'Fight Smart' Update - 13 June 2004
Don't Take the Bait - Fight Smart
ANIMATED 911 SUMMARY - CLICK HERE
Who is the enemy?
More Allegations
From Former FBI Translator
Justice And State Departments
Hiding Identity Of Key 911 Players
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATEdmondsinterview.htm
Gagged Whistleblower Claims Evidence
That 911 Money Flow Touches People In 'High Places' In America
"Sibel Deniz Edmonds is waiting
for a June 14 court case which
will determine if she can tell us all the full story about intelligence failures over
the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government wants her knowledge to remain a state secret."
Sibel Edmonds: The 9/11
Missing Link
BreakForNews.com, 1 June, 2004
"Judge
Reggie Walton has now called off the hearing -- no reason cited, and no future date
scheduled. The fourth time he's done this in past two years. Sibel Edmonds will hold a
press conference with Daniel Ellsberg at 3rd & Const.
Ave. [Washington] on Monday, June 14, at 9:30 AM in front of the Court."
State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global
Drug Trade - FBI Whistleblower
BreakForNews.com,
7 June 2004
"If they were
to do real investigations we would see several significant high level
criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not
going to let out.
And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"So to
just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the
camp in Afghanistan,
is extremely misleading..... And then you involve a significant amount of money
into this equation.
Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money
laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their
support
networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without
being too specific.
And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's
getting into somebody's political campaign,
and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this
money."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore Chronicle,
7 May 2004
"Even as a
judge prepares to permanently silence her, a former FBI translator of intelligence has
implicated the US State
Department in quashing
investigations which had linked the 9/11 terrorist network to a global drug trafficking
ring.... Because of a provisional gag order issued by
Judge Reggie B. Walton which prohibits revealing specific details, Edmonds can only paint
a picture in the broadest of brush strokes. But her measured words hint at politically explosive connections between criminal drug/intelligence
networks, and the 9/11 attacks."
State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade - FBI
Whistleblower
BreakForNews.com,
7 June 2004
* Former FBI-translator Sibel Edmonds says she had 'Top Secret' |
"....the Bureau [FBI] is being asked by the State Department not to
pursue certain investigations or certain people or certain targets of an
investigation--simply citing 'diplomatic relations.' And what happens is, instead of
targeting those people who are directly related to these illegal terrorist activities,
they just let them walk free.... I have seen several, several top targets for these
investigations of these terrorist activities that were allowed to leave the country -- I'm
not talking about weeks, I'm talking about months after 9/11... I can tell you that there is so much involvement,
that if they did let this information out, and if they were to hold real
investigations--I'm not talking about this semi-investigation they're holding under this
'Joint Inquiry'--the pure show of the 9/11 Commission that has been getting the mass
media's attention. If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant
high level criminal prosecutions in this country..." |
"The
original criminal case - a sting operation in which intermediaries allegedly tried to buy
the weapons from [Randy Glass] a diamond thief-turned-informant
for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - attracted little public notice when
arrests were made in June 2001. It resulted in a single guilty plea and the sealing of
court files for another defendant..... One reason, informed sources said, was that
prosecutors, in an unusual step, removed references to Pakistan from public filings because of diplomatic concerns.... " |
"'The
complaints were ordered sanitized by the highest levels of government,' Glass said. The
complaints were sealed, but Glass pointed out that his sentencing document June 15 [2001]
listed threats against the World Trade Center and Americans. The [WTC] towers came down
three months later." |
"....
I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating
the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States. I am
stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other
terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a
foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of
terrorists who are here planning the next plots. To me that is an extremely significant issue
and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the
American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign
government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.... I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of
the terrorists were assisted not just in financing - although that was part of it - by a
sovereign foreign government .... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to
the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information
now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing
today...." |
"A top FBI counter-terrorism official told the US Senate governmental
affairs committee on Thursday that investigators have 'traced the origin of the funding of
9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan.'.... The Bush Administration is being cagey about declassifying
28 secret pages in a recent report on the 9/11 incident which officials say outline
connections between Saudi charities, royal family members and terrorism. US authorities
are silent about the role some Pakistanis may have played in the conspiracy. The role of Sheikh
and Lt Gen Ahmad has yet to see the light of the day. Sheikh, wanted for kidnapping and
terrorist conspiracy in India, has since been sentenced to death in Pakistan for the murder of Wall
Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl." |
| "The [Sept. 11 commission] bipartisan panel's final report is due
July 26. However, portions of it, dealing with factual findings leading up to and
including the attacks, already have been drafted and sent to the White House for
vetting..." Final 9/11 Report Slams FBI, CIA Associated Press, 9 June 2004 |
"Americans who think the 9/11
commission is going to answer all the crucial questions about the terrorist attacks are
likely to be sorely disappointed"
The Great Escape
New York Times, 1 June
2004
"Edmonds claimed to
have translated testimony in criminal and counter-intelligence cases involving different
FBI field offices, going back into the late 1990s. Much of this involved tracking money,
she said. Among the Farsi [spoken mainly in
Afghanistan and Iran] translators working for the FBI, she said, it was common
knowledge that a longtime, highly regarded FBI 'asset' placed in Afghanistan told the
agency in April 2001 that he had information from his contacts there that bin Laden was
planning a major attack, involving the use of planes, in one or another of big American
cities—Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York among them. The agents who took down the
information from the spy wrote up reports and sent them to their superiors. That was the
last the agents heard of the matter. Edmonds said she had heard the details of the Afghan
asset story in an unclassified meeting at the Capitol, but she cannot talk about the
specifics because of a Justice Department gag order that classifies as secret what she has
to say. She said, however, that 'there are a lot of activities in the U.S. A lot of
money . . . and these activities involve money laundering, drugs, a support network for
terrorism . . . people in high places . . . [people] in the political arena.'
Edmonds can't tell what she may know because Attorney General John Ashcroft recently
invoked an arcane law to make her statements 'classified'—including previously public
statements and journalism quoting her on the case. "
This Made Ashcroft Gag
Village Voice, 25 May 2004
"I have been
given a warning that my turn [for smearing by the Bush Administration] is coming. I have
been waiting for this for two years and two months... And they have not done it to this
day, and they have not even denied anything. But I have been told to expect something to
occur soon."
