the head of the bureau's Radical Fundamentalist Unit, David Frasca. This is the same David Frasca who was sent information from Phoenix about Islamic extremists with terrorist connections and who were seeking to learn how to steer but not land commercial jetliners.

FBI headquarters and the Radical Fundamentalist Unit immediately acted to "block" and "deliberately" prevent the Minnesota FBI office from continuing its investigation (24). As related by 21-year FBI veteran, Coleen Rowley, agents at the Minnesota FBI office began making "desperate" attempts to obtain cooperation from FBI headquarters who instead were "deliberately thwarting" any investigation. The Minnesota office in fact became so worried and frustrated by the inexplicable barriers they were encountering, that they contacted the CIA directly about Moussaoui.

The CIA reacted at once. FBI headquarters was informed, and the agents of the Minnesota FBI field office were reprimanded in no uncertain terms.

According to Rowley (24): "When, in a desperate 11th-hour measure to bypass the FBI HQ roadblock, the Minneapolis division undertook to directly notify the CIA's counterterrorist center, FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents."

The message was clear: "Hands off Moussaoui." However, what Rowley didn't know it that top officials in the CIA, including CIA chief, Tenet, were being appraised of what she and other Minnesota FBI agents had discovered. Mr. Tenet and his top deputies had received briefing paper labeled "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly."

FBI headquarters did not just put a stop to the investigation, they sabotaged it in no uncertain terms. Top officials in the FBI in fact rewrote the Minnesota agents' request for search warrants and permission to conduct additional surveillance, removing important information, and altering it in such a fashion that it became a "joke."

As recalled by Agent Coleen Rowley, Minnesota agents became so frustrated by the inexplicable roadblocks erected that some even suggested that FBI headquarters was an "accomplice" to Osama bin Laden's efforts to attack the United States.

"Accomplice?"

Inexplicably, and contrary to normal protocol, the FBI officials also failed to inform the Minnesota or Phoenix office that both had come up with similar cases and had similar suspicions.

Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix had concluded a painstaking investigation and had uncovered detailed information that linked a number of Middle Eastern flight students to Osama bin Laden and to a radical British Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun. Al-Muhajiroun is dedicated to the establishment of a global Muslim state through Islamic terror and the overthrow and destruction of all non-Islamic governments. Moreover, he discovered that one of the flight school students had communicated with Abu Zubaydah, one of bin Laden's top aides (16).

In July, Williams sent FBI headquarters a detailed reporting warning that Osama bin Laden's followers may be training in U.S. flight schools. He further reported that they had been inquiring about airport security, and that they may be planning to hijack commercial jetliners. Williams strongly urged that the FBI should canvass all flight schools in the United States to identify students with possible terrorist ties.

William's reported landed on Ashcroft's desk in August at about the same time the Bush administration received a briefing paper titled: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

Ashcroft, the FBI, and the Bush administration, however, wish us to believe that the evidence did not seem credible, that Williams was just perusing "a hunch."

"This was not a vague hunch," an unnamed congressional source told the Associated Press. "He was doing a case on these guys. He put in all the history about this pattern of radical Muslims and Osama (having) links to Arizona. He talked about fatwas (religious edicts) targeting U.S. airports. He noted that one guy was asking about airport security -- that's specific information, not guesswork. The memo was very specific. It named names," the official said.

In fact, two of the flight school students mentioned in William's report had direct links to al-Qaeda, and a third student had communicated by phone with Abu Zubaydah, a leader of al-Qaeda--a phone call that was allegedly monitored by the CIA. Abu Zubaydah, played a major role in organizing the 9/11 attacks and helped run a number of al-Qaeda terrorist training camps.

William's five page report also included references to a "fatwa" issued by a man named Bakri, also known as Omar Bakri Fostok. Bakri had received a faxed letter from an al-Qaeda operative in Afghanistan, intercepted and copied by the CIA, which explicitly stated (16): "Bring down their airliners."

Ashcroft, however, claims that he never passed the information on to President Bush as he didn't think it was important.

