Freeh, is he lying now, or was he lying in 2002?

[dsc]

Freeh tells us now that the Saudis stonewalled us at every turn about Kohbar Towers and only relented thanks to the elder Bush.

Here, is Louis Freeh back in 2002, under oath it should be noted.

2002 Press Release

10/09/2002
Louis Freeh praises Saudi cooperation on Khobar investigation


WASHINGTON DC, October 9, 2002: Former FBI Director Louis Freeh testified Tuesday before a joint hearing of the House/Senate Select Intelligence Committees on counter-terrorism efforts and the events surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11.



Mr. Freeh spoke about the support the FBI received from Saudi authorities in the Khobar Towers investigation, and reiterated the same points that have been made by many other law enforcement and government officials in regard to the ongoing close cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia in the war on terrorism.

According to Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan: "The level of cooperation we currently have with the United States is unprecedented. Our law enforcement and intelligence authorities are working closely together and achieving important results in the fight against terrorism."

The following are excerpts from Freeh's testimony:

"Fortunately, the FBI was able to forge an effective working relationship with the Saudi police and interior ministry. After several trips and meetings with the Saudi leadership, and particularly Prince Nayef, the interior minister, the FBI was granted permission to expand its presence and joint operational capability within the Kingdom.

"I was particularly fortunate to gain the trust and cooperation of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who was critical in achieving the FBI's investigative objectives in the Khobar case. Due to Prince Bandar's forthcoming support and personal efforts, the FBI was able to establish an FBI office in Riyadh.

"Our Arabic-speaking special agent, who became the first FBI agent to be assigned to Saudi Arabia, quickly made critical liaison, and relationships of trust were established between the FBI and the Mabahith. Evidence and access to important witnesses were obtained, and excellent investigative support was furnished to various teams of FBI agents who worked with Saudi Arabia to pursue the case.

"In one instance, Canadian authorities, acting on Saudi information, arrested a Khobar subject who was brought to the United States and thereafter sent by the Attorney-General to Saudi Arabia for prosecution. The cooperation the FBI received as a result of Prince Bandar and Prince Nayef's personal intervention and support was unprecedented and invaluable.

"From time to time, a road block or legal obstacle would occur, which was expected, given the marked differences between our legal and procedural systems. Despite these challenges, the problems were always solved by the personal intervention of Prince Bandar and his consistent support for the FBI.

"The case almost faltered on the issue of the FBI's critical request for direct access to six Saudi nationals who were being detained in the Kingdom and who had admitted participation in the Khobar bombing. One of these subjects, who had been returned to Saudi Arabia from another country, had key information which would later implicate senior Iranian government officials as responsible for the planning, funding and execution of this attack.

"We needed direct access to these subjects, because their admissions and testimony were critical to support our prosecution. Yet no FBI agent had ever been given such unprecedented access to a detained Saudi national, which access could potentially taint their prosecution under Islamic law. For the same reasons, the FBI would have been very reluctant to allow Saudi police officers to come to the United States and interview a subject under like conditions.

"Moreover, by making these witnesses directly available to the FBI, the Saudis understood that they would be helping to provide evidence that senior officials of the government of Iran were responsible for the Khobar attack. Despite these extremely sensitive and complex issues, the Saudis put their own interests aside to aid the FBI in the United States.

"Supported by Prince Bandar, Prince Nayef, the police and Crown Prince Abdullah, they decided to grant the FBI request to interview the detainees. Ambassador Wyche Fowler closely worked with me in this endeavor, and we finally succeeded. Teams of FBI agents were then able to have access to these critical detainees, and full debriefings were conducted in Saudi Arabia.

"As a direct result of these and later direct interviews, the Department of Justice was able to return a criminal indictment in June 2001, charging 13 defendants with the murders of our 19 servicemen. The indictment was returned just days before the statute of limitations would have run on some of the criminal charges.

"The case could not have been made without the critical support and active assistance of Saudi Arabia and the State Department through Ambassador Fowler."


http://www.saudiembassy.net/2002News/Press/PressDetail.asp?cYear=2002&cIndex=52

same material is on pages 31 and 32 of this source

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:FpL-oPwYY4AJ:www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/100802freeh.pdf+FBI+director+Freeh+Saudi+Cooperation&hl=en

Either he lied then or lied now. Which is it? And why won't the press ask him?

[hippiechick]

1. Excellent find !

:thumbsup:

[dsc]

2. second and third item on a google search

the press should be able to replicate this. But thanks.

[hippiechick]

4. key word for the press: SHOULD

Let's not hold our breath. :hi:

[ck4829]

3. A plea to my fellow DU'ers

1. Rec this thread

2. Show this to anyone who brings up Freeh

[CatWoman]

5. Louis Freeh is a dick

and dicks lie thru the teeth.

whether five years ago, or five minutes ago.

