18mei02
'Under pressure' en 'People want probe' zijn zomaar twee koppen op de voorpagina van MSNBC.com van vandaag die er niet om liegen. In de hoogste kringen in de VS zijn ze een beetje uit de nachtmerrie ontwaakt en borrelen opeens vragen op die DaanSpeak al begon te stellen op de dag van de aanslag, op 11 september, vorig jaar. Als mensen wakker worden, zijn ze nog niet helemaal helder en zeggen ze soms rare dingen, zoals: '“Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information? And what specific actions were taken by the White House in response?” Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said.'

DaanSpeak is toch makkelijk te vinden op het internet... Maar Daschle heeft een drukke baan en heeft misschien geen tijd gehad om even door de speciale voorkennis-pagina van DaanSpeak te browsen. Daschle: '“I’m not going to jump to any conclusions, but it’s hard to understand why the information was not released.” House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., posed a variation on the famous Watergate-era question: What did the president know and when did he know it? Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “There was a lot of information. I believe, and others believe, if it had been acted on properly we may have had a different situation on Sept. 11.”'

Wie ook een drukke baan heeft, is Donald Rumsfeld. 'Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday on NBC’s “Today” that he was unaware of the FBI memo “until it showed up in the press very recently.” [...] [Condoleezza] Rice repeated the administration’s insistence that the al-Qaida information referred only to a general threat from bin Laden involving jetliners. She added, “Even in hindsight, there was nothing in what was briefed to the president that you would go out and tell the people.”

Niet alleen de Democraten van Daschle zijn niet blij, getuige deze MSNBC-kop vandaag met bijbehorend artikel: 'Alert news angers families of victims'. De vraag is op hoeveel begrip de achterblijvers kunnen rekenen van vice-president Cheney. 'In a speech in New York on Thursday evening, Vice President Dick Cheney said the attacks on the White House were "thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war." He also warned Congress against expanding investigations of the intelligence agencies that might "interfere with the ongoing efforts to prevent the next attack."', schrijft de LA Times.

Enige achtergrond
Mike Ruppert schrijft: 'According to Newsweek and the New York Times, FBI agents in Phoenix submitted a classified memorandum in July naming Osama bin Laden and tracking the activities of possible Middle Eastern terrorist suspects who had enrolled in local flight schools. The memo, according to the Times, stated bin Laden’s followers “could use the schools to train for terror operations.” The information in the Phoenix memo was not shared with FBI field agents in Minnesota who had uncovered other startling evidence.

Just days before the attacks in early-September, FBI agents in Minnesota wrote notes that subsequently became included in an internal FBI document warning that accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui “might be planning on flying something into the World Trade Center.” A story from the May 20 issue of Newsweek by Michael Isikoff described how a local flight instructor had reported Moussaoui had “showed a suspicious interest in learning how to steer [and not land] large airliners…The [FBI] agents were ‘in a frenzy, absolutely convinced he was planning to so something with a plane.’”

A multitude of sources have reported the FBI agents requested a warrant to search Moussaoui’s personal computer but were denied by Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department. After the 9-11 attacks the computer was seized and found to contain information directly related to the World Trade Center attacks.

This apparent lack of support from within the administration is consistent with reports released last fall by the BBC’s Gregg Palast showing that in January 2001 the Bush Administration had issued direct orders to the FBI to curtail investigations of two of Osama bin Laden’s relatives, Omar and Abdullah bin Laden. The two bin Ladens had been connected to possible terrorist activities and were living in Falls Church, Va., near CIA headquarters.'

En waar bleven de gevechtsvliegtuigen die de gekaapte vliegtuigen hadden moeten onderscheppen? 'For 50 minutes on 9-11, in direct contravention of established policy, no fighters were scrambled to intercept two outstanding hijacked airliners even though it was known attacks were in progress. Een andere vinger op een andere zere plek, betreft de handel met mogelijke voorkennis: 'As CBS news noted on Sept. 26, the peak of trading activity occurred just before the attacks. There was a jump in United Air Lines put options 90 times (not 90 percent) above normal between Sept. 6 and Sept.10, and 285 times higher than average on Sept. 6. Numbers for other affected stocks were equally alarming. It is uncontested that only United and American stocks had this level of put buying before the attacks. No other airlines were affected.' Lees meer.

Bekijk hier een tv-programma waarin Mike Ruppert praat over opmerkelijke feiten rondom 11 september.