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Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
December 19, 2001
THE 9/11 ENIGMA
Losing Osama, and everything else, in the 'fog of war'
That was pretty exciting there, at least for a while: the Northern
Alliance was closing in on Osama bin Laden, or so we were told, and
the battle of Tora Bora was going to be Al Qaeda's Gotterdammerung:
the Mad Sheik's last stand. They heard Osama's voice giving commands
to his beleaguered troops over the radio, and brought in specialists
to verify his DNA in case he fell in battle. Pundits argued over
whether he should be tried in one of those special military
tribunals, and headlines screamed: Osama Cornered! Bin Laden
Finished! There's No Escape! Closer and closer the US and its Afghan
allies crept, until, at last … victory evaporated into the mist,
along with OBL himself. Welcome to the "new war," the Surreal War,
where nothing – including "victory" – is quite what it seems….
THE DISAPPEARING SHEIK
Suddenly, we are told, his trail went cold, and our hi-tech, hi-falutin' multi-billion
dollar military machine can't seem to find him anywhere. Like so much else in our
crazy mixed-up post-9/11 world, what we thought we k
new turns out to have been an illusion. Our great "victory," hailed by the pundits,
seems equally illusory, dispelled by the news that the Northern Alliance is letting
the Taliban leaders go free. In a culture which, as o
ne Pentagon type put it, "has a history built on bartering," the disappearance of
Mullah Omar – along with Osama – is highly suspicious, to say the least.
A HOLLOW VICTORY
As the Taliban, and Al Qaeda, melt into the wild country of Central Asia, the triumph
of the West seems strangely hollow – particularly to George W. Bush and his political
advisors, who have no doubt seen that poll in whi
ch 70-plus percent say it won't be a real victory unless we get Osama.
A ONE-DAY WONDER
We are constantly being told how "everything is different now," but have even the laws
of nature changed? Events no longer seem to have a beginning, a middle, and an end –
they simply erupt, and then fade away in our coll
ective memory, like dreams dimly recalled in the morning. So much about the post-9/11
world seems oddly inconclusive, like a ball of yarn made up entirely of loose ends.
There was, for example, the story about the mysteri
ous financial transactions that took place just prior to 9/ 11. Unusual amounts of
money were bet on the possibility that airlines and insurance companies would stand to
lose a lot of their value in the coming weeks. Reme
mber that one? It was a one-day wonder, with several stories telling us that the whole
thing was being "investigated," and then – nothing.
SO HURRY UP, ALREADY
Well, next to nothing. Last I heard (Sunday), German computer experts were still
"working 'round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial
transactions made just before" 9/11. But they've been
working 'round the clock since practically The Day After: so what's the big delay?
NEW FRONTIERS FOR WAR PROFITEERS
You'll recall that these lucky – or else very knowledgeable – investors reaped more
than $2.5 million in profits by trading options on United Airlines stock, although
they never showed up to claim their profits. It was ar
ound the end of September when the story broke, and we were told that regulators and
law-enforcement agents in the US and Europe were investigating "unusual patterns" in
so-called put-options and "short sales" – financial
instruments which amount to placing a bet that the price of a particular stock or
commodity will fall. It wasn't just airline stocks that were involved, but also
insurance providers and companies resident in the World Tr
ade Tower: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch, among others. Such activity
skyrocketed in the three trading days before 9/11. "This smells real bad," said one
stock market maven to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A FRESH WIND BLOWS
But the stench hasn't lingered, at least not in the public consciousness – and the
media is too busy transcribing government press releases with one hand and saluting
with the other to bother following up on the story. Th
e New York Times reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had found
a "benign" explanation for what seemed to be "terrorist insider trading," while the
bureaucrats averred that they were "pursuing all cr
edible leads": and then, like so much else in our oddly insubstantial post-9/11
universe – nothing.
PRESUMING TOO MUCH
Whomever made those investments almost certainly had at least some foreknowledge of
the 9/11 catastrophe. Was it Osama bin Laden's broker? His wealthy Arab backers'? The
Chronicle piece ended with the speculation of unnam
ed "experts" who claimed that all the "likely candidates" just had to be "affluent
Arabs." Why is this necessarily so? The co-authors of the piece didn't exactly say,
asserting only that it was "presumed." But surely, if
we have learned anything in the past four months, it is that we have to throw out all
the old assumptions and preconceptions in this, our "new" war. As related in my last
two columns, I can think of a few others who might
have had a clue that certain airline stocks were going to take a deep plunge.
