TRY ALL TERRORISTS IN NYC

FOR POST 9-11-2001 NYC

JUSTICE HAS BEEN DELAYED,

AND THEREFORE DENIED

CLERIC WHO PREACHES TERRORISM & INCITED TERRORIST ACTS,

ABU HAMZA aL-MARSI,

TRIAL SCHEDULED TO BEGIN BY END OF APRIL,

TRIALS AT NUREMBERG -  PRE-GENEVA CONVENTIONS

TAGS: TERRORISTS SHOULD FACE TRIAL IN NYC, GITMO

MILITARY TRIBUNALS A FAILURE, U.S. JURISPRUDENCE

CAN HANDLE THESE CASES, NYPD DIRECTOR OF INTELLIGENCE

ANALYSIS REBECCA WEINER, NYPD COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON,

NYPD INTEL UNIT

(Wednesday, April2, 2014 NY,NY) The NYPD Director of Intelligence Analysis Rebecca Weiner yesterday issued a warning of a sort, regarding the possible increased threat to the City as the trial of the extremely radical terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri opens here in Manhattan Federal Court later this month.  NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton addressed a large gathering of Jewish leaders also making the point that the upcoming terrorist trial will coincide with the beginning of Passover and that might prompt terrorists to lash out. While no one in NYPD can identify any known plans or any “actionable” intelligence to work with, Bratton perhaps felt it was a good time to remind all New Yorkers that our City remains target number one for terrorists. Commissioner Bratton has been away from New York City for the last 20 years and he does not need to remind any of us about  our perpetually looming threat.  His predecessor, Ray Kelly, took the initiative after September 11, 2001 to make certain that our City would never again be as vulnerable as it was on that sunny Tuesday morning in September 13 years ago.  He formed a robust Intelligence Unit with world-wide connects, revamped the Counter Terrorism and Emergency Services Units and did everything he could to provide the City of New York with our own functional Intelligence Service; a smaller, more effective, efficient, and productive CIA of our own.  Though there have been close calls and other attempts made to deliver destruction and death in our City since 9-11-01 each was either thwarted by timely interdiction or uncovered well in advance by NYPD.

CHEATED, DENIED, INSULTED

It has been said for hundreds of years of western jurisprudence that “justice delayed is justice denied”.  This legal maxim applies to the aggrieved, the plaintive, or victim of a crime.  Our criminal justice system with our Courts as the ultimate arbiters of “justice” has been severely flawed, in many ways broken, for far too long.  Despite its inherent deficiencies it does, often at a glacial pace, manage – barely – sufficiently enough to fill our jails and prisons, to suck up billions of dollars for federal, state and municipal Courts.  Our system of jurisprudence is rooted firmly in the old English document, The Magna Carta, wherein the basic machinations and conceptual fundamentals are delineated.  As times have changed so too have some of our judicial policies and procedures.  From local Courts up to decisions rendered by our Supreme Court, we have acquired a body of precedent based on the application of our Constitutionally derived laws.  Still, one can argue that for better or worse our system works as it should more often than not.  One of its obvious flaws is the matter of timely justice. 

A week ago today just a few blocks from here Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, was successfully tried and convicted on all counts stemming from his conspiracy to commit mass murder, of being a prominent al Qaeda figure before and after the attack on American icons on September 11, 2001.  In an uncharacteristically rapid fashion from the time Abu Ghaith was handed over to US authorities from the Jordanian officials, just a little over 13 months elapsed. That is as close to a record breaking trial in such a complex arena as we've yet witnessed.

Meanwhile, we continue to hold “detainees”, “enemy combatants”: men who planned, plotted and fought Americans via terrorist attacks on object of US interest as they did on the ill-defined battle fields of Afghanistan after 9-11-01.  Many were tribal “warriors” fighting their own internecine battles that far and away predated anything related to deeming the United States an enemy.  Some were members of the firebrand extremist Muslim sect the Taliban who had essentially served as a “central government” in Afghanistan since they helped defeat the forces of the invading USSR; an almost decade long war where we helped arm and equip the mujahedeen.  They would come to use some of the remaining arms that we put in their possession as we supported them as our proxy against the USSR in what our government at the time considered  to be aggressive Soviet expansion.

