Compiled
from news sources around the world
1. 1991-1997 - Major U.S. oil companies including ExxonMobil,
Texaco,
Unocal, BP Amoco, Shell and Enron directly invest billions in cash bribing
heads of state in Kazakhstan to secure equity rights in the huge oil
reserves in these regions. The oil companies further commit to future
direct
investments in Kazakhstan of $35 billion. Not being willing to pay
exorbitant prices to Russia to use Russian pipelines, the major oil
companies have no way to recoup their investments. [Source: "The
Price of
Oil" by Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, July 9, 2001 - The Asia Times,
"The
Roving Eye Part I Jan. 26, 2002.]
2. January 1995 - Philippine police investigating a possible attack on
the
Pope uncover plans for Operation Bojinka, connected to World Trade Center
(WTC) bomber Ramsi Youssef. Parts of the plan call for crashing hijacked
airliners into civilian targets. Details of the plan are disclosed in
Youssef's 1997 trial for the 1993 WTC bombing. [Source: Agence
France-Presse, Dec. 7, 2001]
3. Dec. 4, 1997 - Representatives of the Taliban are invited guests to
the
Texas headquarters of Unocal to negotiate their support for the pipeline.
Subsequent reports will indicate that the negotiations failed, allegedly
because the Taliban wanted too much money. [Source: The BBC, Dec. 4, 1997]
4. Feb. 12, 1998 - Unocal Vice President John J. Maresca -- later to become
a special ambassador to Afghanistan -- testifies before the House that
until
a single, unified, friendly government is in place in Afghanistan, the
trans-Afghani pipeline needed to monetize the oil will not be built.
[Source: Testimony before the House International Relations Committee.]
5. August 1998 - After the U.S. cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda targets
in Afghanistan in retaliation for the African embassy bombings, Unocal
officially withdraws from participation in the CentGas trans-Afghani gas
pipeline project. [Unocal]
6. 1998 -- The CIA ignores warnings from Case Officer Robert Baer that
Saudi
Arabia was harboring an Al Qaeda cell led by two known terrorists. A more
detailed list of known terrorists is offered to Saudi intelligence in
August
2001 and refused. [Source: Financial Times Jan. 21, 2001; "See No
Evil" by
Robert Baer (release date February 2002)]
7. April 1999 - Enron with a $3 billion investment to build an electrical
generating plant at Dabhol, India loses access to plentiful LNG supplies
from Qatar to fuel the plant. Its only remaining option to make the
investment profitable is a trans-Afghani gas pipeline to be built by Unocal
from Turkmenistan that would terminate near the Indian border at the city
of
Multan. [Source: The Albion Monitor, Feb. 28, 2002]
8. 1998 and 2000 - Former President George H.W. Bush travels to Saudi
Arabia
on behalf of the privately owned Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense
contractor in the U.S. While there he meets privately with the Saudi royal
family and the bin Laden family. [Source: Wall Street Journal, Sept. 27,
2001. See also FTW, Vol. IV, No. 7 - "The Best Enemies Money Can
Buy"]
9. March 2000 - An FBI agent, reportedly angry over a glitch in Carnivore
that has somehow mixed innocent non-targeted emails with those belonging
to
Al Qaeda, destroys all of the FBI's Denver-based intercepts of bin Laden's
colleagues in a terrorist investigation. [Source: The Washington Post,
May
29, 2002]
10. 2000 (est.) - The FBI refuses to disclose the date of an internal
memo
stating that a Middle Eastern nation had been trying to purchase a flight
simulator. [Source: Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2002]
11. August 2000 -- Suspected Al Qaeda operatives wiretapped by Italian
police made apparent references to plans for major attacks involving
airports, airplanes and the United States according to transcripts obtained
by the Los Angeles Times. The Times suggests that the information might
not have been passed
to U.S. authorities (hard to believe), but it did report
that Italian authorities would not comment on the report. The Times also
noted that "Italian and U.S. anti-terrorism experts cooperate closely."
