FBI Fed Follies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC237-Qrz78&feature=player_embedded

October 19, 2012

On October 17, 2012 a 21 year old Bangladeshi student was arrested for attempting to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. His bomb did not detonate because the FBI was in on his plan. His well-to-do family in Bangladesh expressed total disbelief that their son could ever have been involved in such activities.

According to FoxNews' Judge Andrew Napolitano, "This is the 18th person since 9/11 that the FBI has found and persuaded to go along with a plot that it created, that it controlled and that never endangered anybody...Is it a good thing? Or is it beyond the limits of what law enforcement should be doing?"

Flashback to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center: The FBI was praised for its swift work in bringing the perpetrators to justice, only later for it to emerge that they could have been able to stop the attack, according to the FBI informant who helped to convict others in the bombing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/uk-usa-sept11-airlines-idUSLNE89I01120121019

Judge questions WTC blame of United in September 11 case
Fri, Oct 19 2012
By Basil Katz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday questioned whether United Airlines could be held responsible for suspected airport security lapses that allowed hijackers onto the American Airlines plane that slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Thursday's hearing before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan stems from one of the few remaining lawsuits arising from the hijacked plane attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, and Pennsylvania.
While most of the cases have settled, Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center property, is pursuing negligence claims against United Airlines, now United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and American Airlines (AAMRQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Silverstein says they should both be held liable for loss of property and business.
Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties is seeking additional damages beyond what he has already received from his own insurer. The hearing on Thursday dealt only with claims over the destruction of 7 World Trade Center, a building just north of the World Trade Center site that also collapsed in the attacks.

Silverstein argues that United is responsible for suspected security failures that resulted in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, which slammed into one of the towers.
Those failures, the court heard on Thursday, began very early in the morning of September 11, 2011, when hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari set out on their trip.
That morning, Atta and al Omari boarded a US Airways flight from Maine's Portland International Jetport to Boston. From Logan International Airport, they connected onto Flight 11, which they commandeered and crashed into the World Trade Center.
Silverstein argues that because United was one of the carriers that operated Portland's only security checkpoint, it is responsible for the screening of all passengers that passed through it, regardless of what flight they are ticketed for.
United "had to be really vigilant when it did the screening," World Trade Center Properties attorney Richard Williamson told the court. "The first line of defense was Portland.... They were just asleep at the switch."
But Hellerstein appeared skeptical.
"Would I be acting inconsistently if I did not dismiss United?" the judge asked, referring to a 2009 order in which he dismissed claims against other airlines for damages caused by United Flight 175, which also crashed into the World Trade Center.
United urged Hellerstein to follow his own logic.
"The duty is to the passengers on our flights," United attorney Jeffrey Ellis told the court.
Hellerstein said he would reserve decision on whether to grant United's bid to dismiss the damage claims over 7 World Trade Center and the American flight.
Judges often do not rule immediately from the bench, preferring to study the issues especially if they are complex.
Silverstein's 2008 lawsuit also named aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the Massachusetts Port Authority, which manages Logan International Airport, and security companies as defendants.
He is seeking $8.4 billion in damages for loss of property and lost business, even though Hellerstein has limited the amount to the $2.8 billion Silverstein paid for the leases.
In August, Hellerstein denied the airlines' motion for judgment on whether $4 billion that Silverstein recovered from his insurers more than compensated for the potential damages recovery of $2.8 billion against the airlines, saying it was an issue for a jury to decide at trial.
The attacks prompted the creation of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daphne-eviatar/battles-over-government-s_b_1974460.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

October 19, 2012

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Battles Over Government Secrecy Dominate 9/11 Hearings
Posted: 10/17/2012 1:49 pm

The definition and use of classified information, and the public's right to hear it, is proving to be one of the most important issues arising in pre-trial hearings in this historic September 11th terrorism prosecution. With only two of the defendants actually in the courtroom on Wednesday (the others elected not to come), lawyers from the government, defense, ACLU and 14 media organizations over the last two days have argued vehemently over whether the government is properly classifying information -- particularly the memories and experiences of the defendants, who were subjected to the CIA's classified "enhanced interrogation" program. Even if it is deemed classified, argue the ACLU and news organizations, it still has to meet a strict First Amendment standard for the court to lawfully prevent the public from hearing it.

The First Amendment only allows the closing of a courtroom, argued ACLU lawyer Hina Shamsi and media lawyer David Schulz, if it will "cause grave harm to national security."

"The government fails utterly to explain how it has a legitimate interest, let alone a compelling one, in suppressing information about a CIA coercive interrogation and detention program that was illegal and has been banned by the president," the ACLU says in its brief to the court.

The issue is important, both for the public's right to know what its government did and for the legitimacy of this historic trial. As Schulz told the court yesterday: "Nothing is likely to shape the public perception of the fairness of these proceedings more significantly than the way the court handles this request for a protective order."

The current proposed order, he said, "covers things that quite clearly can't credibly constitute a threat to our national security."

http://www.mymoinfo.com/Judge-questions-WTC-blame-of-United-Airlines-in-Se/9050097?newsId=172416

A logo is pictured on a wall during a news conference announcing the merger between Continental Airlines and United Airlines in New York, May 3, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Judge questions WTC blame of United Airlines in September 11 case
Posted: Thursday, 18 October 2012 06:55PM
By Basil Katz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Thursday questioned whether United Airlines could be held responsible for suspected airport security lapses that allowed hijackers onto the American Airlines plane that slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Thursday's hearing before District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan stems from one of the few remaining lawsuits arising from the hijacked plane attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, and Pennsylvania.

While most of the cases have settled, Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center property, is pursuing negligence claims against United Airlines, now United Continental Holdings Inc, and American Airlines. Silverstein says they should both be held liable for loss of property and business.

Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties is seeking additional damages beyond what he has already received from his own insurer. The hearing on Thursday dealt only with claims over the destruction of 7 World Trade Center, a building just north of the World Trade Center site that also collapsed in the attacks.

Silverstein argues that United is responsible for suspected security failures that resulted in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, which slammed into one of the towers.

Those failures, the court heard on Thursday, began very early in the morning of September 11, 2011, when hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari set out on their trip.

That morning, Atta and al Omari boarded a US Airways flight from Maine's Portland International Jetport to Boston. From Logan International Airport, they connected onto Flight 11, which they commandeered and crashed into the World Trade Center.

Silverstein argues that because United was one of the carriers that operated Portland's only security checkpoint, it is responsible for the screening of all passengers that passed through it, regardless of what flight they are ticketed for.

United "had to be really vigilant when it did the screening," World Trade Center Properties attorney Richard Williamson told the court. "The first line of defense was Portland.... They were just asleep at the switch."

But Hellerstein appeared skeptical.