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| The Spanish Connection: What the 9/11 Commission didn't consider |
| 2007-02-22 |
| The 9/11 Commission relied on information derived from two captured al Qaeda perpetrators for much of its picture of the conspiracy leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The interrogations of these men--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or "KSM," who masterminded the plot and got Osama bin Laden to finance it, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who acted as KSM's liaison with lead suicide terrorist Mohamed Atta--were performed by the CIA at secret locations. KSM claimed that he left almost all the tactical details to Atta, and therefore could not say where Atta went, or whom he visited, in the final months of the plot. Binalshibh claimed he was Atta's only contact with al Qaeda during this period and that, other than himself, Atta never met with anyone on his trips abroad in 2001. If these accounts are true, it follows that the conspiracy was a contained one, and the 9/11 Commission could preclude outside collaborators, including the participation of foreign countries. Thus, although the CIA was unable to trace the origin of the money supplied to Atta, the commission deemed this gap "of little practical significance" since the CIA's prisoners established that no one else was involved in the plot. Thus, too, when the CIA found that Iran had "apparently facilitated" the travel of eight of the 9/11 muscle hijackers in flights to and from Afghanistan (by not putting the required stamps on their passports, and by having a top Hezbollah official accompany their flights in and out of Iran), the commission could nevertheless rule out the possibility Iran or Hezbollah were "aware of the planning." The basis for this conclusion was the information provided by KSM and Binalshibh. But what if these CIA prisoners--who after all are diehard jihadists--were lying? RTWT |
| Posted by:DanNY |
| #7 I found this fairly interesting. My very limited confidence in the FBI and CIA on several things, and my even more limited confidence in the 9/11 Recall that a "conspiracy" is not in doubt - just the full details and extent of it, or perhaps of the non-WTC plans of the Hamburg cell (OK, I don't follow this stuff closely all the time - can anyone opine on whether Atta's two Prague visits, esp. the one where he apparently hung out in the transit passenger lounge and then returned to Germany, have been well and truly explained? And as I recall the info about an Iraqi intel plot to bomb Radio Free Europe in Prague was not disputed - or was it?) Atta's off-the-grid time in Spain, and his possible departure from the US in April - as I recall airily dismissed by the FBI in a most unconvincing fashion - seem like very serious gaps in our understanding of what was what. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2007-02-22 19:25 |
| #6 According to Epstein there may have been a lot more linkages in the 911 plot than the left in the U.S. was willing to consider--"An inconvenient truth?" |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-02-22 16:59 |
| #5 Hey, where'd my li'l buddy Arabi go anyways? Seems that boy might have a thing or two to say about this that I might find amusing and be willing to kick him over the fence for. The US government has got to realize that Iran has been officially at war with the US since 1979. A lack of recognition on our (the US's) part does not necessarily indicate a lack of direction on their (Iran's) part. When a nation's sovereign territory is attacked that nation cannot, if it has any will to live whatsoever, simply respond "Um, yeah, okay. Riiiiight." To many in our (the US's) government seem to want to yawn, roll over, and go right back to sleep after people tell us they mean to kill us and bring us down as a nation. This needs to stop and stop soon. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-02-22 14:05 |
| #4 International law tribunals assign culpability to anyone with either the power or authority to direct or prevent offenses. International law imposes a lower threshold than US law, in proving criminal facilitation. The Ayatollah tyranny should have been named as co-conspirators in the 9-11 plot. Unfortunately, in the 9-11 lawsuit - which implicated Saudi based financiers of terror - the DOJ presented amicus briefs in support of Saudi claims of immunity. Ergo: they cut the throats of anyone who would accuse other Mideast entities of complicity in homeland terror. Tiny-minority-of-extremists dogma rules. The US has been delivered an unshakeable pretext for slamming Iran. Two things could prevent that, and impose a future ICBM threat on Americans. First, the strongest US "allies" in Iraq, are the pro-Iranian Shiites who hold a general jihad declaration over the heads of US field troops. Second, Foggy Bottom is polluted with morons who believe that a regional balance of Sunni-Shiite power could result in armed stability. Third, sectarian conflict among Muslims is an aspect of prophecy, which includes incidents of strategic unity. The benign-Muslim spin has so indoctrinated Western elites that a true understanding of inherent Muslim aggression is shielded by brain inhibiters. As long as spin rules, the GWOT cannot be won. |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-02-22 13:42 |
| #3 salt I still use it... even tho my Dr. wants me to eliminate it. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-02-22 12:05 |
| #2 "Yet if Mr. Garzon is correct about the Spanish connection to 9/11, it is not only the effectiveness of the CIA's interrogation of its al Qaeda prisoners that is called into question. The information from Binalshibh, KSM and other detainees was used to fill in the missing pieces of the jigsaw, and those gaps concerned the contacts the 9/11 conspirators might have had with others wishing to harm America. By saying that no one else was involved--not in Spain, Iran, Hezbollah, Malaysia, Iraq, the Czech Republic or Pakistan--these detainees allowed the 9/11 Commission to complete its picture of al Qaeda as a solitary entity." And to continue buying into this probable taqiyya also insulates certain "darling nations" in the world community whose commitment to fight terror has been less than stellar and whose bowing and scraping to Islam has already had negative geopolitical ramifications. Very interesting article. One of these days, Spain is going to have an ugly reckoning with itself. I am glad Investigator Garzon is a terrier. |
| Posted by: Jules 2007-02-22 09:17 |
| #1 It seems there is no act of war the Iranians - or anyone else, for that matter - can commit that will redirect the ire of the "left" from President Bush. This problem should have been crushed in 1979 and it may take tens or hundreds of thousands more dead before we act. We have to deal with the traitors amongst us or this will happen again and again and again. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-22 09:16 |