Sibel Edmonds Interview -
Former FBI Translator
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"Despite the disinterest of the FBI or
its oversight mechanisms, and the retrospective classification of her testimony to
Congressional inquiries as state secrets, Edmonds is resolute --and well past the point of
no return in her battle for the truth. 'Over two years have passed,' she says. 'I'm hoping
there will be at least one.. just one Congressman, one Senator, who will be willing to
take a stand, and come forward, and put out this information.... And I'm still looking for
that one courageous person.' Such a representative will be the exception to the current
rule. By way of illustration, Edmonds quotes a recent communication from an unnamed
representative: 'Sibel Edmonds will not make any friends in the Congress, if she continues
pressuring us and if she continues demanding action. That's not how she will make friends
here -she will make only enemies.' With friends like that - who needs enemies. 'If they
don't want to be pressured, then they should not run for office,' says Edmonds.
Unsurprisingly, Edmonds' evidence has languished in Congress."
State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade -
FBI Whistleblower
BreakForNews.com,
7 June 2004
Background To The Case Of Sibel Edmonds
"The Justice Department has taken the
unusual step of retroactively classifying information it gave to Congress nearly two years
ago regarding a former F.B.I. translator who charged that the bureau had missed critical
terrorist warnings, officials said Wednesday.... some members of Congress and Congressional aides said they were troubled by the
move, which comes as critics have accused the Bush administration of excessive secrecy.
'What the F.B.I. is up to here is ludicrous,' Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of
Iowa, said in an interview. 'To classify something that's already been out in the public
domain, what do you accomplish? It does harm to transparency in government, and it looks
like an attempt to cover up the F.B.I.'s problems in translating intelligence.'....the
F.B.I. now maintains that some of the information discussed was so potentially damaging if
released publicly that it is now considered classified, according to a memorandum
distributed last week within the Senate Judiciary Committee. The material could also play
a part in pending lawsuits, including Ms. Edmonds's wrongful termination suit and a
lawsuit brought by hundreds of families of Sept. 11 victims who have sought to take
testimony from her. 'Any staffer who attended those briefings, or who learns about those
briefings, should be aware that the F.B.I. now considers the information classified and
should therefore avoid further dissemination,' the Judiciary Committee memorandum said. An
F.B.I. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the decision to classify the
material was made by the Justice Department, which oversees the bureau. The Justice
Department declined to comment on Wednesday. The F.B.I. told Congressional officials that
it was classifying topics including what languages Ms. Edmonds translated, what types of
cases she handled, and what employees she worked with, officials said. Even routine and
widely disseminated information - like where she worked - is now classified.... Ms.
Edmonds testified in a closed session this year before the Sept. 11 commission, and she
has made increasingly vehement charges about the F.B.I.'s intelligence failures, saying
the United States had advance warnings about the attacks. Families of the Sept. 11 victims
- who are suing numerous corporate and Saudi interests whom they accuse of having links to
the attacks - have sought to depose her as a witness, but the Justice Department has
blocked the move by saying her testimony would violate 'the state secret privilege.' Her
lawyer could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. While some Congressional officials
said they were confident the Justice Department had followed proper procedure in
classifying the information, others said they could not remember any recent precedents and
were bothered by the move. 'I have never heard of a retroactive classification two years back,' said
an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is classified. 'It would
be silly if it didn't have such serious implications,' the aide said. 'People are puzzled
and, frankly, worried, because the effect here is to quash Congressional oversight. We
don't even know what we can't talk about.' Senator Grassley said, 'This is about as close
to a gag order as you can get.'..."
Material Given to Congress in 2002
Is Now Classified
New
York Times, 20 May 2004
"... [due to
the gagging order] I cannot name any country. And I would emphasize that it's plural. I
understand the Saudis have been named because fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from
Saudi Arabia. However, the names of people from other countries, and semi-legit
organizations from other countries, to this day, have not been made public.... And
specifically with that and their ties to people here in this country today [I have been
gagged against]... [but] I can tell you that the issue, on one side, boils down to money
-- a lot of money. And it boils down to people and their connections with this money, and
that's the portion [of the story] that... has not been mentioned to this day. Because then
it starts touching some people in high places.... this money travels. And you start trying
to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and
somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"The
translator alluded to additional but more volatile allegations in a phone call on
Friday night to Kyle Hence, cofounder of 9-11 Citizens Watch, who said in a widely
distributed email that Edmonds told him 'if what she knows is revealed, it could lead to
charges of treason being leveled against officials at top levels of the U.S. government.'
Hence added, 'If that is the case, then all those who have been involved in keeping this
information from getting to the public are complicit in this treason.... In a Washington,
DC courtroom this morning, FBI attorneys will appear before Judge Reginald Walton in an
attempt to block attorney Ronald Motley’s subpoena request to depose Edmonds as a
witness for his $1 trillion lawsuit on behalf of 9-11 families to tell what she knows
about prior warnings of the attacks.'"
Translator alleges FBI
/ State Dept espionage, possible treason
TomFlocco.com,
27 April 2004
"Mrs Edmonds, 33, a Turkish-American
who had top secret security clearance, claimed this month that while working in the FBI's Washington headquarters, she saw
information proving senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida plans to attack the US with
aircraft months before the strikes. She has provided sworn testimony to the independent
panel appointed by President George Bush to investigate the circumstances surrounding 11
September."
Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11
Independent, 26 April 2004
"When he watched the planes hit the
Twin Towers on 9-11, former FBI translator Behrooz Sarshar says he 'immediately'
remembered a tip about an al-Qaida plot the bureau got from an informant more than four
months before the terror group attacked America. Though he won't divulge details of the
tip or discuss the sources and methods behind it, arguing they are still highly
classified, Sarshar confirmed in an exclusive interview that he recently briefed three
9-11 Commission investigators about it, as WorldNetDaily first reported March 28.
He says he met Feb. 12 with Lance Cole, Chris Healey and one other commission investigator
in a secure room here on K Street. During the more than two-hour classified meeting, he
says he told them the name of the informant. Part of the independent panel's mandate is to
investigate leads U.S. law enforcement may have missed before the terrorist attacks, which
killed 2,745 Americans. The 66-year-old Sarshar, who had Top Secret clearance when he left
the bureau in November 2002, also briefed congressional investigators in the Senate Hart
Building on Feb. 13. That meeting was not classified. Sources familiar with the briefing
say the FBI informant told two FBI agents from the Washington field office in April 2001
that his sources in Afghanistan had heard of an al-Qaida plot to attack America in a
suicide mission involving planes. Sarshar, fluent in Farsi, acted as an interpreter at the
meeting, held at a Washington-area residence. The asset, an Iranian immigrant who worked
in the shah's intelligence services, had been on the FBI's payroll for at least a decade,
and was considered reliable. He travels abroad and is said to maintain good Afghan
contacts. Iran shares its eastern border with Afghanistan. Both FBI agents took notes, and
the case agent who worked with Sarshar filed a report with his squad supervisor, Thomas
Frields. It's not clear if the information was teletyped to headquarters, however.
