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Saturday, February 1, 2014

TRIPOD II AND FEMA: Lack of NORAD Response on 9/11 Explained

TRIPOD II AND FEMA: Lack of NORAD Response on 9/11 Explained
Michael Rupert | June 5 2004
The "Tripod II," joint New York City-Department of Justice biowarfare exercise, scheduled for Sept 12th 2001 at New York's Pier 29, and revealed in testimony by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the 9/11 Commission, may become one of the single most important disclosures of 9/11. I salute the work done by INN Global Free Press at http://inn.globalfreepress.com. But the "FEMA-Kennedy arrived in NY on Sept. 10th" myth is pure poison and absolutely incorrect. It originated from a CBS News interview conducted by Dan Rather shortly after the attacks. That interview, and the claim that it implies prior knowledge on the part of the Massachusetts FEMA Task Force, has been linked on multiple web sites and postings with Tripod and other 9/11 wargames. This erroneous story is dangerously useful for the cover-up, and it's time to give it the axe.

For six weeks I have been investigating a number of other 9/11 wargames that link directly to the work done by Global Free Press on Tripod II and other wargames. I am not exaggerating when I say that we may be close to the Holy Grail of 9/11.

I am certain that it will not be too long before these wargames receive serious coverage in the mainstream press. If they are reported on while still linked to the FEMA myth, the Bush administration will have a free shot to discredit the Tripod story (and all of the wargame stories) by disproving the FEMA part to the press and then asking, "Why should we even respond to the rest?"

The wargames will tie Bush and/or Cheney and Rumsfeld directly into a complete paralysis of fighter response on 9/11. I have gone directly to many NORAD, DoD, NRO, and other sources and questioned them. I have knocked on many doors and I have even obtained some documents. I have obtained an on-the-record statement from someone in NORAD, which confirmed that on the day of 9/11 The Joint Chiefs (Myers) and NORAD were conducting a joint, live-fly, hijack Field Training Exercise (FTX) which involved at least one (and almost certainly many more) aircraft under US control that was posing as a hijacked airliner. That is just the tip of what I have uncovered.

There never was a stand down order issued. That would have been way too incriminating and risky a piece of evidence. And it also might have been ignored by eager fighter pilots who had trained their whole lives to respond to a hostile aircraft killing Americans. There are several statements that the "new" NORAD procedures transferring scramble authority to Rumsfeld on June 1, 2001 were ignored by several NORAD commanders on 9/11 including General Larry Arnold. That's exactly what I would have expected.

I am still conducting this investigation and I will disclose everything in my book The Truth and Lies of 9/11, which we are now certain will be out this August (finally). I cannot say more while the investigation is in progress. However, anyone who saw my recent presentation at the Phase II Citizen's Inquiry in Toronto can verify quickly that I have nailed the fighter response question.

I investigated both the many wargames and FEMA by doing the routine things any investigator or journalist is required to do. I went to the sources and started asking direct questions.

FEMA

The basis for the FEMA rumor was a CBS News broadcast in which Dan Rather interviewed a Massachusetts fireman. The story's transcript said "A member of the Hyannis Fire Department, Tom Kennedy, was interviewed by Dan Rather after working for nearly 50 hours at Ground Zero. He said, "We arrived Monday night and started immediately…" 9/11 was a Tuesday. Try to remember your own phone number after 50 hours. Dan Rather also mispronounced Kenney's name as Kennedy, something many untrained 9/11 researchers thought suggestive of a conspiracy.

Researcher Barbara Honegger, who has aided in my war game research, wrote in an email to a 9/11 discussion list dated June 4, 2002:

Giuliani's revelation to the Kean Commission on May 19 of a planned
Sept. 12 New York City BIO-warfare emergency exercise drill, called
"Tripod" (Part II), which had PIER 92 AS ITS COMMAND CENTER,
validated Tom Kenney's early claim that FEMA emergency personnel
arrived in NY City THE DAY BEFORE the attack, on Sept. 10…

Because FEMA personnel came into NY City from out of state,
including Kenney who came in from Boston; because putting up large numbers of out-of-state personnel is extremely costly at a time of belt tightening; and because ALL THESE OTHER wargames/exercises/drills took place ON Sept. 11,it is highly likely that the BIO-warfare response exercise Tripod was ALSO scheduled to begin Sept. 11, NOT SEPT. 12; or, at the very least, that Sept. 11was to have been the first of a TWO-day, or multiple-day, drill.

This major leap to a conclusion about the FEMA myth was completely unjustified, nor was it backed up by fact checking. It is a lesson to us all about the care we must use in reaching conclusions.

Here are the steps I followed in establishing that the FEMA story is wrong - the same steps I follow with all 9/11 stories:

I got a copy of the tape and watched it. On the screen you could clearly see the man's name was Kenney over one breast pocket and the word Hyannis appeared over the other. This was a lead.

I called the Hyannis Fired Department in the summer of 2002 and spoke to the Chief. He said that Kenney was just exhausted and had misspoken. The Chief and all the families had been present when Kenney's crew left in trucks for New York on the night of 9/11.

The Chief offered to let me speak to other FD personnel. Two other members of the Hyannis Fire Department said exactly the same thing: The entire Hyannis FD emergency team, which was seconded to FEMA as a result of the attack, left late on Tuesday night, Sept, 11th, drove overnight to New York and went immediately to work.

There are also video tapes of the send-off with wives and children saying "God Bless America," "We Love NY" - all of which were clearly made after the attacks - and, they said, Kenney was in them. There are multiple witnesses. For Christ's sake! Kenney had been on a day off. He gets called up, drives many hours to New York and then works for fifty hours straight. For him 9/11 was the first day of his work week and he misspoke. That's it. When the Chief, really pissed off about the rumors, offered to send me a videotape of the sendoff, I just said, No Thanks. The Hyannis FD Chief was really grateful that someone had actually picked up the phone, called and asked.

Even if they are all lying, what kind of a story remains?

This is the way all 9/11 researchers must operate with every claim they make, every fact they put forth and every story they publish.

If anyone doubts what I am saying here, then I suggest that you do what I did: Call the Hyannis FD, ask the same questions I did, and have them send you a copy of the videotape.

A REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE FROM ALL 9/11 RESEARCHERS

For the last six weeks I have called and emailed more than a dozen messages seeking to answer two questions. I have only partially answered them.

Question 1 - Prior to 9/11, when various military commands were conducting multiple simultaneous training exercises across various commands and services, what office or person at the Department of Defense was charged with coordinating all of them so that they did not overlap or interfere with each other, or occupy enough military assets at one time to jeopardize operational readiness?

Question 2 - Since the Tripod II biowarfare exercise was a joint New York-Department of Justice exercise we now must ask: Prior to 9/11, under US government Executive Branch procedure, what part of the government or official was responsible for and had the authority to coordinate and act as liaison between the military, federal agencies and state and local agencies and private corporations so that they did not overlap or interfere with each other, or occupy enough essential assets at one time to jeopardize operational readiness or impair the national security of the United States? Was it the White House? Was it the Office of National Preparedness? Was it the National Security Advisor? Was it the CIA?

Only official documents and records or on-the-record statements from qualified experts will suffice.

I ask everyone who reads this - every veteran, every former government official and all the remaining decent and honest military personnel and law enforcement officers - to help answer these questions. It is obvious how important they are.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/050604_tripodII.html

German police confirm Iranian deportee phoned warnings

Ananova:

German police confirm Iranian deportee phoned warnings

German police have confirmed an Iranian man phoned US police from his deportation cell to warn of the planned attack on the World Trade Centre.
The Lower Saxony Justice Ministry has confirmed the man warned of the impending series of terrorist attacks, but had not been believed.
Spokesman Frank Woesthoff said the man phoned America "several times", but refused to give further details.
He said the US Secret Service had not told the ministry about the calls received from the Langenhagen prison until after the attacks.
"I cannot say anything about the man and the ministry does not know the content of the conversations," he added.
The Hanover daily newspaper Neue Presse reported the 29-year-old was dismissed as mentally unstable when he gave the warning of a terrorist attack to occur this week.
The ministry would not reveal when the calls had been made.

Story filed: 10:51 Friday 14th September 2001

http://prisonplanet.com/german_police_confirm_iranian_deportee_phoned_warnings.html

NSA Intercepts On Eve of 9/11 Sent a Warning

NSA Intercepts On Eve of 9/11 Sent a Warning
Messages Translated After Attacks

By Walter Pincus and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 20, 2002; Page A01

The National Security Agency intercepted two messages on the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon warning that something was going to happen the next day, but the messages were not translated until Sept. 12, senior U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday.
The Arabic-language messages said, "The match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour." They were discussed Tuesday before the House-Senate intelligence committee during closed-door questioning of Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the NSA, the agency responsible for intercepting and analyzing electronic messages.
Intelligence officials said the two messages -- even if translated on Sept. 10 -- would not have provided enough information to prevent the attacks. But their disclosure put the NSA in the spotlight for the first time since reports of intelligence failures began to emerge this spring and seemed likely to sharpen the focus of the congressional investigation -- which has been dominated by concerns about the performance of the FBI and the CIA -- on problems at the nation's premier eavesdropping agency.
U.S. intelligence sources said NSA analysts are not certain who was speaking on the Sept. 10 intercepts. They came from sources -- a location or phone number -- that were of high-enough priority to translate them within two days but were not put in the top priority category, which included communications from Osama bin Laden or his senior al Qaeda assistants.
"There had been a lot of chatter up there indicating something was up," a senior administration official said. "But it does not say where, what and how reliable."
The official said the messages appear dramatic in hindsight but added: "If you had it on September 10th, what does it tell you that is actionable?"
The NSA declined to comment on the intercepts. "I have no information to provide," NSA spokeswoman Judy Emmel said.
The agency provided classified information to the joint intelligence committee more than a month ago about the messages and the failure to get them translated until after Sept. 11. The messages, and the translating delay, became the subject of discussions between the congressional staff and intelligence officials before Tuesday's hearing, which in addition to Hayden included testimony by CIA Director George J. Tenet and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, according to congressional and administration sources. The three men appeared before the panel again yesterday.
CNN first reported on the committee's discussion of the messages yesterday.
The NSA, based at Fort Meade, is one of the government's most secretive intelligence agencies. It intercepts more than 2 million electronic communications an hour -- telephone conversations, e-mails, Internet traffic -- from satellites and listening posts around the world.
Although the NSA consumes an estimated $6 billion of the $30 billion the government budgets for intelligence each year, and spends most of it on high-tech interception equipment, the agency does not have adequate means to filter out the millions of bits of irrelevant information it scoops up each day. Intelligence budgets are classified.
Without such filters, human translators must sort through mountains of data, and only a fraction of the foreign-language material is translated promptly. Much is never analyzed.
Analysts said the fate of the Sept. 10 intercepts points to a broader aspect of the effort to improve intelligence gathering: technology vs. humans. More than the CIA, the NSA has been criticized for failing to put sufficient emphasis on employing enough skilled translators and analysts to decipher what it collects.
Many observers of the intelligence system credit Hayden, who was appointed director of the agency in March 1999, with recognizing the problem and trying to fix it.
Over the past several years, the House and Senate intelligence panels have criticized the NSA's failure to modernize its operations as communications technologies have become more sophisticated. Computers that over the past decade were used to scan messages for certain key words have proved much less effective as targets have changed from official Russian military and intelligence transmissions to those of individual terrorists and terrorist groups around the world.
Congress has added money to the NSA budget in recent years, and Hayden has assembled a major renovation plan for the agency, but Congress has questioned whether it is satisfactory.
Since Oct. 4, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in a speech before the House of Commons that "a range of people were warned to return back to Afghanistan because of action on or around September 11th," stories have appeared in the media that a warning message had not been taken seriously or translated by the NSA.
A senior intelligence official said yesterday it was still unclear what information Blair was referring to. There have been references in published reports to a message to bin Laden's mother shortly before Sept. 11 that she should return to her home in Saudi Arabia, but U.S. intelligence officials denied having evidence that it existed.
This month, after material was sent to the congressional intelligence panels, several stories appeared, including one that said the chief hijacker on Sept. 11, Mohamed Atta, was overheard talking to a senior bin Laden figure before boarding an airplane. NSA and other intelligence officials denied that report but never indicated there were less precise messages that had not been translated.
The House-Senate panel apparently has decided to delay hearing in an open session testimony by Mueller, Tenet and Hayden, originally set for next week. "We want to make sure when we go public that the right people are there and we're prepared so we don't look like we're flying by the seat of our pants," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), a member of the panel.
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/NSA_Intercepts_On_Eve_of_911_Sent_a_Warning.htm

Sui Juris

Sui Juris, known as: John, of the genealogy of Doe, freeborn spiritual being on the land state the facts contained herein are true, correct, complete, and not misleading, to the best of my personal first hand knowledge and belief. Being of sound mind, competent, over the age of 18. This my free will, voluntary act and deed to make, execute, seal, acknowledge and deliver under my hand and seal with explicit reservation of all my unalienable rights and my specific common law right not to be bound by any contract or obligation which I have not entered into knowingly, willingly, voluntarily, and without misrepresentation, duress, or coercion, whereby I did not sign nor consent. I am not now nor have ever been a CITIZEN nor a U.S. Citizen nor a Fourteenth Amendment Federal Citizen nor Employee, I am not bound by sworn oath or oath of office. Whereas I hereby disclaim Clauses One and Two of Section One to the Fourteenth Amendment, together with Article Four Section Three Clause Two. I do hereby certify, verify, state, claim and declare forever without abandonment; Real Property (on Earth); Personal Property (body); and Ecclesiastical Property (soul) together with all trusts, probate, rights, titles, interests droit, droit both absolute and contingent, “Without the U.S.” Should this not be true then let the record be corrected or it will stand as truth. Time is of the essence.

Veracity; In my Private Capacity as General Executor/Eecutrix of said Cestui Que Trust account Droit, Droit, This serves Notice that your offer has been Accepted as Valuable Consideration and Returned for Value. This property is Exempt from Levy. Please Adjust this Account for the Proceeds, Products, Accounts and Fixtures and Release The Order(s) of The Court to Me Immediately. Make adjustment and close this account immediately, with prejudice. I accept your Oath, Oath of Office Security Agreement, Constitutions as by-laws, and Malfeasance Bond and place you in the Private commencing this self-executing binding contract between you and I. Further, I appoint you trustee “Fully Personally Liable Now” on your honor and solemn Oath to perform your obligations and duties to Protect My un-a-lien-able Rights in your Fiduciary Capacity against any and all claims, legal actions, orders, warrants, judgments, demands, liabilities, losses, foreclosure, depositions, summonses, lawsuits, costs, fines, liens, levies, penalties, taxes, damages, interests, and expenses whatsoever, both absolute and contingent, as are due and as might become due, now existing and as might hereafter arise, and as might be suffered by, imposed on, and incurred by Debtor for any and every reason, purpose, and cause whatsoever. Please honor Obligation of Good Faith in Performance of your Duties. Quid Pro Quos, an equal exchange or substitution.

This my free will, voluntary act and deed true and lawful attorney-in-fact to make, execute, seal, acknowledge and deliver under my hand and seal, explicitly reserving all rights without prejudice;

By:__________________________________________

Sui Juris known as; John of the genealogy of Doe Bailor for JOHN DOE Bailee

Representative Cynthia McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames

C-Span | March 24 2005

Rumseld and Myers forced to shuffle uncomfortably and fumble for words as McKinney gets in their face about three issues seldom mentioned in official circles.

From a reader: Here is a Video of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange on the House Hearing on FY06 Dept. of DefenseBudget, March 11th, 2005.

Watch how McKinney asks questions about Dyncorp slave rings, the 3 trillion missing from the pentagon and the 911 wargames.

Notice the faces Rumsfeld, Myers, Jones, Hunter and others make!!

