9/11 Commission Nixed al-Qaida Link to Flight 800?
NewsMax ^ | 9/12/04 | Carl Limbacher
Posted on 09/12/2004 9:18:22 PM EDT by wagglebee
The 9/11 Commission rejected evidence that al-Qaida may have played a role in the 1996 downing of TWA Flight 800, investigative reporter Peter Lance claims.
What's more, says Lance, the evidence of an al-Qaida link was first presented to 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick when she was deputy attorney general under President Clinton.
On Thursday, Lance shared details of his new book, "Cover-up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror," with ABC Radio Network's John Batchelor.
Documents uncovered by the former network news reporter show that weeks before TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island, Ramzi Yousef – mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bomb plot and the author of the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks – warned the FBI he was preparing to blow up a U.S. airliner.
"They had an informant in a federal prison cell in lower Manhattan who'd been passing notes to the FBI from Ramzi Yousef," Lance told Batchelor.
While in jail Yousef was befriended by fellow inmate Greg Scarpa Jr., who was awaiting trial on a racketeering charge and who occupied the cell between the al-Qaida bomber and his partner, Abdul Hakim Murad.
Scarpa, who saw a chance to reduce his sentence by sharing what he found out with counterterrorism probers, agreed to act as a conduit for messages passed between Yousef and Murad.
The mobster began secretly cooperating with the FBI, which went so far as to allow Yousef to make phone calls to the Middle East so they could monitor them.
Lance told Batchelor, "At least one call went to his uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed," who masterminded the 9/11 plot based on Yousef's blueprint.
By the spring of 1996, Yousef's notes to Murad became ominous – featuring detailed schematics of the bombs to be used and how they could be smuggled past airport security.
On May 19, 1996, Yousef told Scarpa that he advised his people to start the bombing of airplanes.
According to a translated summary of his note to Murad that same day:
"Yousef gave a very detailed paper on how to smuggle explosives into an airplane. He referenced RDX explosives and 747 airliners. He gave detailed information on the weights of explosives and flying heights of airplanes and the types of explosives to be used as well as where they should be placed in the airplane."
Two months later almost to the day, TWA 800 – a Boeing 747 – exploded in midair, killing all 230 passengers and crew aboard.
The Justice Department's decision to keep Yousef's warnings to Scarpa under wraps during the Flight 800 investigation was political, said Lance – a bid to cover up tracks that should have been followed but weren't.
Likewise the 9/11 Commission, where ex-Justice official Jamie Gorelick played a role in determining which evidence was relevant to their probe – and which was not.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214201/posts
UN accused of collaborating with Hezbollah
MAARIV International ^ | September 13, 2004 | Anat Shihor-Aharonson
Posted on 09/12/2004 9:14:23 PM EDT by kcar
Relatives of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed convene press conference ahead of filing civil suit against UN. Charge kidppings couldn’t have succeeded without UN assistance and active involvement. Anat Shihor-Aharonson
The families of the three IDF soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah have accused the United Nations of involvement in the abductions.
“Today we can say with certainty that the UN was actively involved in the kidnappings of our sons”, the families of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed charged during a press conference they convened ahead of filing a civil suit against the UN in a US court, eight months after their bodies were returned to Israel for burial as part of the prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah.
The families’ representatives argued that from analyzing the chain of events that led to the abductions, it is clear that a high level of cooperation existed between UNIFIL personnel and the Hezbollah. Without this assistance, they claim, the kidnappers would not have been able to obtain UN license plates and uniforms, which they used during the ambush and kidnappings.
According to their statement, UNIFIL personnel were used as a diversion in order to draw the soldiers to the ambush point. It is also clear, they charge, that UN officers witnessed the abductions but did nothing in order to help the Israeli troops.
The families charge that several hours after the kidnappings, UN soldiers located two vehicles six kilometers from the ambush point. In one car, several items were found including UN license plates, while in the other car the UN staff discovered large blood stains.
In a highly unusual measure, as defined by the families, the UNIFIL staff, assisted by members of the UNTSO organization, took the items out of the cars, something that is strictly forbidden according to UN guidelines, took them to their base near Rosh Hanikra and eventually handed them over to the Hezbollah.
Several days after the kidnappings, senior UN officials came to understand the high degree of sensitivity in the matter and instructed their subordinates to shred all photos and reports of the incident.
According to Professor Shimon Sheetrit, who represents the families, the UN’s actions were illegal and contradict the entire structure on which the UN was established.
The families also plan to sue Hezbollah for kidnapping the soldiers, in addition to Syria, Lebanon and Iran for supporting the Lebanese terror organization. Since the October 2000 abductions, Israel and the families have expressed outrage over the UN’s inability to prevent the kidnappings.
In July 2001, it was revealed that UNIFIL soldiers filmed Hezbollah operatives as they were transferring the three IDF troops, about 18 hours after they were kidnapped, from a distance of barely 20 km from point of abduction.
In addition, it became evident that several UN soldiers knew that the Lebanese terror group intends to kidnap IDF soldiers from the area of the Shaba Farms and had even been paid off by the Hezbollah in order to turn a blind eye.
Israeli officials were also infuriated over the fact that the UN had hidden a tape that was filmed during the abduction and demanded of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to use that tape in order to help determine the fate of the soldiers. Only after a long struggle, the UN allowed Israeli officials to view the tape, but only four times.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214197/posts
Sheesh. Thanks for this link.