Free Republic

AP: FBI Sent Hamas Money in Clinton Days JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press WASHINGTON - While President Clinton was trying to broker an elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the FBI was secretly funneling money to suspected Hamas figures to see if the militant group would use it for terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents. The counterterrorism operation in 1998 and 1999 was run out of the FBI's Phoenix office in cooperation with Israeli intelligence and was approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI officials told The Associated Press. Several thousand dollars in U.S. money was sent to suspected...

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...

The FBI agent who wrote a pre-9/11 memo warning about terrorists from Middle Eastern countries training at U.S. flight schools says government officials didn't take action in response to his letter due to concerns about racial profiling. Ken Williams spoke to the Arizona Republic Saturday – his first interview since the now-famous memo was written. "If you look at the world prior to 9-11, we were prevented from doing certain things," he told the paper. "We were victimized by our own restraints." According to the report, Williams said he never blamed supervisors for what has been described as an intelligence...

The liberals who cried 'didn't do enough!' April 14, 2004 The Bush-bashers who have relentlessly accused the president and his War on Terror team of acting like jack-booted bigots are now imperiously attacking them for acting like light-footed fumblers. This self-serving display of liberal hypocrisy has provided more idiotic entertainment than "The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour." In an editorial this week that embodies the Left's unmitigated gall, the New York Times castigated President Bush for not doing enough after receiving an Aug. 6, 2001, briefing memo warning vaguely of bin Laden-planned domestic terrorism. According to the Times, Bush should...

May 23 — A paid FBI informant told ABCNEWS that three years before Sept. 11, he began providing the FBI with information about a young Saudi who later flew a hijacked passenger plane into the Pentagon. Aukai Collins, the informant, said he worked for the FBI for four years in Phoenix, monitoring the Arab and Islamic communities there. Hani Hanjour was the hijacker Collins claimed to have told the FBI about while Hanjour was in flight training in Phoenix. Twenty hours after ABCNEWS first requested a response, the FBI issued an "emphatic denial" that Collins had told the agency anything...

<p>The British-based Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun is holding a conference on the second anniversary of September 11 to honor the 19 terrorists who hijacked the commercial jets used in attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.</p> <p>A poster touting the event to be held at four locations in England includes photographs of the al Qaeda hijackers and refers to them as "The Magnificent 19" — a word play on the 1960 film "The Magnificent Seven."</p>

FBI links 9-11 hijacker to man named in Phoenix agent's memo Senate votes to create independent panel for investigation 09/25/2002 By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - The FBI has linked a Sept. 11 hijacker to a possible Islamic radical named in a Phoenix FBI agent's now-famous July 2001 memo, raising questions about whether a more aggressive investigation might have led authorities to Hani Hanjour before he crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon. No one can say whether a more active investigation of the unnamed Phoenix man would have allowed the FBI to find Mr. Hanjour...

WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told Congress on Thursday his agency needs to devote additional agents, money and time as it works to meet its "paramount mission of prevention" in an age of terrorism. "The need for change was apparent even before Sept. 11. It has become more urgent since then," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a nationally televised hearing. "I believe our culture must change as well." The FBI chief spoke as President Bush readied a prime time speech to announce changes in the system he establish last fall in response to the...

<p>Critics have been quick to seize upon the ``Phoenix memo'' as evidence that the Bush administration may have had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. The memo purportedly warned of ``Middle Eastern men'' taking flight training at American schools.</p> <p>Not so fast Woodward and Bernstein wannabees. In the first place, we cannot evaluate the administration's or FBI's handling of this memo until we know better how many similar reports and memos the government was receiving at the time. This memo stands out now because it turned out to be correct. But just as the government received many -- often conflicting -- signs of a possible Japanese attack before Pearl Harbor, picking out the accurate warning from amid the chatter is often possible only in retrospect.</p>

Former Intelligence Operative Says Author of Phoenix Memo Endangered His Life By Jacques Billeaud Associated Press Writer Published: May 23, 2002 PHOENIX (AP) - A former U.S. intelligence operative alleges in a court document that the FBI agent who wrote the memo warning about Arabs training in U.S. fight schools endangered his life three years ago by blowing his cover. Two Arizona congressmen and a former U.S. senator made inquiries on Harry Ellen's behalf about his complaints about the agency and Special Agent Kenneth Williams. The FBI reviewed the complaints but determined they did not warrant an investigation. Williams has...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI agent who wrote a pre-Sept. 11 warning about Arab students at an Arizona flight school hoped his memo would lead to screenings of Middle Easterners who came to study U.S. airport operations, according to government officials familiar with his account. Agent Kenneth Williams testified behind closed doors Tuesday to lawmakers investigating what the government knew about terrorist threats before Sept. 11. Williams believed his information might provide a significant but prospective lead about Osama bin Laden's intentions, according to lawmakers and government officials familiar with his account. But Williams wrote his memo for terrorism experts...