Reply #49: Rowley's somebody special, in all the best ways, DemonFighterLives.

[Octafish]

From more special people, IATBW:

Two FBI Whistleblowers Accuse Bureau of Ignoring Warnings Before 9/11

Friday, April 9th, 2004

EXCERPT...

SIBEL EDMONDS: Well, some good questions were asked, however, many questions were not asked, and some questions remained unanswered. I would like to point out the one correction that Ms. Rice made during this hearing. Two weeks ago, I said -- I made a statement saying that Ms. Rice has a statement that "we did not have any specific information" was an outrageous lie. Ms. Rice corrected herself yesterday by saying, "I should have said, I personally was not aware rather than we." I think that's a very important piece that not many people have picked up on and who else is left after she herself removes herself from this statement? Who is she referring to when she says we? Now it's that "I am not" and "I was not aware" of this specific information. And so, that was not answered. And there was no question basically following up on that, and then another thing that she referred about breaking down the walls between counterterrorism, counterintelligence and criminal investigations and she's not mentioning the walls that the administration -- these people themselves create. And what has been glossed over so far under the name of diplomatic relations. And how many investigations were not pursued, despite the warnings, just due to the diplomatic relations that they are referring to. That leaves me very skeptical and I don't know who is going to answer these questions.

AMY GOODMAN: Coleen Rowley, could you understand that planes could be used at that point? Zacarias Moussaoui is in custody. He is learning how it use a plane. You have serious questions about him, but you can't even look at his hard drive.

COLEEN ROWLEY: Of course these were agents in my office doing the investigations, not me personally. But one of our agents actually spoke with somebody at Headquarters and suggested that this would be a type of a person who could fly a plane into the World Trade Center. At that time it was met with the remark, something like, "that ain't going to happen." Which again just displays the lack of understanding on the part of the people at Headquarters.

SNIP...

MEL GOODMAN: Well, it was clearly a review document, but it had current emphasis and current interest. The title of the piece, as you said earlier, was "bin Laden determined to strike inside the United States". This in itself should have attracted a good deal of attention. And then it went into F.B.I. reporting which was very sensitive at the time. Noting that there were increased indicators of hijackings that could take place in the United States, again inside the United States. And that there were increased indicators of infiltration from Canada, of al Qaeda terrorists, with explosives. Now, the last time I looked, Canada was on the United States' border. So, I don't know how Condi Rice cannot see the sensitivity of such reporting. And let me add one thing about the job of the National Security Advisor. The National Security Advisor was created to do two things above all else: one, to make sure that all relevant information and options got in front of the President, which she clearly didn't do with regard to al Qaeda cells operating in the United States. And two, to make sure that if the President wants something done, that it's indeed carried out. That's the vetting job that she has. She said several times during the testimony that the assumption was, there was an F.B.I. director and he carried out the jobs given to the F.B.I., so on and so forth. But we know now that there was a lot that wasn't done at the F.B.I. We know that the Transportation Secretary Mineta did not even know about the increased urgency. We know that the FAA didn't get reporting, and there was no oversight responsibility by the National Security Advisor. So, on that level, she wasn't doing her job.

AMY GOODMAN: Coleen Rowley, what was the reaction in your office on the morning of September 11 when the planes hit the World Trade Centers and then when the plane hit the Pentagon?

COLEEN ROWLEY: Unfortunately, within really probably just seconds or minutes of seeing the news, we realized that this connected with the matter in Minneapolis and began then to seek the criminal way of getting a search warrant.

CONTINUED... w Audio Interview...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/09/1524223

Thanks for helping peg the truth on these, um, people.