'Fight Smart' Update - 2 August 2005

Don't Take the Bait - Fight Smart
ANIMATED 911 SUMMARY - CLICK HERE
Who is the enemy?

News Flash
John Loftus On Fox TV
Claims London Bombings 'Mastermind'
Is MI6 Double Agent
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATLoftusMI6.htm

John Loftus, Right, On Fox TV "John Loftus is a terrorism expert and a former prosecutor for the Justice Department." Fox TV, 29 July 2005

"On FOX News Channel's Day Side [29 July], Terrorism Expert John Loftus revealed that Haroon Rashid Aswat, the suspect wanted by British Police for 'masterminding' the July 7th London bombings and July 21st attempted bombings is in fact an asset of MI6, the British Secret Service. According to Loftus, Aswat has been under the protection of MI6 for many years."
London Bombings Mastermind is MI6 Asset
Infowars.com, Blog Report

"....all these guys should be going back to an organization called Al-Muhajiroun, which means The Emigrants. It was the recruiting arm of Al-Qaeda in London; they specialized in recruiting kids whose families had emigrated to Britain but who had British passports. And they would use them for terrorist work.... the first group of course were primarily Pakistani. But what they had in common was they were all emigrant groups in Britain, recruited by this Al-Muhajiroun group. They were headed by the, Captain Hook, the imam in London the Finsbury Mosque, without the arm. He was the head of that organization. Now his assistant was a guy named Aswat, Haroon Rashid Aswat. Aswat is believed to be the mastermind of all the bombings in London... This is the guy, and what's really embarrassing is that the entire British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him.... He's a double agent.... Now we knew about this guy Aswat. Back in 1999 he came to America. The Justice Department wanted to indict him in Seattle because him and his buddy were trying to set up a terrorist training school in Oregon..... Well it comes out, we've just learned that the headquarters of the US Justice Department ordered the Seattle prosecutors not to touch Aswat..... apparently Aswat was working for British intelligence.... Some people say that the British intelligence fibbed to us. They told us that Aswat was dead, and that's why the New York group dropped the case. That's not what most of the Justice Department thinks. They think that it was just again covering up for this very publicly affiliated guy with Al-Muhajiroun. He was a British intelligence plant.... Now at this point, two weeks ago, the Brits know that the CIA wants to get a hold of Haroon. So what happens? He takes off again, goes right to London. He isn't arrested when he lands, he isn't arrested when he leaves. ... He's on the watch list. The only reason he could get away with that was if he was working for British intelligence. He was a wanted man.... And [he] goes to Pakistan.... The Pakistanis arrest him. They jail him. He's released within 24 hours. Back to Southern Africa, goes to Zimbabwe and is arrested in Zambia.... What ties all these cells together was, back in the late 1990s, the leaders all worked for British intelligence in Kosovo. Believe it or not, British intelligence actually hired some Al-Qaeda guys to help defend the Muslim rights in Albania and in Kosovo. That's when Al-Muhajiroun got started.....The CIA was funding the operation to defend the Muslims, British intelligence was doing the hiring and recruiting. Now we have a lot of detail on this because Captain Hook, the head of Al-Muhajiroun, [his] sidekick was Bakri Mohammed, another cleric. And back on October 16, 2001, he gave a detailed interview with al-Sharq al-Aswat, an Arabic newspaper in London, describing the relationship between British intelligence and the operations in Kosovo and Al-Muhajiroun. So that's how we get all these guys connected. It started in Kosovo...."
Interview with former US Federal Prosecutor John Loftus
Fox TV, 29 July 2005

"The British al-Qaeda leader linked to the London terrorist attacks was being questioned by police in Pakistan last night after the discovery of mobile phone records detailing his calls with the suicide bombers. Haroon Rashid Aswat has emerged as the figure that Scotland Yard have been hunting since he flew out of Britain just hours before the attacks which killed 56 people. Aswat, 30, who is believed to come from the same West Yorkshire town as one of the bombers, arrived in Britain a fortnight before the attacks to orchestrate final planning for the atrocity. He spoke to the suicide team on his mobile phone a few hours before the four men blew themselves up and killed fifty-two other people. Intelligence sources told The Times that during his stay Aswat visited the home towns of all four bombers as well as selecting targets in London. Aswat has been known to Western intelligence services for more than three years after the FBI accused him of trying to set up al-Qaeda training camps in the US.... Aswat, who is thought to have stayed in the madrassa with two of the British suicide bombers, is being questioned over claims that one — Mohammad Sidique Khan — telephoned him on the morning of the July 7 attack. Intelligence sources claim that there were up to twenty calls between Aswat and two of the bombers in the days leading up to the bombing of three Tube trains and a double-decker bus. A senior Pakistani security source said: 'We believe this man had a crucial part to play in what happened in London.'”
Top al-Qaeda Briton called Tube bombers before attack
London Times, 21 July 2005

So Why, According To Loftus, Did Pakistan Release Aswat Within 24 Hrs?
And Why Are British Officials, According To The Financial Times, Now 'No Longer Interested In Interrogating Him'?

"Three weeks after the first London bombings, British and American security sources are giving markedly different versions of how much was known about the bombers before the attacks and who masterminded them. According to US intelligence sources, a man now being held in Zambia is Haroon Rashid Aswat, a Briton of Indian origin who has links to a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist. They believe he assisted or masterminded the London attacks. But British investigators, examining whether telephone calls were made between the London bombers and Aswat before the attacks of 7/7, caution that the calls may have been made to a phone linked to Aswat, rather than the man himself... This weekend it appears that several calls from Aswat’s mobile telephone were made to the bombers in the days before the attacks. It is likely that the American National Security Agency — which has a powerful eavesdropping network — was monitoring the calls. If contacts between the bombers and Aswat are proved, it could be a painful blow for British security officials. In the weeks before the attacks Aswat, according to American officials, was under surveillance in South Africa and US authorities wanted to arrest him for questioning. The South Africans are believed to have relayed the request to British authorities who were reluctant to agree to him being seized because of his status as a British citizen..... Senior Whitehall officials also deny 'any knowledge' that he might be an agent for either MI5 or MI6."
Tangled web that still leaves worrying loose ends
London Times, 31 July 2005

"Haroon Rashid Aswat, who grew up in West Yorkshire, was detained [in Zambia] last week for his alleged role in setting up a terror camp in the US state of Oregon, according to the Los Angeles Times. Aswat, who is being held in the capital Lusaka, is also wanted in connection with the London suicide bombings which it is believed he masterminded, according to reports. Scotland Yard has played down the claims. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: 'In relation to the British national reported to be held in custody in Zambia, we are currently seeking consular access to them. We cannot confirm any detail of the extradition.'"
Italy considers suspect extradition
icHounslow, 1 August 2005

