Al Qaeda

The Yemen Hidden Agenda: Behind the Al-Qaeda Scenarios, A Strategic Oil Transit Chokepoint, by F. William Engdahl

Original article published by Global Research, January 5, 2010, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?aid=16786&context=va

On December 25 US authorities arrested a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on charges of having tried to blow up the plane with smuggled explosives. Since then reports have been broadcast from CNN, the New York Times and other sources that he was "suspected" of having been trained in Yemen for his terror mission. What the world has been subjected to since is the emergence of a new target for the US ‘War on Terror,’ namely a desolate state on the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen. A closer look at the background suggests the Pentagon and US intelligence have a hidden agenda in Yemen.

NY Times: Jet Plot Shows Growing Ability of Qaeda Affiliates

December 31, 2009
Jet Plot Shows Growing Ability of Qaeda Affiliates
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — The plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over American soil on Christmas Day represents an ominously new and lethal ability by a branch of Al Qaeda to attack the United States directly, according to government and independent counterterrorism specialists.

Until now, American officials had expressed concern over the capability of Qaeda affiliates in North Africa, Yemen and Iraq, and a militant Islamist group in Somalia closely tied to Al Qaeda, to attack American and other Western targets in their regions. But they remained confident that these groups — unlike Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda in Pakistan — could not threaten the United States itself.

Intelligence Improperly Collected on U.S. Citizens

I copy/pasted the entire article to preserve it (see following the url) but the last 6 paragraphs are especially significant to 9/11 and the deep state, so I've also copy/pasted them just below - loose nuke

Another memorandum disclosed that a Defense Intelligence Agency employee said that in May 2002, in response to a Congressional inquiry, the Joint Forces Intelligence Command provided false information about its activities related to Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 attacks. The document offered few details.

The Justice Department also released other documents Wednesday from other Freedom of Information Act lawsuits related to national security policies during the Bush administration.

Among them was a letter written in 2002 by George J. Tenet, who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, suggesting that a C.I.A. ban on using journalists as spies was not airtight.

U.S. Had 'High Confidence' Of UBL Attack In June 2001

Based on State Dept. cables- see original for links - loose nuke

http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2008_11_07_exclusives.html
November 07, 2008

U.S. Had 'High Confidence' Of UBL Attack In June 2001

Taliban Warned By Powell That Afghanistan Would Be Held Responsible For Harboring Terrorists Who Killed Americans
By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com

Less than three months before September 11, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned the Taliban that American intelligence had "high confidence" that "Afghan-based and other operatives are now planning on carrying out attacks against Americans."

Powell's warning was conveyed to the Taliban by U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan William B. Milam, who specifically discussed Osama bin Laden with the Taliban's representative Abdul Salam Zaeef.

After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Zaeef was arrested as an "unlawful combatant" and detained at Guantanamo Bay for three years before being released into house arrest in Afghanistan.

Two cables obtained by INTELWIRE under the Freedom of Information Act detail the warnings, as well as the specific concern about an impending attack against the United States.

A key British official reminds us of the forgotten anthrax attack by Glenn Greenwald

hyperlinks at the original:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/27/anthrax/index.html
FRIDAY, NOV 27, 2009 03:28 PST
A key British official reminds us of the forgotten anthrax attack
BY GLENN GREENWALD
Britain is currently engulfed by a probing, controversial investigation into how their Government came to support the invasion of Iraq, replete with evidence that much of what was said at the time by both British and American officials was knowingly false, particularly regarding the unequivocal intention of the Bush administration to attack Iraq for months when they were pretending otherwise. Yesterday, the British Ambassador to the U.S. in 2002 and 2003, Sir Christopher Meyer (who favored the war), testified before the investigative tribunal and said this:

Meyer said attitudes towards Iraq were influenced to an extent not appreciated by him at the time by the anthrax scare in the US soon after 9/11. US senators and others were sent anthrax spores in the post, a crime that led to the death of five people, prompting policymakers to claim links to Saddam Hussein. . . .

