TIME - Fortune: Hiding the FBI Phoenix Memo

[Octafish]

In it, FBI SACs were asking WTF was going on with all the terrorists taking flying lessons.

My question: How come Fortune and TIME no longer post their article about the FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo?



I can find stuff online going back to 1985 or sometime, but zip on this important article.

It appears Bushco is censoring our recent history.

From BuzzFlash we have:

FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked

May 24, 2002

---------

BREAKING NEWS

FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked

Fortune's investigative reporter, the only journalist to see confidential document, reveals its true name and nature.

FORTUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
By Richard Behar

What happens when bosses ignore memos from subordinates? The country is now learning the answer to that question in a most painful way.

On July 10, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix wrote a memo raising serious concerns about Middle Eastern men attending U.S. flight schools. The memo never made its way up the chain of command, and no action was taken. It wasn't seen by FBI Director Robert Mueller until after Sept. 11, and President Bush wasn't made aware of its contents until a few weeks ago. The confidential document still hasn't been released, and yesterday it was the subject of a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee session.

Recently, I had a chance to read the memo -- apparently the first journalist to have done so. It was shown to me by a reliable government source, who permitted me to take notes but wouldn't let me copy it. What I learned -- and what FORTUNE aired yesterday on CNN -- is chilling. The memo raises questions about what federal law enforcement officers knew and what they did or didn't do to protect the U.S. from terror attacks in the months before Sept. 11. After reviewing the memo, one cannot help but conclude that the FBI dropped the ball -- perhaps ignoring the alert altogether.

(more)

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/2002/05/24_Phoenix.html

TheSmokingGun.com has a photo and text:

The FBI has refused to release an entire copy of the July 2001 memo sent from the bureau's Arizona office warning headquarters brass that scores of Arabs were training at U.S. flight schools. What you'll find below is the only portion of the document the FBI is currently willing to release, a single one-paragraph excerpt noting "Phoenix's suspicion." Stay tuned, however. TSG's confident the coming Senate and House intelligence committee inquiries will result in more detailed releases. (1 page)

SOURCE:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/phoenixmemo1.html

Gee. One could get the impression the BFEE's running scared. Hope the presstitutes are runnin' scared, too.

What do y'all think?

Does anyone have a copy of the complete Fortune article?

[serryjw]

1. Does this help?

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_May_22/ai_86179607

[me b zola]

2. Great find

I don't have a copy of the 911 Commission Report, did they cover this?

[serryjw]

4. Try this

"FBI Phoenix Memo Unmasked,"

http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/phoenix-memo/

[lonestarnot]

13. Anyone know where the Soubra character is now? Or is he known

to the public by another name?

[serryjw]

6. I read the 1/4 of it

and threw it up in the air. I was so missed over the white wash. It was such bushit,I gave it to someone.

[serryjw]

7. It appears so

Appendices
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/joint-report/

[Octafish]

8. Thanks, serryjw. Those are both mighty important documents.

The first is what we know of Coleen Rowley's Minneapolis Memo. In it, she wonders if there's a "mole" in FBI Washington because the bosses refuse to go for a FISA warrant to search Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop. TIME "edited" the thing, but what we got is blistering.

The second is a good summation of the article that the CNN Fortune web site won't fork over, although they will give free access to the rest of their stuff going back to 1985. It's an excellent review of Behar's scoop of the explosive memo.

From WebFairy, this may be Rahar's article:

FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked

Fortune's investigative reporter, the only journalist to see
confidential document, reveals its true name and nature.

FORTUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
By Richard Behar

What happens when bosses ignore memos from subordinates? The
country is now learning the answer to that question in a most
painful way.

On July 10, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix wrote a memo raising
serious concerns about Middle Eastern men attending U.S. flight
schools. The memo never made its way up the chain of command, and
no action was taken. It wasn't seen by FBI Director Robert
Mueller until after Sept. 11, and President Bush wasn't made
aware of its contents until a few weeks ago. The confidential
document still hasn't been released, and yesterday it was the
subject of a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee session.