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/240305mckinneygrills.htm

Stock trader targeted in Sept. 11 probe agrees to return to New York

Stock trader targeted in Sept. 11 probe agrees to return to New York

Associated Press
Wednesday, June 5, 2002

SAN DIEGO - An Egyptian-born financial analyst who prosecutors said may have had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks agreed Tuesday to be returned to New York to face charges of using confidential FBI information to manipulate stock prices.

Amr I. ``Tony'' Elgindy will remain held without bond in San Diego until he is moved. A spokesman for the U.S. marshal's office would not say exactly when he would be moved.
Elgindy, 34, of Encinitas, waived his right to fight extradition at a brief hearing Tuesday. His attorney, Jeanne Knight, did not return a message seeking comment.
In a telephone interview from jail, Elgindy told the Los Angeles Times that the terrorist allegations were raised because ``of my birthplace, my name, the color of my skin.'' He also said that all the material he used to focus on stocks was gathered through public sources.
Federal authorities arrested Elgindy last month on an indictment issued by a New York grand jury, charging him with insider trading, securities fraud, extortion and obstruction of justice.
He is accused of bribing an FBI agent to give him secrets from federal criminal databases and then using the information to make money in the stock market. A current and a former FBI agent were among four others charged in the conspiracy.
At a May 24 detention hearing in San Diego, a federal prosecutor said Elgindy may have known about the Sept. 11 attacks and tried to profit from them.
Elgindy telephoned his broker on Sept. 10, asked him to liquidate his children's $300,000 trust account, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Breen said. The defendant also made a comment that the Dow Jones industrial average, then trading at about 9,600, would drop to 3,000, Breen said.
``Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks,'' he said. ``Instead of trying to report it, he tried to profit from it.''
Breen said that Elgindy had $2 million invested in positions that would have benefited from a market collapse.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://prisonplanet.com/stock_trader_targeted_in_sept_11_probe_agrees_to_return_to_new_york.htm

SHADY TRADER EYED FOR 9/11 TIP

This guy is named in the criminal case with the FBI AGENT !!!

SHADY TRADER EYED FOR 9/11 TIP

By DAVID K. LI in Los Angeles and KATI CORNELL SMITH in New York

May 25, 2002 -- An accused inside-trader made suspicious stock trades on Sept. 10, leading investigators to believe he might have known about the terror attacks a day later, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

Notorious short trader Amr Ibrahim Elgindy - also known as "Tony" and "Anthony Pacific" - allegedly ordered his kids' $300,000 trust fund liquidated the day before terrorists slammed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"He made a comment predicting the market would drop to 3,000," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Breen told a judge in San Diego. "Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead of trying to report it, he tried to profit from it."
Federal authorities busted Elgindy for allegedly leading a ring of inside-traders - including two FBI agents - who used confidential information to short-trade stocks.
Short sellers borrow what they believed to be overvalued stocks, sell them and then buy them back at lower prices, thus pocketing the difference.
A lawyer for the Egyptian-born financial analyst, a well-known Internet stock commentator, ripped prosecutors for "racially profiling" her client.
She said Elgindy had legitimate reason to believe the stock market would fall, and that the Sept. 10 timing was coincidental.
The Dow Jones was above 10,000 but falling fast a week before terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"It seems like the government, for lack of factual evidence, has decided to smear my client with terrorist innuendoes," defense lawyer Jeanne Knight said.
U.S. Magistrate John Houston said he didn't consider the prosecution's Sept. 11 allegations when he ordered Elgindy held without bail.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn want Elgindy and four other suspected co-conspirators, who were busted on Wednesday, brought back to New York to stand trial. Two FBI agents used confidential databases to give Elgindy inside information about publicly traded companies, an indictment says.
Elgindy would borrow those stocks and trash those companies on his Web site, driving prices down, prosecutors said.

http://prisonplanet.com/shady_trader_eyed_for_911_tip.htm

Feds: Ex-Agent Had Key Data

Feds: Ex-Agent Had Key Data
Stock scam charges have eerie link

By Anthony M. DeStefano
STAFF WRITER

May 29, 2002

In a criminal case with a specter of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, prosecutors disclosed yesterday that classified information had been found during a search of possessions of a former FBI agent allegedly part of an insider trading conspiracy.

The tantalizing revelation was made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Breen in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn during the arraignment of Lynn Wingate, who is on administrative leave from the FBI, and former agent Jeffrey Royer on charges they were involved in a stock trading racketeering conspiracy.

During arguments over whether Royer should be given bail, Breen said that the former agent posed a risk of flight, partly because of classified information about "another subject matter" that was unearthed during the execution of a search warrant of his possessions.

Royer, 39, who left the FBI in December 2001, faces charges that he obtained confidential agency material both while he was an agent and after he left and passed it on to Amr I. Elgindy. A self-styled Wall Street whistle-blower and noted short seller of stocks, Elgindy was charged Friday with being the kingpin of the conspiracy.

Breen did not elaborate in court yesterday but said the confidential data found was material Royer had no legitimate reason for having and might lead to "something more serious."

Judge Raymond Dearie indicated that prosecutors might have to make use of special court procedures reserved for classified information if they wanted to use it in opposing bail for Royer.

Royer remained free yesterday but had to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet pending a hearing tomorrow. Wingate was free after posting a $100,000 bond secured by property she owns in Colorado and her parents own in Florida.

Breen also disclosed that investigators found some of the divorced Royer's property at Wingate's Albuquerque, N.M., home.

