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Sleeping With the Devil: How U.S. and Saudi Backing of Al Qaeda Led to 9/11

George Washington's picture




 

Front row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Willian Webster; Deputy Director for Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official, Milt Bearden at a Mujahideen training camp in North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1987. (source RAWA)

Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985 (Reagan Archives)

Preface: The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan – Lt. General William Odom - noted:

Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.

Odom also said:

By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.

(audio here). Background here.

This essay does not address any "inside job" theories for 9/11 or other terrorist attacks on America. Instead, it focuses on the fact that the virtually continuous U.S. backing of Al Qaeda terrorists since the late 1970s has led to blowback which has come back to bite us numerous times.

We Created Al Qaeda to Fight the Soviets in Afghanistan

Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted on CNN that the U.S. organized and supported Bin Laden and the other originators of “Al Qaeda” in the 1970s to fight the Soviets. Brzezinski told Al Qaeda's forefathers - the Mujahadin:

We know of their deep belief in god - that they're confident that their struggle will succeed. - That land over-there is yours - and you'll go back to it some day, because your fight will prevail, and you'll have your homes, your mosques, back again, because your cause is right, and god is on your side.

CIA director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirmed in his memoir that the U.S. backed the Mujahadin in the 1970s. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agrees:

MSNBC reported in 1998:

As his unclassified CIA biography states, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan after Moscow’s invasion in 1979. By 1984, he was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar - the MAK - which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war.   What the CIA bio conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified form, at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan’s state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA’s primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow’s occupation.   ***   The CIA, concerned about the factionalism of Afghanistan ... found that Arab zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans were easier to “read” than the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab volunteers might well prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least were one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, along with a small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East, became the “reliable” partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.   ***   To this day, those involved in the decision to give the Afghan rebels access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry continue to defend that move in the context of the Cold War. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, told my colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently.   “It was worth it,” he said.   “Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union,” he said.

Indeed, the U.S. started backing Al Qaeda's forefathers even before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. As Brzezinski told Le Nouvel Observateur in a 1998 interview:

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?Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.   ***   Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists? B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

The Washington Post reported in 2002:

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 ....

The Council on Foreign Relations notes:

The 9/11 Commission report (PDF) released in 2004 said some of Pakistan’s religious schools or madrassas served as “incubators for violent extremism.” Since then, there has been much debate over madrassas and their connection to militancy.   ***   New madrassas sprouted, funded and supported by Saudi Arabia and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, where students were encouraged to join the Afghan resistance.

And see this. Veteran journalist Robert Dreyfuss writes:

For half a century the United States and many of its allies saw what I call the “Islamic right” as convenient partners in the Cold War.   ***   In the decades before 9/11, hard-core activists and organizations among Muslim fundamentalists on the far right were often viewed as allies for two reasons, because they were seen a fierce anti-communists and because the opposed secular nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iran’s Mohammed Mossadegh.   ***   By the end of the 1950s, rather than allying itself with the secular forces of progress in the Middle East and the Arab world, the United States found itself in league with Saudi Arabia’s Islamist legions. Choosing Saudi Arabia over Nasser’s Egypt was probably the single biggest mistake the United States has ever made in the Middle East.   A second big mistake … occurred in the 1970s, when, at the height of the Cold War and the struggle for control of the Middle East, the United States either supported or acquiesced in the rapid growth of Islamic right in countries from Egypt to Afghanistan. In Egypt, Anwar Sadat brought the Muslim Brotherhood back to Egypt. In Syria, the United States, Israel, and Jordan supported the Muslim Brotherhood in a civil war against Syria. And … Israel quietly backed Ahmed Yassin and the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to the establishment of Hamas.   Still another major mistake was the fantasy that Islam would penetrate the USSR and unravel the Soviet Union in Asia. It led to America’s support for the jihadists in Afghanistan. But … America’s alliance with the Afghan Islamists long predated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and had its roots in CIA activity in Afghanistan in the 1960s and in the early and mid-1970s. The Afghan jihad spawned civil war in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, gave rise to the Taliban, and got Osama bin Laden started on building Al Qaeda.   Would the Islamic right have existed without U.S. support? Of course. This is not a book for the conspiracy-minded. But there is no question that the virulence of the movement that we now confront—and which confronts many of the countries in the region, too, from Algeria to India and beyond—would have been significantly less had the United States made other choices during the Cold War.

In other words, if the U.S. and our allies hadn’t backed the radical violent Muslims instead of more stable, peaceful groups in the Middle East, radical Islam wouldn’t have grown so large. Pakistani nuclear scientist and peace activist Perez Hoodbhoy writes:

