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An extraordinary legal filing revealed two of the hijackers responsible for the September 11 terror attacks had a much more intimate relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency than previously known. At least two of the 9/11 hijackers were being closely monitored by the CIA and may have even been recruited by the agency well before they helped fly a pair of Boeing 767s into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, newly-released documents reveal. The jaw-dropping court filing contains extensive testimony by multiple FBI investigators who maintain that the CIA obstructed official investigations into the notorious terrorist attack in...

A drawn-out fight between the families of Sept. 11 victims and the Saudi government has been shocked anew with claims from former top U.S. intelligence officials that Riyadh provided aid to some of the terrorists responsible for killing 2,996 and injuring more than 6,000 in 2001. Affidavits filed by three former FBI officials provided to Secrets charge that Saudi Arabia used intricate espionage “tradecraft” to help the attackers prepare and hide out in the U.S. And another from knowledgeable former Florida Sen. Bob Graham charges that the hijackers could not have succeeded without a financial and logistical support network. “Official...

Powell Plans 'Candid' Dialogue in Syria By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) says he plans to have a "good, strong, candid" dialogue with Syrian officials when he travels to Damascus. "We have issues with the Syrian government that I am going there to talk about," Powell said Thursday. He said they included support for terrorist organizations, development of weapons of mass destruction and a need to seal the border with Iraq (news - web sites) to stop former officials from taking refuge in Syria. "I will not hold back...

Former President George W. Bush, incumbent President Barack Obama and Congress are collectively guilty of a morally repellant cover-up of the Saudi royal family’s complicity in the 9/11 abominations. Once the American people are informed, they will be thundering to the President and Congress for an end to this monstrous injustice to the 9/11 victims’ families and survivors. In December 2002, the Joint Congressional Inquiry into Intelligence Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, chaired by then- Rep. Porter Goss (Florida Republican) and then-Sen. Bob Graham (Florida Republican) issued a final report. A 28-page chapter was...

9/11 COVER-UP? The latest claim isn’t from conspiracy theorists--it’s from a former top US Senator. He says documents prove Saudi Arabia helped pull off the attacks, and that the FBI hid the truth. Shep has details:

The episode could have been a chapter from the thriller written by former Senator Bob Graham of Florida about a shadowy Saudi role in the Sept. 11 attacks. A top F.B.I. official unexpectedly arranges a meeting at Dulles International Airport outside Washington with Mr. Graham, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after he has pressed for information on a bureau terrorism inquiry. Mr. Graham, a Democrat, is then hustled off to a clandestine location, where he hopes for a breakthrough in his long pursuit of ties between leading Saudis and the Sept. 11 hijackers. This real-life encounter happened...

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism. Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry’s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried...

With the recent defeat of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu — which leaves three Democratic Southern U.S. Senators — the common wisdom is that Democrats should bid farewell to the South. Even with favorable changing national demographics that benefit Democrats, an abandonment of the South and, on a larger scale, a viable moderate wing would be a mistake. Recently, writer Michael Tomasky argued that the South, a “reactionary, prejudice-infested” region, should be left to Republicans to create a “free market Jesus paradise.” Few sentiments better show what is wrong with Democrats today and why ironic Republican arguments that it is the...

WASHINGTON – Nearly 12 years after 9/11, Americans are still waiting for the U.S. government to release key information about the attack that killed more than 3,000 of their countrymen. Related topics Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Peter King, R-N.Y., introduced legislation in 2011 to review the original 9/11 Commission findings. Their bill passed the House Homeland Security Committee and was referred to three additional committees: the House Committees on Energy and Commerce, Space Science and Technology, and Transportation and Infrastructure. But the measure has yet to be acted upon by the House as a whole. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.,...

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired Congress’ Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has seen two classified FBI documents that he says are at odds with the bureau’s public statements that there was no connection between the hijackers and Saudis then living in Sarasota, Fla. “There are significant inconsistencies between the public statements of the FBI in September and what I read in the classified documents,” Graham said. Whether the 9/11 hijackers acted alone, or whether they had support within the U.S., remains an unanswered question -- one that began to be asked as soon as it became...

