FBI agent in Moussaoui trial predicted HIJACK terror in AUG 18, 2001, memo

[DeepModem Mom]

and was ignored in Washington. Although this story has been posted elsewhere on the board, headlines have not conveyed its shocking information. Here's the MSNBC/AP version:


Agent who arrested Moussaoui blasts FBI
Defense questioning brings out fact that headquarters wasn’t interested
March 20, 2006


ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 accused headquarters of criminal negligence for its refusal to investigate Moussaoui aggressively after his arrest, according to court testimony Monday.

Agent Harry Samit testified under cross-examination at Moussaoui’s trial that FBI headquarters’ refusal to follow up “prevented a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks” that killed nearly 3,000 people....

***

Memo predicted aircraft hijacking

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon, Samit acknowledged that he predicted in an AUGUST 18, 2001, memo that Moussaoui was a radical Islamic terrorist in a criminal conspiracy to hijack aircraft. Moussaoui ended up pleading guilty to two specific counts that Samit had explicitly predicted in his Aug. 18 memo.

Despite Samit’s urgent pleadings, FBI headquarters refused to open a criminal investigation and refused Samit’s entreaties to obtain a search warrant.

“You needed people in Washington to help you out?” MacMahon asked.

“Yes,” Samit said.

“They didn’t do that, did they?”

Samit said no....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11923151


More, thanks to fed-up in post 4:

"MacMahon walked Samit through e-mails and letters the agent sent seeking help from the FBI's London, Paris and Oklahoma City offices, FBI headquarters files, the CIA's counterterrorism center, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, an intelligence agency not identified publicly by name in court (possibly the National Security Agency), and the FBI's Iran, Osama bin Laden, radical fundamentalist, and national security law units at headquarters."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/moussaoui

[electropop]

1. LIHOP HOP HOP to impeachment.

[jeff30997]

3. Yep.

[frazzledmom]

11. Hey.. there's no LIHOP or MIHOP

that's just wacko left wing talk :eyes:

[file83]

25. What about LIHBTFU (Let It Happen Because They Fucked Up)?

[electropop]

29. I don't think it's possible to fuck up so consistently, in the face of

repeated explicit warnings. You have to do that on purpose.

[understandinglife]

2. Can you imagine Samit and Sibel Edmonds being able to testify to all ...

... they know.


Be The Bu$h Opposition - 24/7

[file83]

27. Yes I can, and that would be a BEAUTIFUL thing. n/t

[fed-up]

4. FBI/CIA/* admin TRILLION DOLLAR F*ck up -yahoo story here

Trillion dollars equals Total cost of war on Terror, so far...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/moussaoui;_ylt=Au_DbiKFoqyZPD7RDqiOic2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago

FBI Agent Slams Bosses at Moussaoui Trial

Samit testified that on Aug. 22 he had learned from the French that Moussaoui had recruited someone to go to Chechnya in 2000 to fight with Islamic radicals under Emir Ibn al-Khattab. He said a CIA official told him on Aug. 22 or 23 that al-Khattab had fought alongside bin Laden in the past. This, too, failed to sway Maltbie or Frasca.

Under questioning from MacMahon, Samit acknowledged that he had told the Justice Department inspector general that "obstructionism, criminal negligence and careerism" on the part of FBI headquarters officials had prevented him from getting a warrant that would have revealed more about Moussaoui's associates. He said that opposition blocked "a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks."

..snip...

MacMahon walked Samit through e-mails and letters the agent sent seeking help from the FBI's London, Paris and Oklahoma City offices, FBI headquarters files, the CIA's counterterrorism center, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, an intelligence agency not identified publicly by name in court (possibly the National Security Agency), and the FBI's Iran, Osama bin Laden, radical fundamentalist, and national security law units at headquarters.

Samit described useful information from French intelligence and the CIA before 9/11 but said he was not told that CIA Director George Tenet was briefed on the Moussaoui threat on Aug. 23 and never saw until after 9/11 a memo from an FBI agent in Phoenix about radical Islamists taking flight training there.


...

