Lindauer: In addition to providing a back channel for terrorism intelligence from Baghdad , I conducted preliminary talks to resume the weapons inspections with Iraq 's Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Saeed Hasan, and other senior Iraqi officials. Our purpose was to guarantee that Iraq would agree to rigorous U.S. standards for transparency in the inspections process before the matter went to the U.N. Security Council. It must be emphasized that all of my work was heavily supervised by handlers from the U.S. Intelligence Community. And most unusually, from our first meetings, Iraqi and Libyan diplomats fully understood my motivations to assist in facilitating an end to sanctions, and that I would function as a back channel to contacts tied to the United States government. We wanted diplomats to use me for that purpose. There was no deceit involved.
Collins: Who was your CIA handler?
Lindauer: Dr. Richard Fuisz who was a major CIA operative in Syria and Lebanon in the 1980s. Dr. Fuisz coordinated the hostage rescue of Terry Anderson et al out of Beirut , Lebanon . His team located their make-shift prisons and called in the Delta Force for a daring raid. He testified before Congress about U.S. corporations that supplied Iraq with weapons systems before the first Gulf War. He got outed as CIA by Damascus after stealing the blueprints for Syria 's brand new telecommunications system.
Collins: When did your concern jump from "hypothetical scenario" to the belief that an attack on the World Trade Center was actively being planned?
Lindauer: In April, 2001 Dr. Fuisz demanded that I warn diplomats at the Iraqi and Libyan Missions that their nations would suffer a major military offensive if it was discovered that either had possessed intelligence about possible airplane attacks, and failed to notify the United States through my back channel. He demanded that I tell the diplomats that "the United States will bomb them into the Stone Age if they don't help us identify any terrorist conspiracies involving airplanes."
Collins: Ultimately, did Libya or Iraq provide any intelligence regarding the planned attack?
Lindauer: We pushed Iraq so hard for intelligence in the months before 9/11 that after 9/11, Iraqi diplomats aggressively challenged our U.S. claims of ignorance. A couple of diplomats put it to me bluntly: "Obviously you knew it was coming, because you kept telling us about it. So why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you do something before this, instead of blaming us, now? You should be blaming yourselves."
Before 9/11 Dr. Fuisz instructed me to telephone U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's office (to make sure he knew what was being planned). Ashcroft's office told me to contact the Office of Counter-Terrorism at the Justice Department, and repeat what I had just told them. I did so immediately.
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