Last night, Michael C. Ruppert of From The Wilderness was scheduled to present his case for Bush 9/11 foreknowledge before a national TV audience on Geraldo Rivera's Fox News program. At the last minutes, this live appearance was cancelled. Coincidence? Ruppert's appearance, which could have caused immeasurable damage to the administration, was allegedly prompted by "breaking news" from the White House suggesting "imminent new terrorist attacks." "Wag the dog"? What desperate measures will this cabal resort to in order to remain in power? How many more lives will they take?

Backed into a Corner at Every Turn
On May 15, Press Secretary and official White House liar Ari Fleischer nervously stuttered, "The president did not receive information about the use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers. This was a new type of attack that was not foreseen."

This was followed by Condoleeza Rice, who repeated the spin: "I don't think that anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center."

Bush himself issued a statement that he had no indication beforehand that "terrorists would hijack jets and deliberately crash them."

The White House would have us believe that not a single individual in the entire US government, nor the entire Central Intelligence Agency, had knowledge about a method of terrorism that has been routine for more than 20 years. And that not a single person in the entire national security apparatus of the US had a shred of information on training camps in Iran (a hotspot of intense US intelligence focus for decades) devoted to this method of terrorism.

Yossef Bodansky is a director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare in the US House of Representatives, and the author of the book "Bin Laden: The Man Who Targeted America." Bodansky is a Washington insider whose views are sought after, respected and broadly disseminated throughout the US government.

In a well-publicized paper from 1993, he stated, "The training of suicide pilots started in the Busher air base in Iran in the early 1980s with some 90 Pilatus PC-7 aircraft purchased from Switzerland."

"According to a former trainee in Wakilibad (a base for the training of kamikaze pilots), one of the exercises included having an Islamic Jihad detachment seize (or hijack) a transport aircraft. Then trained air crews from among the terrorists would crash the airliner with its passengers into a selected objective," he wrote.

"The leading terrorists are known as 'Afghans,' having been trained with the mujahadeen in Pakistan. Some fought in Afghanistan. Muslim volunteers from several Arab and Asian countries were encouraged to come to Pakistan and join the Afghan Jihad." (Source: Target America: Terrorism in the US Today, 1993. "Islamic Terrorism in the United States," National Security Caucus, 1996.)

The Bush administration would have us believe that a subject that was written about in books and discussed openly throughout Washington is "unimaginable."

They would also have us believe that they, and their intelligence operatives, have been unaware of some of the most spectacular and horrific terrorist operations in recent history—many of them directed at the United States.

Yet:

On December 29, 1994, four terrorists alleged to have ties to Osama bin Laden hijacked Air France Flight 8969, a flight from Algiers to Paris. They loaded the plane with explosives and filled it with extra fuel, with the intent of ramming it into the Eiffel Tower. Commandos stormed the plane and killed the hijackers. (Source: NBC News. September 30, 2001. Chris Hansen, "The Lesson of Air France Flight 8969")

A full seven years before September 11, an al-Qaeda suicide hijacking is partially executed and barely stopped by French intelligence. The Bush administration would have us believe that no one in the CIA had ever heard of such a thing.

Another suicide hijacking plot was discovered six years before September 11. Ramsey Youssef, the terrorist who masterminded the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had detailed plans to hijack and crash commercial airliners into buildings in the US, and blow up 12 US airliners during international flights over a two-day period. This plot, known as Operation Bojinka, was discovered by Philippine intelligence agents in 1995, in the hideout of Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad, a US trained pilot linked to bin Laden. Philippine authorities passed this information to the FBI. This plot was disclosed again in the 1997 trial of Youssef. (Source: Kevin Cullen, Ralph Ranalli. Boston Globe, Sept 18, 2001, "Flight School Said FBI Trailed Suspect Prior to Hijackings")

Two years before 9/11, reports prepared for U.S. intelligence warned that Osama bin Laden would hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon. "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House,'' the September 1999 report said. (Source: Associated Press, May 17, 2002).

In July 2001, during the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini revealed that Italian intelligence had uncovered a plot to crash a hijacked commercial airliner into either Air Force One or one of the buildings used for the summit. (Source: New York Newsday, Sept 19, 2001) This jetliner kamikaze plot was directed at Bush himself. Taking the Bush denial to its logical extension, the White House would have us believe that Bush and the CIA were not only unaware of this plot, but also not warned by the Italian government.

During the investigation into the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, intelligence officials and FBI were alerted that two bin Laden associates had been trained as pilots. Airman Flight School in Oklahoma became the focus of an FBI investigation. The FBI was warned in August 2001 that Zacarias Moussauoi, the notorious "20th pilot" who attended Airman was only interested in steering a plane—and not taking off or landing. He also specifically asked about New York City air space.