The indictment accused the defendants of running an insider trading conspiracy in which Royer allegedly leaked confidential FBI information to Elgindy who then would make trades based on the data. The indictment also charges that when Royer left the FBI, he continued to access confidential FBI files through Wingate, 34.

Elgindy, 34, was being held without bail. During a hearing in San Diego last week, Breen said that Elgindy's attempt to liquidate the trust accounts of his children on Sept. 10 might "perhaps" mean he had "pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, and, rather than report it, he was attempting to profit from that information."

Defense attorney Jeanne G. Knight scoffed at that suggestion and said it was an attempt by the prosecution to smear Elgindy, a U.S. citizen and native of Egypt, with "terrorist innuendos."

PROFITS OF DEATH -- INSIDER TRADING AND 9-11

PROFITS OF DEATH -- INSIDER TRADING AND 9-11

by Tom Flocco – Edited by Michael C. Ruppert

Original Link: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_profits_pt1.html

[© Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be recopied, distributed or posted on the worldwide web for non-profit purposes only.]

FTW, December 6, 2001 -- On October 9th, FTW broke a story on insider trading connected to the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center that sparked worldwide controversy. In that story we reported how the Israeli Herzliyya Institute for Counterterrorism had documented that unknown individuals -- with accurate foreknowledge of the attacks -- had purchased an obvious and unusually large number of “put” options on United and American Airlines shortly before the attacks.

Additional companies hit hard by the insider trading included Axa Re(insurance) and Munich Re as well as American investment giants Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

Put options are essentially a bet that a stock’s price will fall abruptly. The seller, having entered into a time-specific contract with a buyer, does not need to own the actual shares at the time the contract is purchased. Therefore, if a holder of the put option has a contract to sell a stock such as American Airlines for (e.g.) $100 a share on a Friday and the stock falls to $50 on Wednesday, they can purchase the stock, sell it on Friday and double their money. The person on the other end of the contract (the call) has an obligation to buy the shares at the agreed upon price. The bank handling the transaction as a broker is the only entity knowing the identities of both parties.

FTW also revealed that the A.B. Brown (Alex Brown) investment arm of the banking giant Deutschebank/A.B. Brown had been headed until 1998 by the man who is now the Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency – A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard. In fact, Krongard is but one name in a long history of CIA interconnections to stock trading and the world’s financial markets. We also discussed, in detail, the evidence indicating that the CIA and other intelligence agencies monitor stock trading in real time for the purpose of identifying potential attacks of any nature that might damage the U.S. economy.

The original FTW story is located at:

http://www.copvcia.com/stories/oct_2001/krongard.html.

Critics of FTW’s initial story - not having read any of five related stories dating back to an October 2000 piece on PROMIS software - claimed that we had not made the links to establish culpability. But we knew that the links were there, that our case was solid, and that new evidence would not go undiscovered for long.

Now, investigative reporter Tom Flocco digs deep and strikes pay dirt in a three-part series that reveals not only deeper links between the CIA, Wall Street and the insider trades of 9-11, but also discloses that a key executive at Deutschebank – an American – became, just weeks before the attacks, a convicted felon. His crime: conspiracy to launder drug money to arrange the purchase of U.S. weapons – in association with two Pakistanis who also attempted to acquire nuclear bomb components – for use by Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. – MCR

CIA Does Not Deny Stock Monitoring Outside U.S.

(Part I in a series)

In a returned phone call from the Central Intelligence Agency, press spokesman Tom Crispell denied that the CIA was monitoring "real-time," pre-September 11, stock option trading activity within United States borders using such software as the Prosecutor‘s Management Information System (PROMIS).

"That would be illegal. We only operate outside the United States," the intelligence official said.

However, when asked whether the CIA had been using PROMIS beyond American borders to scrutinize world financial markets for national security purposes, Crispell replied, "I have no way of knowing what operations are [being affected by our assets] outside the country."

Extensive media reporting confirms that investors at Deutschebank-Alex Brown and other global financial entities may have profited from prior knowledge of the attacks while purchasing disproportionate pre-attack put option contracts on targeted U.S. airlines and related insurance or investment firms. All of these firms suffered serious losses resulting from the September 11th attacks and their stocks abruptly plummeted.

Confirmation that the CIA or other U.S. intelligence agencies were monitoring financial markets and had seen these trades before the attacks would have staggering implications for thousands of victims’ families.

The CIA official also declined to comment on the actual capabilities of PROMIS. The highly technical software has been described as a system that "interfaces with any database...as police can input an alleged terrorist’s name or credit card, and the software will provide details of the person’s movements through purchases...," according to an 11-10-01 Toronto Sun report.

The importance of PROMIS is that it is not only capable of interfacing with a wide variety of data bases in different computer languages and then integrating the data, but it has also been modified for intelligence purposes. It has then been sold throughout the world by spy agencies through third parties to clients such as banks and investment houses envious of its unique capabilities. One key modification by agencies such as the CIA and Mossad – not disclosed to most users -- is a secret “back door” that permits those with the right codes to enter databases undetected, retrieve and/or alter information, and leave without a trace. PROMIS has been extensively reported as being used throughout the world’s financial markets because of its versatility in facilitating international transactions.

Further clouding the issue of pre-attack stock screening by U.S. intelligence, the Canadian daily revealed that U.S. police said many of the suspected terrorists were apprehended (and detained) "through use of the state-of-the-art computer software program PROMIS."