[DeepModem Mom]

6. This is bombshell info -- thanks for adding, fed-up. nt

[fed-up]

8. Posted this "blood $$" story on an earlier thread, repost for eve Duers

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1223-02.htm

Published on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by the Toronto Star
Families Sue U.S., Reject 9/11 'Bribe'
Ignore Deadline for Compensation
by Tim Harper

WASHINGTON—For some, it's blood money, a repugnant payoff they feel they have no choice but to accept.


For a handful of others, the process of claiming compensation is too painful: they find themselves paralyzed by grief and unable to reopen emotional wounds barely healed from the deaths of their loved ones in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But as many as 73 families see the process of U.S. government compensation as an attempt to protect those who should be held accountable for what they believe was mass murder.

They ignored a midnight deadline last night, their last chance to apply for government cash.

...snip...

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Where is the coverage of this? Will it come? nt

[fed-up]

12. Note the date of the story Dec 2003-coverage over and done with nt

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Sorry, I meant to post re. the new testimony. Thanks again...

for the info and this background.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. misspost --sorry

[fed-up]

13. Thought I was losing my mind, earlier AP story says warned 70 times--here

found it!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060320/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui_6
FBI Agent Testifies About Moussaoui Arrest

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 20, 12:04 PM ET
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An FBI agent testified Monday his superiors repeatedly ignored his warnings before 9/11 that Zacarias Moussaoui might be a terrorist intent on hijacking an airliner.


Agent Harry Samit, questioned by defense attorney Edward MacMahon in Moussaoui's death penalty trial, said he referred to Moussaoui in the context of terrorism some
70 times
in communications with superiors after arresting him Aug. 16, 2001, but failed to get the FBI to conduct an all-out investigation.


...snip

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Unbelievable! Thanks for pulling that up! nt

[Ian David]

5. Well, at least one other person should be on trial, shouldn't they?

BUSH + 9/11 = LIHOP!

[EFerrari]

7. They let it happen.

Someone with a brain please EXPLAIN to me how That Felon ever ran on "national security".

9/11 happened on his watch.

He failed to get Bin Laden at Tora Bora.

He invaded Iraq for no f#cking security reason.

He allowed the Gulf Coast to be destroyed while he was eating cake with McCain.

Our borders and ports are not secure.

HOW IS HE STRONG ON NATIONAL SECURITY?

THIS IS THE BIG LIE.

[Clark2008]

17. Well, Katrina didn't happen until his second term

but too many idiots still believe that because we haven't been attacked in six years (conveniently forgeting the anthrax attacks after 9/11), that he's doing something "right." They don't consider that it took nearly eight years for al-Qaeda to attack the WTC between 1993 and 2001. The American public isn't known for its attention span, sadly.

[Roland99]

10. Wonder who the "one particular individual" who obstructed him at FBI was.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

18. This agent asked for a FISA warrant, HQ turned him down

without even asking the FISA court. They would not allow this agent to look in his laptop computer, which contained enough to have blown the plot wide open it has been reported.

Yet, they wiretap people like us and search our homes without even bothering to go get a warrant.

Think about it.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. A pretty provocative post, HR. Frightening. nt

[file83]

26. Exactly - they knew from the data on the laptop that 9/11 was happening...

yet pretended that because they never got a "FISA" warrant they never took a peek inside it. Right.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. And Samit got his information from the French

From the Yahoo! article:

"...MacMahon displayed a communication addressed to Samit and FBI headquarters agent Mike Maltbie from a bureau agent in Paris relaying word from French intelligence that Moussaoui was "very dangerous," had been indoctrinated in radical Islamic Fundamentalism at London's Finnsbury Park mosque, was "completely devoted" to a variety of radical fundamentalism that Osama bin Laden espoused, and had been to Afghanistan. ..."

(...)

"Samit testified that on Aug. 22 he had learned from the French that Moussaoui had recruited someone to go to Chechnya in 2000 to fight with Islamic radicals under Emir Ibn al-Khattab. He said a CIA official told him on Aug. 22 or 23 that al-Khattab had fought alongside bin Laden in the past. This, too, failed to sway Maltbie or Frasca."

(...)

"...Samit described useful information from French intelligence and the CIA before 9/11 but said he was not told that CIA Director George Tenet was briefed on the Moussaoui threat on Aug. 23 and never saw until after 9/11 a memo from an FBI agent in Phoenix about radical Islamists taking flight training there. ..."


