May 27 2006
Did CIA Ally With Al Qaeda During Clinton Years?
This post is based on unsubstantiated and leftwing biased reporting. However, if true, all the left wing spin in the post cannot hide the true implications of this news. What interests me is the possibility that the source of the reporting – the French Intel Reports – are accurate. If so then this is just another spin job trying to twist news away from the left and towards the right.
If the battle between the rogue CIA and the Bush administration is going to heat up, this is the kind of propaganda trick I would expect. Some small, core truth overladen with spin and speculation. So take all this with a grain of salt and a big picture view of what it could mean.
In what will be, if this gets media attention and the reporting is accurate (I have no idea), a shocking revelation it seems that the CIA under Clinton (Berger, Clarke, Grossman, Beers, Wilson, et al) maintained alliances with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan up until 1995:
WMR has obtained a confidential “France Only” report of the French intelligence service, Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), that states that the CIA and Britain’s MI-6 maintained effective control of an important Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan as late as 1995, fully two years after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, an attack that was launched with the help of Sudanese intelligence officers loyal to Osama Bin Laden. The CIA and MI6 permitted control of training operations at Darunta, an “Arab Afghan” base located near the camp of Osama Bin Laden and used to manufacture explosives and chemical weapons and train in their use, to pass to the control of Ibn Cheikh, a Libyan leader of Al Qaeda.
The DGSE report, dated January 9, 2001, is classified “Defense Confidential” and “National (French) Use Only” states, “Besides the Maghreb enclave, the training at Darunta, which, for approximately 2 months, mainly involved the manufacture and the use of the explosives by terrorists. This training, initially provided at the camp of Khalden, in Paktia, was transferred during 1995, on the order of Ibn Cheikh, to Darunta, in order to slide [the training] from the control of the security services of certain countries, in particular the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Folks steeped in the lore of the 9-11 Commission will have the year 1995 jump right out at them. Because that is the year the Commission arbitrarily determined not to investigate prior to, even though Al Qaeda was responsible for the fist WTC attack in 1993. Now we may finally learning why this date was important.
In fact, this reporting can explain a lot of things. We know the Clinton Adminstration attempted and blew some wild and dangerous intel activities. For one, they inadvertantly provided Iran with nuclear triggers, the most technically challenging element of a nuclear weapon. So I would not be surprised if Clinton naively authorized all sorts of risky schemes which backfired. Just check out what these camps trained people to do:
The report continues by stating that in 1998, the training was expanded to include the use of C-4 plastic explosives and different types of detonators (electric, acid, etc.). Training also included the use of homemade explosives (like improvised explosive devices killing so many in Iraq today) and poisons such as arsenic, cyanide, gas, diamond powder, nicotine, and ricin. After Al Qaeda took control of Darunta from the CIA and MI6, the camp was used to train Al Qaeda operatives to launch a series of deadly attacks, including the November 19, 1995 attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, the 1998 attacks on the US embassy in Nairobi, the abortive Dec. 31, 1999 “Millennium” attack on Los Angeles International Airport by Algerian Ahmed Ressam, and the attack on the USS Cole.
In essence, this CIA-MI6 supported training could have been the source of much of Al Qaeda’s deadliest successes. And it is understandable to sometimes keep your enemy close, but when that fails it should not be swept under the rug of history. Al Qaeda was risky to associate with. Another interesting link attempted is to Sandy Bergler’s actions:
The other item is the training of Ahmed Ressam at Darunta. Bill Clinton’s National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was charged with removing classified documents from the National Archives concerning the Ressam bombing plot. The question remains — what were in these documents and did they have anything to do with the CIA’s fingerprints on the Darunta camp?
Like the NSA leak story, the CIA prison story, the Wilson Niger story, the unhinged left likes to drop these half truths into the media and spin them as some neo-con conspiracy. the interesting aspect of this one is all this happened on Clinton’s watch and was probably not completely exposed to the Bush administration. We know the 9-11 Commission missed this, whether by accident or foresight is not clear.
It will be interesting to see if the core French Intel portion holds up. If so then this will call a lot into question that we thought was asnwered.
