Tag Archives: U.S.

International, US

Iraqi Foreign Minister: France, U.S., Iran Were Warned About Impending Attacks

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Iraq’s Foreign Minister has stated that Iraq’s intelligence service shared details of impending attacks within France, the United States and Iran.

Speaking at this weekend’s peace talks in Vienna, Austria, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraq received intelligence about possible attacks and shared the information with the respective governments.  The comments came one day after attackers in Paris, France killed 129 people using firearms and suicide bombers.

“Information has been obtained from Iraqi intelligence sources that the countries to be targeted soon, before it occurred, are Europe in general, specifically France, as well as America and Iran,” Jaafari said in Vienna. Reuters first reported on the comments. Similar statements can be found in a post on Jaafari’s website.

Jaafari did not elaborate on the intelligence but called for a “global response” to the Islamic State.

France has now declared war on the Islamic State, and President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are reportedly in talks to formulate a strategy to resolve the civil war in Syria and the growing threat from IS. In addition, world leaders met this weekend to discuss a timetable for elections and a transition government.

Missing from of the conversation surrounding the attacks in Paris is an acknowledgement that the U.S. government has helped fund rebels which led to the creation of the Islamic State, as well as helped created the situation through disastrous foreign policies as part of the failed War on Terror.

https://youtu.be/o6kdi1UXxhY

Government Accountability, Politics

Oklahoma Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging Saudi Involvement in 9/11 Attacks

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Last week Zacarias Moussaoui had a lawsuit thrown out by U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-Lagrange because of a filing error. The Oklahoman reports that the judge dismissed the suit because Moussaoui did not pay a $400 filing fee and failed to ask for the fee to be waived.

Moussaoui is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for his involvement in the planning of the 9/11 attacks and connections to Osama bin Laden. In 2005 Moussaoui said he was supposed to pilot a plane into the White House. Since his arrest Moussaoui has sought to expose what he says is funding from Saudi Arabia’s royal family.

In February, Moussaoui released a statement from prison detailing the role of Saudi Arabia’s royal family in financing terror attacks, including the 9/11 attacks. He also claimed that Saudi Arabia did not cut ties to al-Qaeda members in 1994. Moussaoui says he created a database of al-Qaeda donors and remembers some of the names.

The Saudi Embassy has denied any involvement in the 9/11 attacks and claimed the 9/11 Commission found the Saudi government and officials were not involved.

Moussaoui sent a complaint to the Oklahoma federal court in October 2014, asking the judge to let him testify about what he knows. He claims he met with the Saudi prince at the University of Oklahoma in February 2001 to take flying lessons.

Moussaoui also asked the judge to grant him an attorney so he can sue the Obama Administration, who he claims is attempting to prevent him from testifying on behalf of the 9/11 victims family members in their suit against Saudi Arabia. Moussaoui said he is trying to expose a “bigger conspiracy” related to 9/11. Despite these attempts, Judge Miles-Lagrange dismissed the lawsuits based on the filing error. Federal judges in Colorado, Florida and Texas have also refused his requests.

The Saudi Connection

In early April TruthInMedia reported that Saudi Arabia asked a New York City judge to reject another lawsuit from the families of the 9/11 victims. Lawyers representing Saudi Arabia filed papers in a Manhattan federal court claiming that no evidence exists linking the nation to the attacks. The family members of the 9/11 victims point to testimony from Moussaoui.

Lawyers representing the Saudi Kingdom called Moussaoui’s comments “colorful but immaterial hearsay statements.” Moussaoui was previously found to be a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychologist testifying in his trial.

In late March the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report that attempts to discredit a previous report that hinted at connections between a Saudi family in Prestencia, Florida and the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI 9/11 Review Commission told Congress that a 2002 report from the FBI “was poorly written and wholly unsubstantiated.”

An agent with the bureau originally found that the Saudi family left in a hurry two weeks before 9/11, leaving behind cars, furniture, clothes, and other items. The information was revealed in a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request which found that an unidentified family member was a student at the same flight school that two of accused 9/11 hijackers attended.

The FBI 9/11 Review Commission largely ignored any evidence of Saudi involvement. The New York Post notes, “The review panel highlighted one local FBI report generated from the investigation that said Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji, the prominent Saudi couple who “fled” their home, had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.”

The is only the latest attempt to hold the Saudi royalty accountable. A previous lawsuit from the families was rejected when a judge found that Saudi Arabia was protected because of sovereign immunity. The decision was reversed by a federal appeals court and the families continue their fight.

Despite the denials from Saudi officials, former Senator Bob Graham said he is convinced the Saudi government funded “at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.” Graham is the former co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the attacks. He recently told the New York Times that he was not giving up his pursuit of finding out who was funding the 9/11 attacks.

International, Technology

U.S. and Europe Investigating Possible New NSA Whistleblower

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New documents from the National Security Agency outline how the agency was spying on the most profitable companies in France for “economic intelligence” purposes.

The documents were shared with French outlets Libération and Mediapart, via WikiLeaks. The NSA was interested in companies that signed high-priced export contracts for industrial goods. France’s security agency Anssi said the agency may have spied on hundreds of companies.

TechCrunch reported:

“According to an economic espionage order, the NSA intercepted all French corporate contracts and negotiations valued at more than $200 million in many different industries, such as telecommunications, electrical generation, gas, oil, nuclear and renewable energy, and environmental and healthcare technologies.

A second economic espionage order called “France: Economic Developments” shows that information was then shared with other U.S. agencies and secretaries, including the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Commerce, the Federal Reserve and the Secretary of Treasury. Eventually, this data could have been used to help sign export deals.”

The latest document dump comes one week after WikiLeaks released documents proving that the NSA spied on France’s most recent presidents, including Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.

Hollande said the spying was “unacceptable”. RT reported that the French justice minister said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden could be offered symbolic asylum in the country.

Following the recent leaks, officials with the U.S. and Europe announced an investigation into the existence of second NSA whistleblower.

Reuters reports:

“The U.S. and European sources cautioned that they did not know for sure that Assange (Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks) had developed a source other than Snowden inside U.S. intelligence. Assange has been in contact with associates of Snowden and helped arrange for him to flee from Hong Kong to Russia, where he was later granted asylum.”

The existence of a second whistleblower was first noticed in late July 2014 as a 166-page document related to terrorism watch lists was released through The Intercept. TruthInMedia reported on the second whistleblower in October 2014:

“Michael Isikoff reported for Yahoo! News that the FBI searched the home of  a federal contracting firm employee suspected of being the source of documents provided to Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Devereaux and The Intercept. Scahill, Greenwald and film-maker Laura Poitras are the editors for the adversarial journalism site The Intercept, founded in February. Isikoff says that federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia have launched an investigation into the situation.

The document could not have come from whistleblower Edward Snowden, as it is dated August 2013, after Snowden left for Russia. At the time The Intercept only referred to the whistleblower as “a source in the intelligence community”.

The documentary Citizenfour also confirms the existence of the latest whistleblower. The film details the story of whistleblower Edward Snowden and his efforts to contact Laura Poitras. In the film journalist Glenn Greenwald tells Snowden about the second source.”

Whether a second whislteblower exists or may have already been arrested by the authorities remains to be seen. Americans concerned with the loss of privacy and growing surveillance state should remain vocal supporters of Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers that put their lives on the line in an attempt to reduce government tyranny.