Likewise, according to Ms. Hill of the joint House Senate Intelligence Committee, FBI personnel who reviewed Williams memo found it "speculative and not particularly significant." Ms. Hill also noted, however, that these same FBI agents knew that some flight students affiliated with bin Laden, were undergoing flight training in the United States, but they believed Osama's men were intending to fly goods and personnel in Afghanistan.

What?

They knew al-Qaeda was in the United States, taking flight lessons?

Of course they knew. That's the point. Although they knew, they not only let this flight training continue, but when informed that an al-Qaeda terrorist, Moussaoui, was in this country, and that he might be part of a plot to attack the World Trade Center with hijacked aircraft, top FBI and CIA officials sabotaged any further investigation (24). Indeed, one of the FBI agents who was thwarted by headquarters in fact warned he was trying to stop an attack on the "World Trade Center." His warning was dismissed.

Likewise, top officials in the CIA also conspired with top FBI officials to prevent any further investigation into Moussaoui (24). CIA officials falsely claimed they had no information linking him to terrorism. The CIA went to great lengths to dismiss the significance of the information, provided by France's intelligence agencies. According to the CIA, the information provided by France did not provide "conclusive proof" of Moussaoui's ties to terrorism and thus any further investigation and any attempt to get a search warrant to examine Moussaoui's personal computer, should not be allowed.

But isn't that the purpose of conducting an investigation? To gather information?

Not according to FBI and CIA headquarters. Not when it comes to al-Qaeda. Not when it comes to an impending attack on the United States.

The Minnesota FBI field office would not back down. They made a second call to France. Their suspicions were again confirmed.

The FBI agents of Minnesota then rewrote their warrants and resubmitted them to headquarters. A supervisor in the Minnesota even followed up with a desperate phone call to FBI headquarters where he pleaded and then warned that they were trying to stop terrorists who planned "to take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center" (24).

FBI headquarters responded angrily: "That's not going to happen."

The request for a warrant met the same fate as the first. Like the five-page report from Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams, top FBI officials considered the Moussaoui case closed. The Minnesota FBI field office was ordered to back off.

After 9/11 when Moussaoui's computer was finally examined, direct evidence linking him to the other hijackers and al-Qaeda was discovered. He has since been charged as being the "20th hijacker." However, when FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked why Moussaoui's background and computer were not thoroughly investigated prior to 9/11, he responded, as is his custom, by dissembling. According to Mueller: The FBI did everything in its power to determine if Moussaoui was part of a terrorist plot; a brazen falsity which in turn triggered a detailed letter from Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel (and an FBI division legal advisor for 12 years) Coleen M. Rowley. Rowley indirectly accused Mueller and the FBI of a "coverup " for "political reasons." She went on to note that other agents were accusing FBI headquarters of "deliberate" sabotage. "Jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles.. who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden," she said.

THE ROWLEY MEMO: FBI SABOTAGES AL-QAEDA INVESTIGATION

After Mueller--a known cover up artist--repeatedly made false statements about the FBI's handling of pre-9/11 investigations into al-Qaeda terrorists, Ms. Rowley essentially called Mueller a liar.

Specifically, in her 13 page letter to Mueller, dated, May 21, 2002, Rowley wrote: "I feel at this point that I have to put my concerns in writing concerning the important topic of the FBI's response to evidence of terrorist activity in the United States prior to September 11th. The issues are fundamentally ones of INTEGRITY and go to the heart of the FBI's law enforcement mission and mandate. I have deep concerns that a delicate and subtle shading/skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of FBI management has occurred and is occurring. I have heard... your Congressional testimony and public comments. I feel that certain facts... have... been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mis-characterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons."

