Melanie
Yossef Bodansky - Congressional Task Force on Terrorism
Sun Aug 3 14:32:08 2003
64.140.158.71

What do you know about Yossef Bodansky? I admit I'd never heard of him until he appeared on the C-Span Wash. Journal this morning. He is the Director of The Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, and he spoke about the terrorism threat from Iraq and other Arabic states. He is involved in the Bush administration's "New Nuclear" plans in which plans are underway for new, powerful nuclear bombs capable of penetrating a mile or so into the earth. Israel has stated, and Bodansky confirmed this belief, that Arabic states surrounding Israel all have, or are building, huge underground bunkers containing the famous "weapons of mass destruction." They say we need these terrible, powerful nuclear weapons to defend ourselves (read: Israel). And, without a doubt, any new weapons will be passed right along to Israel, just as all of our best technology is.

I went to AOL's search engine and type in the task force (above) and got all kind of information about this Bodansky. He has written several books, has been involved in the US government for years, and issued terrifying warnings about Iraq and other Arab states for years. About 1996 or so, he was writing warnings that Iraq was transferring her WMD to Syria. Another place, he says Iraq is sending WMD to Iran. He said Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Syria are collaborating in building and hiding WMD. It seems this Jew has had powerful influence on our government relative to the Mideast, and stayed in the background. His books might have been known but I'd never heard of them or of him.
In searching for information on the task force, I noticed many of the reports has links to Israel. Go to this one, for example. Go to the bottom of the page and click on "Homepage."
http://www.ortzion.org/taskfor_1.html

If you find out any more about this man, I'd appreciate it if you'd send it on to me.
Thanks, Melanie - mlrn3@aol.com
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Congress has Oklahoma witness tapes
June 22, 2002
http://www.glennbeck.com/okc/sot6.htm

Thursday's Associated Press story "Weeks before Oklahoma bombing, government warned of possible terror attacks on federal buildings," by John Solomon, quickly got my attention.

Primarily because that declaration is something people who've followed my columns on a John Doe 2 connection to the April 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma federal building have seen before.

This is nothing new. I first wrote about these warnings in a May 25 column, "The FBI knew in '95, why didn't we?" The two articles quote much of the same intelligence -- intelligence that has been strangely overlooked by major media until this week's AP report.

Not to be smug, but check out the similarities. Here's what the AP said:

"Authorities were warned several times in the two months before Timothy McVeigh struck Oklahoma City in 1995 that Islamic-backed terrorists were planning to bomb a government building, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press."

My story published last month:

"Specific information has surfaced that the FBI and other intelligence agencies were told in early 1995, shortly before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, that Islamic terrorists were about to strike government institutions in Washington D.C."

Here's an excerpt from the AP story on MSNBC's web site:

" 'Iranian sources confirmed Tehran's desire and determination to strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future,' said a Feb. 27, 1995, terror warning by the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. 'These strikes are most likely to occur either in the immediate future or in the new Iranian year -- starting 21 March 1995,' the congressional task force predicted."

From my May 25 column:

"The congressional task force's warning revealed that Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations sponsored by Iran and Syria had been discussing since late 1994 a campaign of attacks beginning in 1995."

Much of my story came from copies of the actual warnings and correspondence between Yossef Bodansky, executive director of Congressional Task Force, and Oklahoma TV investigative reporter Jayna Davis, formerly of Oklahoma City NBC-affiliate KFOR.

As a result of the warnings issued from the task force, the U.S. Marshals Service issued an alert on March 15, 1995, to the federal courthouses it protects. If the warnings had been shared with the public, no one knows whether the bombing could have been stopped.

But it's clear that the congressional task force has been sitting on vital information for five years that could reveal who were the "others unknown" indicted by a federal grand jury along with McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

Specifically, I've learned that the congressional task force is holding video and audio-taped interviews and statements gathered by Davis from 24 witnesses who want to testify they saw executed bomber Timothy McVeigh with the alleged John Doe 2, an Iraqi national, and other Middle Eastern men before and on the day of the bombing.

For instance, Mike Moroz, who worked at Johnny's Tire Store at 10th and Hudson, directed McVeigh to the federal building five blocks away at 5th and Harvey when he pulled into the station in the Ryder truck on the morning of April 19. Moroz says he can't forget that there were two people in the truck -- McVeigh and a Middle Eastern-looking man wearing a ball cap.

