U.S. Spy Chief: 9/11 'Could Have Been Prevented'

ABC ^ | September 19, 2007

[ZacandPook]

Director of National Intelligence Says U.S. Didn't Connect Available Information

[DieHard the Hunter]

Had the powers-that-be paid attention to Rick Rescorla (war hero, Ia Drang Vietnam) the WTC tragedy on 9/11 could most certainly have been avoided.

RIP Rick Rescorla, WTC 2
RIP Alan Beavan, Flite 93 (Kiwi)
RIP Todd Beamer, Flite 93

Heroes all.

NEVER FORGET. NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER QUIT.

*DieHard*

[Enchante]

"Yeah, that translates to negligence," charged committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

Conyers, you vicious lying SCUM - you and your fellow Demagogues bear the overwhelming burden of responsibility for setting up the policies and bureaucratic climate in which it was too difficult to "connect the dots" -- and scumbags like Conyers continue to do so to this day, with vicious intemperate attacks on many reasonable govt. efforts to improve the collection, analysis, and dissemination of terrorist-related intel. Let's talk about 8 years of Clintonista incompetence and worse when you start talking about "negligence" Mr. Conyers.

Conyers represents the worst kind of liberal scum in our govt., continually undermining our security yet viciously attacking those who are trying to do the real intel and military work to protect us.

[doug from upland]

Ditto. Conyers is genuine scum.

[roses of sharon]

Speaking of negligence, you should see Conyers district!

This racist anti-American scum lives high on the hog, while his constituents die on the vine, year after year.

[ZacandPook]

I agree, pawdoggie, and above in the thread point to the December 4, 1998 Presidential Daily Brief from the CIA to President Clinton about the attack using aircraft being planned by the still-at-large Islambouli (in a cell with KSM), the brother of Sadat’s assassin.

Let’s try to connect the most recent “dots” that have surfaced regarding Amerithrax in 2007 based on the sketchy reports publicly available — avoiding any naive view that Al Qaeda did not have talented scientists available to it, in the US, UK, Pakistan and elsewhere. I have uploaded the correspondence between one such scientist and Ayman that the DIA gave me. The scientist had infiltrated Porton Down-sponsored conferences and consulted about anthrax weaponization tricks.

  An exclusive September 2007 Associated Press, article quoted one hearing before the Combat Status Review Tribunal and quoted an allegation against Rahmatullah Sangaryar, who stood accused of “planning biological and poison attacks on United States and coalition forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan” and of possessing anthrax powder and a liquid poison.” The article reports that “the Afghan detainee said he was captured only with muddy clothes, possessed no anthrax and never planned such an attack.”

   “Do you know of anyone who would accuse you of such an act? This is so serious,” the hearing officer said. “I am trying to understand why it is here in front of me, this allegation against you.”

  Rahmatullah Sangaryar was the former military commander for Kabul.

Amerithrax Agents checked the Kabul area in May 2004 but came up empty, sources told the Washington Post. In November of that year, on additional information, agents spent weeks searching an area in the Kandahar mountains, several hundred miles outside of Kabul, but again found nothing. This information came from a Gitmo detainee — you guessed it, from Kabul military commander Rahmatullah Sangaryar. The FBI posited that the anthrax had been weaponized in the US and then brought to Afghanistan.

What do we think we know about Rahmatullah Sangaryar? Knowing that might help us trace back the connection to the source of the processing in the US. Juxtapose this information about Rahmatullah Sangaryar with the report (in a press conference by a veteran Afghan governor) about the Taliban information minister being captured with packets of anthrax for use against government officials.

* When the detainee was very young he joined the Mujahadeen to fight the Soviet Union.

* The detainee is trained in the use of hand grenades, rocket propelled grenades, the AK-47 and the Sakil machine gun.

* The detainee met with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, on only one occasion in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

* The detainee was identified as being assigned to a 40-man team of fighters.

* The 40-man team was funded primarily by Pakistani and Syrian Non-Government Organizations with some times [sic] to al Qaida.

* The detainee was reported as being named the new Director of Hezb-E-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] cell operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. [redacted from memo but clear on transcript]

* The detainee commanded over 500 Taliban soldiers in Kabul.

* The detainee fought the Northern Alliance and the Taliban as the Supreme Commander in Kabul.

* The detainee survived approximately 18 bullet wounds that apparently occurred during the Russian Jihad and during his time as a Taliban Commander.