In March 2000, CIA director George J. Tenet told the Senate that Osama bin Laden’s group (Al Q’aeda) was "embracing the opportunities offered by recent leaps in information technology." A FOX News story and stories in FTW disclosed in November that Osama bin Laden was believed to have the software.

The issue of CIA monitoring of stock trades follows on the heels of wide reports indicating that investigators are carefully probing the insider trading with its resultant profits, reported to be in the 10’s of millions of dollars -- some of which a Deutschebank investor has yet to claim.

A promis is a promis

Crispell also declined comment when asked whether the Treasury Department or FBI had questioned CIA Executive Director and former Deutschebank-Alex Brown CEO, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, about CIA monitoring of financial markets using PROMIS and his former position as overseer of Brown’s "private client” relations. [Note: Krongard stayed with A.B. Brown to head “private client” operations after it was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. As Krongard was leaving in 1998 to join the CIA as counselor to Director George Tenet, Banker’s Trust was acquired by Deutschebank. Banker’s Trust had been previously criticized by the U.S. Senate and regulators for money laundering. Krongard was promoted to Executive Director at CIA in March 2001. - MCR]

Wide reports -- including a 9/28/01 story in the Asian Wall Street Journal and a 10/1/01 story in The Guardian -- indicate that investigators are checking Deutschebank’s alleged links to Saudi "private banking," terrorist bank accounts, and $2.5 million in unclaimed United Airlines (UAL) put options profits; however, no government acknowledgement had ever been given of CIA’s alleged use of PROMIS software prior to the attacks.

In a recent phone conversation, when asked about alleged terrorist ties to Deutschebank and potential pre-attack CIA trade monitoring via PROMIS, Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols remarked, "This is clearly an interesting line of questioning regarding conflicts of interest."

However, news searches indicate that no member of Congress has publicly questioned whether wealthy terrorist-connected Saudi nationals participated in the private client operations of Deutschebank-Alex Brown. Osama bin Laden and almost all of the alleged 9-11 hijackers are of Saudi nationality. Also, no member of Congress expressed public interest in asking Krongard about whether or not the CIA affected "real-time" pre-attack trade monitoring using PROMIS software at any location.

[Note: Under a program known as Echelon, the governments of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand routinely circumvent prohibitions on domestic electronic spying by having the agencies of the other governments do it for them. - MCR]

Michael Ruppert, editor and publisher of From The Wilderness (FTW) newsletter (www.copvcia.com), has been interviewed by both the House and Senate for his expertise on illegal covert CIA operations. He said recently that, "It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such (suspicious or unusual) trades -- in real time -- as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests."

Ruppert was the first to point out after 9-11 that CIA Executive Director Buzzy Krongard has extensive past ties to Deutschebank-Alex Brown. Ruppert added, "There is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific [criminal] foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks...and the firm which was used to place put options on UAL stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three position at the CIA."

Ruppert also confirmed that two October 17 calls to the FBI resulted in spokespersons declining to give their names after revealing that "the FBI has discontinued use of the PROMIS software." Moreover, on October 24, Justice Department spokesperson Loren Pfeifle declined to answer any questions about where, when, or how PROMIS had been used and would only say, "I can confirm that the DOJ has discontinued use of the program." This followed almost 17 years of denials by the FBI and the Department of Justice -- in court and under oath -- that they used the software at all in a law enforcement or intelligence capacity.

Krongard’s current lofty intelligence community position, combined with his prior leadership of a financial institution allegedly connected to terrorist hijacker bank accounts [see Part II], suspicious UAL options contracts, and "private banking" is so controversial that it has not as yet sparked any official investigation. That said, the evidence is substantial enough to potentially expose the prior-knowledge issue -- if Congress chooses to act.

And while Treasury Department official Rob Nichols agreed that unresolved conflict of interest questions remain, the CIA Executive Director is still currently charged with supervision of the U.S. intelligence investigation of his former firm and its "private banking" operations.

Reuters has reported that Krongard "was [also] involved in setting up the CIA experiment into investing in high-tech companies with the goal of acquiring innovative technology for its own use."

Commenting on the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, started in 1999 to encourage development of private-sector technologies for use in the intelligence world, Krongard said on August 1, 2001 -- just 5 weeks before the Trade Center attacks -- "I think In-Q-Tel’s a wonderful model...in accessing the capabilities of the private sector."

On October 16, Fox News reported that, according to sources, accused Russian spy and FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold high-tech PROMIS software to Russia, and that Osama bin Laden allegedly purchased it from Russian organized crime sources.

Fox reported that, "Government officials suspect bin Laden may have the highly sophisticated U.S. government software that has been used by several other governments, including the United States, for classified intelligence and law enforcement information."

The admission by U.S. government officials that PROMIS was widely used by a number of governments further blurs the pre-attack stock monitoring issue since intelligence officials will likely continue to decline comment, save for closed-door congressional oversight hearings or challenges by those victims’ families choosing to bypass settlements adjudicated by the Attorney General’s office in favor of direct intervention by the courts.

The buck stops where?

Tom Crispell, the CIA official, was cooperative while attempting to maintain intelligence confidentiality in the face of what he termed as "ongoing investigations surrounding the Twin Towers tragedies by the CIA, FBI, Justice, and Treasury Departments." However, this was in great contrast to an FBI spokesperson who refused to offer either his first or last name, while declining comment on any matter related to events of September 11.

