Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- Continuing FBI Counter Terrorism Failures With Al-Qaeda Inside US Described to Congressional Staffs
Personal Conversations by Author with Congressional Staffs
http://www.libertypost.com
Oct 14, 2003
Patrick B. Briley
Today, October 14, 2003 I spoke at length to major Congressional Committees about the continuance of major counter terrorism failures by the FBI against AlQaeda inside the US which are putting the lives of Americans in serious jeopardy. I spoke to the staffs of the Homeland Security Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator James Inhofe, Senator Don Nickles and Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and discussed in some detail the information listed below.
1. The October 12, 2003 New York Times article âInside the Lackawanna Terror Case [AlQaeda Cell, Analysis of US Counterterrorism Failures]â by Matthew Purdy and Lowell Bergman posted at:http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=24969&Disp=5#C5
2. The PBS Frontline documentary airing Thursday, October 16, at 9 P.M., "Chasing the Sleeper Cell" which will examine the extended, long term FBI surveillance of an AlQaeda terror cell at Lackawanna, New York after 9/11 populated with US citizens who were Muslims recruited by AlQaeda terrorists allowed to move freely in and out of the US by the FBI for years.
3. The August 23, 2003 New York Times article "Six Groups Said to Be Monitored in U.S. for Possible Qaeda Links" by Don Van Natta, Jr. posted at :http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=21488
4. The October 2001 Washington Post article by Bob Woodward describing ongoing monitoring of 5 AlQaeda cells inside the US based on interviews with senior FBI officials.
5. The testimony of Senator Orin Hatch (and his 1998 interview with Cal Thomas) and FBI Director Louis Freeh before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1995 and in 1997 describing FBI policy to allow up to 2000 known AlQaeda and Abu Nidal terrorists to come into the US for "tracking" over four years.
6. The tracking of AlQaeda terrorists inside the US by FBI SAC Danny Defenbaugh from 1997-2000 without adequate arrests or oeping criminal investigations using Dallas police officers to follow Bin Ladenâs secretary and FBI/CIA double agent Ali Mohammed.
7. The public complaints of a number of FBI agents like Robert Wright of Chicago saying that they were only allowed to follow terrorists for years inside the US but never allowed to open a criminal investigation against them for prosecution and arrest.
I pointed out to the staff members that the PBS documentary and the New York Times article on the Lackawaana AlQaeda cell provide a basis for concluding the FBI's policies and effectiveness are poor and dangerous and need total review and change. According to the NY times author Lowell Bergman some intelligence officials say that the way the FBI handled the Lackawanna case âshows the FBI is not up to the job and that we need a new domestic counterintelligence and counterespionage agency."
I also told the staff that the NY Times article on the Lackawanna cell includes an interview with former FBI official Dale Watson of the Joint FBI and CIA Counter terrorism Center (CTC) that blocked search of Moussaoui's computer by Minnesota FBI agents. Watson and other CTC officials were aware at the time of FBI and CIA tracking of hijacker pilots training in the US before 9/11. Watson currently works for former CIA Director Admiral Woolsey's firm Booze, Allen, Hamilton.
I further told them that in the most revealing section of the article during interviews with CTC Chief Watson one can find the following disturbing statements by Watson:â in this case, Mr. Watson said, the bureau felt it could ensure that nothing would happen while it continued to watch the suspects, in the hope of being led to bigger prey.â
âOnce the C.I.A. gave Lackawanna the "most dangerous" label, however, administration officials asked, "Can you guarantee to me that these people won't do something?" Mr. Watson said. "And the answer," he said, "is we think we can. We are probably 99 percent sure that we can make sure that these guys don't do something â if they are planning to do something. And under the rules that we were playing under at the time, that's not acceptable. So a conscious decision was made, `Let's get `em out of here.' "
The decision to get the suspects off the street brought to the fore the legal conundrum of waging a war of prevention against American citizens at home.
