A Third Bomber, Bush and Al-Qaeda

Hi folks,

Thursday's post Bush: U.S. Has Disrupted 10 Al Qaeda Plots has generated a fair amount of discussion and provided a lot of food for thought. I think that no matter what side of the fence you sit on it is important to assess and reassess your position about the war because it is too serious a matter not to.

As part of that program I wanted to re-present to you a post that I provided last May titled Oklahoma City- What if there Was A Third Bomber

The suggestion is that there may really have been a Middle Eastern Connection to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. I am curious about a number of things, one of which is if the connection is proven would this change your opinion about the war.

"When the full stories of these two incidents (1993 WTC Center bombing and 1995 Oklahoma City bombing) are finally told, those who permitted the investigations to stop short will owe big explanations to these two brave women (Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie and journalist Jayna Davis). And the nation will owe them a debt of gratitude."

Former CIA Director
James Woolsey
"The Iraq Connection"
Wall Street Journal
September 5, 2002

Here are a couple of selections for your review:

"Evidence supporting Ms. Davis's suspicions surfaced during discovery for the McVeigh trial. An FBI report, for example, records a call a few hours after the bombing from Vincent Cannistraro, a retired CIA official who had once been chief of operations for the agency's counter-terrorism center. He told Kevin Foust, a FBI counter-terror investigator, that he'd been called by a top counter-terror adviser to the Saudi royal family. Mr. Foust reported that the Saudi told Mr. Cannistraro about "information that there was a 'squad' of people currently in the United States, very possibly Iraqis, who have been tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks against the United States. The Saudi claimed that he had seen a list of 'targets,' and that the first on the list was the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma."

Stephen Jones, McVeigh's lead lawyer, discusses the FBI report in his book, "Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy." Mr. Cannistraro later told Mr. Jones that he didn't know if the caller "was credible or not." But Mr. Foust's memo says Mr. Cannistraro described the Saudi official as "responsible for developing intelligence to help prevent the royal family from becoming victims of terrorist attacks," and someone he'd known "for the past 10 or 15 years."

And

"The Sept. 11 airline crashes were not the first attempt to topple the World Trade Center towers. In February 1993, a bomb blast in a public parking garage below the North Tower of the World Trade Center killed six people and left a crater six stories deep. It could have been much worse. In her book, "The War Against America: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks," Laurie Mylroie says that the bomb was designed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower and envelop the scene in a cloud of cyanide gas. Hearing the case, Judge Kevin Duffy agreed, saying that if the plan had worked, "we would have been dealing with tens of thousands of deaths." After the bombing, the FBI rounded up four Muslims who moved in extremist circles in the New York area. Three others escaped overseas: a Palestinian, an Iraqi named Abdul Yasin, and Ramzi Yousef.

Ms. Mylroie's book argues that Iraq was complicit in this attack. At the very least, she notes, Saddam Hussein is harboring a wanted terrorist: Abdul Yasin. He came to the U.S. six months before the Trade Center attack and is charged with helping mix chemicals for the bomb. Picked up in an early sweep after the bombing, he talked his way out of an FBI interrogation and turned up back in Baghdad.

Beyond this, Ms. Mylroie contends that the bombing was "an Iraqi intelligence operation with the Moslem extremists as dupes." She says that the original lead FBI official on the case, Jim Fox, concluded that "Iraq was behind the World Trade Center bombing." In late 1993, shortly before his retirement, Mr. Fox was suspended by FBI Director Louis Freeh for speaking to the media about the case; he died in 1997. Ms. Mylroie says that Mr. Fox indicated to her that he did not continue to pursue the Iraq connection because Justice Department officials "did not want state sponsorship addressed."

According to phone records analyzed by Ms. Mylroie, Abdul Yasin appeared in the orbit of one of U.S. conspirators, Muhammed Salameh, some weeks after Mr. Salameh made a series of phone calls to relatives in Iraq, including to his uncle, Kadri Abu Bakr. Mr. Bakr is a senior figure in the PLO's "Western Sector" terrorist unit; at the very least, his phone calls would be monitored by Iraqi intelligence.

Ramzi Yousef also showed up after the calls to Mr. Bakr, according to Ms. Mylroie's analysis. His arrival "transformed the conspiracy from a pipe bombing plot to an audacious attack on the World Trade Center." Yousef was "the individual most responsible for building the World Trade Center bomb" -- 1,200 pounds of urea nitrate with a nitroglycerine trigger, booster chemicals, sulfuric acid and sodium cyanide.

