The Facts Speak For Themselves - And Do NOT Support the Official Version!

[Peter Lemkin]

The Facts Speak For Themselves
September 1, 2010 [with portions updated to 2012]
Author: Jon Gold
Source: 9/11 Truth News


Thanks to http://www.historycommons.org.


Before I begin, I would like to say that theorizing about what happened on 9/11, when you're not being given answers to your questions about that day by the people who SHOULD be able to do so, is PERFECTLY normal. As is suspecting that the reason these answers aren't being given is "sinister" in nature. As Ray McGovern said, "for people to dismiss these questioners as "conspiratorial advocates", or "conspiratorial theorists"… that's completely out of line because the… The questions remain because the President who should be able to answer them, WILL NOT." When you think about everything the previous Administration did in 8 years, the idea that they might not be giving us the answers we seek because of something "sinister" is not crazy. In fact, it's the most logical conclusion one can come to at this point. After years of obfuscation, spin, lies, and cover-ups regarding the 9/11 attacks, it is unavoidable to think that criminal complicity is the reason why.
That being said, we have not proven it beyond the shadow of doubt. We do not have documentation that shows they planned it. We do not have a signed confession from someone. We have pieces of the puzzle, and to most of us that have been doing this a long time, those pieces point to more than just Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and 19 hijackers. If we could somehow download all of our knowledge to every person on the planet, this fight would be over tomorrow. However, we can't do that. I wish we could. I wish the media would DO THEIR JOB. But, they're not. Therefore, we have to be smart with how we approach people. This is America, and in America, you are innocent until proven guilty.
As I have often said, we don't need to come up with a narrative (theory) because our facts speak for themselves. I am going to do my very best to prove my point. A lot of these facts are from mainstream news outlets. Yes, they do report the news, but they DO NOT put the pieces together, they DO NOT ask the tough questions over and over again until they get an answer, they DO NOT give these facts the attention they should, reminiscent of the attention that Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, The Swift Boat Veterans and the "Ground Zero Mosque" got, and they DO NOT portray us in any other light except as "Conspiracy Theorists."


Fact #1
The core of the Bush Administration was predominantly made up of members of an organization called "The Project For The New American Century." This group produced a document entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses" that said the "process of transformation" they wanted our military to undertake would take an excessively long time, unless there was a "catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor." That document was written in September 2000. This document even cited that "advanced forms of biological warfare that can "target" specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." A lot of the same people were part of a group that wrote a report entitled, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" that advocated an aggressive Israeli policy in the Middle East.


Fact #2
The Bush Administration came into office wanting to go to war with Iraq. This is so heavily documented that Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas asked the President about it. He denied it of course, and used 9/11 as the justification for what he and his administration have done.
Former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill said that Saddam was "topic A" ten days after the inauguration at the very first National Security Council meeting, and eight months before 9/11. According to O'Neill, "it was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying Go find me a way to do this.'"
On November 24th, 2009, the "Chilcot Inquiry" revealed that "Tony Blair's government knew that prominent members of the Bush administration wanted to topple Saddam Hussein years before the invasion (before 9/11)" [...] "We were aware of these drumbeats from Washington and internally we discussed it. Our policy was to stay away from that part of the spectrum," added Sir William Patey, then head of the Middle East department at the Foreign Office."
In a 2007 interview with former Counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke, he states that between March 2001 and May 2001, members of the Bush Administration discussed creating a "casus belli" for war with Iraq.
According to Merriam-Webster, a "casus belli" is "an event or action that justifies or allegedly justifies a war or conflict."
In December 2011, I asked Richard Clarke on Facebook whether or not he thought people in the Bush Administration were actually capable of such an act, and he replied that "some of them were."
Indeed. On 2/2/2006, it was reported that Bush and Blair discussed using an "American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war." Bush said, "the US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach." On 9/23/2007, it was reported that Dick Cheney "had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz and perhaps other sites in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out." On 8/1/2008, ThinkProgress reported that "Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President's office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran." [...] "Hersh explained that, during the meeting in Cheney's office, an idea was considered to dress up Navy Seals as Iranians, put them on fake Iranian speedboats, and shoot at them. This idea, intended to provoke an Iran war, was ultimately rejected."


Fact #3
Dick Cheney was the CEO for a company called Halliburton. During his tenure there, he gave a speech at the Institute of Petroleum that said, "while many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow."
On 10/11/2005, it was reported that the shares that Dick Cheney claimed he no longer had with Halliburton, rose 3281% in one year. In late 2010, Halliburton was kind enough to pay $250Million "to get the government of the African country (Nigeria) to drop bribery charges against the former corporate CEO and other Halliburton employees and operatives."


Fact #4
In early 2001, Dick Cheney was put in charge of The National Energy Policy Development Group, or "Energy Task Force" for short.
He prepared for this during the transition between the Clinton and Bush administrations.
The task force met with what appears to be every oil executive in existence, even though they denied it before Congress.
It was eventually discovered that one of the topics of discussion during these task force meetings was Iraq's oil fields. Five months before 9/11.
The Vice President's office fought long and hard to make sure the information from those meetings never saw the light of day. They even took the fight to the Supreme Court. Many were suspicious of the hunting trip that Antonin Scalia, and Dick Cheney went on prior to the Supreme Court hearing the case. Scalia was proud of the fact that he didn't recuse himself from the hearings. Ultimately, they sent the fight to an appeals court, and it was decided that Cheney's Task Force documents may remain secret.


