9/11 Commission, Memorandum for the Record, 11/20/2003, State Department Interviews

9/11 Commission, Memorandum for the Record, 11/20/2003, State Department Interviews

9/11 Commission interview with Maura Harty, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Department of State, and Jamie Borek, Assistant Legal Counsel, Department of State. Discussion of improvements, and areas in need of improvement, related to the State Department's handling of intelligence in the wake of September 11.

Labels: 9-11, 9-11-Commission, INTELFILES, State-Department

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9/11 Commission, Memorandum for the Record, 9/12/2003, CIA Budget

Memorandum for the Record, 9/11 Commission, 9/12/2003: CIA Interviews

This is a tough examination of the effect of politically mandated budget cuts on the CIA prior to September 11. Subjects interviewed were Pat Hanback of the CIA's Inspector General Office and another subject whose name has been redacted.

Labels: 9-11, 9-11-Commission, Budget, CIA, Counterterrorism, INTELFILES

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Indictment of Robert Joos, Linked to Mahon Arrests

The Mahon arrests (document, story) were not an isolated incident, it appears. It's part of a sting by the ATF using informants and at least one undercover agent. The sting is described in great detail in the document below.

Affidavit pertaining to the indictment of Robert Neil Joos

Labels: Dennis-Mahon, INTELFILES, white-supremacists

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Bombing Investigation: ATF Raids White Supremacists;Three States In One Day

By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com

An undercover ATF sting raided white supremacists in at least three states on Thursday in an investigation connected to the 2004 letter bombing of Don Logan, an African-American who worked for a diversity program in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms infiltrated "several" undercover agents into white supremacist circles as part of the investigation, according to court records.

In Arizona, Dennis and Daniel Mahon were arrested this week by the ATF on a sealed indictment issued June 16.

In Missouri, Robert Neil Joos was arrested by the ATF on a firearms charge. An ATF affidavit said the arrest resulted from a multi-year investigation into the Logan bombing.

According to the affidavit, Dennis Mahon called Joos on the morning of the bombing.

"The subsequent investigation has focused on several persons involved in the white
supremacist movements throughout the United States," according to the affidavit. The probe included "several ATF undercover agents" and at least one informant.

The informant and one undercover agent made close contact with the Mahon brothers, who described Joos as the owner of a "retreat" used as a training camp by the white supremacist movement.

Undercover operatives subsequently made contact with Joos and toured his facility, according to the affidavit. The retreat included a system of caves which Joos claimed were ideal for evading law enforcement.

"The ATF's investigation of Robert JOOS utilized covert tactics, to include undercover meetings with JOOS while on JOOS' Missouri property," the affidavit states.

ATF conducted a third raid yesterday at the home of Thomas Metzger, one of the chief advocates of "leaderless resistance," in Warsaw, Indiana. Metzger was not arrested.

Metzger told the Warsaw, Indiana-based Times-Union that the raid was linked to the Mahon arrests. Metzger is considered a leader of the White Aryan Resistance, an organization to which the Mahons also reportedly belong.

"I've known them [the Mahon brothers] for years," Metzger told the newspaper. "I've talked to them on the phone, but it was usually about the weather or their invalid mother.

David Paul Hammer, an inmate who spent about two years on death row with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said McVeigh told him that German national Andreas Strassmeir and convicted bank robber Michael Brescia planned the Oklahoma City bombing at a white separatist compound known as Elohim City.

An ATF informant named Carol Howe also allegedly heard Mahon and Strassmeir discussing plans to bomb federal buildings, including one in Oklahoma City, prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (document). According to court testimony by Howe in 1997, she heard Strassmeir discussing these plans prior to the actual bombing.

Labels: Dennis-Mahon, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, white-supremacists

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ATF Crackdown In Progress On White Supremacists

UPDATE: Bombing Investigation Leads To ATF Raids Of White Supremacists In Three States

The arrest of Dennis and Daniel Mahon in Arizona was followed yesterday took place on the same day as an ATF raid on Thomas Metzger, the architect of "leaderless resistance," in Warsaw, Indiana. No arrest took place in the Metzger raid.

Is the ATF stepping in to act where the FBI would not? And will we see more raids and arrests reported in the next few days?

Labels: Weblog

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OKBOMB: Dennis Mahon Indictment

White supremacist brothers Dennis and Daniel Mahon have been indicted in Phoenix, Arizona, for an alleged bombing plot:

Indictment of Dennis and Daniel Mahon

The name of Dennis Mahon will be familiar to those who have followed the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy investigation.

Chairman's Report, Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, Oklahoma City Bombing Investigation

A relevant excerpt:

Carol Howe came from a prominent Tulsa family. She was attracted to the white supremacist movement in February 1994 after she was allegedly attacked by three African-American men. She became a paid informant for the ATF and a frequent visitor to Elohim City in June 1994. Howe testified in Terry Nichols' federal trial that she saw McVeigh with [German national Andreas] Strassmeir at Elohim City in July 1994.

