Riddle as US Spy Chief quits

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

Sunday Express
July 6, 2003
**Exclusive**

Photo: Paul J. Redmond

"...Hours after Redmond had cleared his desk, Bush ordered a GBP 25million bounty on Saddam's head. He wants Saddam "dead or alive" and the same goes for bin Laden. Already Bush has agreed to either man forgoing a trial and being shot after interrogation. The official reason given for Redmond's abrupt departure was "health reasons." But stunned colleagues in the Homeland Security department in Washington, where Redmond had his office, insist the former Associate Director of the CIA was in perfect health. His departure has led to intense speculation that he may have begun to uncover embarrassing details of how the software came into the hands of Saddam and bin Laden.

Documents obtained by the respected International Currency Review, a London-based newsletter for the financial community, allege that the software was provided for Saddam on the authority of President Bush's father when he was in the White House - a time when relations between Iraq and Washington were close during Baghdad's war with Iran. The Review's publisher, Christopher Story, a former financial adviser to Lady Thatcher, said: "The documents are extremely sensitive and raise some very serious questions."

Globe-intel.net

AMERICA'S TOP SPY CATCHER QUITS IN MIDST OF SECRET INVESTIGATION INTO HOW SADDAM AND BIN LADEN OBTAINED STATE OF THE ART U.S. SOFTWARE

by Gordon Thomas

America's top spy-catcher, Paul Redmond, has suddenly resigned in the middle of his secret investigation into how Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden obtained state-of-the-art US computer software. The software is claimed to enable the two most wanted men in the world to avoid capture because it can pin-point for them every move in the global man-hunt.

Redmond's departure last week was accepted "without discussion" by President Bush " the man who had brought the spy catcher out of retirement to conduct the investigation. Hours after Redmond had cleared his desk, Bush ordered a £25 million bound bounty on Saddam's head.

He wants Saddam "dead or alive". And the same for Osama bin Laden. Already Bush has agreed to either man forgoing a trial and to be shot after interrogation. The official reason given for Redmond's abrupt departure from his wide-ranging investigation reaching deep into the Bush administration was "health reasons".

But stunned colleagues in the Homeland Security department in Washington, where Redmond had his office, insist the former Associate Director of the CIA was in perfect health.

Redmond's abrupt departure has led to intense speculation that he may have begun to uncover embarrassing details of how the software came into the hands of Saddam and bin Laden. Documents obtained by the respected International Currency Review, a London based newsletter for the financial community, allege that the software was provided to Saddam on the authority of President Bush's father when he was in the White House " a time when relations between Iraq and Washington were close, during Baghdad's war with Iran.

The Review's publisher, Christopher Story, a former financial adviser to Lady Thatcher, operates from offices near Buckingham Palace. "The documents are extremely sensitive and raise some very serious questions" , was all Mr Story would say. He confirmed they had originally been in the possession of Barzan al-Takriti, Saddam's half-brother, when he was managing Saddam's estimated £40 billion fortune.

A Paris intelligence source said the documents were copied by operatives of DGSE, the French intelligence service, earlier this year when al-Takriti made a visit to several banks in Geneva. He is now in American hands " one of the key names on the famous "deck of cards" list. Shortly after the documents reached Washington on the eve of the war with Iraq, President Bush brought Paul Redmond out of retirement.

Redmond was a legendary CIA spy catcher who helped unmask some of the most infamous spies before his 1998 retirement.

He was told to investigate how Robert Hanssen, the renegade FBI computer specialist who was a long-time Soviet agent, had handed over a copy of the software " known as Promis " to his KGB controllers for $2 million. Hanssen, now serving a life sentence for his treachery, has yet to reveal all he knows about how the KGB sold on a copy of the software to Osama bin Laden for $4 million shortly before the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. "But until Redmond's abrupt resignation, increasingly the documents relating to Saddam's use of Promis " and his relationship with President Bush's father " were what Redmond had begun to focus on", said a source close to the departed spy catcher. Originally developed by a small company in Washington called Inslaw, there are now a number of versions of the software. One version was installed by MI6 early in the 1990s. After Hanssen's arrest, the software was removed.

Germany's intelligence service, BND, did the same to its version of the software " supplied by the CIA in 1993. William Hamilton, the president of Inslaw, said that top Bush aides and FBI director Robert Mueller had met to discuss the "implications" of Redmond's investigation. "Redmond has said that Hanssen did hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage.

I have been told that Redmond's health is fine and there is a much more important reason for his resignation", said Mr Hamilton. Like Story, Mr Hamilton did not want to elaborate. But both men conceded that Redmond's investigation could have caused embarrassment to President Bush and his family.

"...acording to my sources, the 9/11 Commission has declined to investigate this fiasco and its possible role in facilitating the terrorist attacks on America....The Bush's credibility is on the line..."

<  Iraqgate UK: Blair still under pressure | Mugabe: Bush and Blair are War Criminals  >