Fact #5
In the months leading up to 9/11, there was an unprecedented amount of warnings that "Al-Qaeda" was about to conduct an attack. So many that CIA Director George Tenet was said to be running around with his "hair on fire," and so many that a lot were not taken seriously "because of "warning fatigue" arising from too many terror warnings."
One of those warnings came in the form of a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." that was initially hidden by the White House.
Another came on July 10th, 2001 that spoke of an "imminent threat," that was completely omitted from the 9/11 Report, and then lied about after it became public knowledge. Condi even had the audacity to ask "does anybody really believe that somebody would have walked into my office and said, oh, by the way, there's a chance of a major attack against the United States and I would have said, well, I'm really not interested in that information?"
Cheney said that his "Democratic friends in Congress… need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions, as were made by some today, that the White House had advance information that would have prevented the tragic attacks of 9/11."


Fact #6
There are indications that military action in Afghanistan was planned before 9/11.
On 3/7/2001, the New York Times reports that Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley chairs an informal meeting to discuss Al-Qaeda. The approach is "two-pronged and included a crisis warning effort to deal with immediate threats and longer-range planning by senior officials to put into place a comprehensive strategy to eradicate al-Qaeda."
On 3/15/2001, Jane's Intelligence Review reports that the U.S. is working with India, Iran, and Russia "in a concerted front against Afghanistan's Taliban regime."
On 7/23/2002, Agence France Presse reports that General William Kernan, commander in chief of the Joint Forces Command said that "the details of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan which fought the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks, were largely taken from a scenario examined by Central Command in May 2001."
On 6/26/2001, it is reported that "India and Iran will facilitate' US and Russian plans for limited military action' against the Taliban if the contemplated tough new economic sanctions don't bend Afghanistan's fundamentalist regime."
In late Summer 2001, the Guardian will report that "reliable western military sources say a US contingency plan exist[s] on paper by the end of the summer to attack Afghanistan from the north." In early August, a senior Taliban official in the defense ministry will tell journalist Hamid Mir that "[W]e believe Americans are going to invade Afghanistan and they will do this before October 15, 2001, and justification for this would be either one of two options: Taliban got control of Afghanistan or a big major attack against American interests either inside America or elsewhere in the world."
The President had plans for the invasion of Afghanistan on his desk on 9/9/2001. They "outlined essentially the same war plan that the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon put into action after the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration most likely was able to respond so quickly to the attacks because it simply had to pull the plans "off the shelf."
On 7/21/2001, three former American officials, Tom Simons, Karl Inderfurth, and Lee Coldren met with Pakistani and Russian intelligence officers in a Berlin hotel. At the meeting, Coldren passes on a message from Bush officials. He later says, "I think there was some discussion of the fact that the United States was so disgusted with the Taliban that they might be considering some military action." Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik later says he is allegedly told by senior American officials at the meeting that military action to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan is planned to "take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest." On 8/9/2009, it is reported that Niaz Naik "was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his residence."


Fact #7
On the day of 9/11, a number of key personnel were "scattered" across the country, and the world. With few exceptions, including Dick Cheney.
The President of the United States, at a time when America was "under attack" from kamikaze hijackers in commercial airliners, in a highly publicized location, 5 miles away from an international airport, in a classroom full of children, was not whisked away by the Secret Service.
His conduct on the morning of 9/11 changed on the first anniversary. What actually happened was "when Chief of Staff Andrew Card told Bush about the second plane crash into the WTC, Bush continued to sit in a Florida elementary school classroom and hear a story about a pet goat for at least seven more minutes." [...] "But one year later, Card claims that after he told Bush about the second WTC crash, "it was only a matter of seconds" before Bush "excused himself very politely to the teacher and to the students, and he left the Florida classroom."


Fact #8
On the morning of 9/11, there were several military exercises taking place, some of which allegedly mirrored the events taking place that day.
A lot of different people didn't know whether or not the hijackings were "real-world or exercise."
According to Richard Clarke, on the morning of 9/11 at around 9:28am, he says to Gen. Richard Myers during a video teleconference "I assume NORAD has scrambled fighters and AWACS. How many? Where?" Myers, who is at the Pentagon, replies it's, "NOT A PRETTY PICTURE, DICK (emphasis mine). WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF VIGILANT WARRIOR, A NORAD EXERCISE (emphasis mine), but Otis has launched two birds toward New York. Langley is trying to get two up now [toward Washington]. The AWACS are at Tinker and not on alert." The 9/11 Report only mentioned one of these exercises, Vigilant Guardian, and in a footnote in the back of the book.
On 2/25/2005, then Rep. Cynthia McKinney asked (realplayer required) Donald Rumsfeld about the exercises that were taking place on 9/11, but did not get an answer on that day.
On 3/10/2005, Rep. McKinney asked Donald Rumsfeld, and Gen. Richard Myers about the exercises again. The first question asked by Rep. McKinney was, "whether or not the activities of the 4 wargames going on on Sept. 11th actually impaired our ability to respond to the attacks." Gen. Myers responded with, "the answer to the question is, no, did not impair our response. In fact, Gen. Eberhart who was in the command of the North American Aerospace Defense Command as he testified in front of the 9/11 Commission… I believe…I believe he told them that it enhanced our ability to respond." Then Rep. McKinney asked, "who was in charge of managing those wargames?," and was cut off by Rep. Duncan Hunter. Gen. Myers never gave a name, but he did say, "North American Aerospace Defense Command was responsible." She was promised an answer in writing and as far as I know, never received it.


Fact #9
From the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), Dick Cheney allegedly monitored Flight 77 from 50 miles outside of Washington D.C. This, according to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. According to Mineta, "during the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, "The plane is 50 miles out." "The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to "the plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the Vice President, "Do the orders still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" The 9/11 Report states that Cheney didn't arrive in the PEOC until 9:58. No video conferences from within the PEOC have been made available. No personnel records for who was in the PEOC have been made available. The "young man" Norman Mineta mentioned has never been publicly named.
On 7/28/2010, James Dorman finally identified the "young man" as being Douglas Cochrane. According to 9/11 Commission notes, he was interviewed on April 16th, 2004, though we can not see what he said. He is not mentioned in the 9/11 Report.
On 3/12/2011, a document was posted to scribd.com that seems to support Norman Mineta's testimony.


