Michael Riconosciuto's 2/5/2001 Letter to His Attorney Warning of Hijack Plane Attacks in the U.S. by Al Qaeda Terrorists

Riconosciuto's Letter, The Smoking 'Howitzer' of 9-11?

Michael Riconosciuto's 2/5/2001 Letter Warning of Planned
Hijack Plane Attacks in the U.S. by Al Qaeda Terrorists

[Editor's Note: This letter was sent U.S. certified mail (#7000 0600 0027 1175 1175) by Michael Riconosciuto, who is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Allenwood, PA, .to his attorney, Don Bailey, on February 6, 2001, seven months before planes struck the twin towers of World Trade Center in New York City. The original four page letter was hand written by Riconosciuto and can be viewed at these links: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4 and certified proof of post mark. I typed the letter shown below without changing abbreviations, contractions, or misspelled words in order to match the original handwritten copy as accurately as possible. .Square bracketed items, "[ ]", are informational clarifications by me, Ken Adachi (or indicate blacked out words). Ted Gunderson included a copy of this handwritten letter as "Exhibit A" in a large multi page report ( Ted Gunderson 9-11 Terrorists' Report) presented to 155 U.S. Senators and members of Congress, to every congressional committee, to the Department of Justice, and to numerous members of the Executive Branch in Washington D.C. on January 7, 2003; two days after interviewing Michael Riconosciuto at FCI in Allenwood.

On Feb.. 13, 2001, Riconosciuto sent a certified letter ("Exhibit B" in Gunderson's Report) to his congressman, Bryan Baird (D-WA), to expedite contact with appropriate authorities to report his intelligence information. Louis Buffardi, a second attorney working with Riconosciuto, sent a letter on February 19, 2001 to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft ("Exhibit C" in Gunderson's Report) reporting that he had a client who possessed highly detailed information about an imminent terrorist attack to take place on the United States, but requested that some agency other than the FBI should debrief his client. On February 20, 2001, Riconosciuto requested from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) ("Exhibit D") a private, unmonitored telephone line to convey sensitive information about 37 Soviet-made missiles being shipped from Bulgaria to Colombia and finally to Quebec City within a 30 hour 'window' of opportunity of interdiction. Attorney Louis Buffardi passed this same information along to the FBI and the US Attorney's Office in Chicago, Illinois, while Riconosciuto spoke directly over the phone with John O'Neill, former FBI terrorist expert in charge of security for the World Trade Center ( killed in the WTC attacks).

On an unspecified date in March, 2001, Riconosciuto was paid a visit by FBI Special Agent Keith Cutri from the Williamsport, PA FBI office. Riconosciuto identified for Cutri an individual in New Jersey who: (1) was coordinating forthcoming terrorist attacks on the U.S.; (2) had information on the movement of Soviet-made shoulder-fired missiles coming into the U.S.; (3) was coordinating skyjacking operations, bombings, and espionage in the U.S.; and (4) knew the identity of "sleepers" in the U.S. and overseas. Riconosciuto also gave Cutri information about a false ID ring operating in Montreal and New Jersey and gave him the exact fake ID's of 30 terrorists who had been chosen for carrying out operations inside the United States. Riconosciuto told Special Agent Cutri that Thabet Aviation of Quebec City, Canada was brokering older D.C.-9's, 747's, and other high performance military aircraft that could be used for terrorist attacks and he knew the names of terrorists who were taking flight training in the US for those very types of aircraft. Riconosciuto indicated that Thabet Aviation was the company scheduled to receive the 37 Soviet-made, shoulder-fired missiles. Riconosciuto's only request of the FBI was immunity from government prosecution for himself and his informants. From the end of the interview with Cutri in March, 2001, until September 13, 2001, Riconosciuto did not hear one word from the FBI, Special Agent Keith Cutri, or any federal investigative agency.

On September 13, 2001, two days after the attacks of Sept. 11, Cutri returned with another FBI agent to talk with Riconosciuto and accused Riconosciuto of being "anti-FBI"; "anti-government"; a "conspiracy theorist'; a "know-it-all"; a "hoaxer"; and a "publicity seeker" who wanted to "bother the FBI and waste its time". Cutri told Riconosciuto that he discounted his terrorist information because the info Riconosciuto had provided about a prison staff member at Coleman, Florida FCI was "untrue". He also warned Riconosciuto that he was under investigation by the FBI for "threats" made against that staff member at Coleman (this trumped up charge by prison officials at Coleman and the FBI was designed to intimidate Riconosciuto and sequester him in solitary confinement for 7 months. Riconosciuto was later acquitted of the charge at a BOP hearing).

The stonewalling, obfuscations, non-response, denials, feigned ignorance, and threats emanating from the FBI, from the Justice Department, and from high government officials in both the Legislative and Executive branches following this Sept. 13 meeting between Michael Riconosciuto and the two FBI agents (including the non-reportage of Riconosciuto's dead-on warnings by major newspapers in the United States approached by Gunderson) leave no doubt that Ted's 9-11 Cover Up Report contains the most powerful documentation to date of the government's complicity and fore knowledge in the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Further details can be read from Ted Gunderson's full public report titled: Terrorism Cover up in America which will posted in its entirety at this web site and at www.tedgunderson.com . Ted's Summary of Michael Riconosciuto's information in the report is listed here. ..Ken Adachi]

Written By Michael Riconosciuto
http://educate-yourself.org/tg/TCUreportexbA5feb01.shtml
Posted Sept. 27, 2003