Every religion, including Islam, has its crazed fanatics. Few in numbers and small in strength, they can properly be assigned to the “loony” section. This was true for Islam as well until 1979, the year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Indeed, there may well have been no 911 but for this game-changer.   ***   Officials like Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense, immediately saw Afghanistan not as the locale of a harsh and dangerous conflict to be ended but as a place to teach the Russians a lesson. Such “bleeders” became the most influential people in Washington .   ***   The task of creating such solidarity fell upon Saudi Arabia, together with other conservative Arab monarchies. This duty was accepted readily and they quickly made the Afghan Jihad their central cause.... But still more importantly, to go heart and soul for jihad was crucial at a time when Saudi legitimacy as the guardians of Islam was under strong challenge by Iran, which pointed to the continued occupation of Palestine by America’s partner, Israel. An increasing number of Saudis were becoming disaffected by the House of Saud – its corruption, self-indulgence, repression, and closeness to the US. Therefore, the Jihad in Afghanistan provided an excellent outlet for the growing number of militant Sunni activists in Saudi Arabia, and a way to deal with the daily taunts of the Iranian clergy.   ***   The bleeders soon organized and armed the Great Global Jihad, funded by Saudi Arabia, and executed by Pakistan. A powerful magnet for militant Sunni activists was created by the US. The most hardened and ideologically dedicated men were sought on the logic that they would be the best fighters. Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the Jihad.   American universities produced books for Afghan children that extolled the virtues of jihad and of killing communists. Readers browsing through book bazaars in Rawalpindi and Peshawar can, even today, sometimes find textbooks produced as part of the series underwritten by a USAID $50 million grant to the University of Nebraska in the 1980's . These textbooks sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm in Islamic militancy. They exhorted Afghan children to “pluck out the eyes of the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs”. Years after the books were first printed they were approved by the Taliban for use in madrassas - a stamp of their ideological correctness and they are still widely available in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.   At the international level, Radical Islam went into overdrive as its superpower ally, the United States, funneled support to the mujahideen. Ronald Reagan feted jihadist leaders on the White House lawn, and the U.S. press lionized them.

And the chief of the visa section at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (J. Michael Springmann, who is now an attorney in private practice) says that the CIA insisted that visas be issued to Afghanis so they could travel to the U.S. to be trained in terrorism in the United States, and then sent back to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

1993 World Trade Center Bombing

New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau believed that the intelligence services could and should have stopped the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, but they were preoccupied with other issues cover. As well-known investigative journalist Robert I. Friedman wrote in New York Magazine in 1995:

Shiekh Omar Abdel Rahman commands an almost deified adoration and respect in certain Islamic circles. It was his 1980 fatwa – religious decree – condemning Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel that is widely believed to be responsible for Sadat’s assassination a year later. (Rahman was subsequently tried but acquitted.)   ***   The CIA paid to send Abdel Rahman to Peshawar ‘to preach to the Afghans about the necessity of unity to overthrow the Kabul regime,’ according to Professor Rubin. By all accounts, Rahman was brilliant at inspiring the faithful.   As a reward for his services, the CIA gave the sheikh a one-year visa to the United States in May, 1990 – even though he was on a State Department terrorism watch list that should have barred him from the country.   After a public outcry in the wake of the World Trade Centre bombing, a State Department representative discovered that Rahman had, in fact, received four United States visas dating back to December 15, 1986. All were given to him by CIA agents acting as consular officers at American embassies in Khartoum and Cairo. The CIA officers claimed they didn’t know the sheikh was one of the most notorious political figures in the Middle East and a militant on the State Department’s list of undesirables. The agent in Khartoum said that when the sheikh walked in the computers were down and the Sudanese clerk didn’t bother to check the microfiche file.   Says one top New York investigator: ‘Left with the choice between pleading stupidity or else admitting deceit, the CIA went with stupidity.’   ***   The sheikh arrived in Brooklyn at a fortuitous time for the CIA. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s retreat from Afghanistan, Congress had slashed the amount of covert aid going to the mujaheddin. The international network of Arab-financed support groups became even more vital to the CIA, including the string of jihad offices that had been set up across America with the help of Saudi and American intelligence. To drum up support, the agency paved the way for veterans of the Afghan conflict to visit the centres and tell their inspirational war stories; in return, the centres collected millions of dollars for the rebels at a time when they needed it most.   There were jihad offices in Jersey City, Atlanta and Dallas, but the most important was the one in Brooklyn, called Alkifah – Arabic for ‘the struggle.’ That storefront became the de facto headquarters of the sheikh.   ***   On November 5, 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultra-right-wing Zionist militant, was shot in the throat with a .357 magnum in a Manhattan hotel; El-Sayyid Nosair was gunned down by an off-duty postal inspector outside the hotel, and the murder weapon was found a few feet from his hand.   A subsequent search of Nosair’s Cliffside Park, New Jersey home turned up forty boxes of evidence – evidence that, had the D.A.’s office and the FBI looked at it more carefully, would have revealed an active terrorist conspiracy about to boil over in New York.   ***   In addition to discovering thousands of rounds of ammunition and hit lists with the names of New York judges and prosecutors, investigators found amongst the Nosair evidence classified U.S. military-training manuals.   ***   Also found amongst Nosair’s effects were several documents, letters and notebooks in Arabic, which when eventually translated would point to e terror conspiracy against the United States. The D.A.’s office shipped these, along with the other evidence, to the FBI’s office at 26 Federal Plaza. ‘We gave all this stuff to the bureau, thinking that they were well equipped,’ says one source close to the D.A.’s office. ‘After the World Trade Centre, we discovered they never translated the material.’   According to other sources familiar with the case, the FBI told District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau that Nosair was a lone gunman, not part of a broader conspiracy; the prosecution took this position at trial and lost, only convicting Nosair of gun charges. Morgenthau speculated the CIA may have encouraged the FBI not to pursue any other leads, these sources say. ‘The FBI lied to me,’ Morgenthau has told colleagues. ‘They’re supposed to untangle terrorist connections, but they can’t be trusted to do the job.’   Three years later, on the day the FBI arrested four Arabs for the World Trade Centre bombing, saying it had all of the suspects, Morgenthau’s ears pricked up. He didn’t believe the four were ‘self-starters,’ and speculated that there was probably a larger network as well as a foreign sponsor. He also had a hunch that the suspects would lead back to Sheikh Abdel Rahman. But he worried that the dots might not be connected because the U.S. government was protecting the sheikh for his help in Afghanistan. *** Nevertheless, some in the D.A.’s office believe that until the Ryder van exploded underneath New York’s tallest building, the sheikh and his men were being protected by the CIA. Morgenthau reportedly believes the CIA brought the sheikh to Brooklyn in the first place....   As far as can be determined, no American agency is investigating leads suggesting foreign-government involvement in the New York terror conspiracy. For example, Saudi intelligence has contributed to Sheikh Rahman’s legal-defence fund, according to Mohammed al-Khilewi, the former first secretary to the Saudi mission at the U.N.

