owner says for the palm of your. comb. oh i'm sorry washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture earlier this week i had a chance to sit down with anthony summers to discuss his long standing career as a journalist and author of investigative works of nonfiction work provides a new perspective on many monumental moments in this country's history including the assassination of president kennedy involve the united states and war two in the scandals of the nixon presidency anthony's newest book examines the many conspiracy theories surrounding the terrorist attacks of nine eleven and offers an in-depth examination of documents and evidence in a previously been withheld from the public take a look. for

tonight's cover stations of great minds i'm joined by journalist and author anthony summers anthony summers studied modern languages at oxford university before embarking on a journalism career that landed in the position of b.b.c.'s youngest producer at the age of twenty four and a lot of travel the world report on some of history's most memorable moments during the one nine hundred sixty s. and seventy's for the past thirty years anthony has concentrated on investigative nonfiction author in seven bestselling books about historical figures like tsar nicholas the second president john f. kennedy f.b.i. director j. edgar hoover and president richard nixon is also written biographies of celebrities marilyn monroe and frank sinatra his latest book the eleventh day well it's about account of nine eleven is an investigation of the terrorist attacks of nine eleven september eleventh is the product of five years. we had some research and access

for the first time to tens of thousands of previously was withheld nine eleven commission documents it has been hailed as the first comprehensive independent account of the events that changed america forever i'm honored to welcome anthony summers our studios in new york anthony welcome thanks so much for being with us. let's end by the way congratulations on becoming honorary fellow at university college in dublin i was treated with yet more respect well i've behaved behaved to me in totally different way from known. let's let's start with the present and work backwards just because you know this is this is the moment nine eleven. i mean it's not this moment but this is your newest book and with regard to this the nine eleven book not what. us what did u.s. intelligence agencies know before nine eleven and why was the public never.

but of course if we knew entirely what they knew then we'd be wired for people. told oh it was under play by the official investigation. it is clear that they knew more than we know they know. in particular. fascinating that. they knew about the first two hijackers to arrive in the united states has made who would let much later that were much two years later. in the attack on the pentagon they knew about them before they even arrived in the united states they had followed one of them photographed his hospital in his room learned that he had an entry visa to the united states had him surveilled had a terrorist meeting in malaysia. and then. they claim cia crane

lost track of him but they learned a little less that a colleague of his has me. had arrived in los angeles the two of them and has made it flown in on the same plane. but the cia didn't tell the f.b.i. and it didn't tell the state department which would have prevented further trouble . why why didn't they tell the agency that is responsible for domestic counter-terrorism it's a big question it's not you know answered by the cia which has made he's thrown up its hands in the end and said well it could say because we made a series of multiple errors there are serious that was including most recently clarke who was counterterrorism advisor coordinator for the white house under both clinton and bush and he says he thinks the only rational explanation is that the

cia. was had the notion of pride. turning to terrorists getting them to become plan informants who are all surveilling them watching them while they were in the united states well if they tried to do either of those two things the operation went grievously wrong because the it would the truth remains completely opaque but it's really quite remarkable that this this in a decade and what evidence is the that there that other countries were involved it's. that there were. indications that two other countries were involved one of them is a brown which of course in the united states ones tend to think of as pro terrorist and i'm sure the united states. but so far as i've been able to gather the evidence

against iran amounts principally to the time good they allowed the nine eleven future nine eleven terrorists to cross into. afghanistan into iran without stamping their passports and then again travel through iran in order to travel either to the middle east or to the west now this was very i'm not having a possible it's down contrary important because if you arrived. in front of a u.s. immigration office with an iranian stamp in your passport you'd be looked at from all coldly and with much greater interest so it was important but it doesn't mean that it iran necessarily had any for knowledge of the nine eleven attacks. another there's another country and in that case the information is far more disquieting saudi arabia. there are two levels of which one has to look at saudi

arabia in this story the saudis of course the. allies going back to the end of the second world war because of oil. had. were if you like. on this they were on the one hand there they were and are. hugely. hugely hostile to israel and also the home of the most zealous islamic extremism. outside afghanistan on the planet. it's also completely impenetrable society a closed society. that country felt threatened by us on the bed who had. been become become the black sheep of the saudi. elite and was in afghanistan in a strange from the royal family in theory but it seems that there were those who

played double game and that with those who paid what if we were discussing the mascot organized crime in this interview we would say that they were paying protection money there were two named princes prince sultan and prince naive who have been reported in responsible. responsible sources not least in the wall street journal as having paid millions of dollars in its initial money. to al qaeda or to us on the same thing. to ensure that the saudis were not attacked by al qaida the deal was we'll pay you money if you don't attack us quite separately within the united states and in california there's evidence that. saudis with official connections at the saudi consulate in los angeles and saudi with connections to start to gave you. and and who had

a reputation. as being a saudi intelligence agent help those first two rivals the guys we were talking about just meet on has me help them in a supported sense because they needed it because they couldn't speak english. at all and they were complete strangers to the west and western ways hope them help them get set up in an apartment. were there for them if you died. and just recently in the last week oh so i consider to believe that i had during the research from the book in florida which is where three of the four pilots hijackers learned to fly and find that there's another connection with saudis living near sarasota so the evidence of some sort of saudi support for the hijackers involved in nine eleven is troubling. troubling to say the very least you you write in the book about john o'neill and how he was working on the saudi connection even

before nine eleven. who was he what it what happened with him and how did that all work out. for both heroic and tragic story john o'neill was a swashbuckling senior. officer more than that more than what one thinks over the street agent he was very a very senior counterterrorism. agent in new york city based out of new york city who had been to and from the middle east and was an expert on saudi arabia and was very very frustrated at the way he had to deal with the saudis to i think i can say this on television he said to the director of the f.b.i. when they were flying back on one occasion from saudi arabia and the director of the f.b.i. of the day said well i think they were they were really quite helpful the saudis

they get so much of which john o'neill responded. they were just shining sunshine up here and. more seriously. much more seriously pete john o'neill gave an interview in the summer of two thousand and one and said that all that we're trying to find out about al qaeda all the counter to all our counter-terror terrorism efforts would be rewarded if. if we could track back to saudi arabia he said all the problem originated in saudi arabia he then left the f.b.i. resigned from the f.b.i. in the mid summer of two thousand and one and extraordinarily as it was written by a playwright he became the senior security officer for the world trade center and he would die on nine eleven trying to rescue people from the from the south tower. what were the untrue accounts that you know about nine eleven told by president

bush and vice president cheney. well untruths were told very soon to the nine eleven attacks in ways that are consistent because you know it's like any lie when once you've told a lie phil said it it becomes but the fact it becomes a fact and it gets written down a becomes the fact. i think we should talk about the the the untruths told not only by bush and cheney but also by. one of the generals who was involved in the minute the attempt to defend the u.s. skies that day one former general general myers said on earth. would very shortly after the attacks that if the last plane hijacked that united ninety three had reached the washington area it would have been shot down absolutely not

true the audio and all the evidence all the documentation shows that the military. had absolutely no idea the plane had even been hijacked. by the time that it crashed i mean there's absolutely no way that they would have stopped it why did he tell that fit well i think i mean it's my speculation but that the fed was told to make the military look better to make it look as though everything was functioning properly that day and i think that's the same cause of the fabrication because i think it's a fabrication based on the evidence that. dick cheney said that he had given the order to shoot down civilian aircraft if they had been hijacked and failed to obey instructions to land he said that he consulted. with president bush as the commander in chief and said do you think this is a good idea and the president. gave theo thirty k.