Recently, I had a chance to read the memo -- apparently the first
journalist to have done so. It was shown to me by a reliable
government source, who permitted me to take notes but wouldn't
let me copy it. What I learned -- and what FORTUNE aired
yesterday on CNN -- is chilling. The memo raises questions about
what federal law enforcement officers knew and what they did or
didn't do to protect the U.S. from terror attacks in the months
before Sept. 11. After reviewing the memo, one cannot help but
conclude that the FBI dropped the ball -- perhaps ignoring the
alert altogether.

The memo was written by Phoenix FBI Special Agent Kenneth J.
Williams, described as a member of "Squad 16," and it was
approved by a man named William A. Kurtz. The title reads:
"Zakaria Mustapha Soubra; IT-OTHER (Islamic Army of the
Caucasus)." The "synopsis" says: "Usama bin Laden and
Al-Muhjiroun supporters attending civil aviation
universities/colleges in Arizona." And the memo bears the FBI
codes: "Derived from G-3" and "Declassify on X1."

CONTINUED...

http://thewebfairy.com/911/cia-drugs/Msg00714.html

Really appreciate you give a damn, serryjw.

[Greyhound]

3. This is exactly what they are terrified of and therefore are going to

destroy it (the internet as it is) at the first opportunity.

[serryjw]

5. I just saved the 1st 2 pages

THEY know it out there. I don't think they care. No one has so far??

[Octafish]

9. The wheels are coming off their crooked wagon, greyhound1966.

From a great DUer:

From Heroes to Scapegoats

May 30, 2002
By Richard Prasad

Last week the question concerning 9/11 seemed to be what did the President know and when did he know it. This week, the questions seemed to center on what did the FBI know, pre-September 11th, and why did reports of possible terrorist action never make it to President Bush?

The reports in question seem to be two memos written by local FBI agents, that if FBI director Robert Mueller is to be believed, never made it to his desk, and therefore never made it to George W. Bush's desk. Is Mueller credible? Or is he covering up facts to make himself and his agency less culpable?

One of the local FBI reports is known as "the Phoenix memo," and the other was written about Zacarious Moussoui, months before 9/11 occurred. The Phoenix memo was written by Phoenix FBI agent Kenneth Williams and suggested that 8 Arab men enrolled in Phoenix flight schools could have ties to terrorism and should be watched. According to an article in the Washington Post on May 22, 2002, the FBI has released only one paragraph of the memo which among other things says, "the FBI should accumulate a listing of civil aviation universities/colleges around the country" and "should discuss this matter with other elements of the U.S. intelligence community."

Phoenix FBI agent Williams felt that the men might be a threat and asked for an analysis of people coming into the US for aviation training and wanted to request help from both the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. No help was forthcoming. The FBI called Williams' report speculative, stated they didn't have the manpower to do what the Williams memo asked and quietly marked the memo and the issue closed.

This information runs counter to what the FBI said a few weeks ago when the Phoenix memo was released. At that time, the FBI was saying they were seriously considering a plan to pursue Williams suggestions at the time of the attacks. Now even the FBI concedes there was no such plan of action.

How is the FBI countering such criticism from the Williams or Phoenix memo? One way is by saying Agent Williams didn't see 9/11 coming either so how could they, the FBI, envision September 11th? It is true, according to a May 23, 2002, article by the Washington Post that Williams never envisioned the exact September 11 scenario, and he testified as such to Congress. And it is also true that he marked his memo routine, and such memos usually take 60 days to pass through the FBI hierarchy.

But according to Senator Dick Durban in the same Post article, "I will tell you, though...that although he did not come up with the exact September 11 scenario, what he presented in that memo was so close to the fact pattern that emerged on September 11 that, as you read it, it just takes your breath away."

If the pattern was so close to the actual chain of events that happened on September 11th, why did the FBI close this case, and why did they not look into these facts and others and connect the dots? It's clear now that the FBI is in CYA territory, big time.

They first tried to blame Williams for not getting the exact scenario right and then the FBI did something far more interesting, they went after Williams himself. A story was leaked to the Washington Post on May 24th 2002 that agent Williams mishandled a Chinese spy case and mishandled an opportunity to get information on Palestinian terrorist groups. I'm not saying that the higher ups in the FBI leaked this anti-Williams story, but what easier way to deflect interest in what upper level FBI agents did or did not do, than to totally discredit the agent who gave the FBI the warning?

The character assassination is going on hot and heavy at FBI headquarters, but Kenneth Williams seems exactly the wrong person to blame. He is a former SWAT team leader and according to Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, Williams' only mistake seems to be that he wrote this memo in July - and that makes FBI Director Mueller look foolish, for not getting the information in timely manner before September 11th.

If the Phoenix memo was the only memo that warned of September 11th, then it would be easy to see how that one memo could fall through the cracks, but there is another memo released by a local FBI agent that never made it to the upper levels of the FBI. The memo was written by FBI agent Colleen Rowley based in Minneapolis, and her memo warned about the dangers of so called 20th hijacker Zacarius Moussoui.

According to a May 24th New York Times story, the FBI altered a report Rowley wrote concerning Moussoui, that made it impossible for the FBI to obtain further evidence against Moussoui. Rowley wrote a 13 page letter to Congressional investigators looking into the Minneapolis memo, accusing the FBI supervisor of downplaying the importance of intelligence Rowley received from the French. The supervisor is not named in the letter, but altering the report is another way of saying that the supervisor lied about their prior knowledge about how dangerous Moussoui was.

Rowley maintained that there was enough information in the French intelligence report to label Moussoui a dangerous Islamic militant, and charge Moussoui on federal terrorism statutes before 9/11. But just like the Phoenix memo, facts were downplayed and undervalued by the higher ups in the FBI. Rowley got so frustrated that she called the FBI's legal attache in Paris to get more information on Moussoui from the French.

Rowley and other FBI agents also went around FBI headquaters and talked directly to the CIA about Moussoui. Such initiative is frowned upon in the FBI, because Rowley and others in the Minneapolis FBI were reprimanded for going behind the back of FBI headquarters.

Rowley's letter was especially critical of current FBI director Robert Mueller, who she said made 'misleading' statements about the FBI's handling of Moussoui's case both before and after 9/11. In other words, Mueller lied and made the FBI look less culpable than they were. And again, just like Kenneth Williams, the FBI seems more interested in scolding Rowley for not following procedure, and for trying to warn her superiors that a really bad terrorist attack was coming.

But Rowley is characterized as a "scrupulous person, a crackerjack who has sound well thought out judgements", according to another May 24th New York Times article. Not an easy person to scapegoat, but the FBI has tried. So much so that Rowley applied for Federal whistleblower status, for which she was denied because FBI agents are denied such protection by law.

And now, a May 27th article on CNN.com states that both the Rowley memo and the Kenneth Williams Phoenix memo made it to the Radical Fundamentalist Unit of the FBI. So let me get this straight, a special unit of the FBI that sounds like it is involved in counterterrorism had both of these memos and did nothing? That is astounding. In fact they did worse than nothing, they altered reports to take the heat off of terrorists like Moussoui.

At the center of all this controversy stands Robert Mueller, President Bush's FBI director. He undoubtedly lied about the FBI's knowledge of Zaccarious Moussoui. The FBI definitely knew more about Moussoui than they let on, thanks to the French. And yet Mueller and his cronies at the FBI mischaracterized the Moussoui memo and the Phoenix memo as general and not specific warnings. Mueller sought only to destroy the reputations of hardworking dedicated people like agents Williams and Rowley and therefore protecting his own reputation.

The mind reels with questions, if Mueller is willing to lie about the importance and scope of the local memos, what else is Mueller willing to lie about? His own personal knowledge of these memos prior to September 11th, maybe? And if Mueller knew about the Phoenix memo who else did? Ashcroft? Bush? It isn't so much of a leap of faith anymore to say that high level officials of the Bush administation and perhaps Bush himself had plenty of warning that something like 9/11 was in the works. If only they had listened.