Frields, now retired from the bureau, says the case is too 'sensitive' to discuss. 'It
involves very sensitive matters that took place while I was an on-duty agent, and I have
absolutely nothing to say,' said Frields, reached at his Washington-area consulting
office. Two former colleagues described Frields as 'solid' and 'meticulous,' and said they
have no doubt he would have notified headquarters if he thought the information was
credible. The headquarters official in charge of counterterrorism at the time was FBI
assistant director Dale Watson, also retired and now working for the same consulting firm
as Frields. He did not return phone calls. Sarshar, who worked more than seven years for
the FBI, says he asked the Senate Judiciary Committee for immunity to testify about the
informant's tip and other FBI matters. He says the FBI warned him: 'If you talk about
these things, you'll be locked up.'.... It was [Sibel] Edmonds who coaxed Sarshar to brief
the 9-11 Commission. He met with investigators the day after she did. Her Feb. 11
classified briefing took place in a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented-information facility,
set up in commission offices on D Street. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean confirmed the
panel's meeting with Edmonds. 'We've had all her testimony and it's under investigation,'
he said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Also, Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton appeared to
confirm the panel's meeting with Sarshar the following day. 'We've talked to people she's
identified,' he said on the same show.... Sarshar says the commission has not contacted
him since his briefing. He says investigators indicated they'd call him back to testify
with the informant.... Sarshar, a political refugee from Iran who joined the FBI in 1995,
says he has testified seven times in federal court against FBI suspects, more than any
other translator on the Farsi board. He says his life was threatened once after testimony
he gave sealed a drug conviction. He also has worked on terrorism cases related to
Mujahedin el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian dissident group that has killed Americans. In Iran,
he was a colonel in the national police force under the shah, as well as president of
Iran's judo federation, until the 1979 revolution, when he was forced to flee the
country."
9-11 panel to probe FBI informant's
tip
WorldNetDaily,
6 April 2004
"A former
translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided
information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior
officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the
strikes happened. She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice,
that there was no such information was 'an outrageous lie'. Sibel Edmonds said she spent
more than three hours in a closed
session with the commission's
investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and
summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the
terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her
and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used 'state secrets
privilege'. She told The Independent yesterday: 'I gave [the commission] details of
specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific
managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back
and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can
be established very easily.'".
'I Saw Papers That Show US Knew
al-Qa'ida Would Attack Cities With Airplanes'
Independent (UK), 2 April
2004
"FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, was
offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not go public that she had
been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations
of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the
FBI and CIA. Edmonds, a ten year U.S. citizen who has passed a polygraph
examination, speaks fluent Farsi and Turkish and had been working part time with the FBI
for six months -- commencing in December, 2001.... Edmonds said 'Attorney General John
Ashcroft told me 'he was invoking State Secret Privilage and National Security' when
I told the FBI I wanted to go public with what I had translated from the pre 9-11
intercepts. I appeared once on CBS 60 Minutes but I have been silenced by Mr. Ashcroft,
the FBI follows me, and I was threatened with jail in 2002 if I went public.' .... Edmonds
said 'My translations of the pre 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering,
detailed and date specific information enough to alert the American people, and other
issues dating back to 1999 which I won't go into right now.' Incredibly, Edmonds said 'The
senate Judiciary Committee, and the 911 Commission have heard me testify for lengthy
periods of time time (3 hours) about very specific plots, dates, airplanes used as
weapons, and specific individuals and activities.'..... 'This whole situation is
outrageous and I am going public,' said Edmonds, adding 'I am currently being advised by
counsel. Thank you.'"
DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts
TomFlocco.com,
24 March 2004
"The top of the FBI continues to illegally refuse 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
has 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 now launched a lawsuit against
the FBI."
Iraqgate 2003 -
Dr Kelly and 'Operation Rockingham'
'Fight
Smart', 19 Oct 2003
"A 12-year veteran FBI agent is under
investigation for alleged insubordination following his appearances on ABCNEWS programs
and a recent press conference in Washington, D.C., in which he criticized the bureau's
efforts to combat terrorism, according to the agent's attorney. Special Agent Robert
Wright first went public last year on PrimeTime Thursday and told ABCNEWS Chief
Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross that he believes the FBI has failed to safeguard
the United States from terrorist attacks.... Wright began tracking terrorists in the
Chicago area in the mid-1990s for the Terrorism Task Force. He says he soon became
frustrated when he was ordered by his superiors at the FBI Intelligence Division not to
make any arrests of suspected terrorists. According to Wright, he was ordered to drop his
investigation into a suspected terror financier whose name had arisen during the
investigation into the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in 1998, in which
at least 224 people were killed. Wright is represented by Chicago attorney Dave Schippers
and attorneys for Judicial Watch in Washington, D.C. Judicial Watch issued a statement
Wednesday saying that 'Wright exposed FBI corruption and terrorist fund raising in
America, which the FBI ignored to this day. Rather than going after terrorists, the FBI is
seeking to destroy one of its loyal agents.'"
FBI Agent Probed After Criticizing Bureau
ABCNews,
12 June 2003
"Two veteran FBI investigators
say they were ordered to stop investigations into a suspected
terror cell linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the Sept. 11 attacks.... even
after the [1998 African embassy] bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests."
Called Off the Trail?
ABCNews,
19 Dec 2002
"There's so much more. God, there's
so much more. A lot more."
FBI agent, Robert Wright, who is also 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
"The
ex-police chief told [CIA
veteran and terrorism expert Bob] Baer that [Khalid Shaikh] Mohammed 'is going to hijack some planes.' The
ex-police chief said his basis for this was evidence developed by police and Qatari
intelligence... Baer sent this information [before 911] to a friend in the CIA
Counter-terrorist Center who forwarded the information to his superiors. Baer heard
nothing. 'There was no
interest,' he said.... After Pearl's murder
[for which Omar Sheikh has been unfairly tried and convicted], Baer said, he took his
information about Mohammed to the Justice Department, but again, as
with the agency, he never received a call nor did the department express any
interest." |
"I wonder why many questions are not
asked [about 911]?... Even investigative journalists are fed propaganda and
disinformation.... What has gone on, and goes on, in the name of intelligence services,
are true crimes... Whoever wants to understand the CIA's methods, has to deal with its
main tasks 'covert operations': below the level of war, and outside international law,
foreign states are to be influenced, by organizing insurrections, terrorist
attacks, usually combined with drugs and weapons trade, and money laundering."
