Last week Tom Heneghan and Stew Webb published an article which alleged that British MI6 agents attempted to bomb a Chicago subway.
“French Intelligence and The U.S. Marshals Service Monday night July 18, 2005 caught eight of Tony Blair’s British MI-6 Agents trying to bomb the Chicago Subway system. A shoot out killed 4 British Agents. Four were captured in the act of Terrorism and arrested. The British Agents part of Bush & Blair’s Al Quaida network were charged in Federal Court today with explosives. The British MI-6 Terrorist Cell Operated out of Laidlaw Corp in Chicago…” (full article)
Since this was based on information obtained by unnamed sources, I dismissed it for the time being.
Days later, Tom Flocco published an article entitled “Financial Terrorism Towers over 9.11” which included Webb and Heneghan’s information on the alleged MI6 incident.
“…And it’s not news that eight of Tony Blair’s British intelligence agents (four killed in a fire-fight) attempted to blow up the Chicago subway last week?…”
Flocco also appeared on the Jeff Rense show Friday, July 29th and added the following:
“…Where they were attempting to bomb, was the train station underneath the Dirksen Federal Building where the grand jury and Patrick, Fitzgerald were holding court. So they were attempting to basically blow up the grand jury and murder all these guys…”
Sherman Skolnick made the same speculation regarding the Dirksen Building on “Cloak & Dagger”:
“…eight cars were to be bombed, not coincidentally, right under the federal courthouse in Chicago, where special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has his offices and likewise where apparently the special federal grand jury was meeting in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case…”
Being a native resident of Chicago, I couldn’t help but try to make more sense of these allegations. First I checked for any corroborating evidence to substantiate these claims…
Was the Dirksen Federal Building an MI6 Target?
Shadowed by the Dirksen Federal Building, the Blue Line entrance to
the Adams-Jackson mezzanine from the east side of Dearborn Street
Notice the picture above. This is a Blue Line entrance adjacent to the Dirksen Federal building.
If there was an attempt to bomb the Dirksen it would have most likely been carried out at this station. On August 1st, 2005 a radio talk show caller (mp3 link) on Jack Blood’s “Deadline Live” drew the same conclusion.
However, in the following statement, Tom Flocco concludes the MI6 allegations are true, partially based on the assumption that the incident occurred at the same time the Red Line was rerouted to the El tracks…
“…I looked into it and I found there’s news reports saying that, yes they shut down the Chicago subway for 45 minutes, 50 minutes and late on the afternoon on Monday, they cleared it, they evacuated it. So there’s a partial confirmation that something happened and when I put that with the fact that I trust the guy that was telling me, then I believe it happened…” (source: see Flocco/Rense transcripts in bibliography)
The subway Flocco is referring to is the Red Line which was rerouted to the elevated tracks at approximately 4:52 PM. The alleged MI6 incident doesn’t occur until 6:33 PM, 1 hour and 41 minutes after the Red Line had been rerouted. If the Heneghan/Skolnick 6:33 PM allegations are correct, Flocco’s argument is flawed due to the error in time, therefore this is erroneous information. (source: July 19th RedEye, “Red Line evacuated after a report of a suspicious package”)
I emailed Flocco in order to better understand the discrepancy in time, Flocco replied by emailing me his latest article which contained more of the same information from the same unnamed sources.
Regardless of which line was involved, it’s interesting to note the Jackson Blue Line station is connected to the Jackson Red Line station via the Jackson transfer tunnel. Both lines run parallel in the Loop area.
The Jackson transfer tunnel runs between Blue Line and Red Line
stations (Photo by Graham Garfield)
BLUE V RED
Since the two stations are within close proximity of each other, we can conclude that the crime scene of the alleged bombing would have most likely included both Blue and Red Line CTA tubes as well as associated stations and walkways.
Above: The Dirksen Federal building and the CTA stops in question as
rendered by Google Earth®. Note that both stops are connected under
ground via the Jackson transfer tunnel.
Let’s take a look at a timeline of events that might support the Webb/Heneghan allegations.
