http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060321/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui
Fbi agent in charge of catching moussaoui tried to warn superiors for weeks about 9/11; talks of 'criminal negligence and wilfull ignoring of reality' by the higher-ups in FBI
Cycloptichorn
A new kind of insurance in Iraq.
March 21, 2006
New Business Blooms in Iraq: Terror Insurance
By ROBERT F. WORTH
BAGHDAD, Iraq ?- Twice in the past year, Muhammad Said has survived assassination attempts that left his car riddled with bullets. He works part time as a bodyguard for his father, a Baghdad city councilman, and helps a friend who has contracts with the American military. Both are very dangerous jobs.
So last month, Mr. Said, a slim, baby-faced 23-year-old, did what a small but growing number of Iraqis are doing: He walked into the offices of the Iraq Insurance Company and bought a terrorism insurance policy. It looked like an ordinary life insurance policy, but with a one-page rider adding coverage for "the following dangers: 1) explosions caused by weapons of war and car bombs; 2) assassinations; 3) terrorist attacks."
It cost him 125,000 dinars, about $90. Mr. Said paid more than most people because of his risky occupation. The payout, if he dies, is five million dinars, around $3,500, or about what an Iraqi policeman earns in a year.
That guarantee appears to be the first off-the-shelf terrorism policy in the world, insurance experts say. In most countries, of course, there is no need for it: death by terrorism is rare enough that it is usually covered by ordinary accident insurance. In Iraq it is not, partly because the state used to compensate the families of war victims directly. So the Iraq Insurance Company began stepping into the gap about a year ago.
"Am I worth only five million dinars?" Mr. Said asked wearily, after signing his policy. "It is not a solution. But Iraqis can be attacked by anyone, just walking on the street: Americans, insurgents, the Iraqi Army." The payout is not a lot of money, even by Iraqi standards. But in a country where terrorism kills hundreds of people a month and no one can rely on the government or employers to provide for their relatives afterward, it seems to be an idea with a future.
The Iraq Insurance Company, a state-owned group, has sold about 200 individual terrorism policies in the last year, and is now negotiating with several government ministries and private companies for group policies that would cover thousands of employees.
The idea of insuring ordinary people in what may be the most violent place on earth came from Abbas Shaheed al-Taiee, an executive at the Iraq Insurance Company.
"It is a kind of gift to the Iraqi people," said Mr. Shaheed, 53, a big, heavyset man with terribly serious eyes and a reputation as a master salesman. "We have expanded the principles of life insurance to cover everything that happens in Iraq."
Amazingly, the company has yet to pay out on a single claim.
cicerone imposter wrote:Any fruitcake like Osama can make threats, because people like you take it to heart. If you are able to use a little common sense and rational thinking, the threat is mostly bluster without any way to carry it out. You're the only one with a malignancy - and it's all in your brain. You still haven't outgrown the fear of the boogy man. Your childish outcrys crosses the border. There are six billion people on this planet. Osama doesn't have the wherewithal to kill everybody, and never will. Your chance to win the lotto is much greater.
That is the main point, isn't it. There will always be people trying to foment trouble against a superpower. To deal with them, they have to be starved of funds, of supporters, and of publicity.
Our attacking Iraq did just about the opposite of that. It rallied muslims to the fundamentalist cause. And "terrorism" or guerilla warfare needs a lot less funding than a standing army, especially one standing on foreign soil.
So who do we believe, Bush and Cheney who have such a lousy track record when talking about Iraq or Iraqis themselves and our own eyes and ears when reading and watching the news?
Old Forecasts Come Back to Haunt Bush
Freedom, Yes, Iraqis Say, But at Great, Grave Cost
The mainstream media will report the headline that the FBI bungled a warning on 9/11. While that's true, you have to read all the way to the end of the story to know why. The agent who testified opened an intelligence investigation on Moussaoui. In order to get a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings, the agent needed Justice Department approval.
There was a barrier in place between criminal and intelligence investigations put there by....drum roll please...the Clinton Justice Department, specifically former Assistant Attorney General and 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick.
It is a tragedy that the FBI did not investigate further. Maybe they could have stopped 9/11 from happening. But make no mistake of where the blame lies...and it's not with the current occupant of the Oval Office. When the final history of 9/11 is written, the lion's share of the blame will be placed squarely on the Clinton administration.
link
McGentrix wrote:The agent who testified opened an intelligence investigation on Moussaoui. In order to get a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings, the agent needed Justice Department approval.
This seems to be one of those issues discussed at the 9/11 hearings. Didn't privacy regulations in general make things difficult for all intelligence agencies?