Friedman notes that intelligence agents had possession of notes which should have linked all of these terrorists, but failed to connect the dots prior to 1993. CNN ran a special report in 1994 called "Terror Nation? U.S. Creation?", which noted - as summarized by Congressman Peter Deutsch:

Some Afghan groups that have had close affiliation with Pakistani Intelligence are believed to have been involved in the [1993] New York World Trade Center bombings.

  ***

  Pro-Western afghan officials ... officially warned the U.S. government about Hekmatyar no fewer than four times. The last warning delivered just days before the [1993] Trade Center attack." Speaking to former CIA Director Robert Gates, about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Peter Arnett reports, "The Pakistanis showered Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with U.S. provided weapons and sang his praises to the CIA. They had close ties with Hakmatyar going back to the mid-1970's."

This is interesting because it is widely-acknowledged that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was enthusiastically backed by the U.S. For example, U.S. News and World Report says:

[He was] once among America's most valued allies. In the 1980s, the CIA funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and ammunition to help them battle the Soviet Army during its occupation of Afghanistan. Hekmatyar, then widely considered by Washington to be a reliable anti-Soviet rebel, was even flown to the United States by the CIA in 1985.

As the New York Times, CBS News and others reported, an FBI informant involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center begged the FBI to substitute fake bomb power for real explosives, but his FBI handler somehow let real explosives be used.


Bosnia

As professor of strategy at the Naval War College and former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer John R. Schindler documents, the U.S. supported Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda terrorists in Bosnia.

2001

As reported by Newsweek, the New York Times and others, an FBI informant hosted and rented a room to 2 of the 9/11 hijackers in 2000 while they were in the U.S., but then failed to stop them. Indeed, former counter-terrorism boss Richard Clarke theorizes that top CIA brass tried to recruit the hijackers and turn them to our side, but were unsuccessful. And – when they realized had failed – they covered up their tracks so that the FBI would not investigate their illegal CIA activities , “malfeasance and misfeasance”, on U.S. soil. (The Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 sought to interview the informant, the FBI refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken under orders from the White House.) One of the main trainers of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda worked at various times for the Green Berets, the CIA and the FBI. As former ABC News investigative reporter Peter Lance says (as summarized by Raw Story):

Ali Mohamed … was something of an al Qaeda super-spy who managed to work with terrorists, the Green Berets, the CIA and become an FBI informant, even while ensuring Osama bin Laden’s safe passage around the middle east.   ***   Mohamed … was actually responsible for writing portions of the terror network’s training manual and played a key role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa which left over 200 dead…   “He believes that chagrin over the fact that bin Laden’s spy stole top-secret intelligence (including, for example, the positions of all Green Beret and SEAL units worldwide) led to a decision on high to bury the entire Able Danger intelligence program, which identified the Al Qaeda cell active in Brooklyn months before the 9/11 attacks, and also identified Ali Mohamed as a member of bin Laden’s inner circle as early as March 2000.”

Bloomberg reported in 2006:

Mohamed trained terrorists how to hijack airliners, bomb buildings and assassinate rivals. He created al-Qaeda cells in the U.S., even helping with fund raising. He also arranged meetings between bin Laden and Hezbollah leaders and scouted bombing targets, including U.S. embassies in East Africa. What makes it all especially disturbing is that during much of this time Mohamed was a U.S. citizen, an operative for the CIA and FBI, and a member of the U.S. Army.   ***   Mohamed's initial infiltration of the U.S. military came in 1981 when, at the age of 29, he participated in an exchange program at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the Green Berets and Delta Force.   After returning to Egypt he was drummed out of that country's military because of his radical Islamic views. No matter. The CIA took him on in 1984, sending him to infiltrate a Hamburg mosque. There, Mohamed quickly blew his cover, resulting in his name being added to a watch list of suspected terrorists.   That still didn't stop Mohamed, who was allowed to re-enter the U.S. in 1985.   ***   He joined the U.S. Army a year later, which tookhim back to Fort Bragg, where his superiors were alarmed by his praise of the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. His radicalism did not lead to his dismissal, though. Instead, Mohamed was asked to share his views with officers so that they might better understand the Islamic way.   ***   He stole documents at Fort Bragg and fashioned them into a terrorism training manual, which he used to help bin Laden's personal security forces and countless terrorists. He also used his military credentials to take an unauthorized trip to Afghanistan, where he fought Soviet forces, a violation for which he was not disciplined.   After his military service ended, Mohamed did bin Laden's bidding on many other fronts, including scouting bombing targets such as U.S. embassies in East Africa. He was arrested in 1998 after his part in the plots was revealed, and pleaded guilty in 2000 to five counts of conspiracy.   ***   Mohamed is thought to be supplying information helpful to the U.S. government from an undisclosed prison cell, and at least one person thinks his final chapter has yet to be written.   David Runke, a defense attorney in the African embassies bombing case, says, ``I think the most likely thing that will happen is he'll be released, he'll be given a new name and a new identity, and he will pick up a life someplace.''

