truthaction.org

[Diane]

I just now posted, on my blog, a rebuttal of some aspects of an attempted debunking of Ruppert's timeline: To Tom: Michael C. Ruppert vs. “COINTELPRO Tool” on Afghanistan.

Basically I defend the following points:

1) There were plans to invade Afghanistan before 9/11.

2) The invasion of Afghanistan was motivated by goals other than just "fighting terrorism."
_________________
Diane

New York City Activist

[Nicholas]

The Bush regime approved $125 million in aid to Afghanistan through May 2001 and conducted the back-channel 4+1 talks that broke off in June 2001 with the infamous promise of "a carpet of gold or carpet of bombs," as reported by Dasquie and Brisard and not really denied by negotiater Tom Simons, whose excuse was along the lines that one says daring things when drunk and doesn't remember a thing afterwards.

Yes, I trust the French on this!

On the other hand, I fully believe the official U.S. story that the final $43 million payment from the State Department to Afghanistan NGOs in May was in support to the farmers impoverished by the Taliban's successful effort to eradicate the spring 2001 poppy harvest. According to the UN, Afghanistan's opium output was cut by 95 percent that year (the other 5 percent coming from Northern Alliance areas).

Why do I believe that?

The poppy eradication was, in fact, the move that broke the back of the Taliban, by eliminating their people's most important source of cash. They let their fundamentalist ideals screw everyone else's bottom line at home, and I submit the U.S. government was happy to support them in their own self-destruction.

Bush had the plans for "essentially" the same invasion that was actually carried out in October placed on his desk on Sept. 9, according to NBC and other sources as you quote in your blog post. Condoleezza Rice referred to this later as a plan to fight al-Qaeda internationally, including in Afghanistan, and confirmed the amazing date.

I remember the news reports in 2001 that the CIA had been active in Afghanistan for two years already, talking to warlords, and that after 9/11 agents arrived in regional strongholds with briefcases full of cash as a nice opener for a talk. Research, and you will find many such corporate news stories from the period.

I speculate (yes I do!) that these talks typically went something like this: "The Taliban have screwed you. America's coming for Bin Ladin and the Taliban no matter what. Drop the Taliban, and in November you can plant the crop at your pleasure."

Tending to confirm my craaaaazy speculation is the successful planting that fall, after the Taliban were pushed out of power. It turned into the record poppy harvest of 2002. Repeated every year since.

The U.S. didn't need a full invading army in Afghanistan because the local warlords dropped the Taliban. Gives a whole new meaning to drug war.

Russia and Iran did support the Afghanistan invasion, by the way, exactly as in the speculative stories published the summer before 9/11. Russia allowed stealth bombers to overfly its territory on their way from Missouri to Afghanistan and back. Until the Iraq invasion was ramped up, Putin was shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush and the "global War on Terror." Iran honestly condemned 9/11 - tens of thousands attended support vigils - and was thrilled with the Taliban overthrow. They were enemies of the (Sunni) Taliban, who killed a number of Iranian diplomats in a 1998 massacre (in Herat, if I recall). Iran massed 200,000 troops on the border and was on the brink of invading Afghanistan when it was pressured not to do so by the U.S. Clinton bombed Afghanistan (and Sudan) a few weeks later, which was fobbed off in the U.S. press as something related to Monica.

You have an enormous patience for dealing with "COINTELPRO Tool's" pennyante, pissant semantical hair-splitting in lieu of an argument, not to mention his lack of any sense of geostrategy and history (unless it comes together in the reassuring conclusion that the U.S. government acts for good or at least justifiable motives, and would never kill its own people, only foreigners). You're a nicer person than I, Diane.

[Diane]

Nicholas, thanks for all the information. I've done a little further research, based on what you wrote above, and added two new sections to my blog post, starting here.

[Jon Gold]

Nicholas... wasn't there a story with regards to the vouchers the farmers received, supposedly to help them switch from opium to a legal crop, and how they were next to impossible to validate, thereby forcing them to plant opium just so they could feed their families?

[Nicholas]

Jon:

That's the first I've heard of this story. Sounds possible. Do you have a source?

[Jon Gold]

[Nicholas]

That's the Karzai government, post-invasion when the largest Afghan poppy crop in history flooded the market. Never heard of it before, but it sounds cosmetic.

