Stephen Hayes:See No Evil, Hear No Evil(What the 9/11 Commission narrative left out: Iraqis)

The Weekly Standard ^ | September 5 / September 12, 2005 | Stephen F. Hayes

[JarheadFromFlorida]

Amazing! Enquiring minds want to know.

[Lancey Howard]

Fantastic article! Thanks for posting this.
My only complaint, the same I have with most articles and columns about the attacks of September 11th, the war on terror, and the Iraq war, is that the author mentions the "9-11 Commission" as if that commission was ever anything but a pandering political sideshow and a laughingstock. Sure, it turned out to be an expensive waste of taxpayer dollars, and maybe even a danger to national security by its partisanship and incompetence, but I think it's time to forget about it and get some real hearings underway.

[My2Cents]

Ping

[johnny7]

Thanks for posting this.

[My2Cents]

Tha anti-war left:

"Not listening! Not listening!"

[sure_fine]

tag

[bjcintennessee]

ping

[justshutupandtakeit]

Print and study bttt.

[Peach]

Thank you so much, My2Cents. I'm on the hurricane thread and would have definitely missed this.

I've added it to my list of links and will read it more carefully later. Stephen Hayes has been a national treasure and done more investigative work on this matter than the entire 9/11 commission all together, imo.

[Peach]

Thank you so much, My2Cents. I'm on the hurricane thread and would have definitely missed this.

I've added it to my list of links and will read it more carefully later. Stephen Hayes has been a national treasure and done more investigative work on this matter than the entire 9/11 commission all together, imo.

[Peach]

Thank you so much, My2Cents. I'm on the hurricane thread and would have definitely missed this.

I've added it to my list of links and will read it more carefully later. Stephen Hayes has been a national treasure and done more investigative work on this matter than the entire 9/11 commission all together, imo.

[Peach]

Sorry for the triple posts. My computer is giving me fits and I have GOT to call someone to come help me "fix" it.

[woofie]

I can understand the Dems motives in all this but there were also Republicans on that committee .....what the hell happened to them?

[StatenIsland]

ping

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Good article. I have only seen Hayes on FOX about the time a year ago when his book on terrorism came out. This of course will be clotheslined by MSM and so most Americans will believe like Cindy Shehan does that there is no connection between 911 and IRAQ!

[cwb]

This issue is getting more interesting. While Saddam my not have directed the 9/11 attacks, even 9/11 Commissioner Lehman explained that documents uncovered in Baghdad:

"Indicate that there is at least one officer of Saddam's Fedayeen, a lieutenant colonel, who was a very prominent member of al-Qaida."

Continuing, he said..."the one striking bit of new evidence is that the name Ahmed Hikmat Shakir appears on three captured rosters of officers in Saddam Fedayeen, the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday and entrusted with doing much of the regime's dirty work."

He also went on to highlight much of these other connections from Malaysia and the meetings Ahmed attended. With these acknowledgments, how can some other members of the 9/11 Commission come to any other conclusion. And how can the media continue to perpetuate the lie that Saddam was never a threat...or supporting terrorists.

Whether it was this guy Ahmed, Ramsey Yousif, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas...or the presence of Al Zarqawi in Iraq even before the war, the evidence is overwhelming that Saddam was a threat. He had already offered UBL santuary on several occassions after Sudan wanted him gone.

Heck, the establishment of Ansar Al-Islam...an AQ affiliate, just after 9/11 in N. Iraq is another issue that's been largely ignored. While they list December of 2001 as the date of formation, Zarqawi and AQ were meeting with both Arabs and Kurds "before" 9/11 to help in launching this outfit.

Human Rights Watch even admits through interviews, that AQ had given over $600,000 dollars to this outfit, along with several vehicles. It's my contention that Ansar and N. Iraq was going to become one of AQ's new bases of operation had the war in Afghanistan succeeded in ousting the AQ and the Taliban. And this was confirmed when Zarqawi ended up in Baghdad for two months shortly after the Afghanistan war started...only to find himself back with Ansar.

