posted 04-08-2004 08:22 PM            

April 8, 2004

CLAIM: "We decided immediately to continue pursuing the Clinton Administration's covert action authorities and other efforts to fight the network."

FACT: Newsweek reported that "In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor al-Qaida suspects in the United States." Additionally, AP reported "though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan during its first eight months," thus terminating the reconnaissance missions started during the Clinton Administration. [Sources: Newsweek, 3/21/04; AP, 6/25/03]

CLAIM: "The strategy set as its goal the elimination of the al-Qaida network. It ordered the leadership of relevant U.S. departments and agencies to make the elimination of al-Qaida a high priority and to use all aspects of our national power -- intelligence, financial, diplomatic, and military -- to meet this goal."

FACT: 9/11 Comissioner Jamie Gorelick: "Is it true, as Dr. Rice said, 'Our plan called for military options to attack Al Qaida and Taliban leadership'?" Armitage: "No, I think that was amended after the horror of 9/11." [Source: 9/11 Commission testimony, 3/24/04]

CLAIM: "We bolstered the Treasury Department's activities to track and seize terrorist assets."

FACT: The new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton Administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush Administration opposed Clinton Administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center." [Source: "The Age of Sacred Terror," 2003]

CLAIM: "We moved quickly to arm Predator unmanned surveillance vehicles for action against al-Qaida."

FACT: According to AP, "the military successfully tested an armed Predator throughout the first half of 2001" but the White House "failed to resolve a debate over whether the CIA or Pentagon should operate the armed Predators" and the armed Predator never got off the ground before 9/11. [Source: AP, 6/25/03]

CLAIM: "We increased funding for counterterrorism activities across several agencies."

FACT: Upon taking office, the 2002 Bush budget proposed to slash more than half a billion dollars out of funding for counterterrorism at the Justice Department. In preparing the 2003 budget, the New York Times reported that the Bush White House "did not endorse F.B.I. requests for $58 million for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators" and "proposed a $65 million cut for the program that gives state and local counterterrorism grants." Newsweek noted the Administration "vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism." [Sources: 2001 vs. 2002 Budget Analysis; NY Times, 2/28/02; Newsweek, 5/27/02]

CLAIM: "While we were developing this new strategy to deal with al-Qaida, we also made decisions on a number of specific anti-al-Qaida initiatives that had been proposed by Dick Clarke."

FACT: Rice's statement finally confirms what she previously – and inaccurately – denied. She falsely claimed on 3/22/04 that "No al-Qaida plan was turned over to the new administration." [Washington Post, 3/22/04]

CLAIM: "When threat reporting increased during the Spring and Summer of 2001, we moved the U.S. Government at all levels to a high state of alert and activity."

FACT: Documents indicate that before Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush Administration "did not give terrorism top billing in their strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes the FBI." Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until Oct. 1, 2001, said during the summer, terrorism had moved "farther to the back burner" and recounted how the Bush Administration's top two Pentagon appointees, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, "shut down" a plan to weaken the Taliban. Similarly, Gen. Don Kerrick, who served in the Bush White House, sent a memo to the new Administration saying "We are going to be struck again" by al Qaeda, but he never heard back. He said terrorism was not "above the waterline. They were gambling nothing would happen." [Sources: Washington Post, 3/22/04; LA Times, 3/30/04]

CLAIM: "The threat reporting that we received in the Spring and Summer of 2001 was not specific as to...manner of attack."

FACT: ABC News reported, Bush Administration "officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes." Dateline NBC reported that on August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane." Rice herself actually admitted this herself, saying the Aug. 6 briefing the President received said "terrorists might attempt to hijack a U.S. aircraft." [Sources: ABC News, 5/16/02; NBC, 9/10/02]
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44887

posted 04-09-2004 10:30 AM            

The best hyperlink is under the Rice Sliced and Diced section where it says - For a full analysis of Rice's testimony, see American Progress's special site. There is so much information there I could never post it! Like Boomer Chick, I especially love it when CAP does the CLAIM vs. FACT articles.

