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Posted on 04/08/2004 10:13:22 AM PDT by kattracks
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told the 9/11 Commission Thursday morning that it was an alert Customs agent - and not the Clinton adminsitration "shaking the trees" for intelligence on al Qaeda - who deserves credit for foiling the December 1999 al Qaeda plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport."It's questionable to me . . . that somehow shaking the trees was what broke up the Millennium [Plot]," Rice told the 9/11 probers, referring to claims by Clinton terrorism czar Richard Clarke that White House alerts had the nation's security apparatus on the lookout for trouble.
In fact, said Rice, Clarke himself admitted that Clinton administration's warnings had nothing to do with the apprehension of Millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam.
"After Sept. 11, Dick Clarke sent us the after action report that had been done after the Millennium Plot," Rice told the Commission. "And their assessment was that Ressam had been caught by chance."
What's more, at the time Clarke said the White House had gone to "battle stations" based on intelligence an attack was coming, the Customs Bureau received no warnings from Clinton officials about potential al Qaeda attacks.
"I've checked with Customs," said Rice. "And according to their records, they weren't actually on alert at that point."
Instead, said the top Bush official, a Washington State-based Customs agent and her partner deserved credit for saving LAX.
"It was because a very alert Customs agent named Diana Dean and her colleague sensed something about Ressam," Rice explained.
"They saw that something was wrong. They tried to apprehend him. He tried to run. They then apprehended him, [then] found that there was bomb-making material and a map of Los Angeles in his car.
"Dick Clarke would say you got a lucky break," Rice told the Commission. "I would say you had an alert Customs agent who got it right."
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WHAT?!!!! Could this be a case of racial profiling with a successful outcome?! Somebody please notify CAIR.
Standard Clintonian operating procedure. Take credit that's not deserved and deflect blame that is.
Up to this point the Clinton administration and Clarke had only general warnings and threats but no specifics. They knew there was a code out there involving the phrase 'big wedding' but that's about it. They couldn't do a thing to figure out the Millenium Plot.
Diana Dean and her associate acting not on warnings from Clarke, or warnings from all those brilliant Clinton administration officials, but acting on her own instincts, took a closer look at Ressam.
Because of that customs agent, the Feds were able to question ressam, and from there break up other millenium plots in Jordan, etc.
In spite of breaking up this 1999 plot, in spite of the seriousness of what was planned in Jordan against our people there, the response from the Clinton administration was simply to treat Ressam and others like common criminals instead of treating the terrorists as enemies in war.
Glad Dr. Rice took this opportunity to smack down that little Clintonoid fantasy.
I missed this part of the hearing. Anybody know on which commissioner's precious time this statement was made (or was it in the opening statement)?
He was acting "suspicious", and the customs inspector thought he was smuggling drugs from Canada...
You aren't allowed to "profile" arabs, you know. But a good "cop" will notice behavior and act on instinct.
Heck, even Actor James Woods spotted the 911 hijackers on a practice flight, and notified the stewardess. Alas, they couldn't do anything for fear of being sued for discrimination, so they let the guys go. Two weeks later, 911 occurred.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
I read the story about this event in Readers Digest before 9-11.The story was about a customs agent Diana Dean acting own her own with her colleague caught this guy trying to cross the border with this stuff.
That's exactly what drove me crazy about so much of the questioning this morning. "Why didn't didn't you bring Dick Clark in for a meeting with the President?" "Why didn't you have any oval office meetings specifically about terrorism?" "Why was the President on his ranch in Texas when he should have been meeting with his CIA and FBI directors?" If only someone would have called some magical MEETING, 9/11 would never have happened.
Itinerary set off alert
Customs officials at the ferry crossing became suspicious when Ressam's itinerary showed he had come from Vancouver, British Columbia, and was heading to Seattle -- a 140-mile drive that does not require a trip to Vancouver Island, a ferry ride or a stop in Port Angeles, said FBI spokesman Pat Jones in Washington, D.C.
The customs agent was familiar with the area. She knew that to go from Vancouver to Victoria to Seattle would require two ferry crossings and about 16 hours of travel time, compared to a simple three hour direct drive.
The Victoria/Port Angeles Ferry is not what you would call a pleasure route, especially in the winter time. It crosses the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and is subject to the tidal surge going out and the long Pacific rollers coming in, making for confused seas. There are sea-sick bags all over the place, and people use them a lot. In the summertime there is some site-seeing traffic, but not at that time of year. It is cold, rainy and miserable throughout the region. Diana Dean was intelligent to realize that fact.
When the inspector asked about his roundabout route, Ressam became nervous, Jones said.
Dean trusted her instincts when Ressam became nervous.
Ressam entered the United States on Tuesday around 6 p.m. PST (9 p.m. EST) in a rented Chrysler aboard a ferry from Victoria, British Columbia. His car was the last vehicle off the ferry, officials said.
The Port Angeles/Victoria ferry not double ended. The fact that Ressam was last off means he was first on. Terrorists and criminals are usually careful to leave lots of time and arrive early for travel connections. Waiting a long time at the ferry terminal to depart also indicates that Ressam was probably not familiar with the service.
According to the affidavit, he identified himself as Benni Antoine Noris, and when authorities asked him to get out of the vehicle "he was uncooperative."
Dean is to be commended for not letting Ressam bully her into letting him go. At 6PM, this was the last car on the last ferry of the day, but she was going to stay until the job was done.