[Fla Dem]

14. Why should Freeh's book be given anymore credibility than former

Treasury Secretary: Paul O'Neill. when his book came out, the RW denounced him as a loony, disgruntled has been. Can't the same be said about Freeh?

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[rosesaylavee]

6. Maybe I am not following correctly but I think this

does reflect what he said this morning on MTP. He was able to get cooperation with the Saudis after the Bush's helped him. He had been asking for Clinton to do so but wasn't able to get access to the Khobar defendants until after 2000.

He is a slime but I am not convinced this proves he is lying.

[dsc]

7. President Bush isn't mentioned one time in this testimony

nor should be stated, is any non cooperation by the Saudis. He claims that the Saudis cooperated thanks to the State Department, Ambassador Fawler, and an unnamed agent. No mention of Bush.

[rosesaylavee]

9. ah Ha. I get it. He is a slime AND a liar.

thanks for posting - I will bookmark it for future fodder against Freeh.

What would this crowd have done if they hadn't had Bill Clinton to kick around for the 8 years he was in office and these past 5 when he has served them so well as a convenient scapegoat?

[MADem]

8. Is he lying? Are the sleazy plucker's LIPS MOVING??

ON EDIT...found this GREAT ARTICLE by JOHN PODESTA...and he should know!!!!! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401784_pf.html

During his tenure as director of the FBI, Louis Freeh presided over a series of blunders and failures that brought the bureau to a low point in its history. From the embarrassment of the Russian mole Robert Hanssen to the bungling of the Wen Ho Lee investigation to the wasting of hundreds of millions of dollars in a failed attempt to build a modern, computerized case management system, the bureau under Freeh's leadership stumbled from one blunder to the next, with little or no accountability. The nadir, as the nation knows too well, was reached in the astonishing string of failures that helped leave America vulnerable to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In the face of this record, Freeh has now published "My FBI," a book distinguished by its shameless buck-passing. Nothing, it seems, was ever Louis Freeh's fault.

Who was to blame for the fact that there weren't enough FBI agents working on counterterrorism? According to Freeh, it was Congress. But in testimony three years ago, Freeh declared that "Congress has shown great foresight in strengthening" counterterrorism efforts, tripling the FBI's counterterrorism budget from $97 million in 1996 to more than $300 million in 1999. Whose fault was it that the FBI remained incapable of basic file management? Congress's, Freeh contends -- it underfunded the bureau's technology program. But as the report of the Sept. 11 commission points out, Congress did not meet FBI requests in the late 1990s because the bureau had squandered so much money already. Equally appalling is Freeh's recent claim on "60 Minutes" that the bureau was too distracted by the many "scandals" in the Clinton White House to attend to the terrorist threat. Of course, none of those politically motivated witch hunts, in which Freeh did the bidding of his congressional patrons on the partisan right, resulted in a conviction. And never mind that Freeh's FBI ought to have been able to protect the American people while pursuing other investigations at the same time....there were countless memos circulating in the bureaucracy and numerous meetings that Freeh refused to attend. As Benjamin and Simon aptly wrote in "The Age of Sacred Terror," the FBI under Freeh was "a surly colossus" that listened to no one, provided intelligence to no one and took direction from no one.

Perhaps no part of Freeh's auto-whitewash is more self-aggrandizing and inaccurate than his rewrite of the history of the investigation into Khobar Towers. Freeh claims the White House did not support his attempts to probe the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia...In fact, on numerous occasions senior Clinton administration officials reiterated requests for full cooperation on Khobar Towers, including access to key witnesses, with interlocutors at the highest levels of the Saudi government. This culminated in a face-to-face demand by President Bill Clinton to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington in the fall of 1998. Freeh, who was not in that meeting and cites only unnamed sources, claims that Clinton never pushed seriously for cooperation, instead asking Abdullah for a contribution to his planned presidential library.

This account does not pass the straight-face test. Those who were in the room, including several still in government service who cannot speak publicly, all concur that Clinton pushed Abdullah hard for cooperation, telling him that the future of the American-Saudi relationship depended on the kingdom's cooperation. In short order, that cooperation was forthcoming and produced the information that led to the eventual indictments. Freeh alleges that the real reason for the Saudi turnaround was the intervention, at his request, of former president George H.W. Bush. That Bush added his voice to the chorus of administration demands reflects well on our former president, but the argument that the Saudis would deliver on the basis of an appeal from someone who was out of office as opposed to someone whose actions would determine the course of U.S.-Saudi relations is completely implausible....

The whole thing is worth a read--it is a solid smackdown!!!!!!

[dsc]

10. kick

[ck4829]

11. Kick

[Laelth]

12. Kick.

:kick:

-Laelth

[spanone]

13. Louis Freeh is a lying POS. I say he's LYING NOW.

How else do you explain the timing of his book. It's all about selling books not telling truths.

[myrna minx]

15. A big kick.

:kick: