Oct 04 2006
Did The CIA Mislead Bush Prior To 9-11?
All the recent efforts to try and tar Bush with not acting prior to 9-11 (in order to distract from a freaking TV Docudrama that hit the Clinton team hard) may be in for a real shocker. I have always had a problem with people using 20/20 hindsight and claiming we should have seen 9-11 coming and done something. The problem has been the near infinite number of attack scenarios that were being discussed as possible threats. Yes, there was talk of highjacking airplanes and flying them into buildings. There was also talk of poisoning water supplies, attacking nuclear plants, bombing footballgames (think of a WTC I styled bomb in truck under the stands or something). The problem was, in my mind, which scenario was the one to focus on.
But one thing I had not contemplated was the idea that the CIA (and possibly the Clinton administration as a whole) had actually misread everything. Until I read this long and insightful article [from 2002] on the challenges facing the Cold War era CIA in the modern battle against terrorism, and hit this paragraph:
No one seemed more blindsided by the events of September 11 than the CIA. Until that day, the agency had been strutting its stuff, suggesting in background briefings and off-the-record comments that the terrorists were on the run. It cited a steady decline in attacks, interpreting the prolonged silence as evidence of capitulation or fear, seemingly oblivious to the idea that the silence was that of a plan coming together.
An agency that lives in the realm of deception and secrecy had indulged in a campaign to enhance its public image. It had a longtime veteran of covert operations, Chase Brandon, assigned to be a liaison with Hollywood, to consult on the scripts of prime-time programs such as The Agency and 24. Authors like Tom Clancy who portray the CIA in a favorable light were given wide access, while more critical observers found the door still closed.
This makes a lot of sense and it fills in a lot of holes. Do we know about what the CIA did regarding the run up to 9-11 for things related to 9-11? Clearly not. The article mentions background briefings and other artifacts that claim the opposite of what we have been told about red alerts coming from the CIA, hair on fire, etc. The dance of any agency with a new administration is to show off its abilities and make the case for new funding. Therefore the idea of the CIA strutting makes a lot of sense.
But the idea of DC opening up to Hollywood is not just some theoretical concept, it happened a lot with the Clintons. And tone here in DC during the Clinton years was to chill out, relax and try to do something new and interesting. These observations reminded me about a lot of what was going on in the Clinton years with crazy schemes and ideas (remember the school uniform idea as a possible new federal law?).
So if I read this correctly, and the reporting is accurate, the CIA actually misled President Bush through his first months in office. We know there were some incredibly dumb statements by folks like Larry Johnson and others about how terrorism was not a threat. But maybe these weren’t the exceptions to the rule.
I heard John Ashcrof say yesterday, the July 10th meeting that Condi was briefed on that Woodward talks about in his book, he asked if there was any information that we would be attacked inside the US and he was told NO! I’m thinking that you are right AJ.
Well, well, well, after seeing Clinton and Chris Wallace exchange on FOX news, i wanted to know why Bill was so pissed. Some say a caculated steamer from Bill. So i was digging away and found something out.
Did you know that cyanide gas was used in the 1993 WTC bombing?
http://www.answers.com/topic/world-trade-center-bombing
We actually had a chemical attack on our soil by an IRAQI….Abdul Rahman Yasin, the Iraqi bomb builder who retreated to Iraq after the attack and lived under Saddam Hussein’s protection and with his financial support until the 2003 invasion. Ramzi Yousef, a Kuwaiti-born al Qaeda terrorist using an Iraqi passport planned it. Iraqi connection is undeniable.
CASE OVER!!! END OF STORY!!! Iraq should have been invaded then….PERIOD!!!
Bill Clinton you are a DOLT!!! a LIAR!!! a P*$$!!! and you never, EVER should have tried to cover this up. No wonder he got pissed, i just wished Wallace would have brought this out… how could he, Clinton would have punched his lights out.
Oh and for those that think he tried to capture or kill Bin Laden. He may have, but he was to concerned about criminalising Laden/Al Queda actions, instead of treating the 1993 WTC bombing for what it was, a declaration of war. A F-N CHEMICAL ATTACK!!
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Now onto Hillary and her recent comment.
Senator Hillary Clinton defended her husband:
“I’m certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States,’ he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team.”
OH REALLY!!! lets examine this closer.
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http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/911rpt/
Report of the Joint Inquiry into the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001,” which was jointly published by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in December 2002.
1. On page 124, for example, the Joint Inquiry lists six instances–all prior to 2001–in which the intelligence indicated al Qaeda was planning attacks on U.S. soil:
In June 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained information from several sources that Osama Bin Laden was considering attacks in the United States, including against Washington, D. C. and New York;
In August 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained information that a group of unidentified Arabs planned to crash an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center;
In September 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained information that Osama Bin Laden’s next operation could possibly involve flying an aircraft loaded with explosives into a U.S. airport;
In October 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained information that al-Qaeda was trying to establish an operative cell within the United States, and that there might be an effort underway to recruit U.S. citizen- Islamists and U.S.-based expatriates from the Middle East and North Africa;
In September 1999, the Intelligence Community obtained information that Osama Bin Laden and others were planning a terrorist act in the United States, possibly against specific landmarks in California and New York City; and
In late 1999, the Intelligence Community obtained information regarding the Bin Laden network’s possible plans to attack targets in Washington, D. C. and New York City during the New Year’s Millennium celebrations.
2. On page 210, the Joint Inquiry reports this warning sign:
In January 1996, the Intelligence Community obtained information concerning a planned suicide attack by persons associated with Shaykh al-Rahman [note: aka the “Blind Shaykh”] and a key al-Qaeda operative to fly to the United States from Afghanistan and attack the White House.
3. On page 211, of the Joint Inquiry report, we learn the following:
In April 2000, the Intelligence Community obtained information regarding an alleged Bin Laden plot to hijack a Boeing 747. The source, a “walk-in” to the FBI’s Newark office, claimed that he had learned hijacking techniques and received arms training in a Pakistani camp. He also claimed that he was to meet five or six persons in the United States. Some of these persons would be pilots who had been instructed to take over a plane, fly to Afghanistan, or, if they could not make it there, blow the plane up. Although the source passed a polygraph, the Bureau was unable to verify any aspect of his story or identify his contacts in the United States.
From 1998 through the summer of 2001, the U.S. Intelligence Community was hindered in its counterterrorism efforts by a number of “systemic weaknesses,” despite intelligence reporting from 1998 through the summer of 2001 indicating that Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist network intended to strike inside the United States, the United States Government did not undertake a comprehensive effort to implement defensive measures in the United States.
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Now i remember part of Clintons arguement with Wallace was he started and left a comprehesive anti-terrorist plan.
BS!!!!
Im not blamming Clinton for all this mess but he isnt being truethfull and his wife is being disengenious and i thought you all shoud be aware of their deceptions. Their attempts to revise history will stop today. Im on it!!!
Yasin was not a secret. In fact I remember 60 Minutes interviewing him while he was in Iraq in the 90’s. No one seems to know what happened to him, he vanished when Bush sent in the army. Dead men tell no tales. My guess is Saddam killed him.
Condoleeza Rice is on public quoted record as denying there had ever been intelligence reports citing planned use of airplanes as weapons by Al Qaida.
During the Clinton years, an interagency document (but mainly CIA, I think) was written for the Congress.
This document talked about airplanes flying into buildings. This was for all the Congressmen.
I can’t find this now, but for ages it was on the Internet.
It wasn’t Congressional Research Service, but something like that.