In June 2001, the German BND warned the CIA and Israel of plans by Middle Eastern terrorists to "hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." Furthermore, according to the same source, the Echelon spy network was used to break this news, and that intelligence agents in the UK also had advance warning. (Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001)

In the summer of 2001, Russian intelligence and President Vladimir Putin warned the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots were going to hijack commercial aircraft for suicide missions.

Attorney David Shippers, who led the impeachment case against Bill Clinton, warned Attorney General John Ashcroft and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he had proof from a credible source (that he has still not revealed) about a plot to use hijacked commercial airliners to ram the White House and Capitol. (Source: Info Wars (radio program) Oct 10 2001) This list of specific warnings about suicide hijackings is but the tip of the iceberg. The Bush administration received many more warnings of an imminent attack from foreign governments (Israel, Germany, Egypt, UK, Russia), FBI agents (whose investigations were obstructed) and covert operatives who were studiously silenced (Naval Intelligence Officer Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, for one)

Ari Fleischer's Lies About the CIA
As part of his clumsy May 15 damage control press conference, Fleischer responded to a question about CIA foreknowledge by quoting from an address given on April 11 at Duke University by CIA Deputy Director James Pavitt.

Fleischer quoted only selected passages from the Pavitt address that seemed to deny 9/11 foreknowledge:

"What didn't we know? We never found the tactical intelligence, never uncovered the specifics that could have stopped those tragic strikes that we all remember so well. Against that degree of control, that kind of compartmentation, that depth of discipline and fanaticism, I personally doubt . . . that anything short of one of the knowledgeable inner circle personnel or hijackers turning himself in to us would have given us sufficient foreknowledge to have prevented the horrendous slaughter that took place. Some of you out there may have heard bin Laden himself speak about this on that shocking videotape."

But Fleischer failed to quote portions of the same speech in which Pavitt admitted CIA clear foreknowledge of the September 11th attacks, deep penetration of terrorist cells throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, and longstanding presence in the region. This speech, which is posted at the CIA web site, has already been dissected by Online Journal. Among the Pavitt passages that Fleischer did not read to the press:

"We had very, very good intelligence of the general structure and strategies of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. We knew and we warned that al Qaeda was planning a major strike. There need be no question about that."

"If you hear somebody say, and I have, the CIA abandoned Afghanistan after the Soviets left and that we never paid any attention to that place until September 11th, I would implore you to ask those people how we were able to accomplish all we did since the Soviets departed. How we knew who to approach on the ground, which operations, which warlord to support, what information to collect. Quite simply, we were there well before the 11th of September."

"We predicted, we told the President, that there would be between five and 15 serious attacks against on U.S. soil. But we did much much more than warn. With our allies and our partners around the world, we launched immense efforts to counter those threats. Hundreds of terrorists were arrested, multiple cells of terrorism were destroyed." Indeed, according to a September 14, 2001, report from Reuters, "The CIA has been authorized since 1998 to use covert means to disrupt and pre-empt terror operations allegedly planned abroad by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden." Quoting government sources, "The CIA had used such force several times to stop armed groups before they initiated attacks." As mentioned previously, the CIA participated in a study that concluded that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings.

And there is more proof of CIA foreknowledge and action.
The February 2001 trial of the al-Qaeda members responsible for the 1998 US embassy bombings was based almost entirely on intercepted cell phone calls. During the trial, prosecutors describe how US intelligence used Echelon, a highly secret technical intelligence gathering system used to monitor worldwide communications. On February 13, 2001, UPI quoted multiple agencies saying that they had broken al Queda's codes.

It is inconceivable that, armed with a budget of over $30 billion, and technologies such as Echelon (which tracks nearly all electronic communication in the world), Promis (which monitors banking and financial transactions in real-time), Carnivore (which intercepts e-mail) and other tools, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies would have "no inkling."

This lie is further exposed by the fact that Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker, had been under constant CIA surveillance since January 2000. (Source: Reuters Oct 22, 2001)

According to Le Figaro (October 31, 2001), bin Laden received treatment at an American hospital in Dubai for kidney disease in mid-July 2001—and reportedly met with a CIA official.

The More Important Questions They Are Not Asking
1. Who really is Osama bin Laden? What is al Qaeda? What really is "Militant Islam?"
In a penetrating analysis by Professor Michel Chossudovsky titled "Who is Osama bin Laden?" this question is answered clearly. Osama bin Laden and the terror networks of the region are creations of the United States and its CIA—and continue to serve the geostrategic purposes of the United States government, which directly and indirectly controls their operations.

The CIA, using Pakistan's ISI, played a key role in training the mujahadeen. In turn, the CIA-sponsored guerrilla training was integrated into the teachings of Islam.

Pakistan's ISI is a proxy of the CIA by official government directive.