So much for history; it has all been well documented, studied and analyzed.  Though the threat from terrorists of every denomination, inclination, motivation and ideology remains very real to this day, we have kept men in prison, some for up to 13 years at the American Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo).  Many had spent months or years incarcerated at CIA “black site” while others spent years of torture at the hands of some of our “allies” in our “War on Terror.”  Yes, it is common knowledge that harsh interrogation tactics were used on some of those captured from October 2001 until sometime in 2004.  What type of intelligence these tactics produced is also widely accepted as having been basically useless.  In a practical sense since many of these “detainees” had been held captive for years whatever intelligence they might once have had knowledge of had no value since so much time had elapsed.  Intelligence, particularly “actionable” intelligence has a shelf life just like milk; it is only good for so long.

DELAYING JUSTICE, PROLOGING SORROW, GRIEF, AND FRUSTRATION

After all the hand-wringing in the Cheney/Bush Administration regarding the legal status of the men our Military was capturing and incarcerating around the world, the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, a few of his closest cohorts and the Office of the Vice President, it was determined that those held at Gitmo would face “military tribunals” at that prison base to keep them out of Courtrooms on American soil and thus deprive them of all the rights that come with it.  They also presented the argument that these dangerous men could not stand trial in an open criminal court because some of the Prosecution’s witness’s testimony would likely reveal “intelligence methods and sources” that would compromise our intelligence networks overseas in on-going operations and between our Allies.

Lost in all the years of trying to fit the square pegs that were our captured “enemy combatants” into the round holes of our Federal Court system, were the thousands of relatives of all those lost on September 11, 2001.  For them, right up until last week, there had been no one ever tried for being directly associated to "beyond reasonable doubt" the 9-11-01 al Qaeda operation.  The successful conviction of Suleiman Abu Ghaith set a precedent in that it has been proven  to prosecute others among those housed at Gitmo in our Federal Courts. There have been other convictions of terrorists in Federal Courts over the last 12 years but they had dubious links to al Qaeda, seemed to be “homegrown” small cells of individuals or radicalized “lone wolf” players.

That all the men still held at Gitmo remain in some military/legal limbo is indeed justice delayed and justice denied; neither of which should all the families of the deceased, survivors, friends and all those other wise affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks be haunted by.  The Cheney/Bush aversion to trying these men on US soil in Federal Court was insulting to our Criminal Justice system.  If our President and Vice President express reluctance and trepidation regarding the ability of our Courts that is a sad statement that essentially expresses a lack of confidence in the very Constitution they’d been sworn to defend. 

JUSTICE ON THE HOME FIELD

Trials are virtually always held in the jurisdiction where they the crime was committed.  Exceptions are made, at times, when a particularly high profile case and subsequent media coverage might pollute the jury pool but they remain rare exceptions.  The notion that a defendant or defendants would not get a fair trial in the same jurisdiction where they perpetrated their criminal acts implies that those citizens called for jury duty are incapable of performing their tasks based on the evidence presented to them as well as the arguments from the defense.  While it is impossible to find a crime in American history of the magnitude of September 11, 2001, it has now been proven that a jury comprised of New Yorkers can deliberate with due diligence and act accordingly. 

Since New Yorkers and all those in the NYC Metropolitan Area lost so much on September 11, 2001 and continue to watch family, friends, neighbors and coworkers die from 9-11-01 related malignant diseases it should be paramount that every trial of a defendant directly linked to the planning, plotting and support of the diabolical plan stand and face a Federal Court just a few blocks from the site that once was the home of our Twin Towers.  Obviously, the military tribunal process is broken, flawed, and not up to the challenge regarding the few remaining “high value” prisoners.  The United States government has spent untold hundreds of millions not just on the facilities at GITMO but for the use of other “off shore black sites.”

ON DECK AND ON THE DOCKET

The next al Qaeda terrorist to be tried here in New York City will be the one-eyed, armless radical Abu Hamza al-Masri.  He has been a high profile ultra-extreme cleric and terrorist largely responsible for the al Qaeda attack on tourists in Yemen in 1998.  While al-Marsi may not have as much blood on his hands, or, more accurately his hooks, as some of those still in Gitmo and among those already tried and convicted, he  once wielded a great deal of influence within the communities of young Muslim men via his vitriolic preaching and constant appeal for as many of them as possible to wage “holy jihad” against Americans, and other westerners, where ever they could.  His sermons, available on CD and on-line, were testaments of the duties that young men should embark upon and to step up to defend Islam from all outside threats. He ceaselessly encouraged throngs of young Arab and Muslim men to travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan for terrorist training at various al Qaeda camps.

Now that the Federal Court in New York City appears to be gaining some experience and traction in their efforts to try all those held on charges of either being or already engaged in some military/legal process waiting to have a “military tribunal” begin, those incarcerated should be systematically prosecuted.  The thought that they are in some mystical way imbued with magical powers that will usher unprecedented chaos into our Federal Court is beyond patently false, it is ludicrous. 

