us military

us military

Gov't Cover-ups & Failures

50m ago
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Investigative reporter Peter Lance discussed his book, Cover Up, which maintains the U.S. government has been covering up its own counterterrorism/intelligence failures since the mid-1990s. Lance began his presentation by discussing Ahmed Amin Refai, an alleged al Qaeda mole who worked as an accountant for the New York Fire Department. According to Lance, Fire Marshall Ronnie Bucca uncovered Refai's connections to terrorist 'Blind Sheik' Rahman, as well as evidence that Refai had obtained plans to the World Trade Center prior to the first bombing. Bucca shared this information with the New York office of the FBI, Lance explained, but was ignored. Lance also spoke about an alleged corrupt relationship between FBI Supervisory Special Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio and mafia hitman Greg Scarpa Sr. He said DeVecchio would inform Scarpa Sr. about the location of his rivals so he could eliminate them. One such rival, Nicky Grancio, was killed with a shotgun blast to the head. Lance claims the FBI covered up the relationship between DeVecchio and Scarpa Sr., and read a 'smoking gun' memo during the program as evidence. Next, Lance connected the son of Scarpa Sr. to Ramzi Yousef, whom he believes ordered the bombing of TWA 800 from his prison cell in order to get a mistrial in his own terror bombing case. Again, Lance suggested the FBI had been alerted in advance to Yousef's plans, but failed to act on the intel. Lance also offered an update on a U.S. military program called Able Danger. Biography: Peter Lance is a five-time Emmy-winning investigative reporter now working as a screenwriter and novelist. With a Masters Degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, Lance spent the first 15 years of his career as a print reporter and network correspondent. In 1981 Lance became Investigative Correspondent for ABC News. Lance was a member of the first American crew into Indochina after the end of the Vietnam War, he chased rebel insurgents through Laos and members of the Gambino Family through the toxic wastelands of New Jersey, he tracked knife-happy surgeons in the Deep South, and nuclear terrorists through the twisted streets of Antwerp. Then, in 1987, he took a break from non-fiction. Lance came to L.A. and began working as a writer and story editor for Michael Mann on two of his acclaimed series: Crime Story and Miami Vice. In 1989 he became the co-executive producer and "show runner" on the fourth season of Wiseguy and in 1993 he co-created Missing Persons. Following the 9/11 attacks Lance began investigating the origins of the FBI's original probe of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. 9/11 Investigaton Lance was the first mainstream journalist to argue that the two attacks on the World Trade Center—the 1993 bombing and the attacks of 9/11—were linked via Ramzi Yousef. A Kuwaiti national trained in Wales, Yousef was Qaeda's chief bomb maker. He is also the nephew of the terrorist the FBI calls "the 9/11 mastermind" Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM). Lance's investigative work linking Yousef and al Qaeda master spy Ali Mohamed to the 9/11 attacks has been cited repeatedly in "The Complete 9/11 Timeline" compiled by the non-profit History Commons the respected compendium of open source 9/11 intelligence.[11] In August, 2003 Lance's 1000 Years for Revenge, a broad survey of Al-Qaida operations in the US prior to 9/11[12] was published by Harper Collins.[13] The book presents evidence that the FBI missed dozens of opportunities to stop the attacks of September 11, dating back to 1989. Lance describes how an elusive al Qaeda mastermind defeated an entire American security system in "the greatest failure of intelligence since the Trojan Horse." On September 2, 2003, CBS News Correspondent Dan Rather, broadcasting from Baghdad during the Iraq War, reviewed the evidence presented in 1000 Years for Revenge for two days in a row, devoting two 4-minute segments a...