9/11: U.S. intelligence analysts intercepted seven telephone calls regarding the attacks of September 11, 2001 before perpetrators had consummated the attack, declassified documents showed today.
Director of national intelligence, James Clapper, authorized the publication of three files associated with those facts, including transcripts of telephone conversations of suspected hijackers of aircrafts that crashed into buildings in New York.
According to Clapper, his office certified the dissemination of these data in line with the legislation (validated on October 26, 2001), called Patriot Act and for the good of the U.S. public interest.
One document, dated December 2009, describes a communication between the Muslim extremist leader Khalid al-Mihdhar, from San Diego, California, with an unidentified individual on the basis of Al-Qaida in Yemen.
Several military and political analysts, including Thierry Meyssan, claim that the terrorist attacks of 2001 were organized or permitted by the George W. Bush administration in a complicated plot with armament and oil companies.
On Wednesday, the administration of President Barack Obama declassified documents also related to world espionage developed by the National Security Agency (NSA), in an attempt to minimize the influence of Edward Snowden complainant.
The former CIA technician is pursued by Washington since June after he had revealed to foreign reporters details of the NSA program called PRISM, by which U.S. government intercepts communications from allies and enemies worldwide.
US Firms Co-operation with Spy Agencies Confirmed
Major US telephone companies always cooperated with spy agencies when the latter requested information about all the former’s clients, said a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
In a letter addressed to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee and made public today, Magistrate Reggie Walton revealed that none of the telephone firms or other Internet service providers refused to comply with Section 215 of the US Patriot Act, which authorizes the government to seize information in the hands of those companies if they are considered relevant to a probe into terrorist activities.
Walton explained details on how the FISC judges review surveillance requests issued by the Government and admitted that they seldom reject any of such cases.
FISC is a secret judicial body made up of 11 members that rapidly assess the requirements made by espionage agencies to spy on US organizations or citizens, suspects of committing terrorist activities, espionage or preparing or carrying out cyber attacks.
Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), denounced that Walton’s letter shows that the legal framework for domestic espionage is totally fractured, and the mechanisms for the protection against such violations are totally fictitious, the CNN reported.
Via PL