[44:06] Caroline Catz introduces viewers to Frank Spotnitz "who makes a living telling stories". This is the world of Hollywood the BBC tells us.
One has to wonder how much of the BBC investigation was scripted by Spotnitz
There are 5 Spotnitz clips interspersed with the final story-tellers of Bush's "official conspiracy theory". They are all highly compromised by conflict of interest i.e. if they don't tow the line they risk losing their job, career, pension and [More]
And the official explanation is but a conspiracy theory. No court has tried Bin Laden, no criminal or accident investigations have been made. Bin Laden only got on the Interpol “Most Wanted” list because Col Gadafy registered him in relation to crimes the French Gov had said were committed by Bin laden on Libyan soil. The FBI don’t list Bin Laden as wanted for 9/11 because they report “there is no evidence connecting him to Sept 11th”.
[49:47] (CC) "January 2000, two terrorists arrive in California from the Far East. Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar were known to be active members of an al Qaeda cell but it did not raise suspicions when two smartly dressed young men presented their passports at immigration."
The US had introduced an "easy visa" programme in Saudi Arabia in the 90's. It offered a uniquely simple open door policy for US visa application in Jeddah despite complaints and warnings from officials. In 2000 it was extended as "Visa Express" whereby travel agents in Jeddah could issue US visas despite applicants' failing to comply with US Immigration Service regulations. [More]
By connecting the dots left by media reports, it is clear that there is much more to al Hazmi and al Mihdhar than has been officially acknowledged. Their case threaten the intelligence services at official inquiries and could have seriously pressurized the Bush Administration if the media had started asking real questions.
Why did the BBC merely cite their case as a mishap rather than reveal the damaging evidence, in the public domain, that beggars belief in a SNAFU (situation normal all fu*ked up) excuse?
[50:00] (CC) "Their names had not been added to the watch list of terrorist suspects so al Hazmi and al Mihdhar were allowed on their way unchallenged."
[50:24] (CC) "They soon moved into a San Diego suburb (Claremont) and lived openly under their real names. At the same time a CIA cable confirmed that one of them was in the country but did not pass the information on to the FBI. So at the time the local FBI did not know they were here".
This is challenged by Newsweek reports.
The last ten minutes of the BBC investigation focuses on strongly presenting the SNAFU excuse and in chastising dissidents. They interview four men involved in the "intelligence failures" and the official investigation into what went wrong. All four are highly compromised by their dependence on the administration's benevolence. They are not impartial.
[50:55] Caroline Catz introduces Bill Gore, chief of the local FBI office responsible for the failure to apprehend the two accused.
[51:23] (CC) "Later they moved onto the door step of the Feds. They rented rooms from an FBI informant. But he suspected nothing" - Caroline Catz tells us unquestioningly.
Would he admit the fact that he did "suspect something"?
The BBC fails to inform the viewer that Abdussattar Shaikh, the FBI informer, was a prominent member of the local Islamic community whose home has been a gathering spot for Middle Eastern men for two decades.
Shaikh was a “tested” undercover “asset” working with the local FBI, i.e. Bill Gore. Newsweek reported that the connection between these two and the informant “stunned some top counter-terrorism officials".
Associated Press and local newspapers report many neighbours recalling hijackers Hani Hanjour and Mohamed Atta visiting the live-in guests of the FBI "asset" Shaikh.
The FBI refused to allow the 9/11 Congressional inquiry to interview either Shaikh or his FBI contact. They said he would have nothing interesting to say. The New York Times of 10/5/02. reported that the Justice Department was also "fighting" the FBI to speak with him.
[51:42] Bill Gore "With hindsight and looking at the pieces of intelligence that were out there, had the US government put all these things together I think we could have identified some of these potential hijackers before Sept. 11th. It's very frustrating, it's very frustrating to me personally, it's very frustrating to everyone who worked on it so hard in the FBI here in San Diego."
