Berkshires Week
Playing politics with 9/11
Wed Aug 6 12:37:02 2003
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Playing politics with 9/11

Wednesday, August 06, 2003 -

While Attorney General John Ashcroft scares Americans with vague warnings about pending terrorist attacks by al-Qaida, the White House and related departments continue to stonewall efforts to reveal the events that led up to al-Qaida's infamous attacks on American soil nearly two years ago. America cannot fully prepare for what may come next unless it fully understands what came before, and it is up to the Senate to continue to aggressively pressure the federal bureaucracy to reveal all it knows, regardless of who may be embarrassed.

The latest step in the growing cover-up came Monday when the Treasury Department announced it would not provide the Senate with a list of Saudi individuals and organizations it has investigated for possibly financing al-Qaida attacks. This announcement came just three days after a senior Treasury official, Richard Newcomb, told a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee in a hearing on Saudi involvement in terrorism that the agency would turn the list over to the Senate. "They [Treasury officials] may be looking at a subpoena," declared an angry Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who had sought the information. Let's hope they get one.

Mr. Newcomb has since dropped out of sight and a Treasury public relations flack claims he "misspoke" before the Senate subcommittee. It appears Mr. Newcomb is in trouble not only for his statement Thursday but also for telling committee members that the State Department had on several occasions asked its Treasury counterparts to take certain Saudi individuals and organizations off its terrorist watchlist.

Who is the White House protecting? More than likely it is protecting some of the Saudi groups and individuals named on the 28 pages of the congressional report on 9/11 the White House has classified. Leaks of the censored pages suggest that many of the 9/11 hijackers (most were Saudis, none were Iraqis) had contacts with and were financed by the ruling elite of Saudi Arabia, our alleged ally. The Saudi ruling family, and other prominent Saudis, have long had ties to the Bush family. Those censored pages are also believed to contain information about a Saudi citizen, Omar al-Bayoumi, who, while a student in San Diego and under surveillance by suspicious federal agents, had contact with two of the men who would become hijackers.

Here is what Congress must do. It must insist that Mr. Ashcroft agree to a request made by Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, that Mr. al-Bayoumi be brought to the United States where he can be questioned about his activities outside the baleful gaze of Saudi officials. It must demand that the 28 classified pages of the congressional report be declassified. It must go to court if necessary to get the Treasury Department to release the list it had promised to release. In short, it must insist that the Bush administration stop playing politics with 9/11.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6267~1554272,00.html#
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The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
http://www.wtc-the-truth.i8.com/   

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