"Although police would not say how far they had come to finding links to those higher up the chain [in the London bombings], they sought to play down the role of Haroon Rashid Aswat.... Zambian officials have agreed to extradite Mr Aswat, whose telephone reportedly received calls from the July 7 bombers, but British officials said they were no longer interested in interrogating him."
Police shift focus to finding organisers
Financial Times, 1 August 2005

"British terror suspect Haroon Aswat remained in Zambian custody as the US and British governments fought over who should get custody of the man, a senior police official said. 'Each country is demanding access and extradition to their respective country but the Zambian government seems to be having difficulties on how to handle the matter,' he said."
US-UK row over Aswat
Hindustan Times, 2 August 2005

"The Fox News report raises some very serious considerations. Haroon Rachid Aswat was reportedly in London for two weeks before the July 7 attacks, 'fleeing just before the explosions'. If Haroon Rashid Aswat had been working for MI-6, as suggested by intelligence analyst John Loftus, his movements and whereabouts, including his contacts with the alleged Yorkshire bombers,  might have been known to British intelligence. The nature of Haroon Aswar's links to Western intelligence agencies inevitably has a bearing on the conduct of the police investigation. The broader role of Al-Muhajiroun since its creation in the 1990s, as well as its alleged links to MI-6 requires careful review. Pakistan's ISI should not, for obvious reasons, be involved in the police investigation. In fact, Pakistan's ISI should be the object of the investigation in view of its documented links to the terror network, including Al Qaeda. More generally, the intelligence agencies including M-I6 should not be involved in the police investigation. An independent public inquiry should be launched as demanded by the Conservative opposition."
London 7/7 Terror Suspect Linked to British Intelligence?
Centre For Research On Globalization, 1 August 2005

London Bombings And 'The Pakistan Connection'
Click Here

'Fight Smart' Update - 8 February 2004

'OUR WAY OF LIFE, OUR TERRORISTS'
Hutton And The Libyan Black Gold Rush
Why Colonel Gaddafi is not being personally pursued
for the Lockerbie bombing
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATgaddafideal.htm

"..... It has been known for some time, thanks to information leaked by former MI5 officer David Shayler, that MI6 had sponsored a failed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi in 1996.  Having fled to France Shayler was pursued by the British authorities for what they regarded as his breach of the Official Secrets Act on this and other matters. Eventually Shayler returned to Britain and sought to protect himself by seeking a 'public interest' defence through the courts.

The legality of such a defence was considered by the House of Lords in March 2002, but Shayler lost the case. The judgement meant that Shayler was not free to speak out about what he considered to be the illegal activities of the British intelligence services. It also meant that he would have to face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. Lord Hutton was one of the presiding judges who ruled against Shayler.

By the summer of 2003 Lord Hutton was back in the public eye again, but this time much more prominently having been appointed to preside over the Kelly inquiry.

In an article entitled 'Judge is no stranger to the intelligence world' the London Times 1 August commented on Hutton's appointment stating that "Lord Hutton's long involvement with the secret services make him well placed to probe the world of intelligence and political intrigue surrounding David Kelly’s death.... His time in Northern Ireland gave him considerable insight into the workings of the Secret Intelligence Service and attuned him to the political sensitivities of cases involving state security.... The Oxford-educated judge, aged 72, was one of the law lords who decided that a public interest defence was not available to David Shayler, the former MI5 agent who disclosed secrets alleging incompetence in the security services".

However, Shayler was alleging much more than incompetence when it came to British sponsored terrorist activities in Libya, even if the Times chose not to refer to this. It was therefore very necessary to shut Shayler up.

Shayler was eventually convicted and sentenced in November 2002, his trial having been subjected to an official news black out.

On 10 November 2002 the Observer reported that it had "been restrained from printing details of the allegations during the course of the trial of David Shayler, who was last week sentenced to six months in prison for disclosing documents obtained during his time as an MI5 officer. He was not allowed to argue that he made the revelations in the public interest. During his closing speech last week, Shayler repeated claims that he was gagged from talking about 'a crime so heinous' that he had no choice but to go to the press with his story. The 'crime' was the alleged MI6 involvement in the plot to assassinate Gadaffi, hatched in late 1995. During the Shayler trial, Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw signed Public Interest Immunity certificates to protect national security. Reporters were not able to report allegations about the Gadaffi plot during the course of the trial. These restrictions have led to a row between the Attorney General and the so-called D-Notice Committee, which advises the press on national security issues".

Within weeks of his conviction Shayler was released from prison under an electronic tagging scheme for non-violent offenders, but during this time momentum had been building for another act of aggression by Britain against an Islamic country. The invasion of Iraq began in March.

The failure to quickly find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following the invasion and the ensuing death of government weapons scientist Dr David Kelly lead to national uproar and a formal investigation into to the latter, but not the former, in the second half of 2003. The investigation was led by Lord Hutton. ....

As a result of the allegations made by David Shayler news of the MI6 sponsored plot against Gaddafi first reached public prominence in August 1998 when the BBC's Panorama programme ran coverage of Shayler's claims. But it was not until November 2001 that Shayler disclosed that the attempt had been made via an MI6 alliance with a branch of the al Qaeda terrorist network.......

....... Sweeping MI6 sponsorship of al-Qaeda in Libya under the carpet is likely to have been an important lubricating factor influencing the reaching of a deal with Gaddafi over access to his oil. It is a deal now rosily described in official circles as a triumph for 'diplomacy', whereas in reality the British government had a big skeleton in a closet whose door had creaked open. Britain wanted that closet door firmly closed shut.

Both Gaddafi and Shayler had to be kept quiet, because the full extent of the MI6-al Qaeda story had major implications concerning the integrity of the British government in general and its intelligence services in particular. Moreover the incriminating story did not stop simply with the assassination attempt in 1996.

Following the failed attack on Gaddafi one of the members of the Libyan al Qaeda cell, Anas al-Liby, was given asylum in Britain.

Also understood to be implicated in the 1998 al-Qaeda embassy bombings in Africa in respect of which the FBI has since offered a $25 million reward for information leading to his apprehension or detention, al-Liby lived in Manchester until 2000 when he successfully eluded a police raid. But was his escape down to good judgement on his part or did he elude the police as a result of receiving an MI6 facilitated tip-off?

