Lorie Van Auken: The (JICI) In Regards To Foreign Involvement In The 9/11 Attacks

Lorie Van Auken: The (JICI) In Regards To Foreign Involvement In The 9/11 Attacks

By Lorie Van Auken (with a little help from Jon Gold)
5/6/2007

Recently, I took it upon myself to send 9/11 Family Member, Lorie Van Auken, an email:

Dear Mrs. Van Auken...

Quite honestly, I can't think of anyone better to ask this question to than you. What can you tell me about Pakistan's involvement in 9/11? Since I'm talking to you, a family member, someone that was a member of the Steering Committee, I don't think I mean that question as it sounds. Can you tell me about any experiences you had with Commissioner's about it? Or anyone for that matter. Robert Mueller for instance. I know all of the written word, but I never had the opportunities someone like you did if that makes any sense.

Also, with your permission, I would like to post your response.

Thank you very much.

Sincerest Regards,

Jon Gold

Most of us in the 9/11 Truth Movement know the "facts", but people like Mrs. Van Auken "experienced" them. She was one of the "Jersey Girls", a member of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee. She attended every 9/11 Commission Hearing, and was instrumental in supplying them the questions they were SUPPOSED to answer.

According to 9/11 Commission Chairman, Thomas Kean, "They monitor us, they follow our progress, they've supplied us with some of the best questions we've asked. I doubt very much if we would be in existence without them."

One of the reasons I couldn't think of anyone "better to ask this question to" than Mrs. Van Auken was because of this paragraph from a Washington Times article (sorry, the source link is dead):

"On May 15, 2003, a group of 9/11 victims' relatives met with the commission co-chairman Thomas Kean and other senior staff and submitted a list of questions, which included a mention of Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed. A June 17, 2004, the New York Times reported that Lorie Van Auken, whose husband died in the World Trade Center, was "irate" that the June 16 commission narrative of the 9/11 attacks did not even mention the allegation about Ahmed's role in the $100,000 transfer to Mohammed Atta. Clearly, the ISI link is no mere conspiracy theory."

I am extremely grateful to Mrs. Van Auken, for being able to post the following reply from her:

Hi Jon,

Your question regarding Pakistan is quite complicated, and so my answer will be somewhat long and complex. I really couldn't answer this quickly and without thinking about what needed to be included to make it a thorough response.

Before I begin to answer, I want to make sure that it is understood that the JICI (the Joint Inquiry Into The Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001) was the first investigation that was conducted by Congress into the "intelligence failures" of 9/11. The 9/11 Commission was mandated to pick up where the JICI investigation left off.

1. The question of Pakistan's possible involvement in the attacks of 9/11 has come up many times over the course of the past five and a half years. The petition that Mindy Kleinberg, Patty Casazza, Monica Gabrielle and I have posted online includes the line that "we again call for the declassification and release of the redacted 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry Into The Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 (JICI)... "

One key reason that we have asked for those 28 pages to be declassified is that on page 395 of the JICI report is the finding: [through its investigation, the Joint Inquiry developed information suggesting specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States. The Joint Inquiry's review confirmed that the Intelligence Community also has information, much of which has yet to be independently verified, concerning these potential sources of support... ]

What do they mean by "support"? Are they referring to "financial support"? And what countries participated that alleged "supporting"?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec02/intelligence_12-11.html

December 11, 2003, on PBS's NewsHour Senator Graham (who chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee) said "I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States."

Is Pakistan mentioned in those pages? Is Saudi Arabia mentioned? Are there any other foreign governments mentioned? If so, what was their involvement?

Did Pakistan financially support any of what occurred on 9/11, and is that information included within the 28 redacted pages?

Since those pages are blank in the JICI report we still do not know what information has been hidden from us for all of this time.

We do know that soon after the 9/11 report was published, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal flew to Washington and challenged President Bush to release the redacted portion.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/30/world/main565782.shtml

"After the report was released last Thursday, Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan issued a statement saying that "28 blanked-out pages are being used by some to malign our country and our people."

"Saudi Arabia has nothing to hide. We can deal with questions in public, but we cannot respond to blank pages," he said.

Citing those comments, Senator Graham said Bandar "has joined in asking that the pages be declassified."

2. On the FSC's questioning of the 9/11 Commissioners and Pakistan's possible role:

http://911independentcommission.org/questions.html

The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission (of which I was a member), includes the following questions which pertain to Pakistan, in our section of questions for the 9/11 Commissioners to answer regarding Al Qaeda and State Sponsored Terrorism dated July 2003, we wrote the following:

22) On the issue of state sponsored terrorism:

• Why did Mahmood Ahmed, Director of Pakistan's secret service, the (ISI) order Saeed Sheikh to wire $100,000 to hijacker Mohamed Atta?
  
