- America Betrayed: Bush Administration And FBI
Complicity In
The 911 Terror Attacks On America
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- The September 11 attack on America was planned, coordinated,
and carried out under the watchful eyes and with the helpful assistance
of top officials in the FBI, CIA, and Bush Administration--officials who
did everything in their power to insure that the operation would be a spectacular
triumph unequaled in the world of terrorism and political opportunism.
As planned, the mass murder of over 3,000 Americans, transformed an inept,
seemingly incompetent president into a war time leader, possibly insuring
his reelection and a Republican resurgence and power grab.
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- As expected, the gamble paid off handsomely.
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- Despite their claims of having been taken unawares and
with complete surprise, top officials in the FBI, CIA, and Bush administration,
knew with almost absolute certainty that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were
planning to launch a major attack on the United States before the end of
2001 and that five-man hijacking teams would commandeer American commercial
jetliners and crash them, kamikaze style, into the twin towers of the World
Trade Center and Pentagon. Government and Bush administration officials
not only knew in advance, they welcomed the attacks, which is why these
same officials conspired to sabotage the efforts of FBI field agents who
were on the verge of uncovering the 9/11 plot.
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- Top officials in the United States government had in
fact known about the plot since 1995 when they received a warning from
Philippine officials who informed them that bin Laden associates were undergoing
flight training in the U.S. Terrorists were planning to crash hijacked
airliners into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, U.S. officials
were told.
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- In 1995 and 1996, the FBI also learned that al-Qaeda
associate, Abdul Hakim Murad and two other men, had received flight training
at four different flight schools in the U.S. during the early 1990s: Coastal
Aviation, Richmor Aviation, Schenectady flight school and Alpha Tango Flying
Services in San Antonio. Murad was in fact recruited by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef,
the bin Laden operative who had plotted and carried out the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing. Murad was subsequently convicted of plotting to crash
a suicide plane into CIA headquarters and blow up a dozen U.S. commercial
jetliners over the Pacific.
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- Specifically, in addition to the World Trade Center bombing,
it was determined in 1996, that Yousef and Murad had been plotting to train
and deploy five-man terrorist teams who were to infiltrate and bomb 12
different commercial jetliners, including Northwest Airlines, Delta Air
Lines, and United Airlines, some of which were to be crashed into U.S.
cities, including New York and Washington.
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- U.S. government prosecutors described the plot as "one
of the most hideous crimes anyone ever conceived."
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- In October of 1996, FBI agents in Phoenix were also informed
by an undercover agent, Harry Ellen, that a number of Arab extremists at
a local mosque were receiving aviation training. Ellen was alarmed and
informed the Phoenix office "that it would be terrible if the bad
guys were able to gain this kind of access to airplanes, flight training
and crop dusters. You really ought to look at this, it's an interesting
mix of people."
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- Indeed, one of the bad guys was Hanji Hajour, one of
the September 11 hijackers. Hanjour was living in Phoenix and taking flight
lessons at two different local schools: Professional Pilot Training and
Cockpit Resource Management. Yet another suspected terrorist, Lotfi Raissi,
was also in Phoenix, and later was briefly jailed in Britain on suspicion
of training some of the 9/11 terrorists.
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- Over the ensuing months and years, the FBI and CIA continued
to receive intelligence which detailed how terrorists had gained entry
into the United States and were receiving pilot training for the purposes
of crashing commercial jetliners into American cities, including New York
and Washington.
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- For example, following the arrest of those involved in
the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, documents were
discovered which contained numerous references to pilot training and flight
schools and a plot to hijack U.S. jetliners. Two participants in the 1998
bombings, who subsequently turned government informant, also revealed to
the FBI that they and other men directly linked with bin Laden, had been
ordered to take flight classes. Specifically, Essam al-Ridi, received
flight training at the Ed Boardman Aviation School in Fort Worth whereas
Ihab Ali Nawawi received flight training at Airman Flight School in Norman,
Oklahoma. This same Ihab Ali Nawawi was linked to the 1998 embassy bombings.
Another terrorist, L'Houssaine Kerchtou, received flight raining in Nairobi.