the authorization to shoot down hijacked airliners which is a huge decision but i think a perfectly sensible decision in the circumstances except put all the evidence is that it didn't happen that way what happened so far as one can tell i mean. ninety percent probability probability is probably higher than that is that cheney gave the order to shoot down hijacked airliners and afterwards president bush authorized it now. i think there are many who would argue and i'd be amongst them that this was not an unreasonable decision to make but they seem to have figured out it was again because they wanted it to look as though the us leadership was truly functioning that day they felt that that's how they wanted to look and it's what the american people would want just wasn't that way more with anthony summers on our conversations with great minds right after the break.

a new website needs twenty four seven live streaming news what to tell you about the new website with twenty four seven live streaming what to do about it on going financial hard unlimited free high quality videos for download. and stories you may never find on streaming. video at the center of the political. parties are just. so. so.

hard she is the state run in an english speaking russian channel it's kind of like . russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. we're back with conversations of great minds that i'm joined by journalist and author anthony summers. and think one of the first books that you were very famous for was one of the first really good thoughtful thorough books on the

assassination of john f. kennedy recently reissued under the title not in your lifetime nine hundred ninety eight but the house select committee on assassinations reported that the huge it's quote maybe the committee believes on the basis of the available evidence the president john f. kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and approach problems in error in your mind and based on your research what was that. what an unfortunate i mean a fascinating reversal of the warren commission report which said that the hobby ozwald on his own shot president kennedy and then here comes years later it comes to a congressional committee that concludes that president kennedy was probably killed as a result of conspiracy for his story and that that's truly unsatisfactory but it was a major move forward they concluded by the way at the same time that not in the

thinking had definitely been killed as a result of a conspiracy. i tried to avoid the kennedy assassination for years i was then working for the b.b.c. the british broadcasting corporation and i i thought reporters reputation would go down the plughole disappear without trace if we messed around with the kennedy assassination i think with good reason because our true we those of us who were around then sat through the jim garrison circus. in your new orleans. which was a tragedy of a prosecution because it was right in new orleans that. lee harvey oswald had been until not long before before the assassination vital events occurred in and around new orleans and yet the waters were completely muddied by that reasonable investigation and prosecution. which absolute which failed i mean the

guys he charged were found not guilty. try to get involved to other at that stage when the congressional investigation began in the late seventy's. and i did do a documentary which was shown on the b.b.c. under around this country. and i was astounded i would go to see witnesses and i would say to them. you know i'm sure i'm sorry to be here bothering you because i'm sure that in the past you were interviewed by the new york times the washington post and of course the f.b.i. and agencies and time after time. i would find people that if they didn't for me down the stairs they would say to me oh come in come in mr summers nobody's ever talked to us and i've realized that to the shame of the u.s. media no two journalists woodward and bernstein's if you like of nine hundred sixty

three had ever been told by their it editor you're on this story and you're on it if it takes two three years you're on the story until you're off it and the fact was that the reporters of the united states had looked into the if you like the panoply the tragedy of the affair and the funeral and all and all that they had momentous issues involved in the death of the president but they haven't investigated the case no one had been there being what i think. decent media has to be being a flea on the back of the rhinoceros that is. when i emerged from making the documentary i then thought i've got so much left over and i don't see war not so much that. talking to witnesses on the ground i do have something to say so so i wrote a book and a brilliant one i was another book that you wrote official and confidential the secret life of j. edgar hoover. it was was it well known at the time that you begin the

investigation that hoover was gay. and then the base going to bother going blackmailing him or was this something that you broke and and how did you know what . what's where i mean we were just like we have a topic. yes well with respect to. him being gay i have to say i mean it wouldn't. have mattered although it would have mattered in his day to day story fact but the man was not heterosexual is not in itself. necessarily a terrible thing. but there was that room a around him not nice because he never married and because he effectively healed though not precisely he lived with his close a clyde tolson for many many is who when who died.

became effectively like it like you would they went everywhere spent all the time together clyde tolson rose meteoric clay from a humble agent to become assistant director of the f.b.i. in very short order to have three years so it looked as though they were gay. and that i think it did become significant as you rightly point out when i put together the facts about trade good. trade hoovers a version to pursuing the math here in united states with the facts which i find compelling that the that the mafia. knew about his sexuality and used it as a lever to to make sure that he did note that the f.b.i. did not pursue organized crime at the very time that it was right on the rise and could have been squashed so that by the time the f.b.i.

