http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_repo...

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring'
By Eric Black | Published Wed, Mar 11 2009 11:17 am

At a “Great Conversations” event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an “executive assassination ring.”

Hersh spoke with great confidence about these findings from his current reporting, which he hasn’t written about yet.

In an email exchange afterward, Hersh said that his statements were “an honest response to a question” from the event’s moderator, U of M Political Scientist Larry Jacobs and “not something I wanted to dwell about in public.”

Other articles by Margie Burns:

Why did Bush abolish information sharing and route all national security information to him, via Condoleezza Rice? (This one is not available anymore at onlinejournal.com, and at the moment is not available at archive.org either. I couldn't find the entire text anywhere online, though a number of blogs linked to the now dead link. This is a great example of why it's a good habit to take a sec, hit ctrl+s and save any important story you see to your hard drive- storage keeps getting bigger and cheaper. Nafeez Ahmed quotes from this article in The War on Truth (247-250)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http:/www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports...

9/11 and the ‘second Pearl Harbor’
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_78.shtml

TRIMMING THE BUSHES: Family Business at the Watergate
http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20050215bushes_1.cfm

Latest article:

Politicized Justice Department Firings Are Not the Only Investigation Needed by Margie Burns on Thu 05 Mar 2009 11:28 AM EST
http://www.margieburns.com/blog/_archives/2009/3/5/4113130.html

Excerpt:

Man says he was informant for FBI in Orange County
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-informant26-2009feb26,0,5747804,...

Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III testified at a bail hearing for Niazi that the defendant had been secretly recorded by an informant while initiating jihadist rhetoric and threatening to blow up abandoned buildings. Ropel did not name Monteilh but testified that the agency's informant was the same man Muslims had reported to the FBI as an extremist. In June 2007, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported Monteilh to the FBI as a possible terrorist, said Hussam Ayloush, the council's executive director in Anaheim.

Ayloush said he was "100% sure" that Monteilh was the informant in question and expressed anger and disappointment that the FBI would infiltrate mosques. He accused officials of trying to entrap innocent Muslims, noting that Monteilh has been convicted of grand theft and forgery in the past. He said Muslims had worked hard to develop a partnership with the FBI -- and had been assured by J. Steven Tidwell, then assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, at an Irvine forum in 2006 that their mosques were not being monitored. Now, Ayloush said, he has doubts about future relations with the FBI.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a "Surveillance Self-Defense" website to educate the public about what the US govt. might be doing to surveil you, and what you can do about it.

Obama voted for the warrantless wiretapping/Telco immunity bill, and seems to be completely disinterested in investigating the Bush Administration's admitted criminal actions.

https://ssd.eff.org/

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/03/05/breaking-news-judge-approves-911-set...
Breaking News: Judge Approves 9/11 Settlements Worth $500 Million
MARCH 5, 2009, 4:41 PM ET

This just in: A federal judge in New York has approved settlements in 92 of the 95 cases filed on behalf of those injured or killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The total amount paid was close to $500 million, according to the mediator in the case, Sheila Birnbaum, of Skadden, Arps. Click here for the early AP story; here for a copy of Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s order, which attaches Birnbaum’s report.

The lawsuits were brought by those who chose not to participate in the Victim’s Compensation Fund, a special fund Congress established that distributed more than $7 billion to more than 5,000 survivors.

Trial dates for the remaining three cases have not been set.

The order contains some remarkably glowing words for Birnbaum, a well-known mass-tort and product-liability lawyer, who just might think of framing the page from the West Reporter that ends up running the decision. It reads:

http://www.javno.com/en-world/al-qaeda-tried-to-destroy-wtc-with-help-of...
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Al-Qaeda Tried To Destroy WTC With Help Of FBI? Two terrorists parked a van filled with explosives in an underground garage, but failed to destroy the Twins. By Mladen Starčević. Translated by Karmen Horvat

Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoli parked their red van in an underground garage of the World Trade Centre North Tower on February 26, 1993. They stepped outside, gazed at each other, lit a 60-metre fuse and walked away.

Twenty minutes later, at 12:17 hours, the bomb made a 30 mete hole through four underground concrete stories, killing six and injuring 1,042 people.

Smoke of the explosion went up the stairs all the way to the 93 rd floor, but the Twins were left standing, probably to Yousef and Eyad`s disappointment.

Pre-9/11 warrantless wiretapping (thanks to George Washington for collecting these links):
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/nsa-asked-for-p.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abIV0cO64zJE
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ATT_engineer_says_Bush_Administration_soug...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4sj03-Gb3HZUn9lqMmn4Q...
Court rejects Obama bid to stop wiretapping suit
By DEVLIN BARRETT – 20 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security should stop a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday rejected the Justice Department's request for an emergency stay in a case involving a defunct Islamic charity.