Rocky Mountain News noted in 2006:

Currently in U.S. custody, his whereabouts and legal status are closely guarded secrets, according to National Geographic Channel officials.

UC Berkeley Professor emeritus Peter Dale Scott is even less generous in regards to our government's failure to stop Mohamed:

It is now generally admitted that Ali Mohamed (known in the al Qaeda camps as Abu Mohamed al Amriki — “Father Mohamed the American”) worked for the FBI, the CIA, and U.S. Special Forces. As he later confessed in court, he also aided the terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, a co-founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and by then an aide to bin Laden, when he visited America to raise money.

 

The 9/11 Report mentioned him, and said that the plotters against the U.S. Embassy in Kenya were “led” (their word) by Ali Mohamed.

 

***

 

Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney who negotiated a plea bargain and confession from Ali Mohamed, said this in testimony to the Commission

Ali Mohamed. …. trained most of al Qaeda’s top leadership – including Bin Laden and Zawahiri – and most of al Qaeda’s top trainers. He gave some training to persons who would later carry out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing…. From 1994 until his arrest in 1998, he lived as an American citizen in California, applying for jobs as an FBI translator.

Patrick Fitzgerald knew Ali Mohamed well. In 1994 he had named him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the New York landmarks case, yet allowed him to remain free. This was because, as Fitzgerald knew, Ali Mohamed was an FBI informant, from at least 1993 and maybe 1989. Thus, from 1994 “until his arrest in 1998 [by which time the 9/11 plot was well under way], Mohamed shuttled between California, Afghanistan, Kenya, Somalia and at least a dozen other countries.” Shortly after 9/11, Larry C. Johnson, a former State Department and CIA official, faulted the FBI publicly for using Mohamed as an informant, when it should have recognized that the man was a high-ranking terrorist plotting against the United States.

 

[I]n 1993 Ali Mohamed had been detained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada, when he inquired at an airport after an incoming al Qaeda terrorist who turned out to be carrying two forged Saudi passports. Mohamed immediately told the RCMP to make a phone call to the United States, and the call secured his release. We’ve since been told that it was Mohamed’s West coast FBI handler, John Zent, “who vouched for Ali and got him released.”

 

This release enabled Ali to go on to Kenya, take pictures of the U.S. Embassy, and deliver them to bin Laden for the Embassy bombing plot.

 

In August 2006 there was a National Geographic Special on Ali Mohamed. We can take this as the new official fallback position on Ali Mohamed, because John Cloonan, the FBI agent who worked with Fitzgerald on Mohamed, helped narrate it. I didn’t see the show, but here’s what TV critics said about its contents:

 

Ali Mohamed manipulated the FBI, CIA and U.S. Army on behalf of Osama bin Laden. Mohamed trained terrorists how to hijack airliners, bomb buildings and assassinate rivals. [D]uring much of this time Mohamed was …, an operative for the CIA and FBI, and a member of the U.S. Army. …Mohamed turned up in FBI surveillance photos as early as 1989, training radical Muslims who would go on to assassinate Jewish militant Meir Kahane and detonate a truck bomb at the World Trade Center. He not only avoided arrest, but managed to become an FBI informant while writing most of the al Qaeda terrorist manual and helping plan attacks on American troops in Somalia and U.S. embassies in Africa.

 

That Mohamed trained al Qaeda in hijacking planes and wrote most of the al Qaeda terrorist manual is confirmed in a new book by Lawrence Wright, who has seen US Government records. Let me say this again: one of al-Qaeda’s top trainers in terrorism and how to hijack airplanes was an operative for FBI, CIA, and the Army…

 

Within days of 9/11 Cloonan rushed backed from Yemen and interviewed Ali, whom the Feds had allowed to slip into witness protection, and demanded to know the details of the plot. At that point Ali wrote it all out – including details of how he’d counseled would-be hijackers on how to smuggle box cutters on board aircraft and where to sit, to effect the airline seizures.

If all these latest revelations about Ali Mohamed are true, then:

 

1) a key planner of the 9/11 plot, and trainer in hijacking, was simultaneously an informant for the FBI.

 

2) This operative trained the members for all of the chief Islamist attacks inside the United States – the first WTC bombing, the New York landmarks plot, and finally 9/11, as well as the attacks against Americans in Somalia and Kenya.