We're talking about the $43 million made available by the State Department to NGOs in May 2001, in support of the Taliban eradication effort. Again, I believe that's exactly what it was - helping the Taliban alienate their own power base. What effects the $43 million had on the ground is unclear. But the Taliban did succeed in crop eradication, and were praised for it (even as they were maiming women, banning soccer and shaving, and blowing up ancient Buddhas).

[Nicholas]

Diane:

[Jon Gold]

Here's my little "archive" of everything Opium...

Opium

Here is every article I've collected about opium production in Afghanistan following our invasion. Some have speculated that opium production was one of the main reasons we invaded Afghanistan. The idea is, a large percentage of drug money gets laundered through the American Banking System, as well as Wall Street.

Sen. Carl Levin once said:

Current estimates are that $500 billion to $1 trillion in illegal funds are laundered through banks worldwide each year, with about half going through U.S. financial institutions.

At the time of our invasion, Afghanistan opium production was at an all time low because the Taliban managed to destroy a large percentage of the opium crops.

However, Mullah Omar said that if the U.S. were to invade, the farmers will be allowed to grow opium.

How lucky for "U.S. financial institutions."

I recommend the writings of Peter Dale Scott with regard to the drug trade.

White House/U.S. Gov't Presiding Over 'Narcotics State'

Karzai Rejects Criticism Over Opium Trade

U.K. Under Fire Over Afghan Opium

Study Proposes Opium Licensing For Afghanistan

U.S. Restored Afghan Opium Caused 0.4 Min Global & 50000 American Drug Deaths

U.N. Finds Afghanistan Opium Declined 2.5%, Still Producing 87% Of World's Crop

Britain And U.S. Split Over Defeating Afghan Opium Trade

Afghan Poppy Farmers Expect Record Opium Crop And The Taliban Will Reap The Rewards

Afghan Opium Cultivation Hits A Record

Afghanistan Now Supplies "A Staggering 92%" Of The World's Opium

Who Benefits From The Afghan Opium Trade?

Afghanistan Opium Crop Sets Record

Rumsfeld Urged To Alter Afghan Drug Trade Policy

Pentagon Resists Pleas For Help In Afghan Opium Fight

U.N.: Afghan Opium Crop Set To Grow In 2007

Opium: Iraq's Deadly New Export

Opium Production Up 50% In Afghanistan: U.N. Report

U.N.: Iraq Becoming Transit Point For Drugs

Iraq: The New Heroin Route

Women Pay A Price In War On Afghan Drug Trade

Afghan Poppy Growers Want Protection From Canadian Forces

Afghanistan: "Supply Could Now Be Exceeding Global Demand For Heroin"; Price Drops

Drug Mafia, CIA Blamed For Sacking Of Afghan Governor

The Hijacking Of A Nation By Sibel Edmonds

The Hijacking Of A Nation Part II By Sibel Edmonds

[Jon Gold]

Sorry... some of those links no longer work.

http://www.senate.gov/~levin/issues/index4.cfm?MainIssue=CrimeandJustice&SubIssue=MoneyLaundering

[Nicholas]

Diane, a response to one of the bedunkers in your comments section with regard to the reported Bin Ladin-CIA meeting in July 2001 has yet to appear. Perhaps you approve these in advance. Here it is.

---

Tom says, "The second link went directly to a section which debunked Ruppert’s claim about Osama bin Laden meeting a top CIA official at the American hospital in Dubai."

This claim was never Ruppert's, nor did Ruppert ever claim it as his own!

The relevant news stories came from Radio France International (reporter: Richard Labeviere), Le Figaro, The Guardian, The London Times, and others. All of whom stand by their stories. French counterterrorism expert Antoine Sfeir, who also says he has verified the story, notes that there would be nothing extraordinary in the idea of the CIA meeting with Bin Ladin.

Except, I would add, to the reflexive denialists of the routine workings of the American empire. It is a typical maneuver of the self-appointed debunkers to quibble with the argument (or in this case the syntax) of a prominent analyst like Ruppert, who here is merely passing on the claim, rather than to examine the original source. In this case, the debunkers tried to use Ruppert's possibly inaccurate translation of a French verb to stand in as a quasi refutation of the story itself, indeed of all work suggesting the U.S. government or its covert arms were involved in September 11th.

