CASE CLOSED … what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks?

* DXer on 28 Pages: If it takes reviewers years to review 28 pages when US President is requestor, maybe our government employees should work harder and be more efficient

Posted by DXer on April 14, 2016

Pelosis

22 Responses to “* DXer on 28 Pages: If it takes reviewers years to review 28 pages when US President is requestor, maybe our government employees should work harder and be more efficient”

  1. DXer said

    From left to right: Dick Cheney, Prince Bandar, Condoleezza Rice, and George W. Bush, on the Truman Balcony of the White House on September 13, 2001. [Source: White House via HistoryCommons.org]

    The government should declassify Prince Bandar’s October 7, 2003 interview.

    July 19, 2016 at 5:13 am
    28 pages connect Saudi prince to al Qaeda leader, supporters of 9/11 hijackers
    http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/07/28-pages-connect-saudi-prince-to-al-qaeda-leader-supporters-of-911-hijackers/

  2. DXer said

    File 17 is glimpse into still-secret 28 pages about 9/11

    By DEB RIECHMANN
    Jul. 2, 2016 9:03 AM EDT
    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fe56c5d224a8463aa7cfc6ccf4689122/file-17-glimpse-still-secret-28-pages-about-911

  3. DXer said

    CIA chief: Missing report pages exonerate Saudi Arabia in 9/11 attacks
    By Euan McKirdy, CNN
    Updated 6:41 AM ET, Sun June 12, 2016

    He said subsequent reviews and assessments “really have shown that it was very, very unfortunate that these attacks took place. But this was the work of al Qaeda, of Bin Laden, (current al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri), and others of that ilk.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/politics/cia-john-brennan-saudi-arabia-9-11/

    Comment:

    It amuses me that the agencies supposed to keep us safe take so long to do such a simple thing — declassify 28 pages that should never have been classified in the first place.

  4. DXer said

    Declassify Top Secret Pages of the 9/11 Commission Report
    No justification for withholding the information, former Sen. Byron Dorgan writes

    http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/declassify-top-secret-pages-911-commission-report

    Frankly, it’s a scandal that this information has been withheld from the American people for the past 12 years. Obviously, a report that withholds 28 pages of critical information about the attack is not a “full and complete” report. The classification of that information was an insult to the American people. – See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/declassify-top-secret-pages-911-commission-report#sthash.MTnBthNA.dpuf

    Byron Dorgan is a former Democratic senator from North Dakota. He is a senior policy adviser at Arent Fox LLP .

  5. DXer said

    What is happening in the lawsuit by the former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert?

    “Ex-FBI official Richard Lambert: Agency is hiding evidence in anthrax case,” By David Dishneau, Associated Press, April 16, 2015
    http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local/ex-fbi-official-richard-lambert-agency-is-hiding-evidence-in-anthrax-case-ep-1039716972-362322351.html

    What is the status of the processing under FOIPA of the 16 pages written by Agent Lambert about a Bruce Ivins theory in the “Interim Case Management Summary”?

    And of pages relating to Al Qaeda and its anthrax program.

    Are there documents referenced in the pages of that summary that the FBI has not produced? Could it do so now?

    Former Senator Graham is sharpening his language and is accusing the FBI of aggressive deception in regards to the role of Saudis in 9/11.

    It seems that given that we all want the correct solution to the difficulty mystery of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings, it is a win-win to comply with FOIPA on the subject of Amerithrax.

    I wonder if Hillary Clinton gets elected, she’ll be inclined to give the FBI latitude on such withholding of exculpatory documents. Same question for Donald Trump.

  6. DXer said

    Is There Evidence Of Saudi Deception In The Sept. 11 Report?

    April 28, 20165:08 AM ET
    Heard on Morning Edition

    Mary Louise Kelly

    http://www.npr.org/2016/04/28/475985524/fact-check-is-there-evidence-of-saudi-deception-in-sept-11-report

    INSKEEP: So is there evidence of aggressive deception in covering up for the Saudis here?

    KELLY: Not that has been made public. We did, of course, reach out to the FBI and see if they wanted to respond to those allegations. They declined to comment. But let me say the 9/11 Commission, which was formed in part to follow on the work that Sen. Graham’s team was doing, they have seen the 28 pages. They say they have run the leads in them to the ground and that they found, as we heard, no evidence that Saudi Arabia, either as a government or senior officials acting as individuals, funded al-Qaida.

