Protecting Osama's privacy. Before we proceed, please note that this story comes to us by way of Judicial Watch, an organization I don't much like. They were a major part of the propaganda effort against Clinton, although in recent years they seem to have gone off script. (G.O.P. activists now treat Judicial Watch as though it were the proverbial crazy uncle living in the attic.)
All caveats aside, we should express gratitude for this story. In essence: Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request for an FBI report dealing, in part, with Osama Bin Laden. Information was redacted, as one might expect. The FBI, as is always the case, had to list reasons for the redactions.
According to JW, data relevant to Osama Bin Laden was blacked out to protect his privacy rights.
Can this be true? Does the leader of Al Qaeda really have a right to privacy?
Well...I suppose it's nice to know that someone still does these days. You and I sure don't. Pretty soon, we won't even be able to make a day-trip to Tijuana or Vancouver island without carrying a passport equipped with an RFID electronic tracking device. But Osama Bin Laden...he has a right to privacy...
Odd doings in San Diego: Those of you following the hijacker trails may recall that two of the evildoers lodged with an FBI informant in San Diego. The name of this informant was "Professor" Abdussattar Shaikh. This living arrangement has always raised eyebrows: Is it really possible that an FBI informant did not know the true nature of the men living under his roof?
Daniel Hopsicker has uncovered evidence indicating that this "professor" may have had a very elastic view of the truth.
Yet a visit to the various locations around San Diego where he was said to have worked reveals that Abdussattar Shaikh never taught at San Diego State, has never been a Professor of English, and possesses a phony PhD from a bogus diploma mill run by people with U.S. military and intelligence connections.There's much more, and you can read it here.
The "University" for which he was said to be Vice President for International Projects does not, in fact, exist.
Also: "Abdussattar Shaikh" is not his real name.
(Hopsicker also discusses this story in a radio interview, which I cannot recommend -- the guest and host interrupt each other incessantly and the material is presented in a very disorganized fashion. If you have the fortitude for it, go here and scroll down to FTR-507a and b.)
Here's one of the most interesting sidelights to come out of Hopsicker's investigation: "Shaikh" (or whatever his real name may be) is a long-time associate of an Iranian arms dealer named Sam Koutchesfahani. This fellow came to our (well, my attention) attention some years back in a very strange way: Koutchesfahani owned the house that the Heaven's Gate cultists lived and died in.
Coincidence? Probably. Even so, I'm going to keep an eye on this tale.
I followed the doings of Marshall Applewhite for years -- well before the mass suicide. A friend of mine had a bizarre encounter with the cult about a year before the tragedy; therein lies an anecdote which I may one day relate. I've never shaken the impression that an untold story lurks beneath the mainstream media accounts of the suicide.
4 comments:
Last I saw, the passport-to-return-from-Canada plan was in trouble, because -- get this -- BUSH READ A NEWSPAPER and, when he saw the passport plan, he said whoa-what's-this. In any case, that trial balloon may have been shot down.
I would advise anyway that everyone who does not have one get a passport.
re: the San Diego hijackers - they were also sent money from Saudi Arabia [big surprise there] via Riggs Bank which is the bank Jonathan Bush is the head of. Jonathan Bush being the uncle of George W. & the brother of George H.W.
Also more recently, past year or so, he “agreed to pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering” which is basically the polite way of charging someone with money laundering. Allegedly the accounts in question were Saudi [once again, big surprise there].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bush
LamontCranston
On 9/11, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, the topic has its share of hot heads, intolerant of other variants of explanatory conspiracies, and frankly, bad actors, disinformation specialists, who certainly stir the pot in disagreeable ways.
None of that means the underlying core thesis is wrong, or that there are not facts that would lead any honest evaluator to draw certain horrible conclusions about our current national leadership.
David Ray Griffin, a philosophy professor, has written very methodical and dispassionate review books on the subject, which I most heartily recommend as primers.
Paul Thomspson's "Terror Timeline" is a fascinating resource, whether you consult it in paper or at cooperativeresearch.org.
It's painstakingly footnoted with links to
mainstream news articles, and some of what's told there will curl your hair.
Did you know Osama spent 9/10/01 in a Pakistani military hospital under the protection of Pakistani intelligence?
A cbs article says so.
Did you know Osama met with the CIA in the
American Hospital in Dubai in 7/01? A
Le Figaro article says so.
Did you know that in 7/01 American officials told a former Pakistani official that before the snows fell they would invade Afghanistan? BBC says so.
Did you know that alleged 9/11 hijacker
Waleed al Shehri was known to be alive on
9/23/01? BBC says so, though the 9/11
Commission says (without mentioning the BBC report) that he is dead.
Did you know that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI sent $100,000 to
alleged lead hijacker Mohammed Atta at the
orders of General Mahmoud Ahmed, who was
having breakfast with Porter Goss and
Bob Graham when the WTC attacks took place?
Did you know that under Taliban Osama got a 10% tax on the opium trade that netted him $650 million to $1 billion a year?
Financial Times says so. Dd you know that
such a tax on today's opium trade would
get him up to $1.6 billion a year?
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