TIL that FBI Farsi translators gave detailed, pre-911 intel to their superiors. After the attacks, they were ordered by their bosses to assume "those conversations never happened." [incoming wall of text, book excerpt]
327 2016-11-21 by [deleted]
This is an excerpt of the book written by an FBI whistleblower named Sibel Edmonds, Classified Woman.
Yeah, it's long, but if you had any doubt whatsoever about 911... just read. I highlighted for the extra-lazy.
"This is nothing compared to some other coverups that had direct bearing on what happened here on September eleven!"
"Do you mean other nine eleven cases have been similarly destroyed, covered up?"
"I am saying that and ten times worse," he avowed. "Yours won't begin to measure up to what we have seen this agency cover up." He turned to Sarshar. "Do you want to tell her about our case or do you want me to?"
Sarshar got up and grabbed a file from his desk drawer, then came back and sat down. "Sit tight. What you will hear and see will blow your mind."
Sarshar then began to tell me about the Iranian informant.
The story began in the early 1990s. The bureau hired an Iranian man who had been the head of SAVAK (Iran's main intelligence agency) as a reliable source on its criminal, counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations and investigations. The man was very good at what he did and had established a large number of sources and informants in strategically important areas within Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Notably, he managed intelligence-gathering operations in Sistan and Baluchistan, two semi-independent regions on the border with Afghanistan.
Once on the payroll, he began providing extremely useful and reliable information. The bureau was so pleased with his performance that it began using him both as an informant and as an asset. On a regular basis, almost monthly, agents from the FBI HQ and WFO would meet with him in a location outside the bureau to obtain information and intel on various ongoing operations and investigations.
The agents needed an interpreter for these regular monthly meetings, Sarchar explained, which is where he and Amin came in. "Around the end of April, two thousand one," he told me, "I was asked to accompany two special agents from the FBI-WFO... to a meeting arranged with this informant... we met in a park and spend nearly an hour discussing the case, asking detailed questions, and of course, with me translating back and forth. Once we were finished with the session and ready to head back to the WFO, the informant urged us to stay for a few minutes and listen to something very important and alarming he had recently received from his sources."
According to Sarchar, the informant then proceeded to tell them, "Listen, I was recently contacted by two extremely reliable and long-term sources, one in Afghanistan, the other in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan. In the past, these guys had provided me with inside information and intelligence that was extremely hard to come by, considering the tightly based networks and groups they were able to enter and penterate. They notified me that an active mujahideen group led by Bin Laden had issued an order to attack certain targets in the United States, and were planning to attack as we spoke." Here, Sarchar explained, the agents seemed very alarmed since their main unit of operation was under the WFO Counterterrorism division. All of them took notes.
The informant continued, "According to my guys, Bin Laden's group is planning a massive terrorist attack in the United States. The order has been issued. They are targeting major cities, big metropolitan cities; they think four or five cities: New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, and San Francisco; possibly Los Angeles or Las Vegas. They will use airplanes to carry out the attacks. They said that some of the individuals involved in carrying this out are already in the United States. They are here in the US, living among us, and I believe some in the US government already know about this."
The informant was asked about specific dates, and whether they would use airplanes, bombs, or hijacking; did he know?
"No specific dates," came the reply, "not any that they were aware of. However, they said the general time frame was characterized as "very soon." They think within the next two or three months... as far as how they are going to attack, your guess is as good as mine. My bet, it will be bombs: planting bombs inside these planes, maybe the cargo, and then have them blow up over the populated cities."
Sarshar took notes in Farsi and later translated them verbatim. The informant urged them to report and act on this information immediately, adding that Bin Laden had backing and experts. "If I were you guys, I'd take this extremely seriously. If I had the same position as I had in SAVAK, I'd put all my men on this around the clock. I can vouch for my sources, their reliability. Make sure you put this in the hands of top guys in Counterterrorism."
The agents discussed the best person to whom they should submit this warning and decided on Special Agent in Charge Thomas Frields, who was in charge of the WFO Counterterrorism Division.
Once back at the office, Sarshar completed his translation and the agents filled out the necessary 302 forms for their formal report. Two sets of 302 forms were filed: one for the ongoing criminal case, and the other on the warning, as information related to counterterrorism operations. Sarshar coordinated with the agents for the final reports and kept his own set of records. They submitted the warning report to SAC Frields with a note on top reading VERY URGENT.
Nobody heard back from Frields or the Counterterrorism division. No one asked for any follow-ups or additional information. Two months went by. Around the end of June 2001, Sarshar met with the agents and the Iranian informant again. When they had completed their business, the Iranian asked about the warning he had passed along to them, now two months old, whether it had been reported to the higher-ups. He was told it had been. The informant, now animated, explained that he'd heard back from his source, who "swore the attack was on its way; any time now, a month or two, max" and asked point blank, "Are they going to do something about it?"
The agent's response was, "I know, I hear what you're saying, man, but doing something about this won't be up to us. Plus, we don't have enough information to take action here. We don't know when, how, or exactly where. The only thing we have is: Bin Laden, five cities, and airplanes. That ain't enough."
The informant went on, "Ive been thinking about this, trying to make more sense out of it myself. The source mumbled, something about tall buildings. Maybe they will blow up the plane over some tall buildings? I don't know... maybe the FBI can get more specifics from the Pakistanis, ISI. Have you tried? After all, they are your guys; they know about this."
The agents, exasperated and impatient, told him they reported it and now it would be up to those in charge. When they were leaving, the informant yelled in Farsi, "Why don't you tell the CIA? Tell the White House! Don't let them sit on this until it's too late..."
Sarhar asked one of the agents if he thought sharing this with other agencies might be a good idea. As Sarshar described it, the agent rolled his eyes. "Not up to us, Behrooz. As far as the White House goes, the HP guys will include it in their briefings; I'm sure they've already done so. Frields is obligated to submit what he got, everything he gets under Counterterrorism, to the HP guys in charge of White house national security briefings. He always does. So, the White House and other agencies have already heard about this. Let's drop this, man, will ya?"
He told me, "That was the last time we ever discussed the case before the nine eleven attacks took place. The only other person I told this to and showed the 302 report forms and the translation report to, before September eleven, was Amin here. Then, on that Tuesday morning on September 11, everything came back to me and hit me on the head like several tons of bricks... we were warned about this. We were told, very specifically."
Sarshar spoke of getting together with both agents a few days later to go over an assignment; Amin had been present when he brought up the topic. "They avoided eye contact with me. I asked them what they were going to do, if they'd already done something. At first they were evasive. Then, after I insisted, one of them said, 'Listen, Frields called us into his office and gave us an order, an absolute order.' I asked them what the order was. He said, 'We never got any warnings. Those conversations never existed; it never happened, period. No one should ever mention a word about this, period. Never!' I almost went ballistic; Amin sat quietly with his head down."
He paused. "That was the end of it, Sibel. The top managers--those in charge you now want to inform--are the ones who are covering up reports and cases like this. And you want to go take it up with them?"
I was mortified; shocked. When I finally found my voice, I asked, "What are you guys going to do with this? Are you guys going to obey Frields' order, for God's sake?"
Amin responded this time. "It's too late, Sibel. What's done was done. We cannot turn back the clock. Also, there is no place to go with this. They seemed to all be in this together: The CIA, the White House... that's how I view it."
Edit: fixed Edwards to Edmonds
24 comments
14 [deleted] 2016-11-21
Also worth noting that this guy tried reporting this documentation a second time... and was fired (in the usual roundabout government fashion).
When the 911 (C)omission "sought input" from anyone with intel years later, the FBI worker volunteered to share what he knew. He gave a brief synopsis, but they didn't get back to him to take a formal report. Thus, his information detailing this exchange was not found in the book.
8 know_comment 2016-11-21
August 6, 2001 PDB Memo:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/CIA_Memo.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
6 murtokala 2016-11-21
I don't believe this for a second (edit: the story might be true, but the intel might be planted). I am pretty sure Bin Laden had nothing to do with the attacks nor did the guys that "flew" the planes that perhaps were the guys that were already on US soil as the informant gave what he had.