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- In yet another high profile case, an Algerian terrorist,
Ahmed Ressam, with direct links to al-Qaeda and bin Laden, informed FBI
officials that al-Qaeda was planning to carry out coordinated terrorist
assaults on high profile American targets including New York City and the
Pentagon. Ressam, who had been arrested in 1999 for plotting to carry out
terrorist attacks on the Los Angeles airport, detailed the plot to FBI
agents as part of a plea agreement. Bin Laden, he warned, would soon unleash
an incomprehensible horror on the people of the United States, and American
commercial jetliners would be used as weapons in the attack.
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- In 1999, the CIA and FBI received additional intelligence
reports which warned that terrorists might hijack commercial jetliners
and slam them into the Pentagon or the White House.
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- Over the ensuing months and throughout 2001, the FBI,
CIA, and other U.S. intelligence agencies became increasingly aware that
individuals known or suspected to be linked with bin Laden or other terrorists
groups, had been slipping into the country. They also knew that suspected
terrorists on the FBI's "watch list" were receiving flight training.
And they knew that men on their "watch list" were holding late
night meetings that were attended by other men who were being watched,
and many of these men then attended yet other meetings at different locations
with yet other men on the FBI's "watch list" as well as with
men who would later carry out the 9/11 attacks.
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- In fact, a dozen different individuals that the FBI maintains
on a "watch list" and who were under some form of surveillance,
shared the same U.S. addressees and were in fact living with several of
the 9/11 hijackers.
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- For example, eight of those on the FBI's watch list lived
at the same address as two of the 9/11 hijackers: Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed
Alghamdi. All ten men shared a dormitory at Flight Safety International--a
flight school in Vero Beach--and were training to be pilots. Hamza and
Ahmed were on the jet that hit the south Tower of the World Trade Center.
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- Yet another certified pilot on the FBI's watch list shared
an address in Daytona Beach with Waleed Alshehri, a hijacker on the flight
that struck the north Tower of the World Trade Center. Also at that address:
Saeed Alghamdi, a hijacker on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.
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- Waleed Alshehri and his brother Wail Alshehri, also shared
yet another address with a woman living in Hollywood, Florida, who was
also on the "watch list." And, she shared their surname: Alshehri.
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- A Coral Springs man who was also on the FBI's watch list
shared the same address as Marwan Al-Shehhi and Mohamed Atta. Al-Shehhi
and Atta piloted the commercial jets that struck the Twin Towers of the
World Trade Center.
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- The FBI was not only aware that Mohamed Atta was in the
U.S. and receiving flight training, but that he been implicated in previous
terrorist attacks, and had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer.
In fact, by law, Atta and his "cousin" Marwan, should have never
been granted visas or allowed into the country; yet in the months prior
to 9/11 they were allowed to continue their activities unhindered.
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- They were not alone. Several of the other hijackers had
also been granted visas and allowed into this country in the weeks and
months before 9/11 although they were known to be veterans of previous
terrorist attacks. Salem Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar were on a special
terrorist-watch list given to Border Patrol and I.N.S. agents on August
21, 2001.
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- There were excellent reasons for keeping an eye on Khalid
Al-Midhar and to prevent him from entering the country. The year before
he had been videotaped meeting with one of the suspects in the Oct. 12,
2000 terrorist attack of the USS Cole. Yet, Khalid Al-Midhar had no difficulty
entering the United States. Although the I.N.S. and Border Patrol had been
alerted, Khalid Al-Midhar, a man known to have been associating with known
terrorists, legally entered the United States on a business visa.
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- Salem Alhamzi also waltzed right in and did so in a "legal"
manner. He had a business visa.
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- Despite the fact that Alhamzi and Al-Midhar were considered
dangerous, they were allowed free entry into the U.S., and immediately
set up housekeeping together at the Marriott Hotel in New York, which was
listed as their official residence. Three weeks later, on September 11,
Khalid Al-Midha and Salem Alhamzi would hijack American Airlines flight
77 and then crash it into the Pentagon.
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- The FBI, CIA, and Bush administration, not only had advanced
and detailed information and then did nothing to prevent the 9/11 assault
and murder of 3000 Americans, they tried to cover it up and then lied about
it.
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- After the September 11, attack, Robert S. Mueller III,
Director of the FBI, said he was surprised to discover there were terrorists
in the U.S., and even more surprised to learn they had been receiving flight
training. "This is news to me" he said, and then added, "obviously,
if we had understood that to be the case, we would have averted this."
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- Other top officials in the FBI, CIA, and Bush administration,
including President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, echoed
these claims of ignorance. Bush and Cheney were lying. They had received
detailed briefings in August 2001.
