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Bush Knew, Cheney Flew (Turk182) — Remember John O'Neill

Here's an interesting little story that lends some credence to the US Representative Republicans most love to call crazy, Cynthia McKinney (D., Georgia), who has asserted that an investigation into 9-11 might reveal that the Bu$h administration knew a lot more ahead of time than they've told us. After all, it's not really good for a Shrub re-election bid if people find out that John O'Neil and this Minneapolis Agent were not allowed to follow through on investigations that may have stopped the high-jackings. Here's a quote from the MSNBC story, Unheeded Warnings:

Last week, in little-noticed testimony before a Senate panel, FBI Director Robert Mueller referred to another internal document that may prove more explosive: notes by a Minneapolis agent worrying that French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui might be planning to “fly something into the World Trade Center.”

The notes are especially eerie because Moussaoui faces charges that he was part of the 9-11 plot. Sources say the notes Mueller referred to were written in early September 2001—days before the attack. The author was part of a counterterrorism team desperately trying to figure out what Moussaoui was up to. He had been arrested in August on immigration charges after a Minnesota flight instructor reported that he showed a suspicious interest in learning how to steer large airliners. When agents learned, from French intelligence, that he had radical Islamic ties, they sought a national-security warrant to search his computer—and got turned down.

Got turned down? By whom? Let's see, they wanted a national security warrant, so would that be the NSA that issues those? Or is that the Justice Department? Was it Condoliza Rice's N$A or John Ashcroft's justice Department that refused a warrant to find out what Maoussaoui was up to? Who in the Bush administration is responsible for not obtaining this warrant? Who turned down this agent? Who told John O'Neil not to investigate the Bin Laden family? Not familiar with John O'Neill? Check out this Salon.com story about the French Book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth":

"...former FBI deputy director John O'Neill (who died in the attack on the World Trade Center, where he was the chief of security) resigned in July [2001] to protest the policy of giving U.S. oil interests a higher priority than bringing al-Qaida leaders to justice. Brisard claims O'Neill told him that "the main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia."