March 26, 2004

While America Slept. "For more than a decade, I felt I was a voice in the wilderness, warning whomever I could reach that the Jihadists were marching towards this country .. I observed the clouds gathering in Khartoum in 1992, when terrorists from all walks of life were assembled by Hassan Turabi to consult on the next world target. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbollah and those men who would later form al Qaida were sitting shoulder to shoulder with Mujahideen from Chechnia to Algeria. On the menu: how to defeat the United States. I read about these meetings by purchasing the daily Arabic al Hayat, in subtropical Miami. But the mainstream press in Washington missed what was to come. The holy war machinery was moving, while America slept tight.

“We started to hear about al Qaida around 1994,” said Richard Clarke. “Err, I began to know about them around 1996,” admitted former secretary Madeleine Albright. In the MSNBC studios where I was glued on the TV screen, I sat in disbelief. This country was at war and it didn't even know? ..

After the first Twin Towers attacks in New York in 1993 and the Khobar Towers operation in 1996, Washington sends in the FBI for forensics. The same year, the Taliban takes over Kabul, and al Qaida forms training camps around that poor country. The US dispatches the diplomats to Riyadh instead for mediation. “The infidels are intimidated,” Usama Bin Laden told Western journalists the following year. “Their soldiers can't fight, their Government is on the run,” asserted the commander of the believers on al Jazeera later ..

Ironically, he had the courtesy to inform the United States of his intention. On February 22, 1998, the bearded man declared war. The Clinton administration obviously didn't hear this declaration. In August, Bin Laden’s organization destroyed two American embassies in East Africa. This time, the White House had to respond. The world .. was wondering why Washington wasn't using its power to protect its own citizens. Two missiles landed on a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan and thirty Tomahawks dug the rocks of Afghanistan. The Taliban readied themselves for the encounter with the Marines but no marching orders were issued across the Potomac.

In 2000, the USS Cole was hit in Yemen. This time, neither the Seals were deployed nor the Cruise missiles were fired. “The international situation could have gotten complicated,” theorized Secretary Albright at the hearings. “We should not be emotional,” rationalized Secretary Cohen. “We had no compelling evidence,” said Dick Clarke.

At the 9/11 hearings, Senator Kerrey .. wondered how al Qaida operatives crossed “all layers of American defense.” .. the truth is not so difficult to understand. Al Qaida did not force its way onto our mainland; it was invited in ..

“How would you know what’s on al Qaida’s mind,” said Secretary Albright at the hearings. That sentence alone should summarize the proceedings of the commission .. ". more WALID PHARES. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack