CHAPTER X
Political Deception: The Missing Link
Behind 9/11
A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented
in order to divert attention from the original issue.
On May 16th 2002, The New York Post dropped what appeared to be a
bombshell: “Bush Knew.” Hoping to score politically, the Democrats
jumped on the bandwagon, pressuring the White House to come clean on
two “top-secret documents” made available to President Bush prior to
September 11, concerning “advance knowledge” of Al Qaeda attacks.
Meanwhile, the US media had already coined a new set of buzzwords:
“Yes, there were warnings” and “clues” of possible terrorist
attacks, but “there was no way President Bush could have known” what
was going to happen.
The Democrats agreed to “keep the cat in
the bag” by saying: “Osama is at war with the US”and the FBI and the
CIA knew something was cooking but “failed to connect the dots”. In
the words of House Minority Leader, Richard Gephardt:
This is not blame-placing …. We
support the President on the war against terrorism—have and
will. But we’ve got to do better in preventing terrorist
attacks.1
The media’s spotlight on “foreknowledge” and “FBI lapses” served
to distract public attention from the broader issue of political
decep tion. Not a word was mentioned concerning the role of the
CIA, which throughout the entire post-Cold War era, has aided
and abetted Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda as part of its covert
operations.
Of course they knew! The foreknowledge
issue is a red herring. The “Islamic Militant Network” is a creation
of the CIA. (See Chapter II.) In standard CIA jargon, Al Qaeda is
categorized as an “intelligence asset”. Support to terrorist
organizations is an integral part of US foreign policy. Al Qaeda
continues to participate in CIA covert operations in different parts
of the world. (See Chapter IV.)
While individual FBI agents are often unaware of the CIA’s role, the
relationship between the CIA and Al Qaeda is known at the top levels
of the FBI. Members of the Bush administration and the US Congress
are fully cognizant of these links.
The foreknowledge issue, focussing on “FBI lapses”, is an obvious
smokescreen. While the whistleblowers serve to underscore the
weaknesses of the FBI, the role of successive US Administrations
(since the presidency of Jimmy Carter), in supporting the “Islamic
Militant Base”, is simply not mentioned.
Fear and Disinformation Campaign
The Bush administration—through the personal initiative of Vice
President Dick Cheney—chose not only to foreclose the possibility of
a public inquiry, but also to trigger a fear and disinformation
campaign:
I think that the prospects of a
future attack on the US are almost a certainty …. It could
happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, it could happen next
year, but they will keep trying. And we have to be prepared.2
What Cheney is really telling us is that
our “intelligence asset”, which we created, is going to strike
again. Now, if this “CIA creature” were planning new terrorist
attacks, you would expect that the CIA would be first to know about
it. In all likelihood, the CIA also controls the “warnings”
emanating from CIA sources on “future terrorist attacks” on American
soil.
Carefully Planned Intelligence
Operation
The 9/11 terrorists did not act on their own volition. The suicide
hijackers were instruments in a carefully planned intelligence
operation. The evidence confirms that Al Qaeda is supported by
Pakistan’s ISI. Amply documented, the ISI owes its existence to the
CIA. (See Chapter III.)
The Missing Link
The FBI confirmed in late September 2001, in an interview with ABC
News, that the 9/11 ringleader, Mohammed Atta, had been financed
from unnamed sources in Pakistan. The FBI had information on the
money trail. They knew exactly who was financing the terrorists.
Less than two weeks later, the findings of the FBI were confirmed by
Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Times of India, quoting an
official Indian intelligence report (which had been dispatched to
Washington).
As mentioned in Chapter IV, according to
these two reports, the money used to finance the 9/11 attacks had
allegedly been “wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan,
by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of [ISI Chief] General Mahmoud
[Ahmad]”.3
According to the AFP (quoting the
intelligence source):
The evidence we have supplied to the
US is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of
paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of
terrorism.4
Pakistan’s Chief Spy Visits Washington
Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged
“money man” behind 9/11, was in the US when the attacks occurred.
(See Chapter IV.) He arrived on the 4th of September, one week
before 9/11, on what was described as a routine visit of
consultations with his US counterparts. According to Pakistani
journalist Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on
September 10):
ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud’s
week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about
the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and
National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit
in return for CIA Director George Tenet’s earlier visit to
Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week.
He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the
White House and the Pentagon.
But the most important meeting was
with Marc Grossman, US Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have
centred around Afghanistan … and Osama bin Laden. What added
interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time
Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud’s predecessor, was here, during Nawaz
Sharif’s government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy
within days.5
Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by General
Pervez Musharaf. General Mahmoud Ahmad, who became the head of the
ISI, played a key role in the military coup.