Fact #10
On the day of 9/11, Donald Rumsfeld started planning the Iraq War.
DoD Staffer Stephen Cambone took down several notes with regards to what Rumsfeld was saying. "Best info fast… judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time not only UBL [Usama Bin Laden]" [...] "Go massive… Sweep it all up. Things related and not." [...] "Hard to get a good case."
Like Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice started planning for the Iraq War within hours of the 9/11 attacks. Sir Christopher Meyer, "a former British ambassador to the United States says then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice talked to him about Iraq and Saddam Hussein hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001."
Also, "George Bush tried to make a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida in a conversation with Tony Blair three days after the 9/11 attacks, according to Blair's foreign policy adviser of the time."


Fact #11
Between 9:30pm and 10:00pm on 9/11/2001, Bush says, "this is a great opportunity. We have to think of this as an opportunity." He does so again during his State Of The Union speech on 1/29/2002.
Karl Rove said, "sometimes history sends you things and 9/11 came our way."


Fact #12
In the days and months following the attacks, several people within the administration and elsewhere tried to tie Iraq to 9/11.
General Wesley Clark said, "there were many people, inside and outside the government, who tried to link Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11."
According to George Tenet, shortly after 9/11, Richard Perle said, "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday, they bear responsibility."
Former CIA Director James Woolsey said, "ntelligence and law enforcement officials investigating the case would do well to at least consider another possibility: that the attacks-whether perpetrated by bin Laden and his associates or by others-were sponsored, supported, and perhaps even ordered by Saddam Hussein," he writes. "As yet, there is no evidence of explicit state sponsorship of the September 11 attacks. But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
Dick Cheney claimed the bogus Atta-Iraqi spy meeting had been, "pretty well confirmed, that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack."
Since that time, they have done so again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and even Hillary did it.
On 5/14/2009, it was reported that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was tortured "in an effort to produce intelligence tying Iraq to al Qaeda." According to Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, "what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida."


Fact #13
The heads of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, Rep. Porter Goss, and Sen. Bob Graham, along with Sen. John Kyl, met with an alleged financier of the attacks on the day of 9/11. George Tenet met with the same individual in May 2001 in Pakistan. Others met with him in Washington D.C. between September 4th-11th, including Marc Grossman, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Joe Biden, and "unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon."


