Posted on 08/15/2002 3:47:00 PM PDT by Liberty Teeth
CIA Letter Raises Further Doubts About Barrett Story on Sale of 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles to bin Laden, According to the Violence Policy Center
- PRNewswire -
Agency That Ran Secret Afghan Aid Program Flatly Denies Role in Transfer Of 25 Barrett Sniper Rifles to bin Laden Organization Letter Confirms Earlier VPC Report Based on Interviews With Former CIA Officials That Ran Aid Program
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released a letter from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency that flatly denies any CIA role in the transfer of 25 Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifles to terrorist Osama bin Laden. The letter to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) raises further doubts about Barrett's explanation that the transfer was part of an official U.S. aid program. The letter confirms a February 2002 VPC report, based on interviews with former top CIA officials, that found no credible evidence that the transfer was part of the official U.S. aid program.
The transfer of 25 Barrett anti-armor sniper rifles was revealed in the 2001 criminal trial of bin Laden operatives convicted of bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa. Government witness Essam al Ridi, a naturalized Egyptian, testified that he bought the 25 anti-armor sniper rifles and shipped them to bin Laden's group. After the VPC reported this transfer, which occurred in 1988 or 1989, the Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Co. claimed that the rifles sent to bin Laden were part of the secret American program of aid to Afghan rebels fighting occupying Soviet forces. It accused the VPC of hiding this information.
However, the CIA, which ran the secret Afghan aid program, told Congressman Waxman that after "an extensive review of our records," it had found "no information that indicates the Central Intelligence Agency aided or was otherwise involved in a transfer of weapons by Essam al Ridi to Afghanistan between 1985 and 1990." The letter confirms what the three top CIA officials who ran the Afghan rebel aid program told the VPC earlier this year -- the 25 rifles transferred to Osama bin Laden were not part of the U.S. aid program.
"All of the objective, credible evidence now supports the VPC's position," said VPC Senior Policy Analyst Tom Diaz. "We still don't know exactly how or from whom Essam al Ridi got the 25 Barrett rifles he shipped to bin Laden. But it is clear that he was not acting on behalf of the U.S. government, as Barrett claims. Instead, he was simply taking advantage of lax federal laws that allow the easy purchase of weapons of war like these by terrorists, other extremists, and common criminals."
Adds Diaz, "The burden is clearly on Barrett to put up or shut up and release any documents it may have supporting its version of the transfer of these anti-armor sniper rifles to bin Laden's agent."
The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational organization working to stop gun death and injury in America. To obtain a copy of the report, visit the VPC's web site at http://www.vpc.org/ .
Violence Policy Center
Website: http://www.vpc.org/
But I don't believe for a second that the VPC cares a whit about ethics or moral lapses. They want Barrett out of business. This gives them "ammunition."
We weren't exactly at WAR either.
Not necessarily. The CIA, routinely "can find no record" of such and such, even to the extent of recent, accurate maps of Belgrade, showing where the Chinese embassy is located. When the CIA says it can find "no record" of assisting the sale, maybe Barrett is lying - but then again, maybe the records were destroyed, or the CIA doesn't want to acknowledge the identity of the agent who facilitated the sale, or maybe the tight boundaries of the denial - assisted by this person and between one specific date and another, have non-lying ways to deny, such as being outside the date boundaries, or having had the arms transferred to an intermediary person or front organization not named in the denial.
Seriously, that's why I qualified my statement with "if true." It occurred to me that the CIA didn't say that Barrett was NOT involved in the guerilla-arming campaign; it just said they had no records. Such legal hair-splitting is critical in the spook game, and falls under "plausible deniability."
VPC. How do you know the VPC is lying? When it publishes anything, VPC is lying.
Common criminals who can afford a $7,000 plus rifle? VPC, your deceptiveness is showing. Too bad there are plenty of mindless sheep in this country who go catatonic at the mere mention of the word "gun". Shame on VPC for preying on the willfully mentally retarded.
The point is, by 1988, anyone willing to do even minimal homework would have known that Osama bin Laden and his coven were hardcore terrorists who had been linked to several attacks on Americans and Western facilities.
That isn't to say that Barrett knew, or that the CIA hadn't "hired" bin Laden to fight with the Mujahadeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan. But certainly there is adequate room for doubt.
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