"The Minneapolis agents who responded to the call about Moussaoui's flight training identified him as a terrorist threat from a very early point. Within days of Moussaoui's arrest ... French Intelligence Service confirmed his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups and activities connected to Osama Bin Laden... [Minneapolis agents] became desperate to search the computer lap top that had been taken from Moussaoui as well as conduct a more thorough search of his personal effects. The Minneapolis agents' initial thought was to obtain a criminal search warrant, but in order to do so, they needed to get FBI Headquarters' (FBIHQ's) approval in order to ask for DOJ OIPR's approval... FBIHQ personnel disputed with the Minneapolis agents the existence of probable cause. The two possible criminal violations initially identified by Minneapolis Agents were violations of Title 18 United States Code Section 2332b (Acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries,which, notably, includes "creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to any other person by destroying or damaging any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States or by attempting or conspiring to destroy or damage any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States") and Section 32 (Destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities). It is obvious, from my firsthand knowledge of the events and the detailed documentation that exists, that the agents in Minneapolis who were closest to the action and in the best position to gauge the situation locally, did fully appreciate the terrorist risk/danger posed by Moussaoui and his possible co-conspirators even prior to September 11th. Even without knowledge of the Phoenix communication (and any number of other additional intelligence communications that FBIHQ personnel were privy to in their central coordination roles), the Minneapolis agents appreciated the risk. So I think it's very hard for the FBI to offer the "20-20 hindsight" justification for its failure to act! FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) who was the one most involved in the Moussaoui matter... seemed to have been consistently, almost deliberately thwarting the Minneapolis FBI agents' efforts."

"Even after the [9/11] attacks had begun, the SSA in question was still attempting to block the search of Moussaoui's computer, characterizing the World Trade Center attacks as a mere coincidence with Minneapolis' prior suspicions about Moussaoui... The fact is that key FBIHQ personnel whose job it was to assist and coordinate with field division agents on terrorism investigations and the obtaining and use of FISA searches (and who theoretically were privy to many more sources of intelligence information than field division agents), continued to, almost inexplicably, throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis' by-now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant, long after the French intelligence service provided its information and probable cause became clear. HQ personnel brought up almost ridiculous questions in their apparent efforts to undermine the probable cause. When, in a desperate 11th hour measure to bypass the FBIHQ roadblock, the Minneapolis Division undertook to directly notify the CIA's Counter Terrorist Center (CTC), FBIHQ personnel actually chastised the Minneapolis agents for making the direct notification without their approval! ... the FBIHQ SSA deliberately further undercut the FISA effort by not adding the further intelligence information which he had promised to add that supported Moussaoui's foreign power connection and making several changes in the wording of the information that had been provided by the Minneapolis Agent... These events [are] characterized in one Minneapolis agent's e-mail as FBIHQ is "setting this up for failure." The process of allowing the FBI supervisors to make changes in affidavits is itself fundamentally wrong."

"I do find it odd that (to my knowledge) no inquiry whatsoever was launched of the relevant FBIHQ personnel's actions... Despite FBI leaders' full knowledge of all the items mentioned herein (and probably more that I'm unaware of), the SSA, his unit chief, and other involved HQ personnel were allowed to stay in their positions and, what's worse, occupy critical positions in the FBI's SIOC Command Center post September 11th. (The SSA in question actually received a promotion some months afterward!)

"In the day or two following September 11th, you, Director Mueller, made the statement to the effect that if the FBI had only had any advance warning of the attacks, we (meaning the FBI), may have been able to take some action to prevent the tragedy. I and others in the Minneapolis Office, immediately sought to reach you... in order to quickly make you aware of the background of the Moussaoui investigation and forewarn you so that your public statements could be accordingly modified. When such statements from you and other FBI officials continued, we thought that somehow you had not received the message and we made further efforts. Finally when similar comments were made weeks later, in Assistant Director Caruso's congressional testimony in response to the first public leaks about Moussaoui we faced the sad realization that the remarks indicated someone, possibly with your approval, had decided to circle the wagons at FBIHQ in an apparent effort to protect the FBI from embarrassment and the relevant FBI officials from scrutiny."

"Everything I have seen and heard about the FBI's official stance and the FBI's internal preparations in anticipation of further congressional inquiry, had, unfortunately, confirmed my worst suspicions in this regard. The official statement is now to the effect that even if the FBI had followed up on the Phoenix lead to conduct checks of flight schools and the Minneapolis request to search Moussaoui's personal effects and laptop, nothing would have changed and such actions certainly could not have prevented the terrorist attacks and resulting loss of life. With all due respect, this statement is as bad as the first! I don't know how you or anyone at FBI Headquarters, no matter how much genius or prescience you may possess, could so blithely make this affirmation without anything to back the opinion up than your stature as FBI Director. It's at least possible we could have gotten lucky and uncovered one or two more of the terrorists in flight training prior to September 11th, just as Moussaoui was discovered. There is, therefore at least some chance that discovery of other terrorist pilots prior to September 11th may have limited the September 11th attacks and resulting loss of life."