All legal issues aside the only place that any form of “justice” can be meted out for these men is right here on the Island of Manhattan a few short blocks away from the newly constructed One World Trade Center Tower. Our Courts cannot fear that these men will hide behind the defense that they were captured, tortured and often exposed to “enhanced interrogation tactics”.  Some of them probably were.  In the days and weeks immediately following September 11, 2001 as our initial wave of CIA paramilitary operatives and elite military Special Forces Units were inserted into Afghanistan, the greatest concern was that there were already similar terrorists strikes already “in the pipe line” and it would only be through the gathering of intelligence, both signal and vocal, that we could avoid another attack on our homeland. The United States has perpetrated far more egregious allegations under the auspices of "National Security" in the past.  This should have been a no-brainer.

The military justice system, for what it is, has failed miserably regarding the adjudication of the detainees.  Many had been held for years, without any formal charges only to be released and repatriated to their native land or another country willing to allow them entry.  It is well beyond time to get these cases to Court. This is not a statement in support of our prisoners; this is a call to arms in that they need to face an American Court of law soon; as soon as possible.
 
It is improbable to think that these men possess such incriminating information about our intelligence gathering and interrogation tactics that they are “too dangerous” to enter a Federal Court in New York City.  The “Super Max” Federal Prison in Florence, Colorado presently houses other convicted terrorists as well as some of the most high profile – as in the most  “dangerous” criminals – in the country.  Super Max has their neon red ‘Vacancy’ light flashing.  They have plenty of room, our Constitution and Courts are well equipped to prosecute and by virtually every New Yorker’s interpretation this is the ONLY place in the world where we will, after all these years of fits and starts, motions and counter-motions, let the system play out and convict the guilty and impose a sentence.  That is the best justice we can hope for.  If we lived in a more “just” country those terrorists who are convicted would be sentenced to death and that sentence would be carried out swiftly.

LEGAL PRECEDENT

The challenges the Nuremberg Trials faced prosecuting Nazi war criminals after World War II should serve as a template, in a way, for prosecuting these men.  The Trials at Nuremberg predated some of the fundamentals of the Geneva Conventions so; there is legal precedence at least in an international criminal court setting.

That 13 years after that lethal attack on our country we still have detainees in Gitmo is not only an embarrassing statement about our military/justice process but also tarnishes, belittles the idea of American Justice.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/abu-hamza-al-mastra-trial-spark-city-attack-official-article-1.1742609

http://broodingcynyx.blogspot.com/2013/03/latest-al-qaeda-capture-should-be-tried.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/eric-holder-terror-trial_n_5036190.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/nyregion/bin-ladens-son-in-law-is-convicted-in-terror-trial.html?hp

http://www.ny1.com/content/news/205878/guilty-verdict-returned-in-trial-of-bin-laden-s-son-in-law

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/01/secrecy-around-ksm-guantanamo-hearings.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/osama-bin-laden-son-in-law_n_5036249.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/26/holder-cites-terrorism-conviction-vindication-us-t/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/nyregion/jurors-begin-deliberations-in-osama-bin-laden-relatives-case.html?src=rechp

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-nuclear-security-summit-idUSBREA2O12820140325

 Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2014 © All Rights Reserved

OUR LIVES, OUR MEMORIES, OUR TOWERS

FEBRUARY 26, 1993: FIRST BLOOD, WTC NYC

FIRST CASUALTIES IN A WAR STILL RAGING 

Evacuated employee of the North Tower on February 26, 1993

(Tuesday February 26, 2013. New York, NY) To the people living in the vast expanse that is our country this date likely has no historical significance.  For many of us living or working in the Greater NYC Metropolitan Area it is different; for some today possesses historic and personal meaning.  Twenty years ago today the first blood was drawn in a conflict that is still taking American blood.  It was on this very date in 1993 that the embryonic seed of what would ultimately mature into a fierce and bitter foe made its presence felt on our shores. 

It was one of those typical raw New York February afternoons with the gunmetal grey sky above spitting precipitation that fell undecidedly as snow and sleet.  The initial reports came just after noon; there had been a large, powerful explosion in the subterranean levels of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  AS FDNY, NYPD and PAPD made their way to the site, an orderly evacuation was already underway.  Aside from the smoke and dust in the stairwells all means of egress were open.  There would sadly be six fatalities and over 1000 people treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries but the majority of the 25,000 people employed in the North Tower would exit the building unscathed.