Further interviews also noted that fellow Kurds reported the influx of hundreds of foreign fighters, from Afghanistan...before we even went into Iraq. With Saddam's propencity for harboring wanted terrorists...and supporting terrorism, we just couldn't allow Iraq to become the next Afghanistan. Especially with the resources at Saddam's disposal.

[wolf24]

"I can understand the Dems motives in all this but there were also Republicans on that committee .....what the hell happened to them?"

Dupes. Observing Gordon on O'Reilly the other night was a classic case of CYA.

[Enchante]

I'm so glad Hayes is staying on the 911/Al Qaeda/Iraq beat.... hardly any reporters have done any serious work on this, but he certainly has! This article should be a "MUST READ" for all of the MSM and all of the political class who want to just let things slide along in cover-up mode.

[johnny7]

...what the hell happened to them?

Slade Gorton on Able Danger, 8/22/2005;

“Well, in the first place, you're not going to have something that had anything to do with 9/11 unless there was some intelligence to share. And it's becoming more and more evident that there wasn't any intelligence to share. Shaffer originally said that he told our staff in Afghanistan about Mohammed Atta. He didn't. There were four people there. None of them heard it.”

[My2Cents]

I was thinking the same thing, and he's also done more on the Iraq-terrorists connection than the entire MSM put together.

[wolf24]

"There were four people there. None of them heard it.”

Thanks for posting this. This is what I've been focusing on over the last 6 days since I heard Gordon utter it.

Again, we hear about these 911 staffmembers. Gordon was a dupe, pure and simple. I'm sure his ego is pretty bruised now that he has undoubtedly realized that he was duped. His posturing on O'Reilly was of the nature that suggests someone who is embarrassed and is grasping at straws.

[Fruit of the Spirit]

"The determination of these officials to write out of the history any Iraqi involvement in terrorism against America has contributed mightily to public misperceptions about the former Iraqi regime and the war on terror."

Oh, that's where the slogan, "Keep it simple, stupid" came from.

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1998/feb98/focus.html
Education Reform: Dumbing Down or Emasculation?

Outcome- Based Education (OBE). The OBE system stresses "the social, emotional, and psychological growth" of children over academic knowledge. This "new paradigm" has radically changed the thrust of the educational process in several ways. For example, instead of basic academic knowledge, education's primary purpose has become to instill in children learning attitudes that deemphasize facts and emphasize politically correct social, psychological, and globalist thinking.

[fantom]

new tone. this WH refuses to defend itself. they allow the misunderstandings bad info and outright lies to flourish. well bully for them with their new tone! it makes life difficult for the rest of us who try to defend US actions. i hold them responsible for much of the division we now face. it is their fault that otherwise reasonable people on both sides fight over details. the new tone brought us together alright . i may be a supporter but i am not blind. also in this remarkable time of political revelation it would be a good time for the WH to catch up.

[Ann Archy]

I don't think Shaffer ever said that he told the staffers about Atta by name.....I think he told them about AL QUEDA!

[Ann Archy]

President Job is a most patient man.

[BARLF]

mark

[sono]

"You said there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam had friends in al Qaeda. . . . Blah, blah, pants on fire."
Christopher Hitchens speaking of the Bush lied meme.

[jwpjr]

re: They were busy being the nice guys and good citizens that the left has come to depend upon for their ill deeds to succeed!

[jd777]

This administration will never go after Clinton. In any way.

PRES BUSH GAVE CLITON'S CIA MAN, TENET, A MEDAL!

IF THEY WANTED TO GET CLINTON... THEY COULD HAVE GONE AFTER HIM ON THE MARC RICH PARDON.

they didn't do nothing...

[rdb3]

IF THEY WANTED TO GET CLINTON... THEY COULD HAVE GONE AFTER HIM ON THE MARC RICH PARDON.

Okay, but what has that to do with the 9/11 Commission, which is what the thread is actually about?

[Valin]

Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11
Author: Richard A. Posner
Product Code: 4947-X
ISBN: 0-7425-4947-X
Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
Pages: 214


This book is published by Rowman & Littlefield, and may be purchased at their site www.rowmanlittlefield.com or by calling National Book Network, 1-800-462-6420.