Fact #14
The Joint Congressional Inquiry, which both Bush and Cheney tried to "limit the scope" of, released a report with 28 redacted pages. Apparently, those 28 pages talk about "possible Saudi Arabian financial links."
In 2004, Sen. Bob Graham says that the Bush White House is covering up Saudi Arabia's possible connection to the two hijackers that lived in San Diego. He said the information about them, "present[s] a compelling case that there was Saudi assistance." He also says that the Bush Administration directed the FBI to "to restrain and obfuscate" any investigations into the connection.
The landlord of the two hijackers was Abdussatar Shaikh, an FBI asset handled by agent Steven Butler. The FBI originally tried to prevent Butler from testifying before the Congressional Inquiry, but when he finally did, he said that he may have been able to uncover the 9/11 plot if the CIA shared their information on the two hijackers. He said, "it would have made a huge difference." [...] "We would have immediately opened… investigations. We would have given them the full court press. We would… have done everything-physical surveillance, technical surveillance, and other assets."
On 1/8/2008, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "a huge lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia and key members of its royal family was put to a crucial test today as lawyers for victims of the 9/11 attacks urged a federal appeals court to reinstate the government of Saudi Arabia as a defendant." The Cozen O'Connor law firm in Philadelphia "was the first to file suit against the government of Saudi Arabia in 2003, charging that the desert kingdom bears responsibility for the attacks because it permitted Islamic charities under its control to bankroll Osama bin Laden and his global terror movement." The lawsuit "suffered a setback in 2005 when New York federal district court judge Richard Conway Casey ruled that the federal foreign sovereign immunity act barred lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family."
On 11/13/2008, it was reported that "thousands of victims of the 9/11 attacks appealed to the Supreme Court yesterday, asking it to overturn a lower court decision barring lawsuits against Saudi Arabia for supporting acts of terrorism."
On 1/6/2009, it is reported that "lawyers for Saudi Arabia have asserted in court papers that the Supreme Court should reject arguments that the desert kingdom be held accountable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because, over a period of many years, it financed al-Qaeda. In papers filed with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the kingdom and several high-ranking Saudi royals say that U.S. law provides blanket immunity to Saudi Arabia from lawsuits over the 9/11 attacks."
On 2/24/2009, it is reported that "the Supreme Court yesterday asked the U.S. Solicitor General's office to weigh in on whether a huge lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia charging that it was a source of terrorist financing before the 9/11 attacks should move forward."
On 5/29/2009, the New York Times reports that "the Justice Department, in a brief filed Friday before the Supreme Court, said it did not believe the Saudis could be sued in American court over accusations brought by families of the Sept. 11 victims that the royal family had helped finance Al Qaeda. The department said it saw no need for the court to review lower court rulings that found in the Saudis' favor in throwing out the lawsuit." 9/11 Family Member, and "Jersey Girl" Kristen Breitweiser said, "I find this reprehensible. One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world."
On 5/30/2009, the victims family members released two press releases. The first one states, "today the Obama Administration filed in the Supreme Court a document that expressed the Administration's decision to stand with a group of Saudi princes and against the right of American citizens 9/11 family members to have our day in court. Let there be no doubt: The filing was political in nature and stands as a betrayal of everyone who lost a loved one or was injured on September 11, 2001." The second one states, "on the day that President Obama holds his first summit with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah in Riyadh, the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism charged that recent actions by his administration would enable five of the king's closest relatives to escape accountability for their role in financing and materially supporting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." The second press release lists "allegations made in 2002 of the Saudi royal family's sponsorship and support of al Qaeda that the families believe have been ignored by the Obama Administration."
On 6/9/2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that this case "is likely to reach a critical juncture this month when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to hear arguments on Saudi Arabia's legal exposure." It goes on to say that "the hurdle for the plaintiffs, both insurers and individual victims, isn't simply facts and law, but also the political dimensions. Saudi Arabia is one of the United States' most important allies in the Middle East. It has been a forward staging area for the U.S. military, deemed an important counterweight to Iran's regional ambitions, seen as a huge source of energy, and a very big purchaser of American goods and services." Tom Burnett who lost his son on Flight 93 asks, "why would the Obama administration give less weight to the principles of justice, transparency, and security and more to the pleadings of a foreign government? It strikes a blow against the public's right to know who financed and supported" the 9/11 attacks." "Kagan's May 29 brief, representing the opinion of the Obama administration, was significant because the Supreme Court in most cases follows the solicitor general's lead."
On 6/11/2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that "lawyers representing victims of the 9/11 attacks charge that the government sought to "appease" Saudi Arabia by urging the Supreme Court not to hear arguments that the kingdom could be sued for its alleged role in funding the attackers." A "brief filed by the Center City law firm of Cozen O'Connor and other lawyers representing victims, employed unusually scathing and at times emotional language, suggesting at one point that the government's brief was timed to coincide with President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia last week." "A spokeswoman for U.S. Solictor General Elena Kagan said the May 29 filing of the government's brief had been determined by the schedule of the Supreme Court, which is expected to decide whether to hear the case by the end of the month."
On 6/23/2009, the Washington Times reports that a "series of closed-door meetings between the relatives' groups and Justice Department officials, arranged as an update on Mr. Obama's plan to close the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turned instead into a sharp clash over the Saudi legal action." Apparently, "the family members demanded to be be heard on the White House's stance during a series of closed-door meetings at the State Department and the Justice Department last week."
On 6/24/2009, the New York Times reported that "classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families." It goes on to say that Obama's "Justice Department had the lawyers' copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material." 9/11 Family Member Kristen Breitweiser "said in an interview that during a White House meeting in February between President Obama and victims' families, the president told her that he was willing to make the pages (28 redacted pages of the JICI) public. But she said she had not heard from the White House since then."
On 6/29/2009, it is reported that "the Supreme Court has refused to allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and four of its princes over charitable donations that were allegedly funneled to al-Qaida." The "justices refused to review the ruling by a U.S. appeals court in New York that the Saudi defendants were protected by sovereign immunity in the lawsuit brought by victims of the attacks and their families." The Supreme Court "turned down the appeal without comment."
Elena Kagan was later confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.
