Undercovered news in 2001
Project Censored's Top Underreported Stories of the Year is always worth looking at. One of my favorites for 2001:
Bush administration hampered FBI investigation into bin Laden family before Sept. 11
Less than two months after Sept. 11, [Greg Palast] scored again, getting hold of 1996 Federal Bureau of Investigation memos indicating the bureau suspected Abdullah bin Laden, brother of the most infamous terrorist in the world, of funding terrorist activity.
Unfortunately, angry agents who spoke to Palast told him the counterterrorism probe was scuttled by bureau honchos before it could even get off the ground.
The feds, Palast reported in the U.K. Guardian, weren't much interested in possible Saudi connections to Islamic terror plots. "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis," one source told Palast.
"They said the restrictions became worse after the Bush administration took over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to 'back off' from investigations involving other members of the bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan," Palast wrote.
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