With the clarity of hindsight it seems incomprehensible that our federal government and its huge, bloated intelligence apparatus, failed to see this event for what it was.  Now that all the dots have been rigorously dusted off and connected it is an outrage that the event that transpired 20 years ago today was not recognized as a harbinger.  That is precisely what it was.  It was the first shot, the first strike on American soil that was an ominous opening salvo in an asymmetrical conflict that has spanned the last two decades.  What was ignited in that Ryder rental truck was more than the crude but moderately effective explosive device assembled by Ramzi Yousef and a small cluster of like-minded zealots from the Muslim communities in Brooklyn and Jersey City: what was ignited was a fuse that would ultimately result in a full blown hot war.

Had Yousef’s truck bomb been parked adjacent to a more vital structural element than it had been the damage to the 110 story tower could have been dramatically worse.  As it was the bomb made the building shudder like a boxer receiving a low blow.  After the initial explosion sent shockwaves outward and upwards throughout the superstructure of steel columns and re-enforced concrete, it shook the force off like a dog shaking a flea from its back.  The brilliance and ingenuity of the design, engineering and construction of the World Trade Towers would not succumb to a device such as that placed in the parking level below.  It would require much more force and energy, greater skill, planning, patience and resolve to topple one of Our Twin Towers.  In a cruel twist of fate eight years would pass before we would witness the forces and learn of the evil men who could and would indeed bring Our Towers down.  They had made their intentions known and had been living among us for some time.  The intelligence failures and incompetence were epic and tragically fatal.

*****     *****     *****

After his apprehension by US Diplomatic Security Service Officers on February 6, 1995 Yousef was extradited to New York City.  As the helicopter that was shuttling him from the airport to the Manhattan Correctional Facility passed over the World Trade Center, one of his escorts removed the hood that had been placed over his head and said, “Look they’re still standing.”  Yousef’s chilling reply was as arrogant as it was prophetic:“Next time” he said, they would be brought down. 

Despite the fact that Saudi multimillionaire turned self-proclaimed mujahidin, Osama Bin Laden literally declared war on the United States during a TV interview conducted in his mountain lair near the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border region in 1994, US intelligence dismissed him as a "non-lethal threat". Inexplicably his threats were not greeted with the urgency they demanded from the CIA and FBI.  Bin Laden quickly began to make good on his word by launching a series of attacks on US interest abroad.  From the simultaneous bombings of the US Embassies on August 7, 1998 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya  to the deadly suicide bombing of the USS Cole while fueling in the Port of Aden in Yemen on October 12, 2000, Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network was metastasizing and spreading with small terrorist cells embedded in places from Hamburg, Germany to San Diego, California. Under the direction of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle, the years immediately prior to their epic strike on September 11, 2001, elements of what would be a 19 member suicide squad came to the United States to acquire pilot training and refine the details of their closely guarded mission.  We know how that worked out.  It took methodical planning and eight years to accomplish but they never lost their resolve.  This is difficult for Westerners to comprehend.  Time is relative and for our adversary time works to their advantage in this lopsided struggle of cutting edge military hardware and technology versus Dark Ages hatred, bitterness, and vengeance.

Hatred, as misguided as it often is can serve as a powerful uniting force and motivator.  Adhering to a strict form of Islam and its rigorous practices and the concept of jihad as well as the harsh doctrine of Takfir and al-Takeyya Bin Laden and his mentor, a former Muslim Brotherhood zealot, the Egyptian physician Ayman Zawahiri, Bin Laden had found safe haven in post-Soviet war era Afghanistan that was largely under control of the ultra-strict Islamists known as the Taliban.  It was from this remote ancient location that Bin Laden’s war on America was launched.  To this day there are approximately 55,000 American troops in Afghanistan locked in an intractable guerrilla war with the remnants of Al Qaeda, a resurgent Taliban, and battle hardened, tenacious Afghan tribes who have expelled all foreign troops from their homeland for millennium.

It is important to recognize that the virulent strain of Islam that is manifest by Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban is not accepted by the overwhelming majority of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims. Islam is one of the three major religions tracing their roots  back to the Middle East.  Muslims the world over have renounced Bin Laden's twisted interpretation of jihad and have absolutely no association with or connection to any militant, radical or terrorist activities.  Quite the contrary; Islam is a religion with a strong doctrine of peace, goodwill, non violence and acceptance.  Our conflict is not with Islam, Muslims or Arabs.  It is with a comparatively extremely small group of men adhering to a bastardized version of sacred Islamic text.