On 11/28/2010, the New York Times reports on State Dept. Cables released by Wikileaks. Their report states that "Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda," and this was further elaborated on by a report released by the Guardian on 12/5/2010.
On 6/30/2011, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan wrote an article for Vanity Fair called, "The Kingdom And The Towers" that spoke of the Saudi Royals connection to the 9/11 attacks. Not long after, the co-chair of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, Bob Graham, wrote an article that said, "…the (Saudi) agent secured and paid for an apartment. He arranged flight lessons. He introduced them to a tight circle of Muslims, primarily Saudis, who offered additional support." [...] "The (Saudi) agent then tapped another source of funds: a welfare account maintained for the benefit of Saudis in need by the wife of the kingdom's ambassador to the United States." The Saudi Ambassador at the time was long-time Bush family friend, Prince Bandar.
On 7/16/2011, 9/11 Family Member Kristen Breitweiser wrote an article addressing the News Corp phone hacking scandal. In that article, she said, "…as someone who has tried to pique the interest of both Congress and the Justice Department to investigate various issues over the course of the past 10 years to no avail, I wonder: what exactly does it take to get Congress and the Department of Justice interested in an issue. Because with regard to Murdoch-gate and 9/11 victims, ironically, it would seem the bar is pretty low." [...] "…if all it takes are allegations made in the media to spark a fire in the "seat" of Congress, then I'd like to re-direct their attention along with Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, Attorney General Eric Holder, and President Obama to this month's Vanity Fair article written by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, "The Kingdom and the Towers."
On 9/8/2011, it was reported that "just two weeks before the 9/11 hijackers slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, members of a Saudi family abruptly vacated their luxury home near Sarasota, leaving a brand new car in the driveway, a refrigerator full of food, fruit on the counter and an open safe in a master bedroom. In the weeks to follow, law enforcement agents not only discovered the home was visited by vehicles used by the hijackers, but phone calls were linked between the home and those who carried out the death flights including leader Mohamed Atta in discoveries never before revealed to the public." Bob Graham said, "at the beginning of the investigation, each of the intelligence agencies, including the FBI, was asked to provide all information that agency possessed in relation to 9/11." [...] "The fact that the FBI did not tell the Inquiry about the Florida discoveries, Graham says, is similar to the agency's failure to provide information linking members of the 9/11 terrorist team to other Saudis in California until congressional investigators discovered it themselves." As a result of these revelations, Bob Graham "called on the U.S. government to reopen its investigation following a news report linking the hijackers to a Saudi Arabian couple who lived in Florida. Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham said he has no reason to doubt the news report, which said the Saudi Arabian couple abruptly abandoned their luxury home in Sarasota two weeks before the attacks, leaving behind a full refrigerator, clothes, furnishings and a new car in the driveway." The FBI has responded by saying the individuals that left the country were not a threat, and that "all documentation "pertaining to the 9/11 investigation" was given to the congressional Joint Inquiry that examined the 9/11 tragedy."
On 9/9/2011, it was reported that "nearly 10 years to the day after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a London-based insurance syndicate Thursday filed a new lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia in U.S. District Court in Johnstown, Pa., alleging that the Saudis helped finance and provided logistical support to Islamist terror groups." [...] "The suit, filed on behalf of Lloyd's Syndicate 3500 by the Center City-based law firm Cozen O'Connor, opens a new front in the long-running litigation over the 9/11 hijackings. An earlier lawsuit, also filed by Cozen O'Connor, has met with mixed success: A federal appeals court in Manhattan found that the Saudi government could not be sued under U.S. law, but a number of charitable agencies affiliated with the Saudi government and financial institutions remain as defendants in that case." [...] "The suit, filed on behalf of an insurance syndicate that paid out $215 million in claims to various 9/11 victims on behalf of airline-security companies, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, and others, names as defendants not only the Saudi government, but also the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Saudi Joint Committee Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya; National Commercial Bank, which has been linked by American officials to al-Qaeda money-laundering, and others."
On 9/15/2011, ABC News reported that "the latest legal pursuit is that of an insurance syndicate of British insurer Lloyd's, which says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its banks and various charities should be financially responsible for the $215 million it paid in insurance settlements to 9/11 victims' families. William Doyle's family is one of the families determined to find those who funded the attacks on 9/11. Doyle's son, Joseph, was killed in the north tower of the World Trade Center. William Doyle told ABC News there are "concrete facts" showing the majority of the hijackers' funding originated from Saudi Arabia. He said the government helped "shield" some of that evidence when the joint congressional committee investigating the attacks published a report in December 2002 and redacted about 28 pages. Doyle and others believe names of Saudi financiers and companies have been removed. "How could they hide under diplomatic immunity?" Doyle said of those he believes have been protected. "People don't get missiles to strike down helicopters by themselves. Someone is funding them. If someone is funding them, let it be known and cut out their funding."
On 9/19/2011, it is reported that "without explanation, a group of insurers today dropped its lawsuit against Saudi Arabia and several Saudi organizations claiming they should cover the $215 million the group has paid out in claims related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Stephen Cozen, a Philadelphia lawyer representing Lloyd's Syndicate 3500, filed a notice today that the group is voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit. Cozen, by email, refused to discuss the reasons for dropping the case." Another report says, "Stephen A. Cozen's motion to voluntarily dismiss his complaint provides no indication of the reason for the move. By dismissing without prejudice, the motion seeks to close the case without precluding its renewal. Typically, when a case is settled, it is dismissed with prejudice."
On 2/29/2012, it was reported that Bob Graham and Bob Kerrey filed affidavits that call into question the role of the Saudi Government in the 9/11 attacks. Bob Graham said, "I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia." Bob Kerrey said, "evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued."
On 9/11/2012, Bob Graham wrote a piece entitled, "Re-Open the 9/11 Investigation Now" for the Huffington Post. In that article, he states that "the passage of time since September 11, 2001, has not diminished the distrust many of us feel surrounding the official story of how 9/11 happened and, more specifically, who financed and supported it. After eleven years, the time has come for the families of the victims, the survivors and all Americans to get the whole story behind 9/11."
On 9/21/2012, it was reported that "the Senate Judiciary Committee today approved the bipartisan Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA/S. 1894)." If passed, this bill "would correct a 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that no one can be held accountable for financing or supporting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil if they provided the money or support from outside the United States."


