In his recent book The Black Banners, former FBI agent Ali Soufan portrays a key 9/11 Commission staff member, Doug MacEachin, as believing the CIA deliberately withheld information from the FBI in January 2001. This is in contrast with the Commission’s final report, which states that the CIA failed to pass on intelligence to the FBI on multiple occasions, but puts it down to honest failings.

MacEachin was one of the best-known of the Commission’s staffers before its formation. He was a career CIA officer and even served as Deputy Director for Intelligence between 1993 and 1996.

According to Soufan, MacEachin believed that the CIA purposefully withheld information placing al-Qaeda leader Khallad bin Attash at the Malaysia summit, a gathering of top al-Qaeda figures in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000 that was monitored by the CIA. This intelligence was especially significant because it linked bin Attash, then known to be a mastermind of the October 2000 USS Cole bombing, to future Flight 77 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

Had the FBI learned what the CIA knew of the Malaysia summit at this time, its Cole investigators would have focused on Almihdhar and Alhazmi eight months before 9/11, giving them plenty of opportunity to stop the plot.

In his book, Soufan describes a meeting between himself and some Commission staffers, evidently Soufan’s second interview with the Commission on September 15, 2003.

Soufan says he started the interview by discussing a source inside al-Qaeda that he and his partner Steve Bongardt had helped recruit some time before the Cole bombing. In late 2000, the source had been shown a passport photo provided by the Yemeni authorities of a person the FBI thought to be bin Attash, and had identified him as such to a CIA officer known only as “Chris� and FBI agent Michael Dorris. This was another plank in the case being built against bin Attash for the Cole bombing.

Shortly after, in murky circumstances Soufan does not discuss, the CIA sent pictures of Almihdhar and Alhazmi taken at the Malaysia summit for the source to try to identify. While Dorris was out of the room, Chris showed the pictures to the source, who said he did not know Almihdhar, but identified the photo of Alhazmi as bin Attash; the two men had similar facial features. Read more È

In the first two parts of this series we saw how a group of officers at Alec Station, the CIA’s bin Laden unit, concealed information about al-Qaeda’s Malaysia summit from their FBI colleagues in January 2000. In particular they hid information about a US visa in the possession of Flight 77 hijacker Khalid Almihdhar. We also saw how this protection of Almihdhar, his partner Nawaf Alhazmi and al-Qaeda leader Khallad bin Attash continued even after the involvement of Almihdhar and bin Attash in the October 2000 USS Cole bombing became known to the US intelligence community. Concealing information about terrorists involved in seventeen homicides was bad enough, but things were about to get much worse.

Shortly after the CIA had failed to respond truthfully to a second formal request for information about the Cole bombing from FBI agent Ali Soufan in April 2001, the cables the CIA drafted about the Malaysia summit were reviewed at Alec Station. The review was conducted by Tom Wilshire, the station’s deputy chief and one of the key figures in the withholding of the information, and a female CIA officer whose name is not known. The two of them re-read cables from the previous year that said Almihdhar had a US visa and that Alhazmi had flown to Los Angeles with a companion, but neither of them took the appropriate action—watchlisting the Malaysia attendees and alerting the FBI.

After this review, Wilshire ordered another review of the same information. The review was to be carried out by Margaret Gillespie, a CIA detailee to Alec Station whose alleged memory loss regarding the events of January 2000 makes one suspicious of her motives. Wilshire believed, correctly as it turns out, that the cables contained the key to preventing the next major al-Qaeda attack—had they been handled properly, 9/11 would never have happened.

Three weeks before the attacks, Gillespie allegedly discovered a key cable, and this led her to tell the FBI about Almihdhar and Alhazmi. As you know, the FBI hunt for Almihdhar and Alhazmi was unsuccessful and this, as you probably don’t know, was largely due to Wilshire. Nevertheless, Wilshire received substantial praise from the post-attack investigations for getting Gillespie to do the review. Plenty of his other actions cast suspicion on him, but this review seemed to put him in the clear—if he really was trying to hide the information, why start a review? Read more È

Bill Bergman joins us to discuss compelling financial irregularities and cases involving pre-9/11 money transfers, suspicious activity reporting, and informed securities trading, all of which remain uninvestigated and unanswered to date. He provides us with his analyses of the extraordinary surge in currency shipments and significant increase in the number of suspicious activity reports filed by financial institutions in the summer of 2001, the long history of currency shipments in U.S. covert operations, documented false statements and conclusions by the 9/11 Commission regarding the National Money Laundering Strategy Report from the Department of the Treasury in 2001, and the performance of the ‘market fear index’ in the weeks before 9/11. Mr. Bergman discusses obstacles and climate of fear faced by public servants, the city of Chicago as the major hub for money laundering, narcotics and corruption, and more!

