The azzam.org website selling the “In the Hearts of Green Birds”
audiocassette was shut down after 9/11 because authorities thought it
might contain codes and instructions to militants. British and US
intelligence sources suspected that some of Azzam.com’s jihad photos
and graphics contain messages embedded with a technology known as
steganography. The code instead perhaps was there for all to see on the
stamps of the lethal missives being sent.
It was widely published among the militant islamists that martyrs go
to paradise “in the hearts of green birds.” The stamp used in the
anthrax mailings was of a green bird. It was designed by artist
Michael Doret. He explained to me that the image at google of the
“Federal Eagle” Stamp is “a file made directly from the original art
[he] created, so the color is an accurate representation of the printed
envelope.” Mr. Doret advises me that the color of the eagle is a “teal”
or greenish-blue.
In the very interview in which they admitted 9/11, and described
the codes used for the four targets for the planes, KSM and Ramzi
Binalshibh admitted to the Jenny code, the code for representing the
date 9/11, and used the symbolism of the “Green Birds.” Osama Bin Laden
later invoked the symbolism in his video “The 19 Martyrs”, describing a
hijacker as “A man of worship who enjoined good and forbade evil. His
body was on earth but his heart roamed with the green birds that perch
beneath the Throne of the Most Merciful.” Isn’t “green birds of
paradise” discussed at length in Abdel-Rahman’s 2,000 page PhD thesis
on the chapter in the Koran called “Repentance.” which addresses the
foreign policy and military affairs of the Islamic state?
Peter Finn of the Washington Post explains the symbolism:
“Around 7 one evening during Ramadan in 1998, the believers filed down
a long corridor leading to the prayer room of the Al Muhadjirin mosque
here, placing their shoes on the dark brown shelves before stepping
onto a carpet the color of turquoise, a mixture of green for Islam and
blue for heaven. Among the worshipers was a small group of men who
clustered around a severe slight Egyptian named Mohamed Atta.
In the 2002 interview, Ramzi Binalshibh, who Tenet says had a CBRN
role, said that Al-Shehhi, even before he learned of the operation used
to have beautiful visions that he flies in the sky with huge green
birds and crashes into things.”
A FAQ on Al Qaeda’s website, the Azzam Publications, website mirrored
by the fellow from New Brunswick, where the anthrax letters were
mailed, explained that “In the Hearts of Green Birds” refers to what is
inside. The actual Arabic word used in the Hadith is not Qalb (heart)
but it is Jowf which can mean any of interior, inside, or heart (as in
center). There was a video based on the hadith with the title In The
Hearts of Green Birds about foreign mujahideen that had been martyred
in Bosnia. The audiocasette was created in August 1996 and its 3rd
edition was released in January 1997.
Of course, given that the symbolism used in this regard in the
anthrax mailings had an origin in religious writing, there is no direct
tie with the website — the tie could be with the hadith. The London
webmaster once said that the FBI allowed it to remain up (while it
moved from server to server) for another year hoping to get leads on
supporters. In the case of the telephone line of the US postal worker
from Brooklyn, they let him continue arranging telephone conference
calls with the Islamic Group leader eager to plan a new attack from
1998-2002, foregoing a criminal prosecution for the fruits of the
intelligence source. The Egyptian Islamic Group (Taha) was rendered
shortly after 9/11.
Even Zarqawi invoked the “green birds” imagery in a 60-minute
audio message:
“The martyrs rejoince in the bounty provided by God. Their souls are
inside the bodies of green birds that fly in heaven.”
Bin Laden was using “Green Birds” in the same way he used the
repeated phrase “Looming Tower” to hint of what was to come with the
planes attack on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright has an
excellent book “The Looming Tower” and that is the basis for the title.
Bin Laden said in a key communication:
“Wherever you are, death will find you,
even in the looming tower.”
In a prerecorded tape aired October 7, 2001, at the time of the
anthrax mailing to the Senators, Bin Laden said “The winds of faith
have come.”
Here is an hour interview by Professor Boyle on this theory that the anthrax attacks were intended to get the Patriot Act passed. He, BHR and Ed all have what has been called a “bioevangelist” theory, which is unencumbered by any consideration of the facts relating to Al Qaeda and Taliban and EIJ/IG operatives in the US.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=19409
Biowarfare and the Emergence of Police State America”
(Interview with author and professor of international law, Dr. Francis Boyle. The history of biological warfare development and the Biological Weapons Convention; forced anthrax inoculations of the military; anthrax attacks on congress and the resultant Patriot legislation setting up a police state; FBI agent Marion “Spike” Bowman’s thwarting of FBI investigations into both Zacarias Moussaoui and the anthrax attacks on congress; the DNC’s prevention of impeachment proceedings against Bush and others in his administration for high crimes and misdemeanors.)
When Cheney was briefed on the documents seized in Afghanistan and flagged by a CIA analyst in late 2001, he immediately called a meeting of FBI and CIA. “I’ll be very blunt,” the Vice President started. “There is no priority of this government more important than finding out if there is a link between what’s happened here and what we’ve found over there with Qaeda.” At one point, security personnel thought that the home belonging to Elizabeth Cheney, his daughter, had been hit by an anthrax attack. Elizabeth ‘had to call her nanny to get her to take the kids to be tested for exposure. A June 1999 memo from Ayman to military commander Atef said that “said the program should seek cover and talent in educational institutions, which it said were ‘more beneficial to us and allow easy access to specialists, which will greatly benefit us in the first stage, God willing.’ ‘’ Thus, in determining whether Al Qaeda was responsible for the anthrax mailings in the Fall of 2001, the FBI and CIA knew based on the growing documentary evidence available by December, that Al Qaeda operatives were likely associated with non-governmental organizations and working under the cover of universities. From early on, the CIA and FBI knew that charity is as charity does. They knew where Al-Timimi worked, having interviewed him the first week after 9/11. An undercover operation at Al-Timimi’s Falls Church mosque was already underway. The next month, George Mason University hired GMU graduate student Al-Timimi for $70,000 a year for coordinating research among several universities.