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- In the months, weeks, and days before 9/11, top officials
in the FBI, CIA, and in the Bush administration knew with 100% certainty
that over a dozen men with links to Osama bin Laden and his organization
were in the United States and attending U.S. flight schools. And government
and Bush administration officials knew that these men were being trained
to hijack commercial jetliners in order to use them as guided missiles
that would be fired at major U.S. cities including New York and Washington.
And, by August 2001, they knew with 100% certainty that a horrific attack
would soon take place and that the primary targets would be the Pentagon
and the World Trade Center.
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- Top government officials in the CIA, FBI, and Bush administration
not only knew that thousands of Americans were about to be murdered in
the worst terrorist attack the country had every known, they insured that
these attacks would take place by sabotaging the investigative efforts
of FBI field agents. They did so in order to reap the political benefits:
A successful terrorist attack coupled with massive loss of life would increase
their power and would transform an inept, incompetent president into an
easily re-elected war time leader.
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- In the months before 9/11, top officials in the FBI,
CIA, and Bush administration, formed an unholy alliance and "silent"
partnership with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, providing them with over 43
million dollars in funding in March of 2001--despite the objections of
all other government agencies. The 9/11 hijackers were not only trained
in this country, their activities were likely funded by U.S. dollars provided
by the Bush administration.
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- Moreover, these same officials sabotaged the efforts
of any and all FBI field agents, especially those in Florida, Arizona,
and Minnesota, who threatened to unravel and reveal the plot.
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- Like their superiors in Washington, FBI field agents
knew that the nation was in danger of a terrorist attack, and that this
threat involved the hijacking of commercial airliners. What these field
agents did not know, but which they began to suspect, was that their superiors
in Washington were acting as "accomplices" to Osama bin Laden
and al-Qaeda.
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- On August 15 of 2001, just weeks before the 9/11 attack,
FBI agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, arrested Zacarias Moussaoui who was
in the U.S. illegally. They were alerted to Moussaoui's presence and the
danger he represented, by the manager of the International Flight School
in Eagan, Minnesota.
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- Moussaoui, the FBI was told, had been requesting training
in a Boeing 747 simulator. However, he had no interest in learning about
landings or takeoffs. According to an instructor at the flight school:
"He just wanted to learn to steer the plane, which was very odd."
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- The FBI field office soon learned from French intelligence
officials that Zacarias Moussaoui was a suspected terrorist affiliated
with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups and Osama Bin Laden. Upon
further investigation, Minneapolis FBI agents became convinced that Moussaoui
posed a direct threat to the security of the United States and that he
was part of a widespread terrorist plot that involved the hijacking and
destruction of commercial U.S. jet liners.
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- However, in order to confirm their suspicions and prevent
what they were convinced was a major threat to the United States, the field
agents required a criminal search warrant which would allow them to search
his personal affect and in particular, his computer lap top.
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- As detailed by Coleen Rowley, a senior FBI agent in the
Minneapolis office, they required approval from FBI Headquarters and the
Department of Justice, before they could seek a warrant from the United
States Attorney's Office in Minnesota.
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- Incredibly, FBI headquarters turned down the request.
As detailed by Rowley in a 13 page memo sent to FBI Director Mueller, FBI
officials in fact altered and deleted critical information from Rowley's
request and purposefully sabotaged it so that a warrant would not and could
not be issued.
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- What makes the behavior of FBI headquarters even more
outrageous is that they and the CIA were on heightened alert and had just
received a report from Israel's intelligence services which warned that
as many as 200 terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden had slipped into the
country and were preparing to launch a major assault on the United States.
Moreover, the previous month, "terrorism czar" Richard Clarke
issued a "superalert" and warned FBI, aviation and INS officials
that "something really spectacular" was in the works and that
the U.S. would soon be attacked and that U.S. aircraft might be hijacked
as part of a coordinated terrorist assault.
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- "Everybody knew about a heightened alert, and knew
that bin Laden was preparing a big attack," admitted an administration
official on conditions of anonymity. In fact, George W. Bush and other
security officials had received a memorandum in August which explicitly
stated that bin Laden and al-Qaeda were about to launch an attack. Bush
responded to this threat by leaving Washington and returning to his ranch
in Texas where he hid out for the next four weeks. Bush repeated this performance
on 9/11, abandoning Washington for Florida prior to the attack, after which
he hid out in an atomic bomb-proof shelter.
