On December 11, 2002 Senator Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, appeared on the News Hour and told interviewer Gwen Ifill that some of the 9/11 terrorists were assisted by a sovereign foreign government.
Ifill's eyes nearly popped out of her head, but Graham's shocking claim was roundly ignored by the media, and the 10-or-so viewers watching that night were left wondering, "Who is it?" As The Memory Hole points out:
It obviously wasn't any nation that the US government hates and would love to demonize. If it had been Iraq, for example, the report would not have been classified; it would've been personally faxed by Donald Rumsfeld to every reporter in the nation. No, the one or more facilitators of 9/11 were obviously allies, friendly countries, nations that the US doesn't want to alienate.
Fast forward six months. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball write an article entitled "The Secrets of September 11" that draws quite a lot of attention, and Isikoff makes the rounds to discuss the piece, including an interview on Democracy Now!. Isikoff:
There is also a lot else in the (classified) report, including information about the role of suspected Saudi intelligence agents and Saudi diplomats in providing support, whether advertent or inadvertent for the hijackers, and the role of Saudi financing for the operations of September 11th. That, of course, is also diplomatically enormously sensitive for the administration which sees Saudi Arabia as a key ally for the war on Iraq ...
On the heels of The Times' story that debunks the myth of Jessica Lynch's rescue as told by the U.S. military, the Toronto Star writes that Iraqi doctors tried to give Jessica back to the Americans, but the ambulance she was traveling in was shot at as it approached an American checkpoint. Luckily for Hollywood, Lynch apparently has amnesia.
(Hat tip: Steve)
posted by dackOh come on. There's a perfectly rational explanation for this.
We're pulling our troops out of Saudi Arabia so we can send them back in a proper invasion.
Posted by: on May 5, 2003 09:58 AMIt's a sad story about Jessica and her company, and I feel sad for those poor kids who didn't have enough money for college so they had to enlist in the Army. They were completely unprepared for capture, or the reality of war.
But I couldn't contain a laugh when I read the original story about how the 19-yr-old 90 lbs waif fought off her Iraqi attackers, emptied her pistol and then clawed and kicked until they finally broke her. The entire US version of the Jessica story smacks of propaganda.
Any bets on who will air the made-for-TV version first?
My money is on Fox, starring Geraldo as the evil Iraqi doctor/torturer.
Posted by: KS on May 5, 2003 11:59 AMOn the Sen. Graham story, Newsmax wrote:
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bob Graham is reportedly sitting on damaging evidence that the Bush administration could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks - but he hasn't released the information yet because it's classified.
"I think Bob Graham has a smoking pistol on the Bush administration," Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander late Tuesday.
if it is the sauds that would explain why they got kissinger to investigate 9-11
Posted by: on May 9, 2003 01:10 AMNo, the country in question is almost certainly Pakistan:
Director General of Pakistan's Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed has been replaced after the FBI investigators established credible links between him and Umar Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.....
Informed sources said there were enough indications with the US intelligence agencies that it was at Gen Mahmud's instruction that Sheikh had transferred 100,000 US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta, one of the lead terrorists in strikes at the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, it adds.
And here’s the Washington Post:
On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
Posted by: Vin Carreo on May 9, 2003 04:40 AMOr could it be Syria?
He [Graham] also said the United States should work to build a coalition, such it did in the attacks on Afghanistan, to go after terrorist training centers in Syria.
"Syria has been the place that provides sanctuary for a number of the most violent terrorist groups in the world," he said.
Graham said he didn't think building such a coalition would be tough, because the enemy is terrorism. But he said he would support the United States going it alone if coalition-building failed.
Posted by: on May 9, 2003 01:37 PMAnon: Good link, but don't you think we would've already bombed Syria had it been involved?
Posted by: dack on May 12, 2003 10:15 AMI assume nothing with Rumsfeld et al. I think Rumsfeld's plan in the Middle East was to start with Iraq.
Syria doesn't have oil. Syria doesn't border Iran. Syria doesn't have an already demonized dictator. So Iraq makes for a much smarter first move than Syria in a quest to remake the Middle East. Obviously I don't know. Saudi Arabia or Pakistan make more sense, but why is Graham saying we should "go it alone" with Syria? I have yet to hear him even suggest going to war with SA or Pak.
Off subject, to avoid any hard work on my part I am stealing your news section and putting it on my site. I hope this is ok. Let me know if it is not.
Posted by: Anon on May 12, 2003 01:22 PMAnon: No problem on taking the news. Hey, it's our first syndication.
Also, I'll be looking for much more to be added to your site. There is *tons* of material out there.
Posted by: dack on May 13, 2003 02:16 PMAs I recall, Graham's actual comment was about "foreign governments" involvement in 9-11. "Governments" -- plural. My best bet is definitely Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, for the reasons listed above, and possibly Syria. There is certainly a large mass of articles about Saudi financing and ISI (Pakistan's CIA) aid. That's why Graham has a smoking gun, as, oddly, NewsMax has suggested: Bush has been playing nice with the Crown Prince and the General, and certainly letting the CIA and presumably military intelligence lie in bed with them.
Posted by: Jon Rubin on May 16, 2003 03:12 AMMany of the people here are as usual forgetting that there is another player in the Middle East that has it's own agenda...and has fired on US naval inteligence vessels, knowing full well it was killing US sailors...and that nation is Israel.
During the 6 Day war, Israel shot up the USS Liberty back in 1967, and all the evidence points to that supposedly great friend and recipient of US military largesse Moshe Dayan gave the order for those jets to fire on an obviously American vessel in international waters and incapable of defending itself.
Given that Israel has killed US citizens in the past, does it surprise you to learn that Israel's Mossad intel agency had dispatched its agents to New York to film the Fall of the Towers? That presumes foreknowledge, no? Foreknowledge that included warnings to Jewish employees at the WTC that they shouldn't show up for work? Foreknowledge that would certainly have saved the lives of thousands? Have a look here:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/forget.html
and here:
http://www.theweeklyinformant.com/movers.htm
and see if there isn't some reason to wonder at our 'ally's actions of late...
Jesus, just what we need , another Jewish conspiracy nut. I'm no fan of Israel as a friend of mine was recently shot by an Israeli sniper while in Palestine, but the idea that thousands of Jews didn't turn up to work and that the world media didn't notice this during possibly the most documented news story ever is just stupid. This sort of anti-semitic crap is the preserve of skinhead survivalists sitting in a cabin in the woods and oiling their guns. Nice to see you've got an internet connection up there.
Posted by: Sam on May 21, 2003 08:35 AMmichail iskoff is bullshit and the right fasciast extreme are also the same .
Posted by: what ever on September 13, 2003 06:26 PM