    INSKEEP: Well, let’s ask about that loophole that Sen. Graham mentioned. The royal family seemed to be excused in that follow-up investigation, but he said that other people weren’t mentioned. Is there still room for someone else quite senior in Saudi Arabia to have been involved?

    KELLY: There is room. I mean, that language does not rule out, for example, that lower-level level officials in the Saudi government were in some way funding al-Qaida. It also doesn’t rule out that rich Saudi donors were giving money to charities and that those charities had some sort of financial link to al-Qaida. There’s still a lot we don’t know.

    INSKEEP: What do the Saudis say?

    KELLY: The Saudis say they would love to see these 28 pages released. They say they have been unfairly maligned, that they would like to clear their name and that they can’t respond to a blank page.

    INSKEEP: And let’s remember here, this is not just about accountability. It’s about a lawsuit and legislation that would allow the Saudis to be sued. What are the Saudis saying about that?

    KELLY: The Saudis have said – and this is part of, I think, a window into the broader diplomatic tension here. I mean, one of the reasons that these 28 pages have not been made public is fear about what blowback that might cause for U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations. And as this bill that might allow 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia makes its way through Congress, the Saudis have said, really? If that’s allowed to go forward, maybe we’ll just sell off $750 billion in U.S. assets. This was a big point of tension on President Obama’s recent trip to Riyadh.

    INSKEEP: Mary Louise, thanks very much.

    KELLY: You’re welcome.

    INSKEEP: That’s NPR national security correspondent Mary Louise Kelly.

  7. DXer said

    No 9/11 smoking gun hiding in 28 pages

    THOMAS KEAN 12:02 a.m. PDT April 29, 2016

    The 28 pages have generated a lot of speculation and have been described as a “smoking gun” implicating the Saudi government in the deadliest terrorist attack carried out on U.S. soil. What often gets lost in those theories is that the 28 pages were based almost entirely on raw, unvetted material that came to the FBI. That material was written up as possible leads for further investigation, and the 28 pages were a summary of some of those reports and leads as of the end of 2002 – all of them uninvestigated.

    The 28 pages are comparable to preliminary law enforcement notes, which are generally covered by grand jury secrecy rules.

    This point is crucial because the attacks were the worst mass murder ever carried out in the USA. Those responsible deserve the maximum punishment possible. Therefore, accusations of complicity in that mass murder from responsible authorities are a grave matter. Such charges should be levied with care.

    Because the congressional panel did not complete its investigation, 9/11 Commission members and staff were given access to the 28 pages. All the leads contained in them were investigated by our team, which included the original drafter of the 28 pages.

    The results are in the 9/11 Commission Report we released in July 2004, specifically chapters 5 and 7, as well as their endnotes. All those conclusions are public; none is classified.

    Only one employee of the Saudi government mentioned in the 28 pages, Fahad al-Thumairy, was implicated in our plot investigation. He was employed by the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs and was an imam at a mosque in Los Angeles. The congressional panel did not interview him or any other Saudi. Our staff did interview him in Saudi Arabia. So did the FBI. Ultimately, we acknowledged in our report that we had “found no evidence” that he assisted the two future hijackers who passed through Los Angeles.

    Highly critical

    We also looked at the question of whether Saudi Arabia provided financial support for the attacks. Based on all the evidence available to the commission when it issued its final report, we found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” al-Qaeda.

    To be sure, there is much in the 9/11 Commission Report that is highly critical of Saudi Arabia. Individual Saudis were culpable of heinous crimes: Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. For years, the Saudi government tolerated and in some cases fanned the diffusion of an extreme form of Islam, funding schools and mosques across the globe that spread it. Wealthy Saudis contributed to Islamic charities, some of which had links to terrorism. That policy has had tragic consequences for Saudi Arabia itself. Extremists made the Saudi kingdom one of their top targets. This is one of the reasons why Saudi Arabia has been a U.S. ally in combating terrorism; many Saudi public servants have died in their battles with al-Qaeda operatives.

    http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/opinion/2016/04/29/smoking-gun-hiding-pages/83661726/

  8. DXer said

    John Bolton: Release 28 Redacted Pages from 9/11 Report
    http://www.newsmax.com/US/Bolton-Cats-Roundtable-911-report/2016/04/24/id/725489/

    Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton called on the federal government to release 28 redacted pages from the 9/11 Commission Report.

    “Let’s see what’s in there, and then we can talk about it,” Bolton said in an interview broadcast Sunday on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York.

    Bolton told host John Catsimatidis that “part of the problem is the mystique that’s grown up around the 28 pages.”

    The pages are part of a congressional report, not a CIA statement or a statement from the Bush administration, Bolton said.

    “We could speculate for the next several hours on what these pages say,” Bolton said. Unless releasing the information would put U.S. sources or methods of gathering intelligence at risk, Bolton said, “I’d just make all 28 pages public.”

    He pointed out that the Saudi Arabian government has agreed that the pages should be made public.

    “I don’t know what the Obama administration’s holdup is,” Bolton said.

    • DXer said

      “White powder mailed to Trump’s campaign office in New York deemed harmless,” Published April 29, 2016
      Associated Press
      http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/29/white-powder-mailed-to-trumps-campaign-office-in-new-york-deemed-harmless.html

      “Powders sent through the mail have been cause for concern since at least 2001, when anthrax-tainted letters were sent to media outlets and offices, killing five people.”

      Comment:

      I once spoke with Mr. Trump’s General Counsel over an HVAC problem. We were dealing with an HVAC problem (noise) at some large institution in DC and he must have had a similar problem in one of his buildings.

      It is an interesting time to watch the bread and circus we call politics — it is uncertain how Mr. Trump would handle issues such as relating to withholding documents relating to 9/11.

      I’m, of course, strongly biased in favor of disclosure because it makes the day more interesting. But I respect the people who are tasked with considering reasons to withhold. (It is easier to backseat drive, and carp, than drive).

      It is especially important that days are interesting now as the evidence comes in on whether I am going to live forever.

      This experiment below (that I think will prove so important, even historic) involved mice. One of the new notebooks produced yesterday relates to Dr. Ivins and Dr. Fellows’ work with goats.

      Vitamin stops the aging process of organs
      Nicotinamide riboside rejuvenates stem cells, allowing better regeneration processes in aged mice
      April 28, 2016
      Source:
      Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
      Summary:
      By administering nicotinamide riboside to elderly mice, researchers restored their organs’ ability to regenerate and prolonged their lives. This method has potential for treating a number of degenerative diseases.
      https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160428152124.htm

  9. DXer said

    Cautious Yes
    04.19.16 8:30 PM ET
    Paul Ryan Backs Release of the 28 Pages from the 9/11 Report
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/19/paul-ryan-backs-release-of-the-28-pages-from-the-9-11-report.html

    The Speaker backs up his Intelligence Chair, upping the pressure on President Obama ahead of his arrival Wednesday in Riyadh.
    With bipartisan pressure building to declassify 28 pages from a 2003 congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, House Speaker Paul Ryan became a cautious yes on Tuesday indicating through a statement from his press secretary that he is deferring to the judgment of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who after a powerful report on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” last week put out this statement:

    “The benefits of publishing this information would outweigh any potential damage to America’s national security. I encourage the administration to declassify this section of the Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks.”

    Comment:

    President Obama has not even read them. Out of respect for the 3,000 people who died, the President should read them instead of having the White House PR blow smoke about a continuing NSA declassification review. His delay, without more, is creating a legacy on this issue. Most of the information has already come out — such as in a book by an investigative reporter in Florida. The media just finds it easier to write the “28 pages” story.

  10. DXer said

    “Families of 9/11 victims write Obama demanding he declassify sealed documents,” FoxNews, April 18, 2016

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/18/families-911-victims-write-obama-demanding-declassify-sealed-documents.html

    “The Bush and Obama administrations have refused to unseal the documents, arguing their release would jeopardize national security.”

  11. DXer said

    Editorial: It’s time to declassify 28 secret pages on Saudis, 9/11
    Opinion
    Posted: 10:01 a.m. Friday, April 15, 2016
    http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/editorial-its-time-to-declassify-28-secret-pages-o/nq558/

    For more than a decade, former Florida Sen. Bob Graham has fought to pry open the full story of the 9/11 attacks, especially regarding alleged connections between Saudi Arabia and the hijackers who plunged planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

    Once head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Democratic former governor of Florida was co-chairman of the joint congressional inquiry into intelligence failures preceding the 2001 attacks. That inquiry produced an 838-page report in 2003.

    But 28 pages of that report were classified by the George W. Bush administration, their contents deemed dangerous to national security. And they remain locked away in a vault beneath the U.S. Capitol, where only a handful of people have seen them.

    But those who’ve read them say that there’s nothing “national security” about them. They’re all about threads, leads and connections between the hijackers and the Saudi government, an ally that the White House did not want to alienate.

