Peter Lance article

This from Damien
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Lukery, the Peter Lance article is a long, but fascinating one, so I hope you don't mind if I paraphrase it here for your readers (cut it, if you wish). Basically, he spruiks his book on International Terrorism and the FBI and shows that the 9/11 attacks were planned for over ten years. It contains some juicy details.

(1) Lance relates how in 1989 a crack FBI team was surveilling islamic terrorists from an MAK (al Qaeda) centre in Brooklyn. On four separate weekends they photographed them do automatic weapons training on Long Island.Three of the guys photographed went on to bomb the World Trade Center. One (Nosair) went on to kill Rabbi Kahane, two went on to plot with the Blind Sheikh (Omar Abdel Rahman) to blow up tunnels around Manhattan - which included the FBI office at 2600 Federal Plaza - and the leader of the group, Ali Mohammed, went on to train Bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan and did the surveillance work for the African Embassy bombings in 1998. They were part of a veritable who's who of Egyptian islamic terrorists present in the US in 1989 who later played senior roles in al Qaeda activities.

Two of the guys photographed and surveilled by the FBI were Mahmud Abouhalima and Mohammed Salameh who took part in the 1993 WTC attack.

According to Lance this FBI surveillance was mysteriously shut down in 1989.

(2) The next story Lance relates is about the assassination in New York on 5 Nov 1990 of US orthodox rabbi and radical Israeli terrorist, Meir Kahaneby, by one of the MAK group, El Sayyid Nosair (later convicted of the 1993 WTC bombing). That night the NYPD and the FBI raided Nosair's house and found 47 boxes of evidence which included: 1400 rounds of ammunition, top secret manuals from the U.S. Special Forces Warfare school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, maps of the World Trade Center, pictures of the World Trade Center, bomb recipes and the untranslated sermons and writings describing the Blind Sheikh's sermons which said that they wanted to hit the edifices of capitalism -- "the high world buildings."

The NYPD detective in charge, Joseph Borelli, determined that this was a "lone gunman" shooting. They also arrested in the house Mahmud Abouhalima and Mohammed Salameh - the two guys photgraphed by the FBI team in 1989 using automatic weapons, who just happened to be the getaway car drivers for Nosair when he did the hit!

Since the police had decided it was a "lone gunman" shooting, they released them without charge!

(3) Lance then jumps to Ahmed Amin Refai and NY Fire Marshal Ronnie Bucca. Ronnie Bucca died on 9/11 in the WTC. His bio is awesome. He was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne, went on to Military Intelligence, held US top secret intelligence clearance and was a member of Rescue One, the Green Berets of the NY Fire Department that do all the heavy rescue tasks. His colleague, Kevin Shea, was seriously injured in the 1993 WTC bombing so Bucca had a strong intelligence interest in islamic terrorists. He became convinced that they were going to make further attempts to attack the World Trade Center, largely because of comments found on bomber Ramzi Yousef's computer which (essentially) said: "We know what we did wrong, we'll come back and next time the twin towers will not stand."

In September 1999 Bucca was working at Metrotech, which was the then new fire department headquarters in Brooklyn. Metrotech was one of the most secure buildings in the city and contained the plans for virtually all the major structures in New York. Bucca learned of an Egyptian-American named Ahmed Refai, who was an accountant for twenty-five years with the FDNY. Refai lied about losing his ID card so that he could obtain a second ID. Bucca investigated.

He found out that prior to the 1993 WTC attack the NYFD had been throwing out various building plans and that Refai had collected copies of the plans for the WTC from a dumpster! Refai's supervisor confirmed this. Refai was interview twice by the FBI but nothing came of it.

Meanwhile, the previously mentioned Blind Sheikh (Omar Abdel Rahman) had been convicted in Oct 1995 for attempting to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in Manhattan. He was a venerated figure in the MAK - al Qaeda terrorist group. Only trusted people were allowed near him. Yet Bucca obtained video footage showing Refai on the arm of the Blind Sheikh, acting like his bodyguard , moving him through the crowd, while whispering in his ear.

When Ronnie Bucca found that Refai had plans to the World Trade Center and he brought it to the attention of the FBI in Sep 1999. Their verdict: "Well, we don't see any crime here. There is nothing we can do."

(4) Author Peter Lance himself interviewed Refai, who claimed that he had acted as the Sheikh's translator at his INS hearing. According to Lance:

"Now this is a hearing where his status in the country is going to be affected. He wouldn't just let any random guy represent him - he would have to have an intimate man he could trust."

Even more significantly, Refai later admitted that he frequented the Al Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn - a small room that would hold only 20 men - that was the al Qaeda base for the original MAK group in 1989. Refai admitted to Lance that he had met and knew Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammed Salameh and Nidal Ayyad at Al Farooq but that they were "only acquaitances".

Lance asked Refai about 9/11:

"How did you feel about 9/11?" And he tried to fake a weepy eyed kind of _expression, saying "I went to the park in the town and I hold a candle for these people."

He started to get like he was getting sad, but not for long, because I really pressed this guy hard. I kept pushing on him about the Sheikh and his relationship with him and (just a few minutes later) he finally lost it.

He said, "Do you know why the FBI did not discover 9/11?"

I didn't understand what he was saying. I said, "Well that's what my book seeks to answer."

And he said, "No do you understand what my people believe? This is not bin Laden. This is not the Sheikh. This is the U.S. Government doing this for Israel."

I said, "What??" I looked at FBI agent Joe O'Brien and he looked over at me. We were stunned. I said, "Let me get this straight: you are saying that your people believe that the 3,000 people were murdered by the U.S. Government on behalf of the State of Israel?"

He said, "This is what my people believe."

Apparently Ahmed Refai continues to live and work freely in New York.

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thnx damien