(I think the Republicans are having a bad case of groupthink stupidity -amigo)
Groupthink
Groupthink is a concept that was identified by Irving Janis9 that refers to faulty decision-making in a group. Groups experiencing groupthink do not consider all alternatives and they desire unanimity at the expense of quality decisions. Learn more about groupthink and then complete the interactive exercise at the end of the discussion.
Conditions Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision.
Negative outcomes Some negative outcomes of groupthink include:
Examining few alternatives
*Not being critical of each other's ideas
*Not examining early alternatives
*Not seeking expert opinion
*Being highly selective in gathering information
*Not having contingency plans
Symptoms Some symptoms of groupthink are:
*Having an illusion of invulnerability
*Rationalizing poor decisions
*Believing in the group's morality
*Sharing stereotypes which guide the decision
*Exercising direct pressure on others
*Not expressing your true feelings
*Maintaining an illusion of unanimity
*Using mindguards to protect the group from negative information
Solutions Some solutions include:
*Using a policy-forming group which reports to the larger group
*Having leaders remain impartial
Using different policy groups for different tasks
*Dividing into groups and then discuss differences
*Discussing within sub-groups and then report back
*Using outside experts
*Using a Devil's advocate to question all the group's ideas
*Holding a "second-chance meeting" to offer one last opportunity to *choose another course of action
Here we go again with that whole "wall" thing again.
Quote:ASHCROFT LIES ABOUT THE WALL: The wall was created, not by Gorelick as Ashcroft claimed, but by the justice departments under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, according to the conservative court that handles intelligence investigations. Those administrations instituted the practice of prohibiting prosecutors from directing intelligence investigations. Nothing in the Gorelick memo prevented the sharing of information between criminal and intelligence investigators prior to 9/11 or since.
ASHCROFT MADE THE WALL HIGHER: Despite Ashcroft's current criticism of the July 1995 procedures, his own Deputy Attorney General, Larry Thompson, formally reaffirmed the directives in Gorelick's memo. In an Aug. 6, 2001 memo, Thompson wrote "the 1995 Procedures remain in effect today...The purpose of this memorandum is to restate and clarify certain important requirements imposed by the 1995 Procedures and the interim measures, and to establish certain additional requirements."
GORELICK'S MEMO MADE INFORMATION SHARING EASIER: It is impossible that Gorelick's memo "specifically impeded the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, investigation of Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi," as Ashcroft charged. Gorelick's memo permitted freer coordination between intelligence and criminal investigators than was subsequently permitted by the 2001 Thompson memo issued under Ashcroft. The Gorelick memo specifically directed agents to share information, including assigning one agent to work on both the criminal and intelligence investigations to ensure the flow of information "over the wall."
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=63020
For further reading and then I am going to let it speak for itself without further debate:
http://www.watchingjustice.org/reports/article.php?docId=207
March 21, 2006
Dog Handler Guilty of Inmate Abuse at Abu Ghraib
By DAVID STOUT
and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, March 21 ?- An Army dog handler was found guilty today of abusing inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by frightening them with his unmuzzled Belgian shepherd for his own amusement.
A military jury found the defendant, Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, guilty of 6 of the 13 counts lodged against him, although the judge said later that he would not consider one of the six counts in determining sentence because it duplicated another. Sergeant Smith could face more than eight years in prison, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge. Had he been convicted of all counts, he would have been subject to more than 24 years in prison.
Sergeant Smith stood at attention and stared straight ahead as the panel returned the verdict at Fort Meade, Md., after about 18 hours of deliberation over three days, The Associated Press reported.
A hearing to determine the sentence was scheduled to begin this afternoon and continue on Wednesday, with several witnesses expected to testify on the defendant's behalf.
The jury rejected the defense's contention that Sergeant Smith was simply following orders. The prosecution maintained that Sergeant Smith's behavior in 2003 and 2004 went well beyond what was permissible in treating prisoners inhumanely and using more than the minimum force necessary to control prisoners.
Sergeant Smith was found guilty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice of two counts of mistreatment involving three detainees, conspiring to make a contest of causing detainees to soil themselves, dereliction of duty and an indecent act, The A.P. reported.
The case of Sergeant Smith, who is from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is the latest in a long series of charges arising from abuses committed by members of the United States military at Abu Ghraib. Although Pentagon officials have insisted that only a tiny fraction of American soldiers behaved badly, there is wide agreement that their conduct damaged the standing of the United States in the Arab world.
Prosecutors contended that Sergeant Smith, who with the 523d Military Police Detachment at Fort Riley, Kan., had his dog strain at the leash with its jaws just inches away from several prisoners. The prosecutors said he and another dog handler, Sgt. Santos A. Cardona of Fullerton, Calif., vied to see who was better at making the captives soil themselves out of fear. Sergeant Cardona is to stand trial in May.
1. Osama Bin Laden "Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places"-
1996.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
Quote:I say to you ... These youths [love] death as you love life.
...