Bill Bergman has 10 years of experience as a stock market analyst sandwiched around 13 years as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an M.B.A. as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1990. His research work at the Fed included writing the Chicago Fed contribution to the Federal Reserve “beige book.” Some recent issue areas he has worked on include the implications national emergency and war powers pose for the Federal Reserve, money laundering, and wholesale payment system design, risk, performance and pricing. Mr. Bergman is currently working with Social Movement Sciences LLC, a new enterprise developing evaluation and funding services for not-for-profit organizations.

Here is our guest Bill Bergman unplugged!

Interview with Bill Bergman [ 56:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The following is the transcript for our podcast interview with Paul Thompson. We would like to thank Nicholas Filippelli for transcribing this informative interview. You can listen to the interview here: The Boiling Frogs Presents Paul Thompson-Part I

Peter B Collins: Our guest today is Paul Thompson, he is the author of the Terror Timeline, he is an alumnus, a graduate of Stanford university, and he has been researching 9/11 and related issues for many years. Paul Thompson, welcome to the Boiling Frogs.

Paul Thomspon: Hey, thanks for having me.

PC: I just wanted to mention as we delve into the complex issues of the events of September 11, 2001, that there were 2 key bits that prompted me to become skeptical or curious, and follow your lead in many respects to question the official story and seek the truth about 9/11. The first was when a friend who was a medical doctor and a private pilot came to me and talked to me about the disconnect between the Federal Aviation Agency and NORAD on 9/11. We may get into those details but, suffice to say, it was a sad comedy of errors and it piqued my interest. But it wasn’t until I saw the timelines that were developed by people like you, and there was some others who did similar work, that really showed the glaring inconsistencies in the official narrative and led to ask questions about the role of some of the individuals in the Bush administration, and the level of honesty, or of lack of it that we have had to encounter, including the way 9/11 Commission was used to “firm up”, the myth that had been launched right after the 9/11 attacks. Now, Paul Thompson, in recent weeks Richard Clarke, who was a key counterterrorism advisor to George W. Bush in the Bush White House, was the subject of an interview that was actually conducted a couple of years ago, but was broadcast on a public television station in Colorado. And it includes some very interesting new allegations from Clarke, essentially that he was kept in the dark on one specific piece of information regarding two of the individuals who were later alleged to have been hijackers on 9/11. Why don’t you recap for our listeners what Clarke said, and why it makes news about these issues. Read more È

Warrick’s book, The Triple Agent, focuses on Jennifer Matthews, the CIA station chief at forward base Chapman who was among those killed by a Jordanian suicide bomber.  In discussing the role of Matthews in the CIA’s withholding of critical pre-9/11 intelligence from the FBI and counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, Collins asked if Jennifer Matthews had connections to Alfreda Frances Bikowsky—the CIA officer recently identified here at Boiling Frogs Post. Warrick responded:

“There is a group of very, shall we say, strong personalities within the counterterrorism division, you’ve named 2 of them, they were good friends, they worked together on these cases, and the list of people the IG has identified as potentially deserving of disciplinary review for their actions before 9/11 never been published, but we know from multiple counts that Jennifer Matthews had been on that list…�

In this response, Warrick directly confirms the role of Bikowsky in the pre-9/11 intelligence debacle, as well as her presence at the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydeh, which was being directed by Matthews.  And without explicitly naming Bikowsky, he confirms that she was a friend and colleague of Matthews and that they worked together on counterterrorism at CIA. 

Warrick also asserts that he knows of the Inspector General’s list of some 60 CIA employees proposed for investigation over the pre-9/11 intelligence suppression, and that he has been able to get multiple confirmations that Matthews was on that list. But it appears that The Post has acquiesced to the CIA, and its editors believe that the public is not interested in learning the truth and seeking accountability on these matters.

“We’d still love to get that list. And we tried at the time to get the names of the individuals. It was decided at a high level, this was back during the Bush administration, when Porter Goss was CIA Director that these names would never be published, as far as the CIA was concerned, and there is not much of a process to force the CIA to retreat from that decision….and no one in either the Bush or Obama administration has pushed for further disclosure, they’d like for this thing pretty much to be put to rest and forgotten about.

There is nothing that makes officials here want to change the subject more quickly than those kinds of questions; politicians and certainly the intelligence people would just rather see it go away…and there just doesn’t seem to be much public interest, either, that we’ve detected….there are certainly pockets of it, but in terms of getting people excited and interested in this again, it’s been a real struggle.�

These comments raise serious questions about the integrity and independence of The Washington Post, as Warrick says his newspaper has had this information for years but appears to take editorial direction from the CIA and the White House.  The failure of The Post and the 9/11 Commission to fully investigate the CIA for its actions prior to 9/11 and explore the Malaysia summit and visas issued to al-Hazmi and al-Midhar are part of an obvious cover-up, and suggest widespread obstruction of justice. 

In addition, the Washington Post and more recently the Associated Press  refrained from reporting the complete story and Bikowsky’s involvement in the German citizen el-Masri’s rendition and torture, in compliance with the CIA pressure. The well-known New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer also complied with CIA’s unofficial request and withheld certain facts and the identities of the CIA employees and contractors involved in rendition and barbaric cases in her book The Dark Side.

