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Germans Uncovered Iraqi Spy Ring During 9/11 Planning (9/11 Commission Omission)
Captain's Quarters Blog ^ | 8-17-05 | Captain Ed

Posted on 08/16/2005 9:44:09 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite

The Daily Standard has just published my latest column, which reveals to those who missed my earlier post on the arrests of two Iraqi spies in Heidelberg during February 2001. The discovery of these agents, especially given the time frame, should set off warning bells about potentially devastating connections to the 9/11 plot:

In the years following the 9/11 attacks, there has been much argument about the nature of Saddam Hussein's connections to terror. How could the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission fail to consider this, given the other activity occurring in Germany during this period:

* Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh meet in Berlin in January 2001 for a progress meeting, around the same time German counterintelligence claimed that they picked up the Iraqi trail.

* Ziad Jarrah, another of the crucial al Qaeda pilots, transits between Beirut and Florida through Germany twice during the 2000-2001 holiday season, flying back to the United States at the end of February.

* Marwan al-Shehhi disappears in Casablanca, then constructs a cover story about living in Hamburg.

In fact, the Commission report notes that three of the four al Qaeda team leaders (excepting Hani Hanjour, who had at that time just begun his pilot training) interrupted their planning to take foreign trips (page 244). Why would these men interrupt their preparations in this manner? Traveling in and out of the United States presented a risk--a manageable risk, as events proved--but having three of the four team leaders outside of their established cells at the same time looks unnecessarily foolhardy from al Qaeda's point of view. It also appears to be the only time after their first entry into the United States that this travel occurred. All three had some German connection to their trips. In fact, Jarrah left Germany the same week that the Germans captured the Iraqi agents.

The 9/11 Commission never mentions these arrests, nor the discovery of an Iraqi espionage operation involving several German cities during the same weeks that most of the 9/11 plotters traveled into or through Germany. In fact, no one has followed up on the arrests at all.

For a commission that chided two administrations about failing to connect dots, the Omission Commission appears to have left more than a few dots off the map. We need to find out whether the CIA and/or the FBI knew about this, as reported by al-Watan al-Arabi later in March, whether they gave that information to the Commission -- and if they did, why they never mention it once in their report. At best, it leaves the final report with yet another crippling gap in its credibility. At worst, it looks like someone has something to hide.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Germany; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 911commission; 911hijackers; abledanger; alqaedagermany; atta; binalshibh; hamburg; ramzibinalshibh
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To: Major_Risktaker

Yea, sort of, BUT, any UN agreement is illegal. It violates the constitution. THAT, my friend, is why "we the people" bear arms. That's why we must hold those we elect to their oath of office.


41 posted on 08/17/2005 12:11:31 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Major_Risktaker

The debt is not the problem it actually helps keep the government from getting larger than it already is. It's also an insurance policy for other countries to want to see the US stay solvent.


42 posted on 08/17/2005 12:34:16 AM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: John Lenin

I love it. The 9/11 Ommission.


43 posted on 08/17/2005 1:06:10 AM PDT by BookaT (My cat's breath smells like cat food!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

bookmark


44 posted on 08/17/2005 1:18:40 AM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
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To: Blind Eye Jones
There was bloodshed in those seven years but America held the coarse and stood fast. It will do the same in Iraq

The gamble is that we won't...and there are an awful lot of people here in the U.S. that want us to fail.

45 posted on 08/17/2005 1:43:59 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: lepton
Someone posted on one thread a year or two ago -- in response to a comment on how the left didn't undermine our WWII efforts -- that the only reason the left was more or less on our side then was that Hitler double-crossed Stalin (their hero). That made him a bad guy.
46 posted on 08/17/2005 2:25:16 AM PDT by maryz
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Here's what the 9/11 Commission has to say about Clinton in 1996 and his concern about bin Laden:


President Clinton issued a classified directive in June 1995, Presidential Decision Directive 39, which said that the United States should “deter, defeat and respond vigorously to all terrorist attacks on our territory and against our citizens.”The directive called terrorism both a matter of national security and a crime, and it assigned responsibilities to various agencies.Alarmed by the incident in Tokyo, President Clinton made it the very highest priority for his own staff and for all agencies to prepare to detect and respond to terrorism that involved chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.


During 1995 and 1996, President Clinton devoted considerable time to seeking cooperation from other nations in denying sanctuary to terrorists. He proposed significantly larger budgets for the FBI, with much of the increase designated for counterterrorism. For the CIA, he essentially stopped cutting allocations and supported requests for supplemental funds for counterterrorism. When announcing his new national security team after being reelected in 1996, President Clinton mentioned terrorism first in a list of several challenges facing the country.