Andreas von Bulow, former Cabinet
Minister to Helmut Schmidt of Germany, and state secretary Ministry of Defence
Der
Tagesspiegel, 13 January 2002
More Web Resources On The Sibel Edmonds Case - Click Here
| Hot Pakistan and 911 - The Mysterious Case of the Bush Administration, Lt General Mahmoud, Omar Sheikh and KSM - Click Here Hot |
911 Investigations - The Real Heroes
Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds'
Initial Allegations Of A Bush Administration 911 Cover-Up Who Are James Woolsey And Mansur Ejaz? - Click Here Some Key Unanswered Questions * Why is Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed not being tried for the murder of Daniel Pearl? * Why did the CIA
not show any interest in a pre-911 tip off from a one of its own former leading agents
that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was planning to hijack planes (below)? Fore More
Information In Relation To The Above Questions See "Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl was investigating the man who allegedly planned the Sept. 11 airplane
hijackings and attacks on New York and Washington when he was kidnapped and murdered in
Pakistan, according to two former Central Intelligence Agency officials. Bob Baer, a former case
officer in the agency's Directorate of Operations, said he provided Pearl with
unpublished information about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has since been accused by
American officials of being one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a
top aide to Osama bin Laden. Mohammed is currently the operational chief of al Qaida,
other U.S. intelligence officials said. Next to bin Laden, Mohammed is one of the most
wanted terrorists in the world. 'I was working with Pearl,' said Baer, who has written a
book about his time as a CIA official and has acted as a consultant and source for
numerous media outlets. 'We had a joint project. Mohammed was the story he was working on,
not Richard Reid.'... Shortly after Pearl's kidnapping and subsequent murder in Karachi,
Pakistan last winter, it was reported he was tracing the background of Reid, who was
seized on a Boston-bound American Airlines jet from Paris allegedly trying to ignite
explosive in his shoes. According to that account, [Pearl] had gone to Karachi to contact
a man called Sheik Mubarek Gilani
to get information on Reid. Baer said that instead Pearl was onto bigger and more
dangerous game. 'I urged him to go to Pakistan to look into Shaikh Mohammed.'....
Pakistani intelligence sources told UPI that Mohammed, the man Pearl was actually trying
to track down, also had links to Gilani and his party.... On July 15, an anti-terrorism court in the southern
Pakistani city of Hyderabad convicted four men for kidnapping and murdering Pearl. The
suspected ringleader, British-born Pakistani Ahmad Omar Saeed Shaikh, better known as
Shaikh Omar, was sentenced to death while three others were sent to jail for life.
Throughout the trial, Omar maintained that -- although he knew how and by who Pearl had
been killed -- he was not himself responsible.... According to Baer, he was first informed
of Mohammed's role as a key aide to terrorist mastermind bin Laden as early as December
1997 when he met a former police chief from Doha, Qatar, at a dinner in Damascus. In 1997,
Baer had left the agency to become a consultant in Beirut. Terrorism was Baer's field and
Baer began to meet the ex-Doha police chief from time to time.... The ex-police chief told
Baer that Mohammed 'is going to hijack some planes.' The ex-police chief said his basis
for this was evidence developed by police and Qatari intelligence.... Baer sent this information to a friend in the CIA Counter-terrorist Center
who forwarded the information to his superiors. Baer heard nothing. 'There was no
interest,' he said. Baer said he was frustrated and called
Pearl.... Baer said to his annoyance, Pearl did not begin to work on the story. Nothing
was done until the day of the Sept. 11 attacks when Pearl called to talk to Baer. Baer
said he gave Pearl all the old information he had and new information he had since
obtained -- for example, that there are files on Mohammed in the Qatari Embassy in London.
Baer said he and Pearl then 'began to work together' -- in other words, Pearl would get
info and check it out with Baer and Baer would feed Pearl what he was getting. It was 'a
joint project,' said Baer. Baer was giving direction, but Pearl's contacts were not
confined to Baer. After Pearl's murder, Baer said, he took
his information about Mohammed to the Justice Department, but again, as with the agency,
he never received a call nor did the department express any interest." Click here for full UPI report including disclosure that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the killer of Pearl not Omar Sheikh |
Clinton, Bush and Bin Laden In Former Yugoslavia - US Backed Islamic Terrorism In The Balkans - Click Here
| Hot Pakistan and 911 - The Mysterious Case of the Bush Administration, Lt General Mahmoud, Omar Sheikh and KSM - Click Here Hot |
"....the Bureau
[FBI] is being asked by the State Department not to pursue certain investigations or
certain people or certain targets of an investigation--simply citing 'diplomatic relations.' And what happens is, instead of targeting those people who
are directly related to these illegal terrorist activities, they just let them walk
free.... I have seen several, several top targets for these investigations of these
terrorist activities that were allowed to leave the country -- I'm not talking about
weeks, I'm talking about months after 9/11... I can tell you that there is so much involvement,
that if they did let this information out, and if they were to hold real
investigations--I'm not talking about this semi-investigation they're holding under this
'Joint Inquiry'--the pure show of the 9/11 Commission that has been getting the mass
media's attention. If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant
high level criminal prosecutions in this country..."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"During my work
there I came across some very significant issues that I started reporting in December of
2001 to the mid-level management within the FBI. They said to basically leave it alone,
because if they were to get into those issues it would end up being a can of worms. And
after I didn't see any response from this mid-level bureaucratic management I took it to
higher levels all the way up to [assistant director] Dale Watson and Director Mueller.
And, again, I was asked not to take this any further and just let it be. And if I didn't
do that they would retaliate against me..... In March 2002 I took this issue to the Senate
Judiciary Committee and also I filed it with the Department of Justice Inspector General's
office. And as per the Senate Judiciary Committee's request the IG started an expedited
investigation on these serious issues; and they promised the Senate Judiciary Committee
that their report for these investigations would be out by fall 2002 latest. And here we
are in April 2004 and this report is not being made public, and they are citing 'state
privilege' and 'national security' for not making this report public....Senator Hatch is
blocking this investigation from taking place and for this public hearing to be held by
the Senate Judiciary Committee....this issue is being covered up, and relentlessly being
covered up.... "
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"...