[Source: The Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2002]
12. Oct. 24-26, 2000 - Pentagon officials carry out a "detailed"
emergency
drill based upon the crashing of a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon.
[Source: The Mirror, May 24, 2002]
13. January 2001 - The Bush Administration orders the FBI and intelligence
agencies to "back off" investigations involving the bin Laden
family,
including two of Osama bin Laden's relatives (Abdullah and Omar) who were
living in Falls Church, Va. -- right next to CIA headquarters. This followed
previous orders dating back to 1996 that frustrated efforts to investigate
the bin Laden family. [Source: BBC Newsnight, Correspondent Gregg Palast,
Nov. 7, 2001]
14. Feb. 13, 2001 - UPI terrorism correspondent Richard Sale -- while
covering a trial of bin Laden's Al Qaeda followers -- reports that the
National Security Agency has broken bin Laden's encrypted communications.
Even if this indicates that bin Laden changed systems in February, it
does
not mesh with the fact that the government insists that the attacks had
been planned for years.
15. May 2001 - Secretary of State Colin Powell gives $43 million in aid
to
the Taliban regime, purportedly to assist hungry farmers who are starving
since the destruction of their opium crop in January on orders of the
Taliban regime. [Source: Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2001]
16. May 2001 - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a career covert
operative and former Navy Seal, travels to India on a publicized tour,
while
CIA Director George Tenet makes a quiet visit to Pakistan to meet with
Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Armitage has long and deep Pakistani
intelligence connections. It would be reasonable to assume that while
in Islamabad, Tenet, in what was described as "an unusually long
meeting," also met with his Pakistani counterpart, Lt. Gen. Mahmud
Ahmad, head of the ISI. [Source: The Indian SAPRA news agency, May 22,
2001]
17. June 2001 - German intelligence, the BND, warns the CIA and Israel
that
Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack commercial aircraft
to use
as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture."
[Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 14, 2001]
18. July 2001 - FBI agents in Arizona write a memorandum warning about
suspicious activities involving a group of Middle Eastern men taking flight
training lessons in Phoenix. The memorandum specifically mentions Osama
bin Laden and warns of connections to terrorist activities. [Source: The
New
York Times, May 14, 2002]
19. Summer 2001 - The National Security Council convenes a Dabhol working
group as revealed in a series of government e-mails obtained by the
Washington Post and the New York Daily News. [Source: The Albion Monitor,
Feb. 28, 2002]
20. Summer 2001 - According to a Sept. 26 story in Britain's The Guardian,
correspondent David Leigh reported that "U.S. department of defense
official, Dr. Jeffrey Starr, visited Tajikistan in January. The Guardian's
Felicity Lawrence established that U.S. Rangers were also training special
troops in Kyrgyzstan. There were unconfirmed reports that Tajik and Uzbek
special troops were training in Alaska and Montana."
21. Summer 2001 (est.) - Pakistani ISI Chief Gen. Ahmad (see above) orders
an aide to wire transfer $100,000 to Mohammed Atta who was, according
to the FBI, the lead terrorist in the suicide hijackings. Ahmad recently
resigned
after the transfer was disclosed in India and confirmed by the FBI. The
individual who makes the wire transfer at Ahmad's direction is Ahmad Umar
Sheik, the lead suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl. [Source: The Times of India, Oct.11, 2001.]
22. Summer 2001 - The online newswire online.ie reports on Sept. 14 that
an
Iranian man phones U.S. law enforcement to warn of an imminent attack
on the WTC in the week of Sept. 9. German police confirm the calls but
state that the U.S. Secret Service would not reveal any further information.
[Source: http:www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=1512332.]
23. Summer 2001 - Jordanian intelligence, the GID, makes a communications
intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's men relay it to
Washington, probably through the CIA station in Amman. To make doubly
sure the message got through it was passed through an Arab intermediary
to a German intelligence agent. The message: A major attack was planned
inside the U.S., and aircraft would be used. The code name of the operation
was "The Big Wedding." "When it became clear that the information
was
embarrassing to Bush Administration officials and congressmen who at first
denied that there had been any such warnings before Sept. 11, senior
Jordanian officials backed away from their earlier confirmations."
