The 9-11 Coverups – Part II

THE EAGLE HOODED

Part II

* * * * *

The 9-11 coverup continues …


 

Sightings from The Catbird Seat

~ o ~

December 19, 2002

Called Off the Trail?

FBI Agents Probing Terror Links Say They Were Told,
‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’

By Brian Ross and Vic Walter

Two veteran FBI investigators say they were ordered to stop investigations into a suspected terror cell linked to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network and the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a dramatic interview with ABCNEWS, FBI special agents and partners Robert Wright and John Vincent say they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists tied to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa….

“September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI’s International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that,” Wright said.

“You can’t know the things I know and not go public.”

In the mid-1990s, with growing terrorism in the Middle East, the two Chicago-based agents were assigned to track a connection to Chicago, a suspected terrorist cell that would later lead them to a link with Osama bin Laden. Wright says that when he pressed for authorization to open a criminal investigation into the money trail, his supervisor stopped him.

“Do you know what his response was? ‘I think it’s just better to let sleeping dogs lie,’” said Wright.

“Those dogs weren’t sleeping. They were training. They were getting ready.”

The FBI says its handling of the matter was appropriate at the time.

“Truthfully, if 9/11 had not occurred, we wouldn’t be here [giving the interview],” said Vincent, a 27-year veteran at the bureau until he retired a few days after being interviewed by ABCNEWS. “Because of 9/11, we’re here because we see the danger.”

‘You Will Not Open Criminal Investigations’

The suspected terrorist cell in Chicago was the basis of the investigation, yet Wright, who remains with the FBI, says he soon discovered that all the FBI intelligence division wanted him to do was to follow suspected terrorists and file reports — but make no arrests.

“The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: ‘You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,'” Wright said.

Even though they were on a terrorism task force and said they had proof of criminal activity, Wright said he was told not to pursue the matter.

In 1998 al Qaeda terrorists bombed two American embassies in Africa. The agents say some of the money for the attacks led back to the people they had been tracking in Chicago and to a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman, Yassin al-Kadi.

Al-Kadi is one of 12 Saudi businessmen suspected of funneling millions of dollars to al Qaeda and who had extensive business and financial ties in Chicago.

Yet, even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests.

“Two months after the embassies are hit in Africa, they wanted to shut down the criminal investigation,” said Wright. “They wanted to kill it.”

The move outraged Chicago federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, who was assigned to the case despite efforts Wright and Vincent say were made by superiors to block the probe. Flessner said Wright and Vincent were helping him build a strong criminal case against al-Kadi and others.

“There were powers bigger than I was in the Justice Department and within the FBI that simply were not going to let it [the building of a criminal case] happen. And it didn’t happen, ” Flessner said.

He said he still couldn’t figure out why Washington stopped the case — whether it was Saudi influence or bureaucratic ineptitude.

“I think there were very serious mistakes made,” said Flessner. “And I think, it perhaps cost, it cost people their lives ultimately.”…

Closing In on Bin Laden Money Trail

On Sept. 11, 2001, the two agents watched the terror attacks in horror, worried that men they could have stopped years earlier may have been involved.

The White House confirmed their fears. One month after the attacks, the U.S. government officially identified al-Kadi — the same man the FBI had ordered Wright and Vincent to leave alone years earlier — as one of bin Laden’s important financiers.

Al-Kadi told ABCNEWS he can prove his total innocence, repeatedly denying, from his office in Riyadh, any connection to bin Laden or al Qaeda.

“Not even one cent went to Osama bin Laden,” he said.

But on Dec. 6, U.S. Customs agents, as part of their own investigation, conducted a midnight search of a Boston-area company believed to be secretly owned and controlled by al-Kadi.

The company provides computer software to the FBI and other key federal agencies, which means al-Kadi and his employees could have had access to some of the government’s most sensitive secrets.

Al-Kadi is on the U.S. government’s “dirty dozen” list of leading terror financiers being investigated by the CIA. The federal government says it is pursuing possible criminal charges.

