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SMOKING GUN: The Evidence that May Hang G.W. Bush

PART II:
"Vague Warning" or Blueprint for Disaster?

By Cheryl Seal


This past week, after admitting that Bush had been warned of an impending attack in the summer of 2001, the White House has been working furiously to justify its failure to issue a serious domestic travel warning. The story Bush wants the world to buy is that the warnings he received were vague, routine - too general to act upon. Condi Rice wants us to believe that no one in the administration could have dreamed the hijackers would fly into a landmark building. But, as they say in show biz, this is "lies, lies, and damn lies."

Since 1993, scores of people, collectively, in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and CIA have know that an attack like 9/11 was not only a possibility - but an increasingly likely probability. Because I am not writing a book here, I will confine myself to summarizing the most obvious pieces of evidence that Bush and his team had to work with. But they are enough to convict him in any court of opinion.

TERRORISM 2000 REPORT:

Don't confuse this 1993 study(http://www.infowar.com/class_3/class3_081398a_j.shtml) with the report turned out by the Bush administration in April 2001 under the same title. The 2001 release, a summary of terrorist activity in 2000, lifted the title of the original document, no doubt as a smokescreen to confuse anyone who might be seeking the 1993 document through a search engine or library archives.

In 1993, the Pentagon commissioned, via the Dept. of Defense's office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, a think tank-style study of the ways terrorists could execute large-scale acts of terrorism on the U.S. Participants in the $150,000 study consisted of a panel of 41 intelligence/security experts that included former ranking CIA, FBI, State Department and Rand Corp. officials, as well as an ex-KGB general and Israeli intelligence agent-

One of the problems the team brainstormed over was the various ways an airplane could be used to destroy national landmarks - in fact, the WTC was most certainly on the panel's list of possible targets. One conclusion reached by the team as a future trend in terrorist activity was that extremists would seek to maximize their impact by escalating their attacks from one-at-a-time truck bomb/suicide bomber events to multiple, simultaneous targeting, thereby touting their power and stretching the victim governments' ability to respond.

The possible terrorist scenarios the team outlined scared the socks off folks in the government. One high-level official described it as "too outrageous." As a result, the team's report, "Terrorism 2000" (a reference to terrorism in the new millennia) was blocked from public release. Even a toned down version that had been proposed as a way to raise public awareness and improve national preparedness was killed! A draft of the report was nonetheless passed on through the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is absolutely no doubt that this information was available to everyone in the Bush Administration, including Ms. Rice. It should have been required reading - especially since many of the predictions made by the report had already come true before 9/11.


FOUR INSTANCES OF PLANES USED AS WEAPONS BEFORE 2001


1994: A Federal Express Flight engineer was apprehended as he tried to storm the cockpit of a DC-10. The engineer, despondent over his impending firing, had planned to crash the plane into a Fed Ex building in Memphis

1994: A pilot stole a Cessna and tried to crash it into the White House. He instead hit a tree on the White House grounds, not far from Clinton's bedroom

1995: An Islamic fundamentalist group hijacked an Air France flight and loaded the plane with 27 tons of fuel in Marseilles as a way to turn it into an incendiary bomb when they crashed it into the Eiffel tower. This plan was thwarted when special forces stormed the craft before it could leave Marseilles.

1995: Abdul Hakim Murad confessed to planting timed explosive devices on eleven U.S. airline flights in an attempt to create a "multiple attack" event (as outlined in the "too outrageous" Terrorism 2000" report). The same terrorist group also planned to crash on airplane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and another into the Pentagon (But Condi didn't dream anyone would ever try such a thing in 2001?). This scheme was not a wild and fevered plot. It was in the advanced planning stages - to the point where specific flights had already been selected. Murad himself was going to be the suicide pilot who hit the CIA HQ. Where did he get his pilot training? In a U.S. flight school.


CLINTON ADMINISTRATION TOOK "VAGUE THREATS" MORE SERIOUSLY THAN BUSH: Why Only One Person Died during the Summer Olympics of 1996.

One of Bush's favorite lines is that his government is much tougher than Clinton's was at keeping Americans safe. But the only group Bush has seemed seriously interested in cracking down on is innocent American citizens. In 1996, terrorist activity warnings that were considerably less specific than those Bush received in 2001, were coming into the Clinton administration and suggested that the summer Olympics in Atlanta would be the most likely focus of such activity. In response, Clinton (whose administration commissioned the original "Terrorism 2000" report) deployed Black Hawk helicopters and special jets to intercept any suspicious aircraft. That same summer, federal agents monitored crop duster flights within hundreds of miles of Atlanta, while agents combed through airports throughout northern Georgia on the lookout for potential hijackers.

From 1996 until Bush took office, FBI agents actively investigated activities of Muslim students at flight schools. It was well known by that time to the FBI that terrorists used U.S. Flight schools for their training. Yet under Bush, even urgent requests by FBI agents to act on tips about suspicious students (like the tip from the Phoenix flight school) were ignored.