*1) 6:33 PM - Alleged MI6 Bomb Plot Foiled:
“…four would be bombers apprehended in the Chicago subway and everybody about 6:30 PM, Monday July 18th was cleared out of the subway…” (source: Sherman Skolnick)
“French intelligence, our great ally of 200 years, and the U.S. Marshall Service, where they at around 6:33 central standard time, able to make their way into the subway, stop the Red Line train, get the people off the train…disarm the British terrorists and grab three or four other British terrorists who are now incarcerated.” (source: Tom Heneghan)
Heneghan states that 3 or 4 suspects have been incarcerated. I was unable to locate any reports of arrests made in the area Dirksen Federal building following the alleged event. Either the arrests never happened or, to the best of my knowledge, went unreported.
Another possibility is that the alleged MI6 agents were able to flee the area. If this were so, which way did they go?
Red Line Escape Route?
I checked for any CPD arrests after 6:30. I found that at 6:49, 16 minutes after the alleged failed bombing, there was an arrest/s near the Roosevelt Red Line station, which is categorized as “Other Criminal offenses”. (source/source)
Let’s consider the Jackson to Roosevelt Red Line stops as a possible escape route. Would the would-be bombers have had enough time to ride the Red Line south to Roosevelt and be arrested at 6:49 PM? (source/source)
*2) 6:34 PM Southbound Red Line scheduled stop at Jackson (source)
*3) 6:48 PM Red Line scheduled stop at Roosevelt (source)
*4) 6:49 PM - 1200 S Wabash Ave “Other Criminal offenses”, Arrest/s is made (source/source)
Abbreviated CTA map highlighting potential red, blue, green and orange
line “escape routes” in the south Loop
You might want to also consider the Green/Orange elevated lines as a potential escape route, however I will dismiss these lines for now due to the several additional minutes it would require to walk/run from the subway to the El platform.
Chicago Police or U.S. Marshals Service?
If this arrest is related to the alleged MI6/CTA incident, who made the arrest? Was it CPD or the U.S. Marshals Service?
I found that the U.S. Marshals and Chicago Police Department work in collaboration under the Great Lakes Regional Task Force. One can conclude this leaves open the possibility that CPD may have participated in the arrest, which means the arrest may have been included in the ICAM database. (source)
What about the Blue Line, which runs adjacent to the Dirksen Federal building?
Blue Line ran express from UIC to Clark & Lake
During rush-hour, running nonstop through the South Loop, the Blue Line avoided the Jackson station located below the Dirksen Federal building.
“…I normally take the Blue Line at UIC to Clark and Lake, then transfer to the Brown Line and take it to Fullerton on my commute. When I boarded the train after work, the conductor kept saying that there would be no transfers at any station until Clark and Lake. Weird. We got to Clark and Lake and it was a giant wall of people, cops and dogs, telling everyone to move above ground, and that anyone who needed to transfer to the Red Line can pick it up on the tracks above ground…”
(source: livejournal user x_artemisia)
Taking into account that the Red Line/Blue Line changes occurred at the beginning of Rush hour and Heneghan/Webb’s alleged MI6 incident happened at 6:33 PM, I must dismiss both Red Line and Blue Line reports as more erroneous data.
Conclusion as of August 2nd, 2005
Since this allegation was made on July 19th, I’ve spoken with scores of CPD officers, CTA employees and dozens of CTA riders, none of whom witnessed any arrests or officers with guns drawn. No reports of Ambulances with several dead/wounded MI6 gents. All of them tell the same story.
Shortly before 5:00 PM the Red Line was rerouted to the Brown Line El tracks . Each rider reported a delay of between 40 to 50 minutes. Northbound Blue Liners report an express which stops at the Thompson Center (Clark & Lake).
I haven’t spoken with anyone that recalls an incident in the South Loop at around 6:30. However a large percentage of downtown commuters had left the Loop by this time.
What do we have to substantiate the Heneghan et al claim? Not a whole lot.
Heneghan Confronted on his recent Bush/Cheney Indictment Allegation
Heneghan has recently made another uncorroborated allegation stating that George Walker Bush, Dick Cheney and other administration officials were recently named in a Federal indictment regarding the Patrick Fitzgerald Chicago Grand Jury.