Condoleezza Rice’s Press Conference
In the course of Condoleezza Rice’s May 16, 2002 press conference
(which took place barely a few hours after the publication of the
“Bush Knew” headlines in The New York Post), an accredited Indian
journalist asked a question on the role of General Mahmoud Ahmad:
Q: Dr. Rice?
Ms RICE: Yes?
Q: Are you aware of the reports at the time that the ISI chief
was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th,
$100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this
area? And why was he here? Was he meeting with you or anybody in
the Administration?
Ms RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not
meeting with me.6
Although there is no official
confirmation, in all likelihood General Mahmoud Ahmad met Dr. Rice
during the course of his official visit. Moreover, she must have
been fully aware of the $100,000 transfer to Mohammed Atta, which
had been confirmed by the FBI.
Lost in the barrage of media reports on “foreknowledge”, this
crucial piece of information on the ISI’s role in 9/11 implicates
key members of the Bush administration including: CIA Director
George Tenet, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage and Under-Secretary of State Marc Grossman,
as well as Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat), Chairman of the powerful
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (who met General Ahmad on the
13th of September). “According to Biden, [Ahmad] pledged Pakistan’s
cooperation.”7 (See Text box 10.1.)
Mysterious 9/11 Breakfast Meeting on
Capitol Hill
On the morning of September 11, General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged
“money-man” behind the 9/11 hijackers, was at a breakfast meeting on
Capitol Hill hosted by Senator Bob Graham (Democrat) and
Representative Porter Goss, Chairmen of the Senate and House
Intelligence committees respectively. Also present at this meeting
was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi.
TEXT BOX 10.1
General Mahmoud Ahmad and the Bush Administration
Confirmed by official sources (quoted by the mainstream
media) Pakistan’s chief spy General Mahmoud Ahmad met
the following members of the Bush administration and the
US Congress, during his visit to D.C. (4 to 13 September
2001):
- Secretary of State Colin Powell (12-13 September);
- Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (13
September);
- Under-Secretary of State Marc Grossman (before 11
September);
- CIA Director George Tenet (before 11 September);
- Senator Bob Graham, Chairman of Senate Intelligence
Committee (11 September);
- Senator John Kyl, member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee (11 September);
- Representative Porter Goss, Chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee (11 September);
- Senator Joseph Biden, Chairman of Foreign Relations
Committee (13 September). |
The report confirms that other members of the Senate and House
Intelligence committees were present.
When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the
two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence
committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani
intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham
and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking
about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of
Goss’ staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. “We were
talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from
Afghanistan,” Graham said.
Mahmoud Ahmed, director general of Pakistan’s intelligence service,
was “very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United
States,” Graham said.
Goss could not be reached Tuesday. He was whisked away with much of
the House leadership to an undisclosed “secure location”. Graham,
meanwhile, participated in late-afternoon briefings with top
officials from the CIA and FBI.8
While trivializing the importance of the 9/11 breakfast meeting, the
Miami Herald (16 September 2001) confirms that General Ahmad also
met with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the wake of the 9/11
attacks:
Graham said the Pakistani
intelligence official with whom he met, a top general in the
government, was forced to stay all week in Washington because of
the shutdown of air traffic. “He was marooned here, and I think
that gave Secretary of State Powell and others in the
administration a chance to really talk with him,” Graham said.9
With the exception of the Florida press
(and Salon.com, 14 September 2001), not a word was mentioned in the
US media’s September coverage of 9/11 concerning this mysterious
breakfast meeting.
Eight months later, on the 18th of May 2002, two days after the
“Bush Knew” headline hit the tabloids, the Washington Post published
an article on Porter Goss, entitled: “A Cloak But No Dagger; An
Ex-Spy Says He Seeks Solutions, Not Scapegoats for 9/11.”
Focussing on his career as a CIA agent, the article largely served
to underscore the integrity and commitment of Porter Goss to waging
a “war on terrorism”. Yet in an isolated paragraph, the article
acknowledged the mysterious 9/11 breakfast meeting with ISI Chief
Mahmoud Ahmad, while also confirming that “Ahmad ran a spy agency
notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban”:
Now the main question facing Goss,
as he helps steer a joint House-Senate investigation into the
Sept. 11 attacks, is why nobody in the far-flung intelligence
bureaucracy—13 agencies spending billions of dollars—paid
attention to the enemy among us. Until it was too late.
Goss says he is looking for
solutions, not scapegoats. “A lot of nonsense,” he calls this
week’s uproar about a CIA briefing that alerted President Bush,
five weeks before Sept. 11, that Osama bin Laden’s associates
might be planning airline hijackings.
