Records Show Man in (Y2K) LAX Plot Gave U.S. Key Terrorist Details

[Rose Siding]

SEATTLE — The would-be millennium bomber who crossed the border from Canada with a trunkload of explosive materials to blow up Los Angeles International Airport has instead blown holes in his former terrorist network, court documents and interviews show.

Since his conviction in 2001, Algerian expatriate Ahmed Ressam, 37, has provided information on more than 100 suspected terrorists, helped shut down clandestine Al Qaeda cells and exposed valuable organizational secrets of the global terrorist network.
...
Ressam's cooperation, his defense lawyers contend, has saved countless lives, including those of FBI agents who otherwise wouldn't have known that a sneaker they had seized from would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid contained a virtually undetectable but powerful explosive device.
...
Defense lawyers offered more details than prosecutors in their campaign to win a reduced sentence for Ressam. In one memorandum, they suggest that before Ressam began cooperating in the summer of 2001, U.S. authorities incorrectly focused on Osama bin Laden as the sole mastermind of all Islamic terrorist operations against the U.S.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ressam27apr27,0,6364275.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[paulthompson]

1. Gee, yet more clues 9/11 was to happen

An extract:

By midsummer 2001, Ressam began providing intelligence of a more general nature about how Al Qaeda was preparing an attack on U.S. soil, at a time when the CIA was insisting that all of its intelligence pointed to a strike somewhere overseas.

Ressam's warnings didn't say when or where such an attack or attacks would occur, according to court briefs, but they were credible enough — and sufficiently alarming — to be included in the now-infamous briefing paper given to President Bush five weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.

It was Ressam's information that supported the briefing paper's title: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

---

I'm not surprised, since the US was given clues about 18 billion different ways. But if this last bit is true, then why is nothing he said actually in the released version of the Bush memo? Could it be we haven't seen the whole thing? Why does the CIA and the rest of the Bush Administration continue to maintain that all the evidence pointed overseas, if Ressam said all this?

[elehhhhna]

2. Proving agian that the BA LIED: "ThePDB was historical information...

my FOOT! Info culled in "mid-summer 2001" and reported on 8/9/01 is NOT hisorical background.



NOMINATED.

[paulthompson]

13. Here's something from the Aug. 6, 2001 Bush memo

There is something in there from Ressam, after all. But to call it "historical" is absurd. I remember Condi Rice once said there was nothing in the memo after 1998, which this part shows to be untrue:

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of bin Laden’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that in ---, Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaida encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaida was planning his own U.S. attack.
Ressam says bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

[Roland99]

3. Ressam named Zarqawi pre-9/11 and gave up info on attacks pre-9/11

So, even before 9/11 happened, this administration was aware the bin Laden was not the sole architect behind terrorist attacks against U.S. interests. Yet, after 9/11, all we heard from the Propagandist was Osama, Osama, Osama and how we were going to "smoke him out" and catch him "dead or alive". This administration *knew* how dangerous Zarqawi was and even had *multiple* chances to capture or attack him at that camp in Northern Iraq that was in Kurdish territory and protected by the northern U.S. no-fly zone. Oh, the MIHOP and LIHOP folks are going to have a *field* day with this! Sure does seem to point a tainted finger at this administration as far as what it knew and when.

Of course, keep all of this on the down-low. The American people don't need to know the truth about the "wars" being waged.

This administration knew more detailed information behind that Aug. PDB and *still* did nothing to track down terrorists in this country? Well, Ashcroft did his part, though. He started flying private jets instead of flying commercial.

[Rose Siding]

4. It also reads like he fingered Moussaoui way back when.

If that's true, Agent Rowley sure could have used that corroboration when she tried to get a warrant.

