Deep Dives 18 - The Wikileaks Archive | J. Michael Springmann - Visas for Al-Qaeda
J. Michael Springmann, is currently a practising attorney based in Washington DC. He is also a publisher of articles for various news media and public policy outlets. He is best known, as the author of the publicly acclaimed book: Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider's View.
Author Bio
J. Michael Springmann served in the United States government in the Commerce Department and as a diplomat with the State Department's Foreign Service, with postings in Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. His last assignment with the Department of State was with the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He left federal service and currently practices law in the Washington, DC, area.
Springmann has been published in numerous foreign policy publications, including Covert Action Quarterly, Unclassified, Global Outlook, the Public Record, OpEdNews, Global Research and Foreign Policy Journal. He holds a JD from American University, in Washington, DC, as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in international relations from Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America. In 2004, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee recognized Springmann as one of its Pro Bono Attorneys of the Year.
Fired by the US Government for whistle blowing, Michael Springmann recounts the role high-ranking US officials played in creating Al-Qaeda.
About the Book
Thousands of American soldiers and civil servants have lost their lives in the War on Terror. Innocent citizens of many nations, including Americans killed on 9/11, have also paid the ultimate price. While the US government claims to stand against terror, this same government refuses to acknowledge its role in creating what has become a deadly international quagmire. Visas for al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World sets the record straight by laying the blame on high-ranking US government officials.
During the 1980s, the CIA recruited and trained Muslim operatives to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Later, the CIA would move those operatives from Afghanistan to the Balkans, and then to Iraq, Libya, and Syria, traveling on illegal US visas. These US-backed and trained fighters would morph into an organization that is synonymous with jihadist terrorism: al-Qaeda
Here is part of an excerpt from his book posted to globalresearch.ca, where he is a contributing writer
Al-Qaeda (Arabic for “The Base”) grew out of and became identical with the Arab-Afghan Legion, those terrorists recruited by the United States of America, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Originally sent to Afghanistan, they fought the USSR’s army and air force following the Soviet Union’s intervention of that country. Later, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, the Agency) directed them to cross the border and destabilize the Muslim republics of the Soviet Union. Still later, the American government moved them into the Balkans to destroy Yugoslavia, and then similarly to Iraq, followed by Libya and Syria.
They received visas to travel to the United States, usually from Saudi Arabia, for training, debriefing, and other purposes. In enabling their passage, American government officials violated the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as the State Department’s regulations, codified in its Foreign Affairs Manual.
I know. I was there. I issued the visas, and I objected to gross violations of law and regulation. As a result, as happens to nearly all whistle-blowers, I was fired.
Since then, I have had inordinate problems with sending and receiving e-mails, being bombarded with more spam than Monty Python could handle, periodic difficulties with telephone service, mysterious computer crashes, and daily robocalls in violation of the FCC’s Do Not Call List. And the Arab-Afghan Legion is still marching.
This is not a fanciful fairy-tale or 'conspiracy theory', and can be backed up by publicly available comments made by well-known politicians, like Hillary Clinton herself!
The videos/article linked above are very relevant to the overall story being told by Michael Springmann, as it shows an established history of influence and covert US intelligence operations, which included the direct training, funding and use of terrorist groups, such as Al-Quaeda - amongst others. It also gives a direct reason and justification, as to why it would be necessary for State Department and Consulate/CIA officials in specific locations, to intervene in the approval process of visas, which would then allow these suspicious individuals and groups to travel into what would otherwise be restricted territories, for the operations being planned and carried out on behalf of the US empire and it's proxies, abroad and then 'arguably', at a latter point on home soil for 9-11 event itself.
This is a clip of Michael Springmann explaining in his own words, what took place and how high level officials constantly over-ruled his decisions with the issuance of visas. Not only was he constantly over-ruled, but this was in direct violation of the consulate rules and regulations, which occured on a regular basis during his time at the American Visa Bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In an article titled "The Mistake Department" written by Springmann for opednews.com after the events of 9-11, he goes into more detail and explains how 15 of the 19 hijackers from the 9-11 event, were issued visas from the same consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This certainly brings up some serious questions and contradictions in the testimonies and reports of the official story that were part of the investigation of how this entire operation was able to be carried out.
All of the above details and events are well known to large sections of the mainstream media, but as is usually the case they get very little exposure, and are mainly demoted/downgraded as a once off report and then never spoken about again. In some cases they are swept under the rug, suppressed or ignored entirely until forgotten as a footnote in insignificant history. This is so the official story gets promoted as the official history of these events.
You can view an online version of both the official reports on the investigations on the failings of the intelligence agencies, from the both the FBI and the CIA, as a consequence of the inability to stop the attacks, from an intelligence and structural point of view. Let's just say that these reports make no mention or admission of the fact that visas were issued to known terrorist and intelligence assets by consulate officials directly tied to the CIA, and it was a whitewash in general that only came to the conclusion that more scope, power and funding was required for the same 'incompetent' agencies, to stop possible future attacks.
This is how intelligence failures are always presented in official reports, as part of the National Security apparatus and framework in general. Incompetence and lack of resources. Nobody could have possibly known that these suspicious characters that were fraudulently given visas from the consulate in Jeddah, were going to be the same terrorists that were going to fly planes into the twin towers! Well actually, there was some inconvenient information exposed that showed that these same terrorists were being tracked as part of 'Operation Able Danger', well before the events of 9-11 .
Here is the official report of the 9-11 hijackers and conspirators.
Internal Memo of the DCI Counterterrorist Centre - 4 Decmeber 1998
According to this internal memo from the office of the DCI counter-terrorism centre, there certainly seems to be both foreknowledge of a possible impending attack, as well as where the potential threat was coming from. However, in multiple official reports drafted into the investigations of the events of 9-11, there is no mention of this memo's existence or possible foreknowledge of impending attacks taking place. In fact, it was denied before this memo and other evidence came to light.
He was also mentioned in another Stratfor email Wikileak, as part of a list of dangerous 9-11 truther's, in a news article that was shared amongst Stratfor staff.
FW: Proof that 9/11 Truthers Are Dangerous
The fact that Stratfor staff felt it was necessary to share the above information internally, seems quite significant to me - in my opinion.
What Does the Official Congressional Inquiry Say with Regards to the Issuance of Visas?
Makes for some pretty interesting reading, don't you think?
https://cryptome.wikileaks.org/dos032702.txt
In light of all the above revelations presented by Springmann, and all the accompanying official reports and documents presented with regards to the overall terror threat posed upon the globe from the all encompassing Al-Quaeda network, how is it possible that in 2002 - at the height of the terror and fear campaign promoted across all sections of the media and the political establishment, that Al-Quaeda was placed at no.25 on the terror threat list composed by the State department? Why is it that Saudi Arabia is still considered to be a fierce ally of the US, considering that by it's own admission that Saudi nationals were responsible for such a horrific event?
Curated for #informationwar (by @palikari123)
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