DROPPING THE BALL

The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will occur in a few days, and former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke recently told the filmmakers of “9/11 Press For Truth” that certain high level CIA officials could have prevented the attacks, and the tragedy wasn’t simply a case of a low-level analyst dropping the ball. Clarke stated: “It’s not as I originally thought, which was that one lonely CIA analyst got the information and didn’t somehow recognize the significance of it. No, 50 personnel knew about this. Among the 50 people in CIA who knew these guys were in the country was the CIA director…. We therefore conclude that there was a high-level decision inside CIA ordering people not to share that information.” I would also recommend that Clarke look at my NewsWithViews column on the 8th anniversary of 9/11 with its many other unanswered questions regarding the attacks.

Similar to what Clarke was saying, on August 25, 2011 The New York Times published “C.I.A. Demands Cuts In Book About 9/11 And Terror Fight.” In this article by Scott Shane, one learns that the CIA “is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against al Qaeda. The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book [The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al Qaeda] that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego.”

With Egyptian protestors outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo recently bearing signs with swastikas and saying “The Gas Chambers Are Ready,” it’s apparent that the U.S. has dropped the ball on the so-called spontaneous revolutions occurring in the Middle East and North Africa. In my last NewsWithViews column “The Absolute Power Game,” I quoted liberal Marxist Muslim Tarek Fatah as indicating that Islam is being used by the Fascist forces of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to gain control over countries in that region.

Similarly, on August 22, Newsmax published the comments of Middle East expert Walid Phares (advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives). Phares explained that Libya is in danger of becoming another Iran because we dropped the ball. He said: “From the beginning of the process, we should have engaged with and partnered with the democracy forces, not with the fundamentalist forces. Waiting… is basically inviting the Islamists… to seize the result and turn it into another authoritarian regime. If the Islamist militias take over in Libya, then they are going to support their colleagues in Tunisia and in Egypt and in Gaza and in Syria…. [In Egypt] the Muslim Brotherhood moved in. They are now leading politics in Egypt. The same could be said about other countries.

It could be about Libya and Syria and Tunisia as well…. The Islamist militias… were the ones who did not want to see [NATO] boots on the ground [in Libya], because they know that if the international presence comes to Libya it will connect to Libya’s civil society, which is unarmed, and it will impose a disarming of militias. So the Islamist militia in Libya will make sure that NATO’s mission is over and that way they can move forward to grasp power.” Phares said regarding the chances of the Islamists ending up victorious, “It’s a 50/50 possibility.” Currently, the head of the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, has given the people of Sirte, Bani Walid, Jufra and Sabba just a few days to surrender or be attacked. What kind of “freedom” is that? Will NATO protect those towns’ “freedom” from rebel control? Don’t count on it!

And what could be the consequences of dropping the ball in Libya? What do you think the attitude of the rebels toward the U.S. will be as a result of recently discovered Libyan intelligence documents? On September 3, 2011 the Associated Press (AP) reported that “the CIA worked closely with Moammar Gadhafi’s intelligence services in the rendition of terror suspects to Libya for interrogation…. One notable case is that of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, commander of the anti-Gadhafi rebel force that now controls Tripoli. Belhaj is the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a now-dissolved militant group with links to al Qaeda. Belhaj says he was tortured by CIA agents at a secret prison, then returned to Libya. Two documents from March 2004 appear to be American correspondence to Libyan officials who arranged Belhaj’s rendition. Referring to him by his nom de guerre, Abdullah al-Sadiq, the documents say he will be flown from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Libya and asks for Libyan government agents to accompany him. It also requests American ‘access to al-Sadiq for debriefing purposes once he is in your custody.’”

In addition an AP column of August 23 by Stephan Braun and others begins: “No one can be sure who controls the Libyan governments’ weapons stockpiles, a stew of deadly chemicals, raw nuclear materials (hundreds of tons of raw uranium yellowcake) and some 30,000 shoulder-fired rockets that officials fear could fall into terrorists’ [e.g. al Qaeda] hands in the chaos of Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall or afterward…. Many U.S. officials question whether NATO has enough people on the ground to make sure the materials remain secure if Libyan security forces flee their posts.” The article quotes Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland as saying, “There are still going to be a lot of Gadhafi loyalists who could hijack the weapons supplies and use them for an insurgency like Iraq.” He also indicated the material could be seized by al Qaeda militant sympathizers, and he referred to the damage a single rocket could do, referring to the August 5 downing of a U.S. Chinook military helicopter that killed 38 troops.

An additional dropping the ball concerning al Qaeda was evident in Iraq when the AP reported that on August 15 “Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen cities killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year, one that highlighted al Qaeda’s resolve and ability to wreak havoc…. ‘Where is the government with all these explosions across the country? Where is al-Maliki? Why doesn’t he come to see?’ said Ali Jumaa Ziad, a shop owner in Kut…. All U.S. troops must leave by the end of this year, but both Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect that country.”

And in the U.S., one must also be careful not to drop the ball. The leading Republican candidate for the presidency currently is Texas Governor Rick Perry, who reportedly has strong ties to the Muslim community there. According to “U.S. charter-school network with Turkish link draws federal attention” (Philadelphia Inquirer. March 20, 2011), an Islamic political figure from Turkey now residing in the U.S. has more than 120 charter schools in 25 states (including Texas), and they are receiving millions of taxpayers’ dollars. And if you click here, you will see that the political figure “oversees a worldwide network of businesses, schools, foundations and media outlets with an estimated budget of 25 billion dollars.

Here’s what he had to say in a sermon in 1999 aired on Turkish television: ‘You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers… until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads…. The time is not yet ripe. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it…. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence… trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.’”