"I think your statements demonstrate a rush to judgment to protect the FBI at all costs. I think you have also not been completely honest about some of the true reasons for the FBI's pre-September 11th failures...."

"During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened to be recounting the pre-September 11th events concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone's first question was "Why?--Why would an FBI agent(s) deliberately sabotage a case? (I know I shouldn't be flippant about this, but jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like Robert Hansen, who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis' effort..." Coleen M. Rowley Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel.

LIES, LIES & MORE LIES:

The FBI and Bush team spin doctors have tried to contain public and congressional outrage by claiming that Rowley is well meaning but mistaken. Although admitting that maybe in the future they "should do things a little bit differently" these officials have falsely claimed that it was highly unlikely that the warrants sought by the Minneapolis FBI office would have been granted. For example, the FBI repeated the false claim that the information provided by the French was too sketchy to justify a search warrant.

However, one senior French intelligence officer told Time magazine that the FBI was given "everything they needed" to understand that Moussaoui was linked to Islamic terrorist groups, and that Moussaoui posed a significant danger. "Even a neophyte working in some remote corner of Florida, wouldhave understood the threat based on what was sent."

The FBI also claims they did not pursue the Zaccarias Moussaoui investigation because they knew they would run into a brick wall of opposition from the special federal court dealing with intelligence spying.

Yet, that explanation, too, is a falsehood.

As reported in the June 3, 2002, edition of the New York Times, 100% of the 1,491 applications to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, by federal police agencies requesting authorization to wiretap phones was granted. Since 1991, 12,658 out of 12,661 requests have been approved.

The truth is: The FBI, CIA, and Bush administration knew since July that commercial jets would be hijacked by Islamic extremists directly linked to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In the August 6 briefin paper, they were warned again of "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."

These startling facts, including that Bush knew that al-Qaeda planned on hijacking commercial jet liners and that New York was a target, was even confirmed by Bush's White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer: "The president was also provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking in the traditional pre-9-11 sense." However, according to Fleischer, Bush failed to act because he didn't think the hijackings would be "for the use of suicide bombing."

Bush also confirmed that he knew, but claimed that he thought the threat was "historical" and was not something he should be concerned about.

Although George W. Bush may claim that "Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people," the facts suggest that he and his administration did everything in their power to sabotage and block any meaningful investigation by FBI field agents, thus insuring that the attack would be a spectacular success.

JOHN O'NEIL: THE COVER UP CONTINUES

As has been well established, Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Royal family, the bin Ladens, and a number of Saudi Arabia's richest families have also provided millions of dollars in aid to bin Laden and his terrorist network (28,29).

Instead of focusing on bin Laden or the Saudi connection to terrorism, the Bush team targeted John O'Neill. John O'Neill was the principle agent, and Deputy Director in charge of the FBI's National Security Division, specializing in terrorism. He commanded over 100 experienced agents and was an expert on bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In 1995, O'Neill orchestrated the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, who was apprehended in Pakistan. Ramzi Yousef was directly responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

According to former FBI director Louis Freeh "O'Neill was the paramount, most knowledgeable agent we had in the FBI, probably in the government, with respect to counterintelligence matters."

O'Neill had become obsessed with the belief that bin Laden was planning an attack on the United States (29): "No longer is it just the fear of being attacked by international terrorist organizations -- attacks against Americans and American interests overseas. A lot of these groups now have the capability and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to do so."

By the Spring of 2001, O'Neil began to suspect than an attack was imminent. He also believed that the FBI and his own offices were not receiving sufficient cooperation and support from the Bush White House (29).

By late Spring, he and his boss, Assistant FBI Director Barry Mawn, began pleading with John Ashcroft's Justice Department, begging for more funding and for more agents. The acting director of the FBI, Pickard, took up their cause, providing Ashcroft's Justice Department with a point by point detailed request for a $50 million infusion of cash for the bureau's counterterrorism program.