Yet government lawyers signaled they would continue fighting to keep the information secret, setting up a new showdown between the courts and the White House over national security.

The 9/11 Commission Report presents a theory, and supports it by omitting and distorting hundreds of relevant facts. Its conclusions and statements are in contradiction with what has been established by government reports (incl. the Joint Inquiry) and mainstream media. Enough with the 'theories'; there needs to be an accounting, full criminal and Congressional investigations, accountable to the public. Those who were responsible for US intelligence and defense need to testify under oath in answer to real questions (not softballs and ass-kisses). The Bush Administration, FBI, NSA, CIA, NORAD and FAA have not presented an honest, coherent accounting for why 9/11 happened that includes what's already in the public record, and that's bad news for the Republic. There are too many facts that are more readily explained by a 'conspiracy' involving people other than/in addition to al Qaeda- such as the destruction of WTC 1, 2 & 7, repeated FAA/NORAD failures, coincident war games, CIA/FBI/NSA tracking suspects but violating standard procedures and not using common sense, world-wide unusual trading leading up to 9/11, etc.

for information purposes; if you know any dirt on j.m. berger, intelwire.com or intelfiles.com please post in comments.

"INTELFILES features the largest collection of official 9/11 documents on the Web, including a collection of documents footnoted in the Final Report of the 9/11 Commission. More than 200 documents obtained from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act have already been posted. More documents from other agencies will follow."

http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/2009/02/911-commission-fbi-source-document...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

9/11 Commission, FBI Source Documents, Chronological, Jan. 1, 2003 to Dec. 31, 2003

1/8/2003: FBI Letterhead Memorandum, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas

1/8/2003: FBI Letterhead Memorandum, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (unredacted)

1/16/2003: FBI FD-302, Record of interrogation, Derar Mohammed Saleh

2/4/2003: FBI FD-302, Record of interrogation, Shareef Abdulmuttaleb El-Arbi

2/4/2003: FBI FD-302, Record of interrogation, Shareef Abdulmuttaleb El-Arbi (less redacted)

2/4/2003: FBI FD-302, Record of interrogation, Shareef Abdulmuttaleb El-Arbi (different redactions)

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nywtc246047551feb24,0,72216...
Pols, advocates urge rehiring of WTC health czar
The Associated Press
February 24, 2009
New York lawmakers and Sept. 11 health advocates urged President Barack Obama yesterday to rehire a World Trade Center health czar who was let go last year by the Bush administration.

John Howard's six-year term as director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health expired last July and he was not asked to stay on. Since 2006 he was the government's point person for post-9/11 illness. He often found himself at odds with the Bush administration in his advocacy for a federal program to monitor and treat thousands who said they were sickened by exposure to toxic dust.

Sept. 11 health advocates had said his departure could jeopardize future funding.

"The Bush administration made a good decision in appointing Dr. Howard and a typically bad move in letting him go," Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) said.

The White House didn't immediately comment.

Obama Faces Familiar Divisions Over Anti-Terror Policies - No Change in Views of Torture, Warrantless Wiretaps
http://people-press.org/report/493/obama-anti-terror-policies

Excerpts, Fair Use:

By a wide margin (59% to 25%), the public says that his administration’s policies will make the chance of another major terrorist attack on the United States less likely rather than more likely. However, while majorities of Democrats (76%) and independents (62%) say that the Obama administration’s policies will make another terrorist attack less likely, just 29% of Republicans agree. Nearly half of Republicans (47%) say Obama’s policies will make another attack more likely.
------
Similarly, views have remained stable about whether the use of torture is justified in order to gain important information from suspected terrorists. More than four-in-ten say such tactics are often (16%) or sometimes (28%) justified; a majority says torture is rarely (20%) or never (31%) justified. Public attitudes regarding the use of torture against suspected terrorists have been largely unchanged since 2004.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20090106_Saudi_filing_faults_Cozen...

Posted on Tue, Jan. 6, 2009

Saudi filing faults Cozen suit: The Phila. law firm wants the kingdom held accountable for the Sept. 11 attacks. Saudis say U.S. law prohibits that.

By Chris Mondics
Inquirer Staff Writer

Setting the stage for a critical court decision, lawyers for Saudi Arabia have asserted in court papers that the Supreme Court should reject arguments that the desert kingdom be held accountable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because, over a period of many years, it financed al-Qaeda.
In papers filed with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the kingdom and several high-ranking Saudi royals say that U.S. law provides blanket immunity to Saudi Arabia from lawsuits over the 9/11 attacks.

