Dear 911 researcher,
Before I begin here with the quotes, I must say that while many quotes
refer to the first issue (the attacks were not expected), most of them
mention lack of coordination between the security authorities, and not
complete lack of information and preparedness. Another problem was the
expectance of an attack overseas, as mentioned both by Rice and in
source no. (6).
President Bush
--------------
In May 2002, Bush denounced what he called "second guessing" on the
issue and (according to (3)) "saying he had no clear indication that
terrorists would hijack four airliners and crash them last fall:
"The American people know this about me and my national security team,
and my administration," he said during an event in the Rose Garden.
"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that
fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect
the American people."
In June 2002, he referred to the lack of communication between the FBI
and the CIA, and said that "In terms of whether the FBI and CIA were
communicating properly, I think it is clear that they weren't," (4).
Condeleezza Rice
----------------
According to (1) the President received in August 2001 an analytical
report on Al_Qaida, including information that they might hijack
planes. Rice declared: "It mentioned hijacking, but hijacking in the
traditional sense and, in a sense, said that the most important and
most likely thing was that they would take over an airliner, holding
passengers and demand the release of one of their operatives.“ She
also added, "I want to reiterate that during this time the
overwhelming bulk of the evidence was that this was an attack that was
likely to take place overseas.“
"Had this President known of something more specific, or known that a
plane was going to be used as a missile, he would have acted on it.",
(...) "there was no time, there was no place, there was no method of
attack. It simply said, these are people who train and seem to talk
possibly about hijackings". (9)
Ari Fleischer
-------------
In (2), Ari Fleischer (then the White House spokesman), is quoted to
have said that there had been among U.S. intelligence officials
"longstanding speculation" about the possibility of a hijacking "but
not suicide bombers, not using planes as missiles,".
"until the attack took place, I think it's fair to say that no one
envisioned that [using planes as suicide bombs] as a possibility."
(11)
George Tenet
------------
"the CIA was convinced months before the Sept. 11 hijackings that
Osama bin Laden was plotting to kill large numbers of Americans, but
the intelligence available was "maddeningly short" of details that
could have prevented the attack"
"Regarding criticism that the CIA should have given more warning that
terrorists intended to use planes as weapons, Tenet said in seven
years the agency received, and passed on, all 12 reports of such
terrorist planning, even those from dubious sources." (8)
Bob Graham (D-Florida, Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee)
----------
"There was no single source that was looking at all that information
to try to see if there was a pattern, a picture, a plot," "Had that
happened, then I think another series of questions would have been
asked, more information would have been collected, and with luck, it
might have occurred early enough to have disrupted the hijackers
before the horrific events of September 11." (6).
"Administration Officials" (unnamed)
------------------------------------
According to (2), the White House knew of a possible hijacking linked
with Bin Laden. However, according to "senior administration
officials" quoted in this article, "there was no speculation about the
use of an airplane itself as a bomb or a weapon, and no specific,
credible information about the possibility of a hijacking of any
sort".
CIA Spokesman (unnamed)
-------------
"A CIA spokesman vigorously denied that the CIA knew anything about
Jarrah before September 11 or had anything do with his questioning in
Dubai.
"That is flatly untrue," the spokesman said. (5)
"High Placed Intelligence Source"
---------------------------------
"FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were
prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations
into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist
attacks of September 11. (...) " "There were always constraints on
investigating the Saudis" (...) after the Bush administration took
over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to "back off"
from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family,
the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of
nuclear weapons by Pakistan" (7)
Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley
------------------------
"we had not postured, prior to September 11th, 2001, for the scenario
that took place that day. " (10)
Of interest: Dick Cheney (before the attacks)
----------------------------------------------
In an interview before the attack (May 2001), Dick Cheney warned of
threats, and concluded that "It could be domestic terrorism, but it
may also be a terrorist organization overseas or even another state
using weapons of mass destruction against the U.S., a hand-carried
nuclear weapon or biological or chemical agents," he said. "The threat
to the continental United States and our infrastructure is changing
and evolving. And we need to look at this whole area, oftentimes
referred to as homeland defense." (2)
Sources for the Quotes
----------------------
(1) CNN "Rice: 'No specific time, place or method mentioned'" May 17
2002 http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/16/rice.sept11/index.html
(2) CNN, "Bush briefed on hijacking threat before September 11" May 16
2002 http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/15/bush.sept.11/
(3) CNN, "Prior hints of September 11-type attack" May 18 2002,
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/05/17/bush.sept.11/
(4) CNN, "Bush: No evidence attacks were preventable" June 4, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/04/bush.attacks/
(5) CNN "September 11 hijacker questioned in January 2001"
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/08/01/cia.hijacker/
(6) CNN, "Congress to reveal evidence on pre-9/11 threats" September
17, 2002, http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/17/intelligence.hearings/
(7) Greg Pallast and David Pallister, "Intelligence Inquiries into bin
Laden Relatives Squashed Before September 11th" The Guardian, November
7 2001, http://www.webcom.com/hrin/magazine/binladenrelatives.html
(8) CBSNews, "Terror Warning From CIA Chief",
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/09/attack/printable525012.shtml
(9) Gay Alcorn "September 11: did it really have to happen?" The Age,
May 18 2002, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/17/1021544071670.html
(10) "911 Commission Testimony: Remarks of NORAD Personnel: Maj. Gen.
