Bush uncle facilitated funding of 9-11 terrorists by kos Mon May 17th, 2004 at 17:24:05 GMT Blogger (and CAP denizen) David Sirota has an eye-opening post: RIGGS BANK FINED FOR LAX OVERSIGHT OF SAUDI MONEY, WHICH MIGHT HAVE GONE TO TERRORISTS According to the 5/14/04 New York Times, Federal regulators fined the Riggs National Corporation, the parent company of Riggs Bank, $25 million yesterday for "failing to report suspicious activity, the largest penalty ever assessed against a domestic bank in connection with money laundering. The fine stems from Riggs's failure over at least the last two years to actively monitor suspect financial transfers through Saudi Arabian accounts held by the bank." The 5/14/04 Wall Street Journal reported that of particular concern, Riggs failed to monitor "tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian embassy," including "suspicious incidents involving dozens of sequentially numbered cashier's checks and international drafts written by Saudi officials, including Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." According to the 4/18/04 Washington Post, Saudi Prince Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, "may have used a Riggs account to donate money to a charity that then gave some of it to the Sept. 11 terrorists."

Seems their running scared now. Imagine sending a "handler" to oversee the Secretary Of State Today on "Meet The Press". (Transcript thanks to "mcoady") Tim Russert was interviewing Colin Powell when the camera suddenly shifted away from Powell. All that could be seen was the scenery but the conversation in the background went thus: Russert: Finally, Mr. Secretary, in February of 2003, you placed your enormous personal credibility before the United Nations and laid out a case against Saddam Hussein citing... Powell: Not off. Emily: No. They can't use it. They're editing it. They (unintelligible). Powell: He's still asking me questions. Tim. Emily: He was not... Powell: Tim, I'm sorry, I lost you. Russert: I'm right here, Mr. Secretary. I would hope they would put you back on camera. I don't know who did that. Powell: We really... Russert: I think that was one of your staff, Mr. Secretary. I don't think that's appropriate. Powell: Emily, get out of the way. Emily: OK. Powell: Bring the camera back, please. I think we're back on, Tim. Go ahead with your last question. Russert: Thank you very much, sir. In February of 2003, you put your enormous personal reputation on the line before the United Nations and said that you had solid sources for the case against Saddam Hussein. It now appears that an agent called Curveball had misled the CIA by suggesting that Saddam had trucks and trains that were delivering biological and chemical weapons. How concerned are you that some of the information you shared with the world is now inaccurate and discredited? Powell: I'm very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully; we looked at the sourcing in the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate. And so I'm deeply disappointed. But I'm also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation, it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment of the intelligence community. But it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that, I am disappointed and I regret it. Russert: Mr. Secretary, we thank you very much for joining us again and sharing your views with us today. Powell: Thanks, Tim. Russert: And that was an unedited interview with the secretary of state taped earlier this morning from Jordan. We appreciate Secretary Powell's willingness to overrule his press aide's attempt to abruptly cut off our discussion as I began to ask my final question. END ~~~~~~~~ Russert was visibily upset, exclaiming that he had never seen anything like it in his life. Powell also apologized for the problem.

Another example of the depths of sleaziness that Bush will go to to to avoid letting Americans know the true depth of the hole he has created. Get this.....in a piece presented at NoLogo " Over the past year, 272,00 manufacturing jobs have been lost. No wonder the President’s Economic Report in February floated the idea of reclassifying fast-food restaurants as factories. “When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a ‘service’ or is it combining inputs to ‘manufacture’ a product?” the report asks. "