Tom Flocco
(Cont'd) Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy
Wed Jul 14, 2004 02:37
64.140.158.145


http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=68

The chat room confirmed Schneider’s and the Sharrit’s concerns for National Security, because the illegal Muslims’ bribery of U.S. immigration officials was also supporting an Al Qaeda terrorist cell involving Egyptian Ihab Ali, who was identified as one of Osama bin Laden’s trusted lieutenants--but also his former pilot.

Schneider added "Even after the Sharrits exposed the illegal activities of Lyazid Abad in June, 1998 and after May, 1999, when Orlando, Florida taxi driver Egyptian Ihab Ali was arrested for organizing the U.S. Embassy bombings, the Orlando AOL chat room confirmed that U.S. immigration officials were allegedly taking bribes from illegal Muslims for green cards--individuals who were reportedly assisting Al Qaeda and Ihab Ali within the Orlando terrorist support network."

Schneider had repeatedly informed high government officials about the illegal activities; but Lyazid Abad was never denied a green card. Now the government is deporting him.

The Egyptian Ihab Ali was arrested by the FBI and brought to New York City around May, 1999; and in October, 2000, the Orlando taxi driver’s cover was blown in court testimony because federal official linked the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania to Ali when his name was found in a letter from Ali to a U.S. Army sergeant with ties to al Qaeda in California.

The letter said "give my best regards to your friend Osama....Tell him -- Sam -- that apologize that I couldn’t finish what he requested of me due to some personal problems," and phone records showed a series of calls placed in 1997 between a phone in the name of Ali’s sister and an al Qaeda house in Nairobi where the [U.S. Embassy] bomb plots were managed. (St. Petersburg Times, 10-28-2001)

The Times added that Kenyan agents found a letter written by bombing conspirator Wadih al Hage to Ihab Ali on February 21, 1997, saying "he and his friends say hello to you;" and Ali sent a fax from an Orlando apartment to al Hage in Kenya on February 26, 1997: "in reply to the DR’s request [Dr. Muhammad Atef--al Qaeda military commander], please inform him that I am always ready to help out."

Within two days of the Ali revelations, in May 1999, Schneider told us she contacted and faxed copies of the AOL chat room containing significant intelligence corroborating her whistleblower allegations to the New York City Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force, but also SAIC Alan Hazen at the Fort Lauderdale OIG.

Schneider then told us "the OIG quickly issued letters of exoneration to Dugas and Jarina. And at the July, 2000 Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) hearing regarding retaliation against me for my whistleblower allegations, Susan Dugas gave sworn testimony stating that she and Stella Jarina were questioned for 15-20 minutes about the bribery, and then she held up her complete OIG investigation report which contained one single paragraph."

Three days after faxing the FBI and the OIG copies of the AOL chatroom, whistleblower Schneider was suspended for 30 days without pay in June, 1999, which the MSPB judge later ruled in November, 2000 was an illegal retaliation for whistleblower activites, thus indicating that individuals in government agencies much higher up in authority did not want a bribery conspiracy linked to September 11 publicized--let alone investigated.

Schneider told us many of these activities appear to be ongoing, and as such, the adjudications officer’s allegations may indicate Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) practices which are similar in nature to an ongoing 9-11 RICO suit against various government officials--including the President, Vice-President, members of the cabinet and other high-ranking agency officials: Mariani vs. Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, et. al.

Government tracking Abad and Atta before attacks?

Bonnie Sharrit told Schneider that Lyazid Abad was associated with Osama bin Laden’s brother Khalil who lived in West Orange County, and that she knew Khalil had made inquiries prior to September 11 about how he could bring in other Arabs from Saudi Arabia and Brazil to attend a flight school in Daytona Beach.

According to her parents--who relayed the information to Mary Schneider, Christine Sharrit’s story could also be confirmed by officers from Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Department of Defense (DOD). The Criminal Investigations Division (DOD-CID) was so interested in Abad--the illegal Moroccan Muslim who lived with Atta, that they sought out his estranged wife Christine Sharrit in the Fall of 2001 just after the attacks on the World Trade Center while she was on military duty overseas.

While questioned, Sharrit said CID investigators showed her a photo of a Middle Eastern man and asked her whether she recognized him. Sharrit said he looked familiar as one of six or seven Arabs living in an apartment with Abad prior to their wedding in 1997. However, Sharrit was surprised when the investigators revealed the identity of the individual in the photo as Mohamed Atta--the generally acknowledged alleged leader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Christine also told Mary Schneider that she was shocked to find out that the government knew so much more about her husband than she did--including his previous residences and the fact that he had engaged in bigamy with a fifth wife while still married to her--all of which she was unaware.