[We should be] putting the pressure on our representatives in the Senate and the Congress,
and the court system. They should be counter-acting this corruption, but they are sitting
there silent. And they are just an audience, just watching it happen. Senators
Leahy and Grassley and Hatch have the obligation to do that. It's not that they can choose
not to do it. They don't have that luxury. This needs to be demanded of them. People need
to pick up their phones. They need to write to these people and say, 'You'd better fulfill
your responsibilities.'.... I took Mr. Sarshar to
the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in Senator Grassley's office. Mr. Sarshar provided
them with detailed information, however, to this day Senator Grassley has not acted upon
that, and he passed the buck to the 9/11 Commission. Next we arranged for a briefing
between the 9/11 Commission and Mr. Sarshar, and he went there on February 12th, 2004 and
he provided the investigators for the 9/11 Commission, for almost three hours with all the
details of the investigation that had to do with the 9/11 terrorist attack. He gave them
the names of certain assets used by the Bureau for at least twelve years. He gave them
contact information for certain agents who were aware of these issues. And they,
themselves, wanted to come and talk about it, but they needed certain protection.
Mr. Sarshar provided them with all this information and where to look for these documents
etc. and, to this day, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the 9/11 Commission have been
passing this buck back and forth. So, all this information has been sitting in front of
them. They have not called any of those witnesses introduced by Mr. Sarshar to them. And
during the 9/11 Commission hearing with [FBI] Director Mueller, none of these questions
were asked. In fact they did not have any questions for Director Mueller, and they left it
at that [except for the remark by Mr. Ben-Veniste that they should be addressing the
translation issues behind closed doors.] And 'behind closed doors' has become a black hole
for me because I have been in these closed door sessions so many times within the Senate,
within the Inspector General's office, within the 9/11 Commission. And whatever
information you are providing them behind these closed doors, you know for sure that that
information will stay there and will never get out. That is why we are demanding to have
public hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Senate floor and open to the
public."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"... [due to
the gagging order] I cannot name any country. And I would emphasize that it's plural. I
understand the Saudis have been named because fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from
Saudi Arabia. However, the names of people from other countries, and semi-legit
organizations from other countries, to this day, have not been made public.... And
specifically with that and their ties to people here in this country today [I have been
gagged against]... [but] I can tell you that the issue, on one side, boils down to
money--a lot of money. And it boils down to people and their connections with this money,
and that's the portion [of the story] that... has not been mentioned to this day. Because
then it starts touching some people in high places.... this money travels. And you start
trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and
somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
"... I cannot
comment on that [the allegation that the transfer of money to Atta in conjunction with the
presence of Pakistan's ISI chief in Washington during the week of 911 is the missing
link]. But I can tell that once, and if, and when this issue gets to be, under real terms,
investigated, you will be seeing certain people that we know from this country standing
trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally.... At the very least, as early as May/June
2001, we could have issued a red code alert to the public, and we would have issued this
very urgent warning system, which would, in return, have increased our Airport and INS
security.... they had those four pieces [of information about the terrorists before
911].... and far more than that, believe me, far more than that. And that has not been
made public. And for them to say that we did not have any specific information is just
outrageous."
Sibel Edmonds Interview
Baltimore
Chronicle, 7 May 2004
To
Read Full Edmonds Interview With The Baltimore Chronicle |
Click here to read the questions Edmonds wanted the 911 Commission to ask FBI Director Robert Mueller
| Hot Pakistan and 911 - The Mysterious Case of the Bush Administration, Lt General Mahmoud, Omar Sheikh and KSM - Click Here Hot |
Does Sibel Edmonds Have More Information on 'Omar Sheikhgate'?
| JH [interviewer]: I understand why you can't say anything about this, but there are several
books out about the Bush ties to the Saudis and the bin Ladens in particular. And in David
Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor, [published
1 March 2004] there is a very good synopsis of the ISI, which is the Pakistani
intelligence service. He shows the direct connections between the CIA, the ISI, and
Mohamed Atta. He makes a very convincing case that the Pakistani ISI had been helping to
plan 9/11 for a long time. I don't imagine that you are allowed to say much about that. SE [Sibel Edmonds]: You are correct. But I can tell you that the issue, on one side, boils down to money--a lot of money. And it boils down to people and their connections with this money, and that's the portion that, even with this book, has not been mentioned to this day. Because then it starts touching some people in high places. ....JH: Let me read you a short quote from Dr. Griffin's book, quoting from War and Globalization: The Truth Behind September 11 by Michel Chossudovsky and ask you to comment on it. '...The transfer of money to Atta [$325,000], in conjunction with the presence of the ISI chief in Washington during the week, [is] the missing link behind 9/11....The evidence confirms that al-Qaeda is supported by Pakistan's ISI (and it is amply documented that) the ISI owes its existence to the CIA.' SE: I cannot comment on that. But I can tell that once, and if, and when this issue gets to be, under real terms, investigated, you will be seeing certain people that we know from this country standing trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally. |
Sibel
Edmonds Interview |
"Omar Sheikh is a British born and
educated Islamic militant who has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for the murder of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in early 2002. He almost certainly didn't do it.
This is confirmed by, amongst other reports, a United Press International newswire issued
last September which quotes Bob Baer, a former CIA case officer. Baer claims to hold
important details relating to the actual person believed to have carried out the crime [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]..."
The 911 Omar Sheik Files
Fight Smart, 2 January 2003
"Pakistani police sources tell
TIME that at least one witness says Pearl's throat was slit by a top al-Qaeda terrorist, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed..... Fazal Karim has
identified Mohammed as the man
who drew the knife across Pearl's throat, two men who participated in Karim's
interrogation tell TIME. Karim's testimony may weaken the government's case that [Omar] Saeed [Sheikh] was both ringleader of
the plot and Pearl's executioner... Despite this fresh evidence, Pakistani police working
on the Pearl case noticed a
distinct cooling in their superiors' interest..."
Who Killed Pearl?
