May 8, 2001: Cheney begins coordinating response to domestic attacks

[Minstrel Boy]

A date, among many, that needs circling in red:

May 8, 2001: Bush entrusts Cheney to head the new Office of National Preparedness, a part of FEMA. This office is supposed to oversee a "national effort" to coordinate all federal programs for responding to domestic attacks. Cheney says to the press, "One of our biggest threats as a nation" may include "a terrorist organization overseas. We need to look at this whole area, oftentimes referred to as homeland defense."
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/timelinebefore911.html

So here's Cheney, PNACer and oil man, already chairing a secretive energy commission (read its implications for military policy: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4458.htm), being named to head up a new agency which will "coordinate all federal programs for responding to domestic attacks."

And on the morning of September 11 - PNAC's awaited "catalyzing event, such as a new Pearl Harbor" - by a "bizarre coincidence," he is monitoring an emergency simulation of planes crashing into buildings. A simulation, so we're told, one year later.

A question: how many coincidences before my head explodes?

[booradleyjr]

1. Wow!

Evil is too weak a word.

[hellhathnofury]

12. Welcome to DU!

[cthrumatrix]

18. simple way to flush this out - have Cheny and O'Neill on Hardball

with Tweety....

Who would not tune in for that?

[NV1962]

2. Ummm... That wasn't exactly the first time FEMA was given that task

Go to the FEMA site and see for yourself.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. FEMA's not the issue here, Cheney is.

The Spring of 2001, PNAC's Cheney is crafting Bush's energy strategy and heading a new office to coordinate a response to a terrorist attack on American soil.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Press Release from May 8, 2001:

Cheney to Oversee Domestic Counterterrorism Efforts

President announces new homeland defense initiative

President Bush May 8 directed Vice President Dick Cheney to coordinate development of U.S. government initiatives to combat terrorist attacks on the United States.

http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01050878.htm

[paulthompson]

5. May 8, 2001

I'm updating the timeline soon and this entry is being updated too. It now reads:

May 8, 2001: Bush entrusts Cheney to head the new Office of National Preparedness, a part of FEMA. This office is supposed to oversee a "national effort" to coordinate all federal programs for responding to domestic attacks. Cheney says to the press, "One of our biggest threats as a nation" may include "a terrorist organization overseas. We need to look at this whole area, oftentimes referred to as homeland defense." (New York Times, 7/8/02) Bush adds, "I will periodically chair a meeting of the National Security Council to review these efforts." Neither Cheney's review nor Bush's takes place before 9/11. "Bush (doesn't) speak again publicly of the dangers of terrorism before 9/11, except to promote a missile shield that had been his top military priority from the start." (Washington Post, 1/20/02)

---

To put on the tinfoil hat and assume MIHOP for a minute, if there was a MIHOP this seems to be the ideal bureaucratic cover for it. We know Cheney was frequently off in his "undisclosed location" doing God knows what. What better cover to assemble a small team and have periodic meetings under the guise of combatting terrorism when in fact you're facilitating it? They could interfere with or manipulate other counterterrorism efforts by claiming this was part their "coordinating" efforts.

Just some wild speculation.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. My thought too when I recalled this tonight.

And it is speculative, but it lends, I think, a credible architecture to a MIHOP hypothesis.

The new administration, we know, was packed with neo-con warmongers awaiting a new Pearl Harbor and lead, titularly, by a President who wanted to invade Iraq from the first day in office. All he needed was a reason.

Chief neo-con is the Vice President, an oil man who crafts a secretive and aggressive energy strategy for America.

After taking office, senior officials learn of a spectacular al Qaeda attack in the works. Just what they need. And Cheney is named to head a new working group, under FEMA, to coordinate counter-terrrorism in anticipation of a domestic attack.

The rest, as they might say, is para-history.

And the only speculative aspect now of all the above is the assumption that, before Cheney's appointment to head the counter-terrorism task force, they learned of an attack already in the planning stages. A big assumption, yes, but it fits all we know, such as the seemingly inexplicable and unprecidented stymying of FBI investigations pre-9/11 by head office, notably the office of Dave Frasca, head of the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit.

