2001 Bioterror Exercise Foreshadowed 9/11 and Anthrax Attacks

[R.K. Locke]

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/10/a...inter.html


Coincidence … Or Something More?

On June 22-23, 2001 some 3 months before 9/11, and 4 months before the Anthrax attacks the U.S. military held a senior-level war game at Andrews Air Force Base called Dark Winter.

The scenario of this bio-terrorism drill was designed to simulate a smallpox attack in three states. Numerous congressmen, former CIA director James Woolsey, New York Times reporter Judith Miller (who pushed the Iraq WMD myth, as well as the false link between Iraq and the Anthrax attacks), and anti-terror official Jerome Hauer all participated in the exercise.

As a part of this war game, scripted TV news clips were made to help make this drill as realistic as possible.

At the end of one of these clips, the reporter says:


Iraq might have provided the technology behind the attacks to terrorist groups based in Afghanistan.



Why is this interesting?

Because U.S. officials intentionally linked Iraq to Al Qaeda and 9/11 to justify the Iraq war, even though they knew there was no such connection. (The claim that Iraq is linked to 9/11 has since been debunked by the 9/11 Commission, top government officials, and even long after they alleged such a link Bush and Cheney themselves.)

Indeed, Dark Winter participant Woolsey the former CIA director swore in court testimony that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11.

Similarly, the government tried to falsely blame the anthrax attacks on Iraq as a justification for war:


When Congress was originally asked to pass the Patriot Act in late 2001, the anthrax attacks which occurred only weeks earlier were falsely blamed on spooky Arabs as a way to scare Congress members into approving the bill. Specifically:
â—¾The FBI was actually told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials
â—¾High-level government insiders pointed towards Iraq as the source of the anthrax, even though there was absolutely no reason to think that the anthrax had come from Iraq

And see this.

Dark Winter participants Judith Miller the New York Times reporter who had long hyped bioterror threats through books and articles and CIA head Woolsey were two of the loudest voices blaming the Anthrax attacks on Iraq.

Woolsey was an outspoken proponent of war against Iraq even before 9/11.

Moreover, the parallels between the Dark Winter exercise and the Anthrax attacks are numerous. For example, in the Dark Winter exercise:
â—¾Anonymous letters are sent to the media
â—¾Anonymous letters threatened anthrax attacks on the United States
â—¾Iraq and Bin Laden are top suspects

Remember, neoconservatives planned regime change in Iraq 20 years ago (and the U.S. had already carried out regime change in Iraq in the early 1960s).

It has been extensively documented that the White House decided to invade Iraq before 9/11:
â—¾Former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted "crap" in its justifications for invading Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who sat on the National Security Council also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. Top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change even before Bush took office. And in 2000, Cheney said a Bush administration might "have to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power." And see this.
◾Cheney made Iraqi's oil fields a national security priority before 9/11. And the Sunday Herald reported: "Five months before September 11, the US advocated using force against Iraq … to secure control of its oil." (remember that Alan Greenspan, John McCain, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, a high-level National Security Council officer and others all say that the Iraq war was really about oil.)

[Anthony Thorne]

It wouldn't surprise me if this was one of the many fun things brainstormed at the Aspen Strategy Group meetings in the years before 9/11, where Woolsey and Miller gathered to discuss whatever 'strategies' were relevant with their fellow Emeritus members Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Richard Armitage and (the key one for me, considering Miller's role as a propagandist after the attacks) Philip Zelikow. (Numerous other names appropriate to deep 9/11 research are also on the Aspen member's list).

Here's Woolsey attending a reception in 1984 to celebrate the publication of Ray Cline and Yonah Alexander's book TERRORISM: THE SOVIET CONNECTION.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=kO0f...sm&f=false

...although Alexander had been a part of the early "terrorism mafia" of the 1970's, he had split from most of that group in becoming an advocate of the terror network theory.

Near 30 years later, here's Woolsey attending the launching of the Strategic Dialogue Center, which is

a think tank affiliated with Netanya College in Israel. The center organized a conference on global terrorism and asked the panelists to provide an answer to the question: "If this is World War III, how do we win?"

http://forward.com/articles/8585/think-t...d-war-iii/

So these guys have been focused on this subject for quite a while. These books and think-tanks are all offshoots of the inaugural 1979 Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism, where Ray Cline, George H.W. Bush and other military/intel luminaries met at the conference organised by Benjamin Netanyahu to extol the virtues of a longterm war on terror, and the numerous propaganda publications attempting to link international terror with the Soviet Union started just a year or two after this.