During a series of calls, some spokespersons quickly attempted to defer and deflect questions to another government agency, i.e. "We don’t deal with that issue. Call the other [entity]."

However, many would agree, given the evidence, that the 9-11 terrorism is closely linked to economic issues. President Bush has stated that this is “economic warfare.” Yet few appear to be questioning an apparent paucity of critical information sharing among key government agencies on the issue.

As U.S. investigators retrace the financial trails connecting the Twin Towers, terrorist hijackers and their accomplices, many of whom may still be in the country, evidence is being turned up by FBI, CIA, Justice, Treasury and NSA that does involve global banking conglomerate Deutschebank-Alex Brown.

$2.5 million unclaimed UAL investor profits

For example, according to a 10-19-2001 Wall Street Journal report, an unnamed investor purchased 2,000 United Airlines (UAL) put option contracts through Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown on September 6 -- betting the stock would shortly plummet. And USA Today reported that an individual purchased 810 UAL puts on August 6.

A Baron’s source claimed on 10-8-2001 that the pre-attack UAL order placed through Deutsche Bank was for 2,500 contracts which were "split into 500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S. exchanges around the country simultaneously."

According to San Francisco Chronicle reporters Christian Berthelsen and Scott Winokur a source familiar with the UAL trades said investors have yet to claim $2.5 million in profits on contracts purchased before United airliners crashed into a New York Trade Tower and a deserted Pennsylvania field on September 11.

The Chronicle source also identified Deutschebank-Alex Brown as the investment firm used to purchase some of the UAL options; and Rohini Pragasam, a bank spokeswoman, declined to comment on the transaction.

The source (who requested anonymity) said, "Usually, if someone has a windfall like that, you take the money and run. Whoever did this thought the Exchange [NYSE] would not be closed for four days. This smells real bad."

The German news weekly Der Spiegel revealed that Deutschebank also handled accounts worth about $100 million for Osama bin Laden's family. These were part of 10 accounts it suspected were linked to terrorists or terrorist activities and which it later handed over to German authorities after the attacks, according to a report in Britain’s The Guardian. But no further comments have been forthcoming from the financial giant.

German Central Bank President Ernst Welteke said a study -- concerning principal hijack subjects residing in Germany and unusual patterns in short-selling of insurance, airline and other financial company shares -- pointed to "terrorism insider trading" in those stocks.

The SEC Is Investigating

A phone interview with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) press spokesman John Nester, of the Washington, DC office, revealed that the Commission, “has already forwarded a general request to Deutschebank-Alex Brown and other investment firms for unspecified information related to the suspicious put option contracts placed prior to the attacks on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon." But the spokesman declined comment regarding the identities of complying banks or the contents of any information obtained.

Nester augmented his response by adding that "according to SEC Associate Director of Enforcement Bill Baker -- who just spoke on a panel outside New York last week -- our SEC probe is much broader than investigations made by countries in Europe (who also lost citizens), many of whom have already closed their financial investigations of investment banks like Deutschebank." No results of those probes have been made public.

While the SEC media director said "the investigation is still ongoing with no current conclusions," Nester (speaking for the SEC), had difficulty explaining the job description of current New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Executive Vice President for Enforcement, David P. Doherty. He would only say that the NYSE "regulates itself as an SRO or self-regulating organization...." This vague answer is all the more provocative because Doherty is a retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Nester added, "The SEC has oversight responsibility regarding the NYSE, and we are also working with Justice, Treasury, and the FBI, having set up professional point men at each firm we are looking at -- so we don‘t have to reinvent the wheel every time we call a company [related to the attacks] to get an answer to a question."

The "reinvent the wheel" statement raised an eyebrow regarding the level of corporate cooperation in the investigation, although Nester declined to add further comment.

In Spite of CIA Ties the NYSE Is Little Help

When asked about the status of the investigation into the disproportionate pre-attack stock option trades involving United and American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Marsh and McLennan Insurance, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, and American Express, etc. -- all icons of American capitalism -- NYSE Communications Director Ray Pellecchia said, "We don't even confirm that there is an ongoing investigation."

"We report to the SEC as a matter of course," Pellecchia added. But after being referred to as a "persistent piece of work," this writer asked Pellecchia to discuss Doherty’s role in the investigations. He said, "We stand by this statement."

And after pressing for information about what the NYSE is actually doing to investigate the suspicious trades on behalf of thousands of victims’ families who may be concerned about the "prior-knowledge" issue, Pellecchia still declined to confirm that Doherty's enforcement office had even sent a report to the SEC.

When asked why so many former key CIA executives currently hold, or have held in the past, top level executive management positions connected in some way to the stock market via either the SEC, NYSE, or other investment banking entities, Pellecchia replied tersely, "I am quite aware of Mr. Doherty's background and experience."

Pellecchia also declined to discuss anything related to current CIA Executive Director A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard and his past relationship with Alex Brown.

Expecting Miracles?

Questions remain as to who will ultimately take center stage in investigating conflicts of interest or the real-time monitoring of world financial markets by U.S. intelligence entities to protect national security; let alone terrorist ties to wealthy Saudi private clients at global financial institutions having direct access (via correspondent banking relationships) to U.S. banks.

For while thousands of American families, victimized by terrorism, still remain numb with grief, information is being advanced daily regarding what could be described by some as casual, if not negligent, long-term, slipshod governmental responsiveness to fundamental internal national security and safety questions -- or worse.

