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So was Clinton Clinton Was Warned of bin Laden Hijacking Plot Among the report's other new disclosures: Bill Clinton also got a strong warning that bin Laden wanted to hijack planes. On Dec. 4, 1998, Clinton was presented with a President's Daily Brief (PDB) with the eye-catching title "Bin Laden Preparing to Hijack U.S. Aircraft and other attacks," Newsweek has learned.
Sure, and Clinton was staying on top of it, and had a thick dossier on Bin Laden which he gave to Bush, who ignored it. My my, Bush and Condaleeza 'could never have imagined them using planes as weapons'. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sure, and Clinton was staying on top of it, and had a thick dossier on Bin Laden which he gave to Bush, who ignored it. My my, Bush and Condaleeza 'could never have imagined them using planes as weapons'. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, nothing like making up a great big dossier, as opposed to actually killing him.
Sure, and Clinton was staying on top of it, and had a thick dossier on Bin Laden which he gave to Bush, who ignored it. My my, Bush and Condaleeza 'could never have imagined them using planes as weapons'. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Selective amnesia seems to be genetic for most Americans.
Not unlike those that think Bush was of any value to this country, other than comic relief...
Or those that think repubs will save the economy, forgetting they were so responsible.... funny how many are bringing back the inaugural balls so they can waste money...
No one in this forum can with any intelligence argue both parties have caused the massive deficits and so much more..... yet they continue to support them... I don't get it. It isn't like either will make it better.
Do you think Obama would have had a better first reaction after learning that a passenger jet had plowed into the Trade Center?
"when he later recalled his thought process upon learning of the first plane to a Florida third grader named Jordan: “I used to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot", and I said, "It must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there - I didn't have much time to think about it."
I think that was a rather funny comment, almost British sense of humor And since nobody knew the details yet, it might as well have been the pilot's error...
Sure, and Clinton was staying on top of it, and had a thick dossier on Bin Laden which he gave to Bush, who ignored it. My my, Bush and Condaleeza 'could never have imagined them using planes as weapons'. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In August 2002 Richard A. Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism adviser, discusses US strategy in dealing with islamic terrorists:
RICHARD CLARKE: Actually, I've got about seven points, let me just go through them quickly. Um, the first point, I think the overall point is, there was no plan on Al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.
Second point is that the Clinton administration had a strategy in place, effectively dating from 1998. And there were a number of issues on the table since 1998. And they remained on the table when that administration went out of office -- issues like aiding the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, changing our Pakistan policy -- uh, changing our policy toward Uzbekistan. And in January 2001, the incoming Bush administration was briefed on the existing strategy. They were also briefed on these series of issues that had not been decided on in a couple of years.
And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.
And the point is, while this big review was going on, there were still in effect, the lethal findings were still in effect. The second thing the administration decided to do is to initiate a process to look at those issues which had been on the table for a couple of years and get them decided.
So, point five, that process which was initiated in the first week in February, uh, decided in principle, uh in the spring to add to the existing Clinton strategy and to increase CIA resources, for example, for covert action, five-fold, to go after Al Qaeda.
The sixth point, the newly-appointed deputies -- and you had to remember, the deputies didn't get into office until late March, early April. The deputies then tasked the development of the implementation details, uh, of these new decisions that they were endorsing, and sending out to the principals.
Over the course of the summer -- last point -- they developed implementation details, the principals met at the end of the summer, approved them in their first meeting, changed the strategy by authorizing the increase in funding five-fold, changing the policy on Pakistan, changing the policy on Uzbekistan, changing the policy on the Northern Alliance assistance.
And then changed the strategy from one of rollback with Al Qaeda over the course of five years, which it had been, to a new strategy that called for the rapid elimination of Al Qaeda. That is in fact the timeline.
QUESTION: What is your response to the suggestion in the [Aug 12, 2002] Time [magazine] article that the Bush administration was unwilling to take on board the suggestions made in the Clinton administration because of animus against the -- general animus against the foreign policy?
CLARKE: I think if there was a general animus that clouded their vision, they might not have kept the same guy dealing with terrorism issue. This is the one issue where the National Security Council leadership decided continuity was important and kept the same guy around, the same team in place. That doesn't sound like animus against, uh, the previous team to me.
JIM ANGLE: You're saying that the Bush administration did not stop anything that the Clinton administration was doing while it was making these decisions, and by the end of the summer had increased money for covert action five-fold. Is that correct?
CLARKE: All of that's correct.
ANGLE: So, just to finish up if we could then, so what you're saying is that there was no -- one, there was no plan; two, there was no delay; and that actually the first changes since October of '98 were made in the spring months just after the administration came into office?
CLARKE: You got it. That's right.
Richard A. Clarke
Former chief counter-terrorism adviser
August, 2002
In August 2002 Richard A. Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism adviser, discusses US strategy in dealing with islamic terrorists:
RICHARD CLARKE: Actually, I've got about seven points, let me just go through them quickly. Um, the first point, I think the overall point is, there was no plan on Al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.