[paulthompson]

5. Re: Moussaoui

No,
As far as we know, Ressam knew about Moussaoui, but no one asked him about Moussaoui until after 9/11, because FBI headquarters didn't think the Moussaoui case was worth bothering about. I already have some info in my timeline about this:

September 4, 2001: FBI Dispatches Vague Message to U.S. Intelligence Community About Moussaoui Investigation
FBI headquarters dispatches a message to the entire U.S. intelligence community about the Zacarias Moussaoui investigation. According to a later Congressional inquiry, the message notes “that Moussaoui was being held in custody but (it does not) describe any particular threat that the FBI thought he posed, for example, whether he might be connected to a larger plot. (It also does) not recommend that the addressees take any action or look for any additional indicators of a terrorist attack, nor (does) it provide any analysis of a possible hijacking threat or provide any specific warnings.” (9/11 CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY, 9/24/02) The FAA is also given the warning, but the FAA decides not to issue a security alert to the nation’s airports. An FAA representative says, “He was in jail and there was no evidence he was connected to other people.” (NEW YORK POST, 5/21/02) This is in sharp contrast to an internal CIA warning sent out on August 24 based on even less information, which stated Moussaoui might be “involved in a larger plot to target airlines traveling from Europe to the U.S.” (9/11 CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY, 9/18/02) It turns out that prior to this time, terrorist Ahmed Ressam had started cooperating with investigators. He had trained with Moussaoui in Afghanistan and willingly shared this information after 9/11. The FBI dispatch, with its notable lack of urgency and details, failed to prompt the agents in Seattle holding Ressam to ask him about Moussaoui. Had the connection between these two been learned before 9/11, presumably the search warrant for Moussaoui would have been approved and the 9/11 plot might have unraveled. (SUNDAY TIMES, 2/3/02)

[Rose Siding]

14. Thanks!

The OP article was unclear about just when he gave that up.

[hector459]

6. I love the folks at DU. You can actually read with understanding.

It would be wonderful if the MSM and the Bush regieme "sheeple" could do the same. Instaed of thinking that this is a great discovery and giving the administration praise for the info gathered, they should be made to understand the true implications of what has just been revealed. In short, the Bushites are liars, they lied before 9/11, in the midst of 9/11, and they are still lying. They could have done many things, including listening to Sibel Edmonds, to prevent what happened and what is happening NOW!

[July]

7. Is it just me,

or is there a subtle slam of Clinton buried in here?

The Y2K plot was foiled by the CLINTON administration, right? The guy was jailed by CLINTON, right?

But all the groovy anti-terror results are framed as happening in 2001, and "before Ressam began cooperating in the summer of 2001 , U.S. authorities incorrectly focused on Osama bin Laden . . .."

So . . . Clinton caught the guy, Clinton stopped a bombing at LAX, but Clinton had the wrong focus (belied by this story, showing either that the guy was connected to bin Laden and therefore Clinton had the right focus, or that there was another gang of plotters out there that Clinton stopped despite his focus on bin Laden). And then the Crawford Camper's gang that ignored the whole terrorism issue in 2001 and did nothing about pre-9/11 warnings somehow gleaned valuable
information that showed just how very wrong Clinton was?

It's hard not to see spin anymore. Maybe it's just Evil Empire fatigue.

[Roland99]

9. Ressam just wanted to cooperate with the "Culture of Life" people

like how the Iranian hostages were released after Reagan took office.

[July]

11. That's it. Republicans just have more charm, don't they?

They win over everyone!

[radwriter0555]

8. So the Clinton Admin capture of this guy has resulted in knocking out

a significant bit of terrorism, eh?

Good to KNOW! Thanks BILL!

[underpants]

10. Yeah apparently you can get information out of live people

what with professional interrogation techniques and all.

[Bridget Burke]

12. And if the Bush Admin had paid attention, 9/11 could have been prevented.

However, Bush & Co had other priorities. And 9/11 worked out so well for them....

[paulthompson]

15. bump

[Roland99]

16. .

:kick:

[lovuian]

17. More proof the government knew and did nothing!!!

It just sucks!!!