CBS: 9/11's Las Vegas Connection

[slaveplanet]

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 10, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/10/eveningnews/main1992178.shtml


Dale Watson ran counterterrorism for the FBI and led the investigation into 9/11. (CBS)

(CBS) The title is "Loose Change." It may be the internet's first blockbuster movie. It says: "If the government has nothing to hide, why are they so afraid to answer a few questions....?"

Ten million have watched so far, and that's only a fraction of the 42 percent of Americans recently polled by Reuters who believe its message — that our own government covered up critical evidence of 9/11, CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports.

But it's more than conspiracy theories on the Internet at work here. Some of the very people who first investigated 9/11 admit there's still a lot they don't know about the plot.

Dale Watson ran counterterrorism for the FBI and led the investigation into 9/11. And one of the things that still puzzles him most is the Las Vegas connection.

All four of the 9/11 hijacker pilots flew Las Vegas in the months preceding the attack. Some came twice. But once here, the men essentially disappeared.

Five years later, what does Watson think they were doing? (more at link)

Quote:
"We're not sure why they chose Las Vegas. There's a lot of surveillance cameras inside hotel casino properties that have gaming."
Las Vegas Undersheriff Doug Gillespie

[kelliebrat]

1. I saw this movie at google

then I bought the DVD...alot of it can be explained away, but so much of it cant. I've given it to people who refused to see Farenheit911 deeming it 'bullshit' and such, and the reaction has always been the same..."OH My GOD" I've converted a few 'bush backers' with this movie.

[Vidar]

2. Sounds good. Sorry it was dungeoned.

[slaveplanet]

3. yep ...amidst all the mockumentary propaganda....CBS slips

in some new 9/11 reporting on the 5th anniversary of 9/11, shows clips of LC2 on one of the 4 major MSM news outlets...but at DU its dungeon worthy. go figure.

[KJF]

4. Good article, thanks for posting it (n/t)

[newspeak]

5. the Las Vegas connection has not been in the forefront

it needs to be examined. Didn't McVeigh and Nichols also come to Las Vegas before the OKC bombing? My brother-in-law a few years ago was telling me at the time he read a website about the LV connection. I believe he said that an fbi agent was also working undercover at one of those exotic dance bar where the alleged terrorists met. It's been awhile ago, but I'll ask him what website he got the info.

[mhatrw]

6. Yes.

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=static&page=jaynadavis

Middle Eastern terrorist cell operating in the heart of Oklahoma City

On April 20, KFOR-TV's news director assigned me to track local leads regarding possible suspects. The assignment amounted to nothing more than monitoring satellite feeds of FBI press conferences - that is until one telephone call to the newsroom led me directly to the doorstep of what several esteemed intelligence experts later determined to be a Middle Eastern terrorist cell operating in the heart of Oklahoma City. Several American employees at a local property management company that we were investigating claimed they saw a brown Chevy truck, which matched the getaway vehicle aggressively pursued by law enforcement, parked outside the business office in the days before the bombing.

The PLO/Iraqi connection

The company owner was a Palestinian immigrant from Tel Aviv who had pleaded guilty to federal insurance fraud in the early 1990's and served time in the penitentiary. Court records revealed that the FBI suspected the Palestinian businessman, who operated under eight known aliases, of having connections with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This man, a psychologist from the Oklahoma State Department of Human Services, funded his vast, four million dollar rental housing empire through money he received from siblings living in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and Amman, Jordan.

The Las Vegas crossroads

Staff members related details about the Palestinian property owner's travel habits, including his frequent trips to Las Vegas where prime suspects McVeigh and Nichols were known to spend one weekend a month. Had the three men crossed paths? Terry Nichols' son Josh identified the Palestinian ex-felon from a photo lineup as a man he had seen in Las Vegas. When asked if the Middle Eastern subject met with his father, Josh refused to answer. Lana Padilla said her ex-husband Terry Nichols and Tim McVeigh would visit Josh in her home city of Las Vegas monthly and were often accompanied by unidentified men of Middle Eastern origin. She recalled the two Oklahoma City bombers frequented a bar known as Glitter Gulch, a strip club/casino located adjacent to Binion's Horseshoe, a casino/hotel where the security staff described the Palestinian ex-patriate from Oklahoma City as a "VIP" customer and "high roller at the poker tables." According to the man's secretary, he routinely traveled to Las Vegas and returned with large amounts of cash.

On April 20, 1995, less than 24 hours after the bombing, the Palestinian businessman boarded a plane in Oklahoma City bound for Las Vegas. The next day, Terry Nichols surrendered to federal authorities at the Herington, Kansas police department. News of the interrogation of the "material witness" flooded the television airwaves. Phone records reveal that just hours later, an unknown party called Nichols' Kansas home twice from a payphone at the Las Vegas casino Circus Circus. At the time, the Palestinian businessman was registered at Binion's Horseshoe and was within walking distance of the pay phones where the calls to Nichols' residence originated.