Mylroie: Clintonized CIA Blocking Iraq-9/11 Evidence

NewsMax.com ^ | Thursday Jan. 30, 2003

[honway]

The CIA is blocking critical intelligence that links Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks, a former top terrorism advisor to President Clinton is contending, and by doing so, she says, the agency is weakening President Bush's case for war against Iraq.

Asked about Salman Pak, the terrorist training camp near Baghdad where, according to a number of Iraqi defectors, al Qaeda terrorists have practiced for years hijacking American airliners using the same methods employed on 9/11, Clinton Iraqi expert Laurie Mylroie told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg:

"There's a huge debate within the (Bush) administration. The Defense Department wants to bring out information like that. The CIA, which is responsible for dealing with terrorism, accommodated Clinton's desire not to hear about Iraq and terrorism, does not want that information to come out. It acts as Saddam's lawyer."

Mylroie served as President Clinton's top advisor on Iraq during the 1992 campaign, and she has lectured on Middle Eastern terrorism and its origins at the Naval War College and Harvard University. Mylroie is also author of the book, "The War Against America," which details Baghdad's role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Just minutes before Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday night, Mylroie told Malzberg, "For any official statement to be made by the government, there is an interagency review process and the CIA blocks (the Salman Pak) information. Their response is to say, the defectors are not reliable - because they oppose Saddam you can't believe them."

What about satellite photos backing up accounts from Salman Pak defectors who describe a Boeing 707 parked on the ground, which they say serves as a classroom for Saddam's hijack trainees?

According to Mylroie, the CIA offers the bizarre alibi that the plane "could have been used by the Iraqis for counter-hijacking."

The Clinton terrorism expert says the White House is partly to blame for not forcing U.S. intelligence services to be more forthright about the information they have on Salman Pak, complaining, "Bush has failed to discipline the bureaucracy. And they have put their careers above Bush's career."

Asked to detail the precise role of Iraq in al Qaeda operations directed against the U.S., Mylroie told WABC, "Al Qaeda acts as a front for Iraqi intelligence. Al Qaeda provides the ideology, the foot soldiers and the cover. And Iraqi intelligence provides the direction, training and expertise."

Commenting on reports that the White House would use the State of the Union address to reinforce the argument that Saddam has been working with al Qaeda for years, Mylroie noted, "I'm glad (President Bush) is going to talk about Iraq and al Qaeda. (But) I have some concern that because powerful individuals and institutions are even now unwilling to acknowledge their error, the case is going to be a lot weaker than it could be."

[honway]

If these reports don't amount to a smoking gun, then "smoking gun" has no meaning.

It's enough for me.

[honway]

without first sacking some people in very prominent positions in the CIA, FBI, INS, etc.

That's needed, but it's not going to happen. The best we can do is kill as many of the planners and supporters of the 9-11 attack we can find. That starts in Iraq.

[Alberta's Child]

There's probably another reason why this information will be kept under wraps forever. If you go back and look at the dates of this Iraqi weapons program, and you consider the speculation that one of its purposes may have been to develop weapons to use against Iran in the 1980s, it is entirely possible that the U.S. was complicit in these research efforts.

In fact, I've speculated that this may be precisely why some of that post office anthrax in 2001 was traced to a U.S. Army laboratory. It wasn't stolen from the lab -- it was given to the Iraqis by the U.S.

[Alberta's Child]

If it's not going to happen, then don't expect me to take any of this seriously.

Because I won't.

[The Great Satan]

I think Ms. Mylroie does not understand -- or perhaps is pretending not to understand -- that it is the administration itself that is delaying the release of the most incriminating evidence against Saddam. One needs to step back and ask oneself the question: Would it be a good thing if by lunchtime today, say, everybody in America and the whole world understood that Saddam whacked us on 9/11 and is successfully deterring retaliation by holding the American people hostage to his biological WMD? Er, the answer to that is: "No, it wouldn't be a good thing."

It is probably true that there are important elements within the government, such as CIA and FBI butt-coverers, clintonista holdovers and State Department arabists, whose agenda is to resist any connecting of the dots. From the Bush administration's standpoint, such forces represent useful idiots. Bush could put a stop to the whole thing with a single phone call. The appeasers' agenda can be exploited to further Bush policy objectives. This kind of political ju-jitsu is a recurring motif in Bush "strategery," if you haven't noticed by now. You have to look below the surface of things, you have to war game it out. Otherwise, you will understand nothing.

[honway]

You are correct.

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news//2001/10/18/wanth218.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/10/18/ixhome.html

Iraq obtained much of its anthrax supply from the American Type Culture Collection. Between 1985 and 1989, it obtained at least 21 strains of anthrax from ATCC and about 15 other class III pathogens, the bacteria that pose an extreme risk to human health.

One strain had a British military pedigree and three of the other strains were listed as coming from the American military's biological warfare programme.

This came as a shock, said Dr Spertzel, although he added that at that time the ATCC had a policy to supply laboratories with credible reputations. The anthrax strains were ordered by the University of Baghdad and then diverted to the bio-warfare effort

[PhiKapMom]

I agree 100%!

[jpl]

Why Bush hasn't sacked George Tenet is something I've never been able to figure out. I'm sure he probably has a good reason, or he would have done it by now. What that exact reason is, we'll probably never know. I figure they probably cut some kind of deal.

[freeperfromnj]

For months now, Steve Malzberg has been talking about the training camp in Iraq, complete with a Boeing 707 used to train hijackers. Unfortunately, his WABC radio show just serves the NYC tri-state area so this story didn't get much play. I wish he would go national -- he always has an interesting show.

[honway]

Why Bush hasn't sacked George Tenet is something I've never been able to figure out

We really are a nation of two governments, and have been so for awhile. The leadership of one of the governments gets to make State of the Union addresses and the leadership of the other government get's to decide questions like who will be CIA Director and if the President needs to be replaced like in 1963.

[astounded]

It's hard to tell exactly what manufacturer and model the pictured airplane is. I can say, however, that it almost definitely is not a B707. It appears to be an MD Super 80 or 88, perhaps even a B727 but I can't see the third top-mounted engine on the latter. Either this photo is a fake or somebody has no idea what he is talking about.

[swarthyguy]

Here y'go Ping.

[carton253]

Have you read her book?

[carton253]

Please... just because she worked on Clinton's campaign doesn't mean she is wrong here.

[honway]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html

Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak

[pgyanke]

No... what did I miss?

[honway]

[honway]

From #35

Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak (see Khodada's hand-drawn map of the camp), an area south of Baghdad. In this translated interview, conducted in association with The New York Times on Oct. 14, 2001, Khodada describes what went on at Salman Pak, including details on training hijackers. He emigrated to the U.S. in May 2001. (Editor's Note: Although U.S. officials acknowledge terrorists were trained at Salman Pak, they say it is unlikely that these activities were related to the Sept. 11 attacks. It should also be noted that the two defectors interviewed for this report have been brought to FRONTLINE's attention by members of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a dissident organization seeking to overthrow Saddam Hussein.)

[NJJ]

If these reports don't amount to a smoking gun, then "smoking gun" has no meaning.

They continue to request the "Smoking Gun" without realizing what they are asking for. A "Smoking Gun" is after the fact. There aren't many retired gunfighters around that have seen a smoking gun.

[CyberAnt]

"the terrorist training camp near Baghdad where, according to a number of Iraqi defectors, al Qaeda terrorists have practiced for years hijacking American airliners using the same methods employed on 9/11"

Hmmmm ...?? Isn't this the information Powell will be presenting to the UN ...??

If so, then how is the CIA restricting this information ..??