“I was relieved that Customs was picking it up … where we failed big time,” said Wright.

“There’s so much more. God, there’s so much more. A lot more.”

Copyright © 2002 ABC News Internet Ventures.

* * * * *

<<< FLASHBACK <<<

Trading With The Enemy

Kevin Ingram, A Deustchebank Executive
Guilty Of Laundering Terrorist Money

By Tom Flocco

Edited by Michael C. Ruppert

A Special FTW Series

December 11, 2001

[Editor’s Notes: As disclosed in Part I and in previous stories by FTW, an abnormal amount of put options – bets that a stock price would suddenly fall – were placed on United Air Lines and American Airlines in the days before the attacks of September 11th. These were only two of the companies affected by the attacks which experienced highly suspicious trading in their shares…. Investigative journalist Tom Flocco also revealed dramatic new links to the growing mountain of evidence that puts the Central Intelligence Agency at the heart of America s and the world s financial markets. In particular he showed that the firm which had handled many of the put option purchases on United AirlinesDeutschebank – Alex Brown — was once headed by the man who is now the Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. ‘Buzzy’ Krongard….

Part II of this series is easily one of the most damning pieces of investigative journalism that I have ever seen or participated in. In it Tom Flocco will now reveal even darker direct connections between the worlds of high finance, terrorism, and intelligence. And he will reveal some names that will shock you. – Mike Ruppert]

~ ~ ~

No member of Congress is publicly, as yet, questioning the hazy areas of “private client banking” — repeatedly described by the U.S. Senate and Justice Department as being a vehicle for drug money laundering — and apparent conflicts of interest linked to documented 9/11-related insider trading in United Air Lines stock. The trades were placed through one of the world s three largest pools of investment capital, Deutschebank-Alex Brown.

This, in spite of the fact that there is mounting evidence of “real-time” monitoring of stock market trades by intelligence entities (See Part I at www.copvcia.com). The recent indictment of a former Deutschebank executive, Kevin Ingram — who has since pled guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money and arrange the sale of U.S.-made arms to individuals in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where U.S. military personnel are currently at risk — raises further alarm.

Although Ingram was not at Deutschebank when the insider trades were placed, his history (as well as a star-studded cast of international financiers connected to the CIA) reveals a frighteningly dark saga showing the degree to which dirty money influences the Street and the world s financial markets. It also provides more evidence that the CIA knew of the September attacks in advance.

Ingram is also an acknowledged former protégé of former Goldman Sachs CEO and current New Jersey Senator, Jon Corzine who sits on the Senate Banking Committee. He has also worked closely with another former Goldman Sachs, CEO Robert Rubin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton.

Related to Deutschebank-Alex Brown s role as the broker for the UAL and other suspicious trades, Ernst Welteke, President of the Bundesbank (Germany s central bank), said recently that a Bundesbank study pointed strongly to “terrorism insider trading” in the days leading up to September s carnage in the U.S., according to the London Observer on September 23, 2001….

Other motives, such as generating funds for covert operations by the CIA, have also not been ruled out. Nor has the possibility been excluded that Deutschebank, which handled key but unquestionably suspicious transactions, was generating money for itself by placing “put” options on United Airlines and then putting the profits back into its own tills — perhaps to “prop up” poorly performing divisions at the global banking giant.

This last scenario is a possibility, given the fact that Deutschebank has been demonstrated in Part I of this series to have intelligence links that might have forewarned the bank of the attacks….

Buzzy the Banker Joins the CIA

According to a CIA press release, in February 1998, A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard, former CEO of Deutschebank-Alex Brown (the nation s oldest investment banking firm) and Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust, left BT and the investment banking community to join the CIA full time.

As a matter of fact, the Washington Post reported that Krongard helped engineer the $2.5 billion BT merger with Deutschebank shortly before sliding over to the intelligence side of the stage….