Those youths know that their rewards in fighting you, the USA, is double than their rewards in fighting some one else not from the people of the book. They have no intention except to enter paradise by killing you. An infidel, and enemy of God like you, cannot be in the same hell with his righteous executioner.
cicerone imposter wrote:: Any fruitcake like Osama can make threats, ... the threat is mostly bluster without any way to carry it out.
...
4. 9-11 Commission Report, 9/20/2004
www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm
Quote: May 19, 1996: Bin Laden leaves Sudan –after escaping at least one assassination attempt -- significantly weakened despite his ambitious organization skills, and returns to Afghanistan where he establishes al Qaeda training bases.61
...
U.S. intelligence estimates put the total number of fighters who underwent instruction in Bin Ladin-supported camps in Afghanistan from 1996 through 9/11 at 10,000 to 20,000.78
13. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
TERRORIST INCIDENTS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents#1996
Note: All the following listed terrorist incidents exclude all terrorist incidents in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel.
Quote:1996
June 25: Khobar Towers bombing, killing 19 and wounding 372 Americans.
1997
----
1998
August 7: U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, killing 225 people and injuring more than 4,000.
1999
----
2000
October 12: USS Cole bombing kills 17 US sailors.
2001
September 11: The attacks on September 11 kill almost 3,000 in a series of hijacked airliner crashes into two U.S. landmarks: the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, and The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
October 12: Bali car bombing of holidaymakers kills 202 people, mostly Western tourists and local Balinese hospitality staff.
October 17: Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines kill six and wounds about 150.
October 18: A bus bomb in Manila kills three people and wounds 22.
October 19: A car bomb explodes outside a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in Moscow, killing one person and wounding five.
Note: October 20, 2001: USA invades Afghanistan
Quote:October 23: Moscow theater hostage crisis begins; 120 hostages and 40 terrorists killed in rescue three days later.
Note: December 20, 2001: Osama helps establish al Qaeda training bases in Iraq.
Quote:2003
March 4: Bomb attack in an airport in Davao kills 21.
Note: March 20, 2003: US invades Iraq at the time al Qaeda controls about a dozen villages and a range of peaks in northeastern Iraq on the Iranian border.
Quote:2003
May 12: Bombings of United States expatriate housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160 in the Riyadh Compound Bombings. Al-Qaeda blamed.
May 12: A truck bomb attack on a government building in the Chechen town of Znamenskoye kills 59.
May 14: As many as 16 die in a suicide bombing at a religious festival in southeastern Chechnya.
May 16: Casablanca Attacks by 12 bombers on five "Western and Jewish" targets in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead and over 100 injured. Attack attributed to a Moroccan al-Qaeda-linked group.
July 5: 15 people die and 40 are injured in bomb attacks at a rock festival in Moscow.
August 1: An explosion at the Russian hospital in Mozdok in North Ossetia kills at least 50 people and injures 76.
August 25: At least 48 people were killed and 150 injured in two blasts in south Mumbai - one near the Gateway of India at the other at the Zaveri Bazaar.
September 3: A bomb blast on a passenger train near Kislovodsk in southern Russia kills seven people and injures 90.
November 15 and November 20: Truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 57 and wounding 700.
December 5: Suicide bombers kill at least 46 people in an attack on a train in southern Russia
December 9: A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds at least 11.
2004
February 6: Bomb on Moscow Metro kills 41.
February 27: Superferry 14 is bombed in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf, killing 116.
March 2: Attack on procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan kills 43 and wounds 160.
March 11: Coordinated bombing of commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, kills 191 people and injures more than 1,500.
April 21: Basra bombs in Iraq kill 74 and injure hundreds.
April 21: Bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5.
May 29: Al-Khobar massacres, in which Islamic militants kill 22 people at an oil compound in Saudi Arabia.
August 24: Bombing of Russian airplane kills 90.
August 31: A blast near a subway station entrance in northern Moscow, caused by a suicide bomber, kills 10 people and injures 33.
September 1 – 3: Beslan school hostage crisis in North Ossetia, Russia, results in 344 dead.
September 9: Jakarta embassy bombing, in which the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia was bombed, kills eight people.
October 7: Sinai bombings: Three car bombs explode in the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 34 and wounding 171, many of them Israeli and other foreign tourists.
December 6: Suspected al Qaeda-linked group attacks U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing 5 local employees.
December 12: A bombing at the Christmas market in General Santos, Philippines, kills 15.
2005
February 14: A car bomb kills former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 20 others in Beirut.
March 9: An attack of an Istanbul restaurant killed one, and injured five.
March 19: Car bomb attack on theatre in Doha, Qatar, kills one Briton and wounds 12 others.
April 7: A suicide bomber blows himself up in Cairo's Khan al Khalili market, killing three foreign tourists and wounding 17 others.