The BBC finds the space in their hour programme to broadcast the "frustration" of Bill Gore and his colleagues, who failed in their responsibilities. The BBC uses Gore to repeat the refrain that government is to blame but gives no time to mention the frustration of honest FBI agents who, despite serious threat of career destruction, fought against senior FBI management blocks on their investigations into the 19 alleged hijackers and the ring around them.
[52:13] Bill Gore "Was there something that could have saved 3000 lives" ?
Considering the events of September 11th have lead to war in Afghanistan and Iraq with untold deaths, mainly civilians, of whom women and children feature prominently, is it surprising that more and more people, of all classes and professional backgrounds, are also asking this question?
A number of FBI agents were and still are talking out - whistle-blowing. They have all paid a heavy price for their dedication. The BBC did not mention one of them.
Former FBI Special Agent and Minneapolis Division Counsel Coleen Rowley, 24 years service, was one of Time Magazine's three 2002 Persons of the Year. The BBC did not mention her courageous, against the odds, commitment to truth and to her professional responsibilities. Rowley wrote a 13 page letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller detailing obstruction of terrorism investigations in June 02. [More]
FBI Agent Coleen RowleyRevealed FBI HQ efforts to "throw up roadblocks and undermine" FBI field investigations of Al Qaeda operatives in the four weeks prior to 9/11.
The 9/11 Commission never interviewed her.
"Jokes were actually made (in the FBI office) that the key FBI HQ personnel had to be spies or moles, who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden, to have so undercut Minneapolis' effort." Coleen Rowley
Why does the BBC not investigate? Why does the BBC seek to label those that question, "flawed people" and present the viewer with the excuses of those at the nub of the intelligence scandal?
[52:30] (CC) "By the spring of 2001 the system was blinking red according to FBI chiefs ... but there was nothing specific to go on."
Sibel D Edmonds, former FBI Language Translation Specialist, for counter-terrorism and counter- intelligence operations, witness before the 9/11 Commission. Edmonds, along with other whistle-blowers, say this is an "outrageous lie".
"They will do everything to cover this up""My translations of the 9/11 intercepts included detailed and date-specific information"
Edmonds was fired after reporting her concerns to FBI officials
[Letter to Kean pdf] to 9/11 Commission: "I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations." Edmonds, Aug 2004
[52:39] Dale Watson. FBI Head of Counter Terrorism: "I knew there was another attack planning ... and the obvious question behind that is why didn’t you do something about it. We had no specific information it was just this gut feeling ... they’re planning something. We would see the planning then the communications would drop off. You'd know this was not a good time."
Very specific information was available. Watson is contradicted by a number of FBI whistle-blowers who cite Dale Watson's unit, as blocking specific investigations into terrorist activity.
Robert G. Wright, FBI International Terrorism Unit, a 17-year FBI veteran. Wright was the only FBI agent to seize terrorist funds (over $1.4 million) from U.S. - based Middle Eastern terrorists using federal civil forfeiture statutes, prior to 9/11. Despite his record his investigations were stymied by senior officers. [More]
Robert G. Wright, FBI
"whopper of a tale to tell"
Agent Wright was never called as a witness by the 9/11 Commission
Special Agent Wright filed a lawsuit against the FBI in May 2002 for suppression of his legal rights to present evidence and that FBI management "intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed" his attempts to expand the investigation and arrest other terrorists and seize their assets.
The largest obstacles to agent Wright's criminal investigation (into terrorism) were the management of the Chicago field office and the FBI HQ Counter- terrorism Division in Washington, D.C. That's Dale Watson's Division.
In a memorandum written 91 days before the Sept. 11th attacks, Wright warned that Americans would die as a result of the bureau's failure to adequately pursue investigations of terrorists living in the country.
[53:03] (CC) "At last 17 days before 911 the penny dropped. The CIA finally alerted the FBI. Had the two terrorists in San Diego been arrested there was a chance the whole plot could have been prised open. But they had long moved on and disappeared."
