I don’t see anything up about this right now but sorry if its a duplicate of an earlier diary.. well, let’s just let good ole Raw Story say it. I’ll just say holy fucking shit.
The writer of article: Nafeez Ahmed who is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development in London, and a Doctoral Candidate in International Relations at the University of Sussex, Brighton.
The US Air Force later argued that they “might not” be the same persons, due to some “biographical discrepancies” – which of course were never revealed to the public. When Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) tried to investigate, shocked at the possibility that Pensacola Naval Air Station could have hosted and trained Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Alghamdi, among others, he was told by the FBI – after several weeks – that they were trying to work through something “complicated and difficult.”
Daniel Hopsicker, a former Producer at PBS Wall Street Week and investigative report at NBC News, decided to investigate. [snip]…It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that these people were, for reasons undisclosed, protected
More below.
If seeing this for the first time (unlikely but here ya go):
Get ready for the “liberal civil liberties advocates caused this intel failure” ad nauseum argument. Expect Rush the Lush to pound in that talking point. And maybe that argument-to-be explains loon Congressman Curt Weldon’s reasons for outing this coverup of intel failures and likely worse: setting the stage for an American declaration of a military state. Just in time before losing Congress in ’06?
The law [that prevented the Pentagon from going to the FBI] supposedly provided a disincentive for sharing intelligence with law enforcement. [Get ready for the “civil liberties caused this intel failure” ad nauseum.]
The law, it was claimed, bars US citizens and green-card holders from being targeted for intelligence-collection operations
The explanation was disingenuous. “Mohammed Atta and his terrorist cohorts were clearly and factually established as Al-Qaeda functionaries of a foreign government [Taliban of Afghanistan] with Al-Qaeda itself being a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (DFTO)”, noted Sean Osborne of the US Army’s Program Executive Office – Command, Control, Communications Tactical (PEOC3T) within the Special Project Office (SPO).
In fact, there are 13 exceptions within Executive Order 12333 allowing intelligence-collection on US Persons and bona-fide green card-holders, including for Counterintelligence purposes, allowing for collection of against individuals reasonably suspected of involvement in international terrorism, as well as their associates.
Wow!