ASHINGTON, June 7— A re-examination of years of terrorist plots and attacks around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suggests that American intelligence agencies profoundly underestimated Al Qaeda's reach and aspirations for more than a decade as it grew from obscurity into a global terrorist threat, lawmakers and investigators said this week.As Congressional investigators look back far beyond the series of signals missed before the Sept. 11 attacks, they are seeking answers to many questions about Al Qaeda that law enforcement and intelligence agencies still cannot answer themselves, officials said.In particular, they said, Congressional investigators are trying...

PREVENTWMD.GOV "COMMISSION ON THE PREVENTION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROLIFERATION AND TERRORISM" # NOTE The following text is a quote: www.preventwmd.gov/ Preventing Terrorism: Assessing the Nation’s Progress The Commission has concluded its work as a congressionally mandated organization, as of February 26, 2010. Senator Graham, Senator Talent and Colonel Larsen are committed to continuing this bipartisan work on these important issues. To that end, they have formed The Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center. The Commission website will remain as an archive of past activities, but will no longer be updated. “Unless the world community acts decisively and with great...

Of these four ideas, the first is closest to becoming reality. There's a citizen petition drive to change the way Florida draws voting districts, aiming for the 2010 ballot. This effort is called Fair Districts Florida. Its Web site is www.fairdistrictsflorida.org. It is circulating two petitions, one for congressional races and one for the Legislature. Under these two constitutional amendments, voting districts could not be drawn "to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party."

IN A LITTLE-NOTICED DECISION in a New York courtroom on September 25, 2003, a man described as Osama bin Laden's "best friend" got some good news. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts ruled that Mahmdouh Mahmud Salim could not be sentenced to life in prison. Salim--who was present at the founding of al Qaeda in 1989 and who was for years one of bin Laden's most trusted confidants--had been captured in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States for prosecution related to his role in the grand conspiracy that resulted in the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in...

More details have emerged about an apparent infiltration of Islamic terrorists through US ports during the past two months.Some of the men slipped through secuirty disguised as stevedores, according to Bob Graham Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.He said he had seen reports indicating that some extremists might have been wearing safety jackets and protective helmets to give the appearance of dockworkers.U.S. Coast Guard Officials have refused to divulge any information about the reports but Graham stressed: 'The American people have a right to know.'He said 25 extremists 'entered in a foriegn country, hid out in a container...

washingtonpost.com > Print Edition > Washington Post Magazine Running Scared Bob Graham's message to the voters is simple: However frightened we are, it isn't nearly frightened enough By Michael Grunwald Sunday, May 4, 2003; Page W08

The United States should conduct military strikes against Hezbollah and Hamas facilities in the Middle East before engaging in any military action against Iraq, the leaders of an influential US Senate committee demanded Sunday. Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham and his Republican counterpart, Richard Shelby, made their recommendation amid increasing concern among member of the US intelligence community that if faced with certain downfall, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could hand over weapons of mass destruction to regional terrorist groups. "Against those international terrorists such as Hezbollah and Hamas, we need to be launching attacks on their headquarters and...

Randy Glass Video By Paul Thompson View the printer friendly view A fascinating video relating to an important unheeded warning of the 9/11 attacks was shown on WPTV, an NBC TV station in Florida on October 7, 2002. This video has been overlooked and forgotten until now. What did Senator Bob Graham (left) and US intelligence know about the warning from Randy Glass (right) before 9/11? In this video, Randy Glass, a private US citizen working as an undercover agent in a government sting operation, discusses how he learned about a threat to the World Trade Center and tried to...

This may be a repost but an important one.Alexandria, VA) – Even though President Bush took the oath of office last week, taxpayers still have one piece of unfinished business from the election: some federal lawmakers – including many seeking higher office – received thousands of dollars in salary overpayments for being away from their jobs during 2003 and 2004. According to a study released today by the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), an obscure federal statute still on the books requires Congressional absentees to forfeit their pay unless they or a family member are ill; but leaders have failed...