This is not the first time the British intelligence services have been suspected of protecting members of al Qaeda.

According to the London Times 19 December 2003 "David Blunkett clashed last night with a powerful committee of parliamentarians after they demanded that he scrap a key part of the Government’s anti-terrorism laws.... Members of the committee were surprised at the speed and tone of Mr Blunkett’s reaction to their 121-page report.... The committee of Privy Councillors called for the abolition of the power to allow the indefinite detention without charge or trial of foreign nationals who cannot be deported ...The attack on a key element in the anti terror law comes as foreign governments are also criticising the Government. Their complaint is that they have been given no access to the detainees. Investigators from Spain, Germany and Italy are desperate to question Abu Qatada, who they claim is a pivotal figure in cells they have under arrest in their own countries. Their requests to question him and some of the other suspects directly have been rejected by the Government. Investigators in Spain who named Abu Qatada as 'the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe', say their own terror trials are hindered by Britain's refusal to let them interrogate the cleric. The Jordanian Government has sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in planning a bombing campaign to coincide with the the millenium celebrations and cannot understand why Abu Qatada is not extradited. In spite of holding most of the terror suspects for many months, the men are providing the security services and police with little intelligence on terrorist activity in the United Kingdom."

In an article entitled 'Sheltering A Puppet Master?' Time Magazine 7 July 2002 had earlier reported that "Described by some justice officials as the spiritual leader and possible puppet master of al-Qaeda's European networks, Abu Qatada has been missing since mid-December after British authorities confiscated his passport, froze his assets and ordered him confined to his London home. With Jordan seeking his return to serve a life sentence for terror-related crimes, some observers figured Abu Qatada went underground—and perhaps left Britain—to avoid extradition. But senior European intelligence officials tell TIME that Abu Qatada is tucked away in a safe house in the north of England, where he and his family are being lodged, fed and clothed by British intelligence services".

Such people, it would seem, are 'our terrorists'.

In the end Qatada appears only to have been detained following pressure from European intelligence agencies and the efforts of Labour MP, Andrew Dismore.

According to the London Times 26 October 2002 "For months Britain’s most wanted man was able to live openly in a modern London flat, allegedly drawing benefit payments and entertaining a procession of Islamic militants while the security services were hunting him. Abu Qatada, who is accused by police in Europe of being a pivotal figure in al-Qaeda, had regular visits from his wife and five children, who often stayed for several days at a time.... The militant cleric has been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories since he slipped away from his West London home with his family last December, just before new terror laws were introduced. A French security official has alleged that the cleric, whose real name is Sheikh Omar Mahmood Abu Omar, was a spy for British Intelligence, who were protecting him at a safe house. That allegation was strongly denied. The authorities were, however, embarrassed by questions from police in Italy, Spain and Germany as to why such a figure could not be found. They say he is closely linked to terror cells plotting bomb attacks in Europe and recruiting terrorists for al-Qaeda... the cleric ... is 6ft 3in and weighs more than 20st... The flat where he was found, which belongs to a Housing Association in Southwark, is only a short walk from Parliament, the Home Office and MI6’s headquarters. Abu Qatada is thought to have spent several months in this housing estate, which is close to London’s South Bank University. One of the men he allegedly recruited to al-Qaeda, Zacharias Moussaoui, the [911] '20th hijacker', was a student at this university.... Southwark council said it was paying benefits to the occupant of the flat and that it was investigating the incident.... His arrest was welcomed as 'extremely good news' by the Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore, who was instrumental in having him investigated."

The refusal by British authorities to let other European intelligence agencies have access to Qatada is disturbing. To date only one person anywhere in the world has been convicted for involvement in 911 despite the passage of more than two years since the attacks. Even that case, involving Mounir el-Moutassadeq and his conviction by the German courts, has been allowed to proceed to appeal because of problems that have arisen with the evidence against him.

Similar circumstances, this time involving the US intelligence services, have resulted in the acquital of another man accused of being involved in 911. According to the New York Times 6 February "Citing a refusal by the United States to allow testimony from a suspected member of Al Qaeda in its custody, a German court on Thursday acquitted a former roommate of Mohamed Atta who was accused of providing support to suicide pilots in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ...... Prosecutors blamed the acquittal on the Bush administration's reluctance to make captured terrorists available for testimony and to allow prosecutors to make use of intelligence information on the terrorist network. 'They must have their reasons, which they did not communicate to us,' said the chief federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, The Associated Press reported. 'I find this conduct by the United States incomprehensible.'

The New York Times concludes that "The Bush administration's stance could also imperil the criminal prosecution of the only person facing trial in the United States on charges of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen, is accused of repeated contacts with the same Hamburg terrorist cell that Mr. Mzoudi was accused of supporting."

If these trends continue it is possible that by the third anniversary of 911 there will be no successful convictions anywhere in the world for those attacks.

The London Times of 29 December 2003 continued to be scathing about the Blair government's 'war against terrorism' stating "The ruins of the World Trade Centre were still burning when Tony Blair and David Blunkett appeared before the cameras to pledge that they would speed up the extradition of terrorist suspects sheltering in Britain. However, not one has since been extradited from Britain, despite the repeated requests of more than a dozen friendly governments.... countries complain that the British authorities have refused even to arrest some men whom they have identified as having terrorist links.... Three people on the wanted list are accused of playing pivotal roles in the lorry bomb attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 in which 231 people were killed.... New [faster] British extradition laws that come into force on January 1... do not affect al-Qaeda suspects seized after the September 11 attacks."

So what is it that the British government appears to have to hide in all of this? We may never know.

Thanks to his detention under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 nobody can access Qatada and he can be held indefinitely without charge - a situation against which he has recently lost his appeal according to the London Times 28 January (such detention only applies to foreign nationals held under the Act. What to do with terrorists holding British nationality is more problematical. However, the latest proposals for changes to the law may provide a solution. According to the BBC 2 February new plans from Home Secretary David Blunkett for dealing with British terrorism suspects include "keeping sensitive evidence from defendants and secret trials before vetted judges.... Evidence in the new trials would be kept secret from the defendants to protect MI5, MI6 and GCHQ intelligence sources, he said." You bet.).

This, of course, is to say nothing of the extraordinary case of Omar Sheikh, the British citizen detained in Pakistan. Despite already being held in custody on other charges the British Government has shown no sign of any interest in having Sheikh indicted for his reported role in directly funding Mohammed Atta the lead hijacker in the 911 attacks (see 'Fight Smart' 2 Jan 2003 - 'The Omar Sheikh Files'). Why isn't the British government pursuing the case?