None of this is news, but it’s all part of the finger-pointing,”
Goss declared yesterday in a rare display of pique. “It’s
foolishness.” [This statement comes from the man who was having
breakfast with the alleged “money-man” behind 9/11 on the
morning of September 11.] …
Goss has repeatedly refused to blame an “intelligence failure”
for the terror attacks. As a 10-year veteran of the CIA’s
clandestine operations wing, Goss prefers to praise the agency’s
“fine work” ….
On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and
Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named
Mahmud Ahmad—the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan’s
intelligence service. Ahmad ran a spy agency notoriously close
to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.10
While The Washington Post acknowledges
the links between ISI Chief Mahmoud Ahmad and Osama bin Laden, it
failed to dwell on the more important question: What were Rep.
Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham and other members of the Senate
and House intelligence committees doing, together with the alleged
money-man behind 9/11, at breakfast on Capitol Hill on the morning
of September 11?
Neither does it acknowledge the fact, amply documented by media
reports, that “the money-man” behind the hijackers had been
entrusted by the Pakistani government to discuss the precise terms
of Pakistan’s “collaboration” in the “war on terrorism” in meetings
held at the State department on the 12th and 13th of September 2001.
When the “foreknowledge” issue hit the street on May 16, 2002,
“Chairman Porter Goss said an existing congressional inquiry has so
far found ‘no smoking gun’ that would warrant another inquiry.”11
This statement points to an obvious “cover-up”.
The Investigation and Public Hearings
on ‘Intelligence Failures’
In a piece of bitter irony, Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob
Graham—the men who hosted the mysterious September 11 breakfast
meeting with the alleged “hijackers’high commander” (to use the
FBI’s expression)—had been put in charge of the investigation and
public hearings on “intelligence failures”.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney
had expressed anger on a “leak” emanating from the intelligence
committees regarding,
“the disclosure of National Security
Agency intercepts of messages in Arabic on the eve of the
attacks. The messages … were in two separate conversations on
Sept. 10 and contained the phrases ‘Tomorrow is zero hour’ and
‘The match is about to begin.’ The messages were not translated
until September 12.”12
Red Carpet Treatment for the Alleged
“Money Man” behind 9/11
The Bush administration had not only provided red carpet treatment
for the alleged “money man” behind the 9/11 attacks, it had also
sought his “cooperation” in the “war on terrorism”. The precise
terms of this “cooperation” were agreed upon between General Mahmoud
Ahmad, representing the Pakistani government, and Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage in meetings at the State Department on
September 12 and 13.
In other words, the Administration
decided in the immediate wake of 9/11 to seek the “cooperation” of
Pakistan’s ISI in “going after Osama”, despite the fact (documented
by the FBI) that the ISI was financing and abetting the 9/11
terrorists. Contradictory? One might say that it’s like asking the
Devil to go after Dracula.
The CIA Overshadows the Presidency
Dr. Rice’s statement regarding the ISI chief at her May 16 2002
press conference is an obvious cover-up.
While General Ahmad was talking to US officials at the CIA and the
Pentagon, he had allegedly also been in contact (through a third
party) with the September 11 terrorists.
But this conclusion is, in fact, the tip of the iceberg. Everything
indicates that CIA Director George Tenet and ISI Chief General
Mahmoud Ahmad had established a close personal working relationship.
As mentioned in Chapter IV, General Mahmoud had arrived a week prior
to September 11 for consultations with George Tenet.
Bear in mind that the CIA’s George Tenet also has a close personal
relationship with President Bush. Prior to September 11, Tenet would
meet the President nearly every morning, at 8:00 a.m. sharp, for
about half an hour.13
A document, known as the President’s Daily Briefing, or PDB, “is
prepared at Langley by the CIA’s analytical directorate, and a draft
goes home with Tenet each night. Tenet edits it personally and
delivers it orally during his early morning meeting with Bush.”14
This practice of “oral intelligence briefings” is unprecedented.
Bush’s predecessors at the White House received a written briefing:
With Bush, who liked oral briefings
and the CIA director in attendance, a strong relationship had
developed. Tenet could be direct, even irreverent and earthy.15
The
Decision to Go To War
At meetings of the National Security Council and in the “War
Cabinet” on September 11, 12 and 13, CIA Director George Tenet
played a central role in gaining the Commander-in-Chief’s approval
to the launching of the “war on terrorism”.
George W. Bush’s Timeline—September 11 (from 9:45 a.m. in the wake
of the WTC-Pentagon Attacks to midnight) :
-
Circa 9:45 a.m: Bush’s motorcade
leaves the Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida.
-
9:55 a.m: President Bush boards “Air
Force One” bound for Washington.16 Following what was noted as a
“false report” that Air Force One would be attacked,Vice-President
Dick Cheney had urged Bush (10:32 a.m.) by telephone not to land
in Washington. Following this conversation, the plane was
diverted (10:41 a.m.) (on orders emanating from Washington) to
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. A couple of hours later
(1:30 p.m.), after a brief TV appearance, the President was
transported to Offut Air Force base in Nebraska at US Strategic
Command Headquarters.