*****     *****     *****

But today is not the time to analyze the monumental failures by our intelligence community.  It is probably also inappropriate to examine the fledgling group of radicals who would evolve into al Qaeda and their poisonous roots to the so-called “Blind Sheik”, Omar Abdel Rahman, who fomented hatred from his grimy mosque in Journal Square, Jersey City.  All those facts, relationships, and connections are known today.  A wealth of solid journalistic accounts, books, studies, and the highly respected 9 – 11 Commission report have filled in all the blank spots in that larger than expected picture. 

Today is about remembering; remembering and taking stock of the lessons (if any) learned in the last 20 years because there certainly is much to remember and many, many lessons that have been taught.  It is arguable if our government and intelligence community have learned anything.  One fact that should be apparent on this 20th anniversary of the first attack on America in New York City is that those we fight and seek to do us harm do not tell time in the same form or fashion we do.  These are rabid extremists still aggrieved over the Crusades; while time, development, and modernization may have passed them by, they are conversely technologically savvy.  They have used technology to their advantage in their efforts to recreate the Caliphate, a radical Islamic ideal rooted in antiquity.

*****     *****     *****

For anyone who was in the North Tower or responded to the emergency calls in an official capacity on February 26, 1993, today holds a host of memories.  The experiences of that day forever changed those people as profoundly as it did for all those present on September 11, 2001.  Some of the changes enacted by the Port Authority and the tenant companies in the Twin Towers were responsible for saving an unknown number of lives on that gorgeous Tuesday morning eight years later. 

In the wake of that first terrorist attempt to topple the Towers strict sanctions were imposed regarding access to the underground parking and service levels as well as the WTC Plaza itself. Tenant companies assigned fire marshals who regularly staged fire drills and evacuation procedures that would serve them well on 9-11-01.  Years of constant drilling allowed for a remarkably orderly evacuation when the “big strike” hit. 

In the intervening time between February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001, our adversary carefully plotted and planned.  They identified and exploited our security weaknesses in the immigration process, air travel, and civilian flight training just as they took into account our default position that had been complacency and our misplaced trust in the federal government to protect us here at home.  The profound differences from that first attempt to the collapse of the Twin Towers are as clear an illustration of their tenacity as there can be.  That is precisely why we need to remain on guard; we must never again allow inconvenience and complacency compromise our security and safety.

*****     *****     *****

In our national conscience the attack of 20 years ago pales in comparison to the monumental sequence of events 8 years later.  How could it not.  September 11, 2001 was as profound a day in American history as there has ever been.  But there were those who perished on February 26, 1993; there were scores injured some severely, and our confidence was rattled, our sense of security questioned.  Every man and woman who exited the North Tower that day was carried or walked out of that enormous building a different person than they were when they walked in that morning to go to work.  We owe those victims as much homage as we do the thousands who perished on 9-11-01.  In a sense they were victims of a forgotten battle in an undeclared war, that in no way diminishes the price they and their families paid.  In some way it elevates it because they did not lose their lives for naught; they died so others would live the next time those Towers needed to be evacuated. 

*****     *****     *****

There are a group of men, long forgotten, except by those of us who vividly recall the circumstances that lead to the construction of the Twin Towers and those who actually built them.  What came to be the most iconic architectural masterpieces in a famed skyline of impressive edifices, the Twin Towers were modern marvels of design and construction ahead of their time in many ways.  From the earliest days of development of the site with David Rockefeller spear-heading those efforts he partnered with men of a caliber, vision, and integrity the likes of whom collectively this City will not ever see again.

Austin Tobin, the all-powerful leader of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, saw what Rockefeller envisioned and labored tirelessly for years before the first shovelful of earth was excavated from that 16 acre plot.  The selection of the little-known architect Minoru Yamasaki proved to be brilliant not only for his lean minimalistic design but for the wide open spaces that transferred much of the weight bearing to the exterior columns.  The up and coming structural engineer, Leslie Robertson utilized framed tube -boxed girder precast units anchored to the central core which housed elevator and utility shafts and stairwells.  The combination of these novel structural elements gave the buildings stability and strength that surpassed heavier more conventionally erected skyscrapers. 

The Karl Koch Erecting Company, engineers including Leslie Robertson from Skidmore, Owens & Merrill, General Contractor Tishman Realty & Construction Company, the irrepressible Port Authority Superintendent of the massive project, Guy Tozzoli are just a few notable unsung heroes of the finished product that came to be The World Trade Center as are the thousands of, riggers, operating engineers, steel workers, and skilled tradesmen of every variety whose efforts and sweat made a dense set of blue prints become reality.