After the bombing, Yousef vanished; he had entered with an Iraqi passport, and exited with a Pakistani passport. Yousef's Pakistani passport was in the name of Abdul Basit. He obtained it from the Pakistani consulate in New York shortly before the bombing, saying he had lost his passport and presenting photocopied pages from Abdul Basit's 1984 and 1988 passports.

Ms. Mylroie says her evidence suggests that Abdul Basit and his family were among two dozen Pakistani nationals working in Kuwait who vanished at the time of the Iraqi invasion. Law enforcement authorities believe she overplays this possibility, that Yousef is indeed Basit, and that the original Iraqi passport is the only firm link to Iraq."

One more comment to make about this. You may recall that this past May the FBI discovered explosives in the home in which Terry Nichols lived.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Pursuing information they missed evidence a decade ago, FBI agents searched the former home of convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and found blasting caps and other explosive materials apparently related to the 1995 attack, officials said Friday."

I am still amazed that they missed this and it gives me more reasons why I am open to the possibility that there is more here then meets the eye. In general I am not big on conspiracy theories, but this really makes me think.

Random Musings about This and That

This post has been a struggle to write. It may be that it is so late that my brain is not functioning at optimal speed. Of course that assumes that it was not removed from my head and cleverly substituted with a potato.

I like the dead of night. I like the quiet moments like this when the world is more silent and there is a quiet stillness around me. I think about life and consider the past, present and future.

Today I ran into two people from my past. We stopped to make small talk and caught up. I cannot say that I was friends with either of them, but I was close with people that they were close with and that gave us all a certain bond and understanding.

I wonder if they know as much about me as I do about them, not that it really matters because the stories I know are from the early '90s and that is almost ancient history.

Today I watched my daughter fall off of the couch. It was like bad sitcom. I saw it happening, yelled "no" and tried to reach her before she went face first. Forty pounds of jealous sibling strove to prevent me from getting to her and she slipped down just out of my grasp.

The big boy is having a hard time with his little sister. She walks everywhere, climbs, gets into his stuff constantly, follows him around and just adores him. Most of the time he is very protective and loving, but there are moments like this evening when he demands your undivided attention.

She was ok. She is tough. She is a little sister and he doesn't recognize that his actions make her tougher. She will love him and follow him unconditionally and one day when he goes to take a toy away from her he will find that the little one is far tougher then he reasoned and a new day will dawn.

I know because I have three younger sisters. The youngest, the baby is pregnant. She is 31, but she is still my baby sister.

We recently went to dinner and she complained that I was acting like the Secret Service. I cleared space around her so that she wouldn't be bumped and prodded. I told her to relax and accept my help because it wasn't something that she could stop even if she wanted to. Our father programmed this protective gene and set it in motion when her older sister was born 34 years ago. I can't not watch out for them, it is a part of me.

I suspect that she likes it much more now then when she was a teenager, they all do. I am bigger than all of my brothers-in-law and I have been looking out for the all of them far longer. I told the youngest that she should get used to this because I was out of practice and preparing for my daughter's entry into school.

The boys at Toner Mishap are threatening to shut things down. I was disappointed to read about this. I don't like saying goodbye, so I usually opt for "see you later."

Had another conversation with a few people about why life is tough and I came back to the same place. Life is a struggle, but much of it depends on whether you view that struggle in a positive or negative sense. Do you act or react to the world around you.

This time ten years ago I was most likely hanging out at the pool at my apartment complex. My neighbors would have supplied copious amounts of alcohol and dependent upon the weather we might be floating on a raft or heading up stairs to watch a movie.

Some of those people still do that on a regular basis. Of course they are all still single and living in a ratty apartment building. I wonder if at some point they will grow tired of that life.

One day I am going to have to tell the story about the couple that lived next to me and the neighbors below. As a teaser I'll offer this. The people next to me had sex like it was the end of the world. The neighbor below was sure that it was me and constantly complained to the manager about it. She even tried to screw up my dating life by telling my dates that I was constantly having sex with different women. It wasn't true, but I have to say that she inadvertently helped me out a few times as some of the dates became more interested, but that is a different story.

My son told me that he wants to wear sunglasses to shul so that he can be a "cool dude." A "cool dude," where did he pick that term up.

Flipping over to women for a moment I have a question. I am watching The Apprentice and cannot help but ask what is it about the women's teams that come through this show and others. Talk about catty and bitchy towards each other. Is it just me or do they never seem able to get along.