The lawsuit was brought by the Philadelphia law firm of Cozen O'Connor on behalf of dozens of insurance companies that paid out billions in property-damage claims at ground zero. A federal district court judge in Manhattan threw out the case against Saudi Arabia in 2005, and that decision was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

He ties this in with 9/11 at the end...

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/3528-where-ways-intersect-the-pro...

The Secret and (Very) Profitable World of Intelligence and Narcotrafficking by Tom Burghardt

When Afghan drug kingpin Haji Bashir Noorzai was arrested in New York in 2005, it set off a chain of events that continue to echo today. A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Noorzai September 22, for his involvement in an international narcotics trafficking conspiracy that sold tens of millions of dollars of heroin on world markets. The drug lord now faces life in prison and will be sentenced on January 7.

But things aren't always what they seem. Noorzai, described by federal investigators and journalists as "the richest man in Afghanistan," enjoyed close and cosy relations with the Taliban's top leader Mullah Omar, al-Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency (ISI). Indeed, Noorzai had become one of the capo tutti capos of Afghanistan's flourishing heroin rackets and profited handsomely from the protection of his Taliban "friends," his ISI mentors and allegedly the CIA.

Here's mine:

"Please order the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, FAA, Secret Service, NSA and all other involved federal agencies to fully comply with the 9/11 Commission's mandate to declassify and release its records in 2009. http://www.archives.gov/research/9-11-commission/"
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url

I searched 9/11 and went thru the list; here's some of the better ones getting the most votes:

Dione- ""Will the many crimes committed by the outgoing administration, including the torture and rendition of detainees, the illegal war on Iraq; 9/11 conspiracy, stolen elections and likely recent murder of Rove's IT Guru, Mike Connell, be investigated?""
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url

Politicalboi- "Will there be a full independent investigation of 9/11."
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url

RPDX- "With your administration's new "transparency" policy, why not declassify all the documents pertaining to controversial debates such as the events at Roswell, the JFK assassination, and the 9/11 attacks?"
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url

Professor at an NC state U. teaches undergrad and grad courses on 9/11:
http://www.justiceblind.com/911.htm

References the 9/11 Commission Report, Sen. Bob Graham's Intelligence Matters, Clarke's Against All Enemies, Thompson's Terror Timeline, Staff reports, JICI report, etc.

links to 911truth.org and whatreallyhappened.com, unfortunately also has a link to killtown/webfairy

Archive first crawled the 9/11 page Dec. 04
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.justiceblind.com/911.htm

Department of Government & Justice Studies Faculty page for Dr. Matthew Robinson:
http://www.pscj.appstate.edu/faculty/robinson.html

As the departing Bush administration frantically attempts to shore up its place in history, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann stands ready to kick the props out from under it again. A renewed claim that "no one could have anticipated" the attacks of 9/11 attracted his scorn in particular on Thursday's Countdown.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Olbermann_White_House_owes_apology_to_1219...
Olbermann refers to Bush 9/11 'lies' as 'Insult the Dead-gate'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday December 19, 2008

"This is a White House talking point still, even though your average three-year-old could disprove it using an etch-a-sketch." Olbermann sneered on Thursday, over the heading, "Insult the Dead-gate."

Olbermann's specific target was White House press spokesman Tony Fratto, who responded to a Fox News interviewer's suggestion on Wednesday that before 9/11, "nobody was thinking that there'd be terrorists flying 767s into buildings" by agreeing, "No one could have anticipated that kind of attack -- or very few people."

The "No Elephants" sign is funny and appropriate, but it seems, at the least, premature, without a full investigation, to come to the conclusion that 9/11 was "a failure of imagination"- when 70% of the families' questions were ignored and haven't been addressed by the MSM responsibly- unlike drunk driving celebs and missing white women- and more info has come out since, including info on what's being withheld:

Complete 9/11 Timeline
http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project

Especially when this is the guy who broke the story on the NSA warrantless wiretapping

Video at the link:

NYT writer: History will view 9/11 as 'a fluke' by Nick Juliano - RawStory.com
Published: Tuesday December 16, 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NYT_writer_History_will_view_911_1216.html

New York Times scribe James Risen has been at the forefront of uncovering President Bush's most cavalier redefinitions of executive power.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/12/15/911_survivors_press_for_open_tria...

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Family members of Sept. 11, 2001, victims say they're hoping a New York judge will allow a public trial of their suit against United and American airlines.