Ashcroft, and thus the Bush White House, turned them down. In August, direct appeals were made to Ashcroft, emphasizing a growing belief that the United States was in imminent danger of a terrorist attack by bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Ashcroft's reply was a defiant: "no."

It was more than "no." Ashcroft proposed a $65 million cut in counterterrorism grants (30).

O'Neill was outraged and disgusted by the roadblocks erected by the Bush administration. He repeatedly complained that the oil lobby who make up President Bush's entourage, were sabotaging his efforts to investigate al-Qaeda and bin Laden (31). The Bush administration, O'Neill believed, had taken a "hand's off" approach, because the Bush family and member's of his administration were doing business with Saudis who were providing financial backing to al-Qaeda.

John O'Neil was convinced that "All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization can be found in Saudi Arabia."

The Bush administration, however, would not allow the Saudi connection to be explored.

And why is that?

The Bush family and members of both Bush administrations have business relationships with the Saudi Royal family, and the number one factor in the Bush administration's hand's off policy, O'Neill believed, was the Saudi connection. O'Neil also believed that his investigation and that of other FBI agents was being stymied because the Bush family and members of both administration, were involved in negotiating a secret deal involving oil and that some of the Saudis the Bush clan had partnered with, were actively involved in the exportation of terrorism (29).

Consider, for example, Bush-pal, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The Saudi government and Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, was making regular monthly payments and provided nearly $100,000.000 to Osama Bassnan, a Saudi agent who met with and made arrangments for Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq al-Hazmi, to settle in San Diego. Osama Bassnan even paid their rent.

The payments from the Saudi government and the Saudi royal family began in 1998 or 1999, and continued up until the 9/11 hijackings. Likewise, Osama Bassnan maintained his relationship with Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq al-Hazmi up until the weeks prior to 9/11.

The FBI knew of this monetary arrangement, but then covered it up. The Bush administration not only covered it up, but when Newsweek magazine learned of these payments, in late November of 2002, Osama Bassnan was immediately "deported" back to Saudi Arabia, thus making it impossible for the press or any investigative body, to question him.

And then there is Saudi banker, Khaled bin Mahfouz, who has invested millions of dollar in the Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington investment bank and defense consortium, whose director is former CIA-deputy director and Reagan-Bush Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci. George H.W. Bush is a consultant to the Carlyle Group, and his son (now President) George W. Bush has "received fees high fees as director of [Caterair] a subsidiary of Carlyle" (25). Khaled bin Mahfouz has been accused of funneling tens of millions of dollars each year into the bank accounts of Osama bin Laden.

In August of 2002, Khaled bin Mahfouz, along with 3 Saudi princes, was named in a trillion dollar lawsuit filed by families of some of the victims of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on America.

The Bush administration, in turn, is attempting to fight that suit, and have in thrown out of court in order to protect his Saudi friends, and in particular, the Saudi royal family who also helped fund the 9/11 hijackers.

And as has been repeatedly stressed and documented in this book, the Bush family has also been in business and was still in business with the bin Laden family--as was the Carlyle Group.

"It was as if Usama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush."--Richard Clark, U.S. Chief of Counterterrorism.

As detailed by reporters for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Frank Carlucci, the director of Carlyle, as well as other former Bush administration officials, such as former Secretary of State James Baker who is also on the Carlyle payroll, have "made repeated pilgrimages to the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In fact, according to the London Observor and other sources, they were meeting with at least one of the bin Ladens on the morning of 9/11.

Thus we should not be surprised that after the Bush administration took over this year, U.S intelligence agencies had been told to 'back off' from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links" to terrorism (27).

As summed up by BBC reporter, Greg Palast (25) the Bush administration "wanted to keep the pro-American Saudi royal family in control of the world's biggest oil spigot, even at the price of turning a blind eye to any terrorist connection. Intelligence agencies were told to "back off" investigating the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals."

According to O'Neill (29): "The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it."

In fact, even the joint Senate and House committee examining so called "intelligence failures" leading up to 9/11 concluded, in a draft report issued on 11/22/2001, that the CIA and FBI did not pursue leads which would have linked the terrorists to the government of Saudi Arabia.