The Washington Post 7 October 2001 gave something of a cutting, if only partial, insight into the way international terrorism is manipulated by the British authorities in order to achieve foreign policy goals.

The article states "Over the years, some dissidents suspected by foreign governments of involvement in terrorist acts have been protected by the British government for one reason or another from deportation or extradition.... In the past, terrorism experts say, Britain benefited significantly from its willingness to extend at least conditional hospitality to a wide range of Arab dissidents and opposition figures. The dissidents were a valuable source of intelligence and could be used as a subtle means of political pressure against authoritarian regimes, from Libya to Saudi Arabia to Yemen. By hosting the dissidents, the theory went, Britain was also buying itself immunity from acts of terrorism on its soil. 'Britain has been playing this game in the Middle East for a very long time,' said Yosri Fouda, London bureau chief for the Arab TV channel al-Jazeera, who has made a detailed study of Islamic groups in Britain. 'It's a political game that can be effective as long as you know how to play it, but it can also come back to haunt you.'... Egypt, in particular, has repeatedly accused Britain of 'harboring terrorists' -- an accusation repeated last week during a visit to Cairo by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The al-Liby affair appears to illustrate the sometimes complicated calculations that lie behind the British government's decision to grant or withhold asylum requests....   Mustafa Alani, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies, a London think tank, said al-Liby was probably left in legal limbo by the British government, allowing him to be used or discarded as circumstances permitted.... Alani noted that Britain had an interest in tolerating Libyan exiles as a pressure point against Gaddafi, who was suspected by Britain of being behind a string of terrorist acts, including the downing of a Pan Am airliner over Scotland in December 1988. According to a renegade officer for the British intelligence service MI5, David Shayler, British intelligence plotted with Islamic extremists to assassinate Gaddafi in early 1996..."

Revealing as it is in some areas the Washington Post's analysis is, however, too generous. We now know that it was al-Liby who was one of those funded by MI6 to carry out the 1996 terrorist attack in Libya. How many other such terrorist attacks have been instigated by MI6 overseas for geo-strategic purposes? Shayler was only in a position to talk about the attack on Gaddafi because he served on MI5's Libyan desk. What has been the situation in other countries where Britain would like to cause trouble in furtherance of its foreign policy objectives?

It should not be assumed, of course, that the discrete fostering of international terrorism when it suits is limited to the British government.

Despite al-Liby's alleged involvement in the attacks and the $25 million dollar reward placed on his head by the FBI, the American authorities also seem to have been faking their pursuit of al Qaeda terrorists involved in the 1998 African Embassy bombings. According to an ABC News report entitled 'Called Off the Trail?' there have been some very dubious activities going on behind the scenes in this area.

ABC reported 19 December 2002 that "In a dramatic interview with ABCNEWS, FBI special agents and partners Robert Wright and John Vincent say they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists tied to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.... The suspected terrorist cell in Chicago was the basis of the investigation, yet Wright, who remains with the FBI, says he soon discovered that all the FBI intelligence division wanted him to do was to follow suspected terrorists and file reports — but make no arrests....  'The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: 'You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,' ' Wright said. Even though they were on a terrorism task force and said they had proof of criminal activity, Wright said he was told not to pursue the matter.... even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests. 'Two months after the embassies are hit in Africa, they wanted to shut down the criminal investigation,' said Wright. 'They wanted to kill it.' ... The move outraged Chicago federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, who was assigned to the case despite efforts Wright and Vincent say were made by superiors to block the probe....'There were powers bigger than I was in the Justice Department and within the FBI that simply were not going to let it [the building of a criminal case] happen. And it didn't happen,' Flessner said. He said he still couldn't figure out why Washington stopped the case... On Sept. 11, 2001, the two agents watched the terror attacks in horror, worried that men they could have stopped years earlier may have been involved.'"

The FBI has refused to permit the release of Wright's 500 page manuscript, 'Fatal Betrayals of the Intelligence Mission', that he submitted for prepublication review in October 2001. In fact, the FBI even refused to turn the manuscript over to Senator Shelby, Vice Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee charged with investigating America's 911 intelligence failures. Wright has launched a lawsuit against the FBI.

In short, there would appear to be a large gap between what the FBI says in public it is doing in the so called 'war against terrorism' and what is really happening in practice.

Even though the exact tactics can change almost overnight according to the layout of the geo-political chess board at any given time (as the Washington Post put it in relation to al-Liby, such terrorists can "be used or discarded" as circumstances permit), in one form or other oil and gas are never far away from the play of such hidden agendas.

On 15 November 2001 the news agency Inter Press Service reported that the head of counter-terrorism at the FBI, John O'Neill had resigned in July 2001 because he was being obstructed by the Bush administration from investigating al Qaeda.

Six months later, on 31 May 2002, a press release issued by the office of the former federal prosecutor John Loftus elaborated on this situation stating that "Loftus recently received an FBI translation of a highly classified and encrypted Al Qaida document, circa 1997-1998, which was retrieved and decrypted from a computer laptop following the Embassy bombing in Africa. The document was written by Osama Bin Laden’s military commander, Mohammed Atef, under his nom de guerre, Abu Haf, and reveals extensive knowledge of the supposedly secret pipeline negotiations [in Afghanistan], and their potential economic worth to the Taliban, Pakistan and the U.S.... in January 2001, Vice President Cheney allegedly reinstated the intelligence block and expanded it to effectively preclude any investigations whatsoever of Saudi-Taliban-Afghan oil connections. Former FBI counter-terrorism chief John O’Neil resigned from the FBI in disgust, stating that he was ordered not to investigate Saudi-Al Qaida connections because of the Enron pipeline deal. Loftus has confirmed that it was O’Neill who originally discovered the AL Qaida pipeline memo after the Embassy bombings in Africa. O’Neill gave an overview of the Enron block to two French authors who will soon be publishing in the United States. The FBI is currently investigating Loftus’ links to John O’Neill, and is also refusing FBI agent Robert Wright permission to publish his own findings about the Enron block. Loftus asserts that the Enron block, which remained in force from January 2001 until August 2001 when the pipeline deal collapsed, is the reason that none of FBI agent Rowley’s requests for investigations were ever approved. As numerous British and French authors have concluded, the information provided by European intelligence sources prior to 9/11 was so extensive, that it is no longer possible for either CIA or the FBI to assert a defense of incompetence. It is time for Congress to face the truth: In order to give Enron one last desperate chance to complete the Taliban pipeline and save itself from bankruptcy, senior levels of US intelligence were ordered to keep their eyes shut and their subordinates ignorant. The Enron cover-up confirms that 9/11 was not an intelligence failure or a law enforcement failure (at least not entirely). Instead, it was a foreign policy failure of the highest order. If Congress ever combines its Enron investigation with 9/11, Cheney’s whole house of cards will collapse".

