Partial List of Thwarted Al Queda Attacks

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-14-09 | Scott Malensek

[Starman417]

I don't have a timeline/list of which Al Queda detainees have been captured and when, and the Obama Admin is refusing to release any information that shows if any of these attacks were thwarted by the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques ("torture"). However, I do know of several instances in which an Al Queda leader was captured and/or EIT used, and then days later an attack was thwarted. Sheer coincidence? Perhaps, but I don't believe in a pattern of coincidences.

For a full view of this timeline, please email me at smalensek@neo.rr.com , and I'll be happy to send you an Excel version w references, links etc. Sometimes (as in the case of thwarted attacks claimed by the Bush WH), dates could not be nailed down other than by year. Perhaps the Obama Admin will open up those documents and be transparent rather than hide information that counters their spin?

circa date detail

circa 10/1/1997 A meeting is held in Sudan between Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Hasan al-Turabi, leader of Sudan's National Islamic Front regime, about the construction of a CBW factory.

circa 8/1/1998 John Gannon, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, reveals that the CIA discovered that Bin Ladin had attempted to acquire unspecified CW for use against U.S. troops stationed in the Persian Gulf.

8/16/1998 A leaked intelligence report states that Bin Ladin allegedly paid over two million British Pounds to a middle-man in Kazakhstan for a "suitcase" bomb. 9/26/1998 A Bin Ladin aide, Mamduh Mahmud Salim, is arrested in Munich, Germany, on charges of trying to obtain nuclear materials (allegedly for al-Qa`ida), including highly enriched uranium.

11/8/1998 Bin Ladin is supposedly engaged in a comprehensive plan to acquire nuclear weapons, and reportedly has given a group of Chechens $30 million in cash and two tons of opium in exchange for approximately 20 nuclear warheads.

circa 12/1/1998 In an interview with Time magazine, Bin Ladin asserts that acquiring weapons of any type, including chemical and nuclear, is a Muslim "religious duty."

12/20/1998 Wadi al-Hajj, a Lebanese national, is arrested in Arlington, Texas, for perjury. The FBI contends that he had lied about his affiliation with Bin Ladin in 1997 and 1998 court testimonies. A grand jury investigates al-Hajj's possible activities in procuring CW for Bin Ladin.

circa 4/1/1999 Bin Ladin allegedly purchases CW over a two-year period prior to 1998 from European states and the former Soviet Union. This information is allegedly provided under custody by the Jihad leader (arrested on August 20, 1998 in Baku, Azerbaijan) during the April 1999 "Trial of the Returnees from Albania" in Egypt.

circa 6/1/1999 Usama bin Ladin reportedly constructed "crude" CBW laboratories in Khost and Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and acquired ingredients for CW and BW from former Soviet states.

circa 7/1/1999 An Islamist lawyer states that Bin Ladin's organization has CBW, and will likely use such weapons against the United States.

8/1/1999 Bin Ladin and his followers allegedly obtain BW substances through the mail from countries of the former Soviet Union (the Ebola virus and salmonella bacterium), from East Asia (anthrax-causing bacteria), and from the Czech Republic (botulinum toxin).

circa 12/1/1999 Local Afghan sources say that Bin Ladin is using a plant in Charassiab, a district 30 kilometers south of Kabul, to produce CW.

6/4/2000 Associates of Bin Ladin are reported to have bought anthrax and plague from arms dealers in Kazakhstan.

circa 11/1/2000 Bin Ladin allegedly obtains seven enriched uranium rods, which were supposedly US-made, from mafia connections.

12/1/2000 December 2000 - U.S. intelligence community begins to report increase in "traffic" concerning terrorist activities.

12/24/2000 Bin Ladin allegedly sends envoys to several Eastern European countries to purchase enriched uranium. These efforts reportedly were both unsuccessful and very costly for the organization.

12/24/2000 The intelligence agency of an unnamed European country reportedly intercepts a shipment of approximately twenty nuclear warheads--originating from Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and the Ukraine--intended for Bin Ladin and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

circa 2/1/2001 Jamal al-Fadhl claims that, on behalf of Bin Ladin, he investigated purchasing uranium for nuclear weapons.

circa 2/1/2001 The United States allegedly aborts a planned air strike against Afghanistan for fear of a retaliatory chemical attack by al-Qa`ida, after receiving warnings from an Arab embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

2/1/2001 Bin Ladin's elite 055 Brigade is supposedly reorganized under the leadership of Midhat al-Mursi, aka Abu Khabab, an Egyptian and an expert in sarin gas production.

4/1/2001 April-May 2001 - Specific threat that al Qaeda attacks against U.S. targets or interests might be in the works, with main concern among U.S. officials the possibility of attack overseas, notably the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe.

5/29/2001 ERRI alert

5/30/2001 ERRI alert

5/31/2001 ERRI alert

6/1/2001 June 2001 - "Threat spike" in intelligence reports.

6/1/2001 Summer 2001 - Central Intelligence Agency makes major push to try to deal with potential attacks, manages in concert with foreign countries to disrupt attacks in Paris, Turkey, Rome.

6/22/2001 June 22, 2001 - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues an "information circular" to commercial airlines citing concern about possible hijackings.

6/22/2001 June 22, 2001 - State Department issues worldwide caution to U.S. citizens, noting indictment of 14 people for the 1996 bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen at a Saudi housing complex, and saying Americans and U.S. interests "may be at increased risk of a terrorist action from extremist groups."

6/23/2001 ERRI alert

6/30/2001 Late June 2001 - U.S. government counterterrorism security group meets to discuss possible threats.

7/1/2001 July-August 2001 - CSG meets several times a week; no new threat information discovered.

7/2/2001 July 2, 2001 - FAA issued another information circular citing possible threat of an attack using explosives in an airport terminal.

7/2/2001 July 2, 2001 - FBI tells local law enforcement agencies that it is worried about threats overseas and, while it did not foresee a domestic attack, it could not rule one out.

7/5/2001 July 5, 2001 - Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, National Security Council counterterrorism official Dick Clarke meet. Core counterterrorism security group (CSG) meets and decides to bring domestic agencies into threat discussion.

7/5/2001 July 5, 2001 - Threat reporting sufficiently "robust" with "a lot of chatter in the system" that Bush asks Rice to see what U.S. government is doing about such threats.

7/6/2001 July 6, 2001 - CSG core players meet because of very high concern about potential attacks in Paris, Turkey, Rome. CSG bars U.S. counterterrorism officials from nonessential travel.

7/15/2001 Mid-July 2001 - Rice cites "major threat spike" related to Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa, Italy, including specific information about a threat to Bush.

7/18/2001 July 18, 2001 - FAA issued information circular saying there were terrorist threats overseas, and while there were no specific threats directed at civil aviation, tells airlines to use "highest level of caution."