`Red flags all over the place': Warning signs look obvious now

Miami Herald Online ^ | Thursday, September 27, 2001 | LENNY SAVINO

[JohnHuang2]

`Red flags all over the place'

Warning signs look obvious now

BY LENNY SAVINO
Herald Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- In hindsight, the warning signals were obvious. Law enforcement officials knew that, in 1995, two associates of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden had talked about crashing a plane into CIA headquarters outside Washington. Egypt and Italy had warned the CIA that bin Laden was plotting to fly an airplane into last June's economic summit in Genoa, Italy.

The FBI knew that bin Laden associates were taking flying lessons at U.S. schools. One school in Minnesota warned that one of its Arab students was interested only in learning to steer a commercial airliner, not in how to take off or land. French authorities identified the man, Zacarias Moussaoui, as a terrorist weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Finally, bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had tried and failed to blow up the World Trade Center, and his associates have a pattern of learning from their mistakes and trying again, as they did after a failed attempt to blow up the U.S. Navy destroyer The Sullivans. Armed with better explosives and training, they hit another destroyer, the USS Cole.

Two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed more than 6,000 people, intelligence and law enforcement officials are asking themselves why no one connected the dots.

``Somehow, it fell between the cracks,'' said one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the Pentagon and World Trade Center investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``We had red flags all over the place.''

Officials say they never had enough intelligence information to predict or pre-empt the Sept. 11 attacks, but concede they had enough pieces of the puzzle to be more alarmed about whether bin Laden was planning to use some kind of airplane as a bomb.

``We've had indications this was coming for some years,'' said Rusty Capps, who retired after 21 years with the FBI, where he was the first manager of its national counterintelligence awareness program.

Analyzing and assessing terrorist threats is the responsibility of the government's Counter Terrorism Center, located at CIA headquarters but staffed by officials from the intelligence community, the FBI and other agencies.

The center was created in the mid-1980s, but since 1996 its top targets have been bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. In fact, after bin Laden issued an edict that year urging all Muslims to take arms against U.S. soldiers, the center has had a bin Laden task force.

The CIA and FBI declined to comment on events preceding the Sept. 11 attacks and what mistakes may have been made, but privately a number of intelligence officials conceded there was an intelligence and analytical failure of what one called ``Pearl Harbor proportions.''

Paul Moore, an FBI counterintelligence analyst for 21 years who's now retired, said there are several reasons that FBI and CIA analysts couldn't piece together what now seems obvious: ``Analysts look at probabilities, not possibilities. They don't look at the ways of attacking the Capitol. They look at ways of how it would most likely be attacked based on prior attacks.''

Thus, because no U.S. landmarks such as the Pentagon or the World Trade Center had been attacked by a commercial airliner hijacked by suicide bombers, analysts would not consider such scenarios.

Herald staff writer Nancy San Martin contributed to this report.

For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.

[wjeanw]

"Finally, bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had tried and failed to blow up the World Trade Center" I'm not sure where this writer gets her information, but the first bombing of the WTC was NOT the work of Bin Laden! It was the work of the Iranian government's intelligence agency and the Sudanese government. These two states were also responsible for the plot to blow up the UN and the Holland Tunnel planned for the 4th of July. The local terrorist cell that carried out the attack was under the control of the Muslim cleric Sheikh Umar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual leader of the NY terror network. [See TERROR: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE TERRORIST CONSPIRACY IN AMERICA by terrorist expert Yossef Bondansky of the Congressional Committee on Terrorism.] What I would like to know is the timeline for the Clinton's restrictions on the CIA and also Torcelli's legislation as it related to the sucessful breaking up of this ring by our law enforcement. If their restrictions were put in AFTER this .... I can't even type what I feel should happen!

[snorkeler]

Some time last week, I watch an interview on Fox with half an ear, so I cannot ID the man but got the impression he was formerly associated with the CIA. He related a meeting with his station chief and a representative of perhaps the FBI and/or NSA. The supposed purpose was to discuss strategy to combat smuggling of submarines and other high tech terrorist threats. At one point, the station chief's attention seemed to return to the room and he began a rant about how the focus of his people was going to be on video piracy and other forms of copywrite infringement. The men at the meeting were stunned and the interviewee related that one of the FBI been threw a screaming fit outside when the meeting was over.

The interviewer was the light weight anchor who does duty during the day..sorry..he has never impressed me enough for me to know his name. I thought for sure that Brit or Tony would develop the story but if they did, I missed it. Perhaps they found holes in the ex-agents credibility but I haven't heard a thing about it since.

[snorkeler]

been = men..sorry

[wjeanw]

Yea, right! We are to believe a PRAVADA report hinting that the Mossad engineered the World Trade Center attack? Give me a break!

