This is the follow-up to my popular diary from Friday entitled
Why Sibel Edmonds will Never Talk (9/11).
In that diary I explained why I believe that Sibel Edmonds found evidence of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks when she was interpreting or translating documents from Azerbaijan.
I also provided links for people to learn about the secret mission that Laos and Iran-Contra veterans, Richard Secord and Heinie Aderholt, took to Azerbaijan back in 1992.
And I explained some information about Farhad Azima: his cargo airliner Baku Express, his role in modernizing Azerbaijan Airlines, and his business relationship with the owner of Huffman Aviation, Wally Hilliard, who trained two of the hijackers to fly.
In this episode, I leave Mrs. Edmonds alone and pursue a Pensacola connection to the tragedy of 9/11.
Well, Aderholt and Secord retired to Fort Walton Beach in Florida. Fort Walton is basically a suburb of Pensacola and is close to the Naval Air Base there. The article below establishes Secord's recent activities in Pensacola.
Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL)
January 24, 2003 Friday
HEADLINE: UWF offers lecture series on military in southwest Asia
BYLINE: Staff
University of West Florida is offering a series of lectures focusing on southwest Asia military operations, successes and failures.
The series begins today at UWF's Fort Walton Beach campus, 1170 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Building 1.
At 6 p.m. today, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Harry Aderholt will speak on "Strategies for War on Terrorism.'' Aderholt of Fort Walton Beach is the former director of Covert Air Operations for the CIA, Air Force Special Operations architect and former deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Force.
At 6 p.m. Jan. 31, retired Air Force Gen. Charles "Chuck'' Horner will speak on "The Lessons We've Learned from the Storm.'' Horner is the author of "War in the Fourth Dimension: U.S. Electronic Warfare, from the Vietnam War to Present.'' He is the former commander of the 9th Air Force and commander of the U.S. Central Command Air Forces.
At 6 p.m. Feb. 7, the series concludes with retired Air Force Maj. Richard Secord's lecture on "Special Ops and Iraq.'' Secord, of Iran-Contra fame, was former chief adviser to the commander in chief of the Iranian Air Force and manager of all U.S. Air Force programs in Iran.
Details: 850-863-6583.
There were early reports that some of the hijackers lived on Pensacola's Naval Air Base, but the Pentagon quickly changed their tune.
Under the title "Alledged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases", Newsweek published an article on September 15, which reports that three of the terrorists declared the naval airbase and the training center for US Navy pilots in Pensacola, Florida, as their address. It was also reported that several of the terrorists had participated in a military exchange programme in Pensacola. Since many years, members of foreign military forces are trained on this US naval airbase, which, however, is only done at the request of governments that have close ties with the US government. The Newsweek report was based among others on sources according to which at least two of the terrorists were former Saudi airforce pilots who were trained in the USA in military flying schools. After the Pentagon denied this on September 16, Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Abboyt from the office of the secretary of state in the Pentagon tangled herself more and more in contradictions after questions by the journalist Daniel Hopsicker. First, she explained that "equal names does not necessarily imply that the students were the hijackers", and finally refused to give any more information with the words: "I do not have the permission to tell you who attended which school."
Ahmed Alghamdi was a hijacker on Flight 175. That was the one we all saw explode on live TV. For some reason the FBI seems confident that Marwan al-Shehhi was the pilot. But Alghamdi may have been better qualified.
Maybe Fayez Banihammad should be considered as well since he had the following FAA Pilot Number: A0013056. But I digress.
NY Times Sept. 15th, 2001
Ahmed A. al-Ghamdi lived in Pensacola until about August 2000, said a neighbor, Linda Green. Ms. Green said Mr. Ghamdi appeared to be part of a group of Arab men who often gathered at apartments in the complex called the Fountains, near the University of West Florida.
"People would come and knock on the doors," Ms. Green said. "We might see three or four, and they were always men. It was always in the evening. The traffic in and out, although it was sporadic, was constant every evening. They would go and knock, and then it would be a little while and someone would look out the window to see who it was, like they were being very cautious. Not your normal coming to the door and opening it."
Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL)
September 18, 2001 Tuesday
HEADLINE: Pensacola NAS tie-in grows more uncertain
BYLINE: Amie K. Streater Larry Wheeler, Staff
The New York Times reported Saturday that Ahmed A. al-Ghamdi lived at the Fountains apartments near the University of West Florida until August 2000. The report cited an FBI document sent to German police officials that revealed detailed information about the hijackers' planning methods.
However, Angela Barrows, district manager for the apartments, said a check of their records since 1994 showed no tenants with a last name of Alghamdi.
These are basic Lexis-Nexis search results for Ahmed Alghamdi and Saeed Alghamdi.
Name: ALGHAMDI, AHMED (MALE)Social Security Number: 427-81-XXXX
Consumer Name Last Updated: 11/3/2000
Address:9975 UNIVERSITY PKWY APT 84
PENSACOLA, FL 32514-5463
Address Type: HIGH-RISE/APARTMENT
Address Created: 8/30/2000
Address Updated: 8/30/2000
Previous Addresses: 209 S 29TH AVE APT 128
HATTIESBURG, MS 39401-7122
Address Type: HIGH-RISE/APARTMENT
Address Created: 11/3/2000
Address Updated: 11/3/2000
Home of 14th Flying Training Base, Columbus Air Force Base.
Birthdate: 1975 On File Since: 11/3/2000 Date Vendor Record Last Updated: 11/3/2000
Name: ALGHAMDI, SAEED (MALE)
Social Security Number: 000-00-XXXX
Consumer Name Last Updated: 10/28/1997
Address:4710 PRIETO DR APT 707
PENSACOLA, FL 32506-6657
Address Type: HIGH-RISE/APARTMENT
Address Created: 10/28/1997
Address Updated: 10/28/1997
Telephone: (561) 569-7365
On File Since: 3/6/1998
Date Vendor Record Last Updated: 3/6/1998
Here is evidence that the FBI was initially concerned that the hijackers were pilots from Saudi Airlines, or their Air Force.
15 pilots on FBI list have Saudi addresses
By Toni Locy, Kevin Johnson and Richard Willing, USA TODAY 9/19/01
Fifteen of the 37 registered pilots being sought for questioning by agents investigating last week's terrorist hijackings have been linked to addresses in Saudi Arabia, including nine listed as pilots with that nation's government-owned airline, a USA TODAY analysis of federal documents indicates. Law enforcement sources confirmed Wednesday that the FBI is interviewing a large number of Saudi pilots as part of its probe into the attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed thousands. Arab pilots and those with pilot training have become a focus of the FBI's probe as agents try to determine who helped 19 Islamic radicals carry out the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. At least seven of the hijackers had pilots' licenses or training.
This article dips into pure tin foil hattery, but it does raise disturbing questions related to the Alghamdi tribe and their activities in Pensacola.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00085.htm
Now the first question that all this information shoud evoke is "Why doesn't the 9/11 Commission have anything to say about this Pensacola activity?". Why does it insist that Alghamdi first arrived in this country on 5/2/01 at Dulles airport, when there have been published reports that he moved out his house on Orrin Street in Vienna, Virginia in July 2000. Or that he travelled to Connecticut on 3/15/01. Or that he lived in Hattiesburg and Pensacola in 2000, homes of two major air bases?
As for the connection between Richard Secord and all these activities, I am only raising questions.