 

3) And yet for four years Mohamed was allowed to move in and out of the country as an unindicted conspirator. Then, unlike his trainees, he was allowed to plea-bargain. To this day he may still not have been sentenced for any crime.…

 

All three had been trained by Ali Mohamed back in the late 1980s at a rifle range, where the FBI had photographed them, before terminating this surveillance in the fall of 1989.

 

The U.S. Government was thus in an excellent position to arrest, indict, and convict all of the terrorists involved, including Mohamed…

While this post does not address any "inside job" theories, there is evidence that intelligence services made other priorities - perhaps 1) covering up their previous backing of Al Qaeda, 2) trying to turn Al Qaeda operatives to our side, or 3) reserving the possibility of using them in future missions in other parts of the world - more important than capturing and disrupting Al Qaeda leadership:

  • A high-level military intelligence officer says that his unit – tasked with tracking Bin Laden prior to 9/11 – was pulled off the task, and their warnings that the World Trade Center and Pentagon were being targeted were ignored
  • The CIA may have helped many of the 9/11 hijackers get their visas to the U.S.

Nothing Has Changed ... We're STILL Backing Terrorists to Carry Out Geopolitical Goals

If you assume that this is ancient history, remember that:

  • The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are currently supporting Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria (see this, this and this)
 

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Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:39 | 2765738 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

No, Cvl, that is not what's happening at all. The first person to post was last (last time I checked), and I was second, and mine went to second to last. Look carefully at the time stamps.

I know what I'm talking about (this time). Thanks for the props, though.

The primary posts (w/out discussions) are far left. Look at the time stamps. The discussions go indented, to the right, of the posts to which they respond. I know that ZH sometimes does this b/c I was told, once before, that it would happen to me b/c I corrected grammar. This time, I criticized a ZH icon, apparently. Either that, or the management is a part of the spin, or they just don't like negative comments? Look carefully at my "big yawn" post and the other one by another poster after that (which should be before mine b/c it was first). I understand how the conversation thing works, but there were no "earlier comments." I'm sorry, but you are mistaken.

I do enjoy the "Clampdown" reference. Rock on.

911 truth is important. Someone at ZH either disagrees or is deflecting criticism. Again, no need to trust me: Just look carefully at the time stamps, and think for yourself.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:43 | 2765748 CvlDobd
CvlDobd's picture

Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye on the comments now.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:29 | 2765711 Centurion9.41
Centurion9.41's picture

Georgie,

I hear you are an "inside the beltway" guy of some repute.

Well, if so your pieces like this one help explain why things are so f'd up.

EVERYONE knows the US/West make alliances w/ those they'd rather not - for OBVIOUS reasons.

And yea, the US & Saudi Arabia f'd many of the freedom fighters who traveled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets; yea, they're still understandably pissed at the US for it.; and yea it was wrong.

But here's the thing Georgie. 

Radical Islam, Al Qaeda being just one sub-group, has as its stated goal, repeated many times, of destroying the "west", Israel, Christianity and you Georgie.

The fact is you can throw around as fact all your "sources who said" hearsay. 

But it doesnt change the truth, and it ignores the fact, that the destruction of the West/Christianity/Israel is their fundamental goal and reason for action.

Everything else is mere fodder for obfuscation and propaganda.

Congratulations for helping them Georgie;

and for confusing a bunch of well intentioned ZH'rs who think they are well educated ~ but are not.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:42 | 2765745 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

You fail to realize that the young people are a great influence in nations where modernization has yet to occur.  Especially thanks to the internet which opens up a wealth of information to them.  What may have been a radical idea a decade ago is not today simply because the young people now have a say in it.

You seem to suggest that every one of "them" want to destroy "us" and the solution is to "destroy them first." 

That bloody nightmare is possibly the solution of the weak and lazy mind.

Empowering these groups with media attention only gives them more strength.  The games the govt agencies play in their ploys to overthrown unsupportive leadership is a temporary solution and costly as it appears modern warfare includes destroying lives of innocent bystanders and entire infrastructures.

You'll never kill them all.  That's what I am saying.  And why would you?  There are good and bad in every nationality and when there comes a time to stand up against tyranny, it should be the people under the tyrant who do it, not some neighborning nation who has "interests" in the region.

Generalizing today, especially when we have so many avenues accessible to see what is truly going on, is absurd.  If not, I could say there are some web sites I have visited, forums I have perused that surely want to destroy "us" and it is from the middle east but it is not whom you refer to. 

Most people want a job, a home and the ability to raise their family, possibly retire comfortably and watch grandbabies play.  Hard concept to grasp but that is because it's a dirty little secret. 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 23:21 | 2766889 Centurion9.41
Centurion9.41's picture

"You seem to suggest that every one of "them" want to destroy "us" and the solution is to "destroy them first."

LoL  I said NOTHING about destroying them 1st. 

But your assumption does say EVERYTHING one needs to know about your intelligence and reading comprehension.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:43 | 2765742 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Take a look at this (pages 1-4), soldier ... U.S. support for radical Islam actually goes way back.  Indeed, we were instrumental in CREATING it in the first place.

Thanks for playing.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 23:17 | 2766880 Centurion9.41
Centurion9.41's picture

Georgie, you are an IDIOT.  And yes, I read the four pages; it confirmed it. 