Much as I dislike Jacques Chirac, I have to point out that Chirac as the representative of France was the first foreign leader, before Tony Blair or anyone else, to visit New York after 9/11 to officially express the sorrow of his nation. He was received with little fanfare by Bush and Bush to this day has never invited him to his ranch. The French have contributed significantly to the effort in Afghanistan from the very beginning. And we find out they were among the many nations that tried to warn the United States of the potential danger of a terrorist attack before 9/11. And yet there are still some idiots out there who refer to Freedom Fries and lump France in with the Axis Of Evil.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. Yep -- thanks for this info re. the "French connection." nt

[suffragette]

30. Yes, and that actually clarifies part of their motive to vilify the French

The administration realized that France's intelligence and therefore France's government knew that the U.S. had been alerted to the danger of the potential attack because they had warned us. So how to discredit them before or when the info comes out? Can't discredit them on the facts, don't even want those facts to come out, so have to go after them in disengenious and unrelated ways to paint them as the opposition. A pre-emption of sorts, brought to us by the same folks who promote pre-emptive war. It has a Rovian touch to it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

32. That's part of it but I think it goes beyond just that instance

I also think that a central plan of the PNACers who have infested the Bush Administration has been to try to divide and conquer in Europe. Their plan from the beginning has been to try to marginalize France and Germany and drive a wedge between old Europe and the new Europe including the Eastern European nations like Poland. And Tony Blair seems to have been willing to play into the PNAC's hands on this. Before 9/11, the Bush Administration swung a deal with the Polish to sell them about 40 or 50 jet fighters which included a loan that was so generous it was tantamount to a gift to Poland by the U.S. taxpayer. The result of the deal was the loss of a sale by France and Sweden and the end of their ongoing negotations to sell jets themselves to Poland. I don't think the attitude of the Bush Administration towards France and Germany is a personal matter; I think the villification is part of the plan to try to delay the emergence of a strong unified European Union.

[suffragette]

35. Absolutely agree

That was part of the motive, but you spelled out the larger purpose well.

[nonconformist]

22. Happy to give this it's 5th R. nt

[Disturbed]

23. Bush Regime motto:

"Above the Law and Unaccountable"

[Octafish]

24. FBI. REFUSED. To. Investigate.

The Minnesota flight instructors -- NOT THE SCHOOL -- reported Moussaoui to the FAA. The FAA told them to call the FBI. The FBI said to "fuhgedaboudid." The flight instructors then called the DEMOCRATIC Congressmen Oberstar and Sabo. These DEMOCRATS got the FBI off their ass in Washington. They busted Moussaoui. But they FAILED to get a FISA warrant and so, they say, they couldn't look in Moussaoui's laptop.

The strange case of Zacarias Moussaoui: FBI refused to investigate man charged in September 11 attacks

By Patrick Martin
5 January 2002

The case of Zacarias Moussaoui raises many questions about the conduct of the FBI and other US intelligence agencies in the period leading up the September 11. It is the clearest example of the almost inexplicable refusal on the part of these agencies to take any action that could have prevented the bloodiest terrorist attack in American history.

Moussaoui was arraigned January 3 on six counts of conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism in the September 11 attacks. A French-born man of Moroccan Arab descent, Moussaoui refused “in the name of Allah” to make a plea, and a plea of not guilty was entered for him at the request of his public defender.

SNIP...

FBI refusal to act

Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota August 16 after officials of a flight school, the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, a suburb of Minneapolis, tipped off the FBI that he was seeking flight training on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

His conduct aroused suspicion: his attitude was belligerent, he was evasive about his personal background, he declined to speak French with an instructor who knew the language, and he paid the $6,300 fee in cash. He insisted on training to fly a jumbo jet despite an obvious lack of skill even with small planes. The prospective student reportedly did not want to learn how to take off or land, only how to steer the jet while it was in the air.

The instructor and a vice president of the flight school briefed two Democratic congressmen from the Minneapolis area in November about their repeated efforts to get the FBI to take an interest in Moussaoui’s conduct. Their accounts were first reported in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, then in the New York Times December 22.

