Thanks. I am going through the Joint Inquiry Report and plugging in the dedacted stuff.
Let us know when you complete it.
From here
http://www.saag.org/paper8/paper757.html The recently-released report of the joint US Congressional Committee, which had enquired into the performance of the intelligence agencies prior to 9/11, has collated from the files of the various agencies of the US intelligence community information having a bearing on 9/11, which was received before 9/11. The more important items from this collation are the following:
* June 1998: "Osama bin Laden is planning attacks in the US. Plans are to attack in New York and Washington. Information mentions an attack in Washington probably against public places. He probably places a high priority on conducting attacks in the US."
* September 1998: " Osama bin Laden's next target would possibly involve flying an explosive laden aircraft into a US airport and detonating it."
* October 1998: "Al Qaeda is trying to establish an operative cell within the continental United States to strike at the heart of US interests."
* December 1998: "Plans to hijack US aircraft proceeding well. Two individuals had successfully evaded check-points in dry run at NY airport."
* Spring 1999:" bin Laden planned an attack on a government facility in Washington DC."
* August 1999: "bin Laden's organisation has decided to target the US Secretary of State, Secretary of Defence, and DCI (Director, Central Intelligence)."
* September 1999:" bin Laden and others were planning a terrorist act in the United States, possibly against specific landmarks in California and New York city."
* March,2000: "The community obtained information regarding the types of targets that operatives in bin Laden's network might strike. The Statue of Liberty was specifically mentioned, as were skyscrapers, ports, airports and nuclear power plants."
* March, 2000: " bin Laden was planning attacks in specific West Coast areas."
* April, 2001: "The community obtained information from a source with terrorist connections who speculated that bin Laden was interested in commercial pilots as potential terrorists. The source warned that the United States should not focus only on Embassy bombings, that terrorists sought "spectacular and traumatic" attacks and that the first World Trade Center bombing would be the type of attack that would be appealing. The source did not mention a time-frame for an attack. Because the source was offering personal speculation and not hard information, the information was not disseminated within the intelligence community." (My comment: An FBI officer in Arizona had reportedly sent a memo to the FBI headquarters expressing concern over many Arabs undergoing flying training in the US, but the memo did not receive adequate attention)
2. What attention these reports received from the community and the policy-makers and what action was taken? To cite the observations of the committee:
* "The joint enquiry did not find any comprehensive intelligence community list of bin Laden-related threats to the United States that was prepared and presented to the policy makers before September 11. Such a compilation might have highlighted the volume of information the community had acquired about bin Laden's intention to strike inside the United States."
Read it and weep.