Blake Hall
No, this is not one of those kooky conspiracy videos created and spliced together by some tinfoil-hatted madman in his mother’s basement.
This is a legitimate short documentary filmed by newspeople affiliated with The New Yorker, that interviews key FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and government officials about what the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NSA (National Security Agency) knew prior to September 11, 2001 — and how that vital, world-changing intel failed to be relayed to American agents who could’ve potentially halted the tragedy that killed thousands in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.
Intel that detailed a “extremely rare” summit of a handful of the terrorist plotters, masterminds (one of which, “Khallad”, was the brain behind the USS Cole bombing — a 2000 attack that killed 17 United States Navy sailors) and hijackers in the modern skylined Malaysian city that is Kuala Lumpur. And al Qaeda extremists living in San Diego, California … and attending flight school.
It also goes into a vitriolic personal feud between two U.S. operatives from opposing agencies that not only reads like it was dreamt up by a hack Hollywood screenwriter’s notes, but ends with tragic irony and — one could say — American patriotic martyrdom.
The death of former FBI counterterrorism chief, John P. O’Neill:
O’Neill started his new job at the World Trade Center on August 23, 2001. In late August, he talked to his friend Chris Isham about the job. Jokingly, Isham said, “At least they’re not going to bomb it again,” a reference to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. O’Neill replied, “They’ll probably try to finish the job.”
We’re not going to lie, it’s haunting and upsetting to watch. But it may be closer to the truth than anything we’ve previously known. And, after all, isn’t that what history should be — the truth? If we don’t know what really happened, how will we avoid being doomed to repeat once more?
“Let people know what happened and why,” said former FBI special agent Mark Rossini, a liaison to “Alec Station” — the CIA unit dedicated to bin Laden. “We owe that as Americans, we owe that as human beings to one another.”
In addition to Rossini, the doc features testimonials from Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker, former FBI special agent Ali Soufan and Alec Station founder Michael Scheuer.