I explained to the staff members that one can tell in the article that FBI CTC official Dale Watson is still exhibiting the same failed mentality that prevailed before 9/11 with the FBI tracking of terrorist hijackers fro over four years, that is to "continue(d) to watch the suspects, in the hope of being led to bigger prey.
I commended administration officials and the CIA for convincing the FBI that it could not guarantee something could go wrong if the FBI continued to monitor the terror cell at Lackawanna. The result was that the Lackawanna cell members were finally taken off the streets by the FBI.
But what the staffs found particularly disconcerting was that the Fall of 2001 report by the Washington Post and Bob Woodward showed the FBI was monitoring but NOT taking off the streets 4 other known AlQaeda terror groups inside the US besides the Lackawanna AlQaeda group. The staffs understood that FBI monitoring of 4 other AlQaeda cells inside the US at the same time without taking them off the streets would make it much less likely that the FBI could guarantee that nothing would go wrong with these four other cells and was a dangerous risk to take.
The staffs seemed more troubled when I informed them that the FBI is still monitoring to this very day but no arresting the other AlQaeda groups it was following at the time it finally moved against the Lackawanna group.
I complained to the staffs that apparently the FBI has convinced the administration to go back to the old way of operating to continue to monitor for extended periods of time members of six known large Al Qaeda cells inside the US according to this NY Times article "Six Groups Said to Be Monitored in U.S. for Possible Qaeda Links" cited above.
I read to the staffs this most damning quote from the article about continuance of failed US Counter terrorism policy inside the US with terror groups: "American officials have limited their actions so far to intensive surveillance of the suspects, who they say are spread across 40 states, in order to gather more information about their plans and organization, the officials said. The decision to continue the surveillance, rather than to detain some suspects, reflects a strategic shift by United States government investigators. They said they had concluded that at this stage it was more valuable to try to learn more about the groups' activities and possible plans through extended observation.
I asked the staffs to consider that if âextended observationâ of the 6 large AlQaeda cells became too long (more than a few weeks) then the FBI could easily lose track of too many of them while they could set up more cells, recruit more terrorists and pull off more attacks like what happened when the FBI and CIA were "monitoring" Ali Mohammed, Hambali, ALQaeda, Moussauoi, AlHazmi and AlMihdhar in Malayasia, San Diego, Phoenix and Norman flight schools?
I asked the staffs to tell me if they knew of and condoned Senator Orin Hatch and Louis Free policies to let known AlQaeda and Abu Nidal terrorists into the US to track them for years without arrest.
I asked the staffs to tell me if they knew of and condoned FBI SAC Danny Defenbaugh (former OK Bomb Inspector) following known AlQaeda terrorists like Ali Mohammed and Bin Ladenâs secretary el Hage in Dallas and the US for years using Dallas police officers from 1997 to 2000 without having them arresting and which contributed to the OKC bombing and the 9/11 attacks.
I asked the staffs why isnât the FBI now being told to get the other six large AlQaeda cells off the street since the FBI had been told earlier that the FBI had to get the Lackawanna AlQaeda cell off the streets because the FBI could not guarantee something would not go wrong with that cell.
I further asked how so many illegals, who could be terrorists crossing our borders into this country, could be adequately tracked and monitored by FBI while the FBI was tracking the 6 large AlQaeda cells at the same time?
I told the staffs that the US should stop terrorists before they get across the border, and arrest and prosecute and deport NOW those who make it across or who are known AlQaeda and Hamas terrorists in known cells that have been here for years and who the FBI has monitored too long without arresting them.
The staff members listened for a long time, appeared to take some notes and said they would pass on my complaints and questions along. But I do not believe they or their Congressmen employers intend to take any serious action other than to do damage control to make sure they are reelected.
There did not seem to be a desire on their part to follow up, ask me questions or to get more information. It was like they were just going through the motions.
Sad, very Sad.
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