Fact #15
The Bush Administration was the families' "biggest adversary" when it came to the creation of a so-called Independent 9/11 Commission.
The families had to fight "tooth and nail," and lobby to get an investigation because the Bush Administration clearly did not want one.
Dick Cheney and George Bush refused to testify under oath before select individuals of the 9/11 Commission even though the families wanted them to. They testified together, not in public, and no recordings were allowed. The families requested the transcripts of their meeting, but were denied.
They made it difficult for the commission to get funding.
They tried to make Henry Kissinger the Chairman of the commission, but he resigned after the families started asking too many questions.
Alberto Gonzales "stonewalled" the 9/11 Commission's access to the White House.
They appointed Thomas Kean as Chairman, someone "who will be easily controlled by the administration," and Lee Hamilton, a long time friend of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to be the co-chair. Hamilton participated in two inquiries that resulted in cover-ups. The Iran/Contra Affair inquiry, and the October Surprise inquiry.


Fact #16
Philip Zelikow was the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission.
Paul Sperry explained, "though he has no vote, (Zelikow) arguably has more sway than any member, including the chairman. Zelikow picks the areas of investigation, the briefing materials, the topics for hearings, the witnesses, and the lines of questioning for witnesses… In effect, he sets the agenda and runs the investigation."
In 1995, Zelikow wrote a book with Condoleezza Rice called, "Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft."
While at Harvard, "he worked with Ernest May and Richard Neustadt on the use, and misuse, of history in policymaking. They observed, as Zelikow noted in his own words that "contemporary" history is "defined functionally by those critical people and events that go into forming the public's presumptions about its immediate past. The idea of public presumption'," he explained, "is akin to William McNeill's notion of public myth' but without the negative implication sometimes invoked by the word myth.' Such presumptions are beliefs (1) thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and (2) shared in common within the relevant political community."
Between 1997 and 1998, Zelikow helped to write a report that said "Long part of the Hollywood and Tom Clancy repertory of nightmarish scenarios, catastrophic terrorism has moved from far-fetched horror to a contingency that could happen next month. Although the United States still takes conventional terrorism seriously… it is not yet prepared for the new threat of catastrophic terrorism. They predict the consequences of such an event: "An act of catastrophic terrorism that killed thousands or tens of thousands of people and/or disrupted the necessities of life for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, would be a watershed event in America's history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented for peacetime and undermine Americans' fundamental sense of security within their own borders in a manner akin to the 1949 Soviet atomic bomb test, or perhaps even worse. Constitutional liberties would be challenged as the United States sought to protect itself from further attacks by pressing against allowable limits in surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and the use of deadly force. More violence would follow, either as other terrorists seek to imitate this great success' or as the United States strikes out at those considered responsible. Like Pearl Harbor, such an event would divide our past and future into a before' and after.'"
In 1997, Zelikow and Ernest May wrote a report about John F. Kennedy that is "riddled" with errors.
Zelikow wrote the pre-emptive war strategy for the Bush Administration.
Zelikow said that the "real threat" with regards to Iraq's WMD was to Israel.
Zelikow tried to prevent the 9/11 Commission staffers from talking to the Commissioners.
Zelikow tried to insert a false connection between Iraq and 9/11 into the 9/11 Report, but the families, and the staffers fought against it. Select staffers of the 9/11 Commission dispute this account, though Zelikow ultimately had to approve Mylroie's testimony before the 9/11 Commission.
It has been alleged that he may have taken direction from Karl Rove who, according to Philip Shenon, was concerned about the 9/11 Commission because "in the wrong hands… [it] could cost President Bush a second term." The allegation regarding Rove drove the September Eleventh Advocates (formerly known as "The Jersey Girls") to call for an entirely new investigation. Only Rawstory.com covered that story.
In early 2003, Philip Zelikow and Ernest May wrote a complete outline of the final 9/11 Report. Zelikow, Kean, and Hamilton decided to keep this outline a secret from the commission staffers. When "it was later disclosed that Zelikow had prepared a detailed outline of the commission's final report at the very start of the investigation, many of the staff's investigators were alarmed."
He rewrote the 9/11 Report to be more favorable of Condoleezza Rice.
Zelikow refused to approve half of the interview requests for "Saudi Connection" investigations. He blocked investigators from accessing the 28 redacted pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry, and then fired investigator Dana Leseman after she tried to get the pages through a back channel. In June 2004, Philip Zelikow and Dieter Snell take part in a "late-night editing session" to delete passages of the 9/11 Report having to do with Saudi support for the hijackers.
During the time of the 9/11 Commission, the families called for the resignation of Philip Zelikow, but were denied that request.
After the 9/11 Commission was finished, Philip Zelikow was given a job with Condoleezza Rice at the State Department.
On October 9th, 2010, during "Freedom Watch" with Judge Napolitano, 9/11 Whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer alleges that during a lunch in Philadelphia, a 9/11 Commissioner told him that, "everybody on the commission was covering for someone." The following week, Judge Napolitano asked Philip Zelikow to appear on the show to talk about this. He REFUSED.
On 9/7/2011, it was reported that "President Obama appointed Philip Zelikow, associate dean for graduate academic programs in the University of Virginia's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, to serve on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board."


Fact #17
NORAD gave three different timelines with regards to their response on the day of 9/11.
Sen. Mark Dayton questioned 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean and Vice-Chair Lee Hamilton about NORAD's false statements to the people and their Commission. He also spoke to Philip Zelikow, a panel of "experts," and Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers about NORAD's response that morning.
On 6/17/2004, 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick will question Gen. Myers about NORAD's mission. "In my experience, the military is very clear about its charters, and who is supposed to do what. So if you go back and you look at the foundational documents for NORAD, they do not say defend us only against a threat coming in from across the ocean, or across our borders. It has two missions, and one of them is control of the airspace above the domestic United States, and aerospace control is defined as providing surveillance and control of the airspace of Canada and the United States. To me that air sovereignty concept means that you have a role which, if you were postured only externally you defined out of the job." [...] "I would like to know, as the second question, is it your job, and if not whose job is it, to make current assessments of a threat, and decide whether you are positioned correctly to carry out a mission, which at least on paper NORAD had." At the end of this exchange, Gen. Myers asks, "did I answer both questions?" Jamie Gorelick responds, "yes, and no, and my time has expired." According to information collected by Dean Jackson, NORAD's mission at the time, coincided with Jamie Gorelick's understanding of it.
On 8/2/2006, the Washington Post reported that "the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public" and that "the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation." Later, it was reported that NORAD's mistakes were due to "inadequate forensic capabilities" and "poor record-keeping."
William P. Goehring, a spokesman for the DoD's Inspector General's office, said that "the question of whether military commanders intentionally withheld the truth from the commission would be addressed in a separate report that is still in preparation." To my knowledge, that report has not been released as of this date.
On March 7th, 2009, it is reported that Frank Rich of the New York Times believed "that the Defense Department Inspector General's office's investigations over the years may have been cover-ups that were "carried out in response to "orders from above." He said that any report "over the past five or six years during the war in Iraq" may be suspect, and that "there may be a much bigger story here." His suspicions seem to have been confirmed in a report from Fox News' Catherine Herridge that broke on October 7th, 2010. With regards to what is known as Able Danger, "it is made clear that "at least five witnesses questioned by the Defense Department's Inspector General told Fox News that their statements were distorted by investigators in the final IG's report or it left out key information, backing up assertions that lead hijacker Mohammed Atta was identified a year before 9/11."
Here are some excerpts from Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton's book, "Without Precedent." "There were also discrepancies between things NORAD was telling us about their performance on the morning of September 11-things that the agency had stated publicly after 9/11-and the story told by the limited tapes and documents the commission had received". These were puzzling and disturbing developments, and they account in part for some of the more bizarre and inaccurate conspiracy theories about 9/11." [...] "Farmer believed that NORAD was delivering incomplete records with the knowledge that the commission had a fixed end date that could be waited out." [...] "Throughout the course of our inquiry, the topic that invited the most skepticism-and thus the most conspiracy theorizing-was the performance of the FAA and NORAD on the day of September 11, 2001." [...] "Fog of war could explain why some people were confused on the day of 9/11, but it could not explain why all of the after-action reports, accident investigations, and public testimony by FAA and NORAD officials advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue."
On 9/17/2001, NORAD gives a briefing to the White House. 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey will say "it feels like something happened in that briefing that produced almost a necessity to deliver a story that's different than what actually happened on that day."


