Nets Pounce on No bin Laden-Saddam Link, But Bush Believed Media

Media Research Center ^ | Thursday June 17, 2004 | staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The 1,743^rd CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Thursday June 17, 2004 (Vol. Nine; No. 106)
 

1. Nets Pounce on No bin Laden-Saddam Link, But Bush Believed Media
The networks pounced Wednesday night on how the 9-11 Commission decided, as CNN’s David Ensor put it in echoing the commission’s exaggeration of administration claims, “the commission staff report says Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and backs that up with some evidence.” CBS’s John Roberts stressed how the commission undermined President Bush, describing the Iraq connection as “one of President Bush’s last surviving justifications for war in Iraq.” Roberts charged: “The report is yet another blow to the President’s credibility.” ABC’s Terry Moran proposed: “After the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq undermined President Bush’s main argument for going to war, this new finding by the 9-11 Commission challenges his case on another front.” Unmentioned by ABC, how maybe the Bush administration believed there was a bin Laden-Iraq connection because they believed ABC News. In 1999, ABC’s Sheila MacVicar trumpeted how “ABC News has learned that” a top Iraqi official “made a secret trip to Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden. Three intelligence agencies tell ABC News they cannot be certain what was discussed, but almost certainly, they say, bin Laden has been told he would be welcome in Baghdad.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[Mo1]

Is this the indictment you are talking about??

Clinton Indictment Cited Iraq-bin Laden Link

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1153093/posts

[Mo1]

OK .. is this it??

http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/98110402.htm


United States Information Agency


04 November 1998

BIN LADEN, ATEF INDICTED IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT FOR AFRICAN BOMBINGS
(Terrorists will be tracked down, officials say) (920)

By Judy Aita
USIA Staff Writer

New York -- Usama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef were indicted November 4 in Manhattan federal court for the August 7 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and for conspiring to kill Americans outside the United States.

US Attorney Mary Jo White and Assistant director of the FBI office in New York Lewis Schiliro -- accompanied by a group of other federal, state and local officials involved in the investigation -- announced the indictments at a press conference. Ambassador David Carpenter of the US Department of State also announced rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of bin Laden and Atef.

"Usama bin Laden and his military commander Muhammad Atef are charged with plotting and carrying out the most heinous acts of international terrorism and murder," White said.

"Their alleged victims include the hundreds of African and American citizens who tragically lost their lives in the embassy bombings in east Africa on August 7, 1998, and the thousands more who were seriously injured. In a greater sense, all of the citizens of the world are also victims whenever and wherever the cruel and cowardly acts of international terrorism strike," she said. "It is up to the authorities of the world to respond vigorously and relentlessly to such terrorist attacks. This investigation is continuing worldwide and will continue until all of those responsible are brought to justice," White stressed.

Schiliro said that the indictment demonstrates the "resolve and determination of the entire law enforcement team to bring to justice all those who were responsible for the murder of innocent Americans, Kenyans, and Tanzanians on August 7."

"This investigation has been given the highest priority," the FBI official said. "Our investigative strategy is clear: We will identify, locate, and prosecute all those responsible right up the line from those who constructed and delivered the bombs to those who paid for them and ordered it done."

"Though far from complete, in three short months much has been accomplished due to the dedication and determination of the investigators and prosecutors and also because of the professionalism and total cooperation of the governments of Kenya, Tanzania, and the Comoros Islands," he said.

The investigation deployed the largest contingent of FBI agents abroad and included members of the multi-agency joint terrorist task force -- New York City Police Department detectives, US customs agents, US Secret Service, the New York State Police, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"The work they have done in recovering physical evidence at the crime scene and developing other leads that will assist in this investigation cannot be overstated," Schiliro said. "Their resolve and determination to identify all those involved should not be underestimated."

New York City Police Chief Howard Safir said that the indictment "sends a very clear message that terrorists will be held accountable no matter where they commit their acts."

Both White and Schiliro stressed that the investigation will not end with the current indictment and is continuing.

The 238-count indictment charges, among other things, that bin Laden and Atef along with co-defendants Wadih el Hage, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed Sadeek Odeh, and Mohamed Rashed Daoud al'Owhali, acted together with other members of "al Qaeda" -- the worldwide terrorist organization led by bin Laden -- to murder US nationals, including members of the American military stationed in Saudi Arabia following the Gulf War and in Somalia as part of UN Operation Restore Hope, as well as those employed at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They established front companies, provided false identity and travel documents, and provided false information to authorities in various countries.

Bin Laden's "al Qaeda" organization functioned both on its own and through other terrorist organizations, including the Al Jihad group based in Egypt, the Islamic Group also known as el Gamaa Islamia led at one time by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and a number of other jihad groups in countries such as Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Bin Laden, White charged, engaged in business transactions on behalf of Al Qaeda, including purchasing warehouses for storage of explosives, transporting weapons, and establishing a series of companies in Sudan to provide income to al Qaeda and as a cover for the procurement of explosives, weapons, and chemicals, and for the travel of operatives.

