Richard Clarke's denials of Iraq's terror ties don't ring true. From Laurie Mylroie in Opinion Journal, confirmation of what I have been saying for years: that we are not facing a small, isolated band, but a global terror operation. (Thanks to Ming.)
The credibility of Clinton counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke has come under withering fire. He has been caught in error after error, omission after omission. I can attest to one error more: a highly revealing error that tells us a great deal about who Richard Clarke really is.Mr. Clarke singles me out for special criticism in his book, "Against All Enemies." This is not surprising. He believes that Islamic terrorism is the work of a few individual criminals, many of them relatives. I have for years gathered the evidence that shows that terrorism is something more than a mom-and-pop operation: that it is supported by powerful states, very much including Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Mr. Clarke is a man famously intolerant of those who disagree with him. When he cannot win the argument, he cheats. And that is what he has done again in the pages of his book. In order to explain why he opposed the war with Iraq, Mr. Clarke mischaracterizes the arguments of those of us who favored it. The key mischaracterization turns on an important intelligence debate about the identity of the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. This mastermind goes by the name of "Ramzi Yousef." But who was "Ramzi Yousef"?
The evidence suggests that "Ramzi Yousef" had close connections to the Iraqi security services. This evidence has impressed, among others, former CIA chief James Woolsey, and Richard Perle, former head of the Defense Policy Board. Mr. Clarke calls the Yousef-Saddam connection an "utterly discredited" theory, unworthy of serious debate. He likes the phrase so much, he even uses it on the dust jacket of his book. But let's review the facts:
• Fact No. 1: "Ramzi Yousef" entered the U.S. in September 1992 on an Iraqi passport, with stamps showing a journey beginning in Baghdad. This fact is attested by the inspector who admitted Yousef into the U.S. Yet Mr. Clarke contends that Yousef entered the U.S. without a passport.
• Fact No. 2: The sole remaining fugitive from the 1993 bombing, Abdul Rahman Yasin, is an Iraqi. After the attack, Yasin fled to Iraq. The Iraqi regime rewarded Yasin with a house and monthly stipend. Yet Mr. Clarke claims, incredibly, that the Iraqis jailed Yasin.
• Fact No. 3: Seven men were indicted in the 1993 attack. Two of the seven, Yousef and Yasin, have Iraqi connections. Yet Mr. Clarke inflates the number of participants to 12, so as to create the impression that the presence of one or two men with Iraqi connections was no big deal.
• Fact No. 4: The truth is, we don't really know much about the prisoner bearing the name "Ramzi Yousef." Judge Kevin Duffy, who presided over Yousef's two trials, observed at sentencing: "We don't even know what your real name is." Yet Mr. Clarke claims to know what the judge did not: Yousef, he writes, "was born Abdul Basit in Pakistan and grew up in Kuwait where his father worked."
To reach this conclusion, Mr. Clarke has to ignore a forest of awkward facts. In late 1992, according to court documents, Yousef went to the Pakistani consulate in New York with photocopies of the 1984 and 1988 passports of Abdul Basit Karim (those documents have Karim born in Kuwait). Yousef claimed to be Karim, saying he had lost his passport and needed a new one to return home. He received a temporary passport, in the name of Abdul Basit Karim, which he used to flee New York the night of the Trade Center bombing.
Karim was, indeed, a real person, a Pakistani reared in Kuwait. After completing high school in Kuwait, Karim studied for three years in Britain. He graduated from the Swansea Institute in June 1989 and returned home, where he got a job in Kuwait's Planning Ministry. He was there a year later, when Iraq invaded.
Kuwait maintained an alien resident file on Karim. That file appears to have been altered to create a false identity or "legend" for the terrorist Yousef. Above all, the file contains a fingerprint card bearing Yousef's prints. But Yousef is not Karim--as Judge Duffy implied--for many reasons, including the fact that Yousef is 6 feet tall, while Karim was significantly shorter, according to his teachers at Swansea. They do not believe their student is the terrorist mastermind. Indeed, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper, latent fingerprints lifted from material Mr. Karim left at Swansea bear "no resemblance" to Yousef's prints. They are two different people.