TIME magazine, 3 Feb 2003
In February 2003, a
month after NLPWessex distributed its original research
on the Daniel Pearl murder case
over the internet via 'Fight Smart', TIME Magazine reported on its own
ground breaking investigation. TIME unearthed further evidence supporting a key element of
the 'Fight Smart' claim - the person who killed Daniel Pearl was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, not Omar Sheikh So why do Pakistan and America still want
British Citizen Omar Sheikh executed for the murder of Pearl - a crime it seems clear he
didn't commit? |
".... the corporate media are still largely sticking to the
demonstrably false Official Story of 911... So research into the events tends to be by
alternative sources. Dissidents believe that the blocking of FBI agents who could have
stopped the 911 plot was deliberate act of complicity by the Bush Junta whose popularity
and pre-existing invasion goals [of Afghanistan and Iraq] were given an enormous boost by success
of the attacks. Now the Natural Law Party has produced a
superb piece of research into the British connection [with] Al Qaida.... ex-MI5
employee David Shayler has demonstrated that MI6 was plotting
with elements linked to Al Qaida to assassinate Ghadaffi as late as the mid
nineties... These are not the only links between
Al Qaida and Bush/Blair..... the NLP has investigated the murder of [American]
journalist Daniel Pearl and highlights an astonishing fact:
The [British] Pakistani sentenced to death for the murder of Pearl,
Omar Sheikh, is the same Al Qaida contact who wired USD 100,000 to Mohammed Atta shortly
before 911 on the instructions of the head of Pakistani Intelligence General Mahmoud who
quietly resigned soon after. Astonishingly, Mahmoud on the days around the 911 attacks was
in a series of secret top level meetings in the White House and with hawkish senators on
Capitol Hill .... The NLP suspects that Pearl was murdered
because he was investigating the smoking gun USD 100,000 transaction and that Sheikh was framed for the murder to stop him talking... [A British
MP] has put down a question on the matter to the Foreign Office, which they have refused
to answer... The NLP research is to be found at
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATomarsheikhgate.htm
."
Ian Henshall, chair of INK the Alternative
Publishers umbrella group in the UK
and publisher of 911dossier.co.uk
Crisis Newsletter, 27 January 2003
"...while Omar
may have been our original target [in our search for Danny], in truth he's just one in a
massively complicated chain... ultimately he is a tool. But whose? It's become clear that Omar doesn't know where
Danny is. That's never been his role. He was the lure; others are the captors.... who is overseeing it all? Who pulls the strings?..."
'A Mighty Heart' by Mariane
Pearl, widow of Daniel
Virago
Press, 2003
| Hot Pakistan and 911 - The Mysterious Case of the Bush Administration, Lt General Mahmoud, Omar Sheikh and KSM - Click Here Hot |
"A top FBI counter-terrorism
official told the US Senate governmental affairs committee on Thursday that investigators
have 'traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan.'
John S Pistole, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division,
however, did not specify how those accounts in Pakistan were funded, or the role of
Pakistani elements. The Times of India first reported on October 10, 2001 that India told
the US that some $100,000 had been wired to the leader of the hijackers, Mahmud Atta, by British-born terrorist Ahmad Saeed Umar Sheikh. Indian authorities also told the US that
the trail led back from Sheikh to the then chief of ISI, Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad who was subsequently
forced to retire by Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf. The FBI had been provided with
the details, including Sheikh’s mobile numbers. But Pistole’s testimony is
silent on these issues.... The FBI has estimated the September 11 attacks cost between
$175,000 and $250,000. That money — which paid for flight training, travel and other
expenses — flowed to the hijackers through associates in Germany and the United Arab
Emirates. Those associates reported to Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, who managed much of the planning for the
attacks from Pakistan, US officials have said. The Bush Administration is being cagey
about declassifying 28 secret pages in a recent report on the 9/11 incident which
officials say outline connections between Saudi charities, royal family members and
terrorism. US authorities are silent about the role some Pakistanis may have played in the
conspiracy. The role of Sheikh and Lt Gen Ahmad has yet to see the light of the day. Sheikh, wanted for
kidnapping and terrorist conspiracy in India, has since been sentenced to death in
Pakistan for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl."
9/11 funds came from Pakistan, says FBI
Times
of India, 1 August 2003
Clinton, Bush and Bin Laden In Former Yugoslavia - US Backed Islamic Terrorism In The Balkans - Click Here
".... an official confirmation about
the discovery of the Pearl's body will derail the ongoing trial against Sheikh Omar and 10 other persons, earlier identified by
the police as [the] main accused in the kidnapping-cum-murder of Daniel Pearl... police
have yet to officially acknowledge this major breakthrough in the Pearl case [which is
managed from] the police's branch famously known as
the CIA - -- the Karachi police wing officially
assigned as the prosecutors in the Pearl case."
Pearl case cover-up leaves government clueless about new terrorist threat
The News (Pakistan), 23 May 2002
'Omar Sheikhgate'
Stop Press - May 2004
"....at least a dozen leading suspects in the kidnap and
murder of the 38-year-old journalist [Daniel Pearl] have been arrested, but have not been
charged or tried in connection with his death. Some have been accused of unrelated - and
mostly lesser - offences. The three most recently captured suspects have not yet been
charged, and their arrests have never been officially announced. The only cases brought so
far in connection with Pearl's death have been those against Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the
British-born al-Qaeda terrorist, who was convicted of kidnap and conspiracy to murder the
American journalist, and three others who played relatively minor roles in the kidnapping.
All were given life sentences for conspiracy to kidnap [except
for Sheikh who was given death sentence, 'Fight Smart'], but
are now appealing against their convictions in the country's high court. Pakistani
authorities are said to be reluctant to put the new suspects on trial lest their evidence
helps the first four win their appeals.... Investigators say
that senior officials in the Sindh police - the force responsible for Karachi - are
'petrified' that if militants arrested in the past year were tried for their part in
Pearl's murder, their earlier case against Omar Sheikh might unravel in the courts.' One official close to the investigation said: 'Even if these men
have admitted their roles in the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl, we simply cannot
charge them because of its impact on that earlier case.'..."
Daniel Pearl 'refused to be sedated before his throat was cut'
Daily
Telegraph, 9 May 2004
"Omar Sheikh...
has... been named as one of the key financiers of Mohammed Atta,
the pilot of one of the jets that hit the World Trade Centre on September 11."
Daily
Telegraph, 27 Jan 2002
Media References For Omar Sheikh - Click Here
"Originally thought to be pursuing an
aspect of the Richard Reid shoe bomber story it now seems more likely that Pearl was
delving deep into the workings of the ISI according to Pakistani journalists quoted by the
Times of
India 11 March..... But the story does not end with the
death of Daniel Pearl. Intriguingly it is
precisely the same man used by General Mahmoud to wire
money to 911 hijacker Mohammed Atta who has now been detained and tried for the murder of
Pearl. More importantly, however, this does not explain why this young man - Omar Sheikh -
was not previously detained when it became clear last October that he had wired $100,000
to Atta. This is a truly extraordinary circumstance given America's direct control over
Musharraf and the CIA's own links with the ISI. Why did the US government not insist on
Pakistan's detention of Sheikh once it became known that he was involved in the funding of
lead hijacker Atta? Why was he allowed to roam free in Pakistan when the country was America's principal Asian ally in the 'war against
terrorism'? Indeed, why is Sheikh still not being charged for his alleged involvement in
the 911 attacks now that he is finally detained?"