Suspected bomb-making material
While conducting a search of the vehicle "inspectors lifted up a mat to inspect the spare tire well. The well did not have a spare tire," the affidavit says....
Instead, authorities say they found:...
Dean did a thorough search of the trunk, rather than a cursory glance. She probably had to things to do after work, like we all do, but she stayed on to do a proper job.
It is not luck when dedicated people do the job right. It is careful preparation and execution. The lucky ones are the rest of us that such a woman as Diana Dean was on the job.
To check the computer, make phone calls or process papers for truckers, Diana Dean and other inspectors head for this vintage trailer at the Black Ball ferry terminal. The hand-hewn tables and lack of surveillance cameras lend the international border station a homey feel, which perhaps lulled Ressam into thinking it'd be an easy crossing.
All the other passengers were "regular, normal people," Dean recalls. Ressam's rental car is the only one she remembers. Did he pick her line, she wonders now, "maybe, because I'm a woman?"
It was the last vehicle off the boat, a dark green Chrysler 300M with B.C. plates, a luxury sedan usually favored by the older set. The driver was small and wore long sideburns and a too-big camelhair coat. He looked to be in his early 30s. He rolled down the window.
"Where are you going?" Dean asked him.
"Sattal," he said. Nervous, she thought. Out-of-the-ordinary nervous.
"Why are you going to Seattle?"
"Bisit," he said. Fidgeting.
"Where do you live?"
"Montreal." Oh. French-Canadian. That explains the accent. But not his jumpiness.
"Who are you going to see in Seattle?"
"No, hotel." Why such a roundabout route from Montreal, on two ferries, to visit a hotel in Seattle? Doesn't make sense, Dean thought. The man became more agitated, began rummaging in the console.
"The minute the hands disappear," Dean says, "you get nervous."
Secondary inspection. She gave him a customs declaration to get his hands busy and asked for his driver's license. It identified him as Benni Noris of Montreal.
Dean watched the jittery man. Turn off the car, pop open the trunk and step out, she ordered. He didn't comply. By that time, the other inspectors had processed their passengers and were waiting for her to finish. Johnson had served a brief stint in Montreal, so Dean asked him to talk to the French Canadian.
Johnson didn't speak French, but knew Spanish from years working the southern border. "Habla Español?"
"Parlez-vous Français?" the man replied. He handed over his Costco card as identification.
"So you like to shop in bulk?" Johnson joked. "Y'know the 120-roll pack of toilet paper?" He was trying to crack the mask, test whether the guy was feigning no-speak-English. The guy gave him a withering look but wouldn't respond. He was acting "hinky," Johnson says, suspicious.
Johnson escorted him, by the arm, to a gray table to search the pockets of his trench coat. A few steps away, inspectors Clem and Chapman removed a suitcase from the trunk and unscrewed the covering over the spare tire. Clem called out. They'd found something.
Johnson gripped Ressam by both shoulders and walked him to the trunk. They peered inside.
In Johnson's hands, Ressam shuddered.
DEEP INSIDE Ressam's trunk, the wheel well was loaded. Ten green plastic garbage bags filled with white crystals, two olive jars of amber liquid, black boxes, two pill bottles.
Drugs, Johnson thought, flashing back to the southern border. Maybe meth. Not powdery like cocaine, coarser, somewhere between sugar and rock salt.
Johnson patted Ressam down for weapons, felt a hard bulge in his right pocket. Suddenly, Ressam slipped out of his trench coat and ran. "Instead of running after him," Johnson recalls, "I'm like: Hey! Hey! You can't do that!
"If anything be known, I'm the guy who let Ressam go."
Not for long. He and Chapman took off on foot. Dean and Inspector Steve Campbell jumped in their family vans. "Watch the trunk!" Dean called to her husband, who was waiting for a ride home because his car had broken down.
It was dark. Ressam led by half a block. Which way? Campbell yelled to an old man on the corner. The guy pointed with his cane: That-a-way!
At the trial, the prosecution used an aerial map of downtown Port Angeles to trace the four-block chase. Ressam ran up Laurel, past the banks and flower planters toward First Street's twinkling holiday lights. Chapman followed. Johnson cut through a parking lot by a mural of the ferry Kalakala. At the corner of First Street, Ressam bumped into a guy, kept running and dove under a pickup truck parked in front of the shoe store.
Chapman finally caught up and squatted on the curb, gun drawn: Stop! Police! Customs!
Ressam crawled out, glanced at Chapman, turned his back and ran into the traffic. He rebounded off a moving car and tried to duck into the Kalakala parking lot, but found himself facing Johnson. It'd been all uphill. Everyone was panting, but the race plodded on, past the movie theater and the furniture store and Dynasty Chinese restaurant.
"It was kinda weird because it was like a slow-motion chase," recalls a local shopowner, who watched it. "They were going around in circles. He (Ressam) kept looking back. He looked bored, really, so we just thought he's just some shoplifter. The last thing in the world you'd think was it was a terrorist."
Traffic was confused. At the intersection of First and Lincoln, Ressam grabbed the door handle of a blue Olds stopped at the light. The manager of Safeway video rentals was at the wheel. She hadn't locked her car door, of course, this being Port Angeles. She wondered whether to run the red light. Go! her husband said. She floored it.
Ressam spun, off balance. Chapman tackled him. Johnson pounced, 240 pounds kneeling on Ressam's shoulders, and slapped on Smith & Wesson cuffs.
Full article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/1125/cover.html
It was during response to Fielding's questions:
Here's a link to Newsday - Full Transcript of Rice Testimony
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