[DrBB]

6. What are the hard sources on that whole "simulation" thing?

I've only ever seen references to other references on it. Do we know that it was actually taking place and that Cheney was actively involved in it somehow? Can someone nail that down a little for me? I've yet to see any sources I could really use to talk to non-LIHOPers convincingly about this.

[Mike Niendorff]

9. "DU1" thread on this subject (w/refs) : 8/21/02

See this thread (which also links to this related thread).

Specific source cited: AP story, available through the San Francisco Gate's archives.


MDN

[Minstrel Boy]

11. John Fulton was involved in the "simulation" as well

Courtesy of The Memory Hole:

John Fulton - Intelligence Networking & Analysis

On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day. Information is the most powerful tool available in the homeland security effort. At the core of every initiative currently underway to protect our country and its citizens is the challenge of getting the right information to the right people at the right time. How can so much information from around the world be captured and processed in meaningful and timely ways? Mr. Fulton shares his insights into the intelligence community, and shares a vision of how today's information systems will be developed into even better counter-terrorism tools of tomorrow.

About John Fulton

John Fulton’s 25 years in the intelligence community has contributed to his recognition as an expert in risk & threat response analysis, scenario gaming, and strategic planning. He is on staff for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), currently serving as Chief of the Strategic War Gaming Division of the National Reconnaissance Office, and as a member of U.S. Joint Forces Command's Project Alpha - a prestigious "think tank" for advanced concepts related to such issues as homeland security. He formerly served as the mission director for our nation's satellite imagery program as well as replacing Army Astronaut Same Gemar as the Director of the National Security Space Master Plan for the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Space Communities under the auspices of the Deputy UnderSecretary of Defense (Space).

His counter-terrorism and homeland security responsibilities include advising the Director Central Intelligence Staff for Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshall's Office, and collaboration with the National Security Council.

In the private sector Fulton has developed a number of patents related to positioning, "smart GPS " applications, communications, and audio/video technology. He oversees the development of public & personal safety applications of these capabilities through SafeSTAR projects, and contributes to the strategic planning and conceptual design of the SafeSTAR Homeland Security Command Center.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/cia-simulation.htm

[ComerPerro]

7. Oh my God

Wait...

As early as May 2001 they were preparing to be able to respond to domestic attacks from international terrorist organizations, but they still can't stop 9/11? And they try to claim they had no idea, and could not have known??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


WHAT THE FUCK???????????????????

[chookie]

8. Cheney has *never* been confronted with this

At the time of the Sept 11 2001 attacks, it was Dick Cheney who was in charge of anti-terroristic measures, due to Bush's appointment for him in May 2001, as stated.

But *never* has he been called to account for his failure as head at the time of this attack. What the heck had he been up to all those months? What was the bold new direction that Bush was seeking to implement by altering anti-terror procedures?

I bet most people don't even know he was in charge of anti-terror at Sept 11 2001.

Maybe His Chimperial Highness's "bold new idea" was the "anti-terror" measure of taking out Iraq. Paul O'Neill has stated that Iraq was discussed as Topic A in the first meeting of the Security Counsel, in which smirky stated about an Iraq invasion "Find a way to do this for me."

[Elidor]

19. Yeah, it puts the lie to Condi's inane claim

That they had no idea people would use airliners as mobile bombs.

[Octafish]

13. Smirk looked into Pootie-Toot's soul ...

... and liked what he saw looking back. Sneer probably was listening through a bug in the sofa and took notes. Then again, they probably knew about Bojinka, and the blind Imam who vowed to finish knocking down the WTC, and everything Sandy Berger and the FBI and CIA were telling them about the flight school training from their first day occupying the White House...

Russian tycoon blames Moscow for blasts

Exiled Russian media tycoon Boris Berezovsky says he believes Moscow orchestrated the 1999 bombings of apartment blocks in Russian cities which triggered Russia's onslaught in Chechnya.