The US didnt create Mohamed, did it? 

You dont scare me.

What scares me is how many of the young ZH'rs who have received extremely poor PC based educations are seduced by the BS you and others weave.

It doesnt matter that the US supported radical Islam back in the 50s-80s; the US supported them and anyone who was against the USSR. 

Do you see any of those other groups advocating the destruction of the US, West, Christianity and anyone else who does not kneel down on a prayer mat?  No.

But morons like you want to blame the US for folks who are screwed up.

I bet you are a lib/progressive who thinks the reason thieves steal is because somebody bought something.

Thanks for playing Georgie.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 00:11 | 2766980 Element
Element's picture

 

 

" ... But it doesnt change the truth, and it ignores the fact, that the destruction of the West/Christianity/Israel is their fundamental goal and reason for action. ..."

 

That is complete garbage.

Australia, a nominally Christian Western country, coexists with the World's largest Muslim country Indonesia, and we really don't have a problem with each other, have close economic and security links, help each other where we can when ever necessary.  Indonesia's a welcoming place and good place for a holiday.  We are also close friends with Malaysia, another peacefully disposed Muslim country, that's more then happy to maintain good relations.  They don't act aggressively at all toward the west.

You are spreading generalised lies and distortions, based on prior antagonisms, sanctions, starvation, withholding of medicines, attacks, no-fly-zones, multiple invasions, endless arming of Israel and supporting its behaviours, and the US/NATO hegemony in the Middle East.  All based justifications via the 9-11 event logics and WMDs.  

Consequently they have a perfectly understandable desire to kick Western powers out, by any means possible, Just like Indonesia and Vietnam did, and live free of Western 'Christian'-zionist threats, bombardments, resource stealing, destroying of culture and endless bastardry by small-minded brain-wash ignorant persons such as yourself.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:26 | 2765706 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

All you needed to stop 911 is unbreachable airplane cabin doors... like we have Now. We were asking for it is my view.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 19:41 | 2766308 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

The planes were probably flown by remote control. Such conspirators leave little room for error. Doors would not have fixed that.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:49 | 2765589 Mad Mad Woman
Mad Mad Woman's picture

PS.....................great article GW!!

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:19 | 2765684 flattrader
flattrader's picture

Is the fact that the US funded Bin Laden (and what became Al Qaeada) somehow new information to some people???

This info is almost two decades old...to anyone who has been paying attention and more than a decade old when it was first widely reported by the MSM after 9/11...seriously.

Is this surprising to many???  It's called BLOWBACK.

Honestly, George W. write about something new.

A Fukushima update would be more useful.  That situation continues to deterioarte deteriorate by the hour and by every 4.0 to 5.0 earthquake.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:24 | 2765703 George Washington
Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:31 | 2765716 Centurion9.41
Centurion9.41's picture

Georgie, you're a number 1 through 15 rolled up in a pig blanket.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:48 | 2765586 Mad Mad Woman
Mad Mad Woman's picture

And the US funds these rebels until someone in the CIA or the administration says they have achieved their objective and cut off the funds for anything else for the rebels. Charlie Wilson was right in saying that if the CIA and the US had helped the Afghans rebuild their county after the Soviets left, we wouldn't have this Taliban/al Queda problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/politics/11wilson.html

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:16 | 2765678 johnQpublic
johnQpublic's picture

pawn to kings knight 6

 

 

its all just chess to the rich and overly powerful

there is always method and strategy in play

the game is still on..........

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:42 | 2765567 Mad Mad Woman
Mad Mad Woman's picture

A large part of the US supporting the Afghans & others was part of US Rep. Charlie Wilson's "war".  He was instrumental in getting a lot of money for the rebels at that time during the late 70's & 80's.

Seems the US always picks the wrong groups to fund. Poor track record. What I find simply astounding & bizare is paying alQueda money for protection so our convoys make it through Pakistan and into Afghanistan safely. WTF??

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:53 | 2765614 dugorama
dugorama's picture

Really, it's much simplier than all this.  Just ask the one question: why did WTC #7 collapse?  No plane hit it, no debris fell on it, it happened hours later, there was no fire first, it was on camera.  Why did WTC#7 fall?

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:52 | 2765775 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

Debris DID hit it, and there was fire there first.

Neither the debris nor the fire could have caused the collapse, though, especially at freefall speed.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:39 | 2765551 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Great article GW, thanks

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:33 | 2765534 RiotActing
RiotActing's picture

The Taliban is the CIA, and I dont need to read all this crap to know it either...

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:05 | 2765449 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Everything GW says on this issue concerning Taliban creation is true; it goes back to President Zia days; remember Zia and Hekmatyar Gulbuddin, the original taliban model?

It may have led to the demise of Gen ZIA subsequently, when the CIA told him to drop his Hekmatyar connection, now an anti US renegade, pro Iran ally in 1987-1988, but Zia refused. It was suspected they ordered it and it was never elucidated. This is a very old collusion between ZIa and CIA, as he was handpicked to become Bhutto's chief of staff in 1971, when Butto came to power. Zia had been the man who chased Arafat from Jordan in September 1970. He was there with the PAK battalion to fight Palestinian insurgents, jointly financed by CIA/Saud kingdom to help distressed ally King Hussain of Jordan.  