THE SPECIFICS OF THE "VAGUE WARNING"

The most glaring lie Bush is using in his current spin is his claim that the warnings he received were too vague to act upon. But the facts all by themselves scream "Liar!"

From April, 2001 right up to the day the WTC and Pentagon were slammed, urgent warnings of impending large-scale attacks by terrorists had been issued to the Bush administration from multiple sources. Germany, Egypt, Russia and Israel all delivered alerts that accurately foretold the scale of the attack and that it would involve a prominent landmark of some type. This would automatically put the WTC and Pentagon on the short list, especially as both landmarks had been targeted before (as mentioned above, the Pentagon attack was averted).

Through Echelon, the German intelligence agency BND warned the U.S. and Israel both in June that Middle Eastern terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." This is hardly vague, and hardly refers to an "overseas danger" to Americans (which of our prominent landmarks is in Europe or Asia, pray tell?).

On June 13, Egypt sent an urgent warning that a plane stuffed with explosives could be used as a weapon against George Bush. It was assumed, incorrectly at that time that the target could be the G-8 summit in Genoa, held in June 2001.

Vladimir Putin was so certain of the information he received in the summer of 2001 of an impending attack that he personally instructed Russian intelligence to tell Bush "in the strongest possible terms" (his own words on Sept. 15, 2001) of an impending attack involving airports and government. The Russians told the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots had been specially trained to execute suicide missions. It was around the same time that the FBI was receiving tips about suspicious Arabic men in U.S. flight schools.

In August, 2001, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad warned the CIA and FBI that as many as 200 Al Qada members were infiltrating the U.S. and planning "a major assault on the U.S. " against "a large-scale target" in a setting where Americans would be "very vulnerable."


THE NSA CRACKED BIN LADEN'S ENCRYPTION CODE BY FEBRUARY 2001

Even before April, the Bush administration HAD TO KNOW something was up and probably had info that was even more specific than the warnings given above. According to UPI correspondent Richard Sale, by February 2001, the National Security Agency had broken Osama bin Laden's communications encryption system. We know that the encryption was broken because the Bush administration reported AFTER 9/11 that it had intercepted encrypted calls OBL made to his mother two days before the attack, saying "In two days, you're going to hear big news, and you're not going to hear from me for a while." If this message was intercepted before the attack, what others were intercepted as well that the Bush administration did NOT reveal? Mostly likely six months' worth of terrorist planning.


THE CIA KNEW OF SUSPICIOUS AIRLINE STOCK TRADES BY SEPTEMBER 7

And last but not least, the CIA knew a week before the attack WHICH airlines were most likely to be hijacked. The Agency maintains an advanced program called Promis which monitors unusual stock market activity, SPECIFICALLY as a way to anticipate potential terrorist attacks. Promis provides 24-hour continuous real-time data on stock market activity and the FBI and Justice Department have both admitted that Promis was up and running all through the summer and fall of 2001. So there is no doubt whatsoever that as early as Sept. 7, the CIA knew that something was going down and knew which airlines were being targeted. Even a third-grader could have put this information together with the long litany of warnings above from foreign sources and come up with the conclusion that an American or United Airlines craft was going to be hijacked in the near future and most likely used to crash into a landmark, quite possibly the World Trade Center.


MORE SMOKING FACTS:

According to the official government Web site of the Military District of Washington (www.mdw.army.mil), the Pentagon ITSELF planned in detail how it would respond to just such a scenario from October 24-26 2000. And this was no low-level exercise, since it took place in the Office of the Secretaries of Defense conference room! This story was run in Unknown News and picked up the same day by Democrats.com, which fortunately, kept a copy : http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7382, because within 24 hours, the story – along with the entire Military District website – was scrubbed by the White House!

The model used in this simulation and the response plan was developed by Don Abbott, who is the founder of FieldSoft, a company that makes emergency response software programs/systems, including FdonScene. This program, according to the FieldSoft site, “ is the first -- and only -- fire service, software application specifically designed for incident commanders and their staff in-the-field. The commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) product is designed to support in field operations for any type of emergency response…. Basically, FDonScene is an automated COTS tool that actively facilitates control and coordination of people, procedures, events, and other resources with the touch of a finger….The application is specifically designed for fast, simple and easy use by the incident commander, as well as members of the command staff.”

Bush was without doubt very familiar with FdonScene because it was first endorsed by the Texas Fire Chiefs Association while he was governor (1998). And, as the FieldSoft brochure mentions, “FieldSoft has engineered software necessary to integrate FDonScene with a consequence management system under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)." So this is definitely a program well known to and used by the military.