HARD DRIVE SECRETS
In the one follow-up article, a Reuters piece by Erick Kirschbaum, the focus is on the
efforts of a German computer company that specializes in recovering information stored
on hard drives. Out of the rubble of the World
Trade Center nearly 40 disk drives have been found remarkably intact, their contents
retrieved 100 percent by the German company, Convar. Investigators hope to answer the
question asked in the article: "Were criminals res
ponsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some
computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?"
FROM TERRORISM TO – CREDIT CARD FRAUD?
This is an entirely new angle: we are off the suspicious pattern of short selling, and
onto something else – a credit card scam that would sound fairly ordinary if it wasn't
tied up with the worst terrorist attack in Amer
ican history. Is this something an Islamist fanatic would plan, or does it seem more
like a more prosaic rip-off thought up by some organized crime kingpin?
MYSTERY OF THE FAST-MOVING MILLIONS
In any case, according to Reuters, the key to the mystery of who profited from
foreknowledge of 9/11 is supposedly contained in these damaged hard drives. Richard
Wagner, a data retrieval expert at Convar, the company con
tracted to recover this vital data, says "illegal transfers of more than $100 million
might have been made immediately before and during the disaster." This must mean the
massive wave of stock option purchases and short-s
elling. Furthermore, he says:
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time
of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million. They thought
that the records of their transactions could not
be traced after the main frames were destroyed."
PRIVATIZING THE POLICE
But what about the promised SEC investigation, and that agency's reportedly "benign"
explanation for all these financial shenanigans? The bureaucrats have yet to share
their explanation with the rest of us. Meanwhile, the
ir investigation appears to have been abandoned early on, and then, strangely,
privatized, i.e. taken over by certain unnamed private companies, and narrowly focused
on the unusually high volume of suspicious transactions
which took place that fateful morning. Yet the crime of the century was planned and
executed over a period of at least five years, according to various "experts" and
government officials, plenty of time to build up a hig
hly profitable post-9/11 portfolio. While there may be important clues lodged in
yet-to-be-recovered hard drives – or forever lost in the rubble – the record of the
market in the weeks and months preceding 9/11 is surely
just as valuable, if not more so.
WHO'S GUARDING THE HEN-HOUSE?
So why isn't it being followed up? Where oh where are our much-vaunted government
"regulators," who – according to the liberal-leftie myth – are supposed to be guarding
the market and protecting us from the alleged evils
of unregulated capitalism – or is this a case of the fox "guarding" the hen- house?
THE SURREALIST WAR
In the new world, everything is wrapped in the near impenetrable mist of a San
Francisco morning. Call it "the fog of war," or a smokescreen, depending on your
politics and proclivities, but whatever it is, it blurs the e
dges off facts and gives life in wartime a certain surrealistic air. Remember how the
President told us we might not always hear about the real action in this new and
different kind of war. Everything important is a secre
t, and the apparent ease and even inevitability of our glorious victory overseas is
muted by a sense of all-pervasive fear at home. The alarm is sounded, suddenly in the
night, but never do we hear the "all clear." What s
ilent battles are taking place on the home front as we celebrate the taking of Tora
Bora? I'm almost afraid to find out….
UNDER COVER OF NIGHT
Shrouded in mystery as the post-9/11 world seems, a few details stand out in sharp
relief, and sometimes the sun even breaks through, for a moment, throwing light on the
sort of people who do their best work under cover o
f darkness. Part four of Carl Cameron's Fox News special report on Israeli undercover
operations in the US is one such a beam of illumination.
STUMBLING ON THE TRUTH
>From Cameron we learn that nearly 200 Israelis have been rounded up by law
>enforcement because they are "suspected of belonging to an 'organized
>intelligence-gathering operation.'" Most, we are told, have since been depor
ted to Israel, but "some" are still in custody. In this, the final segment of this
amazing expose, we learn how law enforcement stumbled on the Israeli spy operation in
the midst of a routine drug bust.
BUGGING THE COPS
In 1997, the feds were ready to swoop down on a drug gang based in Los Angeles. The
target was run by an Israeli organized crime syndicate with branches in New York,
Miami, Las Vegas, Canada, Israel, and even Egypt. Their
specialty: coke, ecstasy, and "sophisticated white-collar credit card and computer
fraud." But there's a problem: the feds' plan has gone awry, the bad guys remain
elusive, and no one can figure out why. At least, not un
til the feds discovered that the Israeli Mafia had bugged their communications, and
had each and every one of them under surveillance – even home phones. In what is
perhaps a bit of an understatement, classified documents
uncovered by Fox News aver that
"This compromised law enforcement communications between LAPD detectives and other
assigned law enforcement officers working various aspects of the case. The
organization discovered communications between organized crime
intelligence division detectives, the FBI and the Secret Service."