Black September in Jordan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So "our man in Pakistan" became a renegade in 1988, maybe principally because of the rankling nuclear issue which riled the USa bad, but by then the Taliban movement had been created since 1979 paid by the Saudis and CIA and trained by the CIA/ISI to fight soviet presence in Afghan.

The Cia has the habit of dropping its old allies like a piece of dirt. It always hurts this hubris. 

Complicated and dirty world, the CIA/ISI/Pak army/Taliban cabal. 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:04 | 2765448 docj
docj's picture

As someone who tries to actually practice the Papist brand of Catholicism I'm often asked by non-Papists - often trying to get me to admit that my religion "makes no sense" - 'why God let's "bad things" happen to "good people"?' I used to answer that "He has His reasons, and who am I to question them?"

But recently I've come-around to what I believe a more inspired answer - that perhaps God understands, and more importantly accepts, The Law of Unintended Consequences far, far better than we mere mortals can ever hope to.

I'm also starting to think there is a similar rationalle for an isolationist foreign policy, as well.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:17 | 2765483 Seorse Gorog fr...
Seorse Gorog from that Quantum Entanglement Fund. alright_.-'s picture

To get the correct answers, you have to ask the correct question. The question is 'Why do people let bad things happen to good (and bad) people?' The answer is in human nature. The answer is within us, not without.

 

I think Frinky would agree. hoyven mavin!

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:19 | 2765686 johnQpublic
johnQpublic's picture

the true question is: how can i profit the most and for how long?

 

if god was in play and asking the question it would be : flood or fire?

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:34 | 2765341 petridish
petridish's picture

And the insane American jihad against Russia in pursuit of American hegemony continues today using Islamic militancy and terrorism and Al Quaeda:

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/09/04/the-republicans-cross-the-rubicon-paul-craig-roberts/

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:49 | 2765382 JOYFUL
JOYFUL's picture

one small correction... that insane American jihad against Russia is in pursuit of Sionist hegemony...they have to take Rus down or the whole plan goes up in smoke...Merikans just pay the bill. 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:33 | 2765336 cranky-old-geezer
cranky-old-geezer's picture

 

 

What?  Another 9/11 rehash?

We just passed $16 trillion federal debt, Bernanke's talking about open-ended QE, ECB fixing to print and buy every piece of paper under the sun, massive hyperinflation coming, and GW does a(nother) rehash of 9/11 stuff everybody already knows? 

On a FINANCIAL site, the biggest independent financial site on the entire freikin internet?

The real question is WHY is GW still on this site as a contributor?

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:49 | 2765351 George Washington
George Washington's picture

As the Brooking Institution reported, Americans believe that the government overreacted and overspent in reaction to 9/11:

These are a summary of findings of a new poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.

***

Six in ten Americans believe that that the United States weakened its economy by overspending in its responses to the 9/11 attacks.

They are right ... the "war on terror has bankrupted America 

The gov has been using national security laws to protect big companies (more) and hurting the investor.

Relevant?

 

 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:41 | 2765555 I am on to you
I am on to you's picture

Your doing, a fantastic job ,George. W,sadly ,America needs millions of your kind to end this crimesyndicate,called the Us goverment=Coporate Governance,i plain words!

And for anyone saying(under the ,Aluminium cooked brain) its not connected to Economy,is just Plain Idio,ocracy.

Its like saying, No Wachovia didnt do that,Hbsc didnt either,Libor dont excist,the Cia didnt smugle those drugs,Kissinger dont have a German accent,Brezinski is not a stoog,Tonkin didnt happend,Itt was not involved in The Brasilian dictatorship,Lula(the shoeshineboy) didnt study at John Hopkins,no he drank there:

Not about economy?Economy(read Power) is what its all about!!

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:50 | 2765392 cranky-old-geezer
cranky-old-geezer's picture

 

 

Don't hand me that bullshit.  You're all about govt conspiracies and shit like that.  Then when someone points out how OFF TOPIC you are, you trot out some weak "oh yea, it had an effect on the economy too".

You and your crap belong on Alex Jones or some other nonsense conspiracy site like that, not on ZeroHedge.

Why you haven't been kicked off this site is the real question.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 23:50 | 2766945 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

sorry someone's point of view doesn't match your world

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:11 | 2765474 Seorse Gorog fr...
Seorse Gorog from that Quantum Entanglement Fund. alright_.-'s picture

Good one... poor old GW is trapped between a Cranky Old Geezer and a Clash Fan. Can't please all the people all the time.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 21:57 | 2765504 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

Yeah, and should he stay or should he go? COG is not even worth responding to.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 13:57 | 2765144 George Washington
George Washington's picture

To everyone who says I don't go far enough by not discussing demolition, Israel, etc.:  I LOVE it when people attack me for not being radical enough!

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 17:02 | 2765801 alien-IQ
alien-IQ's picture

Do you honestly believe that Israel had no involvement or do you just choose to exclude them from this topic because you realize that Israel is the "third rail" for American politicians and journalists?

