Former CIA official: 9/11 could not be averted

[unhappycamper]

Source: Army Times / Associated Press

Former CIA official: 9/11 could not be averted
By Pamela Hess - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 5:58:22 EDT

WASHINGTON — A top former CIA official said the intelligence agency had more than 100 Afghans acting as spies before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but told a magazine in a rare interview that nothing could have averted the attacks.

Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, said that looking back, he can’t think of a thing “we could have done that would have changed anything.” Black, a top executive with Blackwater Worldwide, the security firm, made the comment in an interview published in November issue of Men’s Journal.

Black told the magazine that the Taliban was ousted in 10 weeks with just “300 Army special forces and 110 CIA officers” — a statement that ignores the more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines and foreign troops that joined the battle in November. But he acknowledges that victory was temporary.

“It was not as effectively followed up as we would have liked, as U.S. military resources were redirected toward Iraq,” he said.

Read more: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_cia_september11_100608/

[myrna minx]

1. I'd like to see this war profiteer debate Richard Clarke. n/t

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. Boolsheet!

This dingleberry was CIA and Blackwater? Then he is twice the professional liar and we shouldn't trust a word.

[mikita]

3. so why isn't this moved to the dungeon??

it has far less credibility than what's banished....

[Eurobabe]

4. $$$ in the Cofer Blackwater?

Who should believe him?

[OnyxCollie]

5. Link says, "That page has gone AWOL!" nt

[unhappycamper]

11. Sorry - I forgot to add the magical '%2e' at the end of the bottom link.

The top link should be working properly.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. You're just another ass-covering LIAR, Mr. Black -- Screw You.

Open Letter To Thomas Kean – Chairman Of The 9/11 Commission - From FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

August 1, 2004


SNIP

Over three years ago, more than four months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, in April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset who had been providing the bureau with information since 1990, provided two FBI agents and a translator with specific information regarding a terrorist attack being planned by Osama Bin Laden. This asset/informant was previously a high-level intelligence officer in Iran in charge of intelligence from Afghanistan. Through his contacts in Afghanistan he received information that: 1) Osama Bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting 4-5 major cities, 2) the attack was going to involve airplanes, 3) some of the individuals in charge of carrying out this attack were already in place in the United States, 4) the attack was going to be carried out soon, in a few months. The agents who received this information reported it to their superior, Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism, Thomas Frields, at the FBI Washington Field Office, by filing “302” forms, and the translator translated and documented this information. No action was taken by the Special Agent in Charge, and after 9/11 the agents and the translators were told to ‘keep quiet’ regarding this issue. The translator who was present during the session with the FBI informant, Mr. Behrooz Sarshar, reported this incident to Director Mueller in writing, and later to the Department of Justice Inspector General. The press reported this incident, and in fact the report in the Chicago Tribune on July 21, 2004 stated that FBI officials had confirmed that this information was received in April 2001, and further, the Chicago Tribune quoted an aide to Director Mueller that he (Mueller) was surprised that the Commission never raised this particular issue with him during the hearing ( Please refer to Chicago Tribune article, dated July 21, 2004). Mr. Sarshar reported this issue to your investigators on February 12, 2004, and provided them with specific dates, location, witness names, and the contact information for that particular Iranian asset and the two special agents who received the information ( Please refer to the tape-recorded testimony provided to your investigators during a 2.5 hours testimony by Mr. Sarshar on February 12, 2004). I provided your investigators with a detailed and specific account of this issue, the names of other witnesses, and documents I had seen. ( Please refer to tape-recorded 3.5 hours testimony by Sibel Edmonds, provided to your investigators on February 11, 2004). Mr. Sarshar also provided the Department of Justice Inspector General with specific information regarding this issue ( Please refer to DOJ-IG report Re: Sibel Edmonds and FBI Translation, provided to you prior to the completion of your report).