'The Special Relationship' - Armitage And The UK
National Security Adviser
What Did Britain Know About 911?
'Fight Smart', 28 August 2002
"If the 9-11
Commission is really looking for a smoking gun, it should look no further than at
Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Ahmad, the director of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at the time. In early October 2001,
Indian intelligence learned that Mahmoud had ordered flamboyant [British Pakistani] Saeed Sheikh - the convicted
mastermind of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl - to
wire US$100,000 from Dubai to one of hijacker Mohamed Atta's two bank accounts in
Florida.... Mahmoud's involvement in September 11 might be dismissed as only Indian
propaganda. But Indian intelligence swears by it and, the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed the whole story: Indian
intelligence even supplied Saeed's cellular-phone numbers. Nobody has bothered to check
what really happened. The 9-11 Commission should pose very specific questions about it to
FBI director Robert Mueller when he testifies this month. In December 2002, [Senator Bob]
Graham said he was 'surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved
in facilitating the activities of at least some of the [September 11] terrorists in the
United States ... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the
archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now.' He could not but be referring to Pakistan and Mahmoud. If Mahmoud was really
involved in September 11, this means the Pakistani ISI -'the state within the state' - knew all about it. And if the
intelligence elite in Pakistan
knew it, an intelligence elite in Saudi Arabia knew it, as well as an intelligence elite
in the US..... Million-dollar questions remain. Did Mahmoud know when and how the
attacks of September 11 would happen? Did Musharraf know? Could the Bush administration
have prevented September 11? It's hard to believe high echelons of the CIA and FBI were
not aware of the direct link between the ISI and alleged chief hijacker Mohammed Atta. On
October 7, Mahmoud was demoted from the ISI. By that time, Washington obviously knew of
the connection between Mahmoud, Saeed Sheikh and Mohamed Atta: the FBI knew it.... as Asia
Times Online has reported, Mahmoud did disappear. He lives in near seclusion in
Rawalpindi....The families of September 11 victims, US public opinion, the demonized
Islamic world, the whole world for that matter, all everybody wants to know is what really
happened on September 11.... The genie - the crucial information - is still in the bottle.
"
9-11 AND THE SMOKING GUN
Asia Times, 8 April
2004
".....why is Sheikh still not being
charged for his alleged involvement in the 911 attacks now that he is finally
detained?.... the execution of Sheikh would certainly be useful in dealing with the CIA's
problem of how to limit further investigation into any wider role it may have played in
the events surrounding 911 via its involvement with the ISI...... In this respect the
clamour from the Bush administration to spare Sheikh's life so that he can give evidence
as to General Mahmoud's and his own involvement in the transfer of 911 money to Mohammed
Atta is deafening by virtue of its total absence... Sheikh is a British born and educated
Pakistani. He is a British Citizen. But this has not
resulted in the British government securing an open trial for him....The possibility that
Sheikh has been framed (certainly he is an ideal candidate given his previous involvement
with militant groups) in order to engineer his execution cannot be discounted.... Given
the widespread culture of deception and lying uncovered within the British Foreign Office
during the Scott inquiry into
the UK's illegal supply of arms to Saddam Hussein, the
omens do not look good."
What Did Britain Know About 911?
'Fight Smart', 28 Aug 2002
Some Key Unanswered Questions * Why is Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed not being tried for the murder of Daniel Pearl? * Why did the CIA
not show any interest in a pre-911 tip off from one of its own former leading agents that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was planning to hijack
planes? Fore More
Information In Relation To The Above Questions See And Is The 911 Commission Going To Come Out With The Truth "Three professional staff members of
the United State's Independent National Commission investigating the Sept 11 terrorist
attacks to draw possible linkages are currently in Pakistan but their visit has been kept
under wraps, Dawn has learnt.... The three professional staff members of the 10-member
commission arrived here last week to meet officials in key government institutions and to
interview individuals that they deem relevant to their inquiry.... This is the first visit
by staff members of the high-profile commission to Pakistan since it was formed in late
2002. The members of the commission have already received some official briefings in
Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and have been travelling all over Pakistan. There has been no
official word about their arrival from either a government office or the US embassy in
Islamabad. None of the officials Dawn contacted were willing to even talk about the
visit." "Hoping to avoid partisan attacks, the
Sept. 11 commission has drafted a final report that avoids placing blame on individuals in
the Bush or Clinton administrations... The 10-member panel has been reviewing portions of
the draft, the bulk of which is a factual accounting of events, including intelligence
failures that could lead readers to conclude the attacks were preventable, four
commissioners told The Associated Press in separate interviews. A separate section
detailing the panel's recommendations remains under intense review... The bipartisan
panel's final report is due July 26. However, portions of it, dealing with factual
findings leading up to and including the attacks, already have been drafted and sent to
the White House for vetting .... The commissioners who spoke to the AP said the panel
wants to avoid blaming individuals to avert charges of partisanship that could undermine
their work. 'We're going to say everything we need to say, but there's not going to be a
political gotcha,' said Republican commissioner Slade Gorton, a former senator from
Washington. 'It's very important that it be factual and leave major conclusions to the
people of the United States...'" |
"Is there more to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
than meets the eye?" - By
Paul Thompson - Click
Here
Media References for Omar Sheikh - click here
| Hot Pakistan and 911 - The Mysterious Case of the Bush Administration, Lt General Mahmoud, Omar Sheikh and KSM - Click Here Hot |
Richard Armitage
Assistant Secretary of Defence, Bush-Reagan (Iran-Contra)
Administration
Deputy Secretary of State, Cheney-Bush (Iraqgate)
Administration
"Edmonds said she had heard the
details of the Afghan asset story in an unclassified meeting at the Capitol, but she
cannot talk about the specifics because of a Justice Department gag order that classifies
as secret what she has to say. She said, however, that 'there are a lot of
activities in the U.S. A lot of money . . . and these activities involve money laundering,
drugs, a support network for terrorism . . . people in high
places . . . [people] in the political arena.'"
This Made Ashcroft Gag
Village Voice, 25 May 2004
"So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say
it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear
the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have
throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities.
It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this
equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money
laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in
several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without
being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it
and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people
don't want to be traced back to this money." |
"In Chambliss' view governments often engage in smuggling
(arms and drugs), assassination conspiracies, terrorist acts,
and other crimes in order to further their foreign policy objectives....