CIA covert operations in the region are conducted through the ISI. Terror operations continue throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asia—which, in addition to holding coveted untapped oil and gas reserves, produces three quarters of the world's opium.

The Islamic Jihad has been supported by the US and Saudi Arabia with a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade.

Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, and kept out of touch with upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic warriors are unaware of whose purposes they serve.

Since the Cold War, Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden, while at the same time inflating his legend as the world's foremost terrorist. Why did the director of the ISI transfer money to Mohammed Atta, and why has no one investigated this connection?

2. Why were no fighter planes scrambled on the morning of 9/11?
With the full knowledge that four planes had been simultaneously hijacked, the National Command Authority did not scramble fighter aircraft to intercept for 75 minutes—an unprecedented breach of standard FAA procedure that has been followed for 25 years. The bizarre air stand-down has been analyzed at http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm.

3. What accounts for Bush's behavior on 9/11?
Bush was not 'formally' informed of the hijackings for 35 minutes—an astounding irregularity all by itself. When White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card "whispered into his ear," Bush displayed no shock and continued to speak to a classroom of schoolchildren. Later reports confirm that Bush knew about the first World Trade Center crash while in the presidential limousine on the way to the school—and he did not act. Another report quoted Bush as saying "When I saw the first plane hit, I thought 'what a terrible pilot.'" Putting aside the callousness of his thought, was this another garbled quote, or did Bush see the first plane? And if so, how did he see it? In yet another report, after both World Trade towers were hit, Bush joked to his budget director Mitch Daniels, "I've hit the trifecta." Is this the behavior of a president who just found out about the horrific "first attack of US territory since the war of 1812"?

4. If 9/11 was an unprovoked surprise terror attack, what was the Bush administration doing provoking the Taliban and threatening war with Afghanistan?
In July 2001 Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik is told by senior US officials that military actions against Afghanistan would begin by October. This threat, which was triggered in part by the Taliban's refusal to accept the Bush administration's terms for a trans-Afghan oil pipeline, is made directly to the Taliban during a meeting in Berlin, attended by the Taliban, officials of Russia, Iran, Pakistan and the Northern Alliance. New memos reveal that Bush had an Afghanistan war plan on his desk on September 9.

5. What did Wall Street know?
And if Wall Street knew, what wasn't known within the Bush administration? What wasn't known by the CIA and intelligence agencies, which track stock trades on a real time basis?

The highly abnormal insider trading that occurred immediately before the 9/11 attacks involving only companies hardest hit by the attacks—UAL, American Airlines, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others—and were clearly the result of foreknowledge. Despite these trades, which Dylan Ratigan of Bloomberg Business News described as "insider trading at the worst, most horrific, most evil use you've ever seen . . . one of the most extraordinary coincidences in the history of mankind if it was a coincidence." To those who would place the blame on bin Laden, consider this: according to an October 6 National Public Radio report, Britain's Financial Services Authority cleared bin Laden and al Qaeda of this insider trading.

6. Why have the insiders and whistleblowers been silenced and intimidated?
In August 2001, a US Navy Lieutenant and Naval Intelligence officer, Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, who was jailed in Canada on US fraud charges, which were later proven false, repeatedly warned US and Canadian intelligence officials about the pending suicide hijack attacks (complete with the listing of targets), based on information he had gleaned from documents that he had couriered from Russia before his arrest. US and Canadian officials refused to debrief him. Vreeland, whose identity was verified in court, was cleared of all charges and is in Canada fighting extradition to the US. In light of increasing evidence of Bush administration foreknowledge, Vreeland's case, and his claims to have detailed information regarding total US intelligence penetration of al Qaeda, takes on even greater significance. His case can be studied at www.copvcia.com .

For more unasked questions, and links to articles in which the answers are fully or partially answered, www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html .

Letting It Happen: A New Smoking Gun
On CNN Inside Politics (May 17, 2002), Senator Dianne Feinstein responded to Ari Fleischer's outrageous accusation that she did not provide the White House with information about terrorist threats.

Feinstein stated that on September 10, 2001, she discussed the lack of protection against terrorist attacks against targets within the US with the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney and practically begged for some action from the administration. She was told by the Cheney staffer it would have to wait at least six months.

A Limited Hangout or Something More? The Mushrooming Scandal in Context
Since September 11, and until just days ago, the Bush empire appeared to be invincible, unchallenged and marching the world towards escalating worldwide war, and dictatorship in the United States. The Bush oligarchy appeared dominant over a sold-out and servile Congress, and a corporate consensus marching in lockstep to the orders of the administration's oil/military/intelligence hierarchy.

What has caused certain members of Congress to find a voice and a spine?

What has caused the major corporate American media, which until days ago was the most aggressive supporter of the White House version of 9/11, to turn on the Bush administration?