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:58 | 2765792 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

Speaking of demolition, here is the excellent documentary by the Architects And Engineers For 911 Truth that aired on Colorado Public TV recently:

 

http://video.cpt12.org/video/2270078138 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 23:44 | 2766670 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

yes, they've done some of the most important work in this adventure. Pilots for 911 have done some good stuff too. Solving this crime takes the OBJECTIVE input of military, flight, physics, architecture, engineers, fire, criminal investigation, and a host of others. Thank God there are some ethical folks left to tell the truth.  But just tower 7 alone and the BBC announcement 15 mins early should say a lot.  

Also think its interesting that for all the camera footage immediately seized after the pentagon was punctured with that small hole, why the only footage they could possibly release to settle this fuss is one second that only raises more questions.  

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:14 | 2765242 Azannoth
Azannoth's picture

GW you might be very well meaning but you simply either don't grasp how deep this story goes or do it on purpose.

You simply could not have had a 9/11 without people at the Presidential level actively being involved, stupidity and incompetence might explain Bush

but not the 1000's of people who's job was to prevent this from happening and who all suddenly and spectacularly failed at their basic tasks at the most critical moment.

Knowingly or unknowingly you end up as a government apologist here because you accuse them only of incompetence instead of cold blooded murder which they are guilty of

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 18:40 | 2766093 Element
Element's picture

Looking dumb, incompetant and an oblivious stumble-bum is an old trick that's used by politicians everywhere.

Classic case: Ronald Reagan, Iran-Contra hearings ... "I don't recall", ad-infinitum

Dumb unaware people don't make it in combat fighter-jet training, it requires brains, situational-awareness and fluid co-ordination.  rememeber how he ducked that shoe thrown at him?

 

In November 1970, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, commander of the 111th Fighter Squadron, recommended that Bush be promoted to First Lieutenant, calling him "a dynamic outstanding young officer" who stood out as "a top notch fighter interceptor pilot." He said that "Lt. Bush's skills far exceed his contemporaries," and that "he is a natural leader whom his contemporaries look to for leadership. Lt. Bush is also a good follower with outstanding disciplinary traits and an impeccable military bearing."[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy

 

Bush is aware, alert and knows exactly what he does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IRsztkpksdo

 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 19:39 | 2766302 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

Nice to agree w/you.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:29 | 2765323 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Azannoth: can you back up what you say with facts?  For example, can you document using a 5-minute Google search your allegations that:

  • Interceptor jets fly MUCH faster than commercial airlines?
  • Normal air defense protocols call for "scrambling" fighter jets to intercept hijacked craft?
  • Cheney was in charge of all counter-terrorism operations on and in the months leading up to 9/11?

Please put up or stand down ...

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 16:34 | 2765727 Centurion9.41
Centurion9.41's picture

>>> "Azannoth: can you back up what you say with facts?"<<<

That has to be about the funniest & most pathetic thing you've ever said Georgie.

You, a man of facts and letters...

What a joke.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:09 | 2765466 aerojet
aerojet's picture

Are you agreeing or disagreeing?  I still maintain that there were many oddities about the response to the hijacked planes--the exercises taking place that day that confused the shit out of those whose job it is to respond could not tell if they were hearing activity related to the planned exercise or to the real thing.  That alone makes me think it had to be some kind of intelligence operation underlying 9/11. 

The fighter jets are another story.  Before 9/11, the US did have fighters on alert ready to go, but they were designed around intercpeting Russian bombers, not commercial airliners.  Then again, the response to that Payne Stewart Learjet incident in 1999 makes me think that the Air Force should have been right on top of those hijacked planes.

 

 

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 17:53 | 2765940 New_Meat
New_Meat's picture

"... the US did have fighters on alert ready to go, but they were designed around intercpeting Russian bombers, not commercial airliners. ..."

and targeting short slant-range Soviet boomers off the coast.  See e.g. the "Pave Paws" (gigawatt, steered beam radar) aboard Camp Edwards in MA (Cape Cod, just south of the Sagamore rotary /Route 6).  Job was to put a nuke into the water near the sub and get the remaining 20+ missiles.

And, no, posse comitatus in effect, then there was no way that the F-15s out of Edwards (now Chicopee) could have scrambled (5 min strip alert), closed, and the poor bastards flying a surprise mission would have shot down a civilian flight until they eyeballed the intent.  But there was no time to close, even at Mach.

GW doesn't do physics, so he can't comprehend that the civilian aircraft can do Mach 0.87 or so (~630 mph air speed) vs. Mach 2+ for the iggle.

- Ned

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 21:54 | 2766701 Clashfan
Clashfan's picture

There were several "drills" going on that day. And jets were scrambled out over the ocean?

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:20 | 2765502 Seorse Gorog fr...
Seorse Gorog from that Quantum Entanglement Fund. alright_.-'s picture

No proof, no mention.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 14:50 | 2765388 Azannoth
Azannoth's picture

Not sure if that's a question or a statement because if it's a statement than I agree

What is not in doubt is that all of this was Ordered by the Presidential circle to Stand Down or misleading orders where given to delay any effective response.

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:03 | 2765443 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Google, baby!

Wed, 09/05/2012 - 23:39 | 2766932 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

combat jets do fly much faster than commercial jets - and they tend to do that when intercepting an "official" hijack - except on that day - they also tend to fly to the right location -except on that day - and they tend to not be confused by all the false blips on the radar screens - except on that day

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