Craig McKinley, Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, Col. Alan Scott "
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2003/noradtestimony052303.html
(11) CBSNews "What Bush Knew Before Sept. 11" 17 May 2002
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/16/attack/main509294.shtml
Intelligence Caught Off Guard? Knew Ahead?
------------------------------------------
"Report cites warnings before 9/11" CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/18/intelligence.hearings/
"warnings of al Qaeda attacks on the United States began as far back
as 1995, when an accomplice of Ramzi Yousef -- mastermind of the 1993
World Trade Center bombing -- told Philippine authorities that he
learned to fly at U.S. flight schools and had plotted to hijack an
aircraft and crash it into the Central Intelligence Agency's Langley,
Virginia, headquarte" (See CNN, "September 11 warnings: Who knew what,
and when?" May 24 2002
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/05/22/9.11.warnings.facts/).
"Moussaoui was arrested on August 16 after a Minnesota flight school
notified the FBI about him, saying Moussaoui wanted to learn how to
fly, but not land, a 747 airliner." (Souce: ibid).
"Two years before hijackers seized control of four U.S. jets and
crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a
federal report raised the specter of such an attack" (3).
From an interagency government report --- titled the "Sociology and
Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why" : "Al
Qaeda's expected retaliation for the U.S. cruise missile attack
against al Qaeda's training facilities in Afghanistan on August 20,
1998, could take several forms of terrorist attack in the nation's
capital. Al Qaeda could detonate a Chechen-type building-buster bomb
at a federal building. Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's
Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high
explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House. Ramzi Yousef
had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters." (3), see full
report at http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Sociology-Psychology%20of%20Terrorism.htm).
According to "a source close to the congressional investigation" :
"intelligence following the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17
sailors in October 2000, indicated there was an increasing threat to
the U.S. homeland. Investigators also learned there was evidence that
al Qaeda considered using aircraft as a terror tool, the source said."
(6).
Dana Priest and Dan Eggen "WTC attack known by 1998: report", Sydney
Morning Harald, September 20
2002http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/19/1032054915702.html
"While there were far more hints of possible terrorist attacks than
previously admitted, the intelligence community had too few experts on
the task to effectively connect all of the dots. For example, no
analysts were studying the possible use of planes as weapons, despite
evidence that terrorists were considering such attacks. Little wonder
the FBI failed to act on the "Phoenix" memo that urged it to
investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in U.S. flight schools." (USA
Today, Editorial "Intelligence fails"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2002-09-18-edtwo_x.htm).
Susan DeSantis, "Here's What Bush Knew" Buzz Flash, 23 May 2002
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/05/23_Bush_Knew.html
Further Interesting material:
Terrorism Answers - http://www.terrorismanswers.com/responses/intelligence_print.html
"America Needs More Spies"
http://www.economist.com/World/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1907776
(On the failure to "connect the dots".
I hope this answered your question. In order to find relevant quotes,
I used terms that were likely to appear in such a quote:
"before spetember" or "before 9/11" or "before sept"
<intelligence>
"planes used as" or "planes as" (as part of a sentence such as "the
usage of planes as missiles")
If you need any clarification on this answer, please let me know. I'd
be pleased to clarify my answer before you rate it. |
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