This case
was authenticated by ABC reporter John K. Cooley. [Source: International
Herald Tribune (IHT), May 21, 2002]
24. Summer 2001 (est.) - The National Security Agency intercepts telephone
conversations between bin Laden aide Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mohammed
Atta and does not share the information with any other agencies. [Source:
Jonathan Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers, June 6, 2002]
25. June 26, 2001 - The magazine indiareacts.com states that "India
and Iran
will 'facilitate' U.S. and Russian plans for 'limited military action'
against the Taliban." The story indicates that the fighting will
be done by
U.S. and Russian troops with the help of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. [Source:
indiareacts.com, June 26, 2001]
26. Summer 2001 - Russian intelligence notifies the CIA that 25 terrorist
pilots have been specifically training for missions involving hijacked
airliners. This is reported in the Russian press and news stories are
translated for FTW by a retired CIA officer. (Note: The story currently
on
the Izvestia web site has been edited to delete a key paragraph.) [Source:
Izvestia, Sept. 12, 2001]
27. July 4-14, 2001 - Osama bin Laden receives treatment for kidney disease
at the American hospital in Dubai and meets with a CIA official, who returns
to CIA headquarters on July 15. [Source: Le Figaro, Oct. 31, 2001]
28. July 15, 2001 - Members of the G8, meeting in Genoa, Italy, discuss
the
Taliban, pipelines, and the handing over of Osama bin Laden. According
to
Pakistani representative Ambassador Naiz Naik, the U.S. delegation, led
by
former Clinton Ambassador to Pakistan Tom Simmons warned of a "military
option" if the Taliban did not change position. [Source: Jean-Charles
Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, "Bin Laden: La Verite Interdite,"
pp76-7.
Thanks to Prof. Peter Dale Scott]
29. July 2001 - Immediately after the G8 Summit three American officials
--
Tom Simmons (former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former
assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs) and Lee Coldren
(former State Department expert on South Asia) -- meet with Pakistani
and
Russian intelligence officers in Berlin and tell them that the U.S. is
planning military strikes against Afghanistan in October. A French book
released in November, "Bin Laden - La Verite Interdite," discloses
that
Taliban representatives often sat in on the meetings. British papers confirm
that the Pakistani ISI relayed the threats to the Taliban. [Source: The
Guardian, Sept. 22, 2001; the BBC, Sept. 18, 2001; The Inter Press Service,
Nov. 16, 2001; Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections, Feb. 21, 2002]
30. July 2001 - The G8 summit at Genoa, Italy is surrounded by anti-aircraft
guns, and local airspace is closed off after Italian and Egyptian officials
(including President Hosni Mubarak) warn American intelligence that
airliners stuffed with explosives might be used to attack President Bush.
U.S. officials state that the warnings were "unsubstantiated."
(But I wonder
if they would have taken away the anti-aircraft artillery?) [Source: Los
Angeles Times, Sept. 27, 2001]
31. July 26, 2001 - CBS News reports that John Ashcroft has stopped flying
commercial airlines due a threat assessment. Ashcroft told the press that
he
didn't know anything about what had caused it.
32. Aug. 2, 2001 - U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Christine Rocca (a former
CIA officer), meets in Islamabad with a Taliban ambassador and demands
the
extradition of bin Laden. This was the last known meeting on the subject.
[Source: Brisard and Dasquie, p 79. Thanks to Prof. Peter Dale Scott]
33. August 2001 - The FBI arrests an Islamic militant linked to bin Laden
in
Boston. French intelligence sources confirm that the man is a key member
of
bin Laden's network and the FBI learns that he has been taking flying
lessons. At the time of his arrest the man is in possession of technical
information on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals. [Source: Reuters, Sept.
