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Literature Discussion - Lit-Talk.com
1999 - Pre-2001 – Assaults on America & Americans
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See Chris Cobar Article List at bottom of page.
Why We Should Expect Another 9/11
Article #14 –
1999-Pre-2001 – Assaults on America & Americans
By
Chris Cobar
Under one set of rules, America had safely slid into the 3rd Christian Millennium; under a different set of rules we hadn’t quite done so yet. However anyone cared to define it, we were now in the year 2000. This was not because bin Laden and his boys hadn’t tried to ring in the new Christian Millennium with a big bang; they just hadn’t been successful. It wasn’t for lack of trying.
We had barely scraped through the New Year, when, on January 3rd, terrorists tried to blow up the American naval ship, the U. S. S. Sullivans, anchored in Aden, Yemen, (The ship had been appropriately named after the seven Sullivan brothers who were blown up on a troop ship during World War II.) It was only the ineptitude of the terrorists that saved our bacon. We didn’t even see it coming.
Since 2000 was an eventful year, I will only give you some of the highlights:
3 January Failed Al-Qaeda attempt to blow up the U.S.S. Sullivans in
Aden, Yemen.5-8 January Hambali (Bali Bombings 2002), Khalid Sheikh
Mohammad (9/11 mastermind & uncle of Ramzi Ahmed
Youssef), Zacarias Moussaoui (wannabe 9/11er) and 9/11 hijackers Almindhar & Alhamzer met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to plan 9/1125 February Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bombed buses on a ferry in the
Philippines – 45 dead.23 April ASG kidnapped 21 foreign tourists from Sipadan,
Malaysia.June Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atef, two of
Al-Qaeda’s key players, visited Aceh and Sulawesi, Indonesia seeking sites for terrorist bases.29 August ASG abducted an American citizen on Basilan, Philippines.
12 October The U.S.S. Cole, an American naval ship, was bombed in Aden, Yemen – 17 dead – 49 wounded.
Six hours after the bombing, the NSA (National Security Agency) issued a warning that: “terrorists were engaged in ‘operational planning’.”
13 October A DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) Counterterrorism Analyst, Mr. Kie Fallis, resigned in protest, saying senior DIA Officials suppressed his report.
27 October The US Government officially declared that bin Laden was not responsible for the U.S.S. Cole bombing, despite the fact that Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
24 December Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI), a confederate of Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia, committed multiple church bombings throughout Indonesia – 19 dead.
30 December ASG and JI detonated 5 bombs in Manila – 22 dead.
Pretty much from start to finish, 2000 was heating up. The ASG and Al-Qaeda had been very busy. And we weren’t getting it.
For myself, two items immediately stood out:
- The U.S.S. Cole Bombing
- The Abu Sayyaf Group
With the attempted bombing the U.S.S. Sullivans on January 3rd, one would have thought that we, i.e. our government, might have put our naval ships in the region on high alert. Apparently, that was not the case.
As usual, have two different reports:
From a U.S. Counterterrorism Official and Persian Gulf Specialist we get:
“We didn’t do diddley [U.S.S. Cole]. We didn’t even blow up a “baby-milk” factory [referencing our retaliation against the Sudan after the 1998 East African Embassy Bombings].”
DIA Persian Gulf Terrorism Official
Maybe, it’s just me, but I’m sorta guessing that Mr. Fallis was the “didn’t do diddley’ dude, who resigned in protest on the following day, October 13th, because the American government refused to respond as indicated below:
From our Secretary of Defense, we get:
“[The attack on the U.S.S. Cole] wasn’t sufficiently provocative.”
“Sufficiently provocative” for what? Apparently 17 dead, 49 wounded did not meet the then current criteria requirements. Obviously, the 2,936 people who died in 9/11 met the then current criteria, since we bombed the hell out of Afghanistan and then invaded. So where is the breaking point? Is 100 dead acceptable or do we have to go to 200? Are we allowed to include the wounded? What is the magic formula?
Of course, the NSA warning, citing “operational planning”, issued 6 hours after the bombing did not exactly smother them in success either.
The second issue is the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).
As noted in Article #9, I was specifically asked to look into the ASG by the FBI in November, 1993, since the Bureau knew that I was working with a Muslim Prince in the region. As it turned out he was distantly related to the Janjalani family, who were running the show. (It’s not terribly surprizing, since his family had lived in the neighborhood for roughly 800 years and had intermarried with almost everybody within a 1,000 mile radius.)
The Acting Director of PIMBS (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore), U.S. Department of State had personally informed me of the following in a letter dated 1 November 1995:
“The issue of His Highness, the Sultan’s dealings with regard to the Abu Sayyaf Group is one of Philippine internal security, and is the province of the Government of the Philippines.
Then, later on, a spokesman for the Pentagon released the following statement:
“Abu Sayyaf is not just a Philippine problem. It’s an international terrorist group that poses as much of a threat to the U.S. as to the Philippines.”
O.K.; who didn’t get whose memo? Did the Pentagon not get the Department of State’s previous decree, or did the Department of State not receive the Pentagon’s update?
Nudging naiveté into the gulf of gullibility, the Prince Datu and I waited to be taken up on our offer to ‘dismantle’ the ASG – by someone – anyone. None was forthcoming. Why it wasn’t forthcoming will always remain a mystery.
Red flags were going up everywhere, but nobody was seeing them. Not surprizingly, it was highly frustrating - but the Prince and I were getting accustomed to it.
In the next article, we will address pre-9/11, 2001
Until then.
CC
Thanks for your comments, please keep them coming –
Chris Cobar: rajamuda001@aol.com
Please visit my new blog, www.terrorlog.com
P.S. For those of you who want more than a snappy synopsis of the whys and wherefores of 9/11, I refer you to www.intelwire.com. It is managed by a good friend, John Berger. He is a certified terrorist consultant, who documents his colons and commas. If it's there, you can take it to the bank.