Richard A. Posner, in the first full-length study of the post-9/11 movement for intelligence reform, argues that the 9/11 Commission's analysis, on which Congress relied heavily in enacting the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, was superficial and its organizational proposals unsound. The Commission, followed by Congress, exaggerated the benefits of centralizing control over intelligence; neglected the relevant scholarship dealing with surprise attacks, organization theory,and the principles of intelligence, and the experience of foreign nations—some of which have a longer history of fighting terrorism than the United States; and as a result ignored the psychological, economic, historical, sociological, and comparative dimensions of the issue of intelligence reform.

Posner explains, however, that a ray of hope remains: The reorganization provisions of the new Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act are so vague—as a result of intense politicking—that the actual shape of the reorganized system will depend critically on decisions made by the President in implementing the Act. In a searing critique, Posner exposes the pitfalls created by the new legislation, identifies the issues overlooked by the 9/11 Commission and Congress, and suggests directions for real reform.

RICHARD A. POSNER is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is author of hundreds of articles and nearly four dozen books, including An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999); Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts (2001); Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (2002); and Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004).

---

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074254947X/002-3591591-9103239?v=glance

Richard Posner's book will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the rapid changes now taking place in the US intelligence community. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the function and organization of intelligence. Posner's arguments are so clear and compelling that you will find yourself saying "Ah-ha!" after almost every chapter.

Specifically, Posner takes on the "The 9/11 Commission Report," for offering an organizational solution for a managerial failure. He shows how the Commission's organizational line and block solution led to the enactment of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. He shows how this happened with little or no debate about the Commission's recommendations.

Posner explains why surprise attacks happen, and how little the organization of an intelligence apparatus has to do with it. For example, the Arab nations surprised Israel in the Yom Kipur War. An Israel commission determined, after the fact, that the reason for the surprise was lack of decentralization in its intelligence services. The 9/11 Commission, on the other hand, determine the surprise of 9/11 was due to not enough centralization. The fact that there are divergent views on this matter is not surprising. What is surprising is that the 9/11 Commission failed to even investigate them.

As Posner explains, surprise attacks happen, because the adversary does something that is essentially stupid and self-defeating. Often, the surprise attack is a miscalculation, not just for the attacked, but for the attacker as well. This makes anticipation of such attacks particularly challenging. As result, the Commission's hindsight was not 20/20, but altogether distorted by its focus on what had already happened, and not on the full range of possible future surprise attacks.

The range of such attacks is nearly infinite. According to Posner, the desire of the Commission to create an "Intelligence Czar" will not enhance the US intelligence community's ability to foretell these events. It will have the opposite effect of limiting the scope of vision and the diversity of analysis that will make any accurate and timely prediction possible. An Intelligence Czar will be much more prone to political influence, and he will function well above the horizon of subtle surprise attack indicators. He will also be much more likely to spend his time focusing on the "threat de jure" instead of genuine threats.

Posner, however, is not simply beating a dead horse here. While it is true that the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act has been signed into law, the ambiguity of that law still allows for a less destructive interpretation and execution of the law. Under the new law, the Director of National Intelligence may become the "Intelligence Czar," acting as the CEO of the intelligence community. Hopefully, however, he will take on a more constructive role - facilitator of greater coordination, acting as the chairman of the board of the intelligence community. This still remains an open debate.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Bookmark.

[MamaLucci]

The determination of these officials to write out of the history any Iraqi involvement in terrorism against America has contributed mightily to public misperceptions about the former Iraqi regime and the war on terror.

And even more shameful.....it was by design.

[popdonnelly]

I suspect that Shakir was Iraq's contact with Al Qaeda, and particularly with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and what are known as the "planes" conspirators. Shakir could have communicated to Mohammed Iraq's desire to have Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague attacked. The likely person to carry out such an attack was the 9/11 conspirator who couldn't get a visa to the United States, Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Bin al-Shibh was reportedly in Yemen at the time of the U.S.S. Cole bombing, and was suspected of taking part in it. Perhaps the expulsion of the Iraqi, al-Ani, from Prague put an end to the RFE/Radio Liberty plot.