BTW, I am surprised her tongue didn't burn off during testimony!

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228

9/11
Rice Sliced and Diced

One day after National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony, the country awaits the release of the still-classified pre-9/11 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) entitled, "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States." The PDB is at the center of a controversy reflected in conflicting headlines all over the country: AP blared, "Rice: Bush got no warning of 9/11," reporting on Rice's claim that "no intelligence foretold the deadliest attack ever on American soil." Knight-Ridder, on the other hand, headlined, "President Learned of a Plot, Aide Says" and reported Rice acknowledged that in the August 6the PDB, "President Bush was told that al Qaeda terrorists seemed to be plotting to hijack airplanes." This discrepancy between Rice denying she or the President were warned of an imminent attack on American soil and her claims that the Bush Administration was at battle stations because of explicit warnings leaves a major credibility gap that is aptly reflected throughout the media: the Chicago Sun-Times headline says, "Rice's Answers Don't Resolve Questions," while the Dallas Morning News notes the puzzling testimony in its headline, "Rice: Terrorism Neither Ignored Nor At Top of Agenda." And while the policy debate continues, few can argue with the LA Times headline: "Rice Leaves Image of Detached Leaders." For a full analysis of Rice's testimony, see American Progress's special site.

NEGLIGENCE – RICE SAYS SLEEPING AT WHEEL ABSOLVES HER: Rice tried to absolve herself from responsibility by claiming she could not remember things or that she was never ordered to "do" anything about imminent threats to America. For instance, she admitted that former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke submitted a memo to her outlining threats, but then told the commission "I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about." She said, "I do not remember any reports to us...that planes might be used as a weapon," despite having accompanied President Bush in July of 2001 to the G-8 Summit in Genoa, where she was explicitly notified Islamic terrorists might try to use planes as missiles in an assassination attempt.

NEGLIGENCE – RICE SAYS BEING OBLIVIOUS ABSOLVES HER: As America's top national security official, Rice is supposed to oversee major budgetary and international efforts to secure the country. But in one of the most telling exchanges of the day, Rice told Republican commissioner John Lehman that she had no idea what her own Administration was doing in critical national security areas. Lehman asked Rice: "Were you aware that I.N.S. had quietly internally halved its internal security enforcement budget?" She replied, "I was not made aware of that." Lehman asked whether before 9/11 she was aware that the Saudis – with whom the Bush Administration continues a close relationship – were barring U.S. access to al Qaeda suspects. Again, Rice replied, "I don't remember anything of that kind." Finally, Lehman asked whether Rice was aware that the Air Marshals program had been curtailed on her watch. She replied, "I was not told that."

DISCREPANCY – "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE U.S.": Rice claimed the President received no warnings before 9/11 of an imminent attack, yet then said the pre-9/11 warnings were so great that the President alerted federal agencies to a potential attack by Osama bin Laden. Strangely, this critical alert "was never sent to local and state FBI offices."

posted 04-09-2004 10:55 PM            

by

Catherine Austin Fitts
Former Assistant Secretary of Housing

Hon. Condoleezza Rice
National Security Advisor
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

April 9, 2004

Dear Ms. Rice:

I am writing to communicate four points regarding your testimony yesterday under oath before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Point #1: You are a liar.

Attorney General Ashcroft sits on the National Security Council. Warned by his FBI security detail, the head of law enforcement for the United States knew to avoid commercial airlines on September 11, 2001.

It was your job as National Security Advisor to make sure that the people who flew on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, United Airlines Flight 93 and American Airlines Flight 77 had the benefit of the same warnings as those they paid to protect us.

You knew. You kept silent. They died.

You had numerous warnings of the risks of 9-11 – sufficient to let the American people know and use their best judgment as to how to protect themselves from a possible attack. It was your job as National Security Advisor to make sure that the people in the South Tower of the World Trade Center had the knowledge they needed to evacuate their building upon seeing the North Tower hit by a plane.

You knew. You kept silent. They died.

Point #2: Your motives are transparent.

