Posted on 05/20/2002 6:46:48 PM PDT by OPS4
Thursday, May 16, 2002 10:48 a.m. EDT Clinton Warned on Bin Laden Hijack-Kamikaze Plot
If you don't recall seeing the blaring post-Sept. 11 headline "Clinton Warned on Bin Laden Hijack-Kamikaze Plot," it's not because your memory is failing. In fact, the big media mostly ignored the story - in marked contrast to today's wall-to-wall coverage of news that President Bush received a pre-Sept. 11 CIA briefing on a possible bin Laden hijack plot.
And while the warning transmitted to Bush gave no inkling that bin Laden planned to transform U.S. airliners into flying bombs and slam them into American office buildings, Clinton administration intelligence officials were in fact in possession of detailed information on an al Qaeda conspiracy to hijack several U.S. airliners - including a plan to crash one of the planes into the Pentagon or CIA.
It was called "Operation Bojinka," a 1995 plot hatched by an al Qaeda cell in the Philippines with an eye toward blowing up 12 American airliners. Some would be booby-trapped with bombs, like Pan Am 103, others hijacked like the four U.S. jets commandeered on 9-11 and crashed into buildings.
Though the mainstream press never demonstrated much enthusiasm for the story, Accuracy in Media's Reed Irvine detailed what the Clinton administration knew - and when it knew it - for NewsMax.com last October.
Citing a Sept. 13 Agence France-Presse report, Irvine noted that Philippine Police Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon had uncovered the plot to "plant bombs in U.S. airliners and hijack others to crash them into buildings like the CIA headquarters." "Razon said [the plot] was found on the computer of Ramzi Yousef, the organizer of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center," Irvine reported. "He had fled to Pakistan, but his laptop was found in the apartment he shared with his accomplice, Abdul Hakim Murad. Razon said both were agents of Osama bin Laden."
A later Agence France-Press report noted: "Among targets mentioned [in Yousef's computer files] was the World Trade Center in New York ... CIA offices in Virginia and the Sears Tower in Chicago."
Picking up where Irvine left off, the Washington Post quoted a Filipino investigator who said that as he watched the attack on the World Trade Center on television, he exclaimed in horror, "It's Bojinka. We told the Americans everything about Bojinka. Why didn't they pay attention?"
Razon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that after the the Philippine intelligence report was compiled in 1995, it was passed on to the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Joint Task Force on Terrorism.
But, he complained, "It was not given credibility. Otherwise, it could have prevented the destruction of the World Trade Center."
The Clinton FBI was in full possession of all the frightening facts on Bojinka, but did nothing. Instead, as Reed Irvine revealed, the bureau assured Congress that everything was under control.
"In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on terrorism in February 1998, 'Bojinka' - which means 'big bang' - was described by Dale L. Watson, chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section of the FBI, only as a plot to blow up 'numerous U.S. air carriers.'
"He said that the FBI had identified 'a significant and growing organizational presence' of foreign terrorists in the United States. He swore the bureau had them under control."
The Clinton FBI counterintelligence chief told the Senate that as a result of the bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, the FBI had developed an 'enhanced capability' to track terrorist activities.
Is it likely that U.S. intelligence possessed this much information on al-Qaeda plans to slam planes into U.S. buildings - and didn't tell President Clinton? Actually it is, if you believe the account of his former CIA Director James Woolsey, who said Clinton never bothered to meet with him during his stint as the nation's intelligence chief. What about other administration officials, like Attorney General Janet Reno, who certainly should have known about Bojinka?
There Clinton may also have an alibi. During all of 1998 - the same year FBI counterintelligence briefed Congress on the al-Qaeda hijack plot - Clinton met with his Cabinet exactly twice: once in January to lie to them about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and again in August to come clean about the affair.
Must be some agenda, that is continuing. Ops4
Before the despicable grandstanding by the democrat leadership last week they should have done some more intense background study before almost tripping in their rush to the pressroom microphones to insinuate President Bush stood idly by letting thousands of American citizens die on September 11, particularly Mrs. Clinton who speaks so pompously in her "hallowed chamber" pointing to her home newspaper the New York Times headline as evidence that President Bush knew, perhaps she should read the article I just read to refresh her fading memory.
Instead, the democrat leadership choose to speak with hollowed brains.
Clinton said himself he was almost obsessed with getting bin Laden for the Terrorism he had wrought so I think it is a pretty good bet something this serious would have been brought to his attention. Clinton was afraid to rock the boat, though...Slick Willie is ultimately a yellow-bellied coward!!!
FReegards...MUD
Check this out! The date of this article is September 22, 2001. Excerpt is as follows:
-------------------------------------------------------
In 1992, hardliner Khadaffy Janjalani splintered and formed the Abu Sayyaf.
His core group fanatically followed Islamic fundamentalism, but when he was killed several years later, his brother took over the leadership of the Abu Sayyaf and mercenaries joined the group, watering down its Islamic goals.
Today, the military continues its operation against the Abu Sayyaf with the goal of rescuing its latest group of hostages, including two Americans.
Although the Abu Sayyaf demanded the release of international terrorist Ramzi Yousef in exchange for its hostages last year, Filipino authorities dismiss any strong ties to Osama Bin Laden.
'Kidnap-for-ransom'
"We think the Abu Sayyaf is basically a kidnap-for-ransom gang," Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao tells CNN.
"They have some tinge of Islamic militancy, but essentially they've become a bandit group."
But Abu Sayyaf members did receive additional training from Ramzi Yousef, who lived in the Philippines from 1994-1995.
A bomb-making expert, Yousef was one of the masterminds behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
Soon after that, he began to set up a terrorist cell in the Philippines, exporting friends and relatives from the Middle East.
Three plots
A chemical fire in his apartment alerted authorities to his hideout and helped uncover three terrorist plots:
-- an attempt to assassinate the Pope during his 1995 visit to Manila;
-- a conspiracy to bomb US airliners in Asia called Operation Bojinka ("loud explosion");
-- and a plan to recruit pilots to hijack US jetliners in the continental United States and slam the planes into government and commercial buildings.
Philippine authorities turned their evidence over to the U.S. government, providing evidence which led to the NY conviction of Yousef and his cohorts for "Operation Bojinka."
While in the Philippines, Yousef traveled to the Abu Sayyaf base in Basilan and trained about 20 members in 1994.
A year later, he gathered about 20 men in Matabungkay, near the capital, Manila, and trained them allegedly to help assassinate the Pope.
She was too stupid to make sure that Bush had all the nfo.
She never read Clancys book.
Couldnt remember that small plane that crashed into the White House.
Didnt order all government agencies to present all nfo on terrorism plans.
Never heard of WTC I.
Where is the Phillipines.
Who are Yousef and Murad
I hope the families of the victims sue Condi personally for mega-bucks.
.......... obsessed with his "legacy"!
If you want to blame Clinton for what happened, that's fine, but he ain't the only one to blame now is he?
Finally...a Legacy!
If he didnt know, he should have been briefed
Fire the briefers!
Fire Condi
Fire the CIA Head
Fire the FBI head
Fire them all!
Because they Suck. However, had you been following my posts last week, you would have seen this info immediately ; )
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.