Now, in light of this, consider this fact: By a “miracle” of coincidence, the FdonScene program had been set up and made ready to go for use by the emergency response teams at the WTC disaster just a few days before the disaster, as if in anticipation. The brochure bboasts: “Over 700 victims passed through the Atlantic Highlands Ferry Port in New Jersey following the September 11, 2001 WTC attack. Two fire departments, three local police departments, as well as representatives from county, state, and federal agencies were on hand to assess and assist the victims as they embarked. Emergency units on the scene included 40 ambulances, an FD communications unit, a decontamination unit, and 10 pieces of fire apparatus. A communications unit member on scene at the Port, who had seen a ninety minute demonstration of the software a few days earlier, brought a trial copy of FDonScene on line and used it to track people, resources, and events. A second person watched how the software was being used, and took over operation of it a few hours later. Overall, the software was operated successfully for 14 hours.” Nowhere can any reference to WHO the “unit member” was, or who the “second person” was.

In another FieldSoft “success story” for a different product, the same ominous “vagueness is found: "The Organization of American States (OAS) planned a major meeting in a North American city. Intelligence gathering operations revealed that anarchists planned to disrupt the meeting. The local police service evaluated a number of software systems that could be used to help manage law enforcement activities from the joint operations center (JOC). PDonScene was elected 3 weeks prior to the opening ceremonies. The software was configured and in place at the JOC as delegates commenced OAS activities. PDonScene was used throughout the 4 day event to manage hundreds of local, provincial, and federal law enforcement officers. The software helped law enforcement managers successfully manage peaceful labor - and not so peaceful anarchist - demonstrations by thousands of people; at several different venues throughout the community. "We [the agency] purchased the software because operation of it looked simple," stated a JOC Staff Sergeant. That Sergeant went on to say that "we found it [PDonScene] exceptional in that it showed the situation in real time with both [officer] names and call signs".


**** July: Shortly after the Bay of Pigs crisis, the Kennedy administration allowed the FAA to pass a rule that permitted commercial airline pilots to be armed. The rule was passed to protect flights from possible hijacking by Cubans. Although no airline ever availed themselves of this right, it seems very strange that the rule was rescinded in July 2001, right at the HEIGHT of the most serious terrorist warnings to be issued by intelligence sources in decades. It seems, instead, that this should have been the time for the Bush administration to insist that pilots be armed! Just like the timing of everything that happpend in the second half of 2001, we sniff something a lot more foul than politics

***** Mid-August: A flight school in Minnesota flight reported Zacharias Missouri to the local FBI office after Missouri requested training in how to fly a jet, but not in how to land or take off. Although Moussaoui was arrested, agents did not search his computer and thus missed vital clues.

***** Early September: (from a letter from a reader):

I was listening to "The Connection" on PBS this morning. The subject was terrorism (of course). During the show, a man called in who said his wife was a VP at an all-girls college. Just before 9/11, a Saudi prince called up and said to cancel his daughter's registration for the fall and send him a refund. On 9/11, at 9:30, Saudi security was there to pick up 3 princesses from the school. The man said his wife called the FBI, but they didn't pay any heed to her. Hopefully, you will hear that from this link: http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2002/05/20020521_e_main.asp

This incident most certainly was reported to the FBI after September 11 and most clearly indicated there could be a Saudi connection – yet the Bush administration has refused to pursue an active investigation of Saudi ties to Sept 11 and instead focused entirely on Afghanistan – though NONE of those responsible for Sept. 11 came from Afghanistan, and, as it turns out, none trained there – they all trained in Europe or the U.S. (flight schools!). However, there was nothing in it for Bush to bomb Saudi Arabia – we already get their oil!


FOR CONSPIRACY THEORISTS ONLY!!

Now here’s a new wrinkle for conspiracy theorists who believe that the hijacked planes were actually remotely controlled from the ground and that the hijackers were actually themselves turned into suicide mission patsies.

Put this name into your system: Dov Zakheim
BACKGROUND

1985 to 1987 he was deputy under secretary of defense for planning and resources, and held various other senior Pentagon posts in the Reagan administration. He was previously with the Congressional Budget Office. Zakheim is currently corporate vice president of the Systems Planning Corporation (SPC), a high-technology research, analysis, and manufacturing firm, and chief executive officer and president of SPC International, Inc. In 1998, Zakheim, an expert in ballistic missiles, worked in 1998 with Rumsfeld Commission.

More significantly, he is a long-time Bush associate, having served as a policy advisor to the governor during the 2000 campaign. In May, 2001, Zakheim was sworn in to the Bush Administration as Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) of the DOD.

Here's the wrinkle: Zakheim’s company produces advanced Command Transmitter Systems, designed to provide "remote control and flight termination functions through a fully redundant, self-contained solid state system." The unit is just 5 feet high and can be mounted easily on a mobile platform. Although designed to control unmanned flights such as Global hawk from remote positions on the ground, one British aviation engineer said after 9/11 that the planes used in the attacks were could have been equipped with, or suitable for, such remote control units.
http://www.sysplan.com/Radar/Downloads/CTS.pdf

 


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