With the Financial Times reporting for the first time on 26 January 2004 that the reserves of the world's top ten oil companies are already depleting faster than they can replenish them no one should be under any illusions about the cynical and ruthless nature of this dirty game.

In short, whether as big a threat as made out or not (the British transport secretary claimed on 4 January that "I fear that for many years to come we are going to be living in an age where there is going to be a heightened state of alert" following security delays to international flights based on intelligence reports which not everyone found credible), post-911 Britain and America need to keep the concept of the enemy of al Qaeda alive in order to provide political cover for their military incursions into those parts of the globe where the most of the oil and gas resides - namely the Islamic world......"

Ex-CIA Agent - It's The Oil Stupid!

"Robert Baer, a former CIA spy who presents a television documentary on the history of suicide bombing, says he knew the practice would come to the UK. And it’s not the West’s values, but its foreign policies, that are to blame..... As someone who prefers his terrorism confined to Sunday nights and episodes of 24, I had been clinging to the hope that London’s recent Thursdays were an aberration. My optimism is severely dimmed by meeting Robert Baer, a former CIA spy who has returned to his old beat in the Middle East to make a grimly fascinating two-part history of suicide bombing for Channel 4. What he delivers is not good news. It provides, however, an unusually clear view of the landscape...He does not disown the words he uses at the end of this Thursday’s documentary, that suicide bombing, 'like a pathological virus', has become unstoppable. He does add, perhaps for my sake, the proviso 'until you take the causes away', but by this stage even I can see they are not going to be..... 'The other one thing is, ‘they hate us’, which is just total bullshit.' [he says] Is it? 'Yes,' he says, 'it is.' In a school run by Hezbollah, he asked a class dominated by the daughters of 'martyrs' if they watched US television. 'Everybody raised their hand. And what did they watch? Oprah. I said, ‘How can you watch this crap?’ And they said, ‘No, she’s great. We love Oprah.’..... So, it wasn’t our values. It wasn’t Western values. It’s Western presence. They want us to get out.'.....  There is, however, a three-letter reason why the US will not impose a peace plan on Israel and leave the region.  Baer, the author of Sleeping With The Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, well knows what it is. 'I don’t think any American politician, however at fault we are in Iraq or anywhere else, can say, ‘All right, let the crazies have the oil fields’, because oil at $200 a barrel would put us into a depression.' So because the American economy is at stake, we can’t get out even to save our skins? 'That, I believe, is your classic paradox.' Until making the programme, Baer had not visited Iran since 1979, near the beginning of his 21-year career as a CIA field officer that would post him to Syria, Sudan, Beirut and Tajikistan. March 1995 found him in northern Iraq, where rebels were preparing an uprising against Saddam Hussein. To Baer’s amazement, at the last moment the Clinton regime decided to disown it..... His cynicism has undoubtedly been sharpened by his treatment at the hands not only of his CIA masters, but by politicians. He abhors the neo-cons who now shape American foreign policy (he says on leaving the CIA he had any number of offers to take a job in a 'crazy right-wing institute'), but he is also deeply critical of Bill Clinton’s 'moral pliability'. 'Clinton brought the whole level of politics to a new low, and then Bush come along and institutionalised the corruption.'"
Suicide bombing is a virus that’s here to stay
London Times, 2 August 2005

(Note: Baer's two-part series 'Cult of the Suicide Bomber' is on Channel 4 on August 4 and August 9 at 9pm according to The London Times)

"....the second strand in [the Bush administration's] global strategy is to secure greater supplies of foreign oil. An energy report by Vice-President Dick Cheney 18 months ago forecast that American oil imports would have to rise by more than half by 2020 - partly, of course, because the administration is not much interested in reducing consumption... the most obvious tool [for this] is the military one...To take one example, American military bases set up to fight al-Qaeda in central Asia may also serve to safeguard oil supplies, to back up the commercial exploitation of the Caspian basin."
Iraq crisis reflects global US strategy
BBC Online, 1 January 2003

"By 2010, Muslim nations could control 60 percent of the world`s oil production and, more importantly, 95 percent of the world`s oil exports."
THE SECRET: Oil Crunch is Coming
Iviews, 27 Nov 2002

"Soaring global energy demand will leave the West increasingly in thrall to the Middle East, the world’s energy watchdog said yesterday. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that the world’s daily burn rate for oil will rise by almost half over the next 25 years, to 121 million barrels a day, as global energy consumption rises inexorably. The IEA predicts that demand of energy of all types will soar by 59 per cent by 2030... The IEA expects the Middle East Opec states to be pumping 52 million barrels a day by 2030, up from 20 million today. However, Sadad Husseini, a former vice-president in charge of production at Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Aramco oil group, told Channel 4 News that hopes of doubling Saudi production to 22 million barrels a day over two decades to help to meet demand were 'unrealistic' and a dangerous basis for policy."
Oil thirst 'makes Middle East crucial'
London Times, 27 October 2004

".... a series of crises in oil supply is likely over the coming decades. The first, related to the peak and decline of non-OPEC production, is practically upon us and underpins the currently high oil prices...... The imminent inability of non-OPEC production to meet incremental demand and its decline after 2010 precipitates the second crisis as OPEC’s diminishing spare capacity (even with Iraq’s production back to preinvasion levels) becomes less and less able to accommodate short-term fluctuations.....The third crisis, due to OPEC’s incremental supply being unable to meet incremental demand, follows in the first half of the next decade. This assumes that OPEC’s reserves are as published. .....These crises will have global economic and geopolitical significance: The oil price will be high and volatile, and demand growth will have to be curtailed..."
Oil Supply Challenges - 2: What Can OPEC Deliver?
Oil and Gas Journal, 7 March 2005

Oil And Gas Journal Predicts Emerging Oil Supply Crisis - Click Here
'Peak Oil' - Global Energy Crisis Looming - Click Here

French Intelligence Claim British Shielding Abu Qatada, Bin Laden's Right Hand Man In Europe

