Posted on 10/06/2003 2:37:10 PM PDT by JohnBerger
This was my first hint. I found this comment after 9/11 and I haven't stopped thinking about what it means.
For what it's worth, I haven't seen anything that convinces me that McVeigh or Nichols were particularly interested in Islam, or any other religion per se. I think this was more a marriage of convenience than a marriage of passion.
However, I haven't seen anything that would especially rule it out either. It just seems like an extraordinary claim that would probably require some extraordinary corroborating evidence.
jmb
And the failure of the attempts to overthrow Saddam in 1995-96 raise the question of whether Saddam was also enjoying protection.
Not so much that it would make a really big difference at this stage. Despite the domain, I've gotten calls from everybody from the Wall Street Journal (which regularly reads the site) to NPR about the site, and I've also successfully made contact with several of the biggest names in terrorism reporting these days.
The cred issue has more to do with the fact I am self-publishing rather than working with a major news outlet.
That said, I would certainly consider changing the hosting around if I had a specific indication that it would make a difference in what kind of media play I get. It's not a closed issue by any means.
Of course, if I changed my hostname to "The Washington Post" that would help a lot... ;-)
jmb
You're doing excellent work, John. Keep it up.
And this point can't be emphasized enough. And Donna Lee, if you'd like a better idea of just how good the protection was, read Miniter's book. I can't believe that much horrifically bad judgement was purely a coincidence.
There's still too many unanswered questions smoldering under the all too rapidly bulldozed site of this crime against America and conservatism!!!
I think you will see, over the course of time, that this FBI-Arizona-Hamas story will be directly connected to OKC before all is said and done.
jmb
According to a report Sunday by the Associated Press, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "told his interrogators he had worked in 1994 and 1995 in the Philippines with Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah on the foiled Bojinka plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously in Asia."
Yousef, of course, was the man who plotted and executed the failed 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who entered the U.S. on an Iraqi passport the year before and whose partner in the plot, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was granted sanctuary by Saddam Hussein after the attack. Yasin is still at large.
Unmentioned by the AP, Mohammed's account of meetings with Yousef has been corroborated by Yousef's Bojinka partner, Abdul Hakim Murad. After his capture in 1995, Murad told the FBI that he and Yousef were contacted by Mohammed repeatedly during their time in the Philippines. Murad's FBI 302 witness statements detailing the contacts are reprinted in the new book "1000 Years for Revenge," by investigative reporter Peter Lance.
Another intriguing detail unmentioned by the AP, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is Ramzi Yousef's uncle.
Just last week, new documents uncovered by U.S. investigators in Iraq implicated Saddam's regime in the 1993 attack.
Another interesting story:
Eight years have passed since Abdul Rahman Yasin bade hasty farewell to New York and flew to Baghdad. There he initially passed the time by fielding telephone calls placed by solicitous FBI agents and finding a niche in Saddam Hussein's police state. By all appearances, Yasin has lived a quiet, secluded life there.
Bush on Oct. 10 named Yasin as one of the world's 22 Most Wanted Terrorists for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Bush's list is headed by Osama bin Laden and his cohorts in al-Qaida, the terror group accused of finishing the destruction of the New York landmark begun by Yasin and others.
There is no doubt about Yasin's whereabouts after the 1993 outrage. The FBI agents who perfunctorily questioned Yasin in New York and were conned by his pleasant manner quickly understood their mistake in letting him go. They got his brother to telephone Yasin in Baghdad repeatedly to ask him to come back for more questioning. Guess what? Mr. Yasin sent his regrets.
In 1998 then-FBI Director Louis Freeh said publicly that the fugitive was "hiding in his native Iraq." The Iraqi National Congress, the leading anti-Saddam movement, earlier obtained a photograph of Yasin in Baghdad and provided it to Washington. Every indication points to Yasin's not having left Iraq since then, a senior U.S. official tells me.
All roads seem to lead back to Iraq.
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