Stay tuned. The steady drip drip drip of information about what the FBI knew just keeps on coming. Agents like Williams and Rowley should be treated as heroes, just as much as the people who brought down the plane over Pennsylvania instead of Washington DC. Instead they are being reprimanded and their reputations are being trashed. For that kind of scapegoating, FBI Director Mueller deserves to be fired.

© Democratic Underground, LLC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/05/p/30_heroes.html

Courtesy of the good folks at TheSmokingGun.com:



The Memo (redacted):

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0412042phoenix1.html

[Octafish]

10. Memo SHOWS Clinton ordered FBI to investigate OBL

At the top, the agent is reporting something VERY specific about bin Laden associates at flight school terrorist suspects.

The date is

Note towards bottom of memo synopsis:

Full Field Investigation Instituted: 04/17/2000 (NONUSPER)

WTF happened to get Ashcroft to call off the investigation?

Pressure from his boss, the "occupant" of the Oval Office?

[Karenina]

11. Things that make ya go, HMMMM...

:freak:

[H2O Man]

15. Yeah.

People knew what was going on. But for a variety of reasons, some systematic, others criminal, those who were attempting to warn others were not listened to. When the lies, myths, and innacurate theories are stripped away, the truth of the case(s) is an extremely ugly, disturbing thing to consider.

[DemonFighterLives]

12. The Whistleblowers- Times persons of the year 2002

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2002/
The story is for subscribers only sorry, but Rowley did a heck of a job.
When she complained about her bosses, they got promoted.
What an upside down world this dubco mess is.

[Octafish]

26. Bosses who squelched the Truth got PROMOTED...

From CBS and American Buddha...

FBI Agent Slams Bosses at Moussaoui Trial

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Mar. 21, 2006

CBS (AP) The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified Monday he spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but "criminal negligence" by superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks.

FBI agent Harry Samit of Minneapolis originally testified as a government witness, on March 9, but his daylong cross examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon was the strongest moment so far for the court-appointed lawyers defending Moussaoui. The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent is the only person charged in this country in connection with al-Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

MacMahon displayed a communication addressed to Samit and FBI headquarters agent Mike Maltbie from a bureau agent in Paris relaying word from French intelligence that Moussaoui was "very dangerous," had been indoctrinated in radical Islamic Fundamentalism at London's Finnsbury Park mosque, was "completely devoted" to a variety of radical fundamentalism that Osama bin Laden espoused, and had been to Afghanistan.

Based on what he already knew, Samit suspected that meant Moussaoui had been to training camps there, although the communication did not say that.

The communication arrived Aug. 30, 2001. The Sept. 11 Commission reported that British intelligence told U.S. officials on Sept 13, 2001, that Moussaoui had attended an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. "Had this information been available in late August 2001, the Moussaoui case would almost certainly have received intense, high-level attention," the commission concluded.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/21/terror/main1424701.shtml

So. One would think those who failed to act to protect America would get...in trouble? Wrong.

CONFRONTING THE EVIDENCE -- A CALL TO REOPEN THE 9-11 INVESTIGATION -- TRANSCRIPT AND SCREENCAP GALLERY

In June 2002, Michael Maltbie Was Promoted to Field Supervisor in the FBI's Cleveland Office

In December 2002, Marion Bowman Received the "Presidential Rank of Meritorious Service" and a Cash Bonus of 20% of His Salary.

Late in 2002, David Frasca Was Promoted to the FBI's Third Ranking Position in Charge of Domestic Terrorism

CONTINUED...

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:U4plXs1qweoJ:www.american-buddha.com/LM.confrontevidencescreen17.htm+david-frasca+promoted&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

The guys who ignored the Phoenix Memo, plus info from Minneapolis, plus info on petrodollar financed terror got PROMOTIONS?

Only in the BFEE.

[DemonFighterLives]

14. Daniel Hopsicker had a lot on Atta and Rudy Dekkers

The Venice, FL training base and The Flying Circus
Here is something newer:
http://www.madcowprod.com/
Like Rudi Dekkers, Wolfgang also seems to have had a “hall pass” from federal authorities, which embittered other foreign flight trainers not similarly well-connected.
“When Wolfgang applied for an E-2 Visa, he made up a fake company, a cleaning service,” Huber told us. “Sometimes it makes me mad that a criminal gets preference.”