13, 2001]
34. Aug. 11 or 12, 2001 Ç U.S. Navy Lt. Delmart "Mike"
Vreeland, jailed in
Toronto on U.S. fraud charges and claiming to be an officer with U.S.
naval
intelligence, writes details of the pending WTC attacks and seals them
in an
envelope, which he gives to Canadian authorities. [Source: The Toronto
Star,
Oct. 23, 2001; Toronto Superior Court Records]
35. August 2001 - As reported in the IHT both a French magazine (name
not
given) and a Moroccan newspaper simultaneously report that a Moroccan
agent
named Hassan Dabou had penetrated Al Qaeda to the point of getting close
to
bin Laden, who was "very disappointed" that the 1993 bombing
had not toppled
the WTC. Dabou was called to the U.S. after reporting this, which curtailed
his ability to stay in touch with the organization and gather additional
intelligence that might have prevented the attacks. Though not proved
beyond
a doubt, these stories have been met with a wall of silence. [The IHT,
May
21, 2002]
36. August 2001 - Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian
intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest possible
terms"
of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. [Source: MSNBC
interview with Putin, Sept. 15, 2001]
37. August 2001 - President Bush receives classified intelligence briefings
at his Crawford, Texas ranch indicating that Osama bin Laden might be
planning to hijack commercial airliners. [CBS News; CNN, May 15, 2002]
38. Late-August 2001 - Prince Turki, the pro-U.S. head of Saudi intelligence
(also known to be close to bin Laden), is replaced by his more neutral
half-brother, Prince Nawwaf who is an ally of Crown Prince Abdullah.
[Source: Saudi Arabian Information Resource, Aug. 31, 2001;
http://www.saudinf.com/ - Thanks to Prof. Peter Dale Scott]
39. August/September 2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops nearly
900 points in the three weeks prior to the attack. A major stock market
crash is imminent.
40. August/September 2001 - According to a detailed 13-page memo written
by
Minneapolis FBI legal officer Colleen Rowley, FBI headquarters ignores
urgent, direct warnings from French intelligence services about pending
attacks. In addition, a single Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in Washington
expends extra effort to thwart the field office's investigation of Zacarias
Moussaoui, in one case rewriting Rowley's affidavit for a search warrant
to
search Moussaoui's laptop. Rowley's memo uses terms like "deliberately
sabotage," "block," "integrity," "omitted,"
"downplayed," "glossed over,"
"mis-characterize," "improper political reasons, "deliberately
thwarting,"
"deliberately further undercut," "suppressed," and
"not completely honest."
These are not terms describing negligent acts but rather, deliberate acts.
FBI field agents desperately attempt to get action, but to no avail. One
agent speculates that bin Laden might be planning to crash airliners into
the WTC, while Rowley ironically noted that the SSA who had committed
these
deliberate actions had actually been promoted after Sept. 11. [Source:
Associated Press, May 21, 2002]
41. Sept. 3-10, 2001 - MSNBC reports on Sept. 16 that a caller to a Cayman
Islands radio talk show gave several warnings of an imminent attack on
the
U.S. by bin Laden in the week prior to 9-11.
42. Early-September 2001 - An FBI internal document, based upon field
notes
from Minnesota field agents discloses that the agents had been investigating
and had questioned the "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui.
The field notes
speculate that Moussaoui, who had been taking flight lessons, might crash
an
airliner into the WTC. Interestingly, the field agents' requests to obtain
a
search warrant for his personal computer were denied. French intelligence
confirms to the FBI that Moussaoui has ties to terrorist groups and may
have
traveled to Afghanistan. The agents also had no knowledge of the Phoenix
memo (See Item #18). One news story states that agents were in "a
frenzy,"
absolutely convinced that he was "going to do something with a plane."
[Source: Newsweek, May 20, 2002 issue, story by Michael Isikoff].
43. Sept. 1-10 2001 - In an exercise, called Operation "Swift Sword"
and
planned for four years, 23,000 British troops are steaming toward Oman.
Although the 9-11 attacks caused a hiccup in the deployment, the massive
operation was implemented as planned. At the same time two U.S. carrier
battle groups arrive on station in the Gulf of Arabia just off the Pakistani
coast. Also at the same time, some 17,000 U.S. troops join more than 23,000
NATO troops in Egypt for Operation "Bright Star." All of these
forces are in
place before the first plane hits the WTC. [Sources: The Guardian; CNN;
Fox;
The Observer; International Law Professor Francis Boyle, the University
of
Illinois.]
44. September 7, 2001 - Florida Governor Jeb Bush signs a two-year emergency
executive order (01-261) making new provisions for the Florida National
Guard to assist law enforcement and emergency-management personnel in
the
event of large civil disturbances, disaster or acts of terrorism. [Source:
State of Florida website listing of Governor's executive orders]
45. Sept. 6-7, 2001 - Put options (a speculation that the stock will go
down) totaling 4,744 are purchased on United Air Lines stock, as opposed
to
only 396 call options (speculation that the stock will go up). This is
a
dramatic and abnormal increase in sales of put options. Many of the United
puts are purchased through Deutschebank/A.B. Brown, a firm managed until
1998 by the current executive director of the CIA, A.B. "Buzzy"
Krongard.
[Source: The Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism
(ICT), http://www.ict.org.il/, Sept. 21, 2001 (Note:The ICT article on
possible terrorist insider trading appeared eight days *after* the 9/11
attacks.); The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; The San Francisco
Chronicle, Sept. 29, 2001]
46. Sept. 10, 2001 - Put options totaling 4,516 are purchased on American
Airlines as compared to 748 call options. [Source: Herzliyya Institute
-
above]
47. Sept. 6-11, 2001 - No other airlines show any similar trading patterns
to those experienced by United and American. The put option purchases
on
both airlines were 600 percent above normal. This at a time when Reuters
(Sept. 10) issues a business report stating, "Airline stocks may
be poised
to take off."
48. Sept. 6-10, 2001 - Highly abnormal levels of put options are purchased
in Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re(insurance) which owns 25 percent
of
American Airlines, and Munich Re. All of these companies are directly
impacted by the Sept. 11 attacks. [Source: ICT, above; FTW, Oct. 18, 2001,
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/oct152001.html]
49. Sept. 6-10, 2001 - It has been documented that the CIA, the Israeli
Mossad, and many other intelligence agencies monitor stock trading in
real
time using highly advanced programs reported to be descended from Promis
software. This is to alert national intelligence services of just such
kinds
of attacks. Promis was reported as recently as June 2001 to be in Osama
bin
Laden's possession and, as a result of recent stories by Fox, both the
FBI
and the Justice Department have confirmed its use for U.S. intelligence
gathering through at least summer 2002. This would confirm that CIA had
additional advance warning of imminent attacks. [Sources: The Washington
Times, June 15, 2001; Fox, Oct. 16, 2001; FTW, Oct. 26, 2001]
50. Sept. 9, 2001 - President George W. Bush is presented with detailed
war
plans to overthrow Al Qaeda, according to U.S. and foreign sources speaking
to NBC News. [Source: MSNBC, May 16, 2002. Thanks to Prof. Peter Dale
Scott]
51. Sept. 10, 2001 - Amr Elgindy, a colleague of Iran-Contra figure Adnan
Khashoggi and a notorious inside trader on the financial markets, orders
his
broker to liquidate his children's $300,000 trust account, fearing a sudden
crash in the market. Elgindy is arrested in San Diego in May 2002, along
with FBI agents Jeffrey Royer and Lynn Wingate who allegedly have been
using
their FBI positions to feed him inside information on various corporations.