"A detainee in Guantanamo Bay with strong links to Britain has claimed he acted as a go-between for British intelligence and an alleged leading member of al-Qa'ida in London. The claims come from Bisher al-Rawi, 37, who came to Britain as a teenage refugee but has been held in Cuba for more than two years as a suspected supporter of al-Qa'ida. He was seized by US intelligence agents on a business trip to Gambia in November 2002 because of his friendship with Abu Qatada, the militant Islamic cleric alleged to be al-Qa'ida's 'spiritual leader' in Europe. In testimony to a US military tribunal in Cuba seen by The Independent on Sunday, Mr Rawi claimed he had acted as an intermediary between Abu Qatada, a Palestinian refugee, and MI5. He named three MI5 agents, 'Alex', 'Matthew' and 'Martin', and asked for them to be called as defence witnesses. Although the tribunal agreed, the British Government refused to allow them to give evidence. It is thought that Mr Rawi's MI5 contacts took place while Abu Qatada was in hiding for nine months - in a safe house the detainee has admitted finding for him in London. Abu Qatada disappeared in December 2001, hours before the Government took controversial powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial.....His claims follow allegations, by Islamist militants as well as French security sources, that Abu Qatada had contacts with British intelligence..."
'I was MI5 go-between,' says Briton held in Guantanamo
Independent, 16 January 2005

"Mr Rawi alleges that intelligence agents knew Mr Qatada's location when he was supposedly in hiding after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, because Mr Rawi had told them. He also alleges that he acted as a 'go-between' between the radical cleric and MI5 when the authorities were saying they did not know where the alleged militant was. Mr Qatada has been branded as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe. A video of his sermons was found in the Hamburg flat of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 hijackings. The startling claims from Mr Rawi came during a hearing at Guantánamo Bay last year. Key sections had been kept classified by the US military authorities, and are revealed here for the first time.... Mr Rawi called three MI5 officers he said he had contacts with for his Guantánamo hearing. The chairman of the US military tribunal said the British government had refused to cooperate. 'We have contacted the British government and at this time, they are not willing to provide the tribunal with that information,' the chairman said. After the September 11 attacks, the British government passed laws allowing it to detain foreign terror suspects without charge. Mr Qatada, who feared that he would be a target, went on the run, with the British authorities supposedly unable to find him for 10 months. But Mr Rawi claims that intelligence agents knew exactly where Mr Qatada was. 'When he disappeared I received a call from the British Intelligence Agency asking if I knew where Abu was ... I told them I did. I took a role as a go-between for the British Intelligence Agency and Abu Qatada,' Mr Rawi said. 'During the time he was supposedly in hiding from them, the British authorities knew where Abu was and they used it to their advantage.'   In a Guardian interview 18 months ago, Mr Rawi's brother Wahab freely admitted that he and Bisher had assisted Mr Qatada while he was on the run. Wahab al-Rawi said that when they were being interrogated by US agents in Gambia after they were first arrested, one US agent asked if his brother worked for British intelligence. A number of Muslims in London doubted that the UK authorities could not find Mr Qatada when he was supposedly on the run from December 2001 to October 2002, in part because so many Muslims here knew where he was. According to one report, this was a view shared by French intelligence, which claimed that the British secret services were shielding the cleric."
Guantánamo Briton claims he spied for MI5
Guardian, 22 March 2005

Al Qaeda As Sub-Contractor To British And US Intelligence

"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice....The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby.... The Observer can today reveal that the MI6 officers involved in the alleged plot were Richard Bartlett, who has previously only been known under the codename PT16 and had overall responsibility for the operation; and David Watson, codename PT16B. As Shayler's opposite number in MI6, Watson was responsible for running a Libyan agent, 'Tunworth', who was providing information from within the cell. According to Shayler, MI6 passed £100,000 to the al-Qaeda plotters.... "
MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'
Observer, 10 November 2002

"The London Times 1 August comments on Lord Hutton's own closeness to the British intelligence services stating that 'Lord Hutton's long involvement with the secret services make him well placed to probe the world of intelligence and political intrigue surrounding David Kelly’s death.... His time in Northern Ireland gave him considerable insight into the workings of the Secret Intelligence Service and attuned him to the political sensitivities of cases involving state security....' We will only know if this proves to have been an advantage or a disadvantage when Lord Hutton provides his final report. Will he be bold enough to recommend, for example, a separate investigation of the intelligence services where his existing terms of reference do not give him sufficient latitude? Lord Hutton has protected the intelligence services in the past. The Times points out that 'The Oxford-educated judge, aged 72, was one of the law lords who decided that a public interest defence was not available to David Shayler, the former MI5 agent who disclosed secrets alleging incompetence in the security services'. Shayler's concerns have in fact been much more than simply about professional incompetence, however. Last November the Observer reported on Shayler's follow-on trial. At that time Shayler was claiming that MI6 had 'paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi in 1996' and that one of the members of the cell [Anas al-Liby] had been granted political asylum in Britain, living in Manchester until 2000.   Shayler named the MI6 officer involved in the British payments to al Qaeda. The Observer pointed out that 'During the Shayler trial, Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw signed Public Interest Immunity certificates to protect national security. [As a result] Reporters were not able to report allegations about the Gaddafi plot during the course of the trial.... These restrictions have led to a row between the Attorney General and the so-called D-Notice Committee, which advises the press on national security issues..... Members of the committee, who include senior national newspaper executives, are said to be horrified at the unprecedented attempt to censor the media during the trial.' Once again 'national security' excuses appear to have been used as a fig leaf for covering up illicit activity by the British government - in that case the actuality was no less than British sponsorship of international terrorism."
Iraqgate 2003
'Fight Smart' Special Report, October 2004

"Shayler will be defending himself during the trial. He is expected to claim that British secret service agents paid up to £100,000 to al Qaeda terrorists for an assassination attempt on Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffy in 1996."
Calls for secret Shayler trial
London Evening Standard, 7 October 2002

"The ruins of the World Trade Centre were still burning when Tony Blair and David Blunkett appeared before the cameras to pledge that they would speed up the extradition of terrorist suspects sheltering in Britain. However, not one has since been extradited from Britain, despite the repeated requests of more than a dozen friendly governments.... countries complain that the British authorities have refused even to arrest some men whom they have identified as having terrorist links.... Three people on the wanted list are accused of playing pivotal roles in the lorry bomb attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 in which 231 people were killed.... New [faster] British extradition laws that come into force on January 1... do not affect al-Qaeda suspects seized after the September 11 attacks."
Blair 'broke promise' on terrorist suspects
London Times, 29 December 2003