Back to little women. My daughter doesn't say too much yet, her speech is only semi-intelligible, but she does a decent job of making herself understood. She says Da-da and points at me, which is often followed by her climbing into my lap or asking me to pick her up. She is so cute.

I'd like to write more but should get to sleep so let me just add a few short things. This headline caught my eye, but it sounds like a bad idea "Trailer Parks Planned for Katrina Victims" or maybe I am just playing off of stereotypes. All I know is that tornadoes have a sixth sense for finding trailer parks so I'd be careful about this.

Good night for now.

A Very Powerful Post

So very moving and so very touching. There is no explanation for heartbreak like this.

Al Qaeda's Plans

The Washington Post is running an article today in which it relates the details of a letter from Osama Bin Laden's boy Ayman Zawahiri to Abu Musab Zarqawi.

The letter is from this past July and provides some interesting and noteworthy information. Let's look at the pieces of the article.

"But the letter, described by one senior administration official as a "treatise" from Ayman Zawahiri, also warns Abu Musab Zarqawi against alienating the Islamic world, and virtually reprimands the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda for beheading hostages and then distributing videotapes, officials said."

These are not stupid people. It appears to me that they have some concerns about alienating the Muslim world. We are going to need their help, so I have to admit that I am not happy about their recognition of this, but so be it.

The letter then supplies an outline of their goals:

"The letter of instructions and requests outlines a four-stage plan, according to officials: First, expel American forces from Iraq. Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant -- a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel."

None of this surprises me. I am not saying this in a "I told you so" tone of voice, but the information has been out there and is part of why I said I was concerned in the post I wrote about Bush's speech yesterday.

The letter was very specific about the role of Iraq. I for one would be quite interested in seeing a direct translation of it.

"U.S. officials say they were struck by the letter's emphasis on the centrality of Iraq to al Qaeda's long-term mission. One of the two excerpts provided by officials quotes Zawahiri, a former doctor from Egypt, telling his Jordanian-born ally, "I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam's history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era."

It also spelled out that withdrawing our troops from Iraq is not going to be the end of the battle. It also gave an indication of some bickering about how to go about things.

"But bin Laden's deputy also purportedly makes clear that the war would not end with an American withdrawal and that anything other than religious rule in Iraq would be dangerous.

"And it is that the Mujaheddin must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal. We will return to having the secularists and traitors holding sway over us," the letter reportedly says."

More on the differing opinions here, as well as more comments on maintaining relations in the Muslim world.

"In one indication of tensions between the al Qaeda leadership and its Iraqi division, U.S. officials said, Zawahiri writes about the need to maintain popular support. He is critical of Shiite Muslims and says a clash between the Sunni-dominated movement and the Shiite sect is inevitable, officials said, but he rebukes the leader of Iraq's insurgency for its brutal tactics -- noting that hostages can just as effectively be killed with bullets rather than by beheading, officials said.

The letter may indicate al Qaeda's recognition of Muslim public opinion, said one Middle East scholar.

"If the letter's true, it's new because they haven't shown any particular avoidance of certain ruthless tactics. It says to me they are concerned about the way they are being perceived in the Muslim world," said Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution and the University of Maryland.

"The vast majority of people in the Arab world sympathize with al Qaeda only because it champions their issues and speaks their language and it's seemingly effective against their enemies. But most would not want al Qaeda to be the rulers. They would be repulsed to have someone like Zarqawi, who is beheading people, to head their government," he said.

Zarqawi appears not to have heeded the message, because insurgents have continued the beheadings, including two this week."

This last paragraph is of exceptional importance as it reaffirms what the long term goal of AQ is and why it is so important that we recognize this as being a battle of ideology and not solely about oil or territory.

"Bin Laden's deputy has spoken before about the broad plans for the al Qaeda movement. In a book smuggled out of Afghanistan in December 2001, Zawahiri said the goal of jihad is to establish a religious state throughout the Islamic world and "reinstate its fallen caliphate and regain its lost glory."

The long term goal for the West has got to be finding a way to marginalize AQ so that its philosophy is not considered to be important and or significant. We have to find opportunities to provide a safe and secure platform for moderates to use, that is assuming there are real moderate voices in the Muslim world. This is a hope of mine, but I am not convinced yet that these people exist.

Tags: News and politics,Bush,Terrorism

An Obstacle Course For the Blind

I shouldn't laugh, but this story about the new Norwegian Sound and Braille Library sounds like it should be a parody.

"Several users have already been injured at the building, which features electronic doors that can suddenly shut in your face, uneven floors, confusing artwork, and hazardous lighting at foot level.

