FBI Document Shows Cole Bombers Called Yemen Hub

One of the more interesting things I have found going through the 9/11 Commission files is this extract, taken from an FBI summary of its investigation into the 9/11 attacks:

UBL can be directly connected to the attack on the USS Cole in October 12, 2000 (ADENBOM 265A-NY-277013). The 200578 telephone number which was originally identified as significant through the KENBOM/TANBOM investigation was also used during the planning of the attack on USS Cole. FBI investigators have learned the 200578 telephone number is subscribed to by AHMED AL-HADDA, whose daughter is married to KHALID AL-MIHDHAR (Flight 77). The ADENBOM investigation has also linked ALMIHDHAR to both NAWAF AL-HAZMI (Flight 77) and KHALLAD, now identified as TAWFIQ MOHAMED BIN SALEH BIN ROSHAYED BIN ATTASH.

Tenet Misled Congressional Inquiry about NSA Surveillance of Hijackers

A recently released document shows that CIA Director George Tenet misled the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry about the intelligence community’s knowledge of the 9/11 hijackers. He claimed that a 1999 communications intercept of a conversation between one of the hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar, and al-Qaeda leader Khallad bin Attash only showed an “indirect link” between al-Qaeda, Almihdhar and fellow hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi, who was mentioned in the conversation.

Name of NSA Domestic Spying Programme: Stellar Wind

Just in case you missed it, the name of the NSA’s domestic spying operations was revealed in mid-December by Newsweek: Stellar Wind. The main article about it was actually focused on one of the Whistleblowers used for the famous New York Times pieces just over three years ago, Tom Tamm.

General Hayden on Search and Seizure

Almost three years ago, General Michael Hayden (then Deputy Director for National Intelligence, formerly NSA Director, now CIA Director) had a famous exchange with Jonathan Landay of Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) about the US constitution’s 4th amendment ensuring that search and seizure requires a warrant (or doesn’t, depending on your point of view).

Former FBI Director: 9/11 Hijacker’s Phone Played “Integral Role” in Cole Investigation

At the 9/11 Commission hearing on Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Community in April 2004, in response to a question about the FBI’s failings from commissioner Tim Roemer, former FBI Director Louis Freeh said:

… It would have been helpful — it would have been helpful — for the FBI at that particular point in time to know the names of those two individuals [Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi]; that the information which was generated in the January 2000 physical surveillance, not by the CIA but by a liaison agency [Malaysia's Special Branch] — if that information and the initiation for that surveillance, which were phone calls to a central number, which you’re well aware of, which plays a integral role not only in the East African bombings case but also in the Cole investigation;…

Michael Hayden Caught in a Lie

Current CIA and former NSA Director Michael Hayden claimed to the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry in prepared remarks on 17 October 2002:

NSA Replies to FOIA Request: No Chance!

The NSA has replied to one of my FOIA requests. You can find the post about the request being made here. It was for four documents related to restrictions on the distribution of NSA intercepts inside the FBI:

New FOIA Request Filed: DoJ Memo about Intelligence Sharing from December 1999

I have filed a new FOIA request for a DoJ memo regarding caveats on sharing NSA intelligence with the FBI. The memo is mentioned in endnote 38 on page 474 of the 9/11 Commission Report, as “DOJ memo, Reno to Freeh, E.O. 12333 authorized surveillance of a suspected al Qaeda operative, Dec. 24, 1999.” It is a source for the following paragraph in the report (pp. 79-80):

New FOIA Request Filed: Restrictions on Dissemination of NSA Information

I have filed a new FOIA request for four NSA documents. The documents relate to restrictions on the dissemination of NSA information inside the FBI. The restrictions were implemented in December 1999 because of the surveillance of three US persons somehow linked to Osama bin Laden outside the US by the NSA during the Millennium alert. Had the surveillance been inside the US, a warrant would have been obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the information would have been covered by the 1995 procedures (a.k.a. “the Wall”). These procedures regulated the passage of information between intelligence agents in the FBI and criminal prosecutors (as well as criminal investigators at the FBI).

Main Core Can Be A Key to 9/11

Salon recently published an article entitled Exposing Bush’s historic abuse of power about a database known as Main Core. The article was focused on domestic surveillance in the US and connected up with a lot of other threads I have noticed swirling around 9/11. It strikes me that this could be the key to uncovering how the intelligence agencies, in particular the NSA, failed in the run up to 9/11 (and a lot more besides), and I will try and explain here how and why I think Main Core could be linked to the attacks.Given that the article also said that lawmakers are considering the launch of an investigation modelled on the Church Committee into the programme, as well as other aspects of surveillance, this represents a very decent chance of getting to the bottom of what actually happened.The Salon article followed others in the Wall Street Journal and Radar, and, if you haven’t already read them, it would be well worth your while.