"Over the years, some dissidents suspected by foreign governments of involvement in terrorist acts have been protected by the British government for one reason or another from deportation or extradition.... In the past, terrorism experts say, Britain benefited significantly from its willingness to extend at least conditional hospitality to a wide range of Arab dissidents and opposition figures.... Mustafa Alani, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies, a London think tank, said al-Liby was probably left in legal limbo by the British government, allowing him to be used or discarded as circumstances permitted.... According to a renegade officer for the British intelligence service MI5, David Shayler, British intelligence plotted with Islamic extremists to assassinate Gaddafi in early 1996..."
Britain a Refuge for Mideast Dissidents - Some With Suspected Ties to Bin Laden Resist Extradition
Washington Post, 7 October 2001

"Many writers and reporters have traced al-Qa'eda and other terror groups' origins back to the Afghan war of 1979-1992, that last gasp of the Cold War when US-backed mujahedin forces fought against the invading Soviet army. It is well documented that America played a major role in creating and sustaining the mujahedin, which included Osama bin Laden's Office of Services set up to recruit volunteers from overseas ... Yet America's role in backing the mujahedin a second time in the early and mid-1990s is seldom mentioned - largely because very few people know about it, and those who do find it prudent to pretend that it never happened.... From 1992 to 1995, the Pentagon assisted with the movement of thousands of mujahedin and other Islamic elements from Central Asia into Europe, to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs. The Bosnia venture appears to have been very important to the rise of mujahedin forces, to the emergence of today's cross-border Islamic terrorists who think nothing of moving from state to state in the search of outlets for their jihadist mission. In moving to Bosnia, Islamic fighters were transported from the ghettos of Afghanistan and the Middle East into Europe; from an outdated battleground of the Cold War to the major world conflict of the day; from being yesterday's men to fighting alongside the West's favoured side in the clash of the Balkans. If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it.... The Pentagon's secret alliance with Islamic elements allowed mujahedin fighters to be 'flown in', though they were initially reserved as shock troops for particularly hazardous operations against Serb forces. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times in October 2001, from 1992 as many as 4,000 volunteers from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, 'known as the mujahedin', arrived in Bosnia to fight with the Muslims. Richard Holbrooke, America's former chief Balkans peace negotiator, has said that the Bosnian Muslims 'wouldn't have survived' without the help of the mujahedin, though he later admitted that the arrival of the mujahedin was a 'pact with the devil' from which Bosnia is still recovering. By the end of the 1990s State Department officials were increasingly worried about the consequences of this pact. Under the terms of the 1995 Dayton peace accord, the foreign mujahedin units were required to disband and leave the Balkans. Yet in 2000, the State Department raised concerns about the 'hundreds of foreign Islamic extremists' who became Bosnian citizens after fighting against the Serbs, and who pose a potential terror threat to Europe and the United States. US officials claimed that one of bin Laden's top lieutenants had sent operatives to Bosnia, and that during the 1990s Bosnia had served as a 'staging area and safe haven' for al-Qa'eda and others. The Clinton administration had discovered that it is one thing to permit the movement of Islamic groups across territories; it is quite another to rein them back in again. Indeed, for all the Clinton officials' concern about Islamic extremists in the Balkans, they continued to allow the growth and movement of mujahedin forces in Europe through the 1990s. In the late 1990s, in the run-up to Clinton's and Blair's Kosovo war of 1999, the USA backed the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbia. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post in 1998, KLA members, like the Bosnian Muslims before them, had been 'provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries', and had been 'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin ...[some of whom] were trained in Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps in Afghanistan'. It seems that, for all its handwringing, the USA just couldn't break the pact with the devil... It would appear that when it comes to Bosnia, many in the West have a moral blind spot..... Western intervention in Bosnia, it would appear, has become an unquestionably positive thing, something that is beyond interrogation and debate."
How we trained al-Qa'eda
Spectator, 13 September 2003

"America has started secret negotiations with the Kosovo Liberation Army about supplying it with specialist weapons to attack Serb ground forces in Kosovo...The strategy...has echoes of earlier covert operations by Washington to supply arms to the Contras or the Bosnian Muslims... the State Department, which last year was willing to accept descriptions of the KLA as terrorist criminals but now appears to view it as an organisation it can do business with."
US opens secret talks on arming KLA
Daily Telegraph, 12 April 1999

"British and American special forces teams are working undercover in Kosovo with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army to identify Serbian targets for Nato bombing raids....The SAS is also advising the rebels at their strongholds in northern Albania, where the KLA has launched a major recruitment and training operation. According to high-ranking KLA officials, the SAS is using two camps near Tirana, the Albanian capital, and another on the Kosovan border to teach KLA officers how to conduct intelligence-gathering operations on Serbian positions....It is the latest evidence of the growing co-operation between Nato and the KLA, a movement once denounced by the West's leaders as 'terrorists'...alliance spokesman James Shea enthusiastically predicted that the KLA would 'rise from the ashes' and play an increasingly important role in the current campaign... The alliance is now quietly drafting the KLA into its war against Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader. It is even considering plans to train them and ease the arms embargo on Yugoslavia to supply them with weapons such as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.... They are negotiating for a long-term training deal with Military and Professional Resources International, a mercenary company run by former American officers who operate with semi-official approval from the Pentagon and played a key role in building up Croatia's armed forces... From their remaining enclaves within Kosovo and reconnaissance missions staged from Albania, the rebels already use satellite and cellular telephones to provide Nato with details on Serbian targets."
SAS teams move in to help KLA 'rise from the ashes'
Sunday Telegraph, 18 April 1999

US And UK Sponsored Islamic Terrorism In The Balkans - Click Here

Where It All Began
Interview With Former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski

"In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings..... The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books...."
From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad
Washington Post, 23 March 2002

The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan
Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,
President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser
Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998
Posted at globalresearch.ca 15 October 2001

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Translated from the French by Bill Blum

The URL of this article is:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html  

Copyright, Le Nouvel Observateur and Bill Blum. For fair use only.

'The Pakistan Connection'
Anglo-American Covert Sponsorship Of Islamic Terrorism In
Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Chechnya And Iran
Click Here

FBI Special Agent - 'There's so much more. God, there's so much more. A lot more.'