As a public service - and this will be my only comment on this matter here - I've dug up a couple of the original French stories and conclude with the excellent summary of other news reports from the Complete 9/11 Timeline at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a070401dubai#a070401dubai

Readers can read these, go dig up the CIA denials (which are also available thanks to arcane search technologies) and judge for themselves. Alternatively they can just cheerlead for their favorite team and say, rah rah rah.

---

RE: Purported visit by Bin Laden to Dubai American Hospital on July 4-14, 2001 and meetings during that time with presumed CIA Dubai station chief Larry Mitchell, apparently arranged by Prince Turki, who had been the head of Saudi intelligence for 22 years (and who was forced to resign a week before Sept. 11).

---

English Translation of LE FIGARO, 31 October 2001
(not 11 October as in the typo at the top of the page)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIC111B.html

The CIA met Bin Laden while undergoing treatment at an American Hospital last July in Dubai
by Alexandra Richard
Translated courtesy of Tiphaine Dickson

Le Figaro, 11 October 2001
Posted at globalresearch.ca 2 November 2001

Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the Federation of the United Arab Emirates, North-East of Abi-Dhabi. This city, population 350,000, was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July. A partner of the administration of the American Hospital in Dubai claims that public enemy number one stayed at this hospital between the 4th and 14th of July.

Having taken off from the Quetta airport in Pakistan, bin Laden was transferred to the hospital upon his arrival at Dubai airport. He was accompanied by his personal physician and faithful lieutenant, who could be Ayman al-Zawahari--but on this sources are not entirely certain--, four bodyguards, as well as a male Algerian nurse, and admitted to the American Hospital, a glass and marble building situated between the Al-Garhoud and Al-Maktoum bridges.

Each floor of the hospital has two "VIP" suites and fifteen rooms. The Saudi billionnaire was admitted to the well-respected urology department run by Teerry Callaway, gallstone and infertility specialist. Dr Callaway declined to respond to our questions despite several phone calls.

As early as March, 2000, 'Asia Week,' published in Hong Kong, expressed concern for bin Laden's health, describing a serious medical problem that could put his life in danger because of "a kidney infection that is propagating itself to the liver and requires specialized treatment". According to authorized sources, bin Laden had mobile dialysis equipment shipped to his hideout in Kandahar in the first part of 2000. According to our sources, bin Laden's "travels for health reasons" have taken place before. Between 1996 and 1998, bin Laden made several trips to Dubai on business.

On September 27th, 15 days after the World Trade Center attacks, at the request of the United States, the Central Bank of the Arab Emirates announced an order to freeze assts and investments of 26 people or organisations suspected of mainting contact with bin Laden's organization, and in particular at the Dubai Islamic Bank.

"Relations between the Emirate and Saudi Arabia have always been very close," according to sources, "princes of reigning families, having recognized the Taliban regime, often travelled to Afghanistan. One of the princes of a ruling family regularily went hunting on the land of bin Laden, whom he had known and visited for many years."

There are daily flights between Dubai and Quetta by both Pakistan and Emirates Airlines. As to private planes from Saudi Arabia or from the Emirates, they regulariy fly to Quetta, where their arrival is rarely registered in airport logs.

While he was hospitalised, bin Laden received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. During the hospital stay, the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking the main elevator of the hospital to go to bin Laden's hospital room.

A few days later, the CIA man bragged to a few friends about having visited bin Laden. Authorised sources say that on July 15th, the day after bin Laden returned to Quetta, the CIA agent was called back to headquarters.

In late July, Emirates customs agents arrested Franco-Algerian activist Djamel Beghal at the Dubai airport. In early August, French and American authorities were advised of the arrest. Interrogated by local authorities in Abu Dhabi, Beghal stated that he was called to Afghanistan in late 2000 by Abou Zoubeida, a military leader of bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda. Beghal's mission: bomb the US embassy on Gabriel avenue, near the Place de la Concorde, upon his return to France.

According to Arab diplomatic sources as well as French intelligence, very specific information was transmitted to the CIA with respect to terrorist attacks against American interests around the world, including on US soil. A DST report dated 7 September enumerates all the intelligence, and specifies that the order to attack was to come from Afghanistan.

In August, at the US Embassy in Paris, an emergency meeting was called between the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service) and senior US intelligence officials. The Americans were extremely worried, and requested very specific information from the French about Algerian activists, without advising their counterparts about the reasons for their requests. To the question "what do you fear in the coming days?", the Americans kept a difficult-to-fathom silence.

Contacts between the CIA and bin Laden began in 1979 when, as a representative of his family's business, bin Laden began recruiting volunteers for the Afghan resistance against the Red Army. FBI investigators examining the embassy bombing sites in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam discovered that evidence led to military explosives from the US Army, and that these explosives had been delivered threee years earlier to Afghan Arabs, the infamous international volunteer brigades involved side by side with bin Laden during the Afghan war against the Red Army.

In the pursuit of its investigations, the FBI discovered "financing agreements" that the CIA had been developing with its "arab friends" for years. The Dubai meeting is then within the logic of "a certain American policy".

---

The RFI and Le Figaro articles are in French on the following archive page, here is the English intro:

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Bin-Laden-Met-CIA.htm

Bin Laden Met With CIA Agent in July
Richard Labeviere / Le Figaro 1nov01

truthout -- 10.31.01 | According to information's collected by Le Figaro, and Radio France International, Oussama Ben Laden met with an American CIA agent last July while he was being treated for a kidney ailment at the American Hospital of Dubai.

The billionaire Saudi Ben Laden visited the American Hospital of Dubaï from July 4 to July 14th, two months before the attacks of September 11, confirmed by sources close to European services of information.

He was accompanied by his personal doctor and faithful lieutenant, Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahari, a male nurse and four bodyguards. Ben Laden suffers from a renal infection which is propagated with the liver and requires specialized care. Doctor Terry Callaway at The American Hospital of Dubai is known for the specialized treatment of such ailments.

During his hospitalization, Oussama Ben Laden was visited by several members of his family, and on July 12th the local representative of the CIA, that many people know in Dubaï, was seen going into his room.

A few days later, shortly after Ben Laden left for Quetta with a new kidney dialysis machine, the CIA agent bragged to friends about visiting the billionaire saudi and was subsequently recalled to the USA on July 15th.

According to various Arab diplomatic sources and the services of French information themselves, very precise information was communicated to the CIA relating to terrorist attacks aiming at American interests in the world, including on the territory of the United States. A report of the DST on September 7 gathers the totality of this data, specifying that the order to act was to come from Afghanistan.

The American press is appears unwilling to report this information to the 270 million people of the American public.

---

Archived (terrible) translation and French original of a follow-up article by Labeviere on the RFI site.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2001/rfi110101.html

Bin Laden and the CIA: Details of the Meeting

by Richard Labeviere
Radio France International
November 1, 2001

http://www.ulg.ac.be/capri/AttentatsUSA/CAPRI_RFI_01_11_01_BebLadenCIAdetails.htm

After the information revealed by RFI and "le Figaro" concerning a meeting last July between Ben Laden and an agent of the CIA with Dubaï, the American agency speaks "about total nonsense". RFI maintains and specifies its information.

The local representative of the CIA which visited Oussama Ben Laden - on July 12 - at the American Hospital of Dubai is named Larry Mitchell. Even thought his business card specifies that he is a "consular agent", every one knows in Dubai, in particular in the small community of expatriots which it works under cover. In light, Larry Mitchell belongs to the "company", in other words the CIA. He does not hide it...

Good expert of the Arab world and especially of the peninsula, Larry Mitchell is a colourful character who often brightens the a little dull evenings of expatriés of Dubai. One of its close relations has habit to say that its exubérance natural plank often "confidential defense." And it is perhaps one of the reasons for which he was recalled to the United States as of last 15 July.

A score of days after the attacks of September 11, in an official statement October 5, 2001, the CIA already was qualifying baseless, the rumours without base of information according to which the information agency had had, in the past of the contacts with Ben Laden and his entourage, in particular at the time of the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It is that this official statement of the CIA is in complete contradiction with the official declarations several representatives of the American administration itself.