The vice president of the flight school, who briefed Minnesota Congressmen James Oberstar and Martin Sabo, said it took four to six phone calls to the FBI to find an agent who would help. The instructor became so frustrated by the lack of response that he gave a prescient warning to the FBI that “a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/mous-j05.shtml

Bush is not incompetent. He is a traitor.

[EFerrari]

28. These are not mutually exclusive categories.

:)

[Octafish]

33. LOL! Smirko is both stupid and treasonous.

He's also a crazy monkey, believing he's been "selected" by the Good Lord to do "His" work.

Here's info on his state of mind, which may come in handy should the idiot traitor be brought to Justice in a United States courtroom:

Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner?

By James Hatfield

Editor's note: In light of last week's horrific events and the Bush administration's reaction to them, we are reprising the following from the last column Jim Hatfield wrote for Online Journal prior to his tragic death on July 18:

July 3, 2001—There may be fireworks in Genoa, Italy, this month, too.

A plot by Saudi master terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to assassinate Dubya during the July 20 economic summit of world leaders, was uncovered after dozens of suspected Islamic militants linked to bin Laden's international terror network were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and Milan, Italy, in April.

German intelligence services have stated that bin Laden is covertly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to launch another terrorist attack at a high-profile American target—his first since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last October.

According to counter-terrorism experts quoted in Germany's largest newspaper, the attack on Dubya might be a James Bond-like aerial strike in the form of remote-controlled airplanes packed with plastic explosives.

SNIP…

In June 1977, Dubya formed his own drilling company, Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" means "bush" in Spanish), in Midland, Texas. Like his father before him, Dubya founded his oil business with the financial backing of investors, including James R. Bath, a Houston businessman whom Dubya apparently first met when they were in the same Texas Air National Guard unit. (Interestingly, both Dubya and Bath were both suspended from flying in August and September 1972, respectively, for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination.")

CONTINUED…

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Hatfield-R-091901/hatfield-r-091901.html

George was so scared of getting attacked by airliners, he sleapt offshore aboard a U.S. warship that was equipped with the best anti-missile technology a military-industrial complex can buy.

Plot to assassinate Bush – reports

MOSCOW, Russia -- Osama bin Laden has threatened to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush at a G8 meeting in Italy, the head of Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service has said, according to reports.

The Associated Press said Yevgeny Murov was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "Bin Laden is threatening the American president, but we know what international terrorism is today and therefore all the bodyguard units concerned are preparing for this.

"We view the threats as totally serious, but hope that with joint efforts we can solve all the problems."

The Group of Eight summit is meeting between July 20-22 in Genoa, Italy. Leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are expected to attend the summit.

Murov -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief bodyguard -- did not elaborate on the threats. He said agents from Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service have travelled to Genoa to coordinate with their counterparts from the other nations taking part in the summit to investigate the threats.

CONTINUED…

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/20/russia.binladen/

Some more on the Genoa warnings…

Missiles to protect summit leaders

Special report: globalisation

Rory Carroll in Rome
Wednesday July 11, 2001
The Guardian

Italy has installed a missile defence system at Genoa's airport to deter airborne attacks during next week's G8 summit, fuelling hysteria about looming violence.
A land-based battery of rockets with a range of nine miles and an altitude of 5,000 feet has been positioned in the latest security measure against perceived threats from terrorists and protesters.

Unidentified planes, helicopters and balloons risk being shot down should they drift too close to the heads of state from the group of seven leading industrialised nations and Russia.

Colonel Alberto Battaglini, of the ministry of defence, said the precaution was not exces sive. "The measure, which was planned by the previous government, may seem open to criticism, but in reality it is merely to act as a deterrent against any aerial incursion during the summit.

CONTINUED…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,519925,00.html

Gee. What was Boosh so afraid of? He won’t tell us, but it would seem he did tell AG Johnny Ashcan…

Ashcroft Flying High

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001


Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

A senior official at the CIA said he was unaware of specific threats against any Cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself, in a speech in California, seemed unsure of the nature of the threat.

"I don't do threat assessments myself and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. And I try to stay within the guidelines that they've suggested I should stay within for those purposes," Ashcroft said.

CONTINUED…

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

The little turd from Crawford knew, all right.

[Supersedeas]

31. 9/11 (Coverup) Commissioners -- are you watching these proceedings

[DeepModem Mom]

34. Where, Supersedeas?