Al Hazmi and al Midhar, the San Diego suspects, were know as active al Qaeda members connected to a number of terrorist attacks including the USS Cole.
[link needed here]
“A multitude of press accounts from the New York Times, Los Angles Times, Newsweek and perhaps two dozen major new organisations have documented not only that the CIA, the FBI and NSA had been watching these two since 1999, but also these agencies at times acted in ways to conceal or protect the pair's movements from law enforcement agents who had shown interest in them. The press accounts have been corroborated in large measure by congressional testimony”.
Redacted clips: Michael Rupert “Crossing the Rubicon” p229 & Complete 911 Timeline
For a detailed deconstruction of press reports about these two key figures see Paul Thompson [Timeline]
[53:27] (CC) "It wasn’t a lack of intelligence it was failure to act on that intelligence. That's the view of Mike Scheuer."
This is one of the few statements made by the BBC, through the authoritative voice of Caroline Catz, that does meet with information on the public record. But the information points to much more than a cover up of blunders, which is the White House fall-back defence.
In spite of an extensive record of contined surveillance, even after one of the two, (al Hazmi and al Mihdhar) was placed on the FBI Watch List and the CIA Priority Alert labelled "urgent", they travelled openly and unmolested until the day of the attacks, making no attempt to conceal their identity.
It appears that the urgent warning of FBI & CIA head quarters in August 2001 were relayed neither to the field offices nor to local police agencies. Both men had California drivers licences, car registrations, Social Security numbers plus credit cards all in their own names and were listed in the phone directories. One even booked his 9/11 ticket on American Airlines using his credit card.
"A rookie police officer could have found them before breakfast".
Redacted clips, Michael Ruppert (ex police officer) from "Crossing the Rubicon".
The BBC interviewee, Mike Scheuer, is the author of “Through Our Enemies Eyes” which spelled out completely spurious connections between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden. This “intelligence” was acted on and used along with other erroneous manufactured “intelligence” to justify invading Iraq. The 2nd edition of his book reversed this position in a 180 degree U Turn. [More]
The BBC could have peered into their archives and watched their own production of Adam Curtis’s documentary “Power of Nightmares” revealing the efforts of western and Israeli intelligence services to create, stimulate, support and supply Islamic “extremists” - often just petty criminals - resulting in Orwellian “International Terrorism”.
Then there is Nafeez Ahmed’s book “War on Truth” meticulously referenced to public record accounts of these links or Michael C Ruppert’s detailed analysis of CIA complicity with Islamic Jihadists for over 25 years.
There is also “Forbidden Truth” in which Brisard & Dasquie set out the public record account of US diplomatic and CIA manipulations with the both Taliban and Shi’ia Jihadist groups in their efforts to secure an oil pipe line across Afghanistan.
The American government funded the Taliban government till 2000.
Nafeez Ahmed
There is indeed a wealth of publicly available information to show that the CIA works covertly and overtly to further their masters' policy objectives. They are a covert, pro-active, protagonist organisation operating outside of the law.
Unsubstantiated assertion? Books by ex CIA agents and esteemed international writers, with detailed references to official public record accounts, outline crimes against International law. Be it Chile, Iran, Kosovo, arms or drugs , the CIA - or more often a cover "firm" with operatives working "off the books" - play out in real life what should solely be Hollwood.
The reader will have to ask themselves how is it possible that the BBC, a public service body charged with providing an “accurate and impartial” representation of know facts about controversial issues, could have uncritically interviewed a CIA employee (Scheuer) at the nub of the scandal, and allowed him to air his partisan views without reference to the public record.
The public record show that the CIA has been and almost certainly still is, deeply enmeshed in al Qaeda and militant Islamic networks.
But of course Scheuer is blaming the FBI for not acting on intelligence.