Fact #18
Different pieces of evidence have been destroyed or is being withheld from the public.
Kevin Delaney, the quality assurance manager for the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, destroyed a tape recorded by six Air Traffic Controllers on the morning of 9/11 "by breaking up the plastic housing and cutting the tape into small fragments, depositing the remnants in trash cans throughout the Center."
2.5 terabytes of information regarding Able Danger was destroyed in April/May 2000.
The CIA destroyed interrogation tapes.
In 2003, a book was written by Gail Swanson entitled, "Behind-the-Scenes: Ground Zero" that is a "collection of personal accounts" from people that were at Ground Zero on that day. In that book, Firefighter Nicholas DeMasi says "at one point I was assigned to take Federal Agents around the site to search for the black boxes from the planes. We were getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV. When we got into the ATV to take off, the agent accidentally pushed me forward. The ATV was already in reverse, and my foot went down on the gas pedal. We went down the stairs in reverse. Fortunately, everything was okay. There were a total of four black boxes. We found three." The 9/11 Commission says those black boxes were not found.
Most of the steel from the WTC was removed, cut into smaller sections, and either melted at a recycling plant or shipped out of the U.S. Fire Engineering magazine wrote, "We are literally treating the steel removed from the site like garbage, not like crucial fire scene evidence."


Fact #19
Several Whistleblowers have come forward over the years with information pertinent to the 9/11 attacks.
Most were ignored or censored by the 9/11 Commission.
Some of these people are John M. Cole (Senior Counterintelligence Operations Manager-FBI), Bogdan Dzakovic (Former Red Team Leader-FAA), Sibel Edmonds (Language Specialist-FBI), Behrooz Sarshar (Language Specialist-FBI), Melvin A. Goodman (Former Senior Analyst/ Division Manager-CIA), Gilbert Graham (Retired Special Agent, Counterintelligence-FBI), Coleen Rowley (Retired Division Counsel- FBI), John Vincent (Retired Special Agent, Counterterrorism-FBI), Robert Wright (Veteran Special Agent, Counterterrorism-FB), Mark Burton (Senior Analyst- NSA), Mike German (Special Agent, Counterterrorism-FBI), Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and Scott Philpott.
9/11 Family Member Patty Casazza said "Sibel came to, actually, the four widows, and asked us if she could get a hearing with the Commission because nobody of the Commission was responding to her requests to testify. And part of the problem with testifying, um… as someone who's working for one of the agencies, is that, they have to be careful with state secrets, what they reveal. And, in order to be a whistle-blower, and not be retaliated against, most whistle-blowers need to be subpoenaed, cause then their co-workers, and those who might retaliate against them, know that under penalty of, ya know, law, they could be… um… ya know, accused of being traitors and what not, and put in jail, or executed. So, most whistle-blowers were… did not come forward on the basis of what happened to Sibel Edmonds. Um, Sibel brought us many whistle-blowers, and I submitted them personally to Governor Kean, who was the Chairman of the Commission. And I said, "these people are not being subpoenaed. They will not come before the Commission voluntarily unless they are subpoenaed." And, he promised me… to my face that "every whistle-blower would be… indeed heard." And, most were not heard. Sibel was only heard because we dragged her in and surprised the Commission on one of the days we were meeting with them… that we had her with us. Um, we met other whistle-blowers on the side of the road in Maryland, ya know, to hear what they could tell us. None of them revealed state secrets to us by the way (laughs)… um, but, they had information… and basically, the Government knew… ya know, other than the exact moment… they knew the date, and the method of which the attacks were supposed to come. (pauses) And none of this made it to mainstream media. None of it made it into the Commission. And yet, again, all of your Representatives, on the day that the Commission book came out, were on their pulpits saying, "What a fabulous job this Commission has done. A real service to this nation." And it was anything but a service. It was a complete fabrication."
On October 29th, 2007, Sibel Edmonds agreed to break the gag order that was placed on her, and tell her entire story to the media. Until very recently, the only paper to take the challenge was the Sunday Times. At the time, the media in this country did not give her the time of day with one exception that I know of, and it wasn't prominently displayed. Sibel's story mentions the same alleged financier of the 9/11 attacks that Rep. Porter Goss, Sen. Graham, Sen. Kyl met on the morning of 9/11, and people like George Tenet, and others met in the months prior to 9/11, and during the week of 9/11.
On 1/3/2011, the "Memorandum For The Record" of Sibel Edmonds' testimony before the 9/11 Commission was released by cryptome.org. Almost the ENTIRE document was deemed "9/11 Classified Information." Sibel wrote, "despite some redactions here and there, and in a few cases fairly extensive redaction, there were no interviews where the entire interview (and the report on the interview) was blacked out in its entirety. Mine was the only one privileged and honored to such degree! Why? I mean, come on, we are talking about interviews with: FBI Special Agent in Charge on Counterterrorism, CIA Officers with Directorate of Intelligence with a Specific Focus on Drugs & Thugs, The Chairman of National Intelligence Council, NSA Chief of Counterintelligence & SIGNIT Support, Senior CIA Analysts. Yet, none of these interviews was redacted in its entirety. None."
On 9/9/2010, the New York Times reports that, "Defense Department officials are negotiating to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of an Afghan war memoir they say contains intelligence secrets, according to two people familiar with the dispute." The book in question is "Operation Dark Heart" by 9/11 Whistleblower Anthony Shaffer. The New York Times goes on to say that, "Disputes between the government and former intelligence officials over whether their books reveal too much have become commonplace. But veterans of the publishing industry and intelligence agencies could not recall another case in which an agency sought to dispose of a book that had already been printed."
On 9/9/2010, it is reported that "specifically, the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, the book's author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, removed. In that meeting Shaffer alleges the commission was told about "Able Danger" and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention of this was made in the final 9/11 report."
On 9/17/2010, Agence France Presse reports that the "publisher has agreed to remove US intelligence secrets from a memoir by a former army officer in Afghanistan after the Pentagon raised last-minute objections, officials said Friday. The book, "Operation Dark Heart," had been printed and prepared for release in August but St. Martin's Press will now issue a revised version of the memoir after negotiations with the Pentagon, US and company officials said. In return, the Defense Department has agreed to reimburse the company for the cost of the first printing, spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told AFP." [...] "St. Martin's press will destroy copies from the first printing with Pentagon representatives observing "to ensure it's done in accordance with our standards," Lapan said." [...] "For those portions that will be reflected as redacted we are considering litigation to challenge the determinations," Zaid said."
On 1/31/2011, the September Eleventh Advocates released a statement pertaining to 9/11 Whistleblower Berhrooz Sarshar. This statement asked, "that the transcript of Mr. Sarshar's interview be immediately declassified," and that they respectfully request, "that the former Chairman, Governor Thomas Kean, Vice-Chairman, Mr. Lee Hamilton and the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, Mr. Philip Zelikow, promptly answer the questions herein."
Neither Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, or Philip Zelikow responded. As a result of their refusal to respond, 9/11 Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds released a transcript of one of the times Berhrooz Sarshar testified. This transcript speaks of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and an order from above to disregard any knowledge of it. Not one news outlet reported on it.