Tom Heneghan, along with Tom Flocco and other “Cloak & Dagger” pundits discussed this in the early hours of August 2nd, 2005 (source mp3) (8/8 correction to the above, Heneghan not present on the 8/2 Cloak briefing, Heneghan was on truthradio…)
Later, on the same day, Heneghan appeared on truthradio.com’s “Floyd Report”. During the show he is confronted with allegations that dispute his claim. (source mp3)
Chicago - June/July 2005
Whether or not Heneghan’s allegations are based in fact is not the entire issue. When one looks what has been happening in Chicago since mid-June 2005, one could speculate on many possible related points.
What follows are numerous points of potentially related interest concerning Chicago politics, transit and law enforcement…
Federal Takeover of Chicago: BIG MOB V SMALL MOB?
July 1st, 2005: 268 Million in Federal Funding goes into CTA:
“A federal transportation bill earmarks $245.5 million for Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line rehabilitation and expansion and $28 million for other transportation related projects across Chicago’s North Side, according to an announcement released today by U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)…” (source/source)
$10,000 Bounty on the “head” of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley:
“The Cook County Republican Party announced Tuesday a $10,000 reward for any “whistleblower” who provides information leading to the indictment and conviction of Mayor Daley for violations of the Shakman Decree or other forms of political corruption…” (audio source / source)
Congress OKs 1 Billion in “STAR” funding:
“Congress has approved $1 billion in funding for the Chicago area’s first suburb-to-suburb commuter rail service, though it’s still unclear what route the line would take through the Joliet area…” (source)
June 2005, Mossad agents in Chicago training CPD, etc
“…Last year, Perry, the Israeli commander of the bomb disposal unit and a former member of the Mossad, Israel’s central intelligence agency, briefed more than 425 top federal and local law enforcement officials from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania at a conference at Princeton University. This month, [June, 2005] Levy and Perry will be in Chicago…”
“…Levy has been traveling across the United States with other Israeli security experts to share counterterrorism tactics with American law enforcement officials. They are briefing not only big-city cops but county sheriffs and police chiefs…”
“…agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives along with police officials, sheriffs and bomb technicians have been traveling to Israel for week-long lessons on terrorism…”
“…After returning from Israel, Gainer retrained his officers to shoot a potential suicide bomber in the head rather than aim for the chest, as they were originally taught, because shooting the chest could detonate a suicide vest…”
“…Several of the Israel trips have been organized by the research forum, a Washington-based organization that works with police nationwide. Others are planned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a Washington think tank that focuses on defense and national security issues and promotes cooperation with Israel as vital to U.S. security interests…”
“…Since the summer of 2002, the institute has sent 40 senior law enforcement officials to Israel, including the Los Angeles assistant police chief, the security chief of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and the police chiefs of Gaithersburg and Prince William County…”
“…A key lesson came during a class in Tel Aviv on Islamic fundamentalism.
“…An Israeli security official rushed in to report an attack on Gaza Street in Jerusalem. A Palestinian policeman on a bus detonated a bomb packed with shrapnel, killing himself and 10 others and wounding 45…”
“…The Americans wanted to go to the site. But Israeli Brig. Gen. Simon Perry told them there was little point. While a bombing in America might be roped off for days, by the time the officials got to Jerusalem, the scene would be cleared…”
“…It’s very important to them to clear a crime scene quickly and get back to business as usual,” said Sterling P. Owen IV, the Knoxville chief of police. “They do not want their lives and businesses to be disrupted. Their philosophy is, we’re going to reopen just as though it never happened.”…”
“They clean and clear as quickly as they can. The suicide bomber is dead. There’s not this meticulous combing for evidence in every case.” (source)
[8/5/05 overlooked drill added]
Israel: IDF “Chicago” Pullout Drill
“…A mock settlement, referred to as “Chicago”, has been constructed, and the trainees will enact various scenarios that could arise during the evacuation. Soldiers and police will play both the parts of settlers and the forces evacuating them…”
(source)
Other considerations:
Heneghan et al claim that the motive was to “blow up the grand jury”. Would a grand jury convene beyond daily court hours?
