John McCain's Affiliation with the U.S. Council for World Freedom

Headline

Paul Begala speaking on "Meet the Press" this morning mentioned John McCain's association with the United States Council for World Freedom, an organization linked to the Iran-Contra scandal.

1984 990-Form, United States Council for World Freedom, listing John McCain as member of the board of advisors

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Aafia Siddiqui Indictment

The Justice Department indicted alleged al Qaeda member Aafia Siddiqui in New York yesterday. According to the indictment, she was carrying handwritten notes on a "mass casualty attack" at the time of her arrest, including notes on chemical and radioactive dispersal devices (dirty bombs), along with photos of U.S. landmarks (a familiar-sounding list including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and more).

She was also carrying a thumb drive with "correspondence that referred to specific 'cells' and 'attacks' by certain 'cells.' Other documents referred to 'enemies,' including the United States, and discussed recruitment and training."

The date of that arrest, as stated in the indictment, was July 17, 2008, despite numerous claims to the contrary. The government has, at this point in time, several non-prosecutorial options for dealing with prisoners. Given that it's now fairly unusual to introduce al Qaeda suspects into the criminal justice system, it would be logical to play such cases strictly by the book.

Of course, we've seen some notable lapses in logic over the last seven years, so take that with a caveat. For instance, why introduce someone carrying detailed information about terrorist cells into the criminal system so swiftly, when other similar suspects have been detained for years of interrogation?


Indictment of Aafia Siddiqui


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Yet More Awakening Worries

The New York Times rings in. See previous posts here and here.

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OKBOMB Documents: Strassmeir, Gamaat Islamiyah And More

The FBI's investigation of Andreas Strassmeir as a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing began just days after the arrests of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, according to a document received from the State Departmnet under the Freedom of Information Act.

4/28/1995: State Department OKBOMB Query to Bonn

The redacted document is believe to refer to Strassmeir. It reports the results of criminal history and police and federal intelligence checks on the subject. The date of the cable is April 28, nine days after Oklahoma City. The investigation was sparked by an April 27 e-mail and telephone call from an FBI Special Agent, whose name has been redacted.

Military records and other checks were in process but had not been completed as of April 28. Additional records may be forthcoming from the State Department.

An affidavit submitted by Strassmeir to McVeigh's defense team was provided to INTELWIRE by Salt Lake City Attorney Jesse Trentade (story).

2/29/1996: Affidavit of Andreas Strassmeir

In the affidavit, Strassmeir briefly describes his history in the U.S. and claims only minimal contact with extremists, notably omitting any mention of his time with the Texas Light Infantry militia group (story).

Strassmeir said he met McVeigh at an April 1993 gun show in Tulsa, Okla. According to Strassmeir, that was the only meeting between the two men.

INTELWIRE has obtained several other documents relating to Oklahoma City.

Of particular interest is a State Department cable dated April 4, 1995 which requests information from authorities in Hong Kong concerning a woman there whose name appears in a telephone book obtained from Timothy McVeigh.

4/27/1995: State Department OKBOMB Query, Hong Kong

A search of trial records and INTELWIRE database materials revealed no leads on this woman, or any connection between Hong Kong and either McVeigh or Nichols.

Other documents released in response to INTELWIRE's FOIA request include:

4/20/1995: Gamaat Islamiya call on OKC

An April 20 call to the U.S. Embassy in Paris claimed responsibility for the Oklahoma City bombing on behalf of Gamaat Islamiyah, the terrorist group led by the "blind sheikh," Omar Abdel Rahman.

Rahman was on trial in Brooklyn at the time of the bombing. While some circumstantial correspondences surround Gamaat Islamiyah and the OKC bombing, the phone call was not specific enough to carry any special credibility.

Four days after this call was received, the judge in the Rahman case -- Michael Mukasey, now attorney general of the United States -- told jurors on April 24, 1995 that the Oklahoma City bombing "cannot possibly be connected in any way with any defendant in this case."

Whatever one thinks of possible links between the Oklahoma City bombing and Islamic extremism, which have never been proven, this admonition grossly overstated the state of the OKBOMB investigation as of April 24.

Other calls received in the wake of the bombing were grimly comical in their ineptitude.

4/20/1995: Brussels call on OKC

A caller to the U.S. embassy in Brussels, for example, attempted to claim responsibility on behalf of the Nation of Islam.

CALLER: I AM CONFIRMATION OF ISLAM (?).

STATION REP: YES.

CALLER: THE BOMBING WHICH OCCURRED IN OKLAHOMA CITY JUST A FEW HOURS AGO WAS MADE BY US.

STATION REP: IS IT THE NAME OF THE SECT OF WACO?

CALLER: IT MIGHT HAVE LINK... IN FACT, SOME GUYS OF WACO BUT IT IS NOT ACTUALLY ABOUT WACO, TEXAS. THE STUFF WITH DAVID KORESH IN WACO TEXAS HAS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

The caller claimed a second bombing was planned, among other less coherent points. The embassy employee who took the call was inexplicably polite.

STATION REP: FROM WHERE DO YOU CALL US?

CALLER: WE CALL. WE ARE IN EUROPE. I AM IN EUROPE ACTUALLY.

STATION REP: IN BELGIUM?

CALLER: NOT IN BELGIUM, BUT IN EUROPE. WE HAVE... THE NATION OF ISLAM IS NOT ONLY IN THE UNITED STATES.

STATION REP: THANK YOU.

CALLER: YES. (Hangs up.)