"There's so much more. God, there's so much more. A lot more."
FBI agent, Robert Wright, who is being officially prevented from telling the public about how his efforts to investigate al-Qaeda pre-911 were blocked by his supervisors
'Called off the trail?' - ABC News, 19 Dec 2002

"In a dramatic interview with ABCNEWS, FBI special agents and partners Robert Wright and John Vincent say they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists tied to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.... The suspected terrorist cell in Chicago was the basis of the investigation, yet Wright, who remains with the FBI, says he soon discovered that all the FBI intelligence division wanted him to do was to follow suspected terrorists and file reports — but make no arrests.... 'The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: 'You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,' ' Wright said. Even though they were on a terrorism task force and said they had proof of criminal activity, Wright said he was told not to pursue the matter.... even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests. 'Two months after the embassies are hit in Africa, they wanted to shut down the criminal investigation,' said Wright. 'They wanted to kill it.' ... The move outraged Chicago federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, who was assigned to the case despite efforts Wright and Vincent say were made by superiors to block the probe....'There were powers bigger than I was in the Justice Department and within the FBI that simply were not going to let it [the building of a criminal case] happen. And it didn't happen,' Flessner said. He said he still couldn't figure out why Washington stopped the case... On Sept. 11, 2001, the two agents watched the terror attacks in horror, worried that men they could have stopped years earlier may have been involved.'"
Called Off the Trail?
ABCNews, 19 Dec 2002

"Anas Al-Liby is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million   for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Anas Al-Liby."
FBI web site, United States of America

"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.....two French intelligence experts ....  reveal that the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998. According to journalist Guillaume Dasquié and Jean-Charles Brisard, an adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya ....... Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The arrest warrant was issued in connection with the murder in March 1994 of two German anti-terrorism agents, Silvan and Vera Becker, who were in charge of missions in Africa. According to the book, the resistance of Western intelligence agencies to the Libyan concerns can be explained by MI6's involvement with the al-Qaeda coup plot.  The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the al-Qaeda leader returned to Afghanistan in 1996. Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al-Qaeda operative, al-Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000....."
MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'
Observer, 10 November 2002

"Security chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic repeatedly turned down the chance to acquire a vast intelligence database on Osama bin Laden and more than 200 leading members of his al-Qaeda terrorist network in the years leading up to the 11 September attacks, an Observer investigation has revealed. They were offered thick files, with photographs and detailed biographies of many of his principal cadres, and vital information about al-Qaeda's financial interests in many parts of the globe. On two separate occasions, they were given an opportunity to extradite or interview key bin Laden operatives who had been arrested in Africa because they appeared to be planning terrorist atrocities. None of the offers, made regularly from the start of 1995, was taken up.... The Observer has evidence that a separate offer made by Sudanese agents in Britain to share intelligence with MI6 has been rejected. This follows four years of similar rebuffs.... The Observer has obtained a copy of a personal memo sent from Sudan to Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, after the murderous 1998 attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It announces the arrest of two named bin Laden operatives held the day after the bombings after they crossed the Sudanese border from Kenya. They had cited the manager of a Khartoum leather factory owned by bin Laden as a reference for their visas, and were held after they tried to rent a flat overlooking the US embassy in Khartoum, where they were thought to be planning an attack. US sources have confirmed that the FBI wished to arrange their immediate extradition. However, Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, forbade it.... Sudan held the suspects for a further three weeks, hoping the US would both perform their extradition and take up the offer to examine their bin Laden database."
Resentful west spurned Sudan's key terror files
Observer, 30 September 2001

New Sunday Times Report
What Was The Role Of British Intelligence In Pushing The False Case To Invade Iraq?

Apart From Blair
Intelligence Services Almost Only People In UK Pushing For War

"The split over the Iraq war, which ran through the Labour party, reached into Tony Blair’s innermost circle, according to an updated biography of the prime minister. Key Downing Street advisers including Alastair Campbell, former director of communications, and Baroness Morgan, former director of political and government relations, are revealed to have had 'private reservations' about the prime minister’s strategy. The disclosures have been made by Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon, who has benefited from insider accounts that the government is now seeking to suppress.... Seldon is understood to have had access to the private unpublished papers of key officials. Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador in Washington; Lance Price, former deputy to Campbell at Downing Street; and Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations and then special envoy to Iraq, are all understood to have kept detailed records and were all interviewed by Seldon. The updated version of Seldon’s biography of Blair draws heavily on their revelatory material — the publication of which Whitehall officials are now attempting to block. The Cabinet Office has halted Price’s plans to publish his memoirs while Greenstock’s forthcoming book is to be edited before publication. Meyer intends to publish his memoirs in the autumn, after official clearance....[Seddon's book states] 'Many senior diplomats in the Foreign Office were deeply concerned but failed to speak out . . . Within his closest team in No 10, Campbell and Morgan had private reservations while (David) Manning (Blair’s foreign policy adviser) was often uneasy . . . The intelligence chiefs (Sir John Scarlett, Sir Stephen Lander and Sir Richard Dearlove) were not counselling caution.' [even though we now know they had no credible intelligence, Fight Smart Ed]”
Key No 10 aides were split over war
Sunday Times, 31 July 2005

"Britain ran a covert 'dirty tricks' operation designed specifically to produce misleading intelligence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction to give the UK a justifiable excuse to wage war on Iraq. Operation Rockingham, established by the Defence Intelligence Staff within the Ministry of Defence in 1991, was set up to 'cherry-pick' intelligence proving an active Iraqi WMD programme and to ignore and quash intelligence which indicated that Saddam's stockpiles had been destroyed or wound down. The existence of Operation Rockingham has been confirmed by Scott Ritter, the former UN chief weapons inspector, and a US military intelligence officer. He knew members of the Operation Rockingham team and described the unit as 'dangerous', but insisted they were not 'rogue agents' acting without government backing. 'This policy was coming from the very highest levels,' he added. 'Rockingham was spinning reports and emphasising reports that showed non-compliance (by Iraq with UN inspections) and quashing those which showed compliance. It was cherry-picking intelligence.' Ritter and other intelligence sources say Operation Rockingham and MI6 were supplying skewed information to the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) which, Tony Blair has told the Commons, was behind the intelligence dossiers that the government published to convince the parliament and the people of the necessity of war against Iraq...The rebel Labour MP and Father of the House, Tam Dalyell, said he would raise the Sunday Herald's investigation into Operation Rockingham in the Commons on Thursday and demand an explanation from the government about selective intelligence. Ritter has also offered to give evidence to parliament."
Revealed: the secret cabal which spun for Blair
Sunday Herald, 8 June 2003

The Guardian On Operation Rockingham - 'The Very Secret Service' - Click Here

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