Operation Bojinka's bombshell

Toronto Star | January 2, 2002 | Matthew Brzezinski

[Publius6961]

FBI spokesperson John E. Collingwood denies that the bureau had advance knowledge of a plot to turn airliners into flying bombs. "The FBI had no warnings about any hijack plots. There was a widely publicized 1995 conspiracy in Manila to remotely blow up 11 U.S. airliners over the Pacific," Collingwood said in a letter to the Washington Post in October, "but that was disrupted. And, as is the practice, what was learned in that investigation was widely disseminated, even internationally, and thoroughly analyzed by multiple agencies. It does not connect to the current case."

If this clown Collingwood "sees no connection" between the 1995 events and what happened 911, he needs to be removed real quickly from any job requiring critical thinking, indeed any thinking at all...

[harpseal]

Regarding thoughts on the chemicals found there were things there that IMHO I would not wish to mess arround with. As to the Condoms If I remember correctly in the Phillipine Islands there are numerous pigs and goats on the farms. Maybe they liked weekends in the country.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Publius6961]

"There certainly were enough precursors that should have led analysts to suspect that the U.S could come under domestic attack,"

D'OH!

What gave it away finally?
That only US airlines were mentioned in the material found in the explosives lab computer and the airlines schedule?

Is this a Clinton thing or are our intelligence agencies now the New Keystone Kops?

[hsszionist]

The warning was given that the viper was in the sandbox, and still the children were allow to play there and one was bitten. Well the viper is still there and so are the children, may be the viper won't strike again.

[Publius6961]

Are you saying he's moonlighting?

No I am saying he's an idiot.
Or an affirmative action hire...

But I repeat myself.

[annalex]

I vaguely associate you with Bojinka threads; I am not sure why. Bump, boink, boink.

[CommiesOut]

More

[tallhappy]

Among the best articles on Bojinka were in the LA Times and Washington Post, so I couldn;t post them, or even link to them because their archives aren't available on line.

Suffice to say that the plan to hijack an airplane and fly it in to the CIA headquarters was made known by the terrorists as a consequence of the investigations.

This Bojinka, where they planned to blow up 5 to 10 jets plying east Asian routes (Manilla, Taipi, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore) concommitantly with assassinating the Pope in the Philippines and the stuff they learned from the first WTC bombing and the African embassy bombings should have led investigators to put two and two together better than they did.

But it was the time of Clinton.

[OKCSubmariner]

Thanks for flaging me Fred.

Wallaby, thanks for the great find and for keeping this issue before Freepers.

There are too possibilites, either the Feds investigators got the word to the USG decision makers on this one or they did not.

If the decision makers did not get the word, then COngress and the decision makers should be concerned and fix the problem with the flow of info to them. If the decision makers got the word then the Fed investigators should be concerned that correct or timely decisions were not made with their intelligence.

In either event, it seems that if this problem is not fixed more Americans can get killed and more Americans will come to distrust even more the abilities and motives of USG decision makers to protect them.

[flamefront]

Great article find.

Here is the link to the original article in the Toronto Star.

It is clearly consistent that the only people paying attention are the people lowest on the rungs of command. Here it is the work of officer Aida Fariscal. On last months flight it was the work of the flight attendent to discover the shoe bomber, Reid. On Flight 93, Beemer, Glick, and the others. Here on FreeRepublic, the same emerges. Connect those dots!

[csvset]

These Islamic terrorists have to be crushed, just like you'd do a cockroach. Taking nail clippers from passengers just ain't cutting it.

Yousef, Murad confessed, had indeed been responsible for the blast aboard the Philippine airliner, which was actually a dry run to test the terrorists' new generation of nitroglycerin explosive, known as a "Mark II" bomb.

Yousef had deposited his device - lethal liquid concealed in a contact lens solution bottle with cotton-ball stabilizing agents and a harmless-looking wristwatch wrapped around it - under seat 27F on the Manila-to-Cebu leg of the flight to Tokyo.

He had gotten off in Cebu after setting the watch's timer for four hours later. The same plan was to be repeated on the 11 U.S. commercial jetliners. U.S. federal prosecutors later estimated that 4,000 passengers would have died had the plot been successful.

Another file found on Yousef's computer consisted of a printout of U.S. airline schedules, which initially baffled investigators.

The file, named Bojinka, listed the travel itineraries of 11 long-haul flights between Asia and the United States, mostly on United and American airlines.

All the flights had several legs, and were grouped under five headings bearing code names of accomplices such as Zyed, Majbos or Obaid. Each accomplice would leave the bombs on the first leg of the flight, and then eventually return to locations like Lahore, Pakistan.

Huh, I think the CIA/FBI needs less "experts" and more folks like this cop in the PI. Having the National Guard (God luv'em), running 'round airports isn't going to do squat. Do airlines do a thorough search of planes between legs of journeys? I think not. The "bad guys" are in it to "win" it. So far we're going to federalize the screeners and smell every third passengers foot until the next "bojinka" comes along. Sheesh. /rant

[Wallaby]

>Collingwood

After charges of cronyism erupted in the travel office controversy, George  Stephanopoulos, the president's communications director, and other Clinton  aides summoned a senior FBI official, John E. Collingwood, to a political  strategy meeting in Stephanopoulos' office. At the meeting, according to the  Washington Post, Collingwood was given "guidance" in drafting a statement  the White House would use to back up its contention that the seven members of  the travel office were fired because of evidence of "gross mismanagement"  and possible criminal wrongdoing.

The FBI statement was revised to say that there was "sufficient  information for the FBI to determine that additional criminal investigation is  warranted." Collingwood faxed a copy to the White House as a courtesy. He now  says it was never intended for public release and that he was surprised to  learn the White House gave the statement to reporters.

"Abuse of Power," Editorial, St. Petersburg Times, May 26, 1993, Pg. 16A .

[csvset]

Re the WP story, I found a copy of it here.

Borderless Network of Terror:Bin Laden Followers Reach Across Globe

It's a good read, some of these SOB's were American Citizens, born and raised here in the USA.

[Travis McGee]

BTTT

[UCANSEE2]

Any thoughts on the chemicals found?

Yeah, they are not for a knitting class !

[CommiesOut]

Did this man predict Sept. 11?

[novakeo]

Bump

[Magician]

In addition to the material captured by Fariscal, which outlined an attack using airliners as flying bombs, the CIA had forewarning of the 9-11 attack by at least four allied intelligence agencies (France, Israel, Germany, Russia). The Mossad sent a delegation to the CIA in Langley (as per Janes Intelligence Weekly) and told them that an attack using airliners would be mounted within several weeks by Al Qaida, involving about 200 operatives, and run by Amad Mugniyeh (Marine barracks bonber) and Ayman Al-Zawahiri (assasination of Sadat), who are bin Laden lieutenants.

Was the lack of response terminal incompetence or complicity?

[Ironword]

Suffice to say that the plan to hijack an airplane and fly it in to the CIA headquarters was made known by the terrorists as a consequence of the investigations.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the fourth September 11 plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was heading for Langley, per the original conception -- all this talk of it heading to the White House or the Capitol being propaganda to cover the grotesque nature of the intelligence/enforcement failure.