In the wake of the Sept 11 disaster, U.S. officials repeatedly promised explanations. But it was left to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to sketch out the Cliff notes version of the case against Bin Laden. He said, "Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization with ties to a global network."

Almost five years after Tony Blair first told the world that a “global network” provided assistance to the terrorist hijackers while they were in the U.S., what is happening on a tiny island in the South Pacific may point towards the international organization in question.

[lonestarnot]

16. Are we ever going to hear any more out of Sibel Edmonds?

"You have a network of people who obtain certain information and... sell it to whomever would be the highest bidder," explained Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator, who was muzzled by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who went to the Supreme Court to ensure her silence about... something.

"There are certain points where you have your drug-related activities combined with money laundering and information laundering, converging with your terrorist activities... Post-9/11 intelligence 'failures' include the willful quashing by the Government of investigations tracing these criminal networks."

[DemonFighterLives]

19. She is still hanging with the whistleblowers

Last I heard the group had grown and something was happening around the 5th Anniv. of 911.
Sibel rocks and has the answers to a lot of questions. Thus the muzzling by Eagle sore ashcroft.

[lonestarnot]

20. Soreeagle Ashencroft must be awfully scary. The 5th ann. has

come and gone. Maybe someone wasn't paying attention or maybe there is still a juicy surprise waiting in the wings. teehee I love a surprise! :evilgrin:

[DemonFighterLives]

21. More on the whistleblowers

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/09/11/911-whistleblowers-ignored-retaliated-against/

clip..
Sibel Edmonds, Former Language Specialist; FBI — Ms. Edmonds worked for the FBI’s Washington Field Office as a language specialist with Top Secret Clearance performing translations for counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations dealing with Turkey, Iran, and Turkic speaking Central Asian countries. She contacted the 9/11 Commission in May 2003 and requested a meeting to provide them with information directly related to the terrorist attack. The Commission investigators refused to meet with Edmonds and informed her that due to their limited resources and time they were not going to interview all witnesses. She was able to provide the commission with information and documents only after certain 9/11 family members intervened directly. Ms. Edmonds’ testimony was completely censored by the Commission.

clip...
Coleen Rowley, Retired Division Counsel; FBI — In May 2002, Coleen Rowley, as the Division Counsel at the FBI Minneapolis Office, blew the whistle on the FBI’s failure to pursue Zacarias Moussaoui’s case prior to 9/11, despite all attempts made by the Minneapolis division counterterrorism agents. She reported that FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C., had mishandled and neglected to take action on information provided by her division. Despite her high-profile case the commission chose not to interview Ms. Rowley. According to Ms. Rowley, no one from the FBI Minneapolis Office (several Agents had direct information) was ever asked to provide testimony information to the 9/11 Commission.


and from the NSWBC
http://www.nswbc.org/press.htm
Some of the news items are there.

[lonestarnot]

22. They are definitely hiding something and are still managing to

get away with it. Hell even I was interviewed by the FBI re someone who had a 747 flight simulator on a university website. Unbelievable that they wouldn't listen to these people. They didn't need to listen because they knew and didn't want the blowback.

[lonestarnot]

17. Welcome To Terror Land

“They loaded two Ryder trucks right outside, then drove the trucks right onto a C-130 military cargo plane at Sarasota Airport which flew out with Jeb Bush aboard.”


Why is someone making a profit off this information? Why can this shit be free. America wants to hear the details that we supposedly have to wait 30 years for..hmmmf.

[Octafish]

29. Never forgive the Press Corpse for failing to follow the bloody dots...

...back to Bushler.

Hopsicker is a national treasure -- a real journalist.

Jerry Politex does a bang-up of job of pegging the turds, too.