The survivors are suing the airlines, the owner of Boston's Logan International Airport and security companies for negligence in connection with the hijackings of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, which left Boston with armed hijackers on board who forced the planes to fly into the World Trade Center.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein of U.S. District Court in Manhattan was set to hear their arguments Monday that a trial should proceed. The families say it would expose to public view the "fatal mistakes" made by Logan Airport officials, The Boston Globe reported.

To date, nearly 3,000 families have agreed to more than $7 billion in private settlements that averaged $2 million each from the federal Victims Compensation Fund, but no Sept. 11 negligence suits have yet proceeded to trial, the newspaper said.

9/11: 'the new Pearl Harbor' By William R. Woodward - December 07, 2008 6:00 AM
http://seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=TOOLS02

Editor's note: The author is a UNH professor who sparked a controversy in September 2006 when he was quoted in a newspaper story as saying "government elites orchestrated 9/11" while summarizing literature on the subject. The university defended his academic freedom and he chose to let the firestorm subside. Now, he breaks the silence with his first opinion piece on the topic.

By William R. Woodward

On Dec. 7, 1941, our country was attacked by Japan. What do our children know of the economic and political reasons for this tragic event?

Hyperlinks here:

Media Matters Catalogues Gibson-Bush Interview Spin, Omits PNAC!
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/media-matters-catalogues-gibs...

Bush gave an interview to ABC's Charlie Gibson, in which Bush referred to the "intelligence failure" about WMD as his "biggest regret". MediaMatters.org, supposedly a right-wing spin watchdog, ignores PNAC and pre-Bush Administration Iraq War plans, but notes the corporate media's failure to point out that there are many instances in the public record that make it clear that the Bush Administration was planning to go to war with Iraq after 9/11. The ones Media Matters notes include as the "Downing Street Memo”, Richard Clarke's statement in his book that Bush asked him the day after 9/11 to find a link to Hussein, his report to Condi Rice a week later that there was none, the Senate Intelligence WMD Inquiry, and other media reports.

Send your own message to Obama here:
http://change.gov/page/s/contact

Vote it for truth and justice here:

Declassify and Release 9/11 Commission Records in 2009
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/declassify_and_release_911_commission_r...

Mr. President-Elect Obama, The 9/11 Commission records “general restriction from public access”, according to federal law, lasts until 2009. Please order all involved Federal Agencies, including but not limited to the Pentagon, FAA, FBI and CIA, to finish the work of declassifying 9/11 Commission records for public release, immediately. Researcher and writer Professor Peter Dale Scott, summarizes the current situation:

“The FBI has been declassifying documents cooperatively with respect to this commitment, and recently the CIA has begun to cooperate as well. [79] But some federal agencies, notably the FAA and Pentagon, are not collaborating with the 9/11 Commission's commitment at all...Both the FAA and the Pentagon declined to release important records to the 9/11 Commission, despite its statutory powers, until required to do so by judicial subpoena.”

New York Times Misleads on Taliban Role in Opium Trade

The New York Times and other major U.S. media sources commonly report on the production of opium in Afghanistan as though it were under the control of the Taliban. The facts on the ground, however, tell a different story. Who dominates the Afghan opium trade? Foreign Policy Journal investigates.

November 29, 2008

By Jeremy R. Hammond

The New York Times reported this week that the Taliban have cut back on poppy cultivation and is stockpiling opium, grossly overstating the group’s role in the Afghanistan drug trade.

“Afghanistan has produced so much opium in recent years,” the Times reported Thursday, “that the Taliban are cutting poppy cultivation and stockpiling raw opium in an effort to support prices and preserve a major source of financing for the insurgency, Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations drug office, says.”

I transcribed Pat Curley and Jon Gold's closing arguments, quoted Jon from the 911Blogger debate thread and added many hyperlinks, plus my own comments at the end:

The Debate Over 9/11 Truth - Jon Gold & ScrewLooseChange
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/the-debate-over-911-truth-jon...

This is a documentary commentary on 9/11 Truth and the 9/11 Debate: Jon Gold Vs. Pat Curley, which took place November 24, 2008 on the Franklin Pierce University closed circuit television show, “The Dynamic Duo”, was moderated the show's hosts Justin Martell and Eric Jackman, and is now on youtube.

The topics of the debate were:

1. Are there unanswered questions?

2. Was the 9/11 Commission a legitimate investigation? a

Closing arguments of Pat Curley and Jon Gold:

Not sure what this means... posting for posterity

Pakistan closes ISI political wing
http://www.sindhtoday.net/pakistan/39530.htm

Islamabad, Nov 27 (IANS) Pakistan has closed the political wing of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Online news agency reported Thursday.

“The political wing of ISI has been closed,” a statement issued by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s office said late Wednesday night.