Then there was the woman standing in the median near Robinson and Main who made eye contact with the Middle Eastern-looking driver of a brown Chevy pickup speeding away from the scene moments after the blast, and can never forget the angry expression on his face. The same truck the FBI had issued an All-Points Bulletin for immediately after the bombing.

"This evidence is of great importance to the Task Force's investigation," Bodansky wrote Oklahoma County District Judge Bryan Dixon Oct. 5, 1998. "Therefore, in the Spring of 1997, at my request, she (Jayna Davis) forwarded those tapes to my Congressional office for review and safekeeping.

"Having carefully studied these tapes, as well as other work of Ms. Davis, I'm convinced that the witnesses she had interviewed provide credible testimony. It is my professional conclusion, based on a lengthy experience with, and expertise in, international terrorism, that these witnesses are, in fact, justified in fearing for their lives in the event their recorded statements are compromised."

Now that we know the task force is sitting on evidence that ties foreigners to the Oklahoma bombing, I've just two questions for the FBI and the task force.

Where is alleged John Doe 2 Hussain Hashem Alhussaini, who went to work in the late '90s at Boston's Logan Airport where two of the 9/11 flights originated? And when will the public get to see those witness tapes?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patterson is a Star editorial writer. Contact him at 1-317-444-6174 or via e-mail at james.patterson@indystar.com
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The FBI knew in 95, why didn't we? - May 25, 2002
... Shortly after the bombing of the Murrah building, Yossef Bodansky, executive director
of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare ...
http://www.okcbombing.org/News%20Articles/fbi_knew_95.htm 

OKC COVER UP!
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/okc_coverup.htm

OKC TERRORIST MOTEL
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/OKC_motel.htm

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE NONDESCRIPT ROADSIDE motel outside Oklahoma City was just a fleeting encounter during the twisted cross-country odyssey of the terrorists who would carry out the September 11 attacks. Mohamed Atta, alleged leader of the plot, and two companions wanted to rent a room, but couldn't get the deal they wanted, so they left.

It was an incident of no particular importance, except for one thing. The owner of the motel remembers Atta being in the company of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker," who was arrested prior to September 11 and now faces conspiracy charges in connection with the terror assaults.

If this recollection is correct, the entire incident, and its absence from the public record, raises new questions about the FBI investigation of Moussaoui and even the 1995 destruction of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Already the FBI has endured a withering political and media critique for failing to aggressively investigate Moussaoui and his contacts during his four weeks in custody prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some FBI officials have responded by characterizing Moussaoui as only a minor player. But the report from the motel owner, if proven, could change that. And it also could force the FBI to reopen its investigation of Middle Eastern connections to the 1995 Oklahoma City blast, because convicted bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols reportedly stayed at the same motel, interacting with a group of Iraqis during the weeks before the bombing.

AT PRESS TIME, THE ERRATIC MOUSSAOUI, WHO IS representing himself, was attempting to plead guilty and bring his trial to a close. The 34-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent had previously filed some 94 hand-scrawled, rambling motions attacking the government's case and its right to prosecute him.

But that circus obscures a conundrum of a different sort. The government's case, as outlined in its new six-count conspiracy indictment, is largely circumstantial, lacking any definitive link between Moussaoui and the 19 hijackers identified by federal authorities. All of which makes the apparent shelving of the Moussaoui-Atta sighting all the stranger. In fact, even though multiple sources contend that the FBI interviewed the motel owner, there's no indication that prosecutors were told. It's possible that the FBI found the motel owner's identifications wrong or his story unreliable. But it's still odd that, in interviews with the Weekly, Justice Department prosecutors seemed to know nothing about the motel encounter, especially because agents reportedly told the motel owner they would pass the information on to Moussaoui's defense team.

The motel co-owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident occurred around August 1, 2001, just six weeks before 9/11.

"They came in around 10 or 11 a.m. and started talking to my desk clerk," he said. Even though he was working about 10 feet away from the trio, the owner didn't really pay any attention at first. "They were asking my clerk, who no longer works here, about a weekly rate for our rooms." (The former clerk could not be reached for comment.)

The motel, explained the owner, sets aside some rooms with small kitchenettes to rent on a weekly basis. "But they were all taken." He said the clerk explained the situation, but the visitors were persistent. "Finally, my clerk asked me to talk to them."