Fact #20
Apparently, Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the Pakistani ISI, someone who met with U.S. elected and appointed officials in the weeks before 9/11, on the day of 9/11, and in the days after 9/11, ordered possible MI6 Agent Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to wire transfer $100,000 to Mohammad Atta. The 9/11 Families' submitted a question to the 9/11 Commission about this incident.
Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, John S. Pistole stated that their investigation "has traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known al-Qaeda operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the US."
In January 2002, during a visit to India, FBI Director Robert Mueller was told about Saeed Sheikh's involvement in the 9/11 attacks by Indian Investigators.
Apparently, "on the eve of the publication of its report, the 9/11 Commission was given a stunning document from Pakistan, claiming that Pakistani intelligence officers knew in advance of the 9/11 attacks."
On 3/3/2006, the Friday Times reported that "Pakistan gave tens of thousands of dollars through its lobbyists in the United States to members of the 9/11 inquiry commission to convince' them to drop some anti-Pakistan findings in the report." This according to FO Official Sadiq. According to the Pakistan paper Daily Times, this story about bribery "triggered" U.S. media interest. I don't remember seeing any mention of this story at all. If you know of an American media outlet that investigated this story, and reported on the results of that investigation, please let me know.
On 4/10/2006, Pakistan officially denied the allegations of bribery. "Pakistan has never indulged in the illegal activity of bribing or buying influence anywhere in the world," said a statement issued by the FO spokesperson here on Sunday.
It's interesting to note that after Osama Bin Laden's reported death on 5/1/2011, and after the United States started to hypocritically point fingers at Pakistan for either protecting or harboring Osama Bin Laden, it was reported that "Pakistan's Washington lobbyists have launched an intense campaign on Capitol Hill to counter accusations that Islamabad was complicit in giving refuge to Osama bin Laden." Then, a report on 7/19/2011 comes out that says, "a Virginia man has been arrested for participating in a conspiracy to act as an agent of the Pakistani government. Court documents identify the man as Syed Fai of Fairfax, Virginia, a U.S. resident. The FBI alleges that Fai funneled millions of dollars to elected officials and high-profile conferences in an effort to influence American policy on Kashmir, a disputed territory along the Indian and Pakistani border. In charging documents, Fai was said to have received funding for his lobbying efforts from Pakistan's ISI, the country's spy agency."
On 10/1/2001, Lt. Gen. Ahmed and Saeed Sheikh may have been involved in another "terrorist attack" together.
Recently, it was reported that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh has been running a terrorist network from prison, and was planning to assassinate President Musharraf.
Former ISI Chief Hamid Gul recently defended Lt. Gen. Ahmed regarding the allegations of the wire transfer.
On 3/15/2002, Condoleeza Rice is asked a question about Lt. Gen. Ahmed. "Dr. Rice, are you aware of the reports at the time that ISI Chief was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th, $100,000 was wired to Pakistan to this group here in this area? While he was here meeting with you or anybody in the administration?" Her response was, "I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me." The transcript of this has "ISI Chief" replaced with "."
On March 31st, 2006, 9/11 Commissioner Thomas Kean was confronted on this issue. He said he wasn't aware of it.
It should be noted that a "Memorandum For The Record" from the 9/11 Commission was discovered that said, "there is absolutely no evidence Atta received a wire a transfer from the Pakistani ISI," but there are major redactions prior to that statement, and after it. Also, there is no mention of Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed or Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. I have never seen a statement from any official explain why the allegations of the $100k wire transfer are wrong or unsubstantiated. Wikileaks states, "U.S. investigators later said that this was a confusion with Mustafa al-Hawsawi, also known as Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, who is currently held in Guantanamo Bay." However, when you read the source article of th