From the perspective of the Bush administration, however, it was not al-Qaeda, the Saudis, or the bin Laden's who were a threat. John O'Neill, Osama bin Laden's main antagonist from within the FBI was a threat. It was increasingly made clear that he was to stand down and cease and desist from pursing his single minded obsession with bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The message was: Hands off al-Qaeda. Hands off bin Laden.

Numerous other FBI agents were receiving the same clear message, as was Richard Clark, U.S. Chief of Counterterrorism for the Bush and Clinton administration: As he reported to the 9-11 commission on March, 24, 2004, "My view was that this administration, either didn't believe me that there was an urgent problem or was unprepared to act as though there were an urgent problem. And I thought, if the administration doesn't believe its national coordinator for counterterrorism when he says there's an urgent problem, and if it's unprepared to act as though there's an urgent problem, then probably I should get another job."

On September 11, 2001, one week after quitting the FBI in absolute disgust, John O'Neill was murdered. He was killed, on his first day on the job, as chief of security at the World Trade Center--a building he was convinced would be attacked by terrorists.

******

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The bin Laden family call Saudi Arabia their home. George H.W. Bush and members of his administration, are in business with the bin Laden family as well as many of the leading families of Saudi Arabia, including the Saudi royal family, who in turn are linked to terrorism and united in the desire to overthrow Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

The Bush administration, and the American mass media, wish us to believe that Osama bin Laden has no contact with his family--for if he were that would be embarrasing since George H.W. Bush is not only in business with the bin Laden family, but has stayed at their palace, as recently as 2000 (31). As noted, two Bush associates, Frank Carlucci and James Baker, were meeting with one or more of the bin Laden brothers on the morning of 9/11 (32).

The bin Laden family is a direct link to Osama bin Laden.

Indeed, phone calls between Osama and his brothers and his mother, have been intercepted by U.S. Intelligence agencies (33). As detailed in the book, Body of Secrets, by National Security Agency expert James Bamford, and as reported in the Baltimore Sun and the San Antonio Express-News (33), bin Laden has been repeatedly tape recorded by the CIA and National Security Agency, talking with family members, including his mother. As reported by the San Antonio Express-News (33) and according to Yossef Bodansky, director of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, "Osama maintains connections" with several of his brothers.

It is precisely because of these links between the bin Laden family, the Bush family, and Osama bin Laden, that in the days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, although all commercial and private planes were grounded, George W. Bush personally approved the getaway of 11 members of the bin Laden family. The bin Laden's were allowed to escape justice and the United States and to fly back to Saudi Arabia where they could not be questioned.

George W. Bush and his administration did everything in their power to covertly sabotage any meaningful investigation that would have uncovered the 9/11 plot to hijack commercial jetliners and then slam them into the World Trade Center. And since 9-11, the Bush administration, by invading Iraq, not only achieved one of the goals of the Saudis and Bin Ladens but has undermined the so called war on terrorism.

"By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism." -Richard Clarke, Chief of Counterterrorism.

It is our belief that the Bush administration and their cronies, covertly sabotaged these investigative efforts in order to allow the 9/11 attack to take place. Again, the Bush administration received an avalanch of warnings in the months and days before 9-11, including April and May memos titled: "Bin Laden Planning Multiple Operations," "Bin Laden Threats Are Real" and "Bin Laden's Plans Advancing," followed by a report in July, by Pheoniz FBI agent Williams who warned that Osama bin Laden's followers may be training in U.S. flight schools.

The Bush team also ignored the August 6 briefing paper titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." which warned of hijackings. They ignored the subsequent memo: "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly." Richard Clarke, Chief of Counterterrorism, said he was running around with his "hair on fire" but was unable to get the administration to act. John O'Neill quit in disgust.

We believe the facts lead to one unescapable conclusion: The Bush administration knew in advance and they allowed the attack to take place in order to reap the political and financial benefits.

We believe that top officials in the current and past Bush administration, committed treason for personal, financial, and political gain, to justify a war with Afghanistan and then Iraq, and because they were in business and trying to do business with people who kill Americans.


