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Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

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Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#201

Post by xbmcuser »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #177
toyg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely, they had taps but did not know what they were talking about. It was widely reported that, pre-9/11, Arabic translators were scarce in most Western intelligence services including the US, since their traditional focus were Russian, Eastern-European languages, and Chinese. You just need basic informal codes for most logistic purposes (which would be mostly "I've done this, I've done that" to confirm timing…

Crashing highjacked planes was a known scenario. In fact, FOX broadcast a fictionalized scenario where a commercial airliner was highjacked and set on a crash course with the WTC about six months before 9/11/01.

Tom Clancy's wrote a fictional book about lone mentally disturbed Japanese pilot flying a plane into the pentagon. I read it that book maybe a few weeks before 9/11. Was shocked that the US intelligence didnt see something like this happening when a fiction author did.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#202

Post by xbmcuser »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #177
toyg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely, they had taps but did not know what they were talking about. It was widely reported that, pre-9/11, Arabic translators were scarce in most Western intelligence services including the US, since their traditional focus were Russian, Eastern-European languages, and Chinese. You just need basic informal codes for most logistic purposes (which would be mostly "I've done this, I've done that" to confirm timing…

Crashing highjacked planes was a known scenario. In fact, FOX broadcast a fictionalized scenario where a commercial airliner was highjacked and set on a crash course with the WTC about six months before 9/11/01.

Tom Clancy's wrote a fictional book about lone mentally disturbed Japanese pilot flying a plane into the pentagon. I read it that book maybe a few weeks before 9/11. Was shocked that the US intelligence didnt see something like this happening when a fiction author did.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#203

Post by RaleyField »

nickbauman wrote: post #122
s_q_b wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are nine pages redacted from the 9/11 report, because they were deemed too incendiary against an ally, Saudi Arabia. I want those pages.

I think we generally know what's in those pages. Seymour Hersh (multi Pulitzer winning journalist who, among other things, uncovered the Mi Lai Atrocities) broke the story that the assassination of Osama Bin Ladin was mainly an attempt by the US to cover up the deep ties between OBL and the Saudi government. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-...

The story seems appealing at first but it has many holes. Saudi royal family wouldn't really care about OBL. The team wouldn't dump his body over a mountain and then also have a cover story that falls apart the moment the body is found. Pakistan is a huge country, the aid is fraction of its gdp so US couldn't really threaten Pakistan. Nor would Pakistan likely host OBL and risk becoming a pariah state if not everything rolled out according to their plans. Pakistanis wouldn't hold him prisoner in an urban center and the exchange wouldn't happen there either.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#204

Post by DrScump »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #188
mirimir wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That needs a link. I find http://911blogger.com/news/2013-05-16/hollywood-and-911-movi... but nothing there about anything broadcast on Fox.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series)#... First episode: https://youtu.be/EjbQ-BDh4PU Edit: the author of your link addresses the episode in the comments section, "The Lone Gunmen Pilot Episode", and says that the article you linked was only focused on things "in production" when the attack occurred.

Wow, I had forgotten that series (X-Files spinoff).

Vince Gilligan was an Executive Producer.

The actor playing the father, George Coe, was one of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on SNL, then later played Ben Cheviot on "Max Headroom".

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#205

Post by DuskStar »

adrianN wrote: post #176
matwood wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. A 9/11 style attack is also a single time event. Now that passengers know the outcome, they simply will not let it happen again. The only possible method would be to turn an existing pilot into a suicide killer.

The reinforced doors they introduced after 9/11 make this strategy particularly good. The passengers can't do anything if the pilot decides that he has a death wish.

An example of such would be the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash from May 2015, where the copilot locked the cockpit door after the pilot left for a bathroom break and then flew into a mountain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#206

Post by salafi »

hackuser wrote: post #197
salafi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't, for the life of me, understand why people associate being a Salafi with the various terrorist groups. I have never heard a Salafi scholar promote any acts terrorism. In fact, every single high-ranking scholar in Saudi Arabia (those who call themselves Salafi), are all opposed to groups like ISIS, Al Qaida, and Al Nusra. There are dozens of audio clips on Youtube from such scholars who clearly warn the Muslim…

salafi: Thanks for stopping by and contributing. Your comments are perfectly appropriate and shouldn't be downvoted, but unfortunately that happens on HN sometimes to comments that, regardless of their validity, make the angry minority unhappy. I hope you stick around!

I'm a long-time lurker and I basically live on HN; I'll be around. Thanks for the kind words.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#207

Post by tootie »

prostoalex wrote: post #162
tootie wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CIA most definitely knew and refused to share that information with the FBI. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/10/the-agent

There's a good reason for lack of sharing as both Aldrich Ames (CIA) and Robert Hanssen (FBI) ended up providing much more sensitive information to the adversary than their rank qualified them for. The agencies seem to be on the cycle of high compartmentalization -> criticism for lack of sharing -> low compartmentalization -> major spy scandal -> high compartmentalization.

Those guys committed treason by sharing with the Soviets. I don't see how that's relevant. The reason for the wall is because they have conflicting mandates.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#208

Post by eklavya »

dang wrote: post #161
eklavya wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you believe all that? You should google "Hafiz Saeed" sometime. That is just one example of course and doesn't even start to sum it all up.

> Really, you believe all that? Please don't be uncivil.

Sorry, this is really emotional topic for me. Many Indians die every year from Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#209

Post by swombat »

MisterWebz wrote: post #76
swombat wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as they say, the first casualty of war is truth, but there are a number of factual events that fit the narrative of Russia under Putin being willing to flex its muscle and encourage instability in its neighbour to the west while inspiring Russians to dream of days of yore when they ruled half of Europe... There's the numerous videos and reports from organisations like Amnesty International, accusing Russia of b…

You're clearly not following the Syrian civil war very closely if you think Russia's the one acting irresponsibly.

I think everyone is acting irresponsibly there.

Re: Washington Should Prepare for Saudi Arabia's Collapse

#210

Post by mirimir »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #188
mirimir wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That needs a link. I find http://911blogger.com/news/2013-05-16/hollywood-and-911-movi... but nothing there about anything broadcast on Fox.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series)#... First episode: https://youtu.be/EjbQ-BDh4PU Edit: the author of your link addresses the episode in the comments section, "The Lone Gunmen Pilot Episode", and says that the article you linked was only focused on things "in production" when the attack occurred.

Thanks.

WTC was an iconic target, for sure.

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