This is indeed far left. If you read Steve Coll’s GHOST WARS, however, which details CIA involvement in Afganistan back to the Carter days, you can see how it was certainly possible. He mentions the Derunta camp, but post-1995.
It is sobering to read about our incompetence throughout the Reagan, Bush I and Clinton administrations, and is probably the best rationale I know of as to why we cannot afford to abandon Iraq like we did Afganistan.
BinLaden would probably not exist as a threat if we had met our responsibilities.
I suppose I will need to go to the original story and read it because from what you have quoted here, I can see nothing that would be damaging to the current administration. And back during the Reagan/Bush years, these Afghan Arabs were our pals. We were helping them defeat the Russians and hopefully build a free and independent Afghanstan, ‘cept AZR is correct, we sort of ran away when the “build a free and independent Afghanistan” time came around. Afghanistan devolved into a civil war after the Russians left that really didn’t end until we put an end to it.
Oh, well. Chirac grew rich on payoffs. And, Ambassador Munchausen’s 2nd wife works for French Intelligence.
BIGGER QUESTIONS would loom if people “followed the money.”
In other words, the CIA had a bogus way of raising “off-the-books” cash. And, the story wasn’t supposed to be Valerie. It was supposed to be those Niger documents. That the Ambassador knew of 8 months before they were “released.”
The italians THWARTED the french moves.
And, you bet, the story is lots more interesting; because for the french, Niger “pay-offs” were just the tip of yellow cake’s icing.
Carol
The more you read about this whole thing, especially since you point out as I also did recently that Joe must have had esp or prior knowledge of the docs.
I may be wrong, but when all the dust finally settles, we may see the docs were part of the playbook to be used as a strawman like debunking of going to war.
Also I tend to think that there were other sources of intel on the yellowcake trail and that on arrival they were debunked as non useful and recognized to be a headfake.
The one thing they had to rely on is the obligatory defensive reaction by the white house from the exposure, and attempted bashing of this doc set, trying to give it the false pedigree as the only intel on the yellowcake.
If the whitehouse were to counter with the other intel on the yellowcake, it would potentially sources and methods. So their only recourse was to debunk and discredit the messenger.
Val could have offered up as a press leaked sacrifical lamb to furthur cloud and murk the waters by creating a self induced firestorm.
Just speculating here, but it fits with details known to date.
Oh the spin never stops. Now CBS is reporting that William Jefferson is a Republican. See the second paragraph:
I think Rep. means Representative. Of course they could just put the D behind his name.
You didn’t read the bold part in the second paragraph. The part I mentioned you should read in the posting.
They mention him as “the Louisiana Republican” when he is a Democrat.
They just corrected the website, at least 8 hours after I noticed the error and apparently even longer since others did since it was on Power Line. I swear Goober edits these news outlets.
Sort of puts an interesting spin on the lefts fascination with the Put options that the 9/11 omission commission decided didn’t happen. Didn’t remember the reports a substantial amount of money was made by mysterious investors who just happened to know that both United and American Airlines might be in for a rough ride after 9/11 until I was perusing Left Wing Moonbat sites amused by their beliefs that the Bush administration orchestrated 9/11.
It bears remembering that our Government has from our birth suffered from time to time at the hands of traitors. Consider for a moment that Benedict Arnold was perhaps the greatest American Fighting General below Washington himself…and he betrayed us because he was angry and in love with a tory.
Interesting story at Strata Sphere regarding how late into the 90’s the CIA was collaborating with Al Queda…
Sort of puts an interesting spin on the lefts fascination with the Put options that the 9/11 omission commission decided didn’t happen. Had forgotten the reports of a substantial amount of money being made by mysterious investors who just happene …….
DEMOCRATS IN THE CROSS HAIRS…
Here’s an interesting piece from AJ Strata, which seems very plausible to me.
Did CIA Ally With Al Qaeda During Clinton Years?: In what will be, if this gets media attention and the reporting is accurate (I have no idea), a shocking revelation it se….
[…] refer you to a spooky post by AJ Strata about a time when these matters were not so clearly […]