did get serious about organized crime which was during the kennedy administration. it had reached a peak and was enormously powerful so that it couldn't be scorched at all and it took. a long time years later for one could say that organized crime was even even moral that speak. you write about j. edgar hoover influence in the course of world war two by ignoring a warning about pearl harbor. yes and i'm glad you hit on that because i think that was. a real. manifestation of a man who had by that time gained so much power and did you can so about his judgment about people and the extent of his. i'm a man called kosko part of a pretty and. agent who worked for the british. come through didn't report it to

his british intelligence masters that. the japanese were likely to attack and that they were likely to attack. and major american haba and he concluded that he bought that information. to try new york clearly the british thought it was so important that they sent him in person across the atlantic to carry the warning to the f.b.i. . and hoover had a more for a couple of weeks and this guy was a womanizer famous womanizer i mean he was a real look. and. flash with it and like wining and dining and living very well and. i mean a true sort of james bond and who didn't like that at all. he said that he was a real decadent dissolute figure which he when he wasn't i know

a great deal about him now because i know his family and have still spent time with them. but he was also done a good agent and. the tragedy of it is that who knows how much it affected what actually happened but the tragedy the the evidence is that when. the information that brought to the united states was sent digested and analyzed and sent to the white house. the adamant about it would make it because because of hoover's opinion of the this fellow. that's what i wasn't there and we can you know i was in there and we can only say we can only surmise but it's significant that the most important thing that came to say that the british wanted him to say yes and i've talked to his control of some of the people who who for whom he worked in british intelligence as well before they died and. they were just devastated when

pearl harbor occurred in the way that it did occur and called he called the united states nothing yeah j. edgar hoover also according to your your writing used his knowledge of john kennedy's womanizing to ensure that lyndon johnson became vice president he wrote relied on dirty tricks to stay in office under kennedy and subverted the warren commission's probe into the investigation of his death do i have it right. here i think you have it generally right on a t.v. program one can talk about it too closely i think the last of the elements of what you just said are the most important. that in a sense he did subvert the warren commission but it's a bigger thing than that you know people too well when i wrote that book. old media . well surprise surprise on his sexuality and the more flowery bits that i reported about that from the first time conversation with people and in

most places. it was the way he imbued he abused the system that had chemical abuse the democracy that is most disturbing the way in which he would. have hit effectively have these agents as spies. in the u.s. senate and in the congress the way in which and i talked to some people who had had personal experience of this the way in which he would send one of his assistants. to the hill and have a conversation with the senator in which he killed. in the course of things would be the aide would put a document on the desk or just remark that one knew that said senator had been called to a stroke. drink driving with a woman not his wife beside him. little things like that peccadilloes is basically

i don't just say well i want to sleep. yes effectively i would it would never be expressed as militants who would like now to misunderstand me with some p.p. you know i just wanted to let you know that the director knows this we know about this but don't you. and of course the congressman or or the senator in question knew that he done well did not work hard and work well we just have a little over a minute left anthony summers in your book god as the secret lives of marilyn monroe i thought one of the most fascinating aspects of this was all the confusion around the nature and death of marilyn monroe was there a cover up. in short yes i think clearly there was a cover up which doesn't mean that was a cover up of her death nor does it necessarily mean that there's anything sinister going on that she was murdered what is clear though is that. with

tray of k. and. relationship or some sort of intimacy although it's not clear that it was a full fledged relationship with robert kennedy who was attorney general at the time there was a great rush and you can see why with an election looming for a second time in over says sixty two that was suddenly covered up remarkable anthony summers thank you so very much for being with us tonight. that drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who made the decision to break through get through did made who can you trust no one who'll be assuming he'll be with a global mission that would see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called sac.