Posted on 09/20/2002 12:05:19 AM PDT by Black Powder
Deemed 'highly unlikely': Investigator says intelligence agencies failed to piece together evidence
U.S. intelligence agencies received repeated reports and clues al-Qaeda terrorists were planning an attack against high-profile U.S. targets that might involve hijacked planes, congressional investigators revealed yesterday.
Three years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the agencies had information about a group that planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center, a U.S. congressional hearing was told.
The information obtained in August, 1998, about the group of "unidentified Arabs" was passed to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, but the FAA "found the plot highly unlikely given the state of that foreign country's aviation program," said Eleanor Hill, staff director of the joint Sept. 11 inquiry of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
In a 30-page report, she listed 12 examples of intelligence information about terrorists' interest in using airplanes as weapons, dating back to 1994 and running to the month before the attacks.
On the first day of public hearings held by the joint congressional panel investigating the attacks, she detailed evidence in the hands of the intelligence community that pointed to a terrorist assault being in the works in the spring and summer of 2001.
While the credibility of some of the sources offering the information had been questionable, Ms. Hill said, "the totality of the information ... clearly reiterated a consistent and critically important theme: Osama bin Laden's intent to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States."
Ms. Hill said none of the threats provided a specific time, date or place and the reports were buried under a flood of information collected by the 14 government agencies and organizations that conduct intelligence activities for the United States.
"My own view is ... no one will ever really know whether 9/11 could have been prevented," Ms. Hill said.
She stressed the joint committee has still not found a "smoking gun" that could have helped prevent the attacks on New York and Washington.
"People have said there was no smoking gun," said Ms. Hill. "But there was still a lot out there that was never pulled together."
Among the warnings about planes being used as missiles were:
- In 1996, U.S. intelligence obtained information that an al-Qaeda operative was planning a suicide attack by flying an aircraft into the White House.
- In 1997, U.S. intelligence and FBI officials believed terrorists were planning to use an unmanned aerial vehicle loaded with explosives to fly into a U.S. embassy.
- In 1998, U.S. intelligence learned Osama bin Laden was planning to load explosives onto an aircraft and detonate it at a U.S. airport.
- In 1999, U.S. officials obtained information that Iraq had formed a suicide pilot unit for use against U.S forces in the Persian Gulf region.
- In 2001, one month before the attacks, intelligence officials learned of a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi by crashing an airplane into it or bombing it from a commercial plane.
Meanwhile, in the months before Sept. 11 there were reports from Afghanistan about an "impending attack" as well as operatives of bin Laden going missing and others preparing for martyrdom.
In May, 2001, intelligence agencies had information that bin Laden supporters were planning to infiltrate the United States through Canada to conduct an attack using explosives.
A year earlier, in April, 2000, a source walked into the FBI's Newark office and claimed he had been to an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, where he learned hijacking techniques and received arms training and was supposed to meet five to six others in the United States to hijack a large airliner.
"They were instructed to use all necessary force to take over the plane because there would be pilots among the hijacking team," Ms. Hill said. The source passed a polygraph but the FBI was not able to verify his story, she said.
The threat from terrorism grew so high that by December, 1998, George Tenet, the CIA director, issued a "declaration of war" on al-Qaeda, in a memorandum circulated in the intelligence community. Yet, according to Ms. Hill, the intelligence community failed to adequately follow up on Mr. Tenet's declaration of war, and by Sept. 10, 2001, the FBI still had only one person assigned full-time to analyze al-Qaeda.
Another major problem the report found was that intelligence officials believed the U.S. homeland was safe from attack and that the more likely targets were U.S. facilities overseas. Two months before the attacks, a briefing for senior government officials said: "We believe that [bin Laden] will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks."
"The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning," it said.
Ms. Hill also revealed that al-Qaeda had apparently targeted for assassination the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defence and the CIA director. The CIA had been told the previous year that bin Laden and his lieutenants had also agreed to issue US$9-million bounties for the assassination of four top intelligence officers, whom the report did not identify.
"We now know that our inability to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks was an intelligence failure of unprecedented magnitude," Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "Some people who couldn't seem to utter the words 'intelligence failure' are now convinced of it."
On Sept. 11, four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and a Pennsylvania field, killing about 3,000 people. The United States blames bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
THE MISSED WARNINGS:
EVIDENCE THAT TERRORISTS WERE CONSIDERING USING PLANES AS WEAPONS
DECEMBER, 1994 Algerian terrorists hijack an Air France airliner and threaten to fly it into the Eiffel Tower.
JANUARY, 1995 Police in the Philippines raid an apartment in Manila and find materials that suggest a plot to crash a hijacked plane into CIA headquarters outside of Washington. One of the plotters is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whom U.S. officials believe masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.
JANUARY, 1996 U.S. intelligence receives reports of a planned suicide attack by associates of known terrorists, including an al-Qaeda operative, that would consist of flying a plane from Afghanistan to the United States to attack the White House.
1997 The FBI and CIA receive reports a terrorist group has bought a remote-control plane that could be used to crash into a building.
AUGUST, 1998 U.S. intelligence learns a group of unidentified Arabs plan to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center. The FBI takes no action and the Federal Aviation Administration finds the plot "highly unlikely."
SEPTEMBER, 1998 U.S. intelligence learns Osama bin Laden's next operation could involve flying an aircraft loaded with explosives into a U.S. airport and detonating it.
FEBRUARY, 1999 U.S. intelligence receives reports Iraq has formed a suicide pilot unit to use against U.S. and British forces in the Persian Gulf. The CIA considers this report disinformation.
MARCH, 1999 U.S. intelligence receives reports of an al-Qaeda member planning to fly an explosives-laden hang glider into the Egyptian presidential palace.
APRIL, 2000 A walk-in at FBI's Newark, N.J., office claims he is supposed to meet five or six people in the United States to hijack a plane and either fly it to Afghanistan or blow it up. The man claims he has been trained in a camp in Pakistan. He passes an FBI polygraph, but the FBI is unable to verify his story.
APRIL, 2001 A U.S. intelligence source with terrorist connections speculates that bin Laden would be interested in commercial pilots as potential terrorists.
EVIDENCE THAT A LARGE TERRORIST ATTACK WAS BEING PLANNED IN 2001
MAY-JULY The National Security Agency receives at least 33 communications suggesting a terrorist attack is imminent.
MAY U.S. intelligence receives reports al-Qaeda operatives are planning to enter the United States from Canada to conduct bombings. No specifics are provided, but this report is widely distributed.
MAY The Pentagon learns seven bin Laden associates have departed various places for Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
JUNE The CIA learns key bin Laden operatives are disappearing, while others are preparing for martyrdom.
JULY A U.S. intelligence source reports numerous people in Afghanistan are "talking about an impending attack."
AUG. 23 The CIA asks that two eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, be put on the State Department's watch list for denying visas. But they are already in the United States.
SEPT. 10 The National Security Agency intercepts two communications suggesting terrorist attacks are imminent.
Source: The Associated Press
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMB: Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why It Matters
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.