Actually, by the recognized codes and standards of their day they were “over-built”.  Wind tunnel testing and computer modeling (very new at that time) proved the Towers to possess a flexible strength able to withstand hurricane force gales and the impact of a slow moving 707, one of the largest commercial airliners of the 1960’s.  We know today that those building absorbed the force of Yousef’s truck bomb and the two 767’s fully loaded with jet fuel.  In the case of September 11, it was the raging fires that caused the steel members to warp and buckle which ultimately led to their collapse.  The impact of huge jet planes travelling at an estimated 500 to 600 hundred miles per hour at the moment of impact shook the fire resistant protective foam off the surfaces to which it had been applied.  No one ever anticipated the magnitude and forces of the impacts on 9-11.  If not for the fires there would have not been subsequent load failure.  It can be said that the architecture and engineering of the Twin Towers allowed many thousands to evacuate to safety.  Buildings of inferior design and construct no doubt would have claimed far many more lives than were lost after both of the Twin Towers were hit.

*****     *****     *****

Our Towers were toppled, our family and friends lives lost, and thousands of psyches bear scars while hundreds of First Responders suffer from the toxins inhaled working on the recovery efforts after 9 – 11, yet our spirit and resolved never wavered.  The Towers were of us and we of them; we shared them with the world but they were ours.  Anyone who was touched by the fear and horror of that day 20 years ago or the madness and death of 8 years later knows just how personal our relationship with those buildings and that place was and remains.

To all those we lost

and all those who survived

and all who remember,

Bless 

TAGS: WORLD TRADE CENTER TRUCK BOMB 1993, RAMZI YOUSEF, AL QAEDA, OSAMA BIN LADEN, DAVID ROCKEFELLER, AUTIN TOBIN PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY, GUY TOZZOLI, LESLIE ROBERTSON, MINORU YAMASAKI, KOCH ERECTING COMPANY, SKIDMORE, OWENS & MERRILL,  NYPD, FDNY, PAPD, 9-11-01, TWIN TOWERS, WORLD TRADE CENTER PLAZA, WTC

LINKS:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-remembers-93-attack-article-1.1272270

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/city_marks_th_anniversary_of_world_2RLS0cpoPdGtAIc7gxhXaJ

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/world-trade-center-1993-bombing-20th-anniversary-photos-new-york-city-terrorism_n_2763382.html?utm_hp_ref=new-york

http://www.policeone.com/terrorism/articles/6129225-93-WTC-bombing-taught-lessons-on-terrorism/?source=newsletter&nlid=6128475

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/02/port_authority_to_commemorate.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/1993_wtc_bombing_taught_lesson.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/18/terrorist-serving-life-for-role-in-13-wtc-bombing-reportedly-sues-to-end/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/world-trade-center-bombin_n_2753064.html

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/feb/24/new-enemy-born-93-nyc-blast-20130224/?news-national

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/accounting-for-226-in-a-museum-devoted-to-911/

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/the-man-behind-the-towers-his-buildings-lost-but-not-his-faith-1.3053389

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzi_Yousef

Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2013 © All Rights Reserved

A RIGHTEOUS FIGHT NOW PROTRACTED STANDOFF 11 YEARS IN

HOW GEORGE W. BUSH & HIS NEOCONS BLEW IT IN AFGHANISTAN

AND WHY IT MATTERS

These irresponsible men have long since left the scene of their crimes

while our troops still fight a battle that could have been won if not for Bush & Company

(Oct.7, 2012, New York City) The war that began in Lower Manhattan the clear Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001 continues today in the ancient, forbidding landscape of a land that time forgot.  As much as time, progress, modernization and all the accoutrements of civilized 21^st century society have eluded establishing a toe hold in Afghanistan, as our troops continue to fight and die they seem to have been forgotten particularly by an uninterested public as well as the Administration that sent them there, failed to honor their commitment to those they sent into battle as well as the current Congress and Administration.  This is a shameful story of what was a righteous cause gone horribly, unnecessarily awry.

The numbers across the board are staggering as our military campaign in Afghanistan marks its 11^th anniversary today.  On September 30, 2012, the 2000^th American serviceman was killed in action there while the American taxpayers have ponied up almost $580 billion thus far for the overall costs of our intervention in that perpetually troubled ungovernable country with an estimated $400 billion going directly to the criminally corrupt, duplicitous, sham “government” of part time statesman/part time drug kingpin, Afghan “president”, Harmid Karzai.  We have paid dearly in blood and treasure for in this unnecessarily elongated slog and the reasons why it was not a swift victory when that swift victory was at hand are well documented and shameful. But, we are where we are today, we’ve traveled the strategic, tactical and diplomatic paths we have and nothing can change what has been.  It is just heartbreaking and sickening, looking back, realizing, if not for the Cheney/Bush designs on Iraq, our involvement would have ended a decade ago.  We were there for one reason and one reason only; to banish Al Qaeda and their unholy hosts, The Taliban, in the wake of the attack on America of September 11, 2001.  We were there to settle the score, teach a lesson, and demonstrate to any group or nation intent on bringing harm to our shores that there would indeed be dire, lethal consequences.  We were not there to install a government in a notoriously ungovernable tribal nation-state or to rebuild a country that has changed very little since Jesus Christ walked the earth.  But, we lost our way.  And we have lost far so much more than that.

