I just watched PBS Nova’s Spy Factory with James Bamford and I have a number of comments about it, both good and bad.

Starting off with the good, having been writing about al-Qaeda’s communications hub in Yemen for the last two years, I was thrilled to actually see it on the screen. Bamford actually went to Yemen and filmed it from the outside, shame he didn’t go in.

(snip)

The first and most glaring omission is Alec Station deputy chief Tom Wilshire, who was not mentioned at all in the programme. It went into some detail about the blocking of the cable written by Doug Miller, an FBI detailee to Alec Station, to FBI headquarters about Almihdhar’s US visa, but this was attributed merely to the CIA officer we refer to as “Michelle.” Wilshire was her boss, she blocked the cable on his orders, and Bamford knows this well—he wrote it in the book this programme was based on.

Most of this week's new entries in the 9/11 Timeline are about one of the best-known pre-9/11 failures. After tracking alleged Pentagon hijacker Khalid Almihdhar from Yemen to Dubai in January 2000, the CIA learned he had a US visa. An FBI agent named Doug Miller on loan to Alec Station, the CIA's bin Laden unit, drafted a cable to the bureau warning them of the visa, and that Almihdhar would soon probably arrive in the US. However, another Alec Station officer, known only as "Michelle," said their boss, Deputy Station Chief Tom Wilshire, did not want the cable to be sent. Michelle then sent out a cable falsely stating that the information about Almihdhar's visa had been passed to the FBI. Miller complained to Mark Rossini, a fellow FBI agent on loan to Alec Station, and Rossini went to see Michelle, who told him the FBI would not be told of Almihdhar's visa because she knew the next al-Qaeda attack was going to be in Southeast Asia.

Senior Corporate Executives Warned to Leave N.Y. on 9/11: Source

November 3, 2008
by Jeremy R. Hammond

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2008/11/03/senior_executives_warned_911.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20081106045117/http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2008/11/03/senior_executives_warned...

Foreign Policy Journal has learned that senior executives of a major U.S. international corporation may have been warned to leave New York on September 11, 2001.

According to an inside source, one of the senior executives of the corporation told him beforehand that “something big” was going to occur and so other corporate executives would be travelling out of New York.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/01/cia_video_destruction.html

The destruction by Central Intelligence Agency officials of videotapes showing the interrogation of suspected terrorists is the subject of “an ongoing criminal investigation” that is expected to conclude in the near future, according to a prosecution official.

“Investigators are now in the process of scheduling interviews with the remaining witnesses to be interviewed in this investigation,” wrote John H. Durham, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in an affidavit (pdf) late last month. “Based on the investigative accomplishments to date, we anticipate that by mid-February 2009, and no later than February 28, 2009, we will have completed the interviews.”

The CIA-ISI axis: India should have no illusions of US support

By C. Uday Bhaskar: India is maintaining politico-diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to comply with its international obligations apropos the Mumbai terror attack of Nov 26. Home Minister P. Chidambaram would visit the US in the course of this week with a detailed dossier that would include “irrefutable evidence” about the involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in the Mumbai attacks.

Why did Bush stop The Senate And Congressional Intelligence joint inquiry investigators from interviewing an Informant who was the landlord of some alleged hijackers who the CIA "accidentally" let into the country?

This isn't a "conspiracy theory" it's a fact. From the report by THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE...

"The Administration has to date objected to the Inquiry’s efforts to interview the informant in order to attempt to resolve those inconsistencies. The Administration also would not agree to allow the FBI to serve a Committee subpoena and deposition notice on the informant. Instead, written interrogatories from the Joint Inquiry were, at the suggestion of the FBI, provided to the informant. Through an attorney, the informant has declined to respond to those interrogatories and has indicated that, if subpoenaed, the informant would request a grant of immunity prior to testifying."
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/fullreport_errata.pdf

Because our fearless king is a traitor who is protecting Saudi Arabia.

GOOGLE BOOKS AND THE END OF HISTORY

By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, December 15, 2008--I have often wondered why Google Inc. was interested in scanning all the world's books into its formidable Google Books database in short order. It was only a number of years ago that the company announced its ambitious project, and it has already made great, if uneven, progress in its implementation. It's a dramatic and democratic gesture, giving the proletariat access to the world's books at the touch of a keyboard. But in light of Google's cozy relationship with elitist organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the company having only a few years ago recruited its vice president for global communications from that organization, its move toward universal access to the wealth of human knowledge almost strikes one as anomalous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp3P2wDKQK4

Starring Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura, and James Bamford.

Note: The official "Operation Northwoods" document was originally obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive through the Freedom of Information Act and can be viewed online here: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/

Role of Alleged CIA Asset in Mumbai Attacks Being Downplayed

by Jeremy R. Hammond / December 10th, 2008

Recent press reports on developments with regard to last month’s attacks in Mumbai, India indicate the role of Dawood Ibrahim, a wanted crime boss, terrorist, and drug trafficker, is being downplayed, possibly the result of a deal taking place behind the scenes between the governments of the US, Pakistan, and India, to have others involved in the Mumbai attacks turned over while quietly diverting attention from a man who some say could reveal embarrassing secrets about the CIA’s involvement in criminal enterprises.

The role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both.

To believe the Government had advanced knowledge of 9/11 and allowed it to happen or even helped facilatate it is rather hard to believe for some, and debunkers of "9/11 truth" would rather believe official Government documents, and reports, along with mainstream media coverage for their information on wether or not there is any truth of advanced knowledge.