NOTES

1). BBC News, "Profile: Jose Padilla," 6/11/2002; Time Magazine, 6/16/2002.

2). Sara Jess & Gabriel Beck, "John Walker Lindh: American Taliban," University Press, California, 2002.

3). Le Figaro 10/31/2001;

4). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001; Radio France International, 11/1/2001. See also, United Press International, 11/1/2001.

5). CNN, 8/1/2002.

6). USA Today, 6/4/2002.

7). The Washington Post, 11/30/2001; Khilafah.com, 11/30/2001.

8). United States District Court, Southern District of New York, "United States of America v Ali Mohamed."

9). Peter Waldman, The Wall Street Journal, 11/26/2001.

10). Newsweek, 9/15/2001.

11). Sara Jess, et al., "American Attacked," University Press, California, 10/11/2001.

12). John Ashcroft, Press Conference, 10/23/2001.

13). Investigators have claimed (09/10/2002) that they somehow pieced this information together, and only recently came to these conclusions. However, some of this information, was made available to the authors of the book, America Attacked (by Sara Jess et al.,) and was mentioned in this book, which was published on October 11, 2001; see also, BBC News, "Atta Trained in Afghanistan" 2 8/24/2002; Douglas Waller, "Was Hijack 'Ringleader' in Bin Laden Orbit?" Time Magazine, 10/5/2001; CBS New, 9/13/2002.

14). On his last call to Germany, Atta alerted his friend Bin-al-shibh that a date for the attack had been selected, using the code words "Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down," meaning 11/9 or September 11. Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-September 2002.

15). Kay Nehm, German Federal Prosecutor, News Conference, 8/29/2002.

16). Confirmed, by the joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees, United States Congress, June-October 2002.

17). Oliver Schröm, Die Zeit, 10/2/2002

18). According to his attorney, Ali Mohamed was never sentenced. When asked, on November 5, 2002, to clarify if Ali Mohamed was out on bail, or if he had been set free, or was in a government protection program, the attorney refused to comment. When asked if Ali Mohamed had never been sentenced because he was an undercover CIA agent, the attorney stated he couldn't talk about that issue, and ended the conversation.

19). Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, "The Age of Sacred Terror, Random House, 2002.

20). Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001; Daniel Golden et al. "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001.

21). Wall Street Journal, "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor’s Mansion," 9/28/1999; Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne, "The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI," Random House, 1993; James H. Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press.

22). Robert Scheer, Making Money, the Bush Way," Los Angeles Times, 2/20/2002; Baltimore Chronicle, "Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but 'News' Media ignore it," 10/4/01; Jason Nisse, "Carlyle Group, Employer of Bush Sr., Profits from Massive Weapons Program Signed by Jr. which the Pentagon had advised be Canceled," Independent, 1/30/02.

23). Joseph McBride, "'George Bush,' CIA Operative," The Nation, 6/16/1988.

24). Coleen M. Rowley, Memo to Mueller, 6/21/2002,

25). BBC News Newsnight, 6/11/2001

26). BBC News Newsnight, 11/7/2001

27). The Guardian, 11/7/2001.

28). Kenneth Damm, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Treasury testified in Congress, in May of 2002, that the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Charity and a number of other Saudi-connected charities have abused its funds to finance terrorism. As detailed by Ben Barber, The Washington Times, 5/7/2002, "The Saudi government gave $135 million in....16 months to" fund terrorism. The money goes to a list of 13 charities, and seven of them fund Hamas," which the State Department lists as a terrorist organization. As detailed in The Washington Times, 8/24/2002, another Saudi charity, Al-Haramain also uses "its funds to finance terrorism.

29). Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie, "bin Laden: Hidden Truth."

30). Don Van Natta Jr. and David Johnston, "FBI's bureaucracy led to inaction, insiders say. A decade's changes in mission and structure created paralytic fear of risk," New York Times, 6/2/2002.

31). Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.

32). The Observer, "Dark heart of the American dream," 6/16/2002.

33). James Bamford, "Body of Secrets;" Baltimore Sun, 4/24/2001; San Antonio Express-News, 9/14/2001.