PAYBACK US STYLE

The cause was just, the battle righteous, the war had to be taken to the enemy.  They had struck first drawing first blood and there was going to be retribution.  A 19 man cadre of Al Qaeda terrorists carried out a devastating attack on American soil on September 11, 2001.  The renegade Taliban, the strict Islamic regime who had taken control of Afghanistan in 1996 had granted Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, its leader, safe haven in their country, and the America would bring the fight to Afghanistan in a furious tempo.  Within 14 days of September 11, 2001, CIA operatives were on the ground in Afghanistan enlisting the support of the Northern Alliance, a ragtag bit tenacious fighting force who were bitter enemies of the Taliban.  The CIA formed a partnership of mutual utility with the Northern Alliance as units from our Special Forces began to join with the CIA in the preliminary efforts laying the ground work for a full scale military assault.

October 7, 2001 that fight began in earnest.  In response to the attacks of September 11, the early combat operations that took place beginning eleven years ago today, included a mix of strikes from land-based B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bombers, carrier-based F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet fighters, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from both U.S. and British ships and submarines signaled the start of Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (OEF-A). [1]

The initial military objectives of OEF-A, as articulated by Former President George W. Bush in his 20 September Address to a Joint Session of Congress and his October 7, 2001 address to the country, included the destruction of terrorist training camps and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of Al Qaeda leaders, and the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan.[2]

The pounding was relentless, the troops on the ground unleashed the wrath of the nation on the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces who were truly no match for our military technology and superiority.  As the harsh Afghan winter was about to descend on that desolate rugged land, the surviving remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces were essentially cornered in the timeless mountainous region near the Pakistani border known as Tora Bora.  What occurred in the later the short but pivotal days from December 12 to 17^th eleven years ago is well documented.  The incredible blunders, abysmal decisions made, and the myriad of errors made by then President George W. Bush and his closest group of neoconservative hawkish advisors, not only robbed our forces on the ground of imminent victory but began the cascading series of falling dominoes that have American troops still fighting and dying in that Godforsaken land 11 years after the fact.  

FROM JAWBREAKER TO OUTSOURCER

By the end of November 2001, Al Qaeda fighters were driven to their mountain refuge and holding out in the mountains of the Tora Bora region, however, at this time the Cheney/Bush White House had already shifted their attention to their war of choice to be waged in Iraq.  This was the time of fatal errors in judgment.  Military resources were diverted from Afghanistan by the Pentagon as they prepared what would be their horribly planned, ill conceived, reckless foray to “bring democracy to the Middle East” by ousting Saddam Hussein from power.  The facts are damning.  The Pentagon outsourced a vital component of the Tora Bora battle to the inept, corrupt, largely pro-Taliban Pakistani military.  Instead of the Administration answering the pleas from Berntsen for additional specialized American troops such as the 82nd Airborne and the 10th Mountain Division to seal off the Pakistani side of the Khyber Pass thereby assuring the remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban hold outs including Osama Bin Laden and his surviving top command structure and most trusted body guards, the Cheney/Bush directed Pentagon simply said “no”. And that was that.

On December 3, 2001, a group of 20 U.S. CIA team members of the code name Jawbreaker were inserted by helicopter in Jalalabad, Afghanistan to begin the operation. On December 5, 2001, Afghan Northern Alliance fighters wrested control of the low ground below the mountain caves from Al Qaeda fighters. The Jawbreaker team and Special Forces teams called in Air Force bombers to take out targets. The Al Qaeda fighters withdrew to higher fortified positions and dug in for the battle. Approximately a week later, 70 Special Forces operators from the Army's Delta Force, Navy, and Air Force arrived overland by vehicle to support the already ongoing bombing campaign operation with ground forces. [3]

The Northern Alliance fighters continued a steady advance through the difficult terrain, backed by air strikes and U.S. and British Special Forces. Facing defeat, Al Qaeda forces negotiated a truce with a local militia commander to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect, however, many believe that the truce was a ruse to allow important Al Qaeda figures, including Osama Bin Laden, to escape. [4]