Yes. I consulted with several Cook County attorneys that all agreed that, under certain circumstances in which the grand jury would be better served by remaining unmolested by the media or to protect them from general threats, grand jury meetings may be scheduled in a way to thwart such obstructions.
Wayne Madsen pointed this out:
“The CIA leak grand jury is sitting in Washington, DC. The grand jury is under the control of the U.S. District Court for DC. The grand jury meets in a highly secure court room at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in DC. The court that heard the Cooper-Miller appeal is the US Court of Appeals for DC. Judge Thomas Hogan of the US District Court for DC is not in Chicago. US District Court Chief Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who was also involved in the Grand Jury, is not in Chicago. Judge Tatel of the Appeals Court who said the charges in the case are very serious, is not in Chicago. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is detailed from the US Attorney for Northern Illinois (Chicago) to the Justice Department. On the CIA leak case, he works at the Courts in DC, not in Chicago. Also, the prosecutor cannot constitutionally indict a sitting President or Vice President. That is handled by Congress through impeachment.”
However it’s not clear if Heneghan is alleging that an additional grand jury has convened in Chicago or if he is just mistaken.
Other others:
Tommy “Two-times”: a reference to a quote in the film “Good Fellas”. If you are familiar with Tom Heneghan, you will understand this is a playful jab at his style of repeating statements. e.g. “I’m gonna go get the papers, get the papers.”
The above article represents an honest attempt at gathering a better understanding of this alleged incident, it does not necessarily preclude that Tom Heneghan’s allegations are unfounded. However, Tom’s allegations are still uncorroborated as of this writing.
-Culhavoc
…
Bibliography
Transcripts:
These are partial transcripts of net-radio broadcasts, only information pertaining to the Heneghan MI6/Chi allegations have been transcribed.
Heneghan and Skolnick on Cloak and Dagger, 7/24/2005
Skolnick: “…you can see how this fits in with what happened July 18th, an attempted bombing of 8 cars of the Chicago subway, which was stopped uhh, with the help of uhh a foreign intelligence agency, and uhh, the eight cars were to be bombed, not coincidentally, right under the federal courthouse in Chicago, where special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has his offices and likewise where apparently the special federal grand jury was meeting in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. The press in Chicago has, almost completely censored the thing. All they had on the radio was that there was a Chicago subway scare, when actually there were four would be bombers apprehended in the Chicago subway and everybody about 6:30 PM, Monday July 18th was cleared out of the subway and buses were already prepared to take the would be subway passengers away.
Heneghan: “Well, let me report, you’re right Sherman, and uhh, one of the reasons this is happening is because Tony Blair and his box of filth had along with Bush fraud, because of the scope of the expanding investigation of the Patrick Fitzgerald grand jury, had ordered that the uhh city of Chicago be attacked. And of course it’s convenient for them to attack the city of Chicago, since it’s basically a uhh Roman Catholic city with a Roman Catholic Irish mayor, attacked relentlessly by British-owned oil-soaked press, aka the Chicago Tribune”
Skolnick: “The Tribune yesterday, had falsely accused Fitzgerald, claiming that by hiring his chief assistant recently, he hired a friend of his. That’s a natural thing, I mean he hired somebody that he knew and trusted.”
Heneghan: “Well I’m warning the Chicago Tribune”
Skolnick: “But the Tribune, owned in great part by the British monarchy, keeps attacking Fitzgerald, trying to set up a religious friction and other situations in order to deter the grand jury’s inquiry that is focused on the people that you mentioned, Tom.”
…
Heneghan: “…we’re not going to allow the British intelligence service to stage an attack against the American people and the citizens of the city of Chicago, while you were prepared to do by leaking the subway map of Chicago in your oil-soaked British royal family controlled newspaper. Only because of the heroic activity of French intelligence, our great ally of 200 years, and the U.S. Marshall Service, where they at around 6:33 central standard time, able to make their way into the subway, stop the Red Line train, get the people off the train. We’ll just put it to you this way, disarm the British terrorists and grab three or four other British terrorists who are now incarcerated, is that correct Sherman?”