In this section [of this University Course] we will examine the issue of state-organized
crime as it relates to the United States ... In recent years,
intelligence agencies in the United States have sought and received assistance from drug traffickers. While it is, of course, outrageously hypocritical
for a government waging a drug war against its own citizens
to seek assistance from drug traffickers, it is not surprising.... In the early 1970s, the
CIA and organized crime played a key role in establishing and operating the World Finance
Corporation, a Florida-based company involved in laundering drug
money and supporting terrorist activities (Lernoux,
1984).....There is precious little difference between those people who society designates
as respectable and law abiding and those people society castigates as hoodlums and thugs.
The world of corporate finance and corporate capital is as criminogenic and probably more
criminogenic than any poverty-wracked slum neighborhood.... In the everyday language of
the police, the press, and popular opinion, 'organized crime' refers to a tightly knit
group of people, usually alien and often Italian, that run a crime business structured
along the lines of feudal relationships. This conception bears little relationship to the
reality of organized crime today... "
CRJ 875: Crime and Public Policy
Module 9: State-Organized Crime as a Case Study Of
Criminal Policy
Gary
W. Potter, Professor, Criminal Justice and Police Studies
The Department of Criminal Justice and Police Studies
Eastern Kentucky University
"Narco-corruption in North America is
most significantly manifested in money laundering. Ninety-one percent of the $197 billion
spent on cocaine in the U.S. stays there, and American banks launder $100 billion of drug
money every year. Those identified as money laundering conduits include the Bank of
Boston, Republic National Bank of New York, Landmark First National Bank, Great American
Bank, People's Liberty Bank and Trust Co. of Kentucky, and Riggs National Bank of
Washington.... Investment houses such as Merrill Lynch and EF Hutton have also handled
millions of dollars in drug money (putting it in the New York bullion market).....
Narco-corruption in North America is widespread amongst public officials as well. Sixty
policemen in Miami have been identified as corrupt and 80 lawmen and public officials in
Georgia have been charged with serious offenses such as accepting bribes. A Georgia state
senator promised to protect drug smugglers if they contributed to his campaign for the
governorship. Thirty-two U.S. law enforcement officials including Customs agents have been
indicted for 'border-related corruption' which is 'systemic and pervasive' according to
the FBI. Two-thirds of the cocaine coming into the U.S. does so at official entry points
along the Mexican frontier. In Miami, three FBI agents and one from Customs were charged
with stealing $200,000 from drug dealers in 1994. A former senior Justice Department
official and two former prosecutors were indicted in June 1995 on charges of helping
Colombian drug barons in a criminal conspiracy. Kendall Coffey, the U.S. attorney
for Southern Florida, stated that the latter case showed 'the degree to which cocaine
profits have corrupted the legal system.' When the FBI tried to prosecute World Finance
Corporation (an international lending company) for laundering drug money, the Bureau
was reportedly informed by an Internal Revenue Service agent that 'WFC was a legitimate
company: if it dealt in drug money so much the better; narcotics money that stayed in the
U.S. was good for the economy.'"
THE CANADIAN CONNECTION:
Drugs, Money Laundering and Canadian Banks
Briarpatch, July/August 1997
"[In 2001] Pakistan and the United States have turned to
a tried and trusted 'friend' in their efforts to exert control over events in Afghanistan
- convicted Pakistani drug baron
and former parliamentarian, Ayub Afridi.... Without fanfare, Afridi was freed from prison in Karachi last Thursday after
serving just a few weeks of a seven-year sentence for the export of 6.5 tons of hashish,
seized at Antwerp, Belgium, in the 1980s. No reasons were given for Afridi's release..... It is a matter of record that
top US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials believed in the early 1980s that they
would never be able to justify a multibillion-dollar budget from the government to provide
support to the mujahideen in the fight against the Red Army. As a result, they decided to
generate funds through the poppy-rich Afghan soil and heroin production and smuggling to
finance the Afghan war. Afridi was the kingpin of
this plan.... "
US turns to drug baron to rally support
Asia Times, 5 Dec 2001
"Those who served in Southeast Asia
during the Vietnam War swear that indeed the CIA actively participated in drug running as
an 'off-the-books' way to finance the secret war in Laos. And, two decades later, similar
charges flew that the CIA used the same playbook in Central America to finance our support
for the Contras in Nicaragua
during a time when Congress refused to fund that effort. Six weeks ago here I quoted
various newspapers from the mid-1980s that carried the charge by Burmese Drug War Lord Kun
Sa against longtime CIA employee Richard Armitage - by name - that Armitage was directly involved in the drug trade and in importing the drugs into
the U.S. Armitage has always
denied these reports. Still, he is the only U.S. government employee I have ever heard of
who was specifically fingered by name in a drug charge. Despite these serious charges
– and with no investigation whatsoever - the US Senate last month confirmed Armitage as deputy secretary of state. Makes
you wonder how serious Washington really is about the War on Drugs, doesn’t it?"
Could the CIA Be Bringing Drugs Into
the USA?
NewsMax, 26 April 2001
"The
frustration has spread to the ranks of federal law enforcement. In October a U.S. Customs
officer wrote to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate subcommittee
on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, and complained that 'tons of
documents were not reviewed . . . and the CIA put a halt to certain investigative leads'
in a 1988 Florida inquiry that eventually led to the indictment of five mid-level B.C.C.I. officers. 'We had drug traffickers, money launderers, foreign government
involvement, Noriega and allegations of payoffs by B.C.C.I. to U.S. government political
figures. I will not elaborate on who these U.S.
government figures were alleged to be, but I can advise you that you don't have all of the
documents. Some were destroyed or misplaced.'.... Mazur, who led the undercover
sting operation that produced the first indictments of B.C.C.I. in 1988, quit the
agency to work for the Drug Enforcement Administration. He reportedly was disgusted over
the government's failure to pursue leads concerning secret B.C.C.I. ownership
of U.S. banks and alleged payoffs to U.S. politicians. Although Kerry has declined to
release correspondence from Mazur, sources who have
seen Mazur's allegations about a cover-up say they are political dynamite."
Too Many Questions
TIME, 11 Nov 1991
"Michael J. Hand, a Vietnam war hero and later a CIA agent in Asia, disappeared after his founding-partner of the Australian Nugan-Hand Bank was found dead. Four Australian government investigations produced voluminous reports that do little to clear up the mystery of a financial operation said to have become a 'giant theft machine.' Some of the Iran-Contra hearing's characters came under scrutiny: Gen. Richard Seco