May 7: Multiple bomb explosions across Myanmar's capital Rangoon kill 19 and injure 160.
June 12: Bombs explode in the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Tehran, leaving 10 dead and 80 wounded days before the Iranian presidential election.
July 7: London bombings - Attacks on one double-decker bus and three London Underground trains, killing 56 people and injuring over 700, occur on the first day of the 31st G8 Conference. The attacks are believed by many to be the first suicide bombings in Western Europe.
July 23: Sharm el-Sheikh bombings: Car bombs explode at tourist sites in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing at least 88 and wounding more than 100.
August 17: Around 100 home-made bombs exploded in 58 different locations in Bangladesh, Killing two and wounding 100.
October 1: A series of explosions occurs in resort areas of Jimabaran Beach and Kuta in Bali, Indonesia.
October 13: A large group of Chechen rebels launched coordinated attacks on Russian federal buildings, local police stations, and the airport in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria. At least 137 people, including 92 rebels, were killed.
October 15: Two bombs exploded at a shopping mall in Ahvaz, Khuzestan in Iran. Six people died and over 100 were injured.
October 29: Multiple bomb blasts hit markets in New Delhi, India, leaving at least 61 dead and more than 200 injured.
November 9: Three explosions at hotels in Amman, Jordan, leave at least 57 dead and 120 wounded.
December --
2006
January --
February --
March 2: Bombing in Karachi, Pakistan kills four, including a U.S. diplomat.
March 7: Bombings in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, India, leave at least 15 people dead.
cicerone imposter wrote:: Any fruitcake like Osama can make threats, ... the threat is mostly bluster without any way to carry it out.
...
"the threat is mostly bluster"
Let's examine that a little more carefully. A total of 20 suicidal terrorists, less one named Moussaoui, murdered almost 3,000 American civilians. Would it take 15 times as many terrorists -- 300 -- to murder 45,000 American civilians? Al-Qaeda trained more than enough in Afghanistan before 9/11: a minimum of 10,000 trained terrorists - 300 suicidal terrorists = 9,700 left over for more murdering still.
ican, You can't see it, but the world has changed since 9-11. Ever try getting on a plane lately? You contradict yourself. Aren't you a pilot?
ican...... 9-11 was an inside job.
There has been some revelation that Bush and this administration were told about potential terrorist acts with airplanes before 9-11.
The fishy part that stinks is the bin Laden family were allowed to fly out of the US after the destruction of the twin towers and all flights were grounded.
On top of all that, we had UN weapon's inspectors hunting for WMDs in Iraq when Bush chased them out to start his war.
cicerone imposter wrote:On top of all that, we had UN weapon's inspectors hunting for WMDs in Iraq when Bush chased them out to start his war.
Bush couldn't afford for it to be known that there weren't any! He could have never had his war if the truth were known. He had to chase the weapons inspectors out before they squirreled his attack plans!
Anon
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: March 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 21 ?- President Bush said Tuesday that the war in Iraq was eroding his political capital, his starkest admission yet about the costs of the conflict to his presidency, and suggested that American forces would remain in the country until at least 2009.
Analysis: The President and Iraq
Transcript: President Bush's News Conference (March 21, 2006)
Forum: The Transition in Iraq
In a quick remark at a White House news conference about the reserves of political strength he earned in his 2004 re-election victory ?- "I'd say I'm spending that capital on the war" ?- Mr. Bush in effect acknowledged that until he could convince increasingly skeptical Americans that the United States was winning the war, Iraq would overshadow everything he did. [Excerpts, Page A10.]
Later, in response to a question about whether a day would come when there would be no more American forces in Iraq, he said that "future presidents and future governments of Iraq" would make that decision.
That statement was one of the few he has made that provides insight into his thinking about the duration of the American commitment in Iraq, and signaled that any withdrawal of troops would extend beyond his term in office.
Mr. Bush asserted that Iraq was not in a civil war, and took issue with Ayad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister and White House ally, who said Sunday that it was. The president also said repeatedly that he was convinced that the United States would succeed in Iraq and that he would continue to deliver that message across the country.
Quote:Although Pentagon officials have insisted that only a tiny fraction of American soldiers behaved badly, there is wide agreement that their conduct damaged the standing of the United States in the Arab world.
Observers of Pentagon officials agree that only a tiny fraction of the widespread abuses were photographed, publicised and subsequently investigated.
Mr. Bush asserted that Iraq was not in a civil war, and took issue with Ayad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister and White House ally, who said Sunday that it was. The president also said repeatedly that he was convinced that the United States would succeed in Iraq and that he would continue to deliver that message across the country.
Looks like Bush and Cheney uses the same neocon dictionary for civil war. Believe it or not, they are our leaders.
