Posted on 05/02/2002 11:26:04 PM PDT by Maedhros
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:25 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON –– Two months before the suicide hijackings, an FBI agent in Arizona alerted Washington headquarters that several Middle Easterners were training at a U.S. aviation school and recommended contacting other schools nationwide where Arabs might be studying, law enforcement officials said.
The FBI sent the intelligence to its terrorism experts in Washington and New York for analysis and had begun discussing conducting a nationwide canvass of flight schools when the Sept. 11 tragedies occurred, officials told The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The headline should have made a bigger deal out of the real issue... that the Phillipines warned of one who had expressed an interest in hijacking, etc. Now THAT is a story, although reports of this already surfaced months ago and isnt' exactly a scoop. The US had looked for people to hijack aircraft outside the US and fly them in. For some reason the government didn't think of someone hijacking one inside and using its full tank as the 'bomb.'
The Philippine branch of terror: Al Qaeda is believed to have given initial funding to Abu Sayyaf
Such signs would not be easy to detect, however. While Abu Sayyaf was growing in the south, an Al Qaeda cell was digging into Manila. Its existence was only uncovered by chance in 1995, when a bomb that cell members were making in their apartment exploded.
Police arrested two men, Ali Murad and Wali Khan, and found a laptop computer and documents that Philippines investigators say showed ties between Khalifa, the cell, and Abu Sayyaf. The laptop reportedly contained plans to blow up 11 US airliners and to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The cell's leader, Ramzi Yousef, was later apprehended in Pakistan. He, Mr. Murad, and Mr. Khan are now serving life sentences in the US for their roles in another plot: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Now, we know what can happen - then, we didn't really believe anybody would have the nerve to attack us. Certainly the enemies of our country saw the films of what happened when Pearl Harbor was attacked; surely this was a deterrent? right?. I think people just believed no one could or would touch us. It was a mistake in thinking, but I don't really feel we have to blame anyone.
It's also old news. It was reported months ago. Drudge must be hurting to rehash old stories...
on the ball as usual!
Just ask Joe Kennedy!
What basis could be used to forcibly remove a person from flight school? Their criminal history? What criminal history? The reams of evidence we had on these men of their terrorist connections? What evidence?
Were these men illegally in this country at the time? It was the Clinton administration that created an INS that eagerly allowed anyone and everyone into this country with no investigation in the expectation that they would vote Democrat in the next election. Is the press going to look into that? Where, again, was the INS? Was the INS told about this? We know that these people were in this country for four or five years before 9/11. During whose administration were they able to get into the country?
I think the leftist press will have to hold up a mirror ask alot of questions before they can legitimately try to pin this on President Bush. And, unfortunately for them, I think they will find that all terrorists-in-America paths lead straight to Bubba.
Some more articles to add to the list of suggested readings:
NY Post: INS says visas issued to terrorists because government agencies never told of their terror links
The following sources are a little on the wild side but are made by reputable though obscure sources:
Did Jailed 'Spy' in Canada Predict 911 Attacks?
bin Laden treated at US hospital, visited by CIA agent
There are more cool articles and sources here
GiovannaNicoletta also makes a great point. But I would add even though the blame falls on Clinton the responsibility is on Bush. If he does nothing to investigate these matters the blame will fall on him, rightly or wrongly.
forget the newspaper, media, etc.,
ya gotta think!
sarcasm/// on for the sheep--------and they are everywhere on federal student loans!
Zen in the art of small
Face it, the 9/11 attack was planned and executed at the high school level. The FBI was really off the ball.
If the FBI can't sort out the arab extremists from the honest ones, its time to stop importing them.
Regardless of the administration, the government agencies are still the same.
The government is the problem.
---max
They held a meeting to do an analysis which began a discussion which considered a possible investigation. I think we found the problem right there!
The decision to rid the agencies of "Human Intelligence" gathering mechanisms and the LACK of agents with "foreign" laguage skills help to "foster" this incompetancy.
I look at the men and women who have given their career/lives working in the FBI and CIA, who NO longer have the "tools" or "skills" or a chain of command that is effective after 8 FRIGGING years of neglect and purposeful DESTRUCTION at the hands of Clinton/Gore and the socialist CRONIES for 8 years.
AS I recall we had a SERIES of "terrorists" attacks upon the USA that Clinton and Reno decided to classify as CRIMINAL acts and went after them in court.
Hardly the "desired" results the FBI and or the CIA envisioned...I am sure!
I am frustrated that our federal eyes and ears where effectively DESTROYED by 8 years of Clinton/Gore.
All of this is maddening, and to think we will be FORCE fed the Liberal Media spin and have the "likes" of elected democrats "SPIN" this as the RESULT of GW's presidency.
ALL Drudge is doing is trying to ARM the demoncrats with cannon fodder...
The point we are at with "intelligence" gathering is "Monday Morning quarterbacking"...
The INS is the FIRST and ONLY reason any of this was allowed to happen HERE on our shores...and ONCE we come to THAT realization...the smarter we all become to our country's number 1 security issue...the INS and illegal Middle Eastern aliens. (have to deal with them first...since they are hell bent on killing us!)
As for Clinton and his cronies allowing EVERY over seas attack on the USA and ignoring it...from the bombing of embassies to the USS Cole...he should be prosecuted for treason.
To blame the FBI and CIA after 8 years of tying their hands is an insult to thinking people.
The last chance of defense was at the airports... and they failed miserably.
The “unestinguished” congresswoman McKinney must be licking her big choppers right now.
The FBI was emasculated during Clintons 8 years of perversion by the “susquatch”... so was the Justice Department
What good can come to a nation when they give the reins to a bastard?
idiots like you for stinking up a good post?
Who are you, John McCain?
Time to take your enema junior.
Paralysis through Analysis.
We need to reflect that suspicions of a field agent occur and are reported every day. Surely, in light of OKC and Waco centered interest, our site has been the subject of questions during the height of the Clinton opposition. The question is competant leadership and the orientation of their Threat Monitoring.
During the Clinton years, we already know the Political Culture required a PC approach to ignoring threat thinking that wasn't in line with the political dream world of the Clinton administration. Functionaries are only as good as their marching orders.
Of course, you could assume that the things he does are in response to his overall strategy of how best to out-manuever his enemies while attempting to turn the huge ship of state around and headed back to the Constitution. But doing that wouldn't be as much fun as slamming every individual move he makes instead of considering the bigger picture.
Is there someone you could name for us who wouldn't have compromised, re-evaluated policy or even back-pedalled on key issues? Maybe you 'd like to bet the lives of your family on your candidate's purity.
Because the FBI was told that Arabs were training in flight schools is hardly huge, especially when you consider that the people on the hijacked planes weren't even concerned their planes had been taken over. Being used as human bombs never occured to any of them till some found out what happened to the WTC.
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