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A White House official called Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top aide to discuss better communication on Friday, the day after city leaders accused President George W. Bush of blindsiding them with the disclosure of new terror threat details. Speaking at a Westside synagogue, where he and federal officials announced $3.75 million in homeland security grants to nonprofit groups, Villaraigosa said his chief of staff, Robin Kramer, had received a call from Ruben Barrales, the White House intergovernmental affairs chief. "It was very positive," Villaraigosa said. "The important thing here as I said is we need direct communication." A White House spokesman...

The mayor says two requests were denied. White House blames scheduling issues. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's frustration at not being told personally by the White House about the details of the reported terror plot against the city's tallest building stems from a greater annoyance: Nearly 7 1/2 months after taking office, Villaraigosa said Friday that he still has not succeeded in speaking or meeting with President Bush. Villaraigosa said that his office contacted the White House on two occasions last summer to set up meetings with Bush when the mayor was traveling to Washington, but that the White House...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's frustration at not being told personally by the White House about the details of the reported terror plot against the city's tallest building stems from a greater annoyance: Nearly 7 1/2 months after taking office, Villaraigosa said Friday that he still has not succeeded in speaking or meeting with President Bush. Villaraigosa said that his office contacted the White House on two occasions last summer to set up meetings with Bush when the mayor was traveling to Washington, but that the White House turned down both. (snip) Dana Perino, a White House press secretary, said...

WASHINGTON - California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a top member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she has no information to support White House claims that its secret wiretapping helped thwart a 2002 Los Angeles terrorist attack. President George W. Bush implied in a speech Thursday that information gleaned from the wiretaps helped foil an al-Qaida plot to crash a commercial jetliner into the US Bank Tower. But after a closed-door briefing, Feinstein said she'd heard nothing to indicate a wiretap played any part in foiling the plot. "I have no way of knowing whether it did or not," Feinstein said....

WASHINGTON - Twice this week the White House gave ground on issues of national security to appease dissident Republican lawmakers, an uncharacteristic retreat for a president who believes that the best defense is a good offense. First, the Bush administration agreed to brief the full House and Senate Intelligence Committees on its domestic surveillance program, after refusing to do so for years. Then White House officials compromised on civil-liberties concerns that had blocked renewal of the Patriot Act. The concessions yielded mixed results. The Patriot Act is now virtually assured of passage. But some Republicans still resist the secret domestic-surveillance...

How US stopped Hambali Natalie O'Brien and Patrick Walters February 11, 2006 IT should have been no surprise that the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah and its operations chief Hambali were named by US President George W. Bush as the figures behind a 2002 plot to fly a plane into California's tallest building. JI and Hambali, mastermind of the Bali bombing, were not only intimately connected with al-Qa'ida's chief strategist Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the plan to destroy the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, they had been in cahoots for years, planning to blow up US airliners and...

A Malaysian pilot recruited by al-Qaeda to fly a hijacked airliner into the tallest building on the US West Coast pulled out of the plot when he realised it was a suicide mission, security officials in South-East Asia said today. Further details emerged of the plan to target the iconic 73-storey US Bank Building in Los Angeles, revealed by President Bush yesterday in an address to rally support for the War on Terror. Terrorism experts in Malaysia said that Zaini Zakaria, an engineer, was among three men being trained to launch the planned second-wave of Osama bin Laden's assault on...

The Los Angeles Times reports on Democratic reaction to President Bush's speech yesterday, in which he described how the government foiled an al Qaeda plot to fly hijacked planes into L.A.'s Library Tower: "The details did little to counter skepticism from Democrats and some law enforcement officials who have questioned whether the reported scheme had ever been put into operation before it was thwarted." So we're supposed to wait until after terror plots have been put into operation before thwarting them? "I can't think of a governmental reason to disclose these details at this time to the general public. Clearly,...

