FBI Nixed Al Qaeda Mole / Mag: Had chance to infiltrate training camp before 9/11

New York Daily News ^ | 6/01/02 | LEO STANDORA

[kattracks]

The FBI had a chance to infiltrate an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan months before Sept. 11, but top agents responsible for tracking terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden rejected the plan, according to a report published yesterday.

The decision by leaders of the Bin Laden unit at FBI headquarters may have wasted a golden opportunity to learn about plans for the strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The news magazine said an informant told a bureau field agent months before the Sept. 11 attacks that he was invited to attend a commando training course at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

The information was relayed to a supervisor, who passed it on to FBI headquarters, where it hit a brick wall in the Bin Laden unit of the bureau's counterterrorism division.

A field office communiqué asked the Justice Department to authorize what it described as "otherwise illegal activity" — the informant's participation in terrorist training — sources told the magazine.

But the Bin Laden unit flatly rejected the request without even doing an "asset validation" to see whether the informant's information was on target, the sources said.

The FBI declined to comment.

It was unclear which of the bureau's 56 offices made the request or exactly when it was made.

The FBI has come under fire for ignoring warnings from field offices in Phoenix and Minneapolis about terrorist activity.

In New Jersey yesterday, the Bush administration's top prosecutor for anti-terrorism said the U.S. had plenty of evidence before Sept. 11 that a devastating terrorist attack on American soil was likely.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, cited nearly a decade's worth of hints that foreign terrorists were targeting Americans.

But he didn't say there was specific information that could have prevented the Sept. 11 airliner attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In a speech to Seton Hall Law School graduates at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., Chertoff cited warning signs including the bombing of the Trade Center in 1993; a mid-1990s plan in which an Islamic radical was convicted of plotting to blow up jetliners and New York landmarks and assassinate the Pope; a death sentence pronounced on Americans by Bin Laden in the late 1990s, and the failed millennium bomb plot at Los Angeles International Airport.

[Seeking the truth]

Thank you....you are one hell of a Keyboard Cowboy, actually I've always preferred Keyboard Commando - It sounds more daring and dangerous!

Was this fox interview also in its own thread?

If it was not, it should be. Then we could find it later also. (hint)

[olliemb]

Betty, please share this information with us. Some facts please, not allegations or intimations.

[olliemb]

Betty, was not Bush president for only 8 months before 9/11? I did not know he had that much power--to overrule Clintonian/ congressional rules re: FBI and AlQaeda when he was not president. Where was Bush during the embassy bombing, during Khobar bombings, TWA downing, Cole bombing and when OBL was offered to the government? I don't recall reading his name in the newspaper articles. Funny and silly me--I must have overlooked it. Mighty powerful man, that Bush!!! (sarcasm)

[olliemb]

It is unbelievable that freepers have all this information at the beck and call of their computers. ARe you for real? And your point--Bush overruled all of Clinton and congress' laws and directives? What a most powerful man that W is!!!

[olliemb]

Dishonorable louts."

I think she meant you and your DU buddies.

[olliemb]

Let me see --you were just sitting there at your computer and voila!! you had all this information on hand readily retrievable when this thread is posted. I wasn't born yesterday--perhaps you were!!

[olliemb]

Iwant, I want, I want....

[Nita Nupress]

Oh, put a sock in it, newbie.

[olliemb]

I hate, I love, I want--very demanding, Betty Jo. What does business when Bush was not president nor even thinking of running for president have to do with the mismanagement of the FBI and the rules they had to follow (over the last 8 years of CLinton) (like they could not wiretap more than one phone number, they could not go thru the internet and web sites to get their information). These people making these decisions were around when the embassies, Khobar, Cole were bombed!! During the Clintonian administration. I bet ya there was a reason Clinton could find no legal reason for accepting OBL from the Sudanese. Let's follow his $$$$ ties as one can follow $$$ ties with Enron and Clinton. You have just started something.

