Officials aware in 1998 of training

Boston Globe ^ | September 15, 2001 | Elizabeth Neuffer

[sarcasm]

NEW YORK - Federal authorities have known for at least three years that two Osama bin Laden associates had trained in the United States as airplane pilots, possibly while operating as members of the suspected terrorist's organization.

US officials were also aware that bin Laden had recruited American citizens to join his Al Qaeda terrorist group and that many of them received military and intelligence training in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Sudan. Members of the organization lived in California, Texas, and Oregon, among other states.

[Rudder]

Federal authorities knew about this and Federal authorities say it a shame we didn't do something about it. Who's minding the store?

[primatreat]

Clinton of course.... don't we remember the Islamic guy in DC the contributed to HILLARY... Notice she has not said anything bad about them nor has Billy boy

[anniegetyourgun]

Clearly the discovery of millions in waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies was just the tip of the iceberg earlier this year. The Clinton legacy is one of devastating incompetence, selfishness, partisanship, and sloth.

[MizSterious]

FYI

[MizSterious]

FYI

[MizSterious]

The early claims that "gawwl-leee, we dint have a clue anything like this would happen" ring horribly false. Moreover, 2 weeks ago they were sniffing around a Norman, OK flight school asking questions about Middle Eastern pilot trainees, and 1 week ago they were raiding an internet service provider in Richardson TX asking about Middle-Eastnern ties. And in 1995, there was evidence proving a M.E. connection to the OKC bombing. Evidence was there, they knew something of this, and then pretend complete ignorance. Stunning, isn't it?

[rdavis84]

Here's the GAO Report, at least they do their job ---- GAO Report

[csvset]

Paging Louie " What me worry" Freeh, paging Janet "Shakes" Reno. Stand before the American public and explain this failure.

The FBI had the time , money and resources to traipse about the hills and hollers looking for Eric Rudolph. He posed such a great threat to the US national security? /rant

[Tarakotchi]

If Ridi & Nawawi (or others) had been known to be training on commercial, wide-body airlines, that would imply suicide missions. Otherwise Bin Laden would have more innocuous uses for pilots in his organization.

[Tarakotchi]

The article sort of implies that Ridi & Nawawi went to flight school in Texas & Oklahoma at bin Laden's request and expense.

This doesn't seem to be the case with Ridi, who was already a pilot when he got involved with bin Laden, according to his court testimony. (Actually Ridi is a flight instructor too.)

[Nita Nupress]

And in 1995, there was evidence proving a M.E. connection to the OKC bombing. Evidence was there, they knew something of this, and then pretend complete ignorance. Stunning, isn't it?

George W. Bush has inherited eight years worth of Clinton's pantywaist approach to M.E. terrorists and the liberal media's complicit cover-up of Clinton's impotence. As I just said on rdavis84's thread, we're all about to pay the price for it. I don't know about you, but I'm very angry.

The same liberal media are now trying to continue their cover-up by trashing Bush and not mentioning why M.E. terrorists had a blank check to kill 10,000 Americans.

I can feel my blood pressure going up day by day.

[MizSterious]

Mine, too. It's been boiling, really, since 1995, when, some weeks later, it became apparent that something about the OKC bombing (a "mere"--in hindsight--169 people murdered) was being covered up. The plain fact of it is that Clinton wanted to use this to discredit the right in this country, so they blew off the M.E. evidence. Get the guy who looks like militia--even though, of course, McVeigh belonged to no militias anywhere, and was rejected by at least two.

[Tarakotchi]

Rereading the article, I missed the bit about Kertchou (gesundheit :) who was specifically trained at Bin Laden's behest.

I discovered an interesting resource: List of daily transcripts of the USA v. Usama bin Laden et al trial in the Southern District of New York.

[Reactionary]

Exactly. This isn't the first terrorist attack by the Jihad bastards on American soil. On the contrary, Clinton has used the federal government itself to cover up previous attacks and to vilify anyone who saw a Middle Eastern connection as a "conspiracist" or a kook.

And now, the chickens have come home to roost. We're fortunate that the Traitor is finally out of office.

[SKYDRIFTER]

Referring just to the Internet accounts of "Project Bojinka," the Muslim 'cells' in the Philippines not only posed a threat, but they were only detected by accident - officially.

Unfortunately, it is a serious mistake to separate the middle-eastern connection from the Oklahoma City bombing, as well. Worse, the coverup of that information is a crime in itself. Far worse is that once it was identified, there was no follow-up on the logical hunch that something was badly amiss.

According to McVeigh's accounts, he was lying about ever having been in the vicinity of the truck-bomb. His descriptions are too frequently physically impossible.

Going to the known actual dimensions (within reasonable tolerances), the Murrah Building crater says that the truck-bomb couldn't have contained the power which was claimed by the prosecution. Therefore, how does one account for the known damage to the Murrah building?

At some point, the scammed data had to have been known to the most ignorant of government employees and appropriate questions asked.

If one goes to history, it is necessary to ask, "Why were there no warnings in any of the bombings?" The reality is that there was plenty of intelligence available. PLENTY!

Between overseas papers and the "60-Minutes" program on the Afghan terrorists, there is no excuse for not upgrading airport security and issuing warnings.

The entire U.S. government was aware that the airports were radically non-secure for years, yet, the FAA pandered to airline profits with impunity. There was nothing unknown at any government level that such was true. Bin Laden was handed an invitation, by the FAA in particular. There is no shortage of documentation on that statement.

Given the very recent Hart-Rudmann report in particular, America needs to ask Congress and the FAA, "How could you knowingly allow this to happen???"

It's necessary to go to the history that Congress changed the Federal Law, essentially relieving the FAA's responsibility for airline safety. Clinton's Presidential Executive Order 12866 made safety an option. The Order essentially said, "...if you can't establish cost-effectiveness, don't be costing the airlines money."

If human life is expendable, we're facing a minimum of 60 billion dollars in cost. NOW, is safety cost-effective?

For detailed examples as to how all this operates, go to -

Airline Safety ‘Net

- note the total absence of changes.

Magnitude of effectiveness aside, the attacks of 9-11-01 were forecast to the highest levels of government, complete with the methods to be used. There was no "surprise" in any of it.

I fear that it is also necessary to ask, "Is this another programmed "Pearl Harbor; another "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?"

Every American needs to pay close attention where the defense dollars are spent. If this is a replay of the Viet Nam War, the tax dollars will be headed to Texas holdings, with the full-funding of the super-expensive Osprey program as the first event.

[rdavis84]

Please review Skydrifter's reply above.

[roughrider]

It really gets my blood boiling thinking about how these camel jockeys are almost all illegal aliens. Clinton couldn't arrest and deport them, but he could have his showtime raid on ELIAN, falsely claiming Elian was an illegal alien when Cuban refugees are treated differently under the statute.

[Judge Parker]

FBI Director Robert Mueller yesterday lamented the failure of US intelligence agencies that allowed terrorists to get pilot training in the United States before they hijacked the four planes involved in Tuesday's attacks.

Better add Mueller to your hit list. The guy thinks the FBI "failed" in its intelligence mission in this regard. You're one of the few people who has never seen the Feds mess anything up. Keep your eyes closed, you'll never see anything. At least Mueller is currently willing to admit failures. I praise him for that. Maybe things will get better. They never get better if people just keep sweeping everything under the rug. Maybe the Feds are actually going to try to do what is right. I'll be their greatest supporter, if they do.