A Malaysian pilot recruited by al-Qaeda to fly a hijacked airliner into the tallest building on the US West Coast pulled out of the plot when he realised it was a suicide mission, security officials in South-East Asia said today. Further details emerged of the plan to target the iconic 73-storey US Bank Building in Los Angeles, revealed by President Bush yesterday in an address to rally support for the War on Terror. Terrorism experts in Malaysia said that Zaini Zakaria, an engineer, was among three men being trained to launch the planned second-wave of Osama bin Laden's assault on...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian recruited by al-Qaeda to pilot a plane in a second wave of Sept. 11-style attacks on the United States pulled out after observing the carnage of the 2001 assaults, Southeast Asian officials said Friday. President Bush on Thursday outlined details of an alleged plot to hijack an airliner and fly it into a skyscraper in Los Angeles. He said cooperation between Washington and several Asian countries helped expose it. The plan never appeared close to the stage where it could be put into execution. Scores of arrests in the aftermath of the Sept. 11,...

MSM FAKE STORY #1: Libby to Squeal on Cheney Reality Not Reported: Libby Attorneys say story is false MSM FAKE STORY #2: L.A. Mayor angry he was not notified of L.A. terror plot Reality Not Reported: L.A. Mayor's office was notified by White House through California Homeland Security. MSM FAKE STORY #3: NY Slimes reports that the White House knew the New Orleans was flooding the first day. Reality Not Reported: This is a recycled FAKE News story. There were conflicting reports. At any rate, the state is responsible for the first 72 hours. The Governor and Mayor were...

...A Southeast Asian intelligence official said at least three members of a Southeast Asian cell earmarked to carry out the attack on the West Coast were being held in Malaysia under the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial. "One guy was given money to go for pilot training," said the official, who has proven reliable in the past. He said the would-be pilot, Zaini Zakaria, was arrested in 2002, and the others were probably chosen to play supporting roles in the hijacking. Members of the cell fled to Malaysia from Afghanistan after the United States began bombing al...

The White House has given details of 10 major terror plots that President Bush says have been foiled by the US and its allies since the 11 September attacks. Mr Bush cited the disrupted plans in a speech, designed to boost support for the so-called war on terror. They include a plot to use hijacked aircraft to hit the US East and West coasts and to attack Heathrow Airport. But the sketchy details provided by the White House make it hard to assess how serious or advanced the plans were. Most of the plots have been previously reported in some...

Statement by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Response to President's Speech Regarding Failed LA Terror Plot LOS ANGELES - President Bush, in remarks this morning, made reference to a failed terrorist plot to fly a plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles, the Library Tower. The existence of a potential terrorist plot has been generally known and in fact reported by the media. However, today is the first time that all of the details were publicly disclosed. This attack was foiled three years ago, and the City of Los Angeles has implemented significant security measures since that time. Furthermore, we...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under fire for eavesdropping on Americans, President Bush said Thursday that spy work stretching from the U.S. to Asia helped thwart terrorists plotting to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast in 2002."It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot," Bush said. "By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland."Some information about the foiled attack was disclosed last year, but Bush offered more details to highlight international cooperation in fighting terrorists. He did not say whether information about...

Its pretty good video that goes into several of al-Qaeda's other 2002 attack plots.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent." "I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor told The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president _ but somebody." Bush has referred to the 2002 plot before but he publicly filled in the details Thursday. Bush said Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of...

Bush Offers Detail of 2002 Attack Plot Feb 09 10:49 AM US/Eastern Email this story WASHINGTON President Bush said Thursday a 2002 al-Qaida plot against the tallest building on the West Coast was foiled by U.S. counter terrorism efforts. Speaking at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington, the president said plotters planned to use hijacked commercial airplanes to strike the Library Tower in Los Angeles, now known as the US Bank Tower. Bush has referred to the plot before, but White House officials had said would provide more specifics in a speech Thursday. In an address last October, Bush...

US President George W. Bush was to say in a speech that international cooperation helped thwart a terrorist attack on the US west coast, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan. McClellan did not provide any details about the plot, or the way it was prevented, but told reporters the purpose of Bush's remarks was to "show the kind of international cooperation that is required" to defeat terrorism. He also said the goal was not to justify Bush's controversial order, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, to allow spying on Americans without getting a warrant, in a break with past...

Los Angeles -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent." "I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody." The mayor also suggested that some funding from the Iraq war could be redirected to homeland security, which...