OUR OLD FRIEND AMDOCS
Yikes! The feds went into a state of panic, and immediately turned to what many had
considered the potential source of a major security breach to begin with: our old
friend Amdocs, the Israeli-owned company that, for all
practical purposes, generates billing for all the calls made in this country. While
the company protests its innocence, Cameron echoes many in law enforcement who think
Amdocs' secrets somehow got into the "wrong hands."
ECSTASY AND TERROR: THE DRUG CONNECTION
Speaking of Israeli drug gangs that specialize in coke, ecstasy, and marijuana, what
about the six members of an international drug ring nabbed in the shadow of the World
Trade Center even as it burned? When firefighters
went into 800 Albany Street, two blocks north of the WTC, two hours after the towers
fell, they discovered Zwi Haim Harris, who for some reason was intent on sticking
around. The firefighters turned him over to the cops,
because they thought he was acting "suspiciously." When the cops arrived, Harris told
them he lived there, and led them to an apartment. The police saw marijuana on a
table, and, upon further investigation, found more tha
n 3,000 ecstasy pills, hashish, marijuana, and all kinds of drug paraphernalia.
They also raided other locations, and rounded up more members of the gang, including
Yigal Dobakrov, 37, of Brooklyn, in possession of 50,000 ecstasy pills worth $1.25
million. Dobakrov is an Israeli citizen whose role is
depicted by Manhattan district attorney Robert Morganthau as overseeing drug
importation to America and seeing to it that the money is shipped back to Israel. The
Dobakrov gang has been indicted on drug-related charges,
but, in the context of Cameron's report, their apprehension that day could be seen in
a new light.
TYING UP LOOSE ENDS
I don't want to seem obsessive about this or anything, but a good number of these
loose ends in the story of how 9/11 was allowed to happen center around a shadowy
Israeli connection to the horrific events of 9/11. The ab
ove raises a good number of questions, but, like a scene glimpsed on a foggy day, a
few details standing out in stark relief only suggest a much larger picture.
ATTACK OF THE ART STUDENTS
Another odd detail is the story about those bands of Israeli "art students" who
suddenly appeared at government buildings, and even defense installations, in the wake
of 9/11. On October 1, Houston's KHOU TV reported that
"Federal Buildings could be in jeopardy, in Houston and nationally." The 11 News
"Defenders" investigative team uncovered evidence of "a curious pattern of behavior"
by groups of students claiming to be Israeli "artists.
" They showed up at the Houston headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the federal building, the federal prosecutor's office, loaded down with artwork for
sale: but that, law enforcement sources said, appear
ed to be a cover for casing these buildings. In some cases, these "students" tried to
enter secure areas, unobserved, and they even showed up at the homes of federal
employees.
NO KIDDING
So here we have yet another massive breach of security by "Middle Eastern-looking
men," all claiming to be Israelis. It sounds like something out of some cheap
paperback thriller, or, perhaps, the Theater of the Absurd: s
uch is life in the nightmare world of the new millennium. Gee, when they told us
"everything has changed," they weren't kidding, were they?
LIFE IMITATES ART
According to an email obtained by KHOU TV and sent by an official of the Federal
Protective Service, federal sites around the nation "experienced an inundation of art
solicitations at office buildings by students claiming
to be selling Israeli art." The pattern, it seemed, had occurred a few weeks
previously in Atlanta, Georgia. The Houston reporters also cite another federal memo
revealing that the same thing happened in New York, Florid
a, and six other states: "and, even more worrisome, at 36 Department of Defense
sites." So what, as they say, is up with that?
A STREET MUGGING
As far as I know, this report was never followed up – not by the Houston TV station,
not by the national media, not by anybody anywhere. It is like a mugging carried out
under cover of night: the sweeping headlights of a
passing car may briefly illuminate the crime scene, but the street is soon swallowed
up in darkness. We get, at best, only a hurried glimpse of the perpetrators, who skulk
off undetected.
THEIR MAFIA, AND OURS
It makes perfect sense that a foreign intelligence agency would ally itself with
criminal elements in this country, particularly if they share a national allegiance.
The US cooperated with the American Mafia, in going aft
er Castro, so why shouldn't the Israelis recruit their own gangsters to do their dirty
work? Carl Cameron's report, while fragmentary, provides the basis for tying together
a lot of these loose ends. The Israeli "art stud
ents," the Dobakrov gang (which specializes in computer and credit card "white collar
crime" as well as drugs), the byzantine financial intrigues that took place prior to
9/ 11, the penetration of our communications syste
m by Israeli agents and Israeli organized crime; the 200 Israeli detainees – it all
adds up to a covert Israeli operation whose role is, at this point, indeterminate –
but almost certainly not entirely benevolent.
