LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND FTW’s RESPONSE

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Radlauer [mailto:donradlauer@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 1:52 AM
To: service@copvcia.com
Cc: webmaster@ict.org.il

Subject: Attn: Michael Ruppert - regarding ICT references on your website

Dear Mr. Ruppert:

I happened upon your "Oh Lucy" timeline page (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html) because I saw that someone had followed a link from there to our website. On that page, I noted Item #49, which implies some linkage between Odigo, Inc. and the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), based upon the fact that both Odigo's research and development operation and ICT are based in Herzliya. This linkage implies further that ICT had some prior knowledge of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. I have seen elsewhere references to your having claimed that ICT "monitors" securities-market trades, and that our article on the possibility of insider trading related to the September 11 attacks was based upon knowledge attained by such monitoring. Item #49 is so worded as to imply that the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism "broke" the news of possible insider trading related to the attacks on the same day the attacks occurred.

I wish to make the following points clear:

1) I am an Associate of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism. This is a non-salaried position, although I occasionally receive pay for specific projects I undertake for the Institute. I was designated as an ICT Associate some time after September 2001, and at the time my first articles were published by ICT was identified as an "ICT Consultant".

2) I am the author of the article "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" which appeared on the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism website. This article was published on our website on 19 September, 2001. This was the first and only publication of this article. I wrote the article purely on my own initiative; I did not receive nor at any time have I expected to receive any pay or other financial compensation for this article.

3) To date, I have published no other articles on this subject; nor, to my knowledge, have any other ICT staff or associates published on this subject. While I have been interviewed on the subject of possible insider trading relating to the September 11 attacks, all such interviews occurred after the publication of the article on the ICT website, and as a direct result of ICT's publication of that article.

4) I did not obtain any data for the "Black Tuesday" article from anyone else associated with ICT, or, indeed, from any individual or corporate contact. All the information included in the article was "open source" - meaning that it was freely available to the general public before I wrote my article. I wish particularly to emphasize the following:

A) All the general background information in the "Black Tuesday" article is freely available in many books about the securities markets, as well as from on-line sources.

B) All the specific information about suspicious trades listed in the article had been published in various newspaper accounts before I wrote the article, and all information of this nature that I possessed was from such newspaper accounts, located and read via the Internet.

C) The "Black Tuesday" article was intended as an analysis and synthesis of the information that had already reached the public, and not as a report of "new" previously-unpublished facts. The article made no claim whatsoever that any of the information it contained was being publicly revealed for the first time. While I did not provide footnotes or other references to the previously-published news accounts of suspicious trades, neither did I make any reference to supposed "monitoring" of securities markets, or to any other special sources for the information I used. My calculations of possible profits involved no more than simple multiplication, as was made clear in the article.

D) I still have copies of the newspaper articles (saved as web pages) from which I obtained data regarding suspicious trades made before the September 11 attacks.

5) Neither I, nor the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, nor, for that matter, any other individual or organization with which I am or have been in contact, performs any monitoring of securities markets other than the type of price-checking normally performed by ordinary private investors.

6) I have never had any contact with Odigo, Inc. or any associated company, in Israel or elsewhere. (I did send my CV to Comverse, which later purchased Odigo, during a period of unemployment - but I received no response from them.) To my knowledge, nobody at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism has had any contact with Odigo; and even if somebody at ICT has had such contact, I have not been told about it, and have received no information based upon such contact.

7) I did not have any prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks, nor did anyone else at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism. I am not acquainted with any individual or organization which had such prior knowledge.

8) While various news reporters have contacted the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism subsequent to the September 19, 2001 publication of my "Black Tuesday" article in order to discuss the issues it raised, neither you nor anyone associated with you ever contacted ICT or me individually. You felt free to discuss ICT's supposed "monitoring of securities markets" in a radio interview (of which someone sent me a transcript s/he had received), and even to imply that ICT had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks, without ever having made any effort to obtain any information from us as to where and how we had obtained the information we published.

I feel that both I personally and the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism have been materially harmed by your insinuations. At a minimum, I believe that a full, open and public clarification of the issues I have raised is called for, to be distributed at least as widely as your unfounded and reckless insinuations have been. I await confirmation of your intention to issue such a clarification. Should a positive response not be received (by email or other acceptable means) by 15 July, 2002, I will request that ICT's attorneys pursue this matter aggressively.

Sincerely,

Don Radlauer
Associate
The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
( http://www.ict.org.il )

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July 11, 2002 -- [Sent: 7/11/02, 8:17 PM]

Mr. Don Radlauer
Associate
The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
http://www.ict.org

Dear Mr. Radlauer:

I have carefully reviewed your letter of July 4, 2002.

Having searched all of the stories published by From The Wilderness since Sept. 11th, 2001 I can find no place where we have written or suggested that either you or the ICT monitors stock trades in real time. We have made repeated statements that many intelligence agencies do monitor stock trades in real time. This would include the Israeli Intelligence Service, the Mossad. Your letter does not raise this as a point of contention.

I have also found no place where I have written or published that either you or the ICT had foreknowledge of the attacks which took place on Sept. 11th. I have no evidence for such a position and I have not taken that position. I have, however, asserted that the Mossad possessed such knowledge.

I have asserted and do believe that the ICT maintains relationships with the Mossad (and presumably other intelligence agencies). Ipso facto, the credibility of ICT as a resource would be limited or negligible if it did not. The text of your letter does not raise this as a point in contention.

I have not asserted any direct connection between the ICT and Odigo, Inc. I have noted that both are located in the city of Herzliyya and I found this to be an interesting (and obvious) coincidence. I checked with several Israeli sources familiar with the area and they all stated that they found nothing unusual about this geographic coincidence. This information came to me after I noted the obvious coincidence. That coincidence remains for me an unresolved curiosity.

I have never asserted that you had any contact or affiliation with Odigo. I do not know whether the ICT has or doesn’t have any such association and I have not said so explicitly in either case.

As to any statements that I may have made in any radio interviews on the subject I believe that those statements were entirely consistent with the above.

The relationships between intelligence agencies, non-governmental organizations and the media are well documented. As an editor and publisher I was struck with the clarity and impressive analysis in “Black Tuesday” which, in its compilation and analysis of available facts, drove to the heart of many of the issues surrounding the insider trading which took place on September 11th. To my knowledge, the ICT was the first entity to produce such an excellent compendium and analysis so shortly after the attacks. Although you may have obtained all of your data from open source material, a fact which I do not dispute, no one pulled it together as quickly and as tellingly as you did. For that I commend you.

Also, as an editor, I understand – as so aptly noted by Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame – that the choice about what to print and what not to print is subjective and one of the most powerful tools at the hands of anyone who publishes. Those decisions are in the hands of editors and publishers and you have made it clear that you did not possess those authorities.
Also, with a long and detailed history of interactions between intelligence agencies and the media, I believe that it is possible that the Mossad might have encouraged the ICT to publish this article. My opinion, of course, is not a subject for legal action. I remember well a 1967 story by The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus headlined, “How I Traveled the World on a CIA Stipend.” Although I am not suggesting that you personally do, I wonder if the ICT receives any funding from the Israeli government. Would that be a public record? Can you comment?

The publication of your important story is one of a number of vital pieces of evidence which convinced me that – contrary to views expressed by certain right-wing elements in America – the nation of Israel had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the perpetration of the attacks of 9/11. In all of my lectures and radio appearances I have steadfastly maintained this position, in part, because of the ICT’s publication of your terrific article. All of my available information leads me to believe that Israel was doing all that it possibly could to warn the U.S. government and make it take preventive action.

Finally, I did send at least one e-mail to the ICT requesting comment on the story but it was not answered. The web site does not list a direct-dial number, but does list a fax number. I believe that I did send a fax, but that too is irrelevant. When quoting a story from a published source it is not necessary to contact the source and ask if the story is true. The act of publication is an act of confirmation in itself. Other aspects of the news story which I published, having nothing to do with the ICT, fell into the category of “breaking news” and my deadline and obligation to report the breaking news rightly dictated that I go to press.

I gather that you are not changing any part of “Black Tuesday” which, to this day, remains a very important piece of work.

I regret that anyone might have reached any of the conclusions which you specify in your letter. However, I believe I have made it clear that I have never made any statement like your letter indicates. For the record I believe that “Black Tuesday” was an excellent and important contribution to the world’s understanding of what happened on Sept. 11th 2001. I was saddened when a recent story in Insight Magazine failed to make any reference to the discrepancies between puts and calls in the pre-9/11 trades and made no mention of the fact that the trades only affected United and American Airlines (not Delta). They also did not look into offshore “net” positions, synthetics, and other derivatives that might have masked even greater levels of insider trading.

These questions are beyond FTW’s ability and resources to investigate. I would hope that the ICT might consider doing this important research and reporting on it.

I will post your letter and my response under the headline section of my web site www.copvcia.com for a period of thirty days. I trust this will satisfy you.

Sincerely,

Michael C. Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
“From The Wilderness”
www.copvcia.com