[olliemb]

I hate, I love, I want--very demanding, Betty Jo. What does business when Bush was not president nor even thinking of running for president have to do with the mismanagement of the FBI and the rules they had to follow (over the last 8 years of CLinton) (like they could not wiretap more than one phone number, they could not go thru the internet and web sites to get their information). These people making these decisions were around when the embassies, Khobar, Cole were bombed!! During the Clintonian administration. I bet ya there was a reason Clinton could find no legal reason for accepting OBL from the Sudanese. Let's follow his $$$$ ties as one can follow $$$ ties with Enron and Clinton. You have just started something.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I wonder if the writer of this story and his leaker may have just compromised a source?

[olliemb]

They have a plan--I bet most of the Bush Bashers here know each other, have a few drinks together and get on these threads. Don't you think they so conveniently have all these articles at their ready disposal odd? These are demo seminar freepers.

[olliemb]

I agree.

[browardchad]

After re-reading the New Yorker article referenced above, I was incorrect in saying Clarke was "removed." It seems that Clarke left the position of National Coordinator voluntarily, since he wanted the Cyber Space Security job, and wanted O'Neill to take the National Coordinator job, so he says.

There's more connections to the O'Neill story...later.

[Itzlzha]

Dishonorable louts.

And you seem to wear blinders!

I am an American, and a conservative. I am not under the delusion that because my pet politician has an (R) after his name, he/she can do no wrong!

I am willing to look where evidence points, and from past experience 41 was DEEP in bed with the Saudis...is GW clean and immune...we shall see...

However, if someone starts bringing up "inconvenient" info, don't be a Bush-Bot and claim a smear. Let's see where the trail leads.

I support him in-so-far as he keeps the best interests of the US prime. His recent swipes at Tancredo, and his willingness to keep our Southern borders looking like a sieve do NOT endear me to the man.

[Dog]

The information was relayed to a supervisor, who passed it on to FBI headquarters, where it hit a brick wall in the Bin Laden unit of the bureau's counterterrorism division.

Wonder if this is the same person at FBI HQ who stopped the Rowley lady..

Wonder if Bin Laden has a mole in the FBI.....hmmmm

[Nita Nupress]

They have a plan--I bet most of the Bush Bashers here know each other, have a few drinks together and get on these threads. Don't you think they so conveniently have all these articles at their ready disposal odd? These are demo seminar freepers.

Yes, Betty Jo & Mr. Davis are probably posting from the basement of Clinton's Harlem office as we speak. In fact, Betty is probably sitting in his lap and they're gleefully sharing a glass of White Zinfandel and wearing dark sunglasses, the evil loons.

Rumor has it that rdavis actually carries all his portable hard-disk storage around in a suitcase just so he can pull out a link at a moment's notice. Just like the football, it requires a top secret code just to open the thing. Betty Jo knows the code, but she would die before telling it.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Easy as pie: invent a sinister scenario involving the Bush's, invite your party pals over, and then discuss the event as if it is true. That's informed debate!

Informed debate for the dim ones who are synapse-challenged.

The real reason for the intel-gathering breakdown lies in the PC POLICIES that were established by the liberals (= the clinton admininstration). For example: Toricelli rule forbidding the recruitment of "bad people" to infiltrate groups of "bad people". Utter nonsense. And the audacity of stupid politicians like Toricelli (who is himself a crook, but that's another story) who think that they know better than law enforcement professionals how to do the job. \

The PC/liberal-socialist policies and appointments of the clinton administration led DIRECTLY to 9-11 and the situation we currrently face, including a chronically under-funded, poorly staffed, and demoralized FBI, CIA, and Military.

And these jokers want to talk about "Big Oil", etc. Good grief!

[Dog]

Nita any idea who this David Frasca is...he turns up in to many of these new stories...

Miss Marple you need to read this thread .....

[lute]

Your counted off because of ignorance!

Have a nice day!