    60 Minutes” did not explore another connection that Graham has tried to learn more about, on the sudden departure of a Sarasota-area family two weeks before 9/11. According to persistent reporting by FloridaBulldog.org, the family of Abdulaziz al-Hijji left their three cars, clothes, furniture — even fruit on the counter — in their upscale, gated-community home and were believed to have flown to Saudi Arabia.

    The Bulldog uncovered an FBI report from 2002 which said the family had had “many connections” with 9/11 hijackers. None of these links was ever presented to the 9/11 committee that Graham co-chaired — and the FBI later sought to discredit its own 2002 report.

    Fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks is long enough to keep the American people from knowing whatever the government has been hiding on Saudi networks allegedly aiding and abetting the worst foreign attack on U.S. soil in our history.

    Comment:

    El-Shukrijumah (along with Atta) visited that Sarasota address. For years, I have been arguing that El-Shukrijumah was the anthrax mailer, not Bruce Ivins.

    And immediately after 9/11, Prince Bandar, former head of Saudi intelligence and good friend of the Bush family, is pictured smiling with feet up on the back porch of the White House smiling and relaxed.

    It is time for Prince Bandar to (genuinely) support the release of the 28 pages.

    In February 2003, the FBI announced that “Jafar the Pilot” (aka Adnan El-Shukrijumah) had entered the country sometime after September 1, 2001
    Posted on September 26, 2014

    * In February 2003, the FBI announced that “Jafar the Pilot” (aka Adnan El-Shukrijumah) had entered the country sometime after September 1, 2001

    Al Hawsawi, who had the anthrax processing documents scanned on his laptop, was closely affiliated with Adnan El-Shukrijumah
    Posted on September 22, 2014

    * Al Hawsawi, who had the anthrax processing documents scanned on his laptop, was closely affiliated with Adnan El-Shukrijumah

    One of the men who set up Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax lab in Kandahar in May 2001 acknowledged association with Jaffar al-Tayyar aka (Adnan al-Shukrijumah) but apparently the interrogator was confused by the multiple aliases
    Posted on September 22, 2014

    * One of the men who set up Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax lab in Kandahar in May 2001 acknowledged association with Jaffar al-Tayyar aka (Adnan al-Shukrijumah) but apparently the interrogator was confused by the multiple aliases

    • DXer said

      DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US
      Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 6, 2014

  12. DXer said

    http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/14/headlines/senator_gets_call_from_white_house_on_secret_28_pages_about_possible_saudi_role_in_9_11

    Former Senator Gets Call from White House on Secret “28 Pages” About Possible Saudi Role in 9/11

    April 14, 2016
    Headlines

    Former Florida Senator Bob Graham says he received a call from the White House this week over the 28 secret pages of a report on the 9/11 terror attacks. Graham has campaigned for years to have the documents declassified, saying they contain key details about Saudi Arabia’s role in the attacks. Graham told the Tampa Bay Times a presidential adviser informed him the declassification review of the documents would soon be completed. The call came after 60 Minutes ran an episode on the 28 pages Sunday. Graham spoke to host Steve Kroft.

    Steve Kroft: “You believe that support came from Saudi Arabia?”

    Bob Graham: “Substantially.”

    Steve Kroft: “And when we say ‘the Saudis,’ you mean the government, rich people in the country, charities?”

    Bob Graham: “All of the above.”

    • DXer said

      Will the FBI produce long withheld documents about anthrax mailing suspect Adnan El-Shukrijumah?

      Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 27, 2015

      * Will the FBI produce long withheld documents about anthrax mailing suspect Adnan El-Shukrijumah?

    • DXer said

      DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US
      Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 6, 2014

      * DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US

      In February 2003, the FBI announced that “Jafar the Pilot” (aka Adnan El-Shukrijumah) had entered the country sometime after September 1, 2001
      Posted on September 26, 2014

      * In February 2003, the FBI announced that “Jafar the Pilot” (aka Adnan El-Shukrijumah) had entered the country sometime after September 1, 2001

      Al Hawsawi, who had the anthrax processing documents scanned on his laptop, was closely affiliated with Adnan El-Shukrijumah
      Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 22, 2014

      * Al Hawsawi, who had the anthrax processing documents scanned on his laptop, was closely affiliated with Adnan El-Shukrijumah

      One of the men who set up Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax lab in Kandahar in May 2001 acknowledged association with Jaffar al-Tayyar aka (Adnan al-Shukrijumah) but apparently the interrogator was confused by the multiple aliases
      Posted on September 22, 2014

      * One of the men who set up Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax lab in Kandahar in May 2001 acknowledged association with Jaffar al-Tayyar aka (Adnan al-Shukrijumah) but apparently the interrogator was confused by the multiple aliases

      • DXer said

        Prince Bandar,

        As I recall, it was once your position that it is unfair NOT to release the information. The withholding, the embassy spokesman reasoned, prevents the Kingdom from explaining things (much of it has already come out in different forms).

