11/17/2008: Philip Zelikow, Neocons - Additions as of November 16, 2008 Several of the new additions to the 9/11 Timeline this week concern the 9/11 Commission, in particular its executive director Philip Zelikow, who played a significant role in shaping the commission’s take on assistance allegedly provided to the 9/11 hijackers by elements linked to the Saudi government. First, he blocked requests for interviews by commission investigators researching the allegations, then he denied them access to a key document, the 28 redacted pages from the Congressional Inquiry, and finally he fired one of the investigators. Other entries about Zelikow cover his interview of former Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno, with which a staffer was appalled, and an interview of his close associate National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; she was not put under oath and no transcript was made.
Other entries about the 9/11 Commission point out that its chairman Tom Kean was repeatedly contacted by the White House over the selection of the commission’s lawyer, that the length of the extension it requested was determined by political considerations, and that some commissioners thought that opposition to the extension from House Republicans was orchestrated by Vice President Dick Cheney. There are also a number of new entries about Neoconservatives, such as their push to invade Iraq starting in January 2001, their hiring by the White House, and a July 2001 claim Iraq had nuclear weapons. Entries on two of the most famous neocon pieces in the immediate aftermath of the attacks have also been added: Michael Leeden’s connecting the attacks to the decision not to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 1991, which was published on the day of the attacks itself, and Ann Coulter’s call for carpet-bombing of Muslim countries a couple of days later. Leeden followed up by demanding the Bush administration scourge the Middle East until US rage was “sated”, and the charge for regime change in Iraq was led by Bill Kristol and included Republican Senator George Allen. Finally, in mid-2003 leading Neocon author Laurie Mylroie claimed the CIA and State Department were hiding connections between Iraq and 9/11. Regarding associates of the 9/11 hijackers, an Arab man in Texas claimed he was offered money by Marwan Alshehhi to take flying lessons, a Somali immigrant possibly linked to the Flight 77 hijackers was detained a couple of weeks after the attacks, and a Saudi who knew Hani Hanjour was convicted of lying to the FBI in 2002. Miscellaneous entries point out that security at US chemical facilities was poor before 9/11, which was highlighted by a think tank study in 1999 and the US surgeon general in late September 2001. Finally, an end times website indicated the apocalypse was upon us shortly after the attacks, although it has presumably been delayed, and former counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke held something back from the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry. http://www.historycommons.org/news.jsp?oid=140393703-734 ==== Michael Hayden Caught in a Lie kevinfenton @ 4:12 pm November 18 2008 Current CIA and former NSA Director Michael Hayden claimed to the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry in prepared remarks on 17 October 2002: “Indeed, NSA had no knowledge before September 11th that any of the attackers were in the United States.” I always suspected this was not true and here is the proof, evidence submitted at Zacarias Moussaoui’s trial in 2006. It’s documentation from August 2001 about the passage of information about two of the hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, to criminal agents at the FBI. Due to restrictions related to the “wall,” the passage had to be approved by the NSA’s general counsel. The documentation, passed between the NSA’s representative to the FBI and the general counsel, states, “FBI would appreciate priority handling on this request, since al-Mihdar is already in the U.S.” It later goes on to point out that Almihdhar “arrived in New York City on July 4, 2001 on a B1 visa issued in Jidda, Saudi Arabia.” Clearly then, the NSA did know that one of the attackers was in the US before 9/11. It is hard to imagine that Hayden could not have been aware of this at the time he was interviewed by the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry, as the NSA intercepted Almihdhar’s calls for years before 9/11, including when Almihdhar was in the USA, and Hayden discussed this with the inquiry (and also apparently the 9/11 Commission). However, for some unexplained reason the NSA failed to notify the FBI of the calls and this failure was later used as the justification for the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping programme. Obviously, the question is why Hayden was lying. Presumably, it was not simply for the good of his health and he wished to conceal some wrongdoing. Given that both the NSA and CIA were concealing information about Almihdhar and Alhazmi from the FBI one has to wonder whether this was part of a coordinated plan of action. I actually read the NSA documentation a couple of years ago when it was first published, but only realised it could be used to show Hayden’s statement about not knowing any of the attackers was in the US was false after I read James Bamford’s new book The Shadow Factory. I have a number of observations on the book and will start churning them out soon. http://hcgroups.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/michael-hayden-caught-in-a-lie/
