Grrrrrrrrrrr and to think of how many times Graham was on the floor ranting about intelligence!
Posted on 04/18/2005 11:12:43 PM PDT by Jimbaugh
It was one of the freakiest things in my entire life. I don't know how long it took me to realize I wasn't dreaming -- that it was real.
tin foil bump
Thanks for the ping. I recall a news report I heard in the 90's about threats to fly planes into buildings.
I remember it so well because of the visceral reaction I had to the mental image it created and the level of hatred I imagined in somebody who would do such a thing.
Unfortunately, we all got the opportunity to experience that first hand.
WPTV, Channel 5 Florida
October 7, 2002
[transcription of broadcast]
[Jim Sackett] Thank you. Tonight, questions about a possible connection to the worst day in American history. Did an admitted con man turned informant tip authorities, including a state senator and a U.S. senator, to a threat against the World Trade Center? Newschannel 5's Kathleen Walter is joining us with the results of a Newschannel 5 investigation tonight. Kathleen.
[Kathleen Walter] Well Jim, Randy Glass is a man with a criminal past but someone the government trusted enough with very sensitive and classified intelligence information. There is no dispute he was wired into international arms deals and may have heard about terrorist threats to the United States. What did a local and US senator from Florida do with the information he says he passed along?
It's the unthinkable. Terrorists using airplanes as deadly weapons to attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. But to Randy Glass, the idea that terrorists wanted to bring down the twin towers came as no surprise to him.
[Randy Glass] I felt incredibly uncomfortable. Because I knew that something was going to happen.
[Kathleen Walter] For more than two years, Glass was caught up in an international arms deal. An admitted con man living in Boca Raton, Florida, Glass put his skills to work for the government. An informant to the FBI and Florida's Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Glass and other agents posed as international arms dealers. Hawking arms purportedly diverted from US armories and luring in prospective weapons buyers who might have been linked to terrorism. His life as a secret agent was chronicled on tape.
[tape recording] Glass: "What would you do?"
Mohssen: "I'll kill him! I'll kill you!"
[Kathleen Walter] Through accused middleman Diaa Mohssen, Glass was introduced to weapons buyers who said they had connections to Islamic militant groups with possible links to Osama bin Laden.
[tape recording] Mohssen: "You know who supplies them with money?"
Glass: "Who?"
Mohssen: "Osama bin Laden."
Glass: "That's very nice. Thanks for mentioning that."
[Randy Glass] Americans were the enemy. And that the purpose of obtaining these weapons systems and nuclear materials was to use against Americans.
[Kathleen Walter] And Glass says threats against Americans didn't end there.
[Randy Glass] I did know there was a plan of attack on the United States. And the World Trade Center had been mentioned.
[Kathleen Walter] But in the summer of 2001, Glass's undercover work came to an end. Three months before September 11th, he reached out to Florida State Senator Ron Klein and told him about threats against national security. Klein says he doesn't recall any mention of World Trade Center threats.
[Ron Klein] This is before September 11th and all that. Um, again, it was enough information for me to say I don't know exactly what to do with this other than to contact one of my federal colleagues...
[Kathleen Walter] And so State Senator Ron Klein contacted the office of Florida Senator Bob Graham, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. According to Graham spokesperson Jill Greenberg, case worker Charlie Yonts spoke with Glass last summer, prior to September 11th, Glass claiming he had at least six conversations with the case worker. And while we've been unable to corroborate the nature of those conversations, Greenberg confirms some of that information was passed along to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
[Reporter interviewing Graham] A few months before September 11th, your office received information from A.T.F. informant Randy Glass who also worked on the terrorism task force. And, he also advised your office of terrorist intentions to bring down the World Trade Center. This was before September 11th. Your office tells me it forwarded information from Mr. Glass to the Intelligence Committee. And my question is, why did no one from the Committee follow up with Mr. Glass to pursue this?
[Bob Graham] Because we in turn gave that information to the appropriate intelligence agency. Uh, we are an oversight and legislative agency. The acutal operations of collection of information, interviewing possible sources, is the responsibility of the F.B.I. if it's a domestic matter or the C.I.A. if it's foreign.
[Kathleen Walter] And according to State Senator Klein, three weeks after he made the initial contact with Senator Graham's office, staffers there confirmed to him Glass's information had been passed on to the intelligence community.
[Reporter] So they confirmed to you that they sent it along.
[Ron Klein] Um hm. They said - they said to me that they had spoken, uh, they had processed it through their office, um, and um, spoken to Randy I believe is what they said and they had processed it.
[Bob Graham] I had a concern about that and a dozen other pieces of information, uh, which were emminating in the summer of 2001.
[Reporter] So you did forward Mr. Glass's information...
[Bob Graham] Yeah.
[Reporter] Along to ... to whom?
[Bob Graham] I, I cannot say what agency but the agency that we felt was the most appropriate for the nature of the information that he was providing.
[Kathleen Walter] Despite his keen insight into the world of terrorists, Randy Glass says that until recently no one from any intelligence agency had contacted him. And since our interview with Senator Graham in Boca Raton last month his office offered this clarification. That:
"Mister Glass didn't provide any information to our office prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that needed to be pursued by intelligence agencies. When I was interviewed in Boca Raton, I said I did know of this individual and that he had been in touch with the Intelligence Committee, but I didn't indicate when that contact had taken place. It was earlier this year, not prior to Sept. 11, 2001."
[Kathleen Walter] Even though Graham's press aide Jill Greenberg and State Senator Klein says Glass's information did go before the intelligence community prior to September 11th, 2001, the senator still maintains that's not the case, even though that's what he initially told us.
[Jim Sackett] Kathleen, a lot of information to digest, but do we know exactly what information did go to the senator?
[Kathleen Walter] Well, at the end of the day we just don't know. We called Graham staffer Charlie Yonts several times to find out more about his conversations with Mr. Glass, but he did not return our phone calls. We are still investigating, and hope to have answers in the coming weeks. Live on the night beat, Kathleen Walter, Newschannel 5.
Grrrrrrrrrrr and to think of how many times Graham was on the floor ranting about intelligence!
So if you take this information and add it to the information the secruity guy in Boston gave to Kerry, we pretty much knew what was going to happen. We just didn't know when.
Wow!
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.
I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/911-graham-admits.htm
I thought it was also common knowledge that they learned all they needed to know from the trials of the 1993 WTC bombers. At those trials, engineers revealed in detail all the structural elements of the WTC design...information that would later be used to determine exactly where the planes should ram into the buildings.
I've always thought this to be one of the most ironic twists of the WTC bombings. The arcane nature of the engineers' testimony was so tedious that the MSM and the public became bored with the trials. Only the print media and the internet covered the story. The irony: we weren't listening, but OBL was.
No question--bringing them down was their only objective.
Actually, all kidding aside, if the conversation did take place, it probably is in his journal for that day.
What did he know and when did he know it?
Bump and bookmark
Of all the names that might fit me, prepubescent is NOT one of them. LOL
The FBI knew what was ahead.......the Phoenix memos proved it....
Once they learned of the flight school students they should have done something.
I can't even imagine how awful that must have been. I never turn on a tv or radio in the morning until I get in the car for work. Having once worked in NYC and attended the official opening of the first tower, my sadness built on the way. Which of course became anger after the second tower was hit. (Work was only a 7 minute drive.)
Florida ping
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