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Saturday, June 11, 2005 9:32 a.m. EDT Hillary Appointee Tied to 9/11 Blunder Press reports on Friday about a government report that offers new evidence on how the CIA failed to warn the FBI when two of the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. made no mention of the role played in the disastrous bungle by Hillary Clinton's Justice Department protege Jamie Gorelick. Typical was coverage in the Los Angeles Times, which chronicled the efforts of a frustrated CIA agent who desperately tried to warn the FBI that Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar had migrated to San Diego after attending an...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - In the weeks and months before Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI had some clues, but didn't see them. It had a lead from one of its own agents, but didn't follow it. A sobering inside look at pre-Sept. 11 intelligence operations by the Justice Department's inspector general chronicles - in some instances in hour-to-hour detail - how the FBI missed at least five opportunities to uncover vital information that might have led agents to the hijackers. "The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able...

In the years leading up to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI fumbled several opportunities to capture Clinton-era Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, according to a new study by the Justice Department's Inspector General. The report also details how the FBI missed five chances to uncover vital information about two of the 9/11 hijackers. Ms. Gorelick is best known for creating 'The Wall', a procedural barrier between criminal investigations and intelligence gathering which hindered the FBI's ability to learn more about Al Qaeda from prosecutors working the 1993 WTC bombing case, and...

The FBI missed several opportunities to uncover vital information regarding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that could have led agents to two of the hijackers, a Justice Department report says. "The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks," Inspector General Glenn Fine reported.

IF ACADEMY AWARDS were given for the greatest lost opportunity, Million Dollar Baby would have won them, too. (snip) Nor is this a story line of recent vintage. Indeed, in the past movies were made as explicit propaganda to promote the legalization and legitimacy of active euthanasia. The most notorious of these is the 1939 German movie, I Accuse (Ich Klage An), a film that, with Goebbles's blessing, both promoted voluntary euthanasia as well as the propriety of killing disabled infants--to blockbuster success at the box office. (snip Secondly, while it is true that many people who become quadriplegic later...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Thursday offered condolences to Palestinians after the death of Yasser Arafat but said their leader had missed the opportunity to create lasting Middle East peace in 2000. Clinton, who helped broker a Middle East peace plan with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, will not attend either his memorial service or his funeral, the former president's office said. Clinton, Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin made history on Sept. 13, 1993, when the three men shook hands on the White House lawn and signed interim...

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday rejected Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's charge that the Bush administration had bungled a chance to catch Osama bin Laden in late 2001. Powell was responding to Kerry's accusation in Thursday's presidential campaign debate with President Bush that U.S. military commanders had let the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan. Kerry said Bush had "outsourced" the mission to Afghan warlords who were former allies of the Taliban regime. "I think it's a stretch to say that they knew he (bin Laden) was there and...

On December 20 1999, CIA chiefs and military brass were gathered in Washington to give the green light for an operation in Afghanistan with the aim of killing Osama bin Laden. "Mike", the CIA man in charge of the operation, offered the conferees a final report in which he revealed that the place where the terrorist leader had been located was close to a mosque. The revelation caused a commotion and led to the cancellation of the operation. Five years later, testifying to the 9/11 Commission, "Mike" recalled that the committee had been concerned that "shrapnel might hit the mosque...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton questioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday about claims that the Bush administration missed a chance to kill Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks, asking him to explain the failure to 9/11 victim families. Rumsfeld was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about revising the military force structure when committee-member Clinton switched gears, asking him about the 9/11 Commission report. Citing a commission finding calling the Bush administration's failure to arm Predator drones a "missed opportunity" in the hunt for bin Laden, Clinton asked Rumsfeld to respond to questions from 9/11 victim families....

The real "missed opportunity": not declaring war on al Qaeda six years earlier. BY LOUIS J. FREEH Saturday, July 24, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT --snip-- the Joint Intelligence Committee "uncovered no intelligence information in the possession of the Intelligence Community prior to the attacks of September 11th that, if fully considered, would have provided specific, advance warning of the details of those attacks." This was so even though al Qaeda and its political leadership openly and repeatedly declared war against America. Even after the commission completed its work, the complex question that remains not fully answered is why the political...

9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said Friday that he believed ex-President Bill Clinton when Clinton told the Commission he "misspoke" in a 2002 speech where he detailed an offer from Sudan to have Osama bin Laden extradited to the U.S. But Kerrey also admitted that if he or any of the other commissioners had challenged Clinton's account, it would have split the Commission along partisan lines and short-circuited efforts to keep their findings unanimous. Story Continues Below "He said that he misspoke so I believe him," Kerrey told WDAY North Dakota radio host Scott Hennen. "I choose to believe him on...

President Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, rejected four plans to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, worrying once that if the plans failed and al Qaeda launched a counterattack, "we're blamed." According to the September 11 commission's 567-page report, released Thursday, Mr. Berger was told in June 1999 that U.S. intelligence agents were confident about bin Laden's presence in a terrorist training camp called Tarnak Farms in Afghanistan. Mr. Berger's "hand-written notes on the meeting paper," the report says, showed that Mr. Berger was worried about injuring or killing civilians located near the camp. Additionally, "If [bin Laden]...

On Sept. 11, 2001 — it all seemed so sudden, and without warning. But three years and two investigations later, it's clear there was a tragic trail of missed opportunities to stop some of the hijackers, disrupt the plot and perhaps save 3,000 lives. ------------- We can be prepared to DISCUSS/REFUTE the following items that will be discussed on this show tonight at 9:00 P.M. EDT.

The final report by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will detail as many as 10 missed opportunities to detect or derail the hijackings, The Washington Post reports in Wednesday editions. Citing government officials and others familiar with the report, the newspaper said the panel faults both the Bush and Clinton administrations, but does not say the attacks could have been prevented. The bipartisan commission has been investigating government failures related to the 2001 hijacked plane attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and is due to release its final report on Thursday. The nearly 600-page report includes a...

WASHINGTON - The federal government missed at least 10 chances to derail the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a report on the 9/11 commission's final findings. The 10 blown "operational opportunities" include failed plans to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, the failure of the CIA to put two hijackers on a watch list, and the FBI's handling of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the Washington Post reported on its Web site last night. The commission's 600-page report, due out tomorrow, is expected to characterize the missed chances as long shots that would have needed at least a few lucky breaks to thwart...

Following a flurry of charges that he hadn’t done enough to eliminate Osama bin Laden, Bill Clinton and his friends in the media appear to have launched a counteroffensive. There has been a flurry of stories claiming that Clinton orchestrated several attempts to capture or kill the terrorist. Clinton has said he made only one attempt on bin Laden’s life, but as the criticism intensified, articles appeared claiming that under Clinton the U.S. had an ongoing campaign to get bin Laden. Shortly after the September 11th attacks, articles by the AP and the Philadelphia Inquirer charged that the Clinton administration ...

In an effort to counter the growing perception that President Clinton forfeited America's best chance to arrest Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks, "CBS Evening News" anchorman Dan Rather aired new footage Monday night of Clinton strenuously denying that the government of Sudan ever offered to extradite the al Qaida mastermind. In a segment initially edited out of Sunday night's "60 Minutes" broadcast, Clinton tells Rather, "To the best of my knowledge it is not true that we were ever offered [bin Laden] by the Sudanese, even though they later claimed it. I think it's total bull." In...

Ex-president Bill Clinton insisted to "60 Minutes" on Sunday that there's no evidence he turned down an offer from Sudan to have Osama bin Laden arrested in 1996, even though he admitted two years ago that he had indeed spurned such an offer. Asked about the accusation by 9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey that he "let pass opportunities to arrest or kill the al Qaida leadership," Clinton told CBS's Dan Rather, "I don't believe that is true." Without any prompting from Rather, Clinton zeroed in on the Sudan episode specifically. Swallowing with a determined nervousness before he began, the ex-president...

By Richard C. Paddock Times Staff Writer PERTH, Australia — When Jack Roche telephoned Australia's intelligence agency in July 2000, he offered a tantalizing story: He had been to Afghanistan (news - web sites) and ate lunch with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). He had received training in explosives and plotted with Al Qaeda leaders to carry out a bombing in Australia. A Muslim convert, Roche was prepared to become an informant, his attorney says, and provide information about Al Qaeda; its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah; and their goal of staging an attack in a Western country....

The June edition of Vanity Fair is hitting newsstands and it credits NewsMax.com for most of Clinton's post-9/11 woes. While ex-President Clinton has managed to rise above most of the scandals that characterized his White House years, Vanity Fair magazine says that the episode that continues to damage his legacy most is a recording by NewsMax.com of Clinton's admission that he turned down a deal for Osama bin Laden's arrest in 1996. "The hardest charge to dismiss is the most devastating," reports Vanity Fair in its June issue. "Five years before 9/11, it was said, Osama bin Laden had been...