        Thus, the embassy should emphasize that they WANT the pages released so that the merits can be addressed, rather than innuendo.

        Like Sarkis Soghanalian used to say, “Be straightforward and tell the truth, hope others do too, but put a bug in their watch in case they don’t.”

        • DXer said

          New York Times Seeks CIA Info on Chemical Weapons
          By ADAM KLASFELD

          MANHATTAN (CN) — Now that the federal government has acknowledged that Western-built chemical weapons sickened U.S. soldiers in Iraq, The New York Times says the CIA can no longer deny access to records about it.
          Times reporters C.J. Chivers and John Ismay uncovered a hidden chapter of Iraq War history in late 2014.
          “Their groundbreaking stories uncovered how the U.S. government had kept secret for more than a decade that hundreds of military service members had been potentially exposed to chemical warfare agents as they encountered and in many cases handled chemical munitions once possessed by the Iraqi military,” Times attorney David McCraw wrote in the federal FOIA complaint.
          The U.S. military went into Iraq looking for evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but found only an aging stockpile of chemical armaments that Western powers helped provide to Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s, the Times reported.
          Saddam used the weapons against Iranian troops and Iraqi civilians in the 1980s, triggering a U.N. investigation to destroy the remnants of Iraq’s chemical warfare program.
          President George W. Bush premised the Iraq War on the grounds that Saddam never stopped producing these weapons, but the roughly 5,000 chemical weapons the troops found had been built decades ago in collaboration with Egypt, Italy and the United States.
          In a series of articles, multimedia features and a documentary, the Times revealed that the Pentagon acknowledged that more than 600 U.S. soldiers had been exposed to sarin or a sulfur mustard agent in Iraq.
          The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links the chemicals to burns, blisters, infertility, eye damage, scarring of the respiratory system, and increased risk of cancer.
          The military denied Purple Heart medals and medical care to soldiers who claimed to have been wounded, and Islamic State militants later seized control of much of the stockpile areas, the Times reported.
          One of the eight articles the Times published in the series delved into Operation Avarice, a CIA program to purchase “nerve-agent rockets from a secretive Iraqi seller.”
          In its Tuesday lawsuit, the Times says the CIA rebuffed Freedom of Information Act requests about the program through a so-called Glomar response, refusing to confirm or deny that it possessed at least three documents related to it. The Times filed a similar lawsuit Wednesday, this time naming the U.S. Army as a defendant.
          Those documents are “Iraq: Recovered CW Munitions Probably Remnants of Pre-1991 CW Program,” from August 2007; “Iraq: Recovered Pre-1991 Mustard Rounds May Pose Localized Threat,” from December 2006; and “Iraq: US Forces Experienced First Sulfur-Mustard Related Injuries,” from March 2007.
          The Times says the CIA’s denial is “no longer sustainable” because the Army acknowledged and apologized for this early last year.
          “The CIA’s failure to acknowledge the existence of relevant documents and to provide any responsive documents violates FOIA,” the complaint states.
          The CIA declined comment.
          The Times wants to see the record.

      • DXer said

        • DXer said

          Sarasota is not mentioned in the 28 pages to be released. That’s why they call it investigative reporting.

      • DXer said

        Editorial: Release the rest of 9/11 report

        Published: Friday, April 15, 2016 at 6:01 a.m.

        Last Modified: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 12:00 p.m.

        http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160415/OPINION01/160419889?p=2&tc=pg

        Graham, a former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, and Goss, who served in the CIA — including a post-9/11 stint as director — make compelling arguments. So does John Lehman, a Navy secretary during the Reagan years and a 9/11 commissioner, who told “60 Minutes”: “We know when something shouldn’t be classified. And … those 28 pages in no way fall into that category.”

        Graham has declined to discuss the classified information in the report but points to public records and reasonable assumptions suggesting that the 19 terrorists directly involved in the attacks — 15 of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia — carried out their plots with the aid of influential Saudis.

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