* The detainee was told he would be turned over to the United States to provide information about enemies of the Afghanistan Government.

* The detainee believes he was handed over to the United States Government to provide intelligence information and not for suspicion of being a terrorist.

* The detainee collected weapons from his tribesmen and turned over six small cars, one truck, two mounted anti-aircraft weapons, 39 Kalashnikovs, two RPG-7s, four PKs, two 82 series machine guns and six handheld radios to the regional Governor.

* When the United States captured Kabul, the detainee dissolved his forces and turned over his weapons and communication equipment to the new Afghanistan Government.

          In January 2007, a Taliban spokesman was captured. An Afghanistan governor says his residence contained anthrax powder packets. According to a report by the Aghan Islamic Press Agency, as monitored by the BBC. the powdered anthrax was intended for mailing to government officials. The former Taliban spokesman quietly told a camera that he was “on a mission” when he was arrested.

          The fellow who reportedly had “anthrax powder packets” had been living in Peshawar. Muhammad Hanif’s real name is Abdulhaq Haji Gulroz. Is this young guy mentioned above Qari Mullah Din Muhammad Hanif, the former madrassa-trained Minister of Education who wouldn’t let the medical school use cadavers? (That was a good thing, given that the school didn’t have electricity) Is he a “Dr.” If so, what kind? The former education minister had not received a secular education and oversaw the medical school. A veterinary student in September 2001 said they had nothing in the way of facilities or equipment. It was the Agriculture Minister who had taken a keen interest in supervising the Red Cross/FAO-funded anthrax vaccine laboratory. Yazid Sufaat did his anthrax work, he says, as part of a Taliban medical brigade. A building associated with the charity WAFA housed a lab, and WAFA was a militant supporter of the Taliban. So while we await lab tests and further clarification or confirmation, this sketchy report about anthrax powder packets is certainly intriguing. But given the low level of sophistication of facilities in Afghanistan, it makes perfect sense that it was weaponized in the US and then brought to Afghanistan. The anthrax used in the anthrax attacks is known to have been weaponized in the Northeastern United States.

     Hanif also claimed that Mullah Omar was living in Quetta under the Pakistan ISI’s protection. The Washington Post once focused on the ISI’s failure to cooperate with the microbiologist and food production expert Rauf Ahmad who was helping Ayman — and noted that I had publicly associated him with the documents provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency first. But no paper has yet addressed the ISI role in connection with suppressing information about the prosecution (or lack thereof) of bacteriologist Abdul Qadoos Khan, in whose home KSM was reportedly arrested. Nor has anyone addressed its suppression, in this context, of the whereabouts of Aafia Siddiqui. There is an unconfirmed suggestion that she has been moved to Guantanamo. (It was my understanding that the ISI has her and the children and that she is under house arrest). It’s perfectly understandable why the ISI would not want to cooperate — having worked closely with the Taliban for years at the urging of the US. Moreover, the political risks are very real given the unpopularity with the Pakistan public of pursuing respected professionals who are sympathetic to Al Qaeda. For example, there is a report today about a legal challenge being prepared by the nuclear proliferator Khan to his house arrest, just as Musharraf is facing an unsympathetic judiciary. But no failure on the part of the ISI to cooperate with the FBI or CIA on the subject of an attack using aerosolized anthrax should be countenanced.

[Loud Mime]

If they had paid attention to the low-level FBI agents the attacks would have been prevented. Thatsa’ Fact Jack.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Conyers needs to just listen to President Clinton's own Terror Czar, Richard Clarke:

GORTON: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?

CLARKE: No.

Source

9/11 could have been prevented by the PREVIOUS administration. By that administration's own Terror Czaar's admission, the Bush administration simply couldn't do anything with what was given to them.

9/11 is firmly at the feet of Clinton. Pure and simple.

[Always Right]

In hind sight, WWII could have been prevented.

[tina07]

absof*’inglutely!

[tina07]

http://www.rickrescorla.com/

[dawn53]

I still believe, that if, on 9/10 we knew exactly what the terrorists were planning, and arrested all of them before they got on the planes, we would still be hearing about the injustice of it all from CAIR.

[poobear]

“The message in invisible ink read: Post on FreeRepublic if you need to in order to circumvent any initial missteps by the FBI.”

Huh?

