{"article":{"id":17268,"heading":"Connecting the Dots, the Padillas, and the Bisharas","author":"Loren Coleman","created":"2002-06-21 19:42:41","modified":"2005-08-15 00:59:24","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:59:24","article":"

On June 6, 2002, Congress began holding hearings on what alleged

mistakes the Federal Bureau of Investigation might have made in

preventing the 9\/11 tragedies. The press had a field day, turning over

and over its fifth estate examination of who or what agency could be

responsible for the awful assault against America. Setting culpability is

one of the psychological states that an individual or a country has to go

through after a trauma is experienced.

The Dots

We were not surprised to soon see that Senator Arlen \"Magic

Bullet\" Specter would be the one getting the first sound bite on the

evening news. Feathers ruffled, speaking to the nation's cameras and to

FBI director Robert Mueller, Specter was broadcast saying: \"It wasn't

just a matter of connecting the dots, there was a virtual blueprint.\"

\"People talk a great deal about connecting the dots,\" said Rep.

Nancy Pelosi of California, ranking Democrat on the House committee.

She felt the intelligence agencies \"didn't even see the dots, they didn't

understand the salience of the dots.\" Of course, we must ask, does

anyone in the mainstream media or government really \"get it\" at all?

The question must be asked, why isn1t anyone in the national media

talking about the seemingly subtle coincidences turning up in their

wall-to-wall public analysis of terrorism in America?

Americans have short-term memories. We can be excused. We1re

young. Our country lacks a legacy of understanding the complex

relationships of political intrigue and religious warfare, which might

assist us in these times. Is it any wonder that Europeans laughed at us

in the 1960s, when John F. Kennedy was killed, as conspiracy theories

were quieted? They took it for granted that the assassination involved

more than one person. The establishment press did not.

So, here we are, post-9\/11, in the midst of al Qaeda's holy war,

allowing the mass media to play their same old games again, with a new

twist. It certainly is amusing to see the attack dogs of the mainstream

media, at least for a few days, critiquing the intelligence services for

\"not connecting the dots.\" But wait a second, hasn't it been these same

news reporters who proudly asserted for years that its special brand of

investigative journalism figured out the deeper truths of the John F.

Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, and, even, of the

Oklahoma City bombing? While all of these events might involve

groups of people, the underlying theme was, according to these same

journalists, that lone nuts were at the foundation of such things.

When in America will we understand that to employ the word

\"conspiracy\" in context is not a sin, but actually might be a survival

technique we need to learn? It might actually be of benefit if the general

public did not whole-heartedly take everything in from the media

without a bit more critical thinking along lines of analysis that may be

seen as too alternative, in former years.

The Padillas

Let us examine a couple of recent examples for what we were told,

and for what might lie beneath.

The Defense and Justice Departments picked June 11th to announce

that on May 8, 2002, in Chicago, the FBI arrested an al Qaeda terror

suspect as he stepped off a plane to begin what was reportedly a

scouting mission that would end with the detonating of a dirty bomb, an

explosive that would scatter radiation. The man known as Abdullah al

Muhajir was born Jose Padilla, in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican heritage,

thirty-one years ago. \"Pucho,\" as his Logan Square neighbors called

him, because of his chubby cheeks, moved to Chicago at age 5. By the

time he was a teen, he allegedly told police he was a member of the

Latin Disciples street gang. When he was arrested, he often would use

aliases, at least seven of them, including Jose Alicea, Jose Ortiz and

Jose Rivera, and provide police with different dates of birth. Padilla

graduated from street crime on the West Side of Chicago to more

violent incidents in Florida, leading to some juvenile jail time where he

converted to Islam and chang ed his name. From there, the journey has

been as well publicized as the information allows. In 1997 Padilla's

mother, who had moved to Florida, called friends in Chicago to say that

her son had married a Muslim woman and \"went over there, to the

Middle East, I don't know where,\" although reportedly, she gave out a

Cairo, Egypt address to one person. Padilla's mother also said her son

had joined a cult. Later, Abdullah al Muhajir left for training in al

Qaeda's operations in Pakistan, came back through Zurich, and tried to

get back in the USA at O1Hare. \"Pucho,\" who still has \"Jose\" tattooed

on his right arm, waits his faith in a Navy brig in South Carolina.

What are we talking about here, an American patsy for a network of

individuals out to use bombs and assassinations to disrupt and defeat?

Have we heard of anything like such a crazy thing as this before?

Padilla? Where have we heard that name? We are not talking about

racial or ethnic profiling here, but of thoughtful stream of

consciousness associations, which may lead us to some underlying

themes. Let's see, Padilla, Padilla? Oh yes. It happens to be a last name

we heard during the Oklahoma City bombing investigations, one Lana

Padilla. She is the ex-wife of Terry Nichols, convicted of being

involved in the Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995.