Who gave the orders, the signal, that is was time to go after Bush—in a way that they had not done since George W. Bush announced his candidacy for the presidency?

The answers at this early stage are not clear. But recent events suggest that 1) the rampant criminality of the administration is becoming too obvious to cover up, 2) resistance to the brute force of Bush unilateralism is becoming too great to ignore, 3) political and social instability throughout the world is becoming a problem in key strategic regions where a modicum of finesses is needed, 4) a segment of the ruling elite has grown tired of being shut out of the deal.

Consider the embarrassing failures of the Bush administration since September 11:

Despite the success of restarting the Unocal pipeline, Afghanistan remains a hotbed of warlordism and anti-US hostility that US-installed Hamid Karzai is having difficulty controlling.

Osama bin Laden has not been found. Al Qaeda has not been dismantled.

Recent talks between the US, Russia, Iran and former Soviet republics to forge a multilateral agreement regarding oil and gas in the Caspian Sea region collapsed, leaving the western oil companies in a precarious position with unrequited investments throughout the Caspian region.


The threat of oil embargos from OPEC nations and threats of boycotts of US goods are real.
Bush has failed to maintain multinational "coalitions"—the key to continued US military and neoliberal economic primacy.

A war against Iraq is impossible without a coalition.

The US-orchestrated coup of Venezuela failed. Evidence of the Bush administration's participation in this coup is clear, blatant, and embarrassing.

The US-led Plan Colombia/Andean Initiative is meeting with continued resistance throughout Latin America.
The world economy is floundering.

Outside of the tightly controlled US, America is hated.

Enron, Enron, Enron.

The constitutional crisis triggered by Bush's refusal to reveal documents relating to the energy task force has worsened.

A continuing grand jury investigation of corruption in Kazakhstan, implicating oil companies tied to the Bush administration.

More FBI agents are coming forward with lawsuits exposing Bush administration obstruction of anti-terror operations.

Former President Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba was a loud rebuke to Bush, and a loud signal to the world that an opposing faction of the New World Order—one which includes prominent conservative Democrats—is a making a move. The crafty Carter, he of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, was the consummate world diplomat—a stark counter to the relentless unilateral militarism of the Bush faction.

Clearly, Bush and his administration would not be under pressure unless powerful people wanted it to happen. The corporate media, which has gotten the green light to make noise, would not be engaging in a feeding frenzy without an incentive.

Is this another limited hangout? How far will this go? Is it a palace coup? Is it a "wag the dog" fake?

The Lies Will Not Stand
In the months since September 11, the defining moment of recent history, neither the Bush administration, nor its surrogates and allies, have produced one shred of credible evidence supporting the White House version of the events of that day. Instead, the Bush administration has mass marketed a total fabrication based on accusations, fear mongering, infantile comic book bluster, and duplicitous lies about US policies, geo-strategic agenda, and worldwide operations. Their evidence has amounted to the weakest conspiracy theory and, in the case of the "notorious bin Laden video" that is trotted out at the first sign of controversy, televised conspiracy fantasy.

Meanwhile, in the past eight months, hundreds of independent researchers, journalists and scholars have done what neither Congress nor the White House has done: investigate. This already substantial body of evidence is being exponentially strengthened and enhanced by new evidence coming to light in the mushrooming scandal. The points presented in this article are but the tip of the iceberg.

The courageous Ruppert has thoroughly and dispassionately examined the September 11 case. Read his powerful analyses:

The Lie Won't Stand

The Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks

"A Time Line Sorrounding September 11

Ruppert has dissected the events of the day, but also the geostrategic agenda preceding and following the event. The Bush version of events is utterly smashed to pieces.

A recently published and excellent collection of investigative journalism, Everything You Know Is Wrong, offers another thoroughly documented, meticulously sourced examination of 9/11 titled "September 11, 2001: No Surprise."

Given the voluminous evidence (from reliable open sources) now amassed against the Bush administration, this much is clear: the administration of George Walker Bush cannot claim a lack of intelligence, technology or human resources capable of predicting or preventing the attacks of September 11. Nor can it disown the criminal activities and policies that preceded and followed the day, and the mass slaughter that has continued to be waged around the world in its name.

In fact, the Bush oligarchy had both the motive and the means to facilitate the most spectacular atrocity in modern American history, and open the Pandora's box of world war without end.

Bush knew. Now, the entire world knows.

It is up to the people of the world to seize this moment, and send the Bush administration into the bowels of history.

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Copyright © Larry Chin is a freelance journalist and an Online Journal Contributing Editor.2002. For fair use only

CRG's Global Outlook, premiere issue on "Stop the War" provides detailed documentation on the war and September 11 Order/subscribe. Consult Table of Contents

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