Boiling Frogs Post broke the story and identified Alfreda Frances Bikowsky for the first time a week ago on September 21, 2011. Although the CIA had threatened producers Nowosielski and Duffy, and had prevented them from identifying the two CIA officers Bikowsky and Michael Anne Casey, the agency did not threaten or request redaction when asked for confirmation by the alternative news site Gawker. Despite Boiling Frogs Post’s exposé as the first alternative news site to publish the story, complete coverage by Cryptome, the video report by independent investigative journalist James Corbett at Corbett Report, and the subsequent coverage and analyses by Gawker, the mainstream media and the so-called independent outlets have so far readily complied with the establishment’s no-no rule and have abstained from covering this significant report involving obstruction of justice, cover up, lying to Congress, rendition and torture.

Here is the relevant portion of the audio interview of Joby Warrick by Peter B Collins:

Portion of Interview with Joby Warrick [ 4:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To listen to the entire show visit Peter B Collins’ website: here.

We have so far identified and confirmed three CIA officers, Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, Jennifer Matthews and  Michael Anne Casey, who were involved in the intentional cover up of significant pre 9/11 intelligence, subsequent cover up during the quasi 9/11 investigations, and the CIA’s rendition and torture cases. As we can see, the partnership between the government, mainstream media, pseudo alternative media, and Congress makes sure the facts pertaining to these crimes and criminals remain untouched and buried.

*For additional more background check out the following links:

BFP Breaking News: Confirmed Identity of the CIA Official behind 9/11, Rendition & Torture Cases is Revealed 

Boiling Frogs Breaking News: CIA Goes After Producers Nowosielski & Duffy

The Still Developing Story of the Recently Issued CIA Threats to Producers Nowosielski & Duffy

Podcast: The Boiling Frogs Presents Ray Nowosielski & John Duffy

As you can see we are doing our share as one of the very few true alternatives. Please do your share and help us continue our operation by subscribing to Boiling Frogs Post. Thank you.

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Author and researcher Kevin Fenton joins us to discuss the recent case involving the CIA’s withholding of the release of audio documentary “Who is Richard Blee?â€� and the extensive research and findings which have resulted in the unmasking of three former top CIA officials and their role in withholding intelligence on two key 9/11 hijackers and subsequent cover-ups. He details the findings on the two key CIA analysts who were instrumental in this cover up – who were recently identified and exposed as Alfreda Frances Bikowsky and Michael Anne Casey. Mr. Fenton discusses the CIA’s Alec Station, and questions the notion of incompetence versus intentional when it comes to the events leading to and making the terrorist attacks possible on 9/11.

Kevin Fenton is an independent researcher and the author of Disconnecting the Dots: How CIA and FBI Officials Helped Enable 9/11 and Evaded Government Investigations.

Here is our guest Kevin Fenton unplugged!

Interview with Kevin Fenton [ 1:21:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Update 1: It was brought to our attention that the webmaster at Secrecykills.com had mistakenly scanned and posted the uncensored documents containing the names of the two CIA officers. Per their request we now are removing the second CIA officer’s name. Boiling Frogs Post had independently obtained and confirmed the first name: Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, but had included the second name, M. A. C., based on the uncensored documents posted by mistake at Secrecykills.com previously. Due to the government pressure on and threats to the producers Nowosielski-Duffy we were asked to remove the references to their site and previous post…At least for now. As you can see the mainstream media and pseudo alternatives (including Raw Story) have abided by their government masters and fund-ers, and have refused to pick up the story or support the producers-reporters or Boiling Frogs Post. We rely on ‘your’ support. The story is still developing-please stay tuned.

The producers Nowosielski and Duffy have now made both names available [link removed] at their website. They also identify the second CIA culprit as M. A. C. We have not been able to obtain confirmation by other sources on this person yet, but we are still working on it.

Alfreda Frances Bikowsky is the person described in New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer’s book The Dark Side as having flown in to watch the waterboarding of terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammad without being assigned to do so. “Its not supposed to be entertainment,” superiors were said to have told her.  She was also at the center of “the el-Masri incident,â€� in which an innocent German citizen was kidnapped by the CIA in 2003 and held under terrible conditions without charges for five months in a secret Afghan prison. The AP characterized it as “one of the biggest diplomatic embarrassments of the U.S. war on terrorism.”

Both the previous and current administrations appear to have deemed Alfreda Frances Bikowsky’s direct involvement in intentional obstruction of justice, intentional cover up, lying to Congress, and overseeing rendition-kidnapping-torture practices as qualifying factors to have kept promoting her. She now leads the CIA’s Global Jihad Unit and is a close advisor to the President.

*For more background check out the following links:

Boiling Frogs Breaking News: CIA Goes After Producers Nowosielski & Duffy

The Still Developing Story of the Recently Issued CIA Threats to Producers Nowosielski & Duffy

Podcast: The Boiling Frogs Presents Ray Nowosielski & John Duffy

This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by subscribing .