[Luigi Vasellini]

bttt

[knews_hound]

bbttt

[FlashBack]

Damn-straight on your remarks!
Why the continued whitewashing of this from the top down??
It is very frustrating to those of us that read the evidence at every turn..and very dangerous to ALL of us.
Hayes's book "The Connection" is very on-the-mark as are his articles featured on The Weekly Standard...WHY IS THERE NO COVERGE of this type of news on the 24 hour news-channels!!!!

[doug from upland]

Haynes has just been an incredible patriot in his reporting.

[justshutupandtakeit]

If we had something other than the Traitor Media he would win an Pulitzer rather than the writer of "Transexual Lesbians and their Fight for Equality."

[jd777]

clinton didn't set up the commission. Bush did....

[rdb3]

clinton didn't set up the commission. Bush did....

Well, DUH! Don't insult my intelligence, okay.

You didn't answer my question.

[okie01]

I can understand the Dems motives in all this but there were also Republicans on that committee .....what the hell happened to them?

The charitable thought would be: "Picking their noses, scratching their asses, with their minds in Georgia (or New Jersey or wherever)".

[Grampa Dave]

This oped reinforces the observation that the Rats and their Rino friends would do anything to make the Saddam Iraqi's appear to be innocent of 9/11 along with supposedly no WMDs and the buried attack on the WTC during the Clintoon administration.

Why would the Rats, their pet mediots and pet Rinos be so protective of the mass murderers of Iraq before 9/11 up to today?

There are two probable reasons:

1. The money they got from the Oil from Food Scandal and Opecker Thugs to keep Iraq out of the picture before 9/11 and after the first attacks on the WTC during the Clintoons rule of horror.

2. Their absolute hated of GW, which has controlled them since 2000.

GW and a few of his trusted cabinet members probably got an very top secret intel dump from a key ally after 9/11 implicating Saddam and other mass murdering Iraqis in both attacks on the WTC. GW and his admin can't disclose this data anymore than Roosevelt could disclose the code cracking data on the Japanese pre and post Pearl Harbor.

[Just mythoughts]

BUMP!!!!

[justshutupandtakeit]

Just what the hell do think could have been done about the Clinton pardons? Raise a stink so the Traitor media could wave it all away as "just politics" and surrender his moral authority? Not smart.

[ravingnutter]

Spotlight on Shakir

Deroy Murdock
National Review Online
June 3, 2004

Additional records further illuminate Iraqi complicity in the September 11 massacre. As a May 27 Wall Street Journal editorial reported, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir's name appears on three different rosters of the late Uday Hussein's prestigious paramilitary group, the Saddam Fedayeen. A government source told the Journal that the papers identify Shakir as a lieutenant colonel in the Saddam Fedayeen.

Shakir worked as a VIP airport greeter and facilitator for Malaysian Airlines at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, a position reputedly arranged by intelligence officers at Iraq's Malaysian embassy. On January 5, 2000, Shakir allegedly welcomed Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi to Kuala Lampur and escorted them through immigration and on to the Kuala Lumpur Hotel. That's where these September 11 hijackers met with 9/11 conspirators Ramzi bin al Shibh and Tawfiz al Atash. Five days later, according to The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes (he is also author of the new book The Connection), Shakir vanished.

On January 15, al Midhar and al Hamzi quietly flew from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. Nearly eight months later, they very loudly smashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Saddam Fedayeen Lieutenant Colonel Shakir resurfaced on September 17, 2001, in Qatari handcuffs. His pockets and apartment yielded, among other things, phone numbers for the contacts and safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. Shakir also possessed information on "Operation Bojinka," al Qaeda's 1995 conspiracy to explode 12 passenger jets simultaneously over the Pacific. Shakir passed from Qatari to Jordanian custody before being released after three months of Iraqi pressure. He reportedly returned to Saddam Hussein's Baghdad.

Papers pulled from the Mukhabarat's Baghdad headquarters indicate that Saddam Hussein's intelligence operatives have known Mohamed Atta's former boss for years.

[ravingnutter]

Oops...forgot to include the source...not enough coffee this morning : )

Baathist Fingerprints

[neverdem]

bump for later

[eureka!]

marking