Bush's Path to 9/11:

How Bush Removed Antiterrorism Protections, Without Providing Replacements, Bush Downgrades Anti-Terrorism

Condi Rice brought a set of understandings, a corporate style, and certain administrative experiences to her job at the White House, which explains her focus in the months prior to 9/11, asserts Douglas Jehl and David Sanger (New York Times, April 4, 2004). She decided that while working as Bush's National Security Advisor, her three concerns would be to concentrate on traditional world power politics, bringing her professional and educational background as a "Europeanist" to the table; paring down the Security Council to make it more operational, delegating authority in the corporate manner; and helping Bush to achieve his campaign pledge of creating a missile-defense system, satisfying both senior-level Republican bureaucrats and defense contractors, the latter being part of the corporate group that put Bush in the White House. Rice had no missile-defense background skills, other than the intelligent use of her enthusiasm for supporting Bush's agenda.

Although "in Februrary 2001 George J. Tenet, the director of central inttlligence, told Congress that terrorism was the top threat facing the United States, Jehl and Sanger report that Rice's deputy, Steven Hadley, "deeply connected to the neoconservative wing of the administration," which included, among others, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rumsfeld's Defense Department Deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, was assigned the task of overseeing the Bush administration's antiterrorism policy. Prior to 9/11, the neoconservatives in the Bush adminstration were more interested in Iraq and missle defense than antiterrorism.

Under the Clinton administration, the military came up with a plan to pressure the Taliban to get rid of bin Laden, using military, economic, diplomatic, and political means. The Bush administration never acted on the plon, according to David Johnson and Eric Schmitt, writing in the New York Times (April 4, 2004). In June of 2001 Hadley told Wolfowitz to start preparing a plan to take the place of Clinton's, but Rumsfeld, his boss, never ordered new military options to remove bin Laden.

During the first eight months of the Bush administration, over at the Department of Justice, which funds the FBI, Attorney General John Ashcroft was downgrading terrorism as a priority and slashing the Department's antiterrorism budget. In April of 2000, eight months before the election, Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, gave terrorism her top priority and requested greater funding in that area: "In the near term as well as the future, cybercrime and counterterrorism are going to be the most challenging hreats in the criminal justice area. Nowhere is the need for an up-to-date human and technical infrastructure more critical," she said.

CONTINUED...

www.BushWatch.com

Thanks for giving a damn, DemonFighterLives.

¡Estas chevere!

[seemslikeadream]

18. There are really only two choices

MIHOP OR LITHOP


BUDDY BUDDY
http://www.gsnmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/aug_05/atta.jpg
DO THE MATH

24 MINUTES

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A MILITARY ORDER WATCH THIS VIDEO

http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html




Dick Cheney exposed Valerie Plame to cover up his association with A.Q. Khan's Nuclear Walmart. Read about it here: http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/AMERICANJUDAS.pdf

[lonestarnot]

24. Typo? 34 minutes.

[Octafish]

30. Yeah. Bush the turd failed to do his job and order DEFCON 1.

The drunk coward just sat there, knowing what was to come.

Here's how that moment got there -- just the facts, from Jerry Politex:

Bush's Path to 9/11:
How Bush Removed Antiterrorism Protections, Without Providing Replacements, Dire Warnings With Little Response

The Bush administraqtion's focus in the months leading up to 9/11 was upon funding and creating a missile-defense system, on Iraq and its imagined "weapons of mass destruction," and the WMDs of other "rogue nations." This course of action was taken despite the fact that a proliferation of U.S. intelligence reports increasingly warned of something totally different: an attack on the U.S. from cell-based terrorist groups.

SNIP...

Clarke later said, "Prior to September 11th, a lot of people who were working full time on terrorism thought it was no more than a nuisance. They didn't understand that Al Qaeda was enormously powerful and insidious and that it was not going to stop until it really hurt us. John and some other senior officials knew that. The impatience really grew in us as we dealt with the dolts who didn't understand" (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020114fa_FACT1).