[Anthony Thorne]

Just realised after writing the above that Woolsey left his job as CIA director to become a Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton. SAIC and Booz Allen are the two companies I've seen most frequently listed as being of interest to researchers of the deep political connections behind 9/11.

From the synopsis for Peter Dale Scott's upcoming THE AMERICAN DEEP STATE -

http://www.amazon.com/American-Deep-Stat...deep+satte

This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden "deep state" that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America's increasing militarization, restrictions on constitional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to shared sources of funding. Behind all of these commonalities is what Scott calls the deep state: a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law. With the importance of Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to oil markets, American defense companies, and Wall Street itself, this essential book shows that there is now a supranational deep state, sometimes demonstrably opposed to both White House policies and the American public interest.

Speaking of anthrax, and Booz Allen...

https://web.archive.org/web/201407161606...9/sept11th

On September 11, 2001, Booz Allen Hamilton lost three of our own in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon: Gerald Fisher, Terence Lynch, and Ernest Willcher. To honor the memory of our lost colleagues and all those who perished that fateful day, Booz Allen commemorates the anniversary of 9/11 through memorials, special events, and volunteer activities.

Fisher, Lynch and Willcher all died at the Pentagon on 9/11. Lynch's obit mentions the following -

http://pentagonmemorial.org/explore/biog...ce-m-lynch

In 1998 Terry was invited to work on the President's Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, as a national expert on biological and chemical weapons, in particular, the use of Anthrax as a terrorist weapon.

Whilst Willcher's obit notes

http://pentagonmemorial.org/explore/biog...m-willcher

He was assigned to the U.S. Army Map Service, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Fort Detrick, and then to the Army General Counsel's Office in the Pentagon.

I'm assuming both of these guys were excluded from Woolsey's pre-9/11 Dark Winter anthrax drill planning with Judith Miller. Perhaps they didn't have the required mind-set for the task. If Woolsey attended the funerals of those particular Booz Allen employees, I expect it was probably in the same manner that Dick Cheney attempted to get an invite to the burial of Paul Wellstone.

[David Guyatt]

I hope this is not entirely off topic?

Speaking of James Woolsey, his background, when out of government, were studded with some very strange financial and private intelligence/mercenary groups - and some very powerful,and connected people - who were up to no good.

Primary amongst these were Alliance Stars (USA) Inc, of which little trace is now left (having been scrubbed, I believe) and also Crescent Technology Ventures Plc (CTV) -- plus an assorted number of associated similarly named entities dotted around. These and other companies were involved in some very dodgy financial dealings at the time.

Crescent Technology Ventures Plc (CTV)

"Crescent Technology Ventures Plc (CTV), is funding and developing the next generation of technologies focused on protecting vital infrastructure and providing for security against a spectrum of terrorist threats. The fund is preparing investments in five primary areas of concern: Internet and cyber-security, air and seaport cargo container security, stratospheric telecommunications platforms and alternative energy development." [1]

Growth Company Investor describes CTV as an "Anti-terror investment vehicle whose directors inlcude former high-ranking US military men with significant ties to the security services and arms business."

Contents [hide]
1 Board of Directors
2 Board of Advisers
3 Contact Details
4 Other SourceWatch Resources
5 External Links

[edit]Board of Directors
Musawer Mansoor Ijaz, Chief Executive
Lt. General Thomas Gillis McInerney (USAF Retired), Non Executive Chairman
Lt General James Alan Abrahamson (USAF Retired), Chief Technology Officer
James William Fuller
Richard James Armstrong
[edit]Board of Advisers
Former Ambassador R. James Woolsey, Jr. Chairman
Dr. John Foster, Vice Chairman,
HSH Prince Alfred von Liechtenstein
Maurice Sonnenberg
Monica Liliana Grinfeld
[edit]Contact Details
The following may or may not be active information:
1 Knightsbridge
4th Floor
London
SW1 7LX

In the comments section of the following, by a guy who used to use the pseudonym of Offshore Informant, which may be of further interest. We are dealing with former in tell types who become involved in private financial scams - possibly as a means of financing projects, but also for enriching themselves.

In the above linked website is mentioned the name Van Eck Associates. This, I think, relates to Andre Van Eck, a former South African intelligence officer, also involved in financial irregularities and who was in prison when he last contacted me. Van Eck was closely connected to an off-the-books South African group of intelligence professionals that, in turn, connected to private intelligence companies in the UK that were part of the Palace Group that included such defence luminaries as Defence Systems Ltd, Sandline and Bridge International.

The foregoing mentions Usama bin Laden but it seems that part has been edited out "for brevity" - but you can see how these things connect. The Bin laden family connection was via the South African in tell group was via an entity called Saudifin SA.