FBI chief says spy tactics could have stopped 9/11 attacks

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The FBI has shrugged off growing congressional anxiety over its surveillance of US citizens, claiming such programs could have foiled the 9-11 terrorist attacks and would prevent "another Boston".

The FBI director, Robert Mueller, also revealed that US authorities would be taking action against whistleblower Edward Snowden for revealing the extent of its activities, confirming that the FBI and department of justice were taking "all necessary steps to hold the person responsible".

But Mueller's testimony before the House judicial oversight committee brought angry responses from many congressmen, who questioned whether such surveillance was lawful and demanded to know why it had failed to prevent the Boston bombing if it were so effective.

In a frequently heated debate over balancing privacy and security, Mueller went further than other government officials in claiming that the collection of data on all American phone calls had become an essential part of counter-terrorism efforts and would make the US "exceptionally vulnerable" if watered down.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/13/fbi-mueller-spy-tactics-9-11-boston

[JCMach1]

1. How many times will we let them wave the bloody flag...

[azurnoir]

2. Really it could have ? was 'Shareef' on the payroll then too?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1224125

[BeyondGeography]

3. Boston just happened, er, Bob

Tsarnaev was on a watch list and you still didn't know who he was when you were staring at his photo.

He deserves to roasted for that line.

[christx30]

27. Found a typo there:

He deserves to roasted for that line.

That word should be lie. Hope this helps.

[snagglepuss]

4. Bullshit. This surveilence has been in place for 12 yeasrs and it didn't prevent the Boston bombings

[JoePhilly]

8. Sure and DUI checkpoints don't stop all deaths by DUI, so let's stop having those checkpoints.

Its like the gun nuts arguing that which ever law you discuss, it would not have prevented event X.

As if that actually tells you anything about whether the law would be valuable overall.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Joe, the FBI interviewed the Bomber and said 'nothing to see'

And if a bartender serves a drunk, there is liability in some cases. The Boston Bombers were stopped by the checkpoint and released. Then they crashed into a crowd. That's the DUI analogy.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Coulda shoulda woulda, Mueller.

"Could have" isn't the same as "would have." I could have stopped the 9/11 attacks by being a super hero.

[ladjf]

6. Yes, and the Bush administration might could have prevented it had they heeded the warnings from the

CIA.

[KansDem]

15. (x) 3,497...

Bush knew of terrorist plot to hijack US planes

George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday.

In a top-secret intelligence memo headlined 'Bin Laden determined to strike in the US', the President was told on 6 August that the Saudi-born terrorist hoped to 'bring the fight to America' in retaliation for missile strikes on al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998.

Bush and his aides, who are facing withering criticism for failing to act on a series of warnings, have previously said intelligence experts had not advised them domestic targets were considered at risk. However, they have admitted they were specifically told that hijacks were being planned

--more--
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/19/terrorism.september11

Apparently, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et al, didn't know what "bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" meant...

[ladjf]

16. Yes. Their performance may well have put them in the "treason" range. But, we all know

how badly it turned out for the entire world, even including the Islamic World.

[24601]

33. Unless of course they actually read the memo which said that intel was working to confirming a plan

for aircraft high-jacking in order to gain release of the blind shaykh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CIA_Memo.JPG

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Im so scared I just shit my pants and pissed myself too.

[WilliamPitt]

9. Hey fuckwit.

Boston happened exactly 60 days ago. This little program you love has been ongoing in one form or another for more than 4,000 days at the most conservative estimate. Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up, you bag of stupid fucking fuck. P.S. Fuck you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. After doing all the research for the paper

in one form or another since 1948... just thought I would point this out.



Now my challenge, write pretty complex information in an engaging, non dry fashion... damn some of what I just spent reading is dryer than sand in the Sonoran Desert.

[Ash_F]

31. I don't think I say often enough how much I enjoy your input.

[Catherina]

10. But couldn't stop the Boston Marathon attack. Pull my other finger Mueller. n/t

[tech3149]

11. Can you say Coleen Rowley? I knew you could.

She didn't have unlimited surveillance on everyone in her jurisdiction but was able to target and ID the Sept 11 2001 alleged conspirators. She was ignored by staff senior to her.

[SharonAnn]

14. The problem isn't lack of information, the problem is internal to the FBI (and others).

They had information, but ignored it.

It's just the bureaucratic mindset of the FBI itself. And especially it was significant that the FBI had shifted most of its resources to Ascroft's personal campaign against sin, such as prostitution, and away from terrorism and white-collar crime.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. All they had to do was follow the process that was in place BEFORE

Bush came into office.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. 'It could have prevented that which it did not prevent'

Boston makes his claims specious.

