Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Bush Lies Again: Alhazmi & Almihdhar Were Already Being Spied on by NSA for Yrs

In defense of his domestic spying program, Bush offered 1 case as proof that authorities desperately needed the warrantless eavesdropping ability: In his radio address Sat, Bush said 2 of the hijackers who helped fly a jet into the Pentagon (Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar) had communicated w/ suspected Al Qaeda members overseas while they were living in the US. Bush said: "But we didn't know they were here until it was too late. The authorization I gave the NSA after 9/11 helped address that problem in a way that is fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities." Really? They were already being spied on by NSA, asshat. The incident Bush referred to involved at least 6 communications between a safe house in Yemen and the San Diego apartment rented by Alhazmi and Almihdhar. The Yemen site already had been linked directly to the Al Qaeda bombings of 2 US embassies in Africa in 98 and to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Those links made the safe house 1 of the hottest targets being monitored by the NSA before the 9/11 attacks, and had been so for several yrs. Authorities also had traced the phone number at the safe house to Almihdhar's father-in-law, and believed then that 2 of his other sons-in-law already had killed themselves in suicide terrorist attacks. Such info should have set off alarm bells at the highest levels of the US govt. Under authority granted in fedrl law, the NSA already was listening in on that number in Yemen and could have tracked calls made into the US by getting a warrant under the FISA. Then the NSA could have (and should have) alerted the FBI, which then could have used the info to locate the future hijackers in San Diego and monitored their phone calls, e-mail and other activities. Instead, the NSA didn't disclose the existence of the calls until after 9/11, according to officials and US documents produced in 2 independent inquiries. The NSA was well aware of how hot the number was and how it was a logistical hub for Al Qaeda, and it was also calling the number in America half a dozen times after the Cole and before Sept 11, but NSA and the FBI did not fully coordinate their efforts, and, as a result, the opportunity to determine Almihdhar's presence in the US was lost, the 2002 report said. Hmm, so I guess the real problem was that the NSA & FBI never spoke to one another about these phone calls... not those pesky lil warrants, eh Bush?But what is the truth to a King like you?
Posted by Tina :: 12:24 AM :: 2 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------