  
• What was Mahmood Ahmed's relationship with Al Qaeda?
  
  
• Where did the money come from?
  
  
• Did officials in Pakistan know in advance about the terrorist attack?

• On September 11th , Mahmood Ahmed had a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., with House and Senate Intelligence Committee chairmen, Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham. What were they discussing?

(Much of this information is included in the "Press for Truth" video)

It is commonly known that if you "follow the money" oftentimes a case can be solved. The 9/11 Commission did not follow this money trail which led from Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed to Saeed Sheikh and finally to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. Why not?

End Part I

Also, in our section of questions for the CIA, the FSC asked the following questions:

15. Please explain the role of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency, in aiding bin Laden and/or the al Qaeda from 1998 through the present.

“Between 1980 and the end of the Afghan/Soviet war in 1989, the CIA and Pakistan's ISI [Inter Services Intelligence] recruited some 35,000 Muslim radicals join Afghanistan's fight. The US and Saudi Arabia gave up to $40 billion total to support the mujaheddin guerrilla fighters opposing the Russians. Most of the money is managed by the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. At the same time, Osama bin Laden begins providing financial, organizational, and engineering aid for the mujaheddin in Afghanistan, with the advice and support of the Saudi royal family. The CIA, the ISI and Osama continued to work together against the Soviets until the end of the war."

http://pages.infinit.net/fmgoyeau/911pak02.html

16. Has the CIA uncovered any evidence that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Pakistani, is linked to the Pakistani ISI?

http://pages.infinit.net/fmgoyeau/911pak02.html

17. Please describe the historical and current relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's ISI, including the significance of Musharraf’s visit to Saudi Arabia 20 days after the coup and the Saudi pledge of “massive ” financial aid.

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/99oct29/news.htm

18. Please comment on Saudi Arabia's involvement in the 1999 coup in Pakistan which installed Musharraf as leader, and coincidentally occurred on the eve of a planned US effort to capture bin Laden. Musharraf scuttled U.S. plans to capture bin Laden.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/03/ret.bin.laden/

Below you will find a Statement that the FSC wrote on 9/13/04.

Statement of The Family Steering Committee

September 13, 2004

In December of 2002, The Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 [JICI] issued a report on the 9/11 intelligence failures. Twenty-eight pages allegedly dealing with Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments were redacted.

Senator Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time, has just released a book entitled Intelligence Matters . He notes that to this day, the 28 pages in the report are still redacted.

What might these pages contain that would justify such secrecy? Protecting sources and methods is crucial but that information can only be a small percentage of what has been redacted. The rest of the information should be revealed, so that there can be an assessment by ordinary citizens as to whether Senator Graham is correct when he states that Omar al-Bayoumi, who had a relationship with two of the 9/11 hijackers, is a Saudi government spy.

Graham's assessment of al-Bayoumi differs from the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission report. The Commission's director, Philip Zelikow has characterized Senator Graham's view of the details as "frozen in amber."

The subcommittee of the House Government Reform, Chaired by Representative Chris Shays, recently concluded that government secrecy is impeding anti-terrorism efforts. The subcommittee also noted that the number of restricted information categories has grown considerably since the 9/11 attacks, only making the problem worse .

The 9/11 Commission cited over classification of information by intelligence agencies as a significant factor in the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks. The FSC recognizes that there is a need for classification when protecting sources and methods and when protecting legitimate national security. However, there is wide agreement that currently this system is being misused.

Addressing the same issue, Senators Lott and Wyden, members of the Select Committee on Intelligence, have indicated plans to introduce bi-partisan legislation intended to curb over classification abuses.

All 9/11 victims' families, indeed, all Americans, should be calling for the "amber to be unfrozen", allowing access to those 28 redacted pages so we can assess for ourselves whether there are terrorist links with the Saudis and/or other nations.

Americans should also be pressing for reforms suggested by the House and Senate regarding classification overall so that we, the people, can exercise our own oversight of our government – which is our obligation, and our right in a free society.

http://www.911independentcommission.org/

So you can see that we have been trying to get these redacted pages unclassified for a very long time.

I hope this answers your question.

Sincerely,
Lorie Van Auken

That response was followed by this one:

One more point - I want to be clear here that Senator Graham spoke in the plural - "foreign governments" (from PBS NewsHour).

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec02/intelligence_12-11.html

SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.

I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.

To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.

GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11?

SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.

GWEN IFILL: Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you're talking about?

SEN. BOB GRAHAM: It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today.

Thank you Mrs. Van Auken for this informative, and time consuming response.

End

bump