Ingram’s Last Trade

On August 28, 2001, 14 days before the Trade Center attacks, former Deutschebank senior bond investment trader Kevin Ingram, pled guilty in a $2.2 million dollar money laundering conspiracy, resulting from a government sting operation investigating the illegal sale of night vision goggles, Beretta machine pistols, M-16 machine guns with silencers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), TOW anti-tank missiles, and Stinger missiles, according to court papers examined by the New York Post.

The next day, Alert Global Media, Inc., publishers of Money Laundering Alert, reported that Ingram “pled guilty on August 28 to money laundering conspiracy as part of an agreement [plea bargain] with the U.S. government, which will drop other charges and receive Ingram s testimony against two co-defendants from Egypt and Pakistan. Some published reports say that both of the other defendants were from (current U.S. ally) Pakistan.

Bin Laden has long-standing contacts with senior officials [of Pakistan]…,” said Andrew Pearce of the Rand Institute in Washington. The Times of India also reported on June 17, 2001 that one of three Pakistani middlemen working illegally with Ingram asked undercover agents about the chances of obtaining components for nuclear weapons.

Earlier (July 7) Associated Press reported that “Kevin Ingram, 42, an investment counselor at the World Trade Center, was indicted June 28 on three counts of trying to conceal at least $350,000 and one count of violating the Arms Export Act.”

“Ingram allegedly laundered $100,000 and $250,000 for federal agents, both times taking a 9 percent cut before being asked to launder the $2.2 million,” according to court papers examined by the New York Post in a June 15, 2001 report.

AP added that “Ingram is also named in two other counts…for trying to launder $2.2 million in illegal arms sales. Ingram, out on $250,000 bond, faces a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted of all charges.”

Arrested with Ingram were two New Jersey-based Pakistanis who had offered to make a partial payment for the arms “in the form of heroin,” also according to both AP and the New York Post.

A September 29, 2001 Bloomberg News/St. Louis Post Dispatch report revealed that Ingram had angered his judge in July by failing to disclose his Swiss bank account. Bloomberg reported that the Swiss account contained $1,086,000 in cash and 75,800 shares of Carver Bancorp, Inc. worth $650,000.

“He was afraid of the implications, and he just panicked,” attorney Richard Lubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann E. Vitunac at a bail hearing on July 10. Vitunac raised Ingrams s bond to $1.25 million and ordered him jailed two days later.

Curiously, however, given the terrorism that has transpired, federal agents refused to divulge the name of the country that would have received the arms according to court papers examined by the New York Post and others. However, the documents confirmed that the defendants “referred to their foreign arms buyer…as a well-known, former military official who wanted to partially pay for the weapons with heroin.”

On June 15, 2001, the New York Post, reported that experts said the most likely buyers connected to the former Deutschebank securities trader and the two Pakistanis were current U.S. ally Pakistan or Osama bin Laden.

The Associated Press reported on 12/1/01 that Ingram had been sentenced to 18 months plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine on the money laundering charges in this case. All other charges were dropped in the plea bargain. AP quoted Ingram as saying at his sentencing hearing, I made a horrible mistake and I did something wrong. I’m very sorry about it, sorry for my family. Ingram’s sentence will likely be served at a minimum security facility in Fairton, New Jersey.

Interesting confirmation of the U.S. government s familiarity with banking operations connected to terrorist activities was revealed in an 11/16/01 AP story by Catherine Wilson. In describing events in a Florida prosecution of Egyptians connected to Ingram s case she wrote, “Numerous promised wire transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers taking payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States, said [federal] prosecutor Rolando Garcia.” This is yet another clear indication that intelligence agencies routinely monitor banking transactions in terrorist-related cases. It has not been disclosed whether Ingram s plea bargain produced testimony in this case.

In spite of these revelations, no reporter or government official has asked or disclosed how many times Ingram had laundered money or completed arms shipments before he was finally nabbed. The extensive array of military hardware in the possession of the Taliban and al Q’aeda beg this question.

