George Wishart

Investigator cites warning before 9/11

Wed Sep 18 23:25:52 2002
208.152.73.196

"George Wishart" - gwishart@primus.ca

slowly - the mainstream media facts, questions and reluctance to cooperate

Posted on CNN's website today.

"....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 and detonating it"...... In the
fall of 1998, intelligence agencies received information about a bin Laden
plot involving aircraft in New York and Washington areas......Between May
and July, 2001, the National Security agency reported at least 33
communications indicating a possible, imminent terrorist attack....an FBI
agent warned that U.S. flight schools may be training terrorist pilots...
Both Shelby and Graham have complained that the Bush administration has not
been cooperating with their investigation. "What we are trying to do is get
people who had hands on these issues," Graham said Wednesday on NBC's "Today"
program, "...and what we're being told is no, they don't want to make those
kinds of witnesses available." ...Committee members say they have become
frustrated by delays, blamed on both the difficulties of declassifying
information for public hearings and what they see as lack of cooperation by
the administration. Public hearings were to have begun in June. Delayed
repeatedly, none has been scheduled beyond Wednesday's. Congressional staff
have said the administration has been reluctant to provide high-level
officials as witnesses, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld...."

Investigator cites warning before 9/11
http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/244103.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An intelligence briefing two months before the
September 11 attack warned that Osama bin Laden would launch a
spectacular terrorist attack against U.S. or Israeli interests, congressional
investigators said Wednesday.

The briefing, for senior government officials, was part of "a modest, but
relatively steady stream of intelligence information indicating the possibility of
terrorist attacks inside the United States," said the 30-page statement by Eleanor Hill,
staff director for the House and Senate intelligence inquiry into the September 11
attacks.
But Hill said the credibility of the sources was sometimes questionable and no
specific details about the attacks were available.

"They generally did not contain specific information as to where, when and how a
terrorist attack might occur and generally are not corroborated by further
information," her statement said.

Hill's statement was being presented to committee
members Wednesday at the inquiry's first public
hearings. Lawmakers have been meeting behind
closed doors since June, looking into intelligence
failures leading up to the attacks and how they can
be corrected.

"These public hearings are part of our search for the
truth -- not to point fingers or pin blame, but with
the goal of identifying and correcting whatever
systemic problems might have prevented our
government from detecting and disrupting al
Qaeda's plot," said Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, as the hearing
opened.

Leaders of two groups of victims' relatives, Stephen
Push and Kristin Breitweiser, were the first
scheduled witnesses. Both lost spouses in the
attacks.

The July 2001 briefing for senior government
officials said that based on a review of intelligence
information over five months "we believe that (bin
Laden) will launch a significant terrorist attack
against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming
weeks."

"The attack will be spectacular and designed to
inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have
been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning," it said.

Among other intelligence reports mentioned by Hill:

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 and detonating it."

In the fall of 1998, intelligence agencies received information about a bin Laden plot
involving aircraft in New York and Washington areas.

Between May and July, 2001, the National Security agency reported at least 33
communications indicating a possible, imminent terrorist attack.

But intelligence agencies generally believed that any attack was more likely to occur
overseas than in the United States.

On Tuesday, the top Republican on the Senate panel, Sen. Richard Shelby of
Alabama, said some of the most troubling information seen by the committees
already has been made public: the so-called Phoenix memo, in which an FBI agent
warned that U.S. flight schools may be training terrorist pilots, and the handling of
the Zacarias Moussaoui case. Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001 after he
raised suspicions when he sought training at a Minnesota flight school. He has since
been charged with conspiring in the attacks.

"Those two events alone could have changed September 11. Would it have? We
don't know," Shelby said.

Both Shelby and Graham have complained that the Bush administration has not been
cooperating with their investigation.

"What we are trying to do is get people who had hands on these issues," Graham
said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" program, "...and what we're being told is no,
they don't want to make those kinds of witnesses available."

"We can only talk to the top of the pyramid," Graham said. "Well, the problem is,
the top of the pyramid has a general awareness of what's going on in the
organization, but if you want to know why Malaysian plotters were not put on a
watch list ... you've to talk to somebody at the level where those kinds of decisions
were made."

The hearings are believed to mark the first time that standing committees from both
houses of Congress have sat together for an investigation. Because House and
Senate committees follow different rules in staging hearings, special procedures had
to be adopted. The committees' leaders, Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, R-Florida,
will alternate as chairman.

The Bush administration has looked to the intelligence inquiry to produce the
definitive report on problems leading up to the attack. Committee members say they
have become frustrated by delays, blamed on both the difficulties of declassifying
information for public hearings and what they see as lack of cooperation by the
administration.

Public hearings were to have begun in June. Delayed repeatedly, none has been
scheduled beyond Wednesday's. Congressional staff have said the administration
has been reluctant to provide high-level officials as witnesses, including Secretary
of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

With just weeks left in the congressional year, momentum has grown in Congress
for a separate, independent commission to look into the attacks. The White House
has opposed an independent commission, saying it could lead to more leaks and tie
up personnel needed to fight terrorism.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redis
 

• HTML of 9-11 public hearing statements — John Horne, Thu Sep 19 01:32