[53:33] Mike Scheuer, CIA Chief of Osama bin Laden Unit 1996 - 99: “Certainly the idea they couldn't be found within the United States is true but only because the FBI is such an incompetent organisation ... you can’t have an intelligence failure when you have info and you refuse to act on it ... if there was a conspiracy it was a conspiracy to avoid taking a risk ... not to make sure America got attacked.”
"Couldn't be found" ? But suspects had been found in the US. That is what Coleen Rowley, Robert Wright and his partner John Vincent, Kenneth Williams and other FBI agents, army intelligence [Able danger] are trying to tell the world. These honest Americans have been gagged, demoted, sacked, threatened with civil and criminal law suits by FBI - CIA - Justice Department officials.
The BBC does not mention the bitter wrangles still underway to suppress the truth nor mention even one of the dissident voices.
[54:00] (CC) "When they most needed strong leadership and decisive action American people were failed by the government and its agencies."
The record shows strong leadership at every turn, blocking honest agents doing their jobs in the field. It was senior management taking decisive action with extraordinary measures to cripple local investigations specifically of the 19 hijackers and the groups supporting them.
[54:11] Dale Watson: “There was no conspiracy between the CIA not telling the FBI something or the FBI. Now in large organisations you do have a breakdown in communications at the lower end. There were never any top down orders from the FBI CIA anyone who believes that is - they’re wrong."
*Yes this is what Watson says to camera, muddled as it is. The public record is clear: top down orders silenced many determined field officers.
Phoenix FBI agent Ken Williams
Top down orders not to investigate terrorist suspects
[More] <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> [Phoenix Memo]
On July 10, 2001, Phoenix FBI agent Ken Williams sends a memorandum to FBI headquarters urging a nationwide check on Middle Eastern students at flight schools. The request was denied, reportedly for lack of resources.
An internet search and phone survey would have yielded fast results for a few days' wages.
Ken Williams had been following radical Muslim militants training at Arizona flight schools since the mid nineties. Hani Hanjour, alleged to be the Flight 77 pilot, received his flight training there. An associate of one suspect was Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, imprisoned for the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
Al Hazim and al Midhar, the two seasoned al Qaeda activists from Bill Gore’s San Diego patch, visited the group being monitored by agent Ken Williams.
Ken Williams' memo specifically mentions Osama bin Laden and warned that terrorists would possibly hijack aircraft. Zakaria Soubra with known connections to Chechen rebels, was also being tracked by the Phoenix office. The Chechen rebels were trained in camps funded and operated by the CIA.
It was top down orders that blocked Williams' investigations and the top down orders of FBI Director Robert Mueller that classified his Phoenix Memo and refused to show it to members of the Senate panel investigating 911.
The argument that there was an incapacitating tension between the FBI and the CIA is balanced by understanding the set procedures for disseminating information. Of course these rules can be ignored and that would be treason. Those responsible should be found and punished not promoted. Redacted clips from "Crossing the Rubicon" & [The Complete 911 Timeline]
2001 RAND Corporation Study on Preparation of the US Army for Homeland Security noted:
“Efforts to prevent or disrupt terrorist action frequently are successful and these activities have reduced the number of terrorist incidents”
and then:
“In actual operations and special events, agencies generally co-ordinated their activities .... agencies generally followed the draft inter-agency International Guidelines. DoD, the FBI, and the CIA performed their respective roles in military planning, law enforcement and intelligence gathering .... FBI data on terrorism in the US suggests a reasonably high degree of success in terrorism prevention ....”.
Except, it would appear, on specific groups relating to the alleged 19 hijackers.
[54:34] (CC) "In Washington, after the attacks, a congressional enquiry tried to find out what had gone wrong at the FBI and the CIA. It uncovered not only were there intelligence mistakes before 911 but also afterwards the government had been less than open in admitting to those failures."
[54:50] Bob Graham, Co chair Congressional Inquiry into 911: “There are too many secrets, that is information that has not been made available to the public for which there are specific tangible credible answers and that withholding of those secrets has eroded public confidence in their government as it relates to their own security."