Second point is that the Clinton administration had a strategy in place, effectively dating from 1998. And there were a number of issues on the table since 1998. And they remained on the table when that administration went out of office -- issues like aiding the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, changing our Pakistan policy -- uh, changing our policy toward Uzbekistan. And in January 2001, the incoming Bush administration was briefed on the existing strategy. They were also briefed on these series of issues that had not been decided on in a couple of years.
And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.
And the point is, while this big review was going on, there were still in effect, the lethal findings were still in effect. The second thing the administration decided to do is to initiate a process to look at those issues which had been on the table for a couple of years and get them decided.
So, point five, that process which was initiated in the first week in February, uh, decided in principle, uh in the spring to add to the existing Clinton strategy and to increase CIA resources, for example, for covert action, five-fold, to go after Al Qaeda.
The sixth point, the newly-appointed deputies -- and you had to remember, the deputies didn't get into office until late March, early April. The deputies then tasked the development of the implementation details, uh, of these new decisions that they were endorsing, and sending out to the principals.
Over the course of the summer -- last point -- they developed implementation details, the principals met at the end of the summer, approved them in their first meeting, changed the strategy by authorizing the increase in funding five-fold, changing the policy on Pakistan, changing the policy on Uzbekistan, changing the policy on the Northern Alliance assistance.
And then changed the strategy from one of rollback with Al Qaeda over the course of five years, which it had been, to a new strategy that called for the rapid elimination of Al Qaeda. That is in fact the timeline.
QUESTION: What is your response to the suggestion in the [Aug 12, 2002] Time [magazine] article that the Bush administration was unwilling to take on board the suggestions made in the Clinton administration because of animus against the -- general animus against the foreign policy?
CLARKE: I think if there was a general animus that clouded their vision, they might not have kept the same guy dealing with terrorism issue. This is the one issue where the National Security Council leadership decided continuity was important and kept the same guy around, the same team in place. That doesn't sound like animus against, uh, the previous team to me.
JIM ANGLE: You're saying that the Bush administration did not stop anything that the Clinton administration was doing while it was making these decisions, and by the end of the summer had increased money for covert action five-fold. Is that correct?
CLARKE: All of that's correct.
ANGLE: So, just to finish up if we could then, so what you're saying is that there was no -- one, there was no plan; two, there was no delay; and that actually the first changes since October of '98 were made in the spring months just after the administration came into office?
CLARKE: You got it. That's right.
Richard A. Clarke
Former chief counter-terrorism adviser
August, 2002
According to law enforcement officials, Ahmed Ressam's Los Angeles bomb plot, timed to the millennium, was not the only Al Qaeda operation planned over that New Year's period. The following is from Ressam's own trial testimony:
Q. Did you discuss the type of target you would pick in the United States?
A. Yes.
Q. What was that discussion?
A. The discussion was about an airport, an airport, a consulate, that's what I remember.
Q. Were you aware of plans being made by other groups in the camp as well?
A. Yes, there were others who were planning other than us.
Q. Generally what did you know about what the other groups were doing?
A. To carry out operations in Europe, in the Gulf, against U.S. and Israel.
Q. What was the timing of those operations?
A. Before the year 2000.
Clinton would have prevented 9-11, because he WANTED to:
Several days after the millennium celebrations, President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, announced that in the weeks before the New Year, law enforcement had disrupted terrorist cells "in eight countries and attacks were almost certainly prevented." He didn't give details, but FRONTLINE has compiled the following list from intelligence sources and press reports:
Acting on tips from U.S. authorities, Jordanian police arrested members of a cell planning attacks against Western tourists, including blowing up a large hotel in Amman, Jordan. A key member of this cell escaped but was later captured and is now serving a life sentence in Jordan. He was Raed Hijazi, a Boston taxi driver and American citizen who trained at bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan and who has recently been linked to the Sept. 11 attackers.
Five armed members of the Harakat ul-Mujahidin organization (HUM), an Islamic militant group based in Kashmir, hijacked an Indian Airlines plane with 155 passengers. One passenger was killed. The plane was held by the hijackers one week in Afghanistan before the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of imprisoned pro-Kashmiri militants held in India. The hijackers were allowed to escape to Pakistan. HUM is on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. It is ideologically linked to Al Qaeda because one of its leaders signed Osama bin Laden's anti-America fatwah.
Terrorists failed in a planned attack against the American warship USS The Sullivans while it was refueling in Yemen. Information about the plot came from a suspect arrested after the successful attack on the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000. The suspect told Yemeni investigators an attack months earlier -- and almost identical to the Cole bombing -- had failed when the first assault boat became overloaded with explosives and sank. The attack was planned to be timed to
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And since nobody knew the details yet, it might as well have been the pilot's error...