Ed, Professor Boyle and Professor BHR, in developing their bioevangelist theory seemed totally unaware of the reason Senators Leahy and Daschle would be targeted and were totally unaware where an active Salafist supporter of the Taliban Al-Timimi worked.
An August 29, 2001 opinion column on Islamway, set up by the IANA webmaster and the second most read site for english speaking muslims, illustrates that the role of “Leahy Law” was known by educated islamists: There is an intolerable contradiction between America’s professed policy of opposition to state-sponsored terrorism, exemplified by the Leahy Law, and the U.S. Congress’ continuing sponsorship of Israeli violence against Palestinians.” The article cited “References: CIFP 2001. “Limitations on Assistance to Security Forces: ‘The Leahy Law’” 4/9/01 (Washington, DC: Center for International Foreign Policy) Center for International Foreign Policy Accessed 8/28/01.Hocksteader, Lee 2001.” The next day, in the same publication, there was an article describing the 21-page document released in Ottawa on August 29, 2001, in which the CSIS claimed that Canadian detainee Jaballah had contacts with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Shehata and sought to deport Jaballah.
“[Daschle and Leahy] represent something to him,” says James Fitzgerald of the FBI Academy’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. “Whatever agenda he’s operating under, these people meant something to him.” To more fully appreciate why Leahy — a human rights advocate and liberal democrat — might have been targeted as a symbol, it is important to know that Senator Leahy has been the head of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, the panel in charge of aid to Egypt and Israel. In addition to the Senate majority leader, anthrax was mailed to the position symbolic of the 50 billion in appropriations that has been given to Israel since 1947 (and the equally substantial $2 billion annually in aid that has been keeping Mubarak in power in Egypt and the militant islamists out of power). Being an international relations expert who represents islamist interests, Professor Boyle would know this but does not address it, being motivated by political and not true crime concerns.
Professor Boyle would also know that the targeted Senators have another connection pertinent to the Egyptian militants. The United States and other countries exchange evidence for counterterrorism cases under the legal framework of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty {”MLAT”). Egypt is signatory of such a treaty that ratified by the United States Senate in late 2000. For example, when the Fall 2001 rendition of Vanguards of Conquest leader Agizah was criticized, the US explained that it was relying on the MLAT. The issue came up in the prosecution of Post Office worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar and the MLAT was described. Sattar’s attorney Michael Tigar, at trial in December 2004 explained: “Now, that might be classified, it’s true, but we have now found out and our research has just revealed that on, that the State Department has reported that it intends to use and relies on the mutual legal assistance treaty between the United States and Egypt signed May 3, 1998, in Cairo, and finally ratified by the United States Senate on October 18th, 2000. The State Department issued a press report about this treaty on November 29th, 2001 and I have a copy here.” He explained that “Article IV of the treaty provides that requests under the treaty can be made orally as well as under the formal written procedures required by the treaty, that those requests can include requests for testimony, documents, and even for the transfer to the United States ... if the treaty conditions are met.” The Senate, of course, ratifies such treaties and it is Leahy’s Subcommittee that would have jurisdiction.
Vanguards of Conquest spokesman Al-Sirri is a co-defendant in the case against post office worker Sattar. In the late 1990s Sattar and he spoke in 90,000 conversations intercepted by the FBI, including many Egyptian Islamic Group leaders. Egyptian Islamic Group leaders and Al-Sirri’s fellow EIJ cell members in London were subject to process under those treaties at the time of the anthrax mailings. Those London cell members had been responsible for the faxing of the claim of responsibility which stated the motive for the 1998 embassy bombings. Al-Sirri was the guy whose stationery was used as the letter of introduction in the assassination of the Northern Alliance leader two days before 9/11. The WP in May 2002 reported that authorities, based on intercepted conversation between Post Office employee Sattar and Al-Sirri in the Summer 2001, suspected Sattar of helping with the letter. (The letter was found on Ayman’s computer in Kabul).
As reason for the 1998 embassy bombings, in addition to the rendition recent EIJ members to Cairo, the faxes pointed to the detention of Blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman and dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali. Al-Hawali was the mentor of GMU microbiology student Al-Timimi who spoke in London in August 2001 alongside 911 Imam Awlaki (also from Falls Church) and unindicted WTC 1993 conspirator Bilal Philips. Al-Timimi was in contact with Saudi sheik Al-Hawali in 2002 and arranged to hand deliver a message to all members of Congress he had drafted in al-Hawali’s name on the first anniversary of the anthrax mailings to Senator Leahy and Daschle. So the conversation at the water cooler at GMU between the former USAMRIID head and the guy working with Bin Laden’s sheik and lecturing around the world about the signs of the coming end of times and day of judgment, might have gone something like this: “Have you heard a forecast? Ali, do you know if the day of resurrection is going to be sunny?”
The USG at some point needs to comes clean about these facts. The USG and individuals likely have been mum due to considerations of due process, privacy and the confidentaility of a national security investigation. For example, with all the attention paid to Dr. Hatfill’s privacy claim suit, one can appreciate why GMU may feel it is between a rock and a hard place. They have the privacy interests of a former employee to respect. But at some point, the public has a right to know especially given that GMU sought the $25 million grant for a regional BL-3 facility. What was important to Cheney in late 2001 to know is still important over a half decade later for the public to know.
Chasing Isambouli
Sheiks, Bioweaponeers and the Anthrax Letters
http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com