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Ruppert responds { June 5 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0605-07.htmhttp://www.commondreams.org/views02/0605-07.htm
Published on Wednesday, June 5, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
The September 11 X-Files - Corn Reply
by Michael C. Ruppert
Common Dreams Editor's Note: This is a response to David Corn's "The September 11 X-Files" originally published in The Nation on 5/30/02 and featured by Common Dreams on 5/31/02.
To David Corn and Common Dreams:
Your latest missive is surprising for its weakness. It deserves only the briefest of responses because, as an avalanche of information continues to demonstrate, the U.S. government did have foreknowledge of the attacks and there was an orchestrated effort to allow the attacks to occur. FBI Special Agent Robert Wright’s recent press conference is but another brick in a wall that grows sturdier by the day. Time is on my side here.
I’ll quickly pass over many of the erroneous points in your story to get to just a couple that warrant two or three sentences. Allen Dulles’ old quip that “the American people don’t read” has changed with the Internet and it will afford you no cover.
It’s OK that you misrepresented my LAPD record by taking items completely out of context. My full LAPD record has been on my web site for months at www.fromthewilderness.com for the world to look at and see what you have done. I expect that from you.
It’s OK that you misrepresent and state that I have hung the entirety of my credibility on the Delmart “Mike” Vreeland case. I have published 56 stories since 9/11/01 and only six of them have been about Mike Vreeland. I expect that as well.
It’s OK that you state that I am not a reporter when you fail to mention stories like my investigative report of horrendous conflicts of interest regarding Attorney General John Ashcroft and two sitting federal grand juries where I conducted many interviews. It’s OK also that you ignore all of the other reportage I have done since 9/11. I expect that too.
It’s really not OK, however, that you state that I have misrepresented stories like a Feb. 13, 2001 story by UPI correspondent Richard Sale wherein I reported that court records indicated that the NSA had broken Osama bin Laden’s secure encrypted communications. You wrote, “But in several instances he [Ruppert] misrepresents his source material.
“… [T]he actual story noted not that the U.S. government had gained the capacity to eavesdrop on bin Laden at will but that it had ‘gone into foreign bank accounts… and deleted or transferred funds, and jammed or blocked the group’s cell or satellite phones.’”
Here is a direct quote from Sale’s story which proves that your accusation is false: “The U.S. case unfolding against him [bin Laden] in United States District court in Manhattan is based mainly on National Security Agency intercepts of phone calls between bin Laden and his operatives around the world – Afghanistan to London, from Kenya to the United States.
“… Fawwaz also provided satellite phones for other members of the bin Laden group, ‘to facilitate communications,’ the indictment said…
“On August 11, two days after the bombings were completed, bin Laden’s satellite number phone was used to contact network operatives in Yemen, at a number frequently called by perpetrators of the bombing from their safe house in Nairobi.
“Since 1995, bin Laden has tried to protect his communications with ‘a full suite of tools,’ according to Ben Venzke, director of intelligence, special projects for iDefense…
“Since bin Laden started to encrypt certain calls in 1995, why would they now be part of a court record? ‘Codes were broken,’ US officials said…”
Is this the best that The Nation can do? With that in mind I’ll conclude by saying that it is becoming increasingly clear to news consumers around the world that The Nation is serving and defending the interests of a corrupt and illegitimate government while my publication, “From The Wilderness” is truly concerned with the safety, well-being and empowerment of its growing readership. The marketplace is operating in a healthy capacity. It is also apparent that your actual knowledge of how covert operations work is as limited as your forensic abilities. For more than 20 years I have investigated many intelligence cases and I have dealt directly with principals in cases involving Edwin Wilson, Albert Carone, Dois “Chip” Tatum, William Tyree, “Bo” Gritz, Scott Weekly, Scott Barnes, Al Martin and yes, even your beloved Ted Shackley.
In the fall of 1999 two investigators from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence traveled to Los Angeles and copied 6,000 pages of my records. In the fall of 2000 two members of the RCMP National Security Staff - Sean McDade and Randy Buffam – came to Los Angeles, visited me and copied several hundred pages of files in my possession regarding Promis software.
If, at any time, you would like an instruction on how easy it would have been for the Bush administration and the intelligence community to have allowed the attacks of 9/11 to occur without involving massive numbers of people being consciously aware of it I will make the time. That is of course, if it really is your desire to arm the American people with the truth. As to integrity, let’s see if Common Dreams has enough to publish my response. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Sincerely,
Michael C. Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
“From The Wilderness”
www.copvcia.com
www.fromthewilderness.com
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