Elgindy is currently being held without bail. [Source: The Globe and Mail,
May 25, 2002]
52. Sept. 10, 2001 - On Sept. 10, Newsweek has learned, a group of top
Pentagon officials suddenly cancelled travel plans for the next morning,
apparently because of security concerns. [Source: Newsweek, Sept. 24,
2001
issue, story by Evan Thomas]
53. Sept. 11, 2001 - United Air Lines flight 23, scheduled to fly from
New
York City to Los Angeles was delayed after four Muslim passengers began
demanding that the plane take off immediately. This happened apparently
after the first plane had hit the WTC. The passengers were thrown off
the
flight. [Source: The Globe and Mail, June 13, 2002]
54. Sept. 11, 2001 Ç Gen. Mahmud of the ISI (see #16), friend of
Mohammed
Atta, is visiting Washington on behalf of the Taliban. He is meeting with
the Chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Rep. Porter
Goss, R-Fla., and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., [Source: MSNBC, Oct. 7, 2001;
The
New York Times, Feb. 17, 2002]
55. Sept. 11, 2001 - Employees of Odigo, Inc. in Israel, one of the world's
largest instant messaging companies with offices in New York, receive
threat
warnings of an imminent attack on the WTC less than two hours before the
first plane hits. Law enforcement authorities have gone silent about any
investigation of this. The Odigo research and development offices in Israel
are located in the city of Herzliyya, a ritzy suburb of Tel Aviv that
is the
same location as the Institute for Counter Terrorism, which eight days
later
reports details of insider trading on 9-11. [Source: CNN's Daniel Sieberg,
Sept. 28, 2001; MSNBC Newsbytes, Brian McWilliams, Sept. 27, 2001; Ha'aretz,
Sept. 26, 2001]
56. Sept. 11, 2001 - For 50 minutes, from 8:15 AM until 9:05 AM, with
it
widely known within the FAA and the military that four planes have been
simultaneously hijacked and taken off course, no one notifies the President
of the United States. It is not until 9:30 that any Air Force planes are
scrambled to intercept, but by then it is too late. This means that the
National Command Authority waited for 75 minutes before scrambling aircraft,
even though it was known that four simultaneous hijackings had occurred.
[Source: CNN; ABC; MSNBC; Los Angeles Times; The New York Times;
http://www.tenc.net ]
57. Sept. 11-12, 2001 - Nearly a month before the first reported outbreak,
White House officials start taking the powerful antibiotic Cipro to treat
anthrax. By the end of the year it will be known that the Ames strain
of
anthrax used in the attacks against Sens. Leahy and Daschle was produced
by
CIA programs coordinated through Fort Detrick, the Batelle Memorial
Institute and the Dugway Proving Ground. [Source: NBC; CNN;]
58. Sept. 13, 2001 - China is admitted to the World Trade Organization
quickly, after years of unsuccessful attempts. [Source: The New York Times,
Sept. 30, 2001]
59. Sept. 14, 2001 - Canadian jailers open the sealed envelope from Mike
Vreeland in Toronto and see that is describes attacks against the WTC
and
Pentagon. The U.S. Navy subsequently states that Vreeland was discharged
as
a seaman in 1986 for unsatisfactory performance and has never worked in
intelligence. [Source: The Toronto Star, Oct. 23, 2001; Toronto Superior
Court records]
60. Sept. 15, 2001 - The New York Times reports that Mayo Shattuck III
has
resigned, effective immediately, as head of the Alex Brown (A.B.) unit
of
Deutschebank.
61. Sept. 29, 2001 - The San Francisco Chronicle reports that $2.5 million
in put options on American and United airlines are unclaimed. This is
likely
the result of the suspension in trading on the New York Stock Exchange
after
the attacks, which gave the Securities and Exchange Commission time to
be
waiting when the owners showed up to redeem their put options.
62. Oct. 10, 2001 - The Pakistani newspaper The Frontier Post reports
that
U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain has paid a call on the Pakistani oil
minister. A previously abandoned Unocal gas pipeline project from
Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, to Pakistan is now back on the table
"in
view of recent geopolitical developments."
63. Oct. 11, 2001 - The Ashcroft Justice Department takes over all terrorist
prosecutions from the U.S. Attorneys office in New York, which has had
a
highly successful track record in prosecuting terrorist cases connected
to
Osama bin Laden. [Source: The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2001]
64. Mid-October 2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after having
suffered a precipitous drop has recovered most of its pre-attack losses.