A “Trader’s” Powerful Friends

Deutschebank-Alex Brown s role in brokering the insider trades that scream foreknowledge of the attacks further provides a common denominator — given the activities and histories of key executives at the highest levels of the world s financial markets.

Ingram’ s history speaks of access to power and financial policy making at the highest levels. Not only was he an associate of Robert Rubin before Rubin left Goldman Sachs to become Clinton’ s Treasury Secretary, he has had ongoing relationships with Corzine, who also sits on the Senate’ s Subcommittee on Securities and Investment — a subcommittee which should be investigating the insider trading.

Prior to working for Deutschebank, Ingram was a highly placed executive with the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Both Rubin and Corzine have served as CEOs at Goldman.

Rubin currently sits on the board of Citigroup — a bank which has been cited for drug money laundering by the U.S. government and which (May 2001) purchased a Mexican bank (Banamex) which has now lost two suits and one appeal over press reports that its former owner, Roberto Hernandez, was a world-class drug money launderer.

Hernandez currently sits on the board at Citigroup as a result of the buyout. So too does former CIA Director John Deutch.

(See FTW: Vol. IV, No. 3 May 31, 2001 or visit /<http://www.copvcia.com/www.copvcia.com.)

Kevin Ingram joined Goldman Sachs in 1988 after a brief stint at Lehman Brothers, and by 1992 was promoted to run Goldman’s Collateralized Mortgage Obligations desk, overseeing all trading of mortgage and asset-backed securities, according to the New York Observer. Mortgage trading has long been suspected of being a vehicle for the laundering of hot money.

In Black Enterprise (BE) magazine s 1992 “Top 25 Blacks On Wall Street,” Ingram was said to have left his (nine-year) high profile Goldman Sachs treasury securities and options desk position in 1996 to head Deutschebank‘s U.S. mortgage-backed securities department — and ultimately their global securities operations in 1998.

BE added that “at Deutschebank, Ingram and his team of 25 professionals structure and issue securities for an international clientele, including…high net-worth individuals. These deals can range from $1 million to several billion dollars.”

No member of the House or Senate has even broached the subject of hearings to question either Ingram or recent Deutschebank-Alex Brown Vice Chairman and current CIA Executive Director A.B. Krongard as to whether they dealt with any wealthy Middle Easterners or Saudis in particular. Almost all of the September 11 hijackers were of Saudi nationality. Since both men had high supervisory positions connected to the secretive “private client” operations of Deutschebank, and Deutschebank handled the insider trades, this is an obvious course of inquiry.

Ingram‘s position at Deutschebank became tenuous when the bond market crashed in 1998 and the protégé of Corzine and Rubin likely felt insecure. The tumbling bond market combined with periodic absences where “he would sometimes go incommunicado for days — unusual for someone who ran a trading desk and was responsible for open positions of $7 billion and more.” Deutschebank asked for his resignation in September 1999, according to the New York Observer.

The Reverend Jackson to the Rescue

From Fox-TV News Bill O Reilly to well-experienced citizen researchers with monikers like “Uncle Bill, Alamo Girl, and John Huang2” (who post startling, yet often under-publicized findings on grass-roots websites like Jim Robinson s “Free Republic”), evidence of “shakedowns” related to the race-card continue to surface — even when connected to terrorism.

Ingram turned to “Rev. Jesse Jackson s Wall Street Project [for help with the financial settlement of his resignation process]. The Wall Street Project is a Rainbow Coalition-sponsored organization that pushes for increased minority hiring on the Street,” according to the New York Observer. And with the specter of a racially-charged lawsuit looming, Deutschebank ultimately settled with Jackson and Ingram for an undisclosed multi-million dollar figure in February 2000.

According to Observer sources, Ingram then made a contribution to Rainbow Push of “around” $100,000 — as a fiscal tribute to his benefactor.

The “Blind Trust” of a Senatorial Patron?