The prime minister hoped the move “would further improve the effectiveness of ISI as one of the premier institutions of the national security apparatus of the country”, said the statement.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Sunday confirmed media reports that the political wing of the ISI had been disbanded, describing it as a positive development.

A number of retired ISI officials have admitted in recent media interviews that the agency had a role in influencing several elections in recent years, Online said.

2001 Anthrax Attacks Timeline: Steven Hatfill
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=anthraxattacks&anthr...

Search warrants show FBI suspicion in anthrax case
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AP7CN20081126

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army scientist who was wrongly targeted in the FBI's anthrax investigation attracted suspicion because of his knowledge of the deadly toxin, according to recently released court records.

FBI agents focused on Steven Hatfill after the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks because he had access to the building where anthrax was stored and described in an unpublished novel how an attack could take place, according to search warrants released on Tuesday by the U.S. District Court in Washington.

The FBI investigated Hatfill for years, but he was never charged. The Justice Department agreed in June to pay him $5.85 million to settle his lawsuit claiming government officials had violated his privacy rights.

Comment thread at truthaction- imho, the comments by JohnA, Nick Levis, Victronix, Arabesque, Jon Gold, Diane and Stefan were thoughtful and informative on this topic that quickly becomes a concern to anyone researching what's in the public record about 9/11.

See how the comments of dc911truther and borisb85 are handled, in particular.

And I appreciate YT stepping in to put a stop to the thread pollution, and generally keeping truthaction.org free of BS, while giving people many chances to make mistakes, clean them up and learn. Reprehensor is doing a similarly admirable job as mod here at 911Blogger.com

Who's telling the truth and who's spreading disinformation?
http://truthaction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4678

Does this qualify for a visit from the Secret Service?

I just sent the below to change.gov, although i suppose if the corporate criminal class that controls the media and the Republocrats and has been running the 9/11 coverup for 7 years can do anything right they'll have better control of Obama's security than Bush's on 9/11.

Hello human being reading this- i hope you care about the future of your country, human beings, the United States, our Republic, the People and the public interest- you're probably aware that "al qaeda" has warned of a terror spectacular.

On 9/11, the Secret Service left Bush in his publicized location at the elementary school in Sarasota for almost a half an hour after they admitted they knew the nation was under attack; when Andy Card whispered in Bush's ear at 9:06 am.
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a906cardtellsbush#a906car...

I hope the Secret Service has gotten a LOT better at their job since 9/11, and i hope Barack Obama has surrounded himself with smart patriots, people who can be trusted to protect his life and the security of our Republic and nation.

(See also Juan Cole's report on the "no-hunt" story: http://www.juancole.com/2008/11/afghan-article-says-us-bin-ladin-hunt.html -rep.)

Cannonfire.blogspot.com is a popular "liberal" blogger who is now buying into a "conspiracy theory";

"I do feel certain, or at least persuaded, that the American people were never told the full truth about what happened at Tora Bora."

This is someone who, in a links list titled "The Real 9/11 Truth Movement", links to Debunking911.com to "debunk" demolition theories- and in the same links list, links (several times) to articles at http://www.911Review.com that debunk the "no 757 at the Pentagon" and other disinformation. Strange disconnect, as 911Review.com also debunks the disinformation that plane damage, jet-fueled office fires and building mass turned the WTC towers into rapidly inflating dust clouds and small piles of rubble.

Scientific impossibility: Did FBI get their man in Bruce Ivins?
By Deborah Rudacille
Examiner Correspondent 11/16/08

Bruce Ivins was a cold-blooded murderer, a deranged psycho-killer, who in the fall of 2001, cooked up a virulent batch of powdered anthrax, drove to Princeton, N.J., and mailed letters loaded with the lethal mix to five news organizations and two U.S. senators.

At least, that’s what the FBI says.

The letters infected 22 people, killing five, including two Maryland postal workers.

The sixth victim of the madness was Ivins himself, a 62-year-old biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, who committed suicide rather than face charges.

Case closed? Neatly wrapped up? Not so fast.

Phila. firm appeals 9/11 suit to U.S. high court By Chris Mondics INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/business_breaking/20081112_Phila...

Thousands of victims of the 9/11 attacks appealed to the Supreme Court today, asking it to overturn a lower court decision barring lawsuits against Saudi Arabia for supporting acts of terrorism.

The petition contended that U.S. intelligence agencies had unearthed ample evidence of the Saudi Arabia government's providing tens of millions of dollars to Islamist charities that in turn funded Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization.

U.S. government officials had repeatedly warned Saudi officials in the 1990s that government-backed charities were providing money and logistical support to bin Laden, but they failed to do anything about it, the petition said.