According to the indictment, bin Laden and al Qaeda forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the Government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah with the goal of working together against their common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.

"In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq," the indictment said.

Beginning in 1992, bin Laden allegedly issued through his "fatwah" committees a series of escalating "fatwahs" against the United States, certain military personnel, and, eventually in February 1998, a "fatwah" stating that Muslims should kill Americans -- including civilians -- anywhere in the world they can be found.

Bin Laden and Atef, both of whom are fugitives, if convicted, face maximum sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole or death, White said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

yES....Wonder if anyone has a direct link to it, that is if it is online!

[Mo1]

I can't swear on it .. but I think I remember seeing one

I'm looking in my book marks to see if I'm right in my thinking

I also found this

The collaboration of Iraq and al Qaeda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1144277/posts

[nopardons]

bttt

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

"In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq," the indictment said.

That looks like it might be what we want!

I'll throw in some pings for the west coast late crew.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And from the USIA we have this:

According to the indictment, bin Laden and al Qaeda forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the Government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah with the goal of working together against their common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.

[Defender2]

Alamo-Girl any help here for Ernest_at_the_Beach would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, HUGS, D2

:-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The 238-count indictment charges,.......

probably a long PDF document.

[Mo1]

Did I find the right one??

I have so many things bookmarked .. I really need to organize my things better .. what a mess

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping for above updates by Mo1!

[Mo1]

probably a long PDF document.

Thanks .. Still looking

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What you have put up really helps.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[Mo1]

HA! ... Is this it?


http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/pdfs/binladen/indict.pdf

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping! I do not have the actual indictment, but by following the source on the articles (if they don't have it already) - y'all can find the court and get a copy from the clerk (I think). Here are the two I show:

WorldNetDaily.com 10/26/00 Julie Foster "......In an interview on an Arab television station, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih said an Egyptian national is to blame for the attack on the USS Cole. "The person who perpetrated the operation (against the Cole), who could have been accompanied by another person (at the time of the attack), is of Egyptian nationality, according to the early results of the enquiry," Saleh said. ....... The suspect is believed to belong to Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group currently blamed for the assault....... Clinton administration officials said the new information regarding the Egyptian suspect is part of a growing body of evidence connecting the deadly attack to Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden. The terrorist has been indicted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224. Most recently, a tape of bin Laden threatening the United States was televised. He also recently married a woman from Yemen and has longtime family ties to the country, Clinton administration officials said. Bin Laden's terrorist organization has close ties to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. ........Salih specified in the television interview that the Islamic militants responsible for the attack had fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation and then moved to Yemen. Bin Laden was a leader in the effort to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan and is reported to live there now under the protection of the ruling Taliban militia. ......"

vny.com/UPI 1/26/01 Richard Sale "......Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamicterrorist suspect sought by the United States in connection with the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, had months earlier been linked to the 1993 deaths of 18 U.S. Rangers in Somalia. A Justice Department indictment of those responsible, however, was suppressed and no action taken, U.S. intelligence sources revealed Friday. ..... According to former U.S. intelligence officials, bin Laden was secretly indicted for the Ranger killings in 1997. "I personally discussed the indictment with the FBI," one former U.S. government source said. But the indictment was later "torn up" and then made part of a public indictment of bin Laden and 17 co-defendants filed in 1998 by the Justice Department following the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 224 people died. The Ranger murders are mentioned specifically on pages 18 and19 of that indictment. .......According to former U.S. military sources, the U.S. military leadership, led by Adm. Jonathan Howe, senior officer of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia, believed that Aidid's Somalia National Alliance forces were behind the July 12 murder of Pakistani troops in the U.N. force, and that the warlord should be captured and tried as a war criminal. Howe requested a Ranger force to hunt Aidid down. ......By the early summer of 1993, Aidid began an escalation. There were attacks by Islamic detachments operating out of Aidid-held areas of Mogadishu on U.N. forces, and on June 5, 24 Pakistani soldiers were ambushed and killed. The U.N. promptly declared the SNA "an outlaw faction," according to one U.S. official. .......On June 12, Aidid and several of his aides left Mogadishu for Khartoum where they attended a People's Arab and Islamic Conference chaired by Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, a Sudanese leader who sponsored terrorism against the United States and backed the spread of Islam throughout the Horn of Africa, according to U.S. official who spoke to United Press International on condition of not being named. ....."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

FANTASTIC!


I think that is it!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Mo1 found it!

[Defender2]

Thank You VERY VERY Much, Alamo-Girl, You are indeed a Godsend!!!!:-)


Thanks for the info and the tips!!!!:-)


Warm Hugs And Kisses, D2

:-)