Former CIA Director Woolsey suggested Iraq / bin Laden WMD threat 6 days before 9/11

LexisNexis Congressional

[rightcoast]

September 5, 2001, Wednesday

TYPE: COMMITTEE HEARING

LENGTH: 30153 words

COMMITTEE: SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE

HEADLINE: U.S. SENATOR JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE) HOLDS HEARING ON THE THREAT OF BIOTERRORISM

*** Excerpt follows:

(HELMS = Senator Jesse Helms, WOOLSEY = Former CIA Director James Woolsey)

HELMS: Mr. Woolsey, let me ask you something.

Now, the January 2001, this year's National Intelligence Council Report on biological warfare threats, it said that there are 25 -- let me see how many biological warfare states with missile warheads -- in Iraq alone. And they are unaccounted for, that is to say, the 25 missiles.

Now, do we have any idea about the possible targets of these missiles and is it possible for Iraq to develop similar warheads for longer-range missiles?

WOOLSEY: I believe it is possible for them to develop longer warheads for longer-range missiles, Mr. Chairman, it is both in terms of weight and in terms of technology where they're simpler as the chairman suggested, than for nuclear weapons.

I don't believe we know or have any samples of the biological agents that Saddam had produced or any of the warheads. The Iraqis simply said these have been unilaterally destroyed and UNSCOM was not able get hold of any of these.

So, we are really rather crippled by the absence of UNSCOM. I think from knowing a great deal more about the Iraqi program than we do today, and of course, one great fear is that if Russian scientists were working with the Iraqis, some of these biological agents that are in the hands of Iraq and could conceivably through Iraq, be given to bin Laden or other terrorist groups, may be genetically modified so that standard vaccines and antibiotics would not operate against them.

[GraniteStateConservative]

some of these biological agents that are in the hands of Iraq and could conceivably through Iraq, be given to bin Laden

The WH has generally backed off pre-war Iraq-OBL connection allegations.

[OXENinFLA]

September 5, 2001

WOOLSEY:

So, we are really rather crippled by the absence of UNSCOM. I think from knowing a great deal more about the Iraqi program than we do today, and of course, one great fear is that if Russian scientists were working with the Iraqis, some of these biological agents that are in the hands of Iraq and could conceivably through Iraq, be given to bin Laden or other terrorist groups, may be genetically modified so that standard vaccines and antibiotics would not operate against them.

---

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[finnman69]

bump

[oceanview]

Woolsey knows alot, he wrote the foreward for Laurie Mylorie's book. But you are correct, for some reason, no one wants to hear what he has to say. I can understand the media shunning him, but the WH has also.

The post 9/11 anthrax came from Iraq, and there could be no public acknowledgement of that. Iraq was dealt with without acknowledging it, let's just hope there isn't a few hundred pounds of the stuff planted somewhere inside the US ready to go.

[Mo1]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/woolsey.html

(snip of the interview)

PBS interview with James Woosley ... He was interviewed in mid-october 2001
Let me start out with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. You're the head of the CIA. Was it done by a bunch of Egyptians living in the United States?

Well, we didn't know.


We didn't know what?
We didn't know what the investigation was turning up, because the investigation was all being done by law enforcement. Pursuant to Rule 6E of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, anything that's obtained pursuant to a grand jury subpoena can't be shared outside the prosecutor's team. There are some limited circumstances in which they could share it, let's say, with a state or local prosecutor, but not with the intelligence community. So all that information was bottled up inside the law enforcement community for at least a couple years until the trials took place. ...


When did you become aware, or when did you think that possibly Iraq was involved in some way in the World Trade Center bombing, or in terrorism against the United States?

Well, I left the agency in January of 1995, shortly before Ramzi Yousef was apprehended. It really wasn't until I saw Laurie Mylroie's article in National Interest that my interest was piqued. And then a few years later, when she sent me the manuscript to see if I would do an advertising blurb for her book, I went into it in great detail.

[oceanview]

and has the 9/11 commission had Woolsey as a witness?

[Mo1]

To be honest I don't know .. I'll check google and see if there is a list of people

I finally got around and started reading Laurie's book and when I read the foreword Woosley wrote for Laurie Mylorie's book and the part about the Grand Jury for the 93 bombing of the WTC .. my blood pressure went through the roof

[Dr. Frank fan]

Notice he doesn't use the term "Al Qaeda", he uses "bin Laden".

I've had this funny feeling growing recently that "Al Qaeda" is a made-up term invented by Richard Clarke or his underlings, so they can slap an "Al Qaeda" label on all attacks and thereby distance all attacks from nation-state connections. I'm looking for reasons to believe otherwise. Didn't find it here.

[Valin]

BUMP! and bookmark

[Mo1]

Woosely doesn't show up on the list of Public Hearings ... But Laurie was at the 4rd hearing

9-11commission list of public hearings

[Mo1]

at the 4rd hearin

That should be the 3rd hearing

[OXENinFLA]

Bump!

[Quilla]

Everytime I hear Woolsey's name the words "De Plane! De Plane!" pop into my head. May Bill Clinton get what he deserves.