2/5/2001

Don,

I have written to the editor of Insight magazine to request a copy of the Wackenhut letter, and the taped telephone conversation transcript. The Wackenhut letter makes reference to Dr. Harry Fair, describing me as a potential national resource because of certain of my technical abilities. Dr. Fair is the former head of tactical technology research for DARPA. At the time Dr. Fair made this characterization of me, he was in this position. This is a very strong statement for a govt. agency department head to go on record with. It is also significant that the govt. prevented this type of information from being in front of the jury in my case! The motion in liminal filed by the govt, and granted by the judge, contains some of the most bizarre legal reasoning I have ever encountered. The taped conversation was a telephone call I had with an FBI agent to make a pretrial proffer. One of the significant things about my pretrial proffer is that every single detail of it turned out to be true. The only fault in its accuracy is that my proffer was an understatement. Even as such, the US Attorney in charge of drug prosecutions stated that my pretrial proffer was, "a lot of garbage and delusional"! The US Attorney in charge of drug prosecutions actually testified at my trial, so these remarks are part of the actual trial record. My detailed and specific proffer was given almost five years prior to some of the parties I named were indicted on the same charges I outlined in my proffer.

The material contained in my pretrial proffer (the Abell/Cali cartel connection), had it been acted on in a timely manner by the govt., would have led to the interdiction of over 200 tons of cocaine. Most of the bad acts charged in the indictment against Abbell et. al., occurred a significant time after my original proffer. A question that needs to be addressed is the legality of the US Attorney interfering with my proffer.

To facilitate my pretrial proffer, I did the following:

1) I had Ted Gunderson as an investigator to help independently corroborate key points of my proffer.

2) I had Alan Boyak, an attorney and former DEA agent, prepare the pretrial proffer. Alan also had direct knowledge of some of the key points in my proffer because he had worked cases against some of the targets when he was a DEA agent.

3) The head of the intelligence unit of the Tampa Bay Fla. Police Dept. offered to be the intermediary for the deal.

The govt. reacted to my proffer by:

1) Threatening Ted with arrest and banning him from visiting me in the county jail before and during my trial.

2) Refusing to allow Alan Boyak to attend any of the pretrial proffer meetings with my other attorneys.

3) Formally demanding that the Tampa Bay P.D. refrain from interfering with a case outside of their jurisdiction.

4) Filed a motion with the court for 4141 and 4142 competency hearings. This go vt. motion questioning my competency was based in part on the govt's stated position that my proffer was delusional.

5) The AUSA prosecuting my case flew to Los Angeles from Seattle and presented Robert Booth Nichols with a copy of my pretrial proffer where I had named Nichols and his associates as targets.

I would have been declared incompetent had not the series of articles appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle outlining the bio warfare projects at the Wackenhut /Cabezon joint venture. My claim to have been involved in bio warfare work was cited, by the govt, in the motion for the competency hearing These clearly documented my claim concerning bio warfare work. When the forensic evaluation was sent to the court, it established that "...some of my most unlikely sounding claims turned out to be true upon checking with collateral sources. The govt. response was that so what if it is true, it is not relevant to their case in chief which is a drug case.

My proffer was never reconsidered by the govt after the determination of my competency. The fact of the matter is that I have a solid established record of reliability in the counterintelligence field. This is clearly documented in my central file. The US Attorney handling my pretrial proffer certainly had this information available to him at the time. The glaring question is why did the AUSA reveal the details of my pretrial proffer to potential targets!?

As I have stated to you in past letters,and telephone calls, I have been attempting to proffer against Nichols and his crew. The DOJ/BOP [Department of Justice/Bureau of Prisons] has consistently interfered with all of my attempts in this proffer. I have stated that I need you to facilitate my communication with other parties that have direct knowledge against Nichols et. al.

Things have now come to a head! I now have contact with an operative that is in an Arabic group known as The Base. They are presently engaged in preparation for a major attack in the US. [..blacked out words..] currently represents the Abuhouran brothers, two of the brothers are incarcerated in the US. The third is a fugitive facing 15 years jail time in the US. We have an insider to this group that handles fake ID and passports for the group's operations. I also have contact with one of the parties that supplies explosives materials to this group. I am deliberately keeping myself with a paucity of specific details until the govt issues an immunity agreement with my contacts. If the govt will not issue the immunity agreement, no more details of these ongoing activities will be forthcoming from anybody. My bonafides are:

1) I have family members in the [..blacked out..] leadership (..blacked out..) a Christian militia group

2) Thirty-four days before the two US Embassy bombings in East Africa happened, I notified the FBI in Miami! Two days before these bombings occurred, I made an emergency request of BOP staff at FCI Coleman to make an overseas telephone call to ECOMAG security headquarters to warn African officials. The BOP categorically turned me down on this call. I have the documentation on all of this.

3) In the 1980's, Ted Gunderson , myself, and Ralph Olberg were involved in negotiations with the Afghan Mujahadeen on behalf of the US govt. Ted will verify that we had these meetings and that OSAMA BIN LADEN was present in the US under the name of TIM OSMAN. Mr. Osman was taken to special demonstrations at US military bases.

4) I have an exemplary track record in the counter intelligence field.

Mr. [..blacked out..] is flying out to visit me this week. This letter is my authorization for you to discuss the details of all my written and oral communications with him. The Abuhousan Brothers are writing similar letters to their attorneys: [..blacked out words..] to authorize them to speak to both you and [..blacked out words..] on this matter. This authorization will also include your access to documents.

As soon as we learned that an actual attack was in the works, we realized we can't fool around with this. On the other hand, we don't want to get screwed by the govt.

Mike Riconosciuto

P.S. Somebody just got certiorari on the PLRA exhaustion of administrative remedy requirements. Notice on this enclosed.

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