The CIA and Ben Laden: a long history:

a return on the past is necessary and capital on two accounts, first of all historically, but also because it makes it possible to judge serious certain official statements official. The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates affirms in his memories that the American services started has to help the Afghan moudjahidine - of which friends of Oussama Ben Laden - six months before the Soviet intervention...

This assertion which destroys the official statement of the CIA of last 5 October was confirmed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former adviser with the security of president Carter and I quote it: " According to the official version of the history, the assistance of the CIA to the Afghans began during 1980, i.e. after the Soviet intervention of December 24, 1979. But reality kept secret until now is very different... " and Brzezinski continues" it is on July 3 1979 that president Carter signed the first directive on the clandestine assistance with the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime of Kabul. And that day there, I wrote a note to the president to explaining to him that in my opinion this help was going to involve a military intervention of Soviet."

(go to that site for French)

---

Up-to-date summary of various stories at Complete 9/11 Timeline, including links to the sources:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a070401dubai#a070401dubai

July 4-14, 2001: Bin Laden Reportedly Receives Lifesaving Treatment in Dubai, Said to Meet with CIA While There

Bin Laden, America’s most wanted criminal with a $5 million bounty on his head, supposedly receives lifesaving treatment for renal failure from American specialist Dr. Terry Callaway at the American hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is possibly accompanied by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri (who is said to be bin Laden’s personal physician as well as al-Qaeda’s second-in-command), plus several bodyguards. Callaway supposedly treated bin Laden in 1996 and 1998, also in Dubai. Callaway later refuses to answer any questions on this matter. [Le Figaro (Paris), 10/31/2001; Agence France-Presse, 11/1/2001; London Times, 11/1/2001] During his stay, bin Laden is visited by “several members of his family and Saudi personalities,” including Prince Turki al-Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence. [Guardian, 11/1/2001] On July 12, bin Laden reportedly meets with CIA agent Larry Mitchell in the hospital. Mitchell apparently lives in Dubai as an Arab specialist under the cover of being a consular agent. The CIA, the Dubai hospital, and even bin Laden deny the story. The two news organizations that broke the story, Le Figaro and Radio France International, stand by their reporting. [Le Figaro (Paris), 10/31/2001; Radio France International, 11/1/2001] The explosive story is widely reported in Europe, but there are only two, small wire service stories on it in the US. [United Press International, 11/1/2001; Reuters, 11/10/2001] The Guardian claims that the story originated from French intelligence, “which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.” The Guardian adds that during his stay bin Laden is also visited by a second CIA officer. [Guardian, 11/1/2001] In 2003, reporter Richard Labeviere will provide additional details of what he claims happened in a book entitled “The Corridors of Terror.” He claims he learned about the meeting from a contact in the Dubai hospital. He claims the event was confirmed in detail by a Gulf prince who presented himself as an adviser to the Emir of Bahrain. This prince claimed the meeting was arranged by Prince Turki al-Faisal. The prince said, “By organizing this meeting…Turki thought he could start direct negotiations between [bin Laden] and the CIA on one fundamental point: that bin Laden and his supporters end their hostilities against American interests.” In exchange, the CIA and Saudis would allow bin Laden to return to Saudi Arabia and live freely there. The meeting is said to be a failure. [Reuters, 11/14/2003] On July 15, Larry Mitchell reportedly returns to CIA headquarters to report on his meeting with bin Laden. [Radio France International, 11/1/2001] French counterterrorism expert Antoine Sfeir says the story of this meeting has been verified and is not surprising: It “is nothing extraordinary. Bin Laden maintained contacts with the CIA up to 1998. These contacts have not ceased since bin Laden settled in Afghanistan. Up to the last moment, CIA agents hoped that bin Laden would return to the fold of the US, as was the case before 1989.” [Le Figaro (Paris), 11/1/2001] A CIA spokesman calls the entire account of bin Laden’s stay at Dubai “sheer fantasy.” [Reuters, 11/14/2003]

[Diane]

Nicholas, thanks very much for the above, and thanks very much for posting it on my blog, too.

For some reason, Wordpress classified your comment as "spam," but I do try to check ths "spam" area at last once a day. I found your comment there.

(I'll be editing it to HTML-ize and prettify links, as I usually do.)
_________________
Diane

New York City Activist