Clarke could have considered a corollary reading of the Bush administration's inaction: as has been too often the case in these 6 long years, if a program does not fit into the conservative/neocon agenda begun in the Reagan years and expanded since by the same group of men and women and their heirs, it is shunted off to the side and generally ignored. "The central notion that Mr. Bush did not make terrorism as high a priority as hindshight shows it should have been is one that he himself has admitted. Mr. Bush said as much in an interview with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward for his book on the response to September 11" (Christian Science Monitor, april 1, 2004).

SNIP...

Michael Tomasky observes: "When the Bush administration started hearing more intelligence noises in June and July of 2001, why didn't it--and Rice, specifically, since this was her baliwick--convene the same kind of daily meetings the Clinton administration had when it heard similar noise? The obvious answer...is that it wasn't a high priority and the facts could not make it so. And a model existed, then not even two years old, for how to avert catastrophe (American Prospect, April 4, 2004).

CONTINUED...

www.BushWatch.com

Thanks for giving a damn, lonestarnot.

¡Estas chevere!

[Octafish]

27. The one implies the other. Jerry Politex pegs the turds...

From BushWatch.com:

Bush's Path to 9/11: How Bush Removed Antiterrorism Protections, Without Providing Replacements

Rice's 9/11 Missile Defense Speech

"On September 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address 'the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday.' --but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals" (Washington Post, April 4, 2004).

SNIP...

According to U.S. officials interviewed by the Washington Post, the text of Rice's speech did not include even one mention of Osama Bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups. Instead, its focus was on Bush's missile defense system that has been desired by Republican administrations since Reagan's, perhaps because the same players, such as Dick Cheney, have been involved in its promotion, both as high-ranking government officials and as high-ranking defense industry businessmen.

SNIP...

"A quick data-retrieval search helps prove the point...that the administration was far more consumed with missile defense than with counter-terrorism.Type in 'Condoleezza Rice' and 'missile defense," and you'll find 56 citations in The New York Times for stories containing those two phrases between January 20 and September 11 of 2001. Do the same for 'Condoleezza Rice and 'terrorism' and you'll turn up 14 Times citations. Seven of those are about the Israelis and the Palestinians, a couple others about India and Pakistan, and one about Moammar Qadafi. Since newspapers (especially the newspaper of record) tend to write about what a sitting administration is talking about, this is pretty fair indication of where the Bush administration ranked al-Qaeda as a priority" (American Prospect, April 4, 2004...http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=7562).

Two days before the 9/11 attacks, Rice told "Meet the Press" that Bush was about "to get serious about the business of dealing with this emergent threat. Ballistic missiles are ubiquitous now." In the Rice speech, she was to reveal that Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense, former head of Halliburton, a defense contractor, had been named by Bush "to oversee a coordinated national effort to protect against a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction" (Washington Post, april 2, 2004).

CONTINUED...

www.BushWatch.com

Besides, everything else they've ever done is MIHOP, take Florida 2000. Brooks Brothers Riot, anyone?

Thanks for caring, 'Dreamy.



Rising of a New Man
1998
oil on canvas
48 X 24 inches
by Renata Palubinskas

http://regardfor.com/byrPal.html

[lonestarnot]

23. Fish who is Soubra?

[Octafish]