Pitfalls and simply dangerous obstacles greet blind or visually-impaired visitors to the NLB in the new annex at the National Library of Norway in Oslo. As one approaches the area there are unmarked steps of varying height on the right. On the left side are raised lights built into the floor, which the visually impaired can quickly trip over.

"The library is one of the places most often visited by the blind. But the building is less suited for the visually impaired than most others," said Svere Fuglerud, policy adviser at the Norwegian Federation for the Blind (NBF).

Fuglerud took Aftenposten's evening edition on a tour of the library. The first stop requires a witness to yell out a warning that the door is heading for him.

The entrance doors can only be opened with a switch on a wall behind the door, not easily found even for those with 20-20 vision. The doors then open outwards, and while the visually impaired are occupied with the switch they can easily get the door right in the face.

"There are no sensors that detect someone standing at the door. People can be caught easily," Fuglerud said. "It's incredibly heavy. The worst type of door I have ever seen."

George Will On Harriet Miers

I don't always agree with Will but I think that he is a very fine writer and is good at providing substance and detail. He provides some solid reasons why Miers should not be approved as a justice.

"It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's "argument" for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons.

He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their pre-presidential careers, and this president particularly is not disposed to such reflections.

Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Miers's nomination resulted from the president's careful consultation with people capable of such judgments. If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers's name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists.

In addition, the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution. The forfeiture occurred March 27, 2002, when, in a private act betokening an uneasy conscience, he signed the McCain-Feingold law expanding government regulation of the timing, quantity and content of political speech. The day before the 2000 Iowa caucuses he was asked -- to ensure a considered response from him, he had been told in advance that he would be asked -- whether McCain-Feingold's core purposes are unconstitutional. He unhesitatingly said, "I agree." Asked if he thought presidents have a duty, pursuant to their oath to defend the Constitution, to make an independent judgment about the constitutionality of bills and to veto those he thinks unconstitutional, he briskly said, "I do."

What is There to Live For

In a couple of weeks my paternal grandfather will turn 91. In some ways it is hard to believe that he is so old. I still remember the guy who pulled me in my wagon, took me to movies and a thousand other places. I remember the man who always told me a joke and laughed heartily at life.

At the grand old age of 91 my grandfather's mind is still sharp. He can tell you stories about his time in the carnival business, regal you with tales of Winters spent in New Orleans and time hustling pool. There are stories about life in Vegas and his childhood in Chicago. He'll tell you about his time in the army and fighting the battle of Victorville. It is a seemingless endless supply of stories.

But his recitation of these stories has grown limited. The times in which he speaks are fewer and farther between. That man doesn't seem to be there right now. The stories are still there, he remembers them all but instead of laughter all I hear is silence. He is retreating. He is turning his gaze inward and spending more time sleeping or lost in his own thoughts.

This concerns me. I think that he and I are going to have a conversation about what his plans are for the near future. He hasn't said it yet, but I suspect that in the back of his head he is asking himslef "what is there to live for."

I have a special relationship with all of my grandparents, but in some ways he and I are closer. From a personality standpoint there are many similarities, but part of our bond stems back to my very early childhood. I remember the time between my grandmother dying and his meeting/marrying his second wife, who I came to call grandma as well.

It is a little more than two years since she passed away and he went to live with my father. Within that time frame his eyesight has dramatically deteriorated, he broke his pelvis and has had a number of age related health issues. I cannot imagine that any of that is easy and I rather suspect that he hates it. And I know that he misses being able to drive and is not thrilled about having to live with my parents.

At 91 his ability to roll with the punches is diminished. I think that there would be problems even if my grandmother still alive, but they are exacerbated by his loneliness. He won't go to any senior centers or activities for seniors and you couldn't make him if you tried. His stubborness is legendary.

So we find ourselves trying to get him to interact with us, encourage him to speak but it is not working so well.

If this attitude does not change I do not think that he will be with us for too long and in good conscience I cannot sit back and watch this any longer. I don't have any profound insights or solutions to this problem.

My plan is very basic. I am going to ask him what his plans are and whether he wants to continue to live. I can speak in very direct terms with him. I can lay it out as starkly as it sounds here and not be worried because that is the kind of relationship he and I have.

I am afraid not to be blunt because I think that the time for being soft and sensitive is past. Very soon I am going to find out if he still has a fire in his belly and if not I am going to try and light it.

I don't know what the outcome will be, but it cannot be worse than it is now.