Tom Flocco is a freelance writer and researcher. (email: TomFlocco@cs.com)

SUPPRESED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA’s HIGHEST RANKS

check out some of the things Obama has done to AIG, CitiBank, etc. and we start connecting the dots !!!

SUPPRESED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA’s HIGHEST RANKS

CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR “BUZZY” KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED “PUT” OPTIONS ON UAL

by Michael C. Ruppert

[© COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. – May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit purposes only.]

Original Link http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html

FTW, October 9, 2001 – Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the “put options” on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker’s Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard’s last position at Banker’s Trust (BT) was to oversee “private client relations.” In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.

Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.

THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING

Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades – in real time – as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades.

It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, “selling short” and “put options”.

“Selling Short” is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months.

“Put Options,” are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for $100 – regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.

A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled “Black Tuesday: The World’s Largest Insider Trading Scam?” documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:

-        Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options… Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these “insiders” would have profited by almost $5 million.

-        On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;… Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent “insiders,” they would represent a gain of about $4 million.

-        [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]

-        No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.

-        Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley’s share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.

-        Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin Towers, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill’s shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by “insiders,” their profit would have been about $5.5 million.

-        European regulators are examining trades in Germany’s Munich Re, Switzerland’s Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a “double whammy” for them.]

On September 29, 2001 – in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media – the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.

“The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors – whose identities and nationalities have not been made public – had advance knowledge of the strikes.” They don’t dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.

“… October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called “put” options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp.”

“…The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options…” This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.

As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.

CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS

Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Let’s look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA’s history.

Clark Clifford – The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker.

John Foster and Allen Dulles – These two brothers “designed” the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.

Bill Casey – Ronald Reagan’s CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker.

David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

George Herbert Walker Bush – President from 1989 to January 1993, also served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.

A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard – The current Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Banker’s Trust.

John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation’s second largest bank, which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering of drug money. This includes Citigroup’s 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank known to launder drug money, Banamex.

Nora Slatkin – This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibank’s board.

Maurice “Hank” Greenburg – The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg’s and AIG’s long connection to CIA drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG’s stock has bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to http://www.copvcia.com/stories/part_2.html.

One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them. Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on September 11.

http://prisonplanet.com/suppresed_details_insider_trading_cia.html

German firm probes final World Trade Center deals

German computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11.

Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?
Or was it coincidence that unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded?
A world leader in retrieving data, German-based firm Convar is trying to answer those questions and help credit card companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in New York recover their records from computer hard drives that have been partially damaged by fire, water or fine dust.
Using a pioneering laser scanning technology to find data on damaged computer hard drives and main frames found in the rubble of the World Trade Center and other nearby collapsed buildings, Convar has recovered information from 32 computers that support assumptions of dirty doomsday dealings.
"The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorisations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Peter Henschel.
"Of course it is also possible that there were perfectly legitimate reasons for the unusual rise in business volume," he told Reuters in an interview.
Profiting from disaster?
"It could turn out that Americans went on an absolute shopping binge on that Tuesday morning. But at this point there are many transactions that cannot be accounted for," Henschel said.
"Not only the volume but the size of the transactions was far higher than usual for a day like that. There is a suspicion that these were possibly planned to take advantage of the chaos."
Nearly 3,300 people were killed in the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center.
Some 30,000 people in the buildings, symbols of America's financial might, were able to escape between the time the planes crashed and about an hour later when they collapsed -- even though many of the unmanned computers continued working.
The United States blames the Al Qaeda group led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden for the attack and has since waged war on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that sheltered them.
Advance knowledge of attack?
There are several data retrieval companies in the United States and Europe, but Convar said it has won the lion's share of the contracts from the World Trade Center because of its laser scanning technology.
Convar developed the laser scanner two years ago that made it possible to retrieve data from badly damaged computers.
With a staff of 30 in its high-security facility in Pirmasens near the French border, the firm has worked with the US armed forces in Germany as well as German federal police for the last 15 years.
Its offices in Pirmasens, a town of 36,000 still suffering from the departure of some 4,000 American soldiers stationed here during the Cold War, are closely guarded behind high fences and monitored by dozens of security cameras.
Inside the building, an endless series of code-operated door locks keeps unwelcome visitors away. In the centre of the facility is a 120 square metre (1,292 square foot), dust-free "clean room" where the damaged computer drives are coaxed back to life.
Citing client privacy, Henschel declined to say which companies Convar is working for, or provide details about the data retrieved so far. But he said the raw material, up to 40 gigabytes per computer hard drive, is sent immediately by satellite or courier back to New York.
Money trail
Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Wagner said. "They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main frames were destroyed."
The companies are paying between $20,000 and $30,000 for each computer recovered, Henschel said.
The high recovery costs are one reason why only a limited number of hard drives are being examined. Convar has turned down a request by one British newspaper to try to recover personal last hour e-mails sent by someone trapped in the doomed building.
Henschel said the companies in the United States were working together with the FBI to piece together what happened on September 11 and that he was confident the destination of the dubious transactions would one day be tracked down.
"We have been quite surprised that so many of the hard drives were in good enough shape to retrieve the data," he said.
"The contamination rate is high. The fine dust that was everywhere in the area got pressed under high pressure into the drives. But we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the drives we've received.
"We're helping them find out what happened to the computers on September 11 as quickly as possible. I'm sure that one day they will know what happened to the money."

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