How much intel did CIA have on the AQ plan for 9/11?

[Old and In the Way]

I was looking for a CNN reference to CIA assets in the OBL's Afghan organization that I believe was posted on the board shortly after 9/11. I didn't find it, but I did come accross this interesting article that is pertinent to the hearings this week.

from: http://anderson.ath.cx:8000/911/pk06.html



POLITICAL DECEPTION: THE MISSING LINK BEHIND 9-11

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Outlook, No. 2. Summer 2002 at http://www.globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/orderformI2.html

Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), http://www.globalresearch.ca, 20 June 2002 (revised 27 June)

The URL of this article is http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html

The foreknowledge issue is a Red Herring: "A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue."

ON May 16th The New York Post dropped what appeared to be a bombshell: "Bush Knew . . . " Hoping to score politically, the Democrats jumped on the bandwagon, pressuring the White House to come clean on two "top-secret documents" made available to President Bush prior to September 11, concerning "advance knowledge" of Al Qaeda attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. media had already coined a new set of buzzwords: "Yes, there were warnings" and "clues" of possible terrorist attacks, but "there was no way President Bush could have known" what was going to happen. The Democrats agreed to "keep the cat inside the bag" by saying: "Osama is at war with the U.S." and the FBI and the CIA knew something was cooking but "failed to connect the dots." In the words of House Minority Leader, Richard Gephardt:

<snip>

Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money man" behind 9-11, was in the U.S. when the attacks occurred. He arrived on the 4th of September, one week before 9-11, on what was described as a routine visit of consultations with his U.S. counterparts. According to Pakistani journalist, Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on the September 10):

"ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan . . . and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days." (12)

<snip>

CONDOLEEZZA RICE'S PRESS CONFERENCE

In the course of Condoleezza Rice's May 16 press conference (which took place barely a few hours after the publication of the "Bush Knew" headlines in The New York Post), an accredited Indian journalist asked a question on the role of General Mahmoud Ahmad:

Q: Dr. Rice?

Ms RICE: Yes?

Q: Are you aware of the reports at the time that the ISI chief was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And why was he here? Was he meeting with you or anybody in the Administration?

Ms RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me. (13)

Although there is no official confirmation that General Mahmoud Ahmad met Dr. Rice, she must have been fully aware of the $100,000 transfer to Mohammed Atta, which had been confirmed by the FBI. Lost in the barrage of media reports on 'foreknowledge', this crucial piece of information, on the ISI's role in 9-11, implicates key members of the Bush Administration including: CIA Director George Tenet, Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, Under-Secretary, Marc Grossman, as well as Senator Sam Biden, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee (who met General Ahmad on the 13th of September). (14)


This story is old news to a lot of posters on the board, but may be very enlightening to those that may not know about this aspect of 9/11....I wonder if this will be a point of discussion in the hearing? (I won't hold my breath)

2 things that I found teresting:

(1) Joe "Sam" Biden's meeting with the ISI general puts a new light on his recent comments.

(2) This footnote on Condi's 5/16 Press conference-

13. Federal News Service, 16 May 2002. Note that in the White House and CNN transcripts of Dr. Rice's press conference, the words "ISI chief" were transcribed respectively by a blank "--" and "(inaudible)" . Federal News Service Inc. which is transcription Service of official documents provided a correct transcription, with a minor error in punctuation, which we corrected. The White House transcript is at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020516-13.html All three transcripts were verified by the author and are available on Nexus. Federal News Service documents are also available for a fee at http://www.fnsg.com/

Hmmmmmmmm.