Miami Herald: FBI covered-up high-level AQ confederate in FL; Saudi fled on 08/30/01

leveymg

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Thu Sep-08-11 10:28 AM
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Miami Herald: FBI covered-up high-level AQ confederate in FL; Saudi fled on 08/30/01

Edited on Thu Sep-08-11 11:02 AM by leveymg

In a breaking story published in the Miami Herald, noted author Anthony Summers reveals for the first time information that the FBI withheld about important suspects from Congressional investigators and the 9/11 Commission, and evidence provided by Congress to the 9/11 panel about a high-level al-Qaeda supporter in Florida that was never publicly released.

The FBI withheld information about an Al-Qaeda network in Florida from both sets of investigators, according to former U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

According to the report, http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/07/2395698/link-to-911-hijackers-found-in.html#ixzz1XLntuSIS

Less than two weeks before the 9/11 hijackers slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, members of a Saudi family abruptly vacated their luxury home near Sarasota, leaving a brand new car in the driveway, a refrigerator full of food, fruit on the counter � and an open safe in a master bedroom.

In the weeks to follow, law enforcement agents not only discovered the home was visited by vehicles used by the hijackers, but phone calls were linked between the home and those who carried out the death flights � including leader Mohamed Atta � in discoveries never before revealed to the public.

Ten years after the deadliest attack of terrorism on U.S. soil, new information has emerged that shows the FBI found troubling ties between the hijackers and residents in the upscale community in southwest Florida, but the investigation wasn�t reported to Congress or mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who co-chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into the attacks, said he should have been told about the findings, saying it "opens the door to a new chapter of investigation as to the depth of the Saudi role in 9/11. ..."

08/30/01 - Wealthy Al-Qaeda figure flees Florida home suddenly.

Here's the context of the prior week that the Miami Herald story doesn't provide.

Since these Saudi nationals left food on the table and dirty diapers out in their house when they apparently fled, that's a sign that one of two things happened on August 30, 2001:

1) They're part of the organized attack ring that received the Go-signal that a pre-arranged plan was in motion, and they dropped everything and swiftly proceeded to their next safe house; or,
2) they received a tip that had they been discovered, and they cleared the hell out of Sarasota, FL with only what they could carry.

Given that they left fruit out and dirty diapers in the house that indicates, at least, that they weren't planning on coming back, and left in such a hurry that they didn't even bother to empty the trash. They did take the contents of the safe and main computer with them, so they showed discipline in their escape to their next stopover in Arlington, VA, before fleeing the country.

I would tend to go with scenario 1), but it could be either way.

Here's another part of the context the 9/11 Commission did not highlight:

08/23/01 - CIA Director George Tenet is briefed repeatedly on the Zakarias Moussaoui case, who had been arrested by the FBI several days earlier. (Wash Post, 4/14/2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13122-2004Apr14.html , 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 275; Associated Press, 3/21/2006)

08/24/01 - Tenet apparently takes an unplanned trip to Crawford, TX, and briefs President George W. Bush. According to Tenet's book, The Center of the Storm, the CIA Director talks to Bush about matters that follow-up on the 08/06 PDB, a CIA briefing that warned that "Bin Laden Planning Attacks In the U.S." The White House web site for August 25 will quote Bush as remarking to public visitors that he met with Tenet on the 24th. See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/258

In a verbatim transcript, the President is quoted during an impromptu walking tour of Bush's Crawford, TX ranch that he had met the day before with CIA Director and newly appointed members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Rice were also present at a Presidential press conference in Crawford on the 24th, according to the White House press notice issued that day. In the August 25 transcript, the President Bush states to reporters and visitors:

THE PRESIDENT: " . . . Yesterday, we spent -- well, they arrived at 10:00 a.m. It took a while to get the press conference. We got back here at about 11:30 a.m. and met until 5:15 p.m. I think they left. That's the longest meeting I've had in a long time, on a very important subject . . .

Q When you have those business meetings, like the Joint Chiefs briefing, do you like to keep it separate from the living quarters on the ranch?

THE PRESIDENT: Actually, you know, what we call the governor's house, the place where you all came out during the -- that's where we went. Condi and Karen Hughes stayed there. And right across the street from that is a -- it's a nice looking government doublewide. (Laughter.) And that's where the mil aide, the nurse, the WHCA head, the doc, they stay.