Although still weak and vulnerable to negative earnings reports, a crash
has
been averted by a massive infusion of government spending on defense
programs, subsidies for "affected" industries and planned tax
cuts for
corporations.
65. Nov. 21, 2001 - The British paper The Independent runs a story
headlined, "Opium Farmers Rejoice at the Defeat of the Taliban."
The story
reports that massive opium planting is underway all over the country.
66. Nov. 25, 2001 - The Observer runs a story headlined "Victorious
Warlords
Set To Open the Opium Floodgates." It states that farmers are being
encouraged by warlords allied with the victorious Americans are "being
encouraged to plant as much opium as possible."
67. Dec. 4, 2001 - Convicted drug lord and opium kingpin Ayub Afridi is
recruited by the U.S. government to help establish control in Afghanistan
by
unifying various Pashtun warlords. The former opium smuggler who was one
of
the CIA's leading assets in the war against the Russians is released from
prison in order to do this. [Source: The Asia Times Online, Dec. 4, 2001]
68. Dec. 25, 2001 - Newly appointed Afghani Prime Minister Hamid Karzai
is
revealed as being a former paid consultant for Unocal. [Source: Le Monde]
69. Jan. 3, 2002 - President Bush appoints Zalmy Khalilzad as a special
envoy to Afghanistan. Khalilzad, a former employee of Unocal, also wrote
op-eds in the Washington Post in 1997 supporting the Taliban regime.
[Source: Pravda, Jan. 9, 2002]
70. Jan. 4, 2002 - Florida drug trafficking explodes after 9-11. In a
surge
of trafficking reminiscent of the 1980s the diversion of resources away
from
drug enforcement has opened the floodgates for a new surge of cocaine
and
heroin from South America. [The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 4, 2002]
71. Jan. 10, 2002 - In a call from a speaker phone in open court, attorneys
for Mike Vreeland call the Pentagon's switchboard operator, who confirms
that Vreeland is indeed a naval lieutenant on active duty. She provides
an
office number and a direct dial phone extension to his office in the
Pentagon. [Source: Attorney Rocco Galati; Toronto Superior Court records]
72. Jan. 10, 2002 - Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself from
the
Enron investigation because Enron had been a major campaign donor in his
2000 Senate race. He fails to recuse himself from involvement in two sitting
federal grand juries investigating bribery and corruption charges against
ExxonMobil and BP Amoco, which have massive oil interests in Central Asia.
Both were major Ashcroft donors in 2000. [Source: CNN, Jan. 10, 2002;
FTW,
"The Elephant in the Living Room, Part I," April 4, 2002]
73. Jan. 23, 2002 - Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped
in Pakistan. Pearl is reported dead on Feb. 21. Lead suspect Ahmad Umar
Sheik, former colleague of Gen. Ahmad, is arrested on Feb. 12 and named
as
the lead suspect in the kidnapping and murder. Legal sources close to
the
Pakistani government tell FTW that Pearl was investigating the ISI. [Source:
CNN.com]
74. Feb. 9, 2002 - Pakistani leader Gen. Musharraf and Afghan leader Hamid
Karzai announce their agreement to "cooperate in all spheres of activity,"
including the proposed Central Asian pipeline. Pakistan will give $10
million to Afghanistan to help pay Afghan government workers. [Source:
The
Irish Times, Feb. 9, 2002]
75. Feb. 18, 2002 - The Financial Times reports that the estimated opium
harvest in Afghanistan in the late-spring 2002 will reach a world record
4,500 metric tons.