Tom Flocco on Rense Friday, July 29th, 2005
Flocco: “…well I don’t know all the details, but I have talked to an individual who spoke with French Intelligence and, and the uhhh, and the uhh, uhh, American intelligence people who put a stop to it. Ya know, I spoke to this guy, he spoke to them…”
Rense: “…ahh, that’s what I heard too, but I don’t know any more.”
Flocco “…on the phone, I talked to him personally on the phone ten minutes before the attempt, and he was involved, directly involved in putting a stop to an attempt and I didn’t understand the significance. Where they were attempting to bomb, was the train station underneath the Dirksen Federal Building where the grand jury and Patrick, uhhh Fitzgerald were holding court.”
Rense: “Huh.”
Flocco: “So they were attempting to basically blow up the grand jury and murder all these guys, you know, and and I said, he, ooh this is really, you know you hear guys sayin this and the guy that told me this, I really trust him. You talk about an articulate, fine, per[son] I mean this guy is really sharp, his articulate, he’s a total patriot he’s motivated, he’s the type of guy, the type of guy that should be holding some sort of office, the kind of guy we need, ya know, and uhh, and uhh, what we’re saying here without getting getting too deep into this thing is that ya know they’re telling me, and I’m hearing this and I’m thinkin to myself ‘why isn’t this news?’ This is really terrible. Ya know, well I looked into it and I found there’s news reports saying that, yes they shut down the Chicago subway for 45 minutes, 50 minutes and late on the afternoon on Monday, they cleared it, they evacuated it. So there’s a partial confirmation that something happened and when I put that with the fact that I trust the guy that was telling me, then I believe it happened…”
Other related links:
CTA frequencies (not exactly up to date)
http://www.chicagoscanningclub.com/CSCCTA.htm
ICAM:
http://12.17.79.6/ctznicam/ctznicam.asp
LaidLaw:
http://www.laidlawcorp.com
http://www.laidlaw.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=145371&p=irol-home
Dirksen Federal Bldg:
http://www.emporis.com/en/cd/cm/?id=103945
Media Coverage:
(Chicago Tribune)
July 8th: Package on Redline/Berwyn
(source)
Riders say that CTA fails to communicate (quotes bloggers at ctatattler)
(Tribune source1/source2)
Cloak & Dagger:
Note that the July 24th program has been removed from cloakanddagger.de This is the broadcast in which Heneghan and Skolnick place the time of the event at 6:33 PM CST
(7/24-mp3 / 7/31-mp3 / 8/02-mp3)
TruthRadio.com: August 1st and 2nd broadcasts (I have archives of both shows, contact me if you would like a copy)
Rense: 7/29 with Tom Flocco (I have this interview as well)
Blogs:
CTA Tattler…
July 19, 2005
Messy rush hour caused by unattended package
“What a mess rush hour was last night on CTA rail lines.
An unattended package forced evacuation of a Red Line train at Roosevelt at about 4:45 pm. Passengers were herded off the train and then led to the elevated tracks in the Loop, where Red Line trains were sitting above ground taking on delayed passengers. And when the Red Line joins the Purple and Brown Line trains on the same track, you can bet on long delays. Some folks sat in trains at one spot for 30 minutes or so.”
The CTA was its usual reticent self. Though it did post this terse announcement on it Web site.
(CTA Tattler July 18th/19th thread)
(CTA-Tattler comments here)
More blogs:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/chicago_el/159218.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/chicago_el/
http://angieoneal.com/wordpress/?p=151
Chicago Bomb Threats:
http://www.chicagocrime.org/types/bomb_threat/192/
CTA news, notice the story from July 18th has been DELETED
CTA news page: http://www.transitchicago.com/news/whatsnew.wu
Story from July 18th no longer exists. (anomaly?)
Downtown CTA map:
(www.transitchicago.com)
See Part II “More Unsubstantiated MI6/CTA Claims”