25. Mebbe a decoy...another Zacaria...one of many angry young men...

April 2000: Suspicious Flight School Student Leads to Arizona FBI Investigation

In early April 2000, Arizona FBI agent Ken Williams gets a tip that makes him suspicious that some flight students might be Islamic militants. Williams will begin an investigation based on this tip that will lead to his “Phoenix memo” warning about suspect Middle Easterners training in Arizona flight schools (see July 10, 2001) It appears that Lebanese flight school student Zacaria Soubra has been seen at a shooting range with Abu Mujahid, a white American Muslim who had fought in the Balkans and the Middle East. Abu Mujahid appears to match Aukai Collins, a white American Muslim who had fought in the Balkans and the Middle East, who also goes by the name Abu Mujahid, and is an FBI informant spying on the Muslim community in the area at the time (see 1998). Collins also claims to have been the informant referred to in the Phoenix memo, which again suggests that Collins was the one at the shooting range with Soubra. On April 7, Williams appears at Soubra’s apartment and interviews him. Soubra acts defiant, and tells Williams that he considers the US government and military legitimate targets of Islam. He has photographs of bin Laden on the walls. Williams runs a check on the license plate of Soubra’s car and discovers the car is actually owned by a suspected militant with explosives and car bomb training in Afghanistan who had been held for attempting to enter an airplane cockpit the year before (see November 1999-August 2001). On April 17, Williams starts a formal investigation into Soubra. Williams will be reassigned to work on an arson case and will not be able to get back to work on the Soubra investigation until June 2001 (see April 2000-June 2001). He will release the Phoenix memo one month later.After 9/11, some US officials will suspect Soubra had ties to terrorism. For instance, in 2003, an unnamed official will claim, “Soubra was involved in terrorist-supporting activities, facilitating shelter and employment for people ... involved with al-Qaeda.” For a time, he and hijacker Hani Hanjour attend the same mosque, though there is no evidence they ever meet. Soubra’s roommate at the time of Williams’ interview is Ghassan al-Sharbi. In 2002, al-Sharbi will be arrested in Pakistan with al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida. While Williams will focus on Soubra, al-Sharbi will also be a target of his memo. In 2004, Soubra will be deported to Lebanon after being held for two years. He will deny any connection to Hanjour or terrorism.

CONTINUED w LINKs...

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&projects_and_programs=phoenixMemo

Here's more on Soubra:

Al Muhajiroun leader in Arizona Zakaria Soubra deported after being linked to 9/11 hijackers and Tempe mosque

Student at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University " caught the attention of the FBI agent"

by Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
May 2, 2004

Here we have more evidence of the deception being attempted by Kamran Bokhari, the Al Muhajiroun spokesman in North America , Bokhari is a fellow of the CSID,Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and interim treasurer and secretary of the AMSS, Association of Muslim Social Scientists.

In his response to a MIM press release, Bokhari had stated that Al Muhajiroun in the US was started by a small group of disaffected Hizb ut Tahrir members in New York and gave the impression that he was one of the lone members in the U.S. and that he occupied an insignificant and isolated position in Springfield, Missouri.

In fact,there were several groups of Al Muhajiroun supporters in the U.S, and Soubra's involvement Al Muhajiroun ,while a student at an aeronautical univerrsity, brought him to the attention of the FBI . http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/31

MIM: Zacakaria joined Al Muhajiroun in London and was in close contact with it's leader Omar Bakri. He started a chapter of Al Muhajiroun in Arizona in 1999, had ties to the Tempe mosque, and was linked to Hani Hanjour, one of the 9/11 hijackers.

CONTINUED w Loads more...

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/68

[Imagevision]

28. Bush solved the probelm by allowing FBI-CIA to share intel - Cute!!

[Octafish]

31. Oldest Excuse in Intel Book. Here's what the FBI record shows...

FBI agents Williams in Phoenix, Rowley and Samit in Minneapolis and Wright in Chicago did all they could to get superiors in Washington alerted about their suspicions of terrorists in the USA.

At FBI headquarters, agents Rolince, Frasca, Bowman and Maltbie saw nothing. Nothing.



http://www.textmap.com/person/harry-samit.htm

So they're excuse to the 9-11 Whitewash Commish was to say everyone was a little bit to blame.

Another question I'd like to ask: "Who told all these incomepetents to STFU?"

And, "Why did they all get promoted, bonuses and other perq.s of a job well-done, when they were anything but."

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Octafish/30

Edit: Williams, not Wright, in Phoenix.

[bobthedrummer]

32. Wallace J. Hilliard datadump

Supports higher education of "the best and the brightest" from minorities in Wisconsin
http://www.math.wisc.edu/giving/Hilliard.html

Used insurance premium profits to buy into aviation
http://www.secinfo.com/dR7P7.8b.htm

Stock fraud allegations in Wisconsin (way down on archive list File No.5-04156(EX))
http://www.wdfi.org/newsroom/admin_orders/05_archive.htm

Ties to RW religious groups/Falwell
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0304/S00134.htm

on edit
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1294206