Before 9/11, One Warning Went Unheard (Roche AU)

[maddezmom]

PERTH, Australia — When Jack Roche telephoned Australia's intelligence agency in July 2000, he offered a tantalizing story: He had been to Afghanistan (news - web sites) and ate lunch with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). He had received training in explosives and plotted with Al Qaeda leaders to carry out a bombing in Australia.


A Muslim convert, Roche was prepared to become an informant, his attorney says, and provide information about Al Qaeda; its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah; and their goal of staging an attack in a Western country.


But at the time — 14 months before the Sept. 11 attacks — no one was interested.

~snip~

According to evidence presented in court, Australian and U.S. authorities bungled at least six chances to learn what Roche knew, including the whereabouts of alleged terrorist mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who, it is said, was even then plotting the Sept. 11 attacks. U.S. authorities had been trying to catch Mohammed since the mid-1990s.


"He had their phone numbers," said Hylton Quail, Roche's lawyer. "He had their e-mail addresses. He knew where they lived. He knew how they worked. He was like a spy who tried to come in from the cold and found the door was locked."

~snip~
more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=716&e=26&u=/latimests/20040607/ts_latimes/before911onewarningwentunheard

[Straight Shooter]

1. A psychological nutcase

(snip)

Born Paul George Holland in Hull, England, he legally changed his name to Jack Roche in 2001, in part because he hated his father. Roche was the maiden name of his mother, who died of cancer when he was 13. He left home at 17 and drifted from Britain to Germany to Australia, finding work as a laborer and taxi driver. He became an Australian citizen in 1978.

Roche says he was persuaded by Muslim co-workers in Sydney in 1992 to convert to Islam to overcome a drinking problem, and for the first time found a sense of belonging.

(snip)

Hmm. Father-hater, serious drinker turned to religion to save himself. Sounds like he and bush have a lot in common.

Will be interesting to see how this becomes another "put the blame on Clinton" story.

[oblivious]

2. There was another strange one on WRH today.

FBI denies mishandling man who told of hijack training
NEWARK, N.J. -- The FBI's Newark field office denied mishandling a British Muslim who told agents he had been trained as a hijacker for Osama bin Laden.

Niaz Khan, a Briton of Pakistani descent, walked into the Newark FBI office in April 2000 and told of plans to hijack United States airliners.

After his claims were investigated, he was turned over to British authorities and eventually freed.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--hijackerwarning0604jun04,0,4573987.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

along with this flash from the past on today's (June 6) whatreallyhappened:

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FBI: " too precise, too complete to be believed. The questionnaire plus the other information you brought spell out in detail exactly where, when, how, and by whom we are to be attacked. If anything, it sounds like a trap." -- FBI response to the top British spy, Dusko Popov (code named "Tricycle") on August 10, 1941, dismissing Popov's report of the complete Japanese plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[mom cat]

3. Thanks for the lead and the history lesson.