Recently, President Bush has admitted to carrying out surveillance on U.S. citizens in the interest of national security. He unabashedly admits to doing it. He offers no apologies. With his bellicose swagger, he once again uses 9/11 as his justification for breaking our constitutional laws. The President's justification of 9/11 to carry out such surveillance begs a closer examination. President Bush should be stopped in his tracks with regard to his use of 9/11 scare tactics to circumvent constitutional laws that are meant to protect U.S. citizens. His justification for doing so -- the inability to conduct surveillance on the 9/11 hijackers -- is a red herring. History will bear out the truth -- our intelligence agencies held a treasure trove of intelligence on the 9/11 hijackers, intelligence that was gathered through their initially unencumbered surveillance. President Bush should busy himself by investigating why that information was then stymied and not capitalized upon to stop the 9/11 attacks.
MOUSSAOUI, FISA, and FBI SURVEILLANCE -- MISUNDERSTANDING #1:
When it comes to the FBI and Zaccarias Moussaoui, one must understand that the FBI met all evidentiary standards to both apply for and be granted a FISA warrant. The information the FBI had to support their FISA request was two files on Moussaoui that were given to the FBI by the French and British intelligence services. Inexplicably, FBI lawyers and supervisors at FBI HQ "misunderstood" the evidentiary standards needed to apply for and receive a FISA warrant, and they refused the FISA request from the FBI agents in Minneapolis. Thus, the Moussaoui search warrant paperwork was never submitted to the FISA court. One need only read Colleen Rowley's memorandum to confirm these facts.
Had FBI HQ not denied the FISA request, the FISA court would have issued the search warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings....
None of the FBI lawyers and/or supervisors responsible for this glaring error and "misjudgment" has been held accountable.
AL MIHDHAR/AL HAZMI & THE STATE DEPARTMENT-- MISUNDERSTANDING #2:
Both al Mihdhar and al Hazmi were connected to the Cole bombing and as such were investigated as part of the FBI's Cole investigation.
If, in the summer of 2001, the FBI had been able to access their own criminal case files on the Cole investigation, they might have been able to stop al Mihdhar and al Hazmi before they carried out the 9/11 attacks. Because of the "misunderstanding" about sharing information between FBI intelligence and FBI criminal investigations (the Reno wall), vital information that would have helped the FBI locate al Mihdhar and al Hazmi was not shared within the FBI. As a result, Al Mihdhar and al Hazmi were not found by the FBI in time to prevent the 9/11 attacks. So goes the story, if only the "misunderstandings" about the Reno wall had not existed, the two 9/11 hijackers would have been stopped. This is patently false, because, the Reno wall did not prevent the FBI from capturing at least one of the 9/11 hijackers--Khalid al Mihdhar.....
ABLE DANGER -- MISUNDERSTANDING #3
When it comes to Able Danger and surveillance, one must look at the alleged history of Able Danger and know the facts....
The story is that Able Danger was allegedly dismantled in May 01 because it violated posse comitatus. With regard to Able Danger and its surveillance of terrorists within the borders of the United States, the alleged Able Danger cells were not U.S. citizens. Therefore, posse comitatus did not apply. Once again, lawyers "misunderstood" the law. They thought terrorists in the United States participating in terrorist acts were entitled to the same rights as U.S. citizens. Quite a "misunderstanding." The result of their misunderstanding? Four of the 9/11 hijackers -- members of the Brooklyn Cell -- were not "taken out" and a mere four months later able to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
THE KING'S APPROACH
President Bush is using the intelligence community's pre-9/11 "inability" to carry out surveillance on the hijackers as his reasoning for currently conducting surveillance on U.S. citizens. First of all none of the 9/11 terrorists were U.S. citizens. Moreover, no law past or present barred the intelligence community from stopping the 9/11 terrorists. Ultimately, what stopped the intelligence community from capturing or killing the 9/11 hijackers prior to the 9/11 attacks were the lawyers and supervisors who repeatedly "misunderstood" the very laws they were supposed to be the experts on....
Breitweiser concludes:
It has come to my attention that the one terrorist we currently have in custody and connected to the 9/11 attacks--Zacarias Moussaoui-- is being tried for the death penalty because he lied to the FBI in August 2001 (his lie? in short, "i am not a terrorist. i am just interested in flying planes.") ....
If this is to be the threshold to put an individual to death--the intentional withholding of information that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks--there are arguably many individuals (quite alarmingly some of whom are in our own government) who could meet that requirement and potentially be tried for death. Will the Moussaoui penalty phase hearing set such a precedent?....
A Republican who voted for Bush in 2000, then lost her husband in 9/11, Kristen Breitweiser led the fight for a 9/11 Commission and campaigned for Kerry in 2004.
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