All this, while confirming that the government was well aware of Abad’s connections to Mohamed Atta and that they were likely tracking his movements in the days prior to the attacks--given that Sharrit was contacted so quickly after 9-11 about her husband Lyazid.

Khalil bin Laden linked to evidence of terrorism in Brazil’s Triple Border region?

Curiously, the Sharrits told Mary Schneider that their ex son-in-law, Lyazid Abad, claimed to them that he had at one time actually picked up Osama bin Laden’s brother [Khalil bin Laden], driven him down to and dropped him off in Miami, and returned to pick him up and then drove him over to Tampa. [Schneider sent this specific information about Khalil bin Laden to the FBI on May 17, 1999--over two years before the attacks.]

In the May 26 article, Sleeping With the Enemy, the Orlando chat room subsection referred to an individual named the "Manoman," who transported certain individuals around central Florida.

[Respected New York City 9-11 researcher Nico Haupt found that the Supreme Court of Bosnia Herzegovina granted access on March 6, 2003 to documents seized by the Bosnian police in March, 2002 at the Muslim Offices of Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) in Sarajevo. A French team of investigators received the documents which were part of a computer file titled "Tareekh Osama" or "Osama History" which included a list of the top-20 Saudi financial sponsors--the so-called "golden chain" of bin Laden financiers--and made them available on the internet. The documents confirmed another reason why the White House should have held Khalid bin Laden for grand jury interrogation: mentioned among the list of BIF-linked Saudi financiers of terrorism was Khalil bin Laden, a board member of United Gulf Industries Corporation--headquartered in the city of "Manama," Bahrain, leading to speculation that Lyazid Abad may have been Khalil bin Laden’s personal chauffeur -- the "Manoman" in the Orlando chat room. And both Bush 41 and Bush 42 have extensive past connections to the country of Bahrain--many of them financial.]

Chat rooms are typically used by terrorists to communicate. But thus far neither the congressional intelligence committee nor the 9-11 Commission has mentioned anything about Khalil bin Laden and Lyazid Abad as pieces to the September 11 puzzle.

According to a German news report, seven weeks after the September 11 attacks Brazilian police placed Khalid bin Laden, brother of Osama bin Laden, under investigation due to reports of his visit in September, 2001 to a province near the tri-border region of Brazil-Paraguay-Argentina--an area suspected as a site for Hezbollah terrorist training camps, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). (12-03-2002) The results of that investigation have not been publicly revealed. And the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee and 9-11 Commission have never mentioned Khalil, links to Triple Border and evidence of terrorism in Brazil. They only wanted Khalil out of the U.S.

"The region is the Hilton of Islamic extremism. It’s been on the radar since the early 90’s but no one’s done anything about it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Centre for the study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland. (Vanity Fair, December, 2002)

Ranstorp added "the day after September 11, the CIA had a team of investigators [in Triple Border] there," continuing, "Brazilian authorities have intercepted numerous phone calls from clandestine telephone exchanges in Triple Border and Afghanistan [from cell phones in caves?] and last year a CNN reporter in Kabul found a large tourist poster from Triple Border at an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan." But the White House still wants to immediately deport illegal Moroccan Lyazid Abad while Khalil bin Laden was allowed to leave--and neither are ever mentioned.

According to U.S. cable television terrorism analyst and author of the Vanity Fair piece--Sebastian Junger, "Triple Border is now a thriving nexus of drugs, weapons, and money-laundering operations," adding "the Paraguayan consul [stationed] in Miami, Florida was recently arrested for allegedly selling a batch of 300 passports to foreigners--including terrorist suspects from the Middle East, who planned to move to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay." Have the Senate and House allowed this to continue?

Junger said "bank records show that a Lebanese businessman and shopping mall owner in Ciudad del Este--named Assad Ahmad Mohamad Barakat...has transferred thousands of dollars to Hezbollah over the years," while Junger also revealed that "in his office the police found scores of copies of an al Qaeda promotional video--providing yet more evidence that Khalil bin Laden’s links to Brazil should have been well worth exploring before the White House let him leave the U.S. after the attacks.

Vanity Fair and Junger said another Moroccan named Gueddan Abdel Fatah--incarcerated in Sao Paulo, handed a typed letter to attorney Edith Espinosa at the prison just six days before the September 11 attacks--and begged her to give it to the Federal Police in Brazil in the presence of U.S. Embassy and Israeli diplomatic officials.

In the letter, Fatah said "there were going to be ‘two explosions’ in the United States in the near future," but Espinosa neglected to pass the letter along, while Fatah said "he had gone to Triple Border the year before and had attended meetings at a mosque in Foz do Iguacu where Shiite and Sunni Muslims--ordinarily enemies--talked openly about ‘blowing up’ the United States."

DPA also reported that Brazilian officials were investigating Khalil’s numerous business connections in the area of the southwestern corner of Brazil as well as letters Khalil sent to a Brazilian psychologist--evidence that has apparently never reached either the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee or the 9-11 Commission, given Khalil’s connections to Lyazid Abad.

DPA also said Brazil has been investigating the movements of other unnamed Arab-origin citizens living in the Triple Border region while also having frozen the bank accounts of some who are suspected of being linked to terrorists. An Associated Press report from Sao Paulo, Brazil said Khalil is married to Brazilian Isabel Cristina Bayma, and is said to visit Brazil once per year.

A Japan Today / Kyodo News report out of Rio De Janeiro (3-31-2003) by Lenilson Ferreira said that on March 11, 2003 top-selling Brazilian weekly Veja published a cover-story about a reported Osama bin Laden visit to Triple Border’s massive Iguacu River falls in 1995--two years after the first World Trade Center bombing--where he reportedly spent three days meeting with members of the substantial local Arab community--some 30,000 strong, although this alone does not indicate Tri-Border is linked to international terror.

According to Veja, the local travel industry uses Osama as a tourist incentive: "When he is not blowing up the world, Osama bin Laden enjoys himself," says one ad displaying a long-bearded man wearing Arab clothes and lounging on a sofa, adding "If bin Laden risked his neck to visit Foz do Iguacu, it means it is worthwhile! Everybody wants to see us. Why haven’t you come yet?" asks the tourism campaign launched in 30 daily newspapers in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Veja also reported that terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of Kuwait, third-ranking al-Qaeda leader--the infamous "KSM" of 9-11 Commission staff report fame--also visited Foz do Iguacu under a "tourist" visa, thus raising more serious questions about why the White House wants Lyazid Abad out of the United States without presenting him for grand jury interrogation--let alone why they released Khalid bin Laden.

However, despite evidence to the contrary, U.S. diplomats and officials with the Organization of American States have said repeatedly that they have seen no evidence of terrorist cells in the area. "It’s folklore," said Geraldo Pereira, Foz do Iguacu’s chief of police. (Washington Post, 4-04-2004)

But without a thorough investigation--in a situation similar to illegal Moroccan Muslim Lyazid Abad with his al-Qaeda / Mohamed Atta / 9-11 links who is being deported now--Khalil bin Laden was allowed to leave the United States from Boston Logan Airport on September 19--where the Atta originated the 9-11 attacks--courtesy of bin Laden family ties to the White House.

Massachusetts Port Authority’s Director, Virginia Buckingham, said in the Boston Globe: "My staff was told that a private jet was arriving at Logan from Saudi Arabia to pick up 14 members of Osama bin Laden’s family living in the Boston area," adding " 'Does the FBI know? Does the State Department know? Why are they letting these people go? Have they questioned them? This was ridiculous.' "

Whistleblower Retaliation

Schneider said she specifically contacted other key government officials before the September 11 attacks: Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) Office of Internal Audit Director John Chase, The New York Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force, INS Internal Audit Assistant Director Sue Armstrong on August 9, 2001, Ft. Lauderdale DOJ Office of the Inspector General Special Agent-in-Charge Alan Hazen six times, and Miami INS District Director Robert Wallis and Deputy District Director John Bulger on Nov. 1, 2000--less than a year before 9-11. Both have since been promoted despite failing to take action before the attacks.

Because she repeatedly alerted multiple federal officials, Miami U.S. attorney Guy Lewis and Congress about terrorist threats, Department of Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider is currently being harassed, threatened with termination after 30 years federal service--but prior to pension benefits, issued unsatisfactory work evaluations based on trumped up allegations, had her official whistleblower status recently revoked by the courts, and had her Title VII civil rights violations lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft dismissed just one day prior to jury selection in a manner similar to FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

Instead of promoting Schneider and giving her a raise for attempting to protect the American people, current congressional oversight permits the executive branch of govenment to commit what amounts to financial and emotional attrocities against a loyal and honorable federal employee.

Moreover, in reprisal and retaliation for exposing criminal conspiracies involving federal agencies and elected officials who allowed the facilitation of a terrorist cell support network in central Florida before the 9-11 attacks, the government is actively pursuing Schneider’s termination while also having suspended her salary twice for 30 days fo