[55:19] (CC) "Sen Graham found that the cover up led to the heart of the administration."
[55:26] Graham: “I called the White House and talked with Miss Rice .. we had been told we were going to get co-operation in this enquiry? ... she said she would look into it and nothing happened."
[55: 40] Guy Smith: "Was there any sense of embarrassment, apology" ?
[55:45] Graham: "Embarrassment, apology, regret - those are not characteristics associated with the current White House.”
[55: 48] Guy Smith: "So it was a conspiracy to cover up the fact that blunders had been made in the lead up to 911."
[56:00] Graham: "If by conspiracy you mean more than one person involved, yes there was more than one person and there was some collaboration of effort among agencies and the administration to keep information out of the publics hands."
[56:22] (CC) "The evidence points to a conspiracy after 911 not before. The other conspiracy theories are just that - theories. The evidence does not support them. Case closed."
[56:40] Alex Jones: "I'm never going to stop fighting and all the hit pieces all the propoganda .... the truth is coming out, there are going to be more whistle-blowers exposing the 911 fraud."
[57:00] Frank Spotnitz: “I think when you debunk conspiracy theories it’s ultimately disappointing because you are taking peoples security blankets away from them and you’re not giving them anything in it’s place. You are telling them, look I have to live with this handful of lunatics [who] killed all those people, that’s just such a painful horrible reality I don’t find the truth comforting."
The "security blanket" that Spotnitz talks of would more realistically describe the manner in which the species "homo sapiens" deals with knowledge of an over-arching and threatening power over us.
We lie to ourselves, we put issues we are not confident about in dark recesses of our minds and create "narratives" that assuage our fears. We allow authority to fill our minds with simple specious reassurances like giving up some liberty for greater security.
There is no security what-so-ever when you open your mind to the realisation that mountains of public domain documents, recording congressional inquiries, statements from politicians and administrators, academics plus the physical evidence, contradict the official account. Contradict the official account from beginning to end.
Modern homo sapiens in Europe and N America live amidst copious consumption. Many are on a stressful tread mill to keep up. Many are deeply enmeshed in the ad man's world of envy and the individual "self". They can't face up to what is really in front of them. As Mark Twain said "how can they see if their imagination is out of focus".
Is the BBC, with all its worldly authority, being used to fog the imagination of millions of viewers? In Spotnitz's words the BBC is the "security blanket" offering ressurances that leaders like Cheney, Bush, Blair etc. although let down by inefficient staff, are safe and honest hands steering our world forward to a better future for our children.
The alternative is that we, in Spotnitz's words "have to live with the knowledge that a handful of lunatics [our rulers] killed all those people .. that’s just such a painful horrible reality .. I don’t find the truth comforting".
Hope is the big driver for our genes - in the modern world do we turn away from the obvious threat to our security by allowing our minds to seek the easiest diversion?
Modern evolutionary brain scientists suggest we should be more accurately classified as homo fallax (deceptive man) because by suppressing and distorting questions about the "wider world" - war, 911, governments lying to us - we "protect our sensibilities and preserve our self esteem". Aldous Huxley
[57:23] Spotnitz: "And so I think people will watch your programme hear the answers and their rational brains will realise, you’re probably telling the truth but their emotional beings will be disappointed and left wanting something more."If you have studied this review and followed the links you will have found that the BBC did not even address most of the crucial questions let alone answer any. A discerning viewer will certainly be left "wanting something more". Why is the BBC summing up an "investigation" of the most important event this century with the potted psychology of a science fiction writer?
Spotnitz wrote for the X Files TV drama series for 8 years. He was not credited as a psychologist or sociologist or any other profession that might bring relevant knowledge to the issue of the attack on America: criminologists, physicists etc.
[57:41] (CC) "The 911 Conspiracy File is certain to remain open for a very long time to come however distressing and painful that will be for the families of those that died that day."