On December 12, 2001, the fighting flared again, possibly initiated by a rear guard buying time for the main force's escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Once again, tribal forces backed by U.S. special operations troops and air support pressed ahead against fortified Al Qaeda positions in caves and bunkers scattered throughout the mountainous region. Twelve British SBS commandos, and one British Royal Signals Specialist from 63 Signals squadron now known as 18SFUK, accompanied the U.S. special operations forces in the attack on the cave complex at Tora Bora. [5]

As the Taliban teetered on the brink of losing their last bastion, the U.S. focus increased on the Tora Bora. Local tribal militias paid and organized by Special Forces and CIA paramilitary operations officers, numbering over 2,000 strong, continued to mass for an attack as heavy bombing continued.

By December 17, 2001, the last cave complex had been taken and their defenders overrun. No massive bunkers were found, only small outposts and a few minor training camps. Those who had been trapped had been allowed to flee through the porous, if not welcoming border into Pakistan. 

A search of the area by U.S. forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership emerged. Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen, who led the CIA team (consisting primarily of CIA Paramilitary Officers from Special Activities Division) in Afghanistan that was tasked with locating Osama Bin Laden, claims in his 2005 book Jawbreaker that he and his team had pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden. Also according to Berntsen, a number of Al Qaeda detainees later confirmed that bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an easterly route through snow covered mountains to the area of Parachinar, Pakistan. He also claims that bin Laden could have been captured if United States Central Command had committed the troops that Berntsen had requested. Former CIA officer Gary Schroen concurs with this view and Pentagon documents are strongly suggestive of this reality. [6]

The last time Osama Bin Laden was overheard on the VHF radio was on December 14, 2001. In 2008 Andy McNab, the pseudonym of a former SAS trooper, echoed the claims of Berntsen, claiming that the Coalition were, "within a whisker" of capturing Bin Laden at Tora Bora.

NOW

Today we find ourselves mired in the longest war in our history which seems to have become largely forgotten by the American public, our elected leaders and one man seeking to be our next President, Mitt Romney.  The sacrifice of military service is no longer shared and is limited to that extremely small percentage of a specific segment of the population who voluntarily enlist in the Armed Services but that is another discussion for another time.

Afghanistan and Iraq have created a generation of warriors to whom we owe not simply the political lip service of respect and gratitude, but the very real, practical assistance they and their families need.  Everything from proper medical and mental health care for the returned and returning veterans, affordable housing and jobs as well.

Eleven years, in the broader context of our lives is not a very long time.  This we learn as we get older and time’s passage seems to acquire a rapidity we’d never imagined in our youth.  Eleven years for many in our military have literally been their entire adult lifetime thus far.  Those who enlisted in droves in the wake of 9-11-01 at age 18 or 19 are now approaching 30 years of age.  Some are more intact physically and mentally than others.  Far too many have been lost as a direct result of the idiocy and irresponsibility of Cheney/Bush and their delusional crew of neo-cons.  They have more blood on their hands than any Administration in our history, they forever altered our historic military doctrine by committing to and waging a war of choice under the guise and supported by lies regarding Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” which, incidentally, did not exist and that was known by the CIA and British Intelligence before the first shot was fired in that quagmire.

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]: credit given to Wikipedia.  Some excerpted, some paraphrased.

TAGS: WAR IN AFGHANISTAN 2001, AL QAEDA ATTACKS AMERICA 2001, GEORGE W. BUSH, DICK CHENEY, NEO-CONS, AMERICAN TROOPS, CIA, OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, OPERATION JAWBREAKER, OUTSOURCING TORA BORA, BETRAYAL OF OUR TROOPS BY CHENEY/BUSH, 2000 SERVICEMEN KIA, VETERANS ISSUES

LINKS:

http://world.time.com/2012/09/11/afghanistan-after-911-a-mission-unaccomplished/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tora_Bora

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120087842

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol49no4/War_on_Terror_9.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/magazine/11TORABORA.html?pagewanted=all

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/eleven-years-after-911-afghanistan-still-matters/

http://www.infowars.com/launching-the-u-s-terror-war-the-cia-911-afghanistan-and-central-asia/

Sources (and further in depth reading):

http://cia.americanspecialops.com/jawbreaker/

http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/01/ten_lessons_the_us_should_learn_from_afghanistans_history

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-mocharko/little-america-book_b_1933526.html

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

By Gary Schroen

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001  By Steve Coll

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda - A Personal Account by the Cia's Key Field Commander

By Gary Berntsen, Ralph Pezzullo

Intel Wars: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror

By Matthew M. Aid

   

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