After almost three years since September 11, many officials still refuse to admit to having specific information regarding the terrorists’ plans to attack the United States. The Phoenix Memo, received months prior to the 9/11 attacks, specifically warned FBI HQ of pilot training and their possible link to terrorist activities against the United States. Four months prior to the terrorist attacks the Iranian asset provided the FBI with specific information regarding the ‘ use of airplanes’, ‘major US cities as targets’, and ‘Osama Bin Laden issuing the order.’ Coleen Rowley likewise reported that specific information had been provided to FBI HQ. All this information went to the same place: FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, and the FBI Washington Field Office, in Washington DC. Yet, your report claims that not having a central place where all intelligence could be gathered as one of the main factors in our intelligence failure. Why did your report choose to exclude the information regarding the Iranian asset and Behrooz Sarshar from its timeline of missed opportunities? Why was this significant incident not mentioned; despite the public confirmation by the FBI, witnesses provided to your investigators, and briefings you received directly? Why did you surprise even Director Mueller by refraining from asking him questions regarding this significant incident and lapse during your hearing ( Please remember that you ran out of questions during your hearings with Director Mueller and AG John Ashcroft, so please do not cite a ‘time limit’ excuse)? How can budget increases address and resolve these problems and failure to follow up by mid-level bureaucratic management at FBI Headquarters? How can the addition of a new bureaucratic layer, “ Intelligence Czar”, in its cocoon removed from the action lines, address and resolve this problem?


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0408/S00012.htm

FBI agent warned superiors 70 times about Moussaoui


Harry Samit, the Minnesota FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui three and a half weeks before the September 11,2001 terror attacks, provided explosive testimony against his superiors during cross-examination by Moussaoui's defense attorneys. Samit, who arrested Moussaoui and his Oklahoma University roommate Hussein Al-Attas on August 16, confirmed on the witness stand that he and other agents in the Minnesota office had argued repeatedly with their Washington, D.C., superiors, urgently requesting permission for a warrant to search Moussaoui's laptop computer, as well as Moussaoui and Al-Attas' apartment and possessions.

Agent Samit said he had contacted his superiors 70 times, urgently requesting assistance with the Moussaoui/Al-Attas investigation, only to be repeatedly rebuffed without any rational explanation. He said the superiors who thwarted the Minnesota investigation were guilty of "criminal negligence and obstruction."

"You tried to move heaven and earth to get a search warrant to search this man's belongings and you were obstructed," defense attorney Edward MacMahon said to the agent. "Yes sir, I was obstructed," Samit replied, noting that these actions were a "calculated" decision "that cost us the opportunity to stop the attacks." His superiors even blocked him from sending a memo to the Federal Aviation Administration to apprise them of the information he had uncovered about Moussaoui and Al-Attas and his belief that they were involved in an international hijacking plot. They also prevented him from putting an undercover Arabic-speaking agent in the same cell with Al-Attas.

Samit's charges echo those of Minnesota FBI agent and lawyer Coleen Rowley, who wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller bitterly criticizing Washington's obstruction in the Moussaoui case.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JZS/is_8_22/ai_n24985503

[JonLP24]

7. Bullshit - proper airport security should've averted the attack.

[No Elephants]

10. P.S. This is not news., It's a bedtime story fairy tale aimed at salvaging someone's legacy.

[magellan]

8. And we should believe this mercenary Christo-fascist because...?

Cofer Black is making millions off us as Bush**'s favorite paramilitary contractor. Conflict of interest doesn't begin to cover how trustworthy he is.

[No Elephants]

9. Does the phrase "failed to connect the dots" ring a bell? He is not speaking to the intelligence

that government had, but was too bureaucratic and compartmentalized to utilize.