The World Trade Center is in the heart of New York City – one of the great financial capitals of the world. The Pentagon is in the heart of Washington -- the appropriation and accounting capital for the US federal budget and credit and the US Treasury – the largest issuer of securities in the world.

Unlike many other terrorist attacks, these attacks killed people whose family, friends and neighbors understand how these financial systems work. Victim families, friends and the residents of the communities directly harmed can calculate who made money on 9-11 profiteering. They can trace the flow of money into the 2004 Presidential campaign coffers from the profits your supporters made as a result of 9-11 profiteering. They can calculate how 9-11 profiteering connects to the financing and silence of corporate media.

Those personally impacted and the global researchers they network with have the intellectual power and personal courage to ask and answer, “Cui Bono?” (Who Benefits?) They understand that your success as National Security Advisor is as a direct result of your failure to stop 9-11. They can see how your lies about 9-11 made money for the investment syndicate that put you in power and for the buyers of US Treasury securities who are so richly paid to finance the US military, intelligence and enforcement apparatus and the defense contractors and oil interests it serves.

All the campaign ads in the world can not now convince the American people that you have their best interests at heart.

Point #3: You are going down.

The richest and most powerful people in the world pay for performance. They pay you to make the US governmental apparatus look legitimate while they use it to centralize economic and political power. That means they need liars who are better at lying than you.

The myth that you had no idea that Americans deserved to be warned about the risks of flying or planes being used as weapons is now in the dust heap with the notion that the United States attacked Iraq and our soldiers are dying to protect us from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Your lies of 9-11 – like your lies about the Iraqi war – have been profitable for the military-banking complex you represent. These lies, however, have not misled the crowd. The American people and global citizens are looking for the truth. We demand the changes that will give meaning and honor to those who died on 9-11 and in the ensuing wars. We demand an end to further bloodshed. We demand a refund of all that you and your backers have stolen from those of us who remain alive.

Point #4: You are guilty of criminal gross negligence.

If you want to catch a terrorist today, you need look no further than your own mirror.

Many Americans gather this weekend to give thanks that Jesus died for our sins and gave us the covenant of grace. In the spirit of our Lord's crucification and resurrection, may God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely Yours,

Catherine Austin Fitts
Former Assistant Secretary of Housing, Bush I
President
Solari, Inc
PO Box 157
Hickory Valley, TN 38042
731.764.2515
catherine@solari.com

Letter Submitted:

White House Webmail: https://sawho14.eop.gov/PERSdata/intro.htm
E-mail cc to:
President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov;
Vice President Richard Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov;
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Tel: 202-456-1414

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
301 7th Street, SW
Room 5125
Washington, DC 20407
(202) 331-4060
info@9-11Commission.gov

Background Articles:

Ashcroft Flying High
CBS News
Washington DC, July 26, 2001 http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/02/04/Ashcroft.htm

A Historical Whitewash?
by Kelly Patricia O'Meara
Insight Magazine, November 24, 2003 http://www.insightmag.com/news/565658.html

If the World Was Talking, Why Didn't We Listen?
by Kelly Patricia O'Meara
Insight Magazine, November 24, 2003 http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=565664

9-11 Profiteering
by Catherine Austin Fitts
Scoop Media, March 22, 2004 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0403/S00244.htm

A Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal
by Catherine Austin Fitts
Scoop Media, October 6, 2003 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00038.htm

Where is the Money? http://www.whereisthemoney.org

posted 04-11-2004 05:46 PM            

"You Are a Liar"
by Catherine Austin Fitts
Former Assistant Secretary of Housing

Hon. Condoleezza Rice
National Security Advisor
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

April 9, 2004

Dear Ms. Rice:

I am writing to communicate four points regarding your testimony yesterday under oath before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Point #1: You are a liar.

Attorney General [John] Ashcroft sits on the National Security Council. Warned by his FBI security detail, the head of law enforcement for the United States knew to avoid commercial airlines on September 11, 2001.