-
3:30 p.m: A key meeting of the
National Security Council (NSC) was convened, with members of
the NSC communicating with the President from Washington by
secure video.17 In the course of this NSC video-conference, CIA
Director George Tenet fed unconfirmed information to the
President. Tenet stated that “he was virtually certain that bin
Laden and his network were behind the attacks … .”18
The President responded to these statements, quite
spontaneously, off the cuff, with little or no discussion and
with an apparent misunderstanding of their implications. In the
course of this video-conference (which lasted for less than an
hour), the NSC was given the mandate by the Commander-in-Chief
to prepare for the “war on terrorism”.Very much on the spur of
the moment, the “green light” was given by video conference from
Nebraska. In the words of President Bush: “We will find these
people. They will pay. And I don’t want you to have any doubt
about it.”19
-
4:36 p.m: (One hour and six minutes
later … Air Force One departed for Washington. Back in the White
House that same evening (9:00 p.m.) a second meeting of the full
NSC took place together with Secretary of State Colin Powell,
who had returned to Washington from Peru. The NSC meeting (which
lasted for half an hour) was followed by the first meeting of
the “war cabinet”. The latter was made up of a smaller group of
top officials and key advisers.
-
9:30 p.m: At the war cabinet:
“Discussion turned around whether bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the
Taliban were one and the same thing. Tenet said they were.”20
By the end of that historic meeting of
the war cabinet (11:00 p.m.), the Bush administration had decided to
embark upon a military adventure which threatens the future of
humanity.
Did Bush Know?
Did Bush, with his minimal understanding of foreign policy issues,
know all the details regarding General Mahmoud and the “ISI
connection”? Did Tenet and Cheney distort the facts, so as to get
the Commander-in-Chief’s “thumbs up” for a military operation which
was already in the pipeline?
Notes
1. Quoted in AFP, 18 May 2002.
2. Fox News, 18 May 2002.
3. The Times of India, Delhi, 9 October 2001.
4. AFP, 10 October 2001.
5. Amir Mateen, “ISI Chief’s Parleys continue in Washington”,
News Pakistan, 10 September 2001.
6. Federal News Service, 16 May 2002. Note that in the White
House and CNN transcripts of Dr. Rice’s press conference, the
words “ISI chief” were transcribed respectively by a blank “—”
and “(inaudible)”. Federal News Service Inc. which is a
transcription Service of official documents provided a correct
transcription, with a minor error in punctuation, which we
corrected. The White House transcript is at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020516-13.html.
All three transcripts were verified by the author and are
available on Nexus. Federal News Service documents are also
available for a fee at
http://www.fnsg.com/ For details on the transcripts, see
Appendix.
7. New York Times, 14 September 2002.
8. Stuart News Company Press Journal (Vero Beach, FL), September
12, 2001).
9. Miami Herald, 16 September 2001.
10. Washington Post, 18 May 2002.
11. White House Bulletin, 17 May 2002.
12. Miami Herald, 21 June 2002.
13. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, 17 May 2002.
14. Washington Post, 17 May 2002.
15. Washington Post, 29 January 2002.
16. Washington Post, 27 January 2002.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
Back to Contents
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X
Doctoring Official Transcripts
Excerpts from the transcripts of Dr.
Condoleezza Rice’s press conference of May 16, 2002
Below are excerpts from the transcripts of the same Condoleezza Rice
press conference from CNN, the White House (FDCH) and Federal News
Service. The latter is the source quoted in Chapter X. The other two
sources (CNN and the White House) were manipulated.
CNN SHOW: “Inside Politics”
16:00, May 16, 2002 Transcript # 051600CN.V15:
QUESTION: Are you aware of the
reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washington on
September 11. And on September 10, $100,000 was wired from
Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And while he was
here, was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?
RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not
meeting with me.
FDCH Federal Department and Agency Documents, May 16,
2002, Agency, White House:
QUESTION: Dr. Rice, are you aware of
the reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washington on
September 11th, and on September 10th, $100,000 was wired to
Pakistan to this group here in this area? And while he was here
was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?
DR. RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not
meeting with me.
Federal News Service, May 16, 2002, Special White House
Briefing:
QUESTION: Are you aware of the
reports at the time that the ISI chief was in Washington on
September 11th, and on September 10th, $100,000 was wired from
Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And why he was here?
Was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?
MS. RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not
meeting with me.
Notice the difference between the three
transcripts. Both the White House and CNN exclude the identity of
the “ISI chief” to the extent that the transcripts are totally
unintelligible.
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