[Rain Mcloud]

18. Bull Shit!

Bill Clinton tells what he did which the Bush regime ignored.
[link:

|

[theplanfor2016]

19. Fear mongering at its' best.

Even if it were true, which I doubt, that doesn't mean the activity is just or constitutional.

[Gregorian]

20. Not meddling in the Middle East could have stopped 9/11 attacks. Far more likely, in fact.

[olddad56]

21. It couldn't have stopped 911. That was an inside job.

[OnyxCollie]

22. Well, that's interesting.

From the article:

He described how Khalid al-Midhar, one of the 9-11 hijackers, had called a Yemeni safe house from a phone in San Diego shortly before the attack – a phone call that would have been intercepted and acted upon, claimed Mueller, had today's surveillance system been in place.

On March 27, 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking at the Commonwealth Club in defense of the Bush Administrations surveillance program and proposing changes to FISA, made the statement that before the 2001 terrorist attacks:

“We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went. You’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” (Egelko, 2008).

In a letter to Attorney General Mukasey from Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; and Rep. Bobby Scott, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security (hereinafter “Conyers Letter”), Rep. Conyers responds to Attorney General Mukasey’s statement:

This statement is very disturbing for several reasons. Initially, despite extensive inquiries after 9/11, I am aware of no previous reference, in the 9/11 Commission report or elsewhere, to a call from a known terrorist safe house in Afghanistan to the United States which, if it had been intercepted, could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. In addition, if the Administration had known of such communications from suspected terrorists, they could and should have been intercepted based on existing FISA law. For example, even assuming that a FISA warrant was required to intercept such calls, as of 9/11 FISA specifically authorized such surveillance on an emergency basis without a warrant for a 48 hour period. If such calls were known about and not intercepted, serious additional concerns would be raised about the government’s failure to take appropriate action before 9/11. (Conyers, Nadler, Scott, 2008).

In a statement provided to Glenn Greenwald (2008) at Salon, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission, stated:

I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Michael Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence.

Additionally, Greenwald (2008) provides an email response from Philip Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission Executive Director (and former Counselor to Condolleeza Rice) (ellipses in original):

Not sure of course what the AG had in mind, although the most important signals intelligence leads related to our report -- that related to the Hazmi-Mihdhar issues of January 2000 or to al Qaeda activities or transits connected to Iran -- was not of this character. If, as he says, the USG didn't know where the call went in the US, neither did we. So unless we had some reason to link this information to the 9/11 story....

In general, as with several covert action issues for instance, the Commission sought (and succeeded) in publishing details about sensitive intelligence matters where the details were material to the investigative mandate in our law.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. The system could have been in place

it was code named ThinThread, and it was canned by General Hayden.

Before you ask

HTTP://WWW.WHISTLEBLOWER.ORG/PROGRAM-AREAS/HOMELAND-SECURITY-A-HUMAN-RIGHTS/SURVEILLANCE/NSA-WHISTLEBLOWERS-BILL-BINNEY-A-J-KIRK-WIEBE

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Congress should call Thomas Drake to the stand

in open session and ask about ThinThread. For that matter Binney and Wiebbe, and ask them about Hayden and how he stopped the internally developed program, instead adopted the contractor Trailblazer and why that failed. In fact, why was Trailblazer canned in 2006, and why a version of ThinThread was deployed without the privacy filters in place.

This is what Congress should be asking.. but they won't. We need Frank Church, or at least the ghost of Frank Church.

Oh and this is the tip of the freaking iceberg.

Now back to work with me.

[kestrel91316]

26. Um, we were onto the terrorists before 9/11. Bushco just chose to ignore the threat.

[Eddie Haskell]

28. Yes, if they'd been mining Cheney's conversations.

[Octafish]

29. NSA documents show 9/11 warnings shared with, and IGNORED by, Bush

From a year ago:

New NSA docs contradict Bush Administration 9-11 claims

Many of the documents publicize for the first time what was first made clear in the 9/11 Commission: The White House received a truly remarkable amount of warnings that al-Qaida was trying to attack the United States.

Hey! Who's on Dancing with the Stars?

[madrchsod]

30. oh bullshit...they knew something was going down and....

they knew who was going to do it. why else would they fly the saudi`s out of the usa hours after the buildings fell.

[PSPS]

32. LOL. "Could have?" By that measure, bad weather "could have stopped 9/11 attacks."

J Edgar Hoover thought his dossiers on MLK, RFK, etc., "could have" been useful too.

[annm4peace]

34. Coleen Rowley and her boss MN tried to tell you

what a jack ass mueller is.

[DeSwiss]

35. What a load.

- The Febbies had it in August 2001 and blew it. Twenty-six days before 911, Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested on immigration charges as FBI agents in Minneapolis grow increasingly suspicious of why he enrolled in 747 flight training. While America Slept