47 posted on 08/17/2005 2:29:08 AM PDT by airborne
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To: Stellar Dendrite

For a commission that chided two administrations about failing to connect dots, the Omission Commission appears to have left more than a few dots off the map. We need to find out whether the CIA and/or the FBI knew about this, as reported by al-Watan al-Arabi later in March, whether they gave that information to the Commission -- and if they did, why they never mention it once in their report. At best, it leaves the final report with yet another crippling gap in its credibility. At worst, it looks like someone has something to hide.


48 posted on 08/17/2005 3:43:17 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Thanks for posting this. Yet another problem for the 9/11 Commission.


49 posted on 08/17/2005 3:54:03 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

50 posted on 08/17/2005 3:58:21 AM PDT by stocksthatgoup (Polls = Proof that when the MSM want your opinion they will give it to you.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Isn't a German cell also suppose to be involved in the OK bombing?


51 posted on 08/17/2005 4:07:16 AM PDT by hoosiermama
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To: Howlin; Bahbah; MinuteGal

FYI


52 posted on 08/17/2005 4:08:41 AM PDT by hoosiermama
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To: eyespysomething

Here's a heads up.


53 posted on 08/17/2005 4:22:46 AM PDT by SittinYonder (Nemo me impune lacessit)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

9/11 Commission, aka, The Insult After Injury Commission.


54 posted on 08/17/2005 4:27:02 AM PDT by SeaBiscuit (God Bless all who defend America and Friends, the rest can go to hell.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18219-2005Mar8.html

Dietrich Snell, 9-11 Commission staffer, testified on behalf of the Commission in the trial of Atta's roommate in Germany. His testimony helped the defense according to this article.


55 posted on 08/17/2005 4:42:32 AM PDT by toomanygrasshoppers
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To: Blind Eye Jones
"So what has America to be really fearful about? Do you think Al Queda will ever occupy a beach head in Virginia or conquer any state in the Union!....."

No they may never occupy a beach head in America but they may one day irradiate one of our cities.

They do not have to conquer our land to devastate us economically; just imagine the 75% or the worlds oil reserves in Al-Queada hands, just imagine the impact of NYC, Chicago, or LA being nuked...what do you think that would do to the US and the West?

The days were oceans and distance could protect us over.

The war in Iraq was not solely undertaken to remove Saddam or to protect us from the Iraqi people. The political and military importance of Iraq is far reaching and much more than than one would gather from looking at it strictly from the surface....IMHO
56 posted on 08/17/2005 4:45:09 AM PDT by PigRigger (Send donations to http://www.AdoptAPlatoon.org)
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To: hoosiermama
Isn't a German cell also suppose to be involved in the OK bombing?

According to Jayna Davis, it was probably an Iraqi Al Qaeda cell with direct ties to Saddam Hussein's regime and intelligence service.

The German link you are referring to may be the German, Andreas Strassmeir, who may have been an German intelligence agent (perhaps ex-Stasi and a double agent), who was helping train the white supremacist gang to which McVeigh was likely aligned.

The ones behind the entire OK City operation were the Iraqis, quite likely in league with Al Qaeda who were using white supremacists McVeigh and Nichols as foot soldiers.

Read all about it in The Third Terrorist

57 posted on 08/17/2005 5:38:14 AM PDT by Gritty ("Europeans unprepared to roll back Wahabism better be prepared to live with it, or under it-Mk Steyn)
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To: airborne

What clinton did to appease the masses while erecting a gorelick "WALL" ?


58 posted on 08/17/2005 5:40:58 AM PDT by SIRTRIS
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To: Stellar Dendrite
The entire commission was agenda driven from the start.

Kean was a willing participant, but I wonder how Lehmann feels now.

Used, abused, exploited.

And the Jersey Girls, what do they have to say now.

They were useful pawns in keeping the attention away from the TRUTH.

59 posted on 08/17/2005 5:54:23 AM PDT by OldFriend (MERCY TO THE GUILTY IS CRUELTY TO THE INNOCENT ~ Adam Smith)
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To: OldFriend

Maybe the Bush administration could have found this out sooner if they didn't have to replace all the computers in the White House after the red diaper brigade trashed the place.


60 posted on 08/17/2005 5:57:40 AM PDT by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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