posted on Sep, 27 2011 @ 02:30 AM
Mike you and I had this conversation a year ago where I mentioned Richard Blee
Late '99, the Saudis add 2 9/11 hijackers to their watch list & inform the CIA. The 2 hijackers are Alhazmi & Almihdhar. The Saudi Intelligence
minister tells the CIA these 2 are Al-Queda, involved in the '98 Embassy bombings & attempts to smuggle arms into the UK. It should be noted the CIA
denies it was alerted, but coincidentally start tracking them at this time. They aren't watchlisted despite the CIA stressing to agents to share all
info & put anyone with "reasonable suspicion" on the list. In December '99 these 2 attend Al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia but still aren't watch
listed. Both these men have US passports & 50-60 CIA agents are notified that they are traveling. One report says Alhazmi is in the US. The FBI isn't
notified & no watch list update. 8 CIA offices were notified of the summit. The CIA was running an operation to track Al-Queda at the airport in
Dubai. UAE officials make a copy of Almihdhar's passport & fax it to the CIA's Bin Laden Unit. The CIA learns his full name & discovers he has a
multiple entry visa to the US through April 2000. Not watch listed. The summit was for 4 days but the CIA only video tapes the first day & only tapes
operatives arriving. Still they are able to get Alzhazmi, Almihdhar, & Bojinka plotter Hambali on video. Hambali was already known to the CIA as a
Bojinka plotter. A CIA officer known only as James, knows about Almihdhar's US visa & twice briefs FBI officials about the summit but fails to
mention the visa. He also fails to talk to the right people & briefs FBI agents who are not contact points for CIA. "James" also writes an email to
several CIA officials that says, "Thus far, a lot of suspicious activity has been observed [in Malaysia] but nothing that would indicate evidence of
an impending attack or criminal enterprise. [I told the first FBI agent] that as soon as something concrete is developed leading us to the criminal
arena or to known FBI cases, we will immediately bring FBI into the loop. Like [the first FBI agent] yesterday, [the second FBI agent] stated that
this was a fine approach and thanked me for keeping him in the loop.” After 9/11, "James" refuses to talk to DOJ Inspector General, but does tell
the CIA's inspector general he has no recollection of any of this.
After the summit, CIA BinLaden Unit chief Richard Blee didn't do an intelligence report to be shared in the intelligence community. The summit was so
important Blee had to repeatedly brief CIA leadership & that information was passed on to National Security Advisor Sandy Berger & FBI director Louis
Freeh. It's because of this failure to do a report, Almihdhar & Alhazmi are able to "disappear" to Thailand later.
The CIA then fails to act on calls that link the Malaysian summit to the Cole bombings and the 9/11 Hijackers hotel. The calls are to/from a payphone
outside of the summit, The Washington Hotel in Bangkok where 2 Al-Qaeda operatives involved in the Cole bombing are staying (will later be joined by
9/11 hijackers Alhazmi & Almihdhar), & Fahad Al-Quso's house in Yemen. Ai-Quoso was a top Al-Qaeda operative, & was supposed to videotape the Cole
bombing. However, he "overslept" despite numerous calls to his cell phone all the way up until the bombing.
Jan 5 '00 Doug Miller, FBI agent assigned to the CIA Bin Laden Unit, gets a cable saying 9/11 hijacker Almihdhar has a US visa. He drafts a cable to
inform the FBI. The cable says Almihdhar has a US visa, planned to stay in NY for 3 mos, the links between his phone & the '98 African Embassy
bombings. states the CIA has pictures of Almihdhar, & he will send the pictures separately. CIA Bin Laden Unit Deputy Chief, Tom Wilshire, blocks the
cable and says it's not a matter for the FBI. An Al-Qaeda terrorist was heading to the US, but CIA deputy Chief says it's not a matter for the FBI.
Then the CIA sends out a cable to its agents saying the information had been shared with the FBI. Then, it's routine practice to follow up and make
sure the FBI received the info. No follow up was done.
When Almihdhar and Alhazmi "disappear" into Thailand, the CIA is notified they are en route. They only know of one of the passengers as Alhazmi.
They know Almihdhar has an associate name Nawaf, but fails to put the names together which would have at least led to him being watch listed. The CIA
monitoring the summit, knows of a person by the first name Nawaf and one by the last name Alhazmi but just couldn't "connect the dots" Richard Blee
goes on to lie to his superiors and say they were continuing the Malaysia monitoring when in fact these men had already gone to Thailand. Blee says he
wasn't aware they had left Malaysia. The CIA was fully aware they were in Thailand alerting the CIA there these men were coming. The CIA then says
they were unable to locate them in Thailand. Despite being at the very hotel the CIA was monitoring from Malaysia