Like said multiple times, the planes exceeded their flight envelope parameters by a big margin, and all the rest of the impossibilities that happened.
This is just more cover up.
2 [deleted] 2016-11-21
There were other pieces of intelligence the book discusses... such as translating a call from two guys hailing from a place with little more than mud huts asking about blueprints of skyscrapers, at least 100 stories tall. These prints needed to be hand-delivered. The day after 911 they were congratulating themselves.
Now, this was mailed to her by an agent who wanted to see if his hunch was correct. She made a detailed report about it to send back, and her supervisor quashed it. When she mentioned bringing it to higherups and circumventing her supervisor, all said to just bury it. There was a real culture of suppression of intel related to 911, and I strongly believe it's because it'd point back to them.
What I think happened was the CIA had been using Bin Laden for their various ops ever since they more or less created Al Qaida during our proxy wars in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region with Russia.
And if you're wondering if this sounds familiar it is absolutely because this is what the US has done in the creation of ISIS--fund a small militant group to carry out US interests as a proxy war with Russia.
Anyway, I think they tapped him back in the game to help with their new objective of spreading their influence in the Midd East, but to trigger the kind of intervention they wanted they needed a full-scale attack. I think they had a concerted effort to "create" 911 as a false flag. This was already alluded to in PNAC's reports of having "a new Pearl Harbor."
Anyway... a lot of what I'm saying is known to the long-time users here but since /r/conspiracy has grown I'm just throwing this out there.
2 murtokala 2016-11-21
Yeah I agree, that might be a possibility. Most of what you say and what was probably written in the book might have happened I don't deny that, but outside of the insiders who planned the 911 attacks I believe all evidence, like what is discussed here under this topic, was planted, orchestrated, and I would suppose the book talks about the side that is being orchestrated.
That's why I said this is just more cover up. More evidence and details for the fact that they had prior knowledge of the attacks and did nothing, but that in itself is pointing away from the real "source".
1 DronePuppet 2016-11-21
How is that so? Any investigation should expose all possibilities. We know lots happened on that day and the months after. Its easy to get lost in translation.
2 murtokala 2016-11-21
What I meant by that was that I believe laying more evidence about the fact they had prior knowledge and intelligence about the upcoming attacks is pointing away from the guys that really planned the attacks. Some knew the full plan and the rest were played, and those who got played, like the informant here, had evidence that someone wanted to pop up over there to make it look like the attacks were planned from a cave.
I don't mean the evidence was false in the sense that it was not actionable, they might've had enough to bring the plan down. I also don't mean the writer is knowingly covering the attacks up, but in effect does that by turning focus to somewhat irrelevant things.
With a conspiracy this scale this is of course bound to happen and has happened many times already, because the people that know pieces of the plan don't know the story behind the pieces they have. I doubt many actually knew the whole thing, I might even believe the number to be countable with fingers, though probably a bit more.
It's late, hope that makes some sense =) Just writing my thoughts out as they pop into my head.
2 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
Good information, but it basically just confirms what most people knew already. The US had advanced warnings about an attack from al Qaeda and dropped the ball. Richard Clarke was saying the same thing back in 2003, the administration was asleep at the switch.
It doesn't really fit with the narrative that the US government actually planned the attacks though.
7 [deleted] 2016-11-21
I think the more one learns about the links between the CIA, Al Qaida, and Bin Laden, the more I believe it was an orchestrated attack between all of these parties. Given the intel, why would NORAD pilots be told to stand down at the exact same time as the attacks, and be placed far away as "part of a drill?"
The Bush administration (and the defense/military/surveillance arm controlling it) benefitted extraordinarily from 911.
They weren't covering up their incompetence... they were covering up the collusion.
Because if they simply "dropped the ball," then why no followup whatsoever with material marked as "extremely urgent" before the attacks happened? That to me = coverup of collusion.
And really, this is just the tip of the 911 iceberg.
-4 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
They weren't told to stand down. That's a myth.
Why even meet with the informant in the first place then? Why provide the presidential daily briefings?
