Posted on 07/25/2002 11:35:25 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
How could we have been so blind?
That's the question everyone asks with regard to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
Why weren't we prepared? Why didn't we get Osama bin Laden when we had the chance? Why weren't the American people warned about the threat of Islamic terrorism? Why weren't more precautions taken?
For the first time, veteran FBI agents are describing a dramatic shift in emphasis at the agency directed by President Clinton.
As WorldNetDaily Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry wrote in yesterday's exclusive report, the Clinton administration chose to focus its intelligence-gathering forces on white, "right-wing," Christian militia groups – at the expense of analyzing data about Islamic terrorism.
This dramatic change in emphasis took place even while Arab nationals were flocking to U.S. flight schools in anticipation of the dramatic hijackings of Sept. 11.
According to the report, some 40 boxes of material left over from the World Trade Center bombing investigation, which lasted through the 1990s, "were never gone through." Many of the Arabic documents were never even translated. Another seven to eight boxes of evidence from the Manila, Philippines, side of the investigation also were never examined, say the FBI agents.
I hate to say it, but I told you so.
Way back on Nov. 1, just six weeks after the terrorist attack, I explained my theory about why we missed it – why we never saw it coming.
How did I know? Because I have a memory. Because I observed the Clinton administration up close and personal. Because, as a victim of Clinton administration civil liberties abuses, I could see it had another target in mind – any other target than Islamic terrorism. The Clinton administration determined to use the FBI as a weapon in its own war against its domestic political enemies. It had no concerns whatsoever about real foreign or domestic threats to the safety and security of the nation.
Back in 1999, well after the first attack on the World Trade Center, after the Oklahoma City bombing and after the downing of TWA Flight 800, the Clinton administration's FBI put out a report on terrorism.
It was called Project Megiddo.
And it explained, in no uncertain terms, that right-wing Christian terrorists posed the gravest danger to the republic and were most likely to incite violence in the months and years ahead.
This was the mindset of the Clinton administration. Right-wing Christians were the perceived threat. They were the enemy. Islamists got short shrift in the FBI report. As I suggested last year, bin Laden was probably bent out of shape by the slight.
The Project Megiddo Report goes a long way toward explaining why the FBI went to great lengths to avoid seeing, hearing or touching any evidence of a Middle East connection in the Oklahoma City bombing. It explains why most Americans are unaware of the fact that Islamist terrorist groups indeed claimed responsibility for downing TWA Flight 800 over Long Island Sound. It explains why the Clinton administration viewed the World Trade Center bombing as some sort of aberration that could be ignored, rather than allow it to serve as a warning of bigger things to come.
It's also worth recalling that while relaxing with a group of reporters after the 1996 elections, Bill Clinton said he owed his political revival to the Oklahoma City bombing. Think about that. Why was that so?
In 1994, Clinton was on the ropes politically. No one expected him to be re-elected. The Republicans had swept into power in both houses of Congress for the first time in a generation. But then that bomb went off.
"It broke a spell in the country as people began searching for common ground again," Clinton explained.
What did Clinton do? He blamed talk radio for broadcasting "a relentless clamor of hatred and division." He planned with the FBI a new anti-terrorist strategy with sweeping new powers.
Thus, the investigations of the Oklahoma City bombing, the TWA Flight 800 downing and the World Trade Center explosion all became politicized. Only evidence that led in one direction would be gathered and evaluated. Evidence that pointed to a conspiracy that pointed anywhere but to right-wing Christians would be ignored, discarded and covered up.
It seems unbelievable, but it's true.
Clinton's own Justice Department inspector general had to admit that the Oklahoma City bombing investigation offered one of the worst examples of de facto evidence tampering by the FBI crime labs.
The FBI had no scientific evidence for concluding the OKC bombing was the result of an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb. The Justice Department found that the explosives unit simply guessed that the bomb was made of 4,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate after the FBI found a receipt suggesting Terry Nichols had purchased that amount. No tests were conducted. No detonator was recovered.
There was no explanation offered for reports broadcast widely the day of the bombing that two other larger bombs were found unexploded in the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The FBI steadfastly refused – even to this day – to accept or examine evidence suggesting Nichols had contact with Islamic terrorists and that some were on the scene the day of the bombing.
Few paid any attention to the World Trade Center bombing trial, which brought to light evidence of a much broader Islamist conspiracy.
Few media outlets bothered to tell the world of the Islamist groups that claimed to have brought down TWA Flight 800.
Thus, the FBI put all of its terrorist eggs in one suspect political basket – the right-wing Christian basket. That's where the FBI focused its attention officially beginning in 1996, the record shows.
Is it any wonder why they missed the real terrorists? Is it any wonder why they looked in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons? Is it any wonder that 3,000 Americans unnecessarily lost their lives as a result?
Let me conclude by saying Clinton bears a tremendous amount of responsibility for politicizing the FBI. But let me add that unless the current administration recognizes the deliberate frauds that were perpetrated on the American people, holds those responsible accountable and makes the necessary changes in the agency, it will be equally culpable.
And, more importantly, we will never solve the real problems of terrorism that are plaguing this country.
Cases were dropped, agents shuffled around, leads went cold all because our boy wanted to pleasure the lefties in LALA land.
By far, it still is.
Those guys made me sick that night; there is not one good man in the whole place IMO.
{Why are we 1) up so late, or 2) up so early?}
I know I've seen some of those.
or 2) up so early?}
To work early and FR gets me ready for the political and social battles at the office.
Few paid any attention to the World Trade Center bombing trial, which brought to light evidence of a much broader Islamist conspiracy.
Few media outlets bothered to tell the world of the Islamist groups that claimed to have brought down TWA Flight 800. "
This article is very interesting to me because it supports my suspicions. However, it is short on proof, that is, the proof I would have to produce in order to convice or sway my Clinton supporting friends to my side of this discussion.
I am most curious about the Islamic groups that claim to have brought down TWA Flight 800. Which groups? Which news outlets? I believe! And I want my friends to not be fooled by their irrational devotion to their political faith.
Blind faith is a danerous thing. Is my faith blind or is theirs?
The sad thing is, I don't think anything has really changed. I think the FBI still thinks Clinton is in power.
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