It was your job as National Security Advisor to make sure that the people who flew on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, United Airlines Flight 93 and American Airlines Flight 77 had the benefit of the same warnings as those they paid to protect us.

You knew. You kept silent. They died.

You had numerous warnings of the risks of 9-11 -sufficient to let the American people know and use their best judgment as to how to protect themselves from a possible attack. It was your job as National Security Advisor to make sure that the people in the South Tower of the World Trade Center had the knowledge they needed to evacuate their building upon seeing the North Tower hit by a plane.

You knew. You kept silent. They died.

Point #2: Your motives are transparent.

The World Trade Center is in the heart of New York City - one of the great financial capitals of the world. The Pentagon is in the heart of Washington -- the appropriation and accounting capital for the US federal budget and credit and the US Treasury - the largest issuer of securities in the world.

Unlike many other terrorist attacks, these attacks killed people whose family, friends and neighbors understand how these financial systems work. Victim families, friends and the residents of the communities directly harmed can calculate who made money on 9-11 profiteering. They can trace the flow of money into the 2004 Presidential campaign coffers from the profits your supporters made as a result of 9-11 profiteering.

They can calculate how 9-11 profiteering connects to the financing and silence of corporate media. Those personally impacted and the global researchers they network with have the intellectual power and personal courage to ask and answer, "Cui Bono?" (Who Benefits?) They understand that your success as National Security Advisor is as a direct result of your failure to stop 9-11. They can see how your lies about 9-11 made money for the investment syndicate that put you in power and for the buyers of US Treasury securities who are so richly paid to finance the US military, intelligence and enforcement apparatus and the defense contractors and oil interests it serves.

All the campaign ads in the world can not now convince the American people that you have their best interests at heart.

Point #3: You are going down.

The richest and most powerful people in the world pay for performance. They pay you to make the US governmental apparatus look legitimate while they use it to centralize economic and political power. That means they need liars who are better at lying than you.

The myth that you had no idea that Americans deserved to be warned about the risks of flying or planes being used as weapons is now in the dust heap with the notion that the United States attacked Iraq and our soldiers are dying to protect us from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Your lies of 9-11 - like your lies about the Iraqi war - have been profitable for the military-banking complex you represent. These lies, however, have not misled the crowd. The American people and global citizens are looking for the truth. We demand the changes that will give meaning and honor to those who died on 9-11 and in the ensuing wars. We demand an end to further bloodshed. We demand a refund of all that you and your backers have stolen from those of us who remain alive.

Point #4: You are guilty of criminal gross negligence.

If you want to catch a terrorist today, you need look no further than your own mirror.

Many Americans gather this weekend to give thanks that Jesus died for our sins and gave us the covenant of grace. In the spirit of our Lord's crucification and resurrection, may God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely Yours,

posted 04-11-2004 09:36 PM            

My bad!

posted 04-14-2004 11:01 AM            

Cathrine Austin Fitts website

posted 04-14-2004 11:30 AM            

thanks, Mech!

posted 04-15-2004 02:02 PM            

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Unanswered Questions : Thinking for ourselves.

"An Inkling": The President, the August 6th PDB and "Planes as Weapons"

Press Release
For Immediate Release
from 9/11 CitizensWatch http://www.911citizenswatch.org
(Washington, D.C.) In his open press conference of April 13, the President was asked about the recently declassified Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) of August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." and what prompted him to ask for the threat assessment.

"By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief headlined ‘Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US,’ the president had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national security team, according to newly declassified information released yesterday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks…In April and May 2001, for example, the intelligence community headlined some of those reports ‘Bin Laden planning multiple operations,’ ‘Bin Laden network's plans advancing’ and ‘Bin Laden threats are real.’" (Washington Post, 4/14/04)

Clearly, the warnings were urgent. But it was a direct threat on the life of the President that apparently led to the PDB request. President Bush noted: "I asked for the briefing. There had been a lot of threat intelligence from overseas. Part of it had to do with Genoa, that I had to attend."

