September 11: What You Ought Not To Know

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> Thu, 09 Sep 2004 20:39:33 -0400

> palast

> September 11: What You " Ought Not To Know "

 

>

> SEPTEMBER 11: WHAT YOU " OUGHT NOT TO KNOW "

> DOCUMENT 199-I AND THE FBI'S WORDS TO CHILL THE SOUL

>

> Thursday, September 9, 2004

> by Greg Palast

>

> On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on

> the dust in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television

> received a call in London from a top-level US

> intelligence agent. He was not happy. Shortly after

> George W. Bush took office, he told us reluctantly,

> the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and

> the FBI, " were told to back off the Saudis. "

>

> We knew that. In the newsroom, we had a document

> already in hand, marked, " SECRET " across the top and

> " 199-I " - meaning this was a national security

> matter.

>

> The secret memo released agents to hunt down two

> member of the bin Laden family operating a

> " suspected terrorist organization " in the USA. It

> was dated September 13, 2001 -- two days too late

> for too many. What the memo indicates, corroborated

> by other sources, was that the agents had long

> wanted to question these characters ... but could

> not until after the attack. By that time, these bin

> Laden birds had flown their American nest.

>

> Back to the high-level agent. I pressed him to tell

> me exactly which investigations were spiked. None of

> this interview dance was easy, requiring switching

> to untraceable phones. Ultimately, the insider said,

> " Khan Labs. " At the time, our intelligence agencies

> were on the trail of Pakistan's Dr. Strangelove,

> A.Q. Khan, who built Pakistan's bomb and was selling

> its secrets to the Libyans. But once Bush and

> Condoleeza Rice's team took over, the source told

> us, agents were forced to let a hot trail go cold.

> Specifically, there were limits on tracing the Saudi

> money behind this " Islamic bomb. "

>

> Then we made another call, this time to an arms

> dealer in the Mideast. He confirmed that his partner

> attended a meeting in 1995 at the 5-star Hotel

> Royale Monceau in Paris where, allegedly, Saudi

> billionaires agreed to fund Al Qaeda fanatics. We

> understood it to be protection money, not really a

> sign of support for their attacks. Nevertheless,

> rule number one of investigative reporting is

> " follow the money " -- but the sheiks' piggy banks

> were effectively off-limits to the US agents during

> the Bush years. One of the men in the posh hotel's

> meeting of vipers happens to have been a Bush family

> business associate.

>

> Before you jump to the wrong conclusion, let me tell

> you that we found no evidence -- none, zero, no

> kidding -- that George Bush knew about Al Qaeda's

> plan to attack on September 11. Indeed, the grim

> joke at BBC is that anyone accusing George Bush of

> knowing anything at all must have solid evidence.

> This is not a story of what George Bush knew but

> rather of his very-unfunny ignorance. And it was not

> stupidity, but policy: no asking Saudis

> uncomfortable questions about their paying off

> roving packs of killers, especially when those

> Saudis are so generous to Bush family businesses.

>

> Yes, Bill Clinton was also a bit too tender towards

> the oil men of Arabia. But this you should know. In

> his last year in office, Clinton sent two

> delegations to the Gulf to suggest that the Royal

> family crack down on " charitable donations " from

> their kingdom to the guys who blew up our embassies.

>

>

> But when a failed Texas oil man took over the White

> House in January 2001, demands on the Saudis to cut

> off terror funding simply stopped.

>

> And what about the bin Laden " suspected terrorist

> organization " ? Called the World Assembly of Muslim

> Youth, the group sponsors soccer teams and summer

> camps in Florida. BBC obtained a video of one camp

> activity, a speech exhorting kids on the heroism of

> suicide bombings and hostage takings. While WAMY

> draws membership with wholesome activities, it has

> also acted as a cover or front, say the Dutch,

> Indian and Bosnian governments, for the recruitment

> of jihadi killers.

>

> Certainly, it was worth asking the bin Laden boys a

> few questions. But the FBI agents couldn't, until it

> was too late.

>

> In November 2001, when BBC ran the report on the

> spike of investigations of Saudi funding of terror

> in November 2001, the Bush defenders whom we'd

> invited to respond on air dismissed the concerns of

> lower level FBI agents who'd passed over the WAMY

> documents. No action was taken on the group headed

> by the bin Ladens.

>

> Then, in May this year, fifty FBI agents surrounded,

> invaded and sealed off WAMY's Virginia office. It

> was like a bad scene out of the 'Untouchables.' The

> raid took place three years after our report and

> long after the bin Ladens had waved bye-bye, it is

> not surprising that the feds seized mostly empty

> files and a lot of soccer balls.

>

> Why now this belated move on the bin Laden's former

> operation? Why not right after the September 11

> attack? This year's FBI raid occurred just days

> after an Islamist terror assault in Riyadh, Saudi

> Arabia. Apparently, messin' with the oil sheiks gets

> this Administration's attention. Falling towers in

> New York are only for Republican convention photo

> ops.

>

> The 199-I memo was passed to BBC television by the

> sleuths at the National Security News Service in

> Washington. We authenticated it, added in our own

> sleuthing, then gave the FBI its say, expecting the

> usual, " It's baloney, a fake. " But we didn't get the

> usual response. Rather, FBI headquarters said,

> " There are lots of things the intelligence community

> knows and other people ought not to know. "

>

> Ought not to know?

>

> What else ought we not to know, Mr. President? And

> when are we supposed to forget it?

>

>

> **************

>

>

> Greg Palast's reports for BBC Television Newsnight

> and The Guardian paper of Britain (with David

> Pallister) on White House interference in the

> investigation of terrorism won a 2002 California

> State University Journalism School 'Project

> Censored' Award.

>

> The BBC television reports, expanded and updated,

> will be released this month in the USA as a DVD,

> " Bush Family Fortunes, " produced by BBC's Meirion

> Jones. View a 2-minute preview at

> http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm

>

> The film will be premiered in 21 cities beginning on

> September 11, sponsored by Democracy for America.

>

http://www.takeyourcountryback.com/BUSHFAMILYFORTUNES/

>

>

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> ============================================