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- When informed that the warrant request had been altered
and then denied, FBI agents in the Minneapolis field office were shocked
and outraged as they were convinced an attack was about to take place and
that Moussaoui was the key to preventing it. In fact, given the widespread
knowledge that the U.S. was about to be attacked and that commercial jets
would be employed, the roadblocks erected by FBI headquarters seem incredibly
suspicious to these agents. Some of the Minneapolis field agents even began
to suggest that top FBI officials were acting as "accomplices"
to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
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- Undaunted by the roadblocks erected by top FBI officials,
and convinced that a major assault on the U.S. would soon be launched
and that information that would enable our government to thwart that attack
could be found in Moussaoui's computer, Minneapolis agents "desperately"
sought help from the CIA. However, instead of assisting, CIA officials
reported the agents to FBI headquarters which then proceeded to threaten
and chastise them.
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- According to Rowley, top officials in the FBI were obviously
determined to sabotage, disrupt, block, and prevent access to Moussaoui's
computer.
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- And why was that?
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- Following 9/11, a search warrant was finally issued,
and specific details pertaining to the 9/11 terrorist attack was found--information
that would have enabled the U.S. government to prevent the attack if it
has been uncovered prior to 9/11. Moussaoui, it is now believed, was to
be the "20th" hijacker.
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- The Minneapolis field office was not alone in these failed
and sabotaged attempts to prevent this catastrophe. In July of 2001, Phoenix
FBI agent, Kenneth Williams, had concluded a painstaking investigation
and had uncovered detailed information that linked a number of Middle Eastern
flight students to Osama bin Laden and to a radical British Islamic group,
Al-Muhajiroun.
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- Williams became alarmed and sought to warn FBI headquarters
because eight of these Middle Eastern men were not only receiving flight
training but had sought information about airport security. Moreover, he
discovered that one of the flight school students had communicated with
Abu Zubaydah, one of bin Laden's top aides.
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- In July of 2001, just two months before the 9/11 attack,
Williams prepared a secret memorandum which named names and detailed his
suspicions and which recommended that the FBI immediately begin canvassing
flight schools in order to identify any suspected terrorists. Williams'
memo and suggestions were sent to and then rejected by the very same FBI
officials in the FBI headquarters who weeks later would alter and turn
down the warrant requested by the Minneapolis offices.
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- Inexplicably and completely contrary to established protocol,
neither the Phoenix or Minnesota FBI field offices were informed that each
had independently developed information suggesting that commercial jets
might soon be hijacked and crashed into U.S. cities. The alteration and
deletion of information contained in the Minnesota warrant request was
also a direct violation of FBI regulations.
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- FBI agents in Minnesota, however, were so convinced that
an attack would soon take place, that they rewrote the warrant applications
only to again have information removed and deleted; an action which insured
the warrant would again be rejected and that terrorists could successfully
carry out the 9/11 attack.
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- The events of and leading up to 9/11 was not just a crime
but a horrific tragedy.
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- Why did this happen?
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- "Who benefits?" is one of the first questions
that should be answered when a crime of this magnitude is committed.
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- Another question that deserves a detailed answer: "If
they knew in advance, why would top officials in the FBI, CIA, and Bush
administration allow this tragedy to take place?"
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- These questions have the same probable answer:
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- The 9/11 tragedy and mass murder of 3000 Americans would
transform an unpopular and inept president into a war time leader who could
not only claim unprecedented power, but whose administration could then
successfully threaten, intimidate, and prevent anyone from uncovering the
complicity of the FBI, CIA, and the Bush administration in this horrific
assault on America.
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- Immediately following 9/11, and after he emerged from
hiding, President Bush lavishly praised his accomplices in the FBI and
warned off those who might dare to question or criticize the agency. Moreover,
although he had grounded all commercial and private jets, he made one critical
exception: The bin Laden family, with whom he and his father had personal
and financial ties, were allowed to escape questioning and the U.S. and
to fly back to Saudi Arabia.
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- Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also
began threatening those who were suggesting that the events leading up
to 9/11 should have been anticipated, and both Bush and Cheney urged Senate
and House Republican leaders and Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle
to block any investigation into the events of Sept. 11.
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- Why would they do that? What are they afraid of?
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- We believe the answer is obvious.
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- The cover up began well before 9/11. The cover up continues
to this day.
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