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice mentioned the Genoa G-8 Summit twice during her testimony before the 9/11 Commission but without offering any details. During today's hearings 9/11 Commissioner Ben-Veniste referred to the Genoa warnings and to air defense preparations based on those warnings, which included restricting air space.

During his press conference the President said that if he had had "an inkling" that people would hijack planes into buildings he would have moved "heaven and earth" to prevent it. However, the public record strongly suggests that the President had far more than inkling. In fact, it was just such a threat that the President says led him to request the August 6th PDB.

Note these press reports: July 2000, US intelligence reports another spike in warnings related to the July 20-22 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy. The reports include specific threats discovered by the head of Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service that al-Qaeda will try to kill Bush as he attends the summit. [CNN, 3/02] The reports are taken so seriously that Bush stays overnight on an aircraft carrier offshore, and other world leaders stay on a luxury ship. [CNN, 7/18/01]

Two days before the summit begins, the BBC reports: "The huge force of officers and equipment which has been assembled to deal with unrest has been spurred on by a warning that supporters of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden might attempt an air attack on some of the world leaders present." [BBC 7/18/01]. July 20-22, 2001, the G8 summit is held in Genoa, Italy. Acting on previous warnings that al-Qaeda would attempt to kill Bush and other leaders. Italy surrounds the summit with antiaircraft guns, keeps fighters in the air, and closes off local airspace to all planes. No attack occurs. US officials at the time stated that the warnings were "unsubstantiated" but after 9/11 claim success in preventing an attack. Distorting information about Genoa keeps the public and the airlines uninformed about the seriousness of the current terrorist threat. (Los Angeles Times 9/27/01).

Another reason high level officials at least should have known of warnings specific to this method of attack ('planes as weapons') is that some were passed on to U.S. intelligence from overseas agencies and heads of state. In June 2001, German intelligence, the BND, warns the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001).

According to Russian press sources, Russian intelligence notified the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In August 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. (MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15)

Jordanian intelligence (the GID) makes a communications intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's men relay it to Washington, probably through the CIA station in Amman. To make doubly sure the message gets through it is passed through an Arab intermediary to a German intelligence agent. The message states that a major attack, code-named The Big Wedding, is planned inside the US and that aircraft will be used. "When it became clear that the information was embarrassing to Bush Administration officials and congressmen who at first denied that there had been any such warnings before September 11, senior Jordanian officials backed away from their earlier confirmations." Christian Science Monitor calls the story "confidently authenticated" even though Jordan has backed away from it. [International Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, Christian Science Monitor, 5/23/02].

In today's hearings Ben-Veniste also referred to Operation Amalgam Virgo '02. NORAD leadership had initiated this plan in 2001, to run an exercise to prepare for the use of planes as weapons flown into the Pentagon by suicide. A drill exercise for this possibility was conducted at the Pentagon in October 2001.

Also revealed today, according to "an email obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), members of the U.S. military Special Operations Group, "trained to think like terrorists " and responsible for defending America's airspace were in fact concerned that a terrorist group would 'hijack a commercial airline [sic] (foreign carrier) and fly it into the Pentagon.' Officials at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in April 2001 - five months prior to 9/11 - wanted to develop a response in the event that a terrorist group would use an airliner as a missile to attack the Pentagon." (POGO, (202) 347-1122 or email beth@pogo.org).

This clearly suggests that there was awareness and concern, at least on the part of the President NORAD "Special Operations" planners that planes might be used as weapons here in the United States. "All of this suggests that the known possibility of planes being used as weapons by suicide pilots was not only one possibility among many, but the specific scenario that led President Bush to take special preparations at the Genoa summit in July and to request the PDB in August. This threat also led to extensive exercises and preparations being made by both NORAD and the Pentagon from 1999 up to the day of the attack, which makes the lack of response on 9/11 all the more inexplicable," said Kyle Hence, co-founder of 9/11 CitizensWatch.
http://www.911citizenswatch.org

***********
Kyle F. Hence 401-935-7715 kylehence@earthlink.net
John Judge 202-277-1992 copa@starpower.net

***********
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