That two Padillas are in some way tied up in plots to bomb American

buildings, of course, is just a coincidence, right? It is merely a

coincidence, nothing more, correct? Indeed, it would be intellectual

foolishness to assume that the two Padillas are even closely related. But

what it does provide is a process of stimulating logical and creative

pathways to explore possibilities that lie outside the box, perhaps

allowing for some insights into real-time terrorist conspiracies.

Just for the heck of it, let's see where the leap from Jose to Lana

leads us.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, Lana Padilla, lately of Las Vegas

but with relatives and links to Michigan, became an important

government witness in the case against Terry Nichols. In 1997, Padilla

testified during Nichols1 trial of the mysterious letter and several items

in a sealed brown paper bag that Nichols left with her, the mother of his

son, when he departed for the Philippines, November 22, 1994. She

was only to open the bag if Nichols did not return to the United States

by January 25, 1995. Due to scary things Nichols said at the airport

about never coming back, Padilla decided the next day to open the

package, and a second envelope marked for Jennifer McVeigh, the

sister of Timothy McVeigh. What she found in the packages included

instructions on how to find $20,000 in $100 bills, a life insurance

policy, some keys, emergency numbers, and a list of precious metals

(gold, silver and jade that were apparently taken in a robbery to finance

the bombing, according to prosecutors). In the envelope addressed to

Jennifer McVeigh, Padilla found a second letter addressed to Tim,

instructing him to clear out two storage sheds that the government said

contained ingredients for the bomb.

But what was Nichols doing in the Philippines? Jim Keith, in his

oft-overlooked book, OKBomb! Conspiracy and Cover-up (IllumiNet,

1996), discusses the suspicions that Terry Nichols \"was used as a

go-between in the Oklahoma City bombing plot by the Abu Sayyaf,

implicated in the World Trade Center bombing, which took place on

February 26, 1993.\" Of course, the similarities to the 1995 Oklahoma

City bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing are striking,

as to even involve the rental of Ryder trucks. Abu Sayyaf is the group

that kidnapped the Burnhams, of course, and are said to be part of the

worldwide al Qaeda network. Could the late Jim Keith be right? Why

has the mainstream media ignored the clues in Keith's book? Is it

because Keith was a conspiracy author and \"conspiracy,\" the word, the

thought, the idea is still a taboo subject, on many levels, to the

mainstream media? But Keith's thoughts now stimulate good questions

in 2002.

Doesn't Terry Nichols sound, in many ways, like Jose

Padilla\/Abdullah al Muhajir, an American doing the advance work of al

Qaeda, on the home front? What was Nichols doing in the Philippines?

Why did Nichols take twenty lengthy trips to the Philippines? New

York City's 1993 WTC bombing certainly had a Philippines

connection, the Pakistani Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. Yousef, the alleged

mastermind behind the first WTC bombing, who is quoted as saying

after the failed 1993 attempt that they would do it right the second time,

was also the brains behind the elaborate Bonjinka, translated as \"the

explosion.\" This was a plot to place bombs on 11 American jetliners

and have them all explode on the same day, over the Pacific Ocean.

Yousef carried out a test run for Bonjinka by having a bomb detonate

on Philippines Airlines Flight 434, on December 11, 1994. One tourist

was killed, ten injured. Yousef called the Associated Press after this

bombing, to give credit to Abu Sayyaf. Looking at it, there sure are an

awful lot of 11s in Bonjinka.

\"Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy

action.\" Old soldier1s adage.

Bisharas

As a second example to peruse, let's look at the seemingly simple

act of a copycat suicide victim, Charles Bishop. On January 6, 2002,

Bishop, a 15-year-old youth crashed the Cessna plane he had stolen

earlier in the day, into Tampa, Florida's 42 story Bank of America

building, clearly modeling his action on the September 11th terrorists'

suicide plane crashes. Bishop left a suicide note behind, which most of

the media merely mentioned as admiring Osama bin Laden. On

February 6, Tampa authorities released actual copies of the note. Here

is the transcription of what Bishop wrote:

I have prepared this statement in regards to the acts I am about to

commit. First of all, Osama bin Laden is absolutely justified in the

terror he has caused on 9-11. He has brought a mighty nation to its

knees! God blesses him and the others who helped make September

11th happen. The U.S. will have to face the consequences for its

horrific actions against the Palestinian people and Iraqis by its allegiance

with the monstrous Israelis--who want nothing short of world

domination!

You will pay--God help you--and I will make you pay!

There will be more coming!

Al Qaeda and other organizations have met with me several times to

discuss the option of me joining. I didn't.

This is an operation done by me only. I had no other help,

although, I am acting on their behalf.

Osama bin Laden is planning on blowing up the Super Bowl with

an antiquated nuclear bomb left over from the 1967 Israeli-Syrian war.