Trying to convince someone that the WTC was blown to pieces with explosives is impossible for some to grasp and understandibly so. In order to even start to believe that you have to believe that it was known that there would be an attack, and have detailed knowledge of it.

So for those that don't believe it could be an "inside job", I will use these official government reports and mainstream media reports to show it is not irrational to come to this conclusion, but rather logical.

"Nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale."-Pres G Bush
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm

news.ReOpen911.info by Spotless Mind
Translated by DJDaveMark
December 1st, 2008

The administrators at Change.org have deleted the idea for a new investigation into 9/11.

They declared that a new investigation into the attacks – which gave the Bush Administration the power to spy on it's own citizens, to torture, to launch two preventative wars based on lies and more generally to trample all over the Constitution – was "outside the scope" of the site's stated mission and therefore didn't meet their criteria for "specific policy solutions". It doesn't matter how many people want to know the Truth about 9/11, they refuse to have the idea promoted and discussed on their site.

Because of this censorship, the Change.org site has shown that it isn't a "social platform" but, rather, just another gatekeeper of 9/11 Truth.

When the idea was pulled, it was by far the most popular, comfortably occupying the top spot, totaling at least 660 votes (twice the amount of the next best rated idea) only 48 hours after being submitted. On a side note, the other proposed ideas had a 3 week head start, and the 9/11 Truth idea was only just warming up.

Why (pretend to) ask the citizens for ideas then simply delete the most popular? It seems like all of this is more of a joke than a wishful expression for democracy…

Here is the e-mail received by everyone who voted (and to whom we thank for voting):

In his 1968 interview with Perry Adams, Mort Sahl explains the urgency of bringing to justice the conspirators behind the public execution of JFK. After reviewing the evidence, Sahl had made the decision to assist New Orleans DA Jim Garrison in his investigation. As a consequence of his vocal support for Garrison, Sahl--whose face made the cover of (CIA's) Time Magazine in 1960--was blacklisted and his successful mainstream career as an entertainer came to an end overnight.

Sahl's words and his sacrifice will not be lost on the generation of activists working to expose the truth of 9/11 and other shattering acts of state terrorism.

http://www.maebrussell.com/Mort%20Sahl/Mort%20Sahl%20-%20Argo.html

"ARGO: Why is the truth behind the assassination of President Kennedy the last chance of America for its survival?

(Looks like Hayden really wants to keep his post! And what about that Al Qaeda base in Yemen that they know about and extract intel from but apparently can't shut down? This is beyond ridiculous.)

Al Qaeda says order given for US attack "far bigger than 9/11"

DEBKAfile Updates DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive
November 16, 2008, 5:49 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that US president-elect Barack Obama, European and Russian heads of state in Washington for the G20 conference over the weekend were briefed about a probable early al Qaeda attack.

Obama and his team have been advised that a new al Qaeda strike is highly probable in the United States or against a key US target in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 372 of Nov. 14 disclosed that al Qaeda’s Yemen base, a reliable barometer for Osama bin Laden’s schemes, issued a Directive to All Fighters in Arabia on Nov. 9 presaging a major operation in the United States that will “change the political and economic world” and be “far bigger than 9/11.”

An offer they couldn't refuse

The CIA is often credited with 'advice' on Hollywood films, but no one is truly sure about the extent of its shadowy involvement. Matthew Alford and Robbie Graham investigate

Everyone who watches films knows about Hollywood's fascination with spies. From Hitchcock's postwar espionage thrillers, through cold war tales such as Torn Curtain, into the paranoid 1970s when the CIA came to be seen as an agency out of control in films such as Three Days of the Condor, and right to the present, with the Bourne trilogy and Ridley Scott's forthcoming Body of Lies, film-makers have always wanted to get in bed with spies. What's less widely known is how much the spies have wanted to get in bed with the film-makers. In fact, the story of the CIA's involvement in Hollywood is a tale of deception and subversion that would seem improbable if it were put on screen.

The model for this is the defence department's "open" but barely publicised relationship with Hollywood. The Pentagon, for decades, has offered film-makers advice, manpower and even hardware - including aircraft carriers and state-of-the-art helicopters. All it asks for in exchange is that the US armed forces are made to look good. So in a previous Scott film, Black Hawk Down, a character based on a real-life soldier who had also been a child rapist lost that part of his backstory when he came to the screen.

No matter how seemingly craven Hollywood's behaviour towards the US armed forces has seemed, it has at least happened within the public domain. That cannot be said for the CIA's dealings with the movie business. Not until 1996 did the CIA announce, with little fanfare, that it had established an Entertainment Liaison Office, which would collaborate in a strictly advisory capacity with film-makers. Heading up the office was Chase Brandon, who had served for 25 years in the agency's elite clandestine services division, as an undercover operations officer. A PR man he isn't, though he does have Hollywood connections: he's a cousin of Tommy Lee Jones.

All the new entries this week are about tracking of terrorists, in particular the 9/11 hijackers, as they moved between countries. Until the early 1990s, the CIA produced a Redbook that instructed immigration inspectors on how to spot terrorists by examining their passports. However, publication ceased just before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which was unfortunate because some of the 9/11 hijackers had the same indicators of terrorist affiliation in their passports as three of the WTC bombers. When a top al-Qaeda support site in Europe was raided in Italy in 1995, two copies of the Redbook were found there.