KEN GUGGENHEIM
Probe: U.S. Knew of Jet Terror Plots
Thu Sep 19 15:32:35 2002
208.152.73.203

Probe: U.S. Knew of Jet Terror Plots
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020919/ap_on_go_co/attacks_intelligence_22

Wed Sep 18,12:59 PM ET
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - American intelligence agencies received far more reports
of terrorist plotting to use planes as weapons before Sept. 11 than the
U.S. government has previously acknowledged, congressional investigators
said Wednesday.

While it was unclear whether any of the reports were in fact signs of the
impending attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, investigators
said the agencies never looked closely at the potential threat of hijacked
airliners flying into buildings. Those assertions came in a 30-page
statement by Eleanor Hill, staff director for the House and Senate
intelligence inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks.

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 Qaida's plot," said Sen. Bob Graham, chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Hill outlined 12 examples of intelligence information on the possible
terrorist use of airplanes as weapons, dating back to 1994. The last
example occurred a month before the attacks, when intelligence agencies
were told of a possible bin Laden plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Nairobi,
Kenya, or crash a plane into it. But it contained no specifics pointing to
the impending Sept. 11 attacks.

In August 1998, U.S. intelligence learned that a "group of unidentified
Arabs planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into
the World Trade Center," says the report. The report was given to the
Federal Aviation Administration and FBI ( news - web sites), which took
little action on it. The group may now be linked to bin Laden, the report says.

Other intelligence suggested that bin Laden supporters might crash a plane
into a U.S. airport, or conduct a plot involving aircraft at New York and
Washington, the report said.

While generally aware of the possibility of this method of attack, "the
Intelligence Community did not produce any specific assessments of the
likelihood that terrorists would use airplanes as weapons," the report said.

With revelations in the spring that President Bush had learned a month
before the attacks that that bin Laden wanted to hijack airplanes, the
White House defended the lack of disclosure of the information by saying
the president's briefing detailed plans for traditional hijackings, not the
use of airplanes as weapons.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said at the time that the threat
was vague and uncorroborated.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted ... that they would try to use
an airplane as missile," Rice said. "Had this president known of something
more specific or known that a plane was going to be used as a missile, he
would have acted on it."

Congressional investigators also said that an intelligence briefing two
months before the Sept. 11 attack warned that Osama bin Laden would launch
a spectacular terrorist attack against U.S. or Israeli interests.

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

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."

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.

At Wednesday's hearing, leaders of two groups of victims' relatives,
Stephen Push and Kristin Breitweiser, were the first witnesses. Both lost
spouses in the attacks.

Breitweiser, whose husband Ron died at the World Trade Center, told
lawmakers that if the public had been aware of possible terrorist attacks,
airport security could have been bolstered and passengers may have thought
twice before boarding airplanes.

"How many victims may have taken notice of these Middle Eastern men that
were boarding their plane?" said Breitweiser, of Middletown, N.J. She is
co-founder of September 11th Advocates.

As Breitweiser spoke, a group of family members and advocates sitting
behind her began to weep. Mary Fetchet, of Voices of September 11, clutched
a picture of her son and wiped away tears that were streaming down her face.

The hearings are believed to mark the first time that standing committees
from both houses of Congress have sat together for an investigation.

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.

Hill's report notes CIA Director George J. Tenet has declined to declassify
information on two key issues being looked at by the inquiry: References to
intelligence agencies supplying information to the White House, and details
of an al-Qaida leader involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
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