Don't look in Time or Newsweek for this; it1s not there. You will

only find the likes of the actual note at such sites as The Smoking Gun:

So, is this the rages of an acne-cream poisoned boy (as his mother

is now suing the company that produced the medicines her son was

taking) or something deeper?

The name, the name. Start there. A few newspapers quickly

mentioned, and darted away from the fact that Charles Bishop's \"family

name\" is Bishara. Apparently his mother did not like the Arab-sounding

name during the Gulf War, and changed it to Bishop. It turns out the

teenager's father is Charles J. Bishara, half-Sicilian, half-Syrian, who

is described as a low-level crime figure in the Boston area, with a

penthouse condominium at the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples,

Florida. The elder Bishara traces his roots back to the Arab Christian

clans of Lebanon.

Bishara, Bishara? Where have we heard that name before? Oh yes,

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. This has been going on for a long time. Sirhan

Sirhan, of course, is the convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. On

June 5, 1968, Sirhan, who is generally described in quick history

datelines as a \"Jordanian Arab\", shot RFK in the Hotel Ambassador in

Los Angeles. RFK died the following day, but the day he was shot was

the first anniversary of the date that The Six Day War between Israel

and Egypt began in 1967. A \"Jordanian,\" humm? Let1s see. Yes,

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born March 19, 1944, in Jerusalem,

Palestine, the fifth son of Bishara and Mary (Muzher). The family

practiced Jordanian Christianity, but belonged to the Arab-based society

in the divided region. When Sirhan was 12, in 1956, his family

obtained U.S. visas as Palestinian refugees, and they moved first

briefly to New York City, and then to California.

Much has been written, if you look in the right places, of the

\"Manchurian Candidate\" sense that some investigators see in Sirhan

Bishara Sirhan's actions before and during the RFK assassination. Are

we seeing more Manchurian Candidates in Charles Bishara Bishop,

Jose Padilla, shoe-bomber Robert Reid, and others that are flashes on

the television screen? Or like Frank Eugene Corder who is credited with

crashing his Cessna into the White House at 2300 hrs on September 11

1994? Interesting choice of a date. See Joe Vialls's discussion of this

forgotten September 11th event, at: Roboplanes.

Take that other recent copycat plane suicide on April 18, 2002, as

another example. On that day, a man apparently acting deliberately flew

at top speed into Milan's tallest skyscraper, hitting the 25th and 26th

floors of the 30-story Pirelli Tower, a government building. (It

probably is just a coincidence that Charles Bishara Bishop's plane hit

almost at the same height, the 28th and 29th floors of the 42 story BoA

building.) Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi and Roberto

Formigoni, the president of the region of Lombardy, both said they

were convinced that Luigi Fasulo, the pilot of his powerful Rockwell

Commander 112TC, had purposely committed suicide, and it was not

an accident. While one official would later rule that this was not another

copycat airplane-tower suicide, Fasulo's son and others still felt it was a

suicidal act. Milan has been spoken of as the seat of al Qaeda

connections in Italy.

Looking Outside the Box

Who should be connecting the dots? Should it be alternative

websites and conspiracy authors or the mainstream media and

intelligence services? We speculate that it is about time that everyone

engages in this sport because the narrow-minded approach is missing

too many of the dots, let along not connecting them. Explore the

questions that seemed too radical to even believe a mere year ago. What

is happening with Americans made into soldiers of a holy war named

Padilla and Bishara? How many other prison converts like Chicago

gang-member Jose Padilla turned al-Qaeda terrorist or militia patsies

have links to such diverse incidents as the Oklahoma City bombing?

Why isn't there more talk about Terry Nichols' Filipino trips, allegedly

to visit the al-Qaeda linked kidnapping group that got caught in the

crossfire ending in Martin Burnham's death? What is the affection for

so many 11s by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef? And what about teenager

Charles Bishop who left a note of praise for Osma n bin Laden, and

crashed a stolen plane into Tampa's 42 story Bank of America building?

Why such neglect in discussing the fact Bishop's real name was

Bishara, which just happens to be the middle name of Sirhan Bishara

Sirhan, America's first Palestinian Manchurian candidate assassin?

If ever there was a time to think outside the box, it's now.























































































































<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":" Who should be connecting the dots? Should it be alternative\r\n websites and conspiracy authors or the mainstream media and\r\n intelligence services? We speculate that it is about time that everyone\r\n engages in this sport because the narrow-minded approach is missing\r\n too many of the dots, let along not connecting them.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2002\/06\/connecting.txt","filesize":"21.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2002\/06\/17268.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":17280,"heading":"You Missed One...","article":"... September 11, 1973, CIA coup against democratically elected Pres. Allende in Santiago Chile that lead to the installation of Pinochet, one of the most brutal dictators since Hitler. How does this fit in?","author":"Anti-Fascist","parent_id":17268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-06-22 12:31:45","modified":"2002-06-22 13:00:05","fileurl":""}]}