The CIA briefings, I have on our porch, the end of our porch looking out over the lake. When Tenet came up, that's where we visited, out there.

You know, everybody wants to see the ranch, which I'm proud to show it off. So George Tenet and I -- yesterday, we piled in the new nominees for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice Chairman and their wives and went right up the canyon. "http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20 ... >

The "very important subject" discussed for almost six hours by Bush with his core national security team would likely have been the CIA's action the day before placing four wanted Al-Qaeda terrorists on the "watchlist" of persons to be detained if located in the US. On August 23 the Agency sent "cables to the State Department, the FBI, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, requesting that 'four bin Laden related individuals' including Almidhar and Alhazmi, be placed on the watchlist." (Washington Post, A8, September 21, 2002) Two of those - Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi - subsequently led the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon.

The pair had been the subject of CIA-directed surveillance since at least late 1999, when they were followed by the CIA to an Al-Qaeda planning session in Kuala Lumpur, at which they were observed meeting with a ranking terrorist operations director and Mohamed Atta's roommate, Ramzi Binalshibh, who subsequently wired money to them from Germany. Binalshibh also sent funds to Zacarias Moussaoui, who in October 2000 stayed at the same Al-Qaeda safehouse in Malaysia while on his way to the United States. On August 15, Moussaoui was arrested by the FBI at a Minnesota flight school.

***

Here's some more context that indicates that the Florida family were activated -- or may have themselves issued orders to others � shortly after the 9/11 hijackers received their final Go-order with a date, time, and specific flights to be hijacked.

Beginning August 25, all the 9/11 hijackers book their flights for September 11, 2001, using their apparent real names. The total cost of the tickets is in excess of $30,000: See, http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a083001c...

August 25: Khalid Almihdhar, who was watchlisted two days previously (see August 23, 2001), and Majed Moqed book tickets for American Airlines flight 77 using the AA.com website. They are collected from the American Airlines ticket counter at Baltimore Washington International Airport on September 5. The tickets were not mailed, because the shipping address did not match the credit card address.
August 26: Wail Alshehri buys a ticket for American Airlines flight 11 over the phone with his debit card. His brother Waleed buys a ticket for the same flight at the AA.com website using his debit card.
August 27: Nawaf Alhazmi, who was watchlisted four days before (see August 23, 2001), buys tickets for himself and his brother Salem for American Airlines flight 77 through Travelocity from a Kinkos computer in Laurel, Maryland, using his debit card (see August 25-27, 2001).
August 27: Saeed Alghamdi uses his debit card to purchase tickets for United Airlines flight 93 for himself and Ahmed Alnami from the UA.com website. The tickets are not paid for until September 5, 2001, due to a problem with the debit card.
August 27: Fayez Ahmed Banihammad uses his visa card to purchase tickets for himself and Mohamed Alshehri for United Airlines flight 175 over the telephone.
August 28: Mohamed Atta uses his debit card to buy tickets for American Airlines flight 11 for himself and Abdulaziz Alomari from the AA.com website.
August 28: Waleed Alshehri purchases a ticket for Satam Al Suqami for American Airlines flight 11 in person from the company�s counter at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
August 28: Marwan Alshehhi purchases a ticket for United Airlines flight 175 from the company�s counter at Miami International Airport.
August 29: Hamza Alghamdi books tickets for himself and Ahmed Alghamdi for United Airlines flight 175 from the UA.com website.
August 29: Ahmed Alhaznawi creates a new e-mail account and Travelocity.com account and uses them to book a ticket for himself on United Airlines flight 93.
August 30: Ziad Jarrah purchases a ticket for himself for United Airlines flight 93 from the UA website.
August 31: Hani Hanjour purchases a ticket for American Airlines flight 77 from ATS Advanced Travel Services in Totowa, New Jersey, paying in cash.
At least five tickets are one way only. There are numerous connections between the hijackers booked on the four flights by this point.

When you put these time-lines together, you have cause for a criminal homicide investigation of some very dangerous, powerful people who are not in custody or deceased. No wonder they covered up the Sarasota, FL link for almost a decade.

After ten years, it�s finally time for a real investigation.

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