Howe dated Strassmeir in 1994 and January 1995. Howe asserted that Strassmeir trained Elohim City racist radicals in weaponry and had discussed assassinations, bombings and mass shootings. Strassmeir, according to Howe, frequently called for direct action against the U.S. federal government. Howe reported these statements to the ATF. It is not clear how seriously they were taken, as authorities have tried their best to discredit Howe as a witness. She was a former drug abuser and had other personal weaknesses; nonetheless, she was a paid ATF informant and in the aftermath of Waco and Ruby Ridge must have been considered an important source of information.

Howe also talked to the ATF regarding Dennis Mahon, an occasional inhabitant of Elohim City who is listed as a terrorist in several countries (including Germany and Canada) and is a leader of the White Aryan Resistance. Strassmeir also stayed with Mahon while attending weekend gun shows in Tulsa. Howe reported that Mahon talked about targeting federal buildings for bombings. Her reports could be interpreted as warnings of the upcoming Oklahoma City bombing. Howe, for example, claimed that Mahon and Strassmeir took three trips to Oklahoma City, in November 1994, December 1994, and February 1995, on one of which she accompanied them.

Labels: American-Terrorists, Andreas-Strassmeir, Dennis-Mahon, INTELFILES, OKBOMB, Oklahoma-City-Bombing

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Third World Relief Agency

A story in the New York Times yesterday ("Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists" by Eric Lichtblau) focused on the Third World Relief Agency, a Bosnian "charity" with links to the Saudi government on one hand, and to Al Qaeda on the other.

For several months now, I've been studying the key document for that story as part of the documentary, Sarajevo Ricochet, a Norwegian TV production dealing with the war in Bosnia and its connection to terrorism.

I am available for media outlets looking for someone who can knowledgeably discuss this document, Third World and its connection to Al Qaeda. You can contact me through the Multifaceted Media Group Web site.

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

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INTELWIRE Now on Twitter

The address is:

http://twitter.com/intelwire

I expect to be relatively low-volume most of the time. However, as an experiment, I will be twittering live from the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Foreign Fighters Conference in Washington, D.C., on July 14-15. Feel free to join me online (or in person if you're going to be there)...

Labels: Weblog

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Document Feed on Facebook

You can now follow and/or discuss documents posted to this site on Facebook.

Click here for INTELWIRE Facebook page.

Labels: INTELFILES

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CIA Records On Oklahoma City Bombing

Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue released more than 50 pages of heavily redacted documents relating to the Oklahoma City bombing, which he obtained from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Trentadue had petitioned for a number of documents relating to the bombing itself, communications between the CIA and the FBI over the bombing, and records related to Andreas Strassmeir, a German national linked to McVeigh who is alleged to have played a role in the bombing.

The CIA claimed a number of exemptions including that the release of the documents would pose a threat to national security and could expose CIA methods.

Read the full documents

Labels: American-Terrorists, INTELFILES, Jesse-Trentadue, OKBOMB, Oklahoma-City-Bombing

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Videotapes of Oklahoma City Bombing

A dozen or more surveillance videotapes showing the Oklahoma City bombing may soon be released under the Freedom of Information Act. The videotapes are described in documents released to Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, who is also seeking the tapes themselves. The actual tapes "are due any day," Trentadue said Thursday.

Read the documents

Labels: American-Terrorists, INTELFILES, Jesse-Trentadue, OKBOMB, Oklahoma-City-Bombing

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Oklahoma City Bombing Videotapes Release May Be Imminent

By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com

A dozen or more surveillance videotapes related to the Oklahoma City bombing may soon be released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act.

The unreleased tapes have long been the subject of controversy. Some have argued the tapes may contain images of additional conspirators in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred E. Murrah federal building, for which only Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols have been convicted.

The videotapes are described in documents newly released to Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, who is also seeking the release of the tapes themselves. Click here to read the original documents.

The actual tapes "are due any day," Trentadue said this week.

(Click here and here for more about Trentadue's battle to force FBI to disclose information about the Oklahoma City bombing.)

Separately, Trentadue released more than 50 pages of heavily redacted documents relating to the bombing, which he obtained from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Click here to read the original documents.

Trentadue had petitioned for a number of documents relating to the bombing itself, communications between the CIA and the FBI over the bombing, and records related to Andreas Strassmeir, a German national linked to McVeigh who is alleged to have played a role in the bombing.

The CIA referred 26 documents it found during its search to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a division of the Air Force responsible for satellite imagery intelligence.

"Release of this information could cause grave damage to our national security," the Agency wrote in a letter to Trentadue.

The withheld documents likely relate to satellite images of the Murrah building.

As previously disclosed by an INTELWIRE FOIA request, the CIA provided imagery of the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building for use by the FBI in evaluating the bomb blast.

The imagery included both before and after images. The documents released to INTELWIRE do not indicate when -- or why -- the "before" pictures were taken.

Labels: American-Terrorists, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, OKBOMB

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