[DieHard the Hunter]

I would have given my left nut to meet Rick Rescorla. All the moreso to have been able to count him amongst my Friends: ‘tis a small circle of Friends that I keep, and he would be welcome amongst ‘em at any barbie at my place, anytime.

And if Gen Hal Moore and his Sgt-Maj Basil Plumley and “Ancient Serpent Six” Bruce Crandall decided to tag along, my joy would be almost complete. If Ollie North and Willy Apiata VC chose to drop by, that’s my idea of a proper barbie! Who could ask for more??

Alas! ‘twas never to be, ‘twas but a Dream. I sadly never knew Rick Rescorla, and will probably never get to know any of the other gentlemen aforementioned. The best I can do is to own a signed copy of Ollie’s book, “Under Fire”. And just possibly try to meet Willy Apiata VC one day...

...oh well.

[ByteMercenary]

... too bad this ‘conflict’ is not over, terminated the same way that we ended the war with Japan. Mecca and a few other muzzie gathering places should be a glowing slag heap today. Every mosque on US property should now be a parking lot and the former attendees should all be scrbbling for their lunch in the deserts of the M/E.

[Farmer Dean]

Gorelick couldn’t have the FBI and CIA swapping info about the Clinton’s China connections.9/11 was the price we paid for that cover-up.

[Dilbert56]

"Yeah, that translates to negligence," charged committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

What utter nonsense. If I accidentally ran someone over with my car it's not automatically negligence but I certainly could have prevented it. I could have taken a different route, for example. Does Conyers have even one brain cell working (properly)?

I would agree that imposing the Gore-lick wall could be construed as negligence. The results of that action could be anticipated without too much imagination.

[darkwing104]

A little history lesson.

A few hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. was aware that the Japanese were going to declare war on the US and that targets were going to be attacked. What was the unknown was the targets. I read this from the Book "Codebreakers".

Hindsight is an amazing thing. With all of the information I have seen from news report etc. I can only pick out that fact we were going to be attacked but the targets, date and time were unknown. To determine the targets and date, at best, is guessing, you have a better odds winning a million dollars at a Las Vegas blackjack table. Still, even with this hindsight the links are made with what I used to call Ouija board logic...poor at best.

The Office of the "DNI" did not exist before 9-11, inter-agency cooperations was hindered by the Clinton administration and good ole fashion inter-agency politics. This was my motivation to leave the Intelligence Community and got back to repairing Military Aircraft.

[ZacandPook]

I definitely agree with you that hindsight is 20/20.

My only disappointment is that rather that focus on avoiding the next attack, Freepers see everything through partisan eyes. There was a time at FR — in the Fall of 2001 — that there was ;open source” intelligence analysis being done. Richard Clarke and others, like Tenet and Scheuer, would agree that 80-95% intelligence analysis is open source.

Instead, we get the “nuke em” and pave the mosques post above — or an immediate tendency to view the DNI’s comments in a partisan context.

His point is not a political one. It relates to the country’s need to focus on avoiding the next attack.

By focusing on that task.

Partisan political bickering is a big part of the problem, as illustrated by Conyers unconstructive comment. And FR has just been contributing to the unhelpful partisan bickering — to an extent that even Bill O’Reilly is criticizing it.

As a result, a vacuum forms and you get Freeper EdLake posting hundreds of articles on his webpage but intentionally excluding and refusing to post the article about the reported seizure of anthrax in Afghanistan etc.

That then misleads the busy MSM or public.

PostalMag is coming out with a 6th year anniversary special today on the anthrax attacks and if the feature suggests AQ is responsible, you can be sure Ed won’t include it in his many hundreds of articles.

[EdLake]

PostalMag is coming out with a 6th year anniversary special today on the anthrax attacks and if the feature suggests AQ is responsible, you can be sure Ed won’t include it in his many hundreds of articles.

If their article is about the anthrax attacks of 2001, which you say it is, I would DEFINITELY put it on my site. That is what MY site is about. Why wouldn't I put it on my site?

If it were just another article about al Qaeda or about al Qaeda's search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, then I would NOT put it on my site, because my site is not about al Qaeda. YOUR site is about al Qaeda.

Why is this so difficult for you to understand? Is it your mission in life to make EVERY web site about al Qaeda? Why do you have this pathological need to put things on MY web site?

Ed at www.anthraxinvestigation.com

[7thson]

Yes, it could have been prevented - starting back in 1979!