76. Mid-April, 2002 - World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, at the opening
of
the World Bank's offices in Kabul, states he has held talks about financing
the Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline. He confirms $100 million in new grants
for the interim Afghani government. Wolfensohn also states that a number
of
companies have already expressed interest in the project. [Source:
Alexander's Gas and oil Connections, citing an Agence France-Presse story]
77. May 13, 2002 - The BBC reports that Afghanistan is about to close
a deal
for construction of the $2 billion gas pipeline to run from Turkmenistan
to
Pakistan and India. The story states, "work on the project will start
after
an agreement is expected to be struck" at a summit scheduled for
the end of
the month. Unocal will build the pipeline. [Source: BBC, May 13, 2002]
78. May, 2002 - A number of sources report progress on both oil and gas
pipelines. Regional sources state that Unocal will re-emerge as a pipeline
contender after withdrawing from the CentGas pipeline project in 1998.
Unocal denies plans to revive the gas pipeline but curiously neglects
to
mention whether or not it has any interest in the oil pipeline, which
local
sources say is moving ahead. [Source: The Dawn Group of Newspapers, May
7,
May 17, May 22, 2002]
79. May 30, 2002 - Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai,
Turkmenistan's President Niyazov, and Pakistani President Musharraf meet
in
Islamabad to sign a memorandum of understanding on the trans-Afghanistan
gas
pipeline project. The three leaders will meet for more talks on the project
in October. The Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistani gas pipeline accord has been
published and can be viewed at the following website:
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nts22622.htm
[Source: NewsBase, June 5, 2002]
80. May 16, 2002 Ç White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer states
unequivocally that while President Bush had been warned of possible
hijackings, "The president did not -- not -- receive information
about the
use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers." [Source: CBS News,
May 15,
2002]
81. May 19, 2002 - Former FBI Agent Tyrone Powers, now a professor at
Anne
Arundel Community College states on radio station KISS 98.7 that he has
credible evidence suggesting that the Bush Administration did in fact
allow
the Sept. 11 attacks to further a hidden agenda. [Source: http://www.indymedia.org
- May 20, 2002]
82. May 31, 2002 - FBI
Agent Robert Wright delivers a tearful press
conference at the National Press Club describing his lawsuit against the
FBI
for deliberately curtailing investigations that might have prevented the
9-11 attacks. He uses words like "prevented," "thwarted,"
"obstructed,"
"threatened," "intimidated," and "retaliation"
to describe the actions of
his superiors in blocking his attempts to shut off money flows to Al Qaeda
and other terrorist groups. These are not words of negligence. They are
words describing deliberate and malicious actions. [Source: C-SPAN website]
83. June 4, 2002 - Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Butler, who had called President
Bush a joke and accused him of allowing the Sept. 11 attacks to happen,
is
suspended from his post at the Defense Language School in Monterey, Calif.
and could face a court martial. [Source: Associated Press, June 4, 2002]
84. June 17, 2002 - Reuters reports that Butler's case has been resolved
without the necessity of a court martial. (I guess so. There's enough
material here to prove him right. -- MCR) [Reuters, June 17, 2002]
85. July 2, 2002 - Motions from Zacarias Moussaoui are unsealed in federal
court, indicating that Moussaoui wants to testify before both a grand
jury
and Congress about the Sept. 11 attacks. Moussaoui claims to have
information showing that the U.S. government wanted the attacks to happen.
[Source: The Washington Post, July 3, 2002]
86. July 3, 2002 - The first-ever shipment of Russian oil, 200,000 metric
tons, arrives in Houston. [Source: The Moscow Times, July 6, 2002].
87. July 6, 2002 - Afghan Vice President Hajji Abdul Qadir is assassinated
by Afghan warlords. The New York Times reports that Qadir may have been
assassinated by opium warlords upset by Qadir's efforts to reduce the
rampant opium farming and processing that has taken place since the U.S.
occupation. Qadir had been overseeing a Western-backed eradication program,
according to the Times. However, the opium warlords of the region are
same
ones sponsored, protected, and in some cases released from prison by the
CIA
and who have been protected by President Bush's special envoy, Zalmay
Khalilzad. It is reported that the raw opium is being refined near U.S.
bases at Kandahar. [Sources: The New York Times, July 8, 2002; Far Eastern
Economic Review, April 18, 2002]
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