Not following up is the ball drop. They were given urgent information and didn't act on it.
I certainly think there was a coverup after the fact, but it was incompetence that was being covered up.
2 Apersonofinterest666 2016-11-21
You're correct. They weren't told to stand down. Most of the top of the Command and Control just made sure that we had to military assets that could help and then conveniently made themselves unavailable. Rumsfeld was out on the lawn "helping" the rescuers at the Pentagon for over an hour. Armitage, Eberhard and the rest were all inexplicably absent from their post leaving new officers in charge. The FAA had fake targets on their radar and believed what was happening was part of a drill. The military lied to Congress and the 9/11 commission repeatedly. If the military and the FAA had just followed standard procedure, most, if not all, of the planes would have been intercepted.
0 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
Which of the 4 flights would they have been able to intercept? Go from the time air traffic control knew that it was a hijacking to the time the planes made impact. Most were in the neighbourhood of 20 minutes total, with NORAD having less than half of that notice.
2 Apersonofinterest666 2016-11-21
It generally took 15 minutes to intercept an unidentified aircraft. A month before 9/11, Cheney changed the procedure requiring the FAA and NORAD to go through a much longer process requiring direct approval from top military command. All of whom were unavailable when the decision had to be made.
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a90regularscrambles
1 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
Which of the 4 hijacked flights did NORAD have that much notice of?
NORAD had 9 minutes notice for AA11 before it hit the WTC.
For United 175, air traffic control realized it was hijacked 8 minutes before impact.
1 Apersonofinterest666 2016-11-21
I'm on mobile so I will link to 9/11 Consensus Points. They specifically address all of the problems with the military leadership, military drills, plane highjacks and the highjackers themselves.
http://www.consensus911.org/the-911-consensus-points/
1 [deleted] 2016-11-21
Genuinely curious: your post history shows the only thing you do in Reddit is try to debunk 911 and JFK. You've not even contributed to other subreddits. Just this one.
Why?
0 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
This isn't my only account.
1 [deleted] 2016-11-21
... just the one you use to try to discredit conspiracy theorists in their own sub?
1 Nostromo_1 2016-11-21
My main account got doxxed pretty heavily a couple years ago by an old poster in this sub. That was the impetus for creating this one.
2 wrongisright9 2016-11-21
My theory for what happened. Somewhere along the way TPTB learned of the plan to attack the US and instead of stopping it they let it happen (and maybe even gave it a push in the right direction) because it benefitted their agenda -- PNAC, war profits, orwellian security changes, etc..
It seemed like every intelligence agency in the world heard a whisper or two about this before it happened...it can't just be negligence that our intelligence apparatus didn't pursue this. I think it was intentional.
2 [deleted] 2016-11-21
My theory is just about the same as yours, except that I think the CIA was much more hands on in working with Al Qaida to generate the 911 attacks.
1 12358 2016-11-21
I agree. This is exactly what I think happened. I also saw a U.S.government internal magazine dated before 9/11 that depicted a possible Twin Towers aircraft attack on their front cover. A year or two before the attack the MSM was broadcasting an announcement from OBL that he planned to strike the U.S. The U.S. claim that this was unexpected and without warning is a flat out lie.
I don't think that the neocons planned the attack, but I do believe that they found out about it, then held the door wide open to help promote its success. I think it goes all the way up to Cheney, but Bush was probably just a useful idiot. I bet it was no accident that Bush was innocently on camera when he got the news. That newsroll was added fodder for the national outrage over this Pearl Harbor event. Pearl Harbor is a fitting description, since that event was also allowed to happen in order to galvanize the public to go to war.
1 call_me_elsewhere 2016-11-21
Thanks for posting this, but:
Edmonds. Sibel Edmonds.
1 [deleted] 2016-11-21
Ah let me fix that! She's far too great for me to misspell her name.
1 Apersonofinterest666 2016-11-21
I'm on mobile so I will link to 9/11 Consensus Points. They specifically address all of the problems with the military leadership, military drills, plane highjacks and the highjackers themselves.
http://www.consensus911.org/the-911-consensus-points/