[Piquaboy]

Where was the Billary administration when all of this was going on?. Probably out feeling some womans pain or is that the right name for it?.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Should these agencies be reorganized and the offenders booted out for their lack of intel on the terrorist actions on Sept. 11th?

I wasn't happy yesterday when the president went to the CIA to thank them. For what?

[Thinkin' Gal]

`Red flags all over the place': Warning signs look obvious now

August 23, 2001:

More images at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b850d2f1135.htm#121

August 23, 2sheep posted:

>>>A red flag is a well known warning sign or danger signal. What a picture to see the SOL holding a red flag up. What a picture to see the Statue of Liberty with the same initials (SOL) as a common expletive beginning with the letters S.O.L. meaning S___ Out of Luck.

Volition: The exercise of the will: Prospective volition: Danger signal
danger signal (noun)

danger signal, note of warning, WARNING
murmur, muttering, DISCONTENT
writing on the wall, portent, evil omen, OMEN
gathering clouds, thundercloud
storm warning, gale warning, small craft warning, hurricane warning
tornado warning or alert
warning sound, alarum, alarm clock, alarm bell, burglar alarm, security alarm, car alarm, fire alarm, fire bell, foghorn, fog signal, bell buoy, car horn, klaxon, buzzer, bicycle bell, police whistle
blast, honk, toot, LOUDNESS
alarm, church bell, curfew, tocsin, siren, alert, red alert
tattoo, beat of the drum, trumpet-call, CALL
war cry, battle cry, rallying cry
fiery cross
death's head, skull and crossbones
warning light, red light, yellow light, Very lights, lighthouse, beacon
quarantine flag, storm flag, red flag, yellow flag
distress signal, SOS, Mayday, SIGNAL
sign of alarm, start, tremor, blench, sweat, hair on end, FEAR<<<

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b850d2f1135.htm#127

[Thinkin' Gal]

bttt

[steve-b]

I keep hearing this story -- does anybody have a published source?

[Thinkin' Gal]

bttt

[MarkWar]

>A red flag is a well known warning sign or danger signal.

Great catch! I had forgotten all about that. Pretty interesting.

You may be interested in this link:

"The United States has been surprised by a mass-murderous attack from rogue forces deployed from within the U.S.A. itself. Since no foreign power has the ability to do to us what was done this past Tuesday, some rogue element operating within our military-security establishment is the only possible principal author of what has just occurred. That mass-murderous rogue is the burglar, who is presently lurking from within the U.S.A., preparing for his next strike, which he certainly intends to deliver soon."

Mark W.

[muleskinner]

Here we go.

[LarryLied]

The GOP congress was being demonized in the media at that time. 100% negative coverage. The Vic Kamber propaganda campaign was gearing up thanks to millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Oh...and by the way...you do know how our government works don't you? The President does have veto power and can by the stroke of the pen, create law.

[chit*chat]

I also caught that interview as I worked in the kitchen and listened with half an ear. The name was not familiar to me and the interviewer seemed stunned that they were focusing on CD and VIDEO being copied. I remember the 'agent' said agents removed themselves from the meeting in anger after the notice.

Thanks for posting this. I've mentioned it to several family and friends. It's one of so many interesting tid bits that run once and are never heard again. I was kinda hoping that O'Reilly would pick up on this.

[Magician]

There were more than "red flags" available to the CIA and FBI before the 9-11 attack.

The Mossad sent a top level delegation to the CIA four weeks before the attack and told the CIA that Bin Laden's organization was about to pull off a major attack on the U.S. that would involve about 200 of bin Laden's agents. The Mossad could not tell the CIA exacly what was about to be attacked. The French intelligence agency gave a similar warning to the CIA.

The Mossad's warning was apparently totally ignored by the CIA, the FBI, or both. Now the CIA is covering its tracks over this matter. And it is getting lots of help from the major media. The fact that the CIA was warned by the Mossad and by the French that something very big was about to come off has been completely squelched in all media discussions of the massive intelligence failure that took place.

[tacticalogic]

Where was the Newt Gingrich Congress when this was going on? Probably studying Vince Foster conspiracy theories, shooting watermelons in their backyards, or combing nightclubs for rumors of Bill's sexcapades.

Actually, I think they were trying to figure out what was going on, but it's hard to do when you get stonewalled at every turn. Between Janet Reno running interference, the White House stalling on producing documents, massive memory loss by the people involved, and evidence being lost, destroyed, or classified under "executive privilege" it's pretty hard to do. Of course, the Democrats all thought that Bill and Hillary were just oh-so-clever while all this was going on. Bastards.