At a news conference in London, Mr Berezovsky presented what he said was evidence that the bombings were the work of the Russian security service, the FSB.

Why does (Putin) continue to block investigations into the deadliest terrorist attacks in our history?
Boris Berezovsky He also said he was sure that President Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, knew about the campaign.

CONTINUED...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1857060.stm


Then again. P-2 revealed how the Genoa train station bombing was the work of the right and blamed on the left.

http://eserver.org/bs/58/zimmerman.html

This is the kind of role model the BFEE loves. Consider Poppy's friend Orlando Bosch. The man most responsible for blowing up a Cuban passenger plane is just one of the many killers the Bush Organized Crime Family call "Friend." They are murderers. Murderers.

http://www.dawn.com/2002/02/09/int11.htm

EDIT: Bosch is the name.

[Minstrel Boy]

14. And Arroyo looked into Bush's:

"US faking terror in the phillipines"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=999485

Mutineering officers of the Phillipine military charged that:

· Senior military officials, in collusion with the Arroyo regime, carried out last March's bombing of the airport in the southern city of Davao, as well as several other attacks. Thirty-eight people were killed in the bombings. The leader of the mutiny, Lieutenant Antonio Trillanes, claims to have "hundreds" of witnesses who can testify to the plot.

· The army has fuelled terrorism in Mindanao by selling weapons and ammunition to the very rebel forces the young soldiers were sent to fight.

· Members of the military and police helped prisoners convicted of terrorist crimes escape from jail. The "final validation", according to Trillanes, was Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi's July 14 escape from a heavily guarded Manila prison. Al-Ghozi is a notorious bomb-maker with Jemaah Islamiah, which was linked to both the Bali and Marriott attacks.

· The government was on the verge of staging a new string of bombings to justify declaring martial law.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1019246,00.html

...

Michael Meiring, CIA operative in Mindanao, gets injured by his own bomb which explodes prematurely in his hotel room, and he's whisked back to America by the FBI before an inquiry can be held:

"The Meiring Mystery: 'Affront to Philippine sovereignty'"
http://www.mindanews.com/2003/05/30nws-meiring01.html

"The Meiring Mystery: The 'Second Coming'"
http://www.mindanews.com/2003/06/01nws-meiring02.html

"The Meiring Mystery: The extradition that never was"
http://www.mindanews.com/2003/06/01nws-meiring03.html

...

Naomi Klein, in The Guardian:

"Yet the Meiring affair has never been reported in the US press. And the mutinous soldiers' incredible allegations were no more than a one-day story. Maybe it just seemed too outlandish: an out-of-control government fanning the flames of terrorism to pump up its military budget, hold on to power and violate civil liberties. Why would Americans be interested in something like that?"

[Octafish]

21. Now that's a smoking machine gun!

Wow! Thanks for the heads-up on the Meiring story and the links to our pals on Mindanao, Minstrel Boy!

The BFEE and its stooges are so brazen, they think, rightly so, they'll never be caught. So these the pawns of the VRWC and its Mighty Whorelitzer can keep a lid on this stateside, just like all the stuff since 22 November 1963. Printing the truth could cause a revolution or a clean election or something.

BTW: Really liked your post on Privishing. It's so spot-on, it hurts me smack where the Bill of Rights bone used to be.

[Fleshdancer]

15. Emergency simulation of planes crashing into buildings?

What was is that Condeleeza Rice said? Something about how no one could have predicted the events of 9/11??? hmmmm.

[snippy]

20. Very good. That Bushshit from Rice goes back to the August 6, 2001

intelligence briefing as I recall.

[Insider]

16. thanks for the memories

flashback to that news story, and the creepy feeling that they were laying groundwork for a drastic change in this country.

:tinfolihat: IMHO, the patriot act and the dhs are more ready to respond to this sleeping giant of a nation when the truth comes out. the real emergency plans are focused on making sure we don't have a "regime change" our-damn-selves

[Minstrel Boy]

17. just a kick for the morning crew n/t