The motel owner said that Moussaoui and a man who appeared to be Marwan al-Shehhi -- who helped crash a jetliner into the south tower of the World Trade Center -- were friendly and said a few things, but Atta was clearly the leader. "He did most of the talking and seemed very serious," said the owner, adding, "I was standing face to face, about two feet away from Atta, and talked to the three of them for about 10 minutes. Atta asked if he could rent one of the other rooms at a weekly rate, and I told him no.

"I asked him what they were doing here in the area. And Atta told me they were going to flight school. I thought he meant [Federal Aviation Administration] training in Oklahoma City. But Atta told me no, they were taking flight training in Norman.

"I said I didn't understand why they wanted to rent one of my rooms, since we were about 28 miles from Norman and there are a lot of reasonably priced motels a lot closer. But he said they had heard good things about my place
and wanted to stay there. I told them I was sorry, but we couldn't accommodate them. Atta finally said okay. Then they all thanked me for my time and left."

After the attacks, said the motel owner, he recognized his visitors in photos from television reports. "I was really stunned," he said. Then he decided to call the FBI hot line. The motel owner said he didn't hear right back from the FBI. In the interim, he also spoke to a former law-enforcement officer who was investigating reported sightings of Mujahid Abdulquaadir Menepta at the same motel during the mid-1990s. Menepta, reportedly a friend of Moussaoui's, was arrested 30 years ago in Colorado for aggravated robbery and served more than three years in prison.

After September 11, Menepta publicly defended Moussaoui, calling him a "scapegoat." The FBI arrested him as a material witness and subsequently charged Menepta with a federal gun violation. He pleaded guilty and in April 2002 was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. He was never charged with any terrorism-related crime. But during the preliminary hearing on the gun charge, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Jeffrey Whitney testified that a confidential source placed Menepta at a meeting of a radical Islamic group in St. Louis where he allegedly threatened to shoot any police officer who entered the mosque. Menepta's attorney challenged the credibility of this report in court.

A former desk clerk at the motel -- a different clerk from the one who purportedly dealt with Atta and Moussaoui -- told the Weekly that he remembered Menepta because in 1994 and 1995 -- prior to the Oklahoma City attack -- Menepta frequently visited the motel office. There, he bought coffee and talked for hours to this clerk.

The clerk and his wife, who both formerly worked at the motel, said they picked Menepta's picture out of a photo lineup prepared by a law-enforcement officer who had interviewed the motel owner.

This officer, who also spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, said that after the motel owner told him about the Moussaoui sighting, he contacted a member of Oklahoma's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI.

The FBI finally acted on the tip. The motel owner said that on December 19, 2001, he went to FBI offices in

Oklahoma City for a formal interview, where he was debriefed by an FBI agent and by Oklahoma City Police Sergeant Jerry Flowers. "We talked for several hours, and I told them everything I knew." The motel owner said he would have taken a polygraph exam but was not asked to do so. The Weekly's law-enforcement source corroborates the December 19
interview.

The motel owner never heard from prosecutors in Moussaoui's case but got one more call from the FBI several weeks later. "The agent told me they had passed on a copy of my statement to Moussaoui's defense team, and I might be getting a call from them. But I was under no obligation to talk to them. However, I don't know if that was the truth. Since then, I have never heard from anyone connected to Moussaoui's case."

ONE REASON FOR THE FBI'S APPARent lack of interest might be this motel's alleged connection to Timothy McVeigh and a group of Iraqis who worked in Oklahoma City. According to the motel owner and other witnesses and investigators interviewed by the Weekly, McVeigh and several of these Iraqis were motel guests in the months preceding the 1995 bombing. Witnesses also claimed they saw several of the Iraqis moving barrels of material around on the bed of a truck. The motel owner said the material smelled of diesel fuel and he had to clean up a spill. Diesel fuel was a key component of the truck bomb that blew up the Federal Building.

The motel owner said he and his staff reported this information to the FBI in 1995. "We did have an ATF agent come out and collect the originals of the room registrations for that period, but we never heard back from them. And I never could get the registrations returned." He added that his previous experience with the FBI made him reluctant to contact them about Moussaoui. "But I decided it was my duty to tell them what had happened. So I did."

Former Oklahoma City TV r