4/23/1995: Riyadh call on OKC

Another call to the U.S. embassy in Riyadh was explained by the embassy there:

"RSO and AFOSI receive many reports of odd calls to residences/offices orginated by bored females who are desirous of talking to an American male. We cannot rule out a similar basis for this call."

Additional documents were provided to INTELWIRE by Jesse Trentadue.

5/18/1995: FBI, FD-302, FEMA Report

A FEMA official near Dallas, Texas, interviewed by the FBI reported a curious incident. Prior to the bombing, he "received a copy of two 'National Militia' identification cards from FEMA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.. At the top of the copy was the warning, 'These are not official credentials. If spotted, challenge the holder.'"

The official said he believed the information had originated with the Defense Department.

5/31/1995: FBI, FD-302, Murrah Building Demolition

This simply reports the implosion of the Alfred E. Murrah federal building, which had been irreparably damaged in the bombing.

3/28/96: FBI, FD-302, Wayne Green

This simply records the death of Wayne Green, an employee of Burns Security at the Regency Tower Apartments. The apartment building was near the Murrah building and its security cameras picked up an image of Terry Nichols' truck driving by the building on the Sunday before the bombing. The document -- which was obtained by Trentadue from defense investigator's files -- contains some provocative but nonsensical notes scrawled on the margin which don't appear to be particularly significant.

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Rumbles Around Awakening

You may recall my March post on the Awakening movement in which I commented on some of the looming (and unfortunately predictable) problems that our alliance with former Sunni insurgents. An Iraqi journalist last week echoed those concerns, with some added perspective (Arabic, English). Look for this issue to grow as the U.S. increasingly moves toward withdrawal.

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The Legacy of the Order and the Failure of the Profile

Media reports have connected Aryan Nations and The Order to a group of would-be assassins allegedly targeting Presidential candidate Barack Obama (story).

The Order traces its roots back to the 1980s. The group has been the subject of a series of revivals and survivals. For the story of one such group (or rather collection of groups), see Intelwire's exclusive report on the PATCON operation.

Members of both the original Order and the so-called Second Order are still very much alive and active. Very few of the wider network's top leaders have ever been charged with a crime.

Authorities have tried to downplay the threat presented by the three would-be killers -- Tharin Gartrell, Nathan Johnson and Shawn Robert Adolf -- who were arrested on a traffic stop after driving erratically with a carload full of guns, ammo and drugs. On the basis of the latter factor, apparently, federal authorities have publicly dismissed the seriousness of the threat.

Indictment of Tharin Gartrell

Indictment of Nathan Johnson

Indictment of Shawn Robert Adolf

However, Timothy McVeigh was at least casually acquainted with methamphetamine. McVeigh was also arrested after a similarly careless traffic stop. He was in custody for hours before the police even realized he was connected to the Oklahoma City bombing.

In short, these suspects clearly match the historical precedent and any reasonable profile of a terrorist.

If they had been Pakistanis, the country would be whipping itself into an unparalleled frenzy over the latest terrorist threat (as noted earlier today by Mark Hosenball, investigative correspondent for Newsweek, on NPR's Talk of the Nation).

This is a critical error, in my view.

These three suspects were certainly capable of carrying out the threat -- at least from an armaments point of view. The drug use is not a disqualifying factor. In fact, meth has some history as a deliberately chosen inciting device for planned violence.

The operating pattern for U.S. white supremacists groups is decentralized "leaderless resistance" which is essentially identical to the structure of the current "Al Qaeda movement" and very similar to the modus operandi in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

For all these reasons, the cavalier law enforcement posture in this case is troubling. The response to this event should be the same as if the three men had been Egyptians or Saudis or Sudanese.

Racism and sloppy assumptions are not just wrong -- they're dangerous.

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It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

While many experts (including myself) will give you a wide range of possible dates when Al Qaeda became meaningfully functional as a terrorist/jihadist organization, there is only one date that is crystal clear.

Twenty years ago today, Osama bin Laden (Abu Abdullah) and Mohamed Loay Bayazid (Abu Rida Al Suri) held a meeting regarding "the establishment of the new military work" -- including the general terrorist training camp, the special camp and above them both, "The Base," or in Arabic, Al Qaeda.

8/11/1988: Tareekh Osama memo

It's telling that the media -- usually obsessed with anniversaries -- has not spent much capital on the observance of this landmark meeting. Seven years after 9/11, the mainstream media is still woefully uneducated as far as Al Qaeda is concerned.

According to the memo, written by Abu Ridah, "initial estimate, within 6 months of Al Qaida (the Base), 314 brothers will be trained and ready."

Within a few weeks of the meeting, more than 30 people had been recruited, according to subsequent documents (included in the PDF above).

The follow-up memos discuss taking over the infrastructure of Abdullah Azzam's Makhtab al-Khidamat (The Services Office), an organization which had managed foreign fighters during the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the organization from which Al Qaeda was splitting.

A little more than a year later, Azzam would be assassinated by a car bomb, after which Al Qaeda completely absorbed the operations of the Services Office.

There are also several references in the documents to seizing control of Al Jihad magazine, which had just a few months earlier published a jihadist manifesto by Azzam entitled "The Solid Base" -- in Arabic, Al-Qa`idah al-Sulbah. This remains the most likely explanation of Al Qaeda's name, although alternative theories abound.

The document linked above was provided by the Motley Rice law firm, as part of its lawsuit on behalf of the victims of the September 11 attacks.

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