[JohnyCanuck]

12. And then there was the recent GD thread

about two FBI agents who were working in a CIA-run Counter terrorism center prior to 9/11. They were forbidden by the FBI to appear on a PBS show to explain that the CIA deliberately blocked them from sharing crucial information with FBI headquarters - not that sharing it with FBI headquarters might have done much good anyway. See my post upstream on the testimony of FBI translator Sibel Edmonds and FBI field agents complaints that FBI headquarters and management sat on important information that could have been used to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4141202

[End Of The Road]

13. Why would anyone bother to interview Cofer Black about 9/11?

It's a foregone conclusion that he wouldn't tell the truth.

A total waste of time and keystrokes.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Cofer Black? Well there's an unbiased opinion for ya

Cheerleading the "war on terra" seems to be VERY profitable for some.

[EFerrari]

27. Yep. He's a dirty SOB. n/t

[Supersedeas]

30. Cofer Black is far from a RELIABLE source

[dysfunctional press]

15. what about locking the cockpit doors...?

:shrug:

as the law supposedly required...?

[ozymandius]

16. "Our looting of the U.S. Treasury could not have been averted."

See: by changing a few words this guy starts to make sense.

[Ready4Change]

17. Interesting in one respect

Here's someone from Blackwater saying that our success in Afghanistan was lost because we diverted out attention to Iraq.

'But he acknowledges that victory was temporary.

“It was not as effectively followed up as we would have liked, as U.S. military resources were redirected toward Iraq,” he said.'

Note to all mercenaries: Pick your employers with care, if you care at all about outcomes.

[Vattel]

18. I think it is unlikely that Gore

would have let it happen. In response to reports of possible hijackings of commercial jets by terrorists, he would have least coordinated with the FAA to beef up security at airports; and that is all it would have taken to foil the plot. Bush was asleep at the wheel. Fuck the U.S. media for relentlessly slandering Gore and giving us Bush in 2000. Yes, that means Tim Russert, Frank Rich, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, and many so-called liberals as well as the usual rightwing nutjobs.

[roberto]

19. OF COURSE !!!! GIVEN THAT 9/11 WAS AN INTERNAL PLOT ...

how could anyone new about it being all this prepared in secrecy ... I guess all the guys who prepared that are dead by now ...

[KansDem]

20. Horse shit!!! The US had 15 intelligence agencies prior to 9/11

We now have 16 (Homeland Security).

You can't tell me all 15 agencies didn't see this coming! Not to mention foreign intel who warned us.

[Arctic Dave]

21. He can't even get hindsight right.

"Black told the magazine that the Taliban was ousted in 10 weeks with just “300 Army special forces and 110 CIA officers” — a statement that ignores the more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines and foreign troops that joined the battle in November"

He must have forgot all the aircraft involved in this operation. I guess he is trying to make himself look more tough. Next he will say he single handedly took on the Taliban himself.

[Veronica.Franco]

22. Sealed all cockpits ...

AS the UK had already been doing? ... Was that a difficult idea for the CIA? ...

[UTUSN]

23. K&R #1 n/t

[Baby Snooks]

24. Excuse me?

They could have notified the airlines of a suspected plot to hijack planes. The airlines might have become more cautious about groups of "Middle Eastern" men buying one-way tickets on the same flights and paying cash.

But of course if they had done that, then the planes wouldn't have been hijacked. And they wanted the planes to be hijacked because it would have provided the basis for the already-planned "war on terror" which would allow them to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq and eventually Iran and Syria. They just didn't know the planes were going to be flown into buildings. In the end, it didn't matter. It just made it easier to convince the fools in Congress that we were at war.

And they made it clear to one and all that "either you are with us or against us." And in the coming weeks, that will become the real focus of the McCain campaign.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. Cofer Black??????? Was "Dusty" Bottoms...... I mean Foggo not available?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ORDagnabbit]

26. cant have a 3rd reich without a reichstag fire.... duh. n/t

[earth mom]

28. Blackwater?! WTF?! Double standard here-this belongs in the 9/11 dungeon.

p.s. MIHOP/LIHOP all the way.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. If there's nothing they could have done to stop it, how can they claim to be protecting us now?

(from the next attack-that-couldn't-be-averted)