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View Full Version : 9/11 Commission, Al-Qaeda in Italy, Hijackers - 9/11 Timeline Additions - 3/30/2008



Gold9472
03-30-2008, 09:41 AM
9/11 Commission, Al-Qaeda in Italy, Hijackers - 9/11 Timeline Additions for Week Ending March 30, 2008

Kevin Fenton
3/30/2008

New entries this week cover a wide variety of topics. Regarding the 9/11 Commission, members and staff were dismayed by Laurie Mylroie's Iraq-al-Qaeda potboiler (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a070903mylroiedismay#a070903mylro iedismay), as was a CIA expert (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a070903yaphediscredits#a070903yap hediscredits) who had the misfortune to sit on the same panel as Mylroie, and the Jersey Girls (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a070903jerseymylroie#a070903jerse ymylroie). Staffers were appalled (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0104commissionappalled#a0104comm issionappalled) by executive director Philip Zelikow's rewriting of a staff statement to imply Iraqi connections to al-Qaeda, and forced him to back down (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0104zelikowretreats#a0104zelikow retreats). Zelikow finally accepted the lack of connections (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0604zelikowacceptsnolink#a0604ze likowacceptsnolink) between Iraq and al-Qaeda, but Vice President Cheney (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a061704commissionunsettled#a06170 4commissionunsettled) did not.

(Sorry about this, but there seems to be a bug in the system and these first few entries aren’t available individually right now. They should be in the near future, but can now be viewed in the 9/11 Commission Timeline (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&investigations:_a_detailed_look=911Commission) anyway).

In Italy, the Algerian GIA, an organisation thoroughly penetrated by its government that laid the foundations (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=aearlymid90sgiafoundation#aearlym id90sgiafoundation) for al-Qaeda in Europe, established a base in a Milan mosque (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=aafter95giamilan#aafter95giamilan ) in the mid-1990s. Radicals connected to the mosque were arrested in 1998, but the prosecution was unsuccessful (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a98italyarrests#a98italyarrests) and the authorities were uninterested in a potential informer (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a092700waddaniconfesses#a092700wa ddaniconfesses) who knew about arms smuggling to the war in Bosnia. Cell members seem to have been incompetent (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=alate00italiantomatoes#alate00ita liantomatoes), but were overheard discussing the entry of terrorists into the US (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0201yemencantgetin#a0201yemencan tgetin) in early 2001.

Several of the 9/11 hijackers allegedly failed in their attempts to fight in Chechnya (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a99muscleturkey#a99muscleturkey), are said to have worked as security staff at Kandahar airport (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=asummer00kandaharsecurity#asummer 00kandaharsecurity), and had tickets for afternoon flights on 9/11 (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=aafternoon091101hijackerscontinue #aafternoon091101hijackerscontinue). Fifteen of them were profiled as high risk potential clients by a British banking compliance company, unsurprisingly because of their links to terrorism (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=abefore091101hijackersbank#abefor e091101hijackersbank).

Wounded mujaheddin were treated in Londonistan (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a89mujrecuperatelondon#a89mujrecu peratelondon), but the British government refused to extradite a member of al-Qaeda's fatwa committee on car bombing charges, and gave him asylum (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a98qatadadeport#a98qatadadeport) instead. London-based extremist Abu Hamza travelled to Bosnia (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a95abuhamzabosnia#a95abuhamzabosn ia) and preached in Luton (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a96abuhamzaluton#a96abuhamzaluton ).

Following on from the BCCI additions last week, the Treasury Department read a "dynamite" report on the bank in 1985, but took no action (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0185reganbcci#a0185reganbcci), a plane crash in the same year appears to be linked to both BCCI and Iran-Contra (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a121285gandercrash#a121285ganderc rash), and the bank had links to the A. Q. Khan network (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a071191ulhaqarrest#a071191ulhaqar rest). In addition, wanted BCCI suspects were protected in Pakistan and the UAE (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0891bccisafety#a0891bccisafety), and the FBI's interest in BCCI figure Ghaith Pharaon was brief (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a060806pharaonraid#a060806pharaon raid).

In the wider world of terrorism finance, in the later 1980s the US and Britain were aware Middle Eastern governments were paying off Abu Nidal (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a1987nidalprotection#a1987nidalpr otection), and a major Saudi bank was used to fund militants (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=amid2003ciaalrajhi#amid2003ciaalr ajhi), but no action (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=amid2003alrajhinoaction#amid2003a lrajhinoaction) was taken against it.

A CIA officer known as Rich B (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0699richbappointed#a0699richbapp ointed) was appointed head of Alec Station, the CIA's bin Laden unit in 1999, but had a poor relationship with the FBI's John O'Neill (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0799richbfriction#a0799richbfric tion). Neither that, nor 9/11 stopped him from being promoted to station chief in Kabul in the middle of the battle of Tora Bora (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a120901richbkabul#a120901richbkab ul).

Miscellaneous entries cover the US government's lack of interest (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a041088drugstimes#a041088drugstim es) in the drugs trade in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War, al-Qaeda establishing its first base in Arizona (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a1986alkifaharizona#a1986alkifaha rizona) in 1986, and proliferator-in-chief Jimmy Carter giving Pakistan's nuclear programme the green light (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a122679memotocarter#a122679memoto carter). The FBI also hired the daughter of a Pakistani spy (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a00pakdaughter#a00pakdaughter), but fired an agent that opposed the hiring because of his support for whistleblower Sibel Edmonds (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0304colefbiout#a0304colefbiout).

Finally, CIA legend Billy Waugh drafted a plan to assassinate bin Laden (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a91waughassassinate#a91waughassas sinate) in 1991, fought in Bosnia (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a040692waughbosnia#a040692waughbo snia), and ended the debate about possible collaboration between the CIA and al-Qaeda in his autobiography with the words "I worked right there with these al-Qaeda operatives." (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a89waughalqaeda#a89waughalqaeda)

Originally posted here (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/news.jsp?oid=140393703-473). Please also bear in mind that the History Commons is in need of donations (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/donate.jsp).