The head of an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq said the country has become a "university of terrorism" producing highly qualified warriors since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion." Reuters, 4-17-06
Eight months before September 11, the DGSE reports therein tactical discussions conducted between Osama bin Laden and his Taliban allies from the beginning of 2000 on the subject of hijacking American commercial airliners. Le Monde, 4-16-07
With bomb explosions and suicide actions, al-Qaeda weaves its web in the Mahgreb. The bloody attacks in Algiers Wednesday, April 11, seem to confirm that the name change of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC) to Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb corresponds, at least to some degree, to reality. Le Monde, 4-12-07
Hard Rain Journal 4-17-07: What Do Le Monde's 328 French Secret Service Documents Point To? Criminal Negligence? Treason?
By Richard Power
I will say it for the thousandth time since September 2001 –
The Bush-Cheney national insecurity team blew off the warnings of the outgoing Clinton-Gore national security team, and looked the other way in the critical months and weeks prior to 9/11. Was this wanton disregard criminal negligence or treason? Is there any other explanation? Whatever the answer is, there must be accountability.
9/11 was not the result of an intelligence failure.
Bush, Rice, and others, were warned directly and repeatedly by both National Security Council and CIA officials.
Tragically, the 9/11 Commission wimped out in not making this issue the central theme of its final report.
I do not need to indulge in speculation about whether or not the Towers were brought down by a controlled demolition or whether or not it was a commercial jet that hit the Pentagon.
I know all I need to know from the thick, obscene and open source record of the Bush-Cheney regime’s indifference to warnings both from senior National Security Council officials and the intelligence services of our true allies.
Pre-9/11, Bush-Cheney was warned, and it did nothing.
Post-9/11, Bush-Cheney choose to pursue a foolish military adventure in Iraq, instead of focusing on those responsible for the slaughter of the innocents; choosing instead to become a slaughterer of innocents itself, soiling the good will of the world in the process, and handing a propaganda victory of generational scope and impact to radicals throughout Islam (both Shia and Sunni).
Have you begun to comprehend the depth of this madness yet?
As brutal as his tyranny was, Saddam held the lynchpin that choked off both the Shia radicals and Al Qaeda.
When the Bush-Cheney regime removed that lynchpin, with the complicity of much of the US political establishment and most of the corporatist media, they did, as many of us prophesized, open the gates of hell.
Why?
That's the question to ask.
None of the possible answers bodes well.
The US Congress must not flinch.
These people must be investigated relentlessly -- on numerous fronts, e.g., the outing of Valerie Plame, the cooking of pre-war intelligence, the politicization of the DoJ, and yes, sooner or later, their pre-9/11 inaction
The funds for their foolish military adventure must be cut-off.
They must be hounded until the truth is arrived at, even if that truth is only found in the Hague.
Here are some excerpts -- via Truthout -- from the Le Monde analysis of 328 French foreign intelligence (DGSE) documents related to Al Qaeda:
It's an impressive mass of documents. From a distance, one would imagine a doctoral thesis. On closer inspection: nothing of the kind. Red stamps "Confidential-Defense" and "Strictly National Usage" on every page. At the top on the left, a royal blue logo: that of the DGSE, Direction générale des services extérieurs [General Directorate for Foreign Services], the French secret services. In total, 328 classified pages. Notes, reports, syntheses and summaries, maps, graphs, organization charts, satellite photos. All exclusively devoted to al-Qaeda, its leaders, its seconds-in-command, its hide-outs and training camps. Also to its financial supports. Nothing less than the fundamentals of the DGSE reports compiled between July 2000 and October 2001. A veritable encyclopedia. ...
It's true that these secret services chronicles about al-Qaeda, with their various revelations, raise many questions. And at first, a surprise: The high number of notes devoted exclusively to al-Qaeda's threats against the United States, months before the suicide attacks in New York and Washington. Nine whole reports on that subject between September 2000 and August 2001, including a five-page summary entitled, "Airplane Hijacking Plans by Radical Islamists," and dated ... January 5, 2001! Eight months before September 11, the DGSE reports therein tactical discussions conducted between Osama bin Laden and his Taliban allies from the beginning of 2000 on the subject of hijacking American commercial airliners. ...
But it's Saudi Arabia above all that appears as a constant preoccupation with respect to the sympathy outside Afghanistan from which Osama bin Laden benefited. The DGSE reports explore his relations with the country's businessmen and various organizations. Certain Saudi personalities have proclaimed their hostility to al-Qaeda, but, obviously, they have not convinced everyone. Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi remembers French intelligence officials' frame of minds well: "The DGSE had great difficulty definitively believing that he no longer had any relationship with the Saudi monarchy because he was proscribed. It was difficult to accept." ...
Another memo from the French secret services, dated September 13, 2001, and entitled "Factors in Osama bin Laden's Resources," reiterates these suspicions about the Saudi bin Laden Group, the family empire. ...
Alain Chouet expresses real skepticism about the Riyadh authorities' desire to apprehend Osama bin Laden before September 11: "His forfeiture of Saudi nationality was a farce ... to my knowledge; no one did anything at all to capture him between 1998 and 2001."
... And six years later? In an ample DGSE report dated June 6, 2005 that we were able to peruse and entitled "Saudi Arabia, A Kingdom in Danger?" French agents draw up a more positive report of the Saudi regime's initiatives against al-Qaeda. Some paragraphs still betray persistent fears, however. The French secret services are still anxious about the penchant for holy war shared by several Saudi doctors of the faith.
Guillaume Dasquié, September 11, 2001: The French Knew Much About It, Le Monde, 4-16-07
SOME RELATED POSTS:
Hard Rain Journal 10-6-06: 911 Widows Speak Out on Woodward Revelation of the Bush-Cheney Insecurity Team's Failure to Heed Warnings
GS(3) Thunderbolt 10-5-06: Simple Arithmetic of Anguish -- 7/10 + 8/6 = 9/11
Words of Power #28: On 9/11/06, Ask Yourself "Is This My Country?"
Hard Rain Journal Weekend Edition (9/9-9/10): Five Years into the Era of the National Insecurity State, Some Context & Continuity
Hard Rain Journal 8-22-06: The Central Theme of Future Historians will be Betrayal, Just Ask Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, Spike Lee & Valerie Plame Wilson
Words of Power #13: What You Need To Know About The Port Security Scandal
Words of Power #21: Judith Miller, Ken Lay, Florida, 9/11 and The Return of The Forbidden Truths?
Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net
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