COMBAT OR COLLABORATION
Whether Israeli intelligence was watching, overseeing, collaborating with or combating
the Bin Ladenites is an open question, at least until our own government comes clean
with (or discovers) the facts. That the Israelis
had some significant foreknowledge and involvement in the events preceding 9/11 seems
beyond dispute. And here's the clincher….
SAFIRE'S REVELATION
In a September 13 New York Times column, "Inside the Bunker," William Safire related a
conversation with an unnamed "high White House official," who told him that "a
threatening message received by the Secret Service was
relayed to the agents with the president that 'Air Force One is next.' According to
the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures
that made the threat credible." Safire claims this inf
ormation was confirmed by Carl Rove, who told him Bush was going to return to
Washington before the Secret Service "informed him that the threat contained language
that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of hi
s procedures and whereabouts."
GUESSING GAME
If the Bin Ladenites knew that much – in the same way those West Coast Israeli
gangsters knew every move the feds were going to make before they made it – then how
did they know it without the help of a foreign intelligen
ce agency? And which foreign intelligence agency has penetrated even the supposedly
"secure" White House phone system – so that they no doubt had recordings of the "phone
sex" that went on between Clinton and his odalisqu
e?
HOW MANY EVIL ONES?
What we know about the real story of September 11, 2001, seems so much more
interesting than the mythological tale being promoted by the War Party, which needs a
story of Evil Ones and a Nation Caught Unawares to justify
a war of vengeance. But who and what is the Evil One? Is there only one, or is the
world literally swarming with bad guys, evil ones who would stop at nothing to advance
their national cause at the expense of the US?
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Oh, I can hear the chorus of yelping even now – "Why, this is nothing but a conspiracy
theory!" Yet the horror of 9/11 was conceived and carried out by a Bin Ladenite
conspiracy, one utilizing the same methods as the Isra
eli Mafia in penetrating supposedly "secure" US Government communications systems.
Given what we know, it is not unreasonable to suspect that these two groups acted in
some sort of collusion, or at least in tandem with ea
ch other, in what could have been a provocation, or a sting operation, that got out of
hand: we heard Bin Laden say on the famous captured video that he didn't expect the
twin towers to completely disintegrate, and was pl
easantly surprised when that happened.
ROGUE ELEMENT
Did a rogue element of Israeli intelligence – driven to desperation by what they
viewed as America's abandonment of Israel – have advance notice of the 9/11 terror
blitz? I wouldn't be surprised in the least – would you?
At this point nothing surprises me: and that is what I think they mean when they say
"everything has changed." Yes, the times they are a-changin' – and I don't like it any
better than you.
A GENERAL RULE
This is not only a "conspiracy theory," my critics will cry, it is "anti-Semitic" as
well," one that, absurdly, seeks to blame the Jewish state for the destruction of the
World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon.
The issue of blame is settled: clearly, Bin Laden and his associates are responsible.
But there are degrees of blame, and, as it turns out, it wasn't just the top
leadership of Al Qaeda who had September 11 marked on the
ir calendars. My contention is that the role of the Israelis in all this, whatever it
turns out to have been, was not determined by their Jewishness but by their interests
as a state. Every state acts to preserve itself,
that is, it acts in accordance with what policymakers define as the national interest,
Israel included – perhaps more than most. This general rule ought to include the
United States, although, unfortunately, this is not a
lways the case. Especially, one might add, when it comes to Israel.
CONGRESSIONAL GREED-HEADS
Where is Congress in all this? They are too busy scrambling to get onboard the war
profits bandwagon and making sure their home districts and pet constituencies get
their "fair share" of the loot to notice that their coun
try is being sold down the river.
UNDER A BARREL
Where is the media – and why are they hiding this story under a barrel? Our valiant
scribes are too busy blaming John Lindh Walker's ditzy hot-tubbing New Age-y parents
for his rejection of Western hedonism in favor of fa
ith, family values, and country – the country of the Taliban, that is.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE
Where is law enforcement? Ah, finally, help may be on the way. While political
appointees in Washington are trying to keep a lid on this smoldering cauldron of
intrigue, the pot is already boiling over: patriots in law en
forcement are whispering frantically in Carl Cameron's ear, using him as a megaphone
to get out their message: There's more to the mystery of 9/11 than meets the eye.
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