The fingerprint card in Mr. Karim's file had to have been switched. The original card bearing his prints was replaced with one bearing Yousef's. The only party that reasonably could have done so is Iraq, while it occupied Kuwait, for the evident purpose of creating a "legend" for one of its terrorist agents.
The debate over Yousef's identity has enormous implications for the 9/11 strikes. U.S. authorities now understand that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed masterminded those attacks. But Mohammed's identity, too, is based on Kuwaiti documents that predate Kuwait's liberation from Iraq. According to these documents, Mohammed is Ramzi Yousef's "uncle," and two other al Qaeda masterminds are Yousef's "brothers."
A former deputy chief of Israeli Military Intelligence, Amos Gilboa, has observed that "it's obvious" that these identities are fabricated. A family is not at the core of the most ambitious, most lethal series of terrorist assaults in U.S. history. These are Iraqi agents, given "legends," on the basis of Kuwait's files, while Iraq occupied the country.
When Mr. Clarke reported, six days after the 9/11 strikes, that no evidence existed linking them to Iraq, or Iraq to al Qaeda, he was reiterating the position he and others had taken throughout the Clinton years. They systematically turned a blind eye to such evidence and failed to pursue leads that might result in a conclusion of Iraqi culpability. These officials were charged with defending us "against all enemies." Their own prejudices blinded them to at least one of our enemies and left the nation vulnerable.
"The fingerprint card in Mr. Karim's file had to have been switched. The original card bearing his prints was replaced with one bearing Yousef's. The only party that reasonably could have done so is Iraq, while it occupied Kuwait, for the evident purpose of creating a "legend" for one of its terrorist agents." It doesn't take much of a leap to come to the conclusion that there could be many here with such fabricated identities.
How can we know the true identify of any foreign traveler? Even a background check could produce false results. This revelation is indeed troubling, as is the revelation that Clark and his associates "turned a blind eye to such evidence and failed to persue leads…" The next question to ask is who else is guilty of similar negligence and how long has this been going on!
Awkward fact:
LAURIE MYLROIE is a Jew peddling for the acceptance of the "dodgy" intelligence supplied by his Apartheid country?
I had been thoroughly amused recently by the revelations made before The Commission on 9/11 (as they attempt to shift some of the blame for the attacks of September 11th from the Clinton administration onto President Bush). What humored me most were the overly apologetic opening statements of Richard Clark as he confessed his failures before the commission, (but who was successfully on his way to receive over $1 million cash advance and royalties for a book critical of the Bush administration). Clarke’s credibility was tainted however, by the discovery of recorded statements that he made in the past. Statements that strongly indicate that President Bush issued directives to increase counter terrorist measures after becoming Commander in Chief, a claim that is contrary to those in his book.
I was not surprised that Clarke’s testimony would be proven to be untruthful. After all, it were lies and deception that proved to be one of the stronger talents practiced by his previous boss Bill Clinton. As a result, Richard Clarke thought he too could get away with lying to a gullible public, just as Bill Clinton did.
Besides being a fiction writer, Richard Clarke is the most recent example of what a RINO is. (Republican In Name Only). He claims to be a Republican, but his efforts show a support for the subversive goals of the Democratic Party as they attempt to diminish America as a world power.
President Bush could have prevented the treachery by Clarke had he simply requested the resignation of all the key bureaucrats that had previously worked for the Clinton administration, regardless of the fact that they hold the title of “Republican” or not. By not doing so, he left his efforts exposed to internal and external political sabotage.
In the case of Clarke, the horse’s ass is already out of the barn. Fortunately the negative political fallout will prove to be minimal. What President Bush should do now is to undertake subtle (pre-election) measures to identify and dismiss all those that currently show indications of being a RINO or exhibit liberal tendencies. Once President Bush is re-elected, his methods need not be so subtle. President Bush should also require members of his administration to render official statements that reflect loyalty and appreciation for how their department has improved under his leadership, or else submit letters of resignation.
Donald Rumsfeld should consider implementing similar measures of dismissing liberal officers within the military also. One can almost predict that in the future some high ranking disgruntled officer, seeking notoriety, will attempt to discredit President Bush’s efforts to rebuild Iraq. Military leaders, unhappy with the pace of their career progression, may consider it more profitable to turn coat just as Clarke did. Malcontents will be bribed by liberal organizations to make television interviews, give so called “sworn” testimony before other commissions, or even to write a book like Clarke did.
