[P2P-F] CIA threaten journalists exposing 9/11 cover-up

[David Rose]

http://www.secrecykills.com/

Ex-Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke Accuses CIA Of Trying To
“Flip” 9/11 Hijackers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6w1YaZdf8

CIA Threats of Federal Prosecution Delay 9/11 Documentary
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1109/S00293/cia-threats-of-federal-prosecution-delay-911-documentary.htm
Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 12:30 pm

Recent threats by the CIA prompt two freelance journalists to delay an
investigative podcast naming CIA analysts complicit in obstruction of
key pre-9/11 intelligence. The podcast will present revelations from
former top US government personnel, including Richard Clarke, Pasquale
D’Amuro, Bob Baer, and Mark Rossini, who echo concerns of former 9/11
Commission Chair Thomas Kean.

On Thursday, the CIA threatened the journalists behind Who Is Rich
Blee? with possible federal prosecution if their investigative podcast
reveals the names of two CIA analysts at the center of a pattern of
obstruction and mishandling of intelligence that many feel would have
stopped the 9/11 attacks.

Like FBI agent Ali Soufan and Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer before them,
the podcast team, including John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski, are being
subjected to intimidation and censorship by government officials over
blowing the whistle on the true story surrounding two alleged 9/11
hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.

The podcast originally scheduled for September 11th release presents a
narrative of how three CIA analysts working under Richard Blee, the
long unknown former head of CIA’s Bin Laden Station, deliberately
misled their colleagues and withheld key intelligence from FBI and the
White House regarding the presence of two known Al-Qaeda operatives in
the U.S.

Four government investigations into CIA handling of pre-911
intelligence included personal details of the two CIA analysts and
their actions. Nowosielski and Duffy deduced the identities of the two
as yet unnamed CIA employees from internet research based on details
provided from these and other open sources. When the producers used
their full names in interviews, interviewees offered no correction.
The CIA response provided the final confirmation.

In project updates posted at SecrecyKills.com the producers announced
the delay of the podcast and posted background of a complicated case
that involves dozens of violations of protocol, intimidation, and
incidents of obstruction by the CIA, with the two yet named CIA
analysts at the center of many of them.

Author and expert on the subject, Kevin Fenton, documents 35 such
incidents between January 2000 and September 11th in his book,
Disconnecting the Dots: How 9/11 Was Allowed to Happen.

Pulitzer-prize winner Lawrence Wright, interviewed for the podcast,
told producers the actions of one of the unnamed CIA analysts still
employed at CIA amounts to obstruction of justice in the FBI’s
criminal investigation of the deaths of 17 seaman aboard the USS Cole.

The producers are not the first subject to government censorship over
this case. Last month The New York Times reported on CIA efforts to
censor an autobiography by Ali Soufan, a front-line FBI
counter-terrorism special agent. Prior to 9/11, Soufan was interested
in Mihdhar and Hazmi because of links to the bombing of the USS Cole
in Yemen. The CIA censored references to a passport photo of Mihdhar
the CIA had withheld from Soufan, despite three written requests.

Scott Shane of the New York Times reports today that, "Mr. Soufan
accuses C.I.A. officials of deliberately withholding crucial documents
and photographs of Qaeda operatives from the F.B.I. before Sept. 11,
2001, despite three written requests, and then later lying about it to
the 9/11 Commission."

Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer, interviewed for the podcast, was himself
intimidated, demoted and smeared by the Pentagon after he came forward
to the 9/11 Commission with details of how, on three occasions,
unnamed DoD officials prevented his Able Danger operation from meeting
with the FBI prior the attacks.

In 2000 the Able Danger data-mining program placed Mohammed Atta in a
Brooklyn terrorist cell but had also placed Hazmi and Mihdhar in a San
Diego cell, the epicenter of intrigue around Alec Station’s Rich Blee,
Tom Wilshere and the two as yet unnamed subordinates who themselves
repeatedly withheld intelligence from the FBI. Though Shaffer was
interviewed by 9/11 Commission’s Director Philip Zelikow and staffer
Dieter Snell, the Commission left any mention of Able Danger from its
final report.

In the planned podcast, 9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean is asked about
a scant footnote to Chapter 6 of the 9/11 Report referring to an
intelligence cable, seen by 50 at the CIA, but prevented from reaching
the FBI. For Kean the incident was not a case of bungling or intel
‘stovepiping’: “Oh, it wasn’t careless oversight. It was purposeful.
No question about that in mind. It was purposeful.”

Whereas Kean explains it as a penchant for secrecy, Richard Clarke,
the former head of counter-terrorism at the Bush White House, goes
farther suggesting malfeasance and the possibility of illegal CIA-led
domestic spying activity. Comments by Clarke released in a video in
August led to a formal statement from George Tenet, Cofer Black and
Richard Blee, and a response from the producers.

“This was perhaps the closest U.S. intelligence got to foiling the
9/11 plot,” explains Nowosielski, “but instead of stopping the attack,
the CIA stopped intel on two high-value targets from getting to the
right people, repeatedly. And still the CIA protects the individuals
responsible by intimidating those who simply want to know the truth
behind a shocking and possibly criminal pattern of obstruction”

In an email Thursday the CIA warned Nowosielski he could be subject to
prosecution under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, a law
intended to apply to government employees who violate their security
clearance and never used to convict journalists.

The producer’s online response: “The Society of Professional
Journalists' code of ethics states that ‘journalists should be free of
obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know’ and
should ‘be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power
accountable.’ The day that journalists' exposés of wrongdoing within
government agencies require the approval of those government agencies
before release, that is the day that transparency and accountability
are lost.”

John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski, both graduates of Chicago’s Columbia
College Film School, produced the critically acclaimed 2006
documentary "9/11: Press for Truth."