Report: Fearing death penalty, Berlin to send team to 9-11 trial

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1514616.php/Report-Fearing-death-penalty-Berlin-to-send-team-to...
Report: Fearing death penalty, Berlin to send team to 9-11 trial
Europe News
Nov 21, 2009, 10:32 GMT

Berlin - The German government is to send observers to New York to ensure that evidence it provided in the case against five men accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks does not lead to them receiving the death penalty, news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.

On November 13, the US Justice Department announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men would be tried in a federal court - and that the government was seeking the death penalty should they be convicted.

Members of the al-Qaeda cell including Mohamed Atta that led the suicide attacks on New York and Washington were based in the northern German city of Hamburg in the period leading up to the event.

Germany, which does not have a death penalty, has provided items of evidence for the trial on the condition that a possible death sentence would not be based on their materials.

Shining Light on Roots of Terrorism By Ray McGovern

While this article does not question the general narrative about how 9/11 happened and who was responsible, it does highlight some important facts about the stated motivations of KSM, Bin Laden and Islamic radicals in general, that the MSM are omitting, as usual- even though its been noted by the 9/11 Commission, Dick Cheney and the Pentagon's Defense Science Board, among others. It's not because "they hate our freedoms"; it's US policy makers' support of tyrant allies in oil-rich nations, and one-sided support for Israel, despite its human rights abuses. - loose nuke

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/111509a.html
Shining Light on Roots of Terrorism

By Ray McGovern
November 15, 2009
Media commentary on the upcoming 9/11 trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has raised concern that state secrets may be divulged, including details about how the Bush administration used torture to extract evidence about al-Qaeda.

“I think that we’re going to shine a light on something that a lot of people don’t want to look at” is how American Civil Liberties Union attorney Denney LeBoeuf put it, according to The New York Times on Saturday.

Bin Laden videotape not new, monitoring site says

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN06213945
(Updates to show tape is not new, adds background)

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A videotape of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden released on Friday is the Pashto-language version of a tape released several months ago, said IntelCenter, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring firm.

The tape, titled "To Our People in Pakistan," was broadly released in Arabic and Urdu on July 12, IntelCenter said. Excerpts had been aired by the Al Jazeera television network on June 3, it added.

Earlier on Friday, IntelCenter had said al-Qaeda's as-Sahab Media had released a new video from bin Laden.

In his remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera in June, Saudi-born bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" toward the United States in the Muslim world and warned Americans to prepare for the consequences.

In an audio message posted on an Islamist website in September, Osama warned Americans over their government's close ties with Israel.

Osama is believed to be hiding in the mountainous border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Real Intelligence Failure By Philip Giraldi

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=317
The Real Intelligence Failure
By Philip Giraldi
Published 11/04/09

Most Americans believe that we are in a terrible dilemma. An increasing number are uncomfortable with the continuing carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan and fearful of the consequences of yet another Middle East war, this time against Iran, but most also believe that our country is threatened by dark forces that seek to destroy us and that extreme measures are justified. Few realize that fear alone is bringing about our transformation into a country driven by constant warfare to the detriment of our constitutional liberties.

OUR TERRORISTS by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

Ahmed has significantly updated this article and added endnotes - loose nuke

http://www.newint.org/features/2009/10/01/blowback-extended-version/
October 2009 • Issue 426

OUR TERRORISTS: Islamic fundamentalist militants are the enemies of Israel and Western governments, right? Think again. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed reports.

Once upon a time, the CIA trained, financed and supported Osama bin Laden and his mujahidin networks in Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War, bin Laden turned against the West and we no longer had any use for him. His persistent terrorist attacks against us for more than a decade, culminating in 9/11, provoked our own response, in the form of the ‘War on Terror’. This is the official narrative. And it’s false. Not only did Western intelligence services continue to foster Islamist extremist and terrorist groups connected to al-Qaeda after the Cold War; they continued to do so even after 9/11.

The CIA’s jihad

A Sorry Indictment by Nick Mollo

This is a personal view of the attacks of 9/11 from the perspective of a UK national.

A Sorry Indictment by Nick Mollo

The first time I came to believe that something might be suspect about the horrendous events of September 11th was with a live on-site report by Channel 4 News in England. The journalist stated that the downed plane (Flight 93) in Shanksville could conceivably have been shot down by an American fighter plane. This assumption was made by the reporter because the wreckage of Flight 93 was spread over what appeared to be a large area. This live report, to my knowledge, was not aired again and the official version of the passengers bringing down the plane to save further lives started to emerge and subsequently became the established unquestionable truth.

Other than my own controversial opinion, that Flight 93 was shot down by an American fighter, I never questioned the official version of events; that 19 terrorists masterminded by Osama Bin Laden had attacked America. The shock and awe of that terrible day was so convincing and the images so powerful that any alternative to the official version was out of the question.

Al-Qaeda 'very capable' of more attacks: US military chief

Once again support for "perpetual war" is waning even as the anniversary of 9/11 nears.
So it's time for a new propaganda message from Big Brother's Ministry of Truth.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090823/usa/us_attacks_qaeda_afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Al-Qaeda remains "very capable" of attacking the United States, the top US military officer said Sunday as he tried to boost waning US support for the conflict in Afghanistan.
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Nearly eight years after the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed some 3,000 people, Al-Qaeda is "still very capable, very focused on it," chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"They also are able to both train and support and finance, and so that capability is still significant," he said.

Mullen added that the US military is "very focused on making sure that it doesn't happen again," referring to the potential for another such attack on US soil.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda is gaining from the support of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan, making the US fight against extremism in Afghanistan all the more urgent, Mullen said.

AP Story: Clinton says 9/11 ringleaders are in Pakistan

Clinton says 9/11 ringleaders are in Pakistan

Mon Jul 20, 1:22 pm ET

NEW DELHI – U.S. officials "firmly believe" that al-Qaida leaders who planned and carried out the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are hiding in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

At a news conference concluding three days of meetings, Clinton said Washington has told the Pakistani government what it believes about the location of al-Qaida leaders on its soil.

"With respect to the location of those who were part of the planning and execution of the attack of 9/11 against our country, we firmly believe that a significant number of them are in the border area of Pakistan," she said when asked about the U.S. view.

"We are actively looking for additional information that would lead us to them," she added.

The Pakistani government denies that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenants are hiding on its territory.

Bin Laden is believed to have fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan weeks after the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.

Al Qaeda suspect waterboarded before "legal authorization"


"US 'waterboarding' row rekindled"
BBC, July 13, 2009

Fresh claims have emerged that a key al-Qaeda suspect was waterboarded before the Bush government lawyers issued written authorisation to do so.

A former CIA agent has told the BBC that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded by the CIA in May or June 2002.

The date was provided by former CIA agent John Kiriakou. The practice was sanctioned in written memos by Bush administration lawyers in August 2002.

The CIA says waterboarding did not take place before August 2002.

Officials have refused to tell the BBC when it did occur.

Legal memos

Mr Kiriakou led the CIA team that captured Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan on 28 March 2002, and was the first to speak to the badly injured captive before returning to the US.

There he monitored the internal communications that came in (cable traffic) on Abu Zubaydah's interrogation at a secret CIA prison from the organisation's headquarters in Virginia.

Open Letter to Rachel Maddow on Obama, Brzezinski and 9/11 Conspiracy

Hyperlinks here:
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/open-letter-to-rachel-maddow-on-obama-brzezinski-and-911-conspiracy/

Ms. Maddow,

I saw the bit on MSNBC with your guest Brzezinski:

Hypocrite Brzezinski Slams "Conspiratorial View" Of History While Highlighting 50's Iran Overthrow

Perhaps you haven't examined the official myth about 9/11, i.e. that it was accomplished solely by Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. Given that Obama made a claim and didn't back it up with any facts- while admitting that elements in the US and Britain conspired to overthrow Mossadegh a half century ago- it's kind of a misnomer to say he "debunked" "9/11 conspiracists". And given the many lies told by Bush Administration principals about 9/11, and given the 9/11 Commission's failure to conduct a full and honest investigation- who's to say what really happened on 9/11?

The 9/11 Commission ignored 70% of the 9/11 families' questions

And your employer, MSNBC, published a report that says 25% of the 9/11 Commission Report, including the sections most relevant to linking 9/11 to al Qaeda and Bin Laden, was based on testimony obtained by torture:

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