Clarke was a disgruntled employee because his application to be deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security had been rejected. It is certain that many liberal leaders exist in the military today and are annoyed with President Bush. Their incompetence, not being rewarded as well as it used to be, may cause them to be a counter productive entity for President Bush. The sooner the Bush administration implements subtle methods to identify, and remove from authority, those entities that are deemed unfit for to work for his administration or who wear the military uniform, the easier his bid for re-election will be.
"LAURIE MYLROIE is a Jew peddling for the acceptance of the "dodgy" intelligence supplied by his Apartheid country?"
Well, first of all, Laurie Mylroie is a woman, but you probably don't know the difference. And "apartheid" is what Islam represents, correct? How about this, the Arab terrorists living in Israel can be shipped to the lands from which the Jews were expelled in 1948. Some of them really had lived there for thousands of years, unlike your Arab myths of "Palestine".
You seriously need to get a life.
Apartheid country: Saudi Arabia.....Hoodie Hood wannabee. Laurie is a female name, maybe not in your hood, but everywhere else.
Is it not true that no Jews are permitted inside Saudi Arabia?
When in Q8 & we had a maid who was an Indian Muslim.When she wanted to go for leave we asked about her visa & passport.We found her name to be different in the passport.On further questioning she said she had three passports. One was in her name , another in her sisters name & another in a relatives name.She had come in her sisters passport as she would be deported if she came with her passport.
There was a Pakistani Medical Asst who worked in Q8 with us . One day he vanished.We later found that on getting a tip that he was going to be arrested , he escaped to Pakistan. He had come in some other persons passport & was not even a Medical Asst . He had worked as a Medical Asst in the Defence Hospital for more than 5yrs.
Finger printing on all passports should be made compulsory & this might help identify the person.Finger prints couldnt lie when people would.
Finger prints on passports will work only if the officials on creating the documents are competent and honest. In Yousef's case they weren't. I don't know what they solution will be because anything can be faked or forged under the right circumstances.
ooops! did I refer to her as "his". I will not apologise because she likes acting like the hard woman. But here is her dual loyalties to America by just looking at her articles where they often appear:
VERY AWKWARD FACTS Wall Street Journal April 2, 2004 (Pro Jewish terrorism
WHAT INTELLIGENCE FAILURE IN IRAQ? Front Page Magazine February 5, 2004 (Muslim Haters)
MISHANDLING TERRORISM National Review Online January 23, 2004 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
SADDAM AND 9/11 FrontPageMagazine.com January 8, 2004 (Muslim haters)
"AL QAEDA DUNNIT!" NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE November 24, 2003 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
The Baluch Connection Wall Street Journal March 18, 2003 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
The Circle of Terror National Review Online February 19, 2003 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
Understated National Review Online February 5, 2003 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
Another mistaken 'conceptzia' Jerusalem Post December 4, 2002 (Jewish terror)
How Terror Investigations Can Go Awry Wall Street Journal December 26, 2001 (Pro Jewish terrorism)
The United States and the Iraqi National Congress Middle East Intelligence Bulletin March 2001(Pro Jewish terrorism)
And gues who her friends are:
Paul Wolfowitz (Jew)
Richard Perle (Jew)
Do I need to say anything more except reading the titles of her articles? The one with "what intelligence failures" is typical of her brain damaged ways.
Hoodie - You are becoming very tiresome, a broken record. Don't you have anything interesting to say?
You are such an anti-Semite. Give it a rest.
Jayna davis researched the Oklahoma city bombings for a local news affiliate looking for john doe bomber #2, a middle eastern looking man whose composite sketch was aired immediately after the bombing and he and mcveigh were spotted together with their ryder truck reeking of diesel fuel at a motel the day before the bombing.
Following that lead she traced john doe #2 to a group with iraqi ties within Oklahoma city. He fit the description and had a republican guard special forces tatoo on his shoulder. This man frequented local establishments near the merhar building prior to the bombing and has not been heard or seen since. Her full account is very compelling and sound. more info at http://jaynadavis.com