After the February 2000 Deutschebank settlement, Ingram moved on, raising funds for a soon to-go-bankrupt dot-com company called TruMarkets. Astonishingly, some of TruMarkets $30 million seed money came from the blind trust of Ingram’s former Goldman Sachs patron, U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, according to the New York Observer of 11/29/01.

But federal prosecutors and fellow Senators have never questioned whether Corzine was aware that investigators had been targeting the former Deutschebank executive at the same time regarding money laundering of illegal narcotics proceeds (both drugs and cash) to support the unlawful purchase of U.S. arms to sell to Muslim terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It is also a reach to wonder why Corzine — who took office in January 2001 — would not have been aware of a Federal banking investigation into dealings with terrorists that had been engineered by a former associate to whom he had been a mentor.

It was during this period of time that an undercover agent began holding a series of meetings with Ingram in which Ingram let it be known that “funds coming in from arms sales needed to be laundered,” again according to the New York Observer.

Larger questions remain as to whether strings were pulled for Ingram by influential individuals at a time when the prison population has exploded into a cottage industry full of poor and middle class Americans convicted for possession or use of small amounts of drugs.

Most of these people — like Ingram — are minorities.

Neither Ingram nor his lawyer would comment or return calls. And no one has successfully interviewed the prosecutors regarding decisions which influenced what most would consider to be incredibly soft treatment, given the nature of the charges and what happened on September 11.

That there is serious interest or enough courage to seek answers about prior knowledge of the attacks from Deutschebank-linked key players and associates under their supervision by America s elected legislators is not even remotely assured at present.

– Tom Flocco is a freelance writer and researcher. TomFlocco@cs.com

Previous stories in this series:

– Part I of this series is located at: http://www.copvcia.com/stories/dec_2001/death_profits_pt1.html

# # #


 

By its past and present actions, by its technological capabilities, by the merciless nature of its regime, Iraq is unique. As a former chief weapons inspector of the U.N. has said, ‘The fundamental problem with Iraq remains the nature of the regime, itself. Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction.’…

“We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September the 11th….

“Iraq is a land rich in culture, resources, and talent. Freed from the weight of oppression, Iraq’s people will be able to share in the progress and prosperity of our time. If military action is necessary, the United States and our allies will help the Iraqi people rebuild their economy, and create the institutions of liberty in a unified Iraq at peace with its neighbors.”…

– George W. Bush, October 7, 2000

* * * * *


 

IRAQ BODY COUNT

 


 

National Priorities Project – Cost of War

 


 

A Timeline of Oil and Violence in Iraq

 


 

DrDebug’s 9/11 Investigation

 


 

THE 10 MOST BRAZEN WAR PROFITEERS

 


 

THE EAGLE HOODED: THE 9-11 COVERUP

PART IPART IIPART III

 


 

 

WANT STILL MORE?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Kamehameha’s Court

An Octopus Named Wackenhut

Birds on the Power Lines

Birds that Drink from Cesspools

Down the Rabbit-Hole

First Hawaiian Bank: Conquered by the French in ‘98

Global Crossing

Investigating Investcorp

It’s the OIL, STUPID!

Nests in the Pentagon

Rand Corporation

Stealing Your Nest Eggs

The American Red Double-Cross

The Eagle Awakes

The Eagle Hooded

The Indonesian Connection

The Kissinger of Death

The Mercenaries

The Nests of Osama bin Laden

The Nuclear Nests

The Secret Nests

The Silence of the Whistleblowers

The Sinking of the Ehime Maru

The Stephen Friedman Flock

The Story of Enron

The Strange Saga of BCCI

The United Defense Industries Matrix

Thorns in the Rose Garden

Uncle Sam’s Gullible Guinea Pigs

Who’s Guarding the Hen House?

 

 


 

MORE OF THE CATBIRD’S FAVORITE LINKS

THE CATBIRD SEAT FORUM

THE CATBIRD SEAT


 

FAIR USE NOTICE. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.


 

Last Update January 16, 2003, by The Catbird

1