9/11

Following up on Spooky's post, here's another timeline...
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March 2001: Moscow's Permanent Mission at the United Nations submits a report to the UN Security Council with very specific information about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. This information is given to the Bush Administration, which took no action.


According to Alex Standish, the editor of the [Jane's Intelligence] Review, the attacks of September 11 were less of an American intelligence failure and more the result of US inaction based on a political decision not to act against Bin Laden. (Rashmee Z. Ahmed, "U.S. Had Specific Information on Laden," The Times of India, October 6, 2001)

May 2001: Bush kills the Hart-Rudman report that warned of terrorist attacks on U.S.soil.

May 30: Four men are convicted in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998. Witnesses testified at the trial that Osama bin Laden was sending al Qaeda agents to the United States for flight-school training.

June 26: Espionage sources report a spike in intelligence traffic about possible terrorist strikes on July 4. The White House is informed. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

June 28: In a written briefing, CIA director George Tenet warns Condoleeza Rice that it is highly likely that a significant Qaeda attack will take place in the near future. (Newsweek, May 27, page 32)

July: John O'Neill (FBI agent investigating the U.S.S. Cole bombing) is barred by bureaucrats in the U.S. Justice Department from returning to Yemen to continue his investigation of the Cole disaster. According to some accounts, he complained that his investigation into Al-Qaeda was shut down due to pressure from the Saudi government and oil interests. O'Neill decides to retire from the FBI. He accepts a position as chief of security at the World Trade Center in New York (he would be killed on September 11).


Meanwhile, intelligence had been streaming in concerning a likely Al Qaeda attack. It all came together in the third week in June, [Richard] Clarke* said. The C.I.A.'s view was that a major terrorist attack was coming in the next several weeks. On July 5th, Clarke summoned all the domestic security agenciesthe Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard, Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the F.B.I.and told them to increase their security in light of an impending attack. (Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, January 14, 2002)

(*Richard Clarke was national coordinator for counter-terrorism in the White House from the first Bush Administration until 2001.)

Convicted in the spring of 2001 for planning to bomb the Los Angeles Airport, Ahmed Ressam gives investigators detailed information on Al Qaeda's plans for terrorism in the United States.


He left no doubt that U.S. airports were a prime target because an airport is sensitive politically and economically, as Ressam said in court on July 3. At least two of the FAA's summer warnings came from Ressam's information, which should have given pause to Bush administration officials who remained convinced that the threat was abroad. (Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff, "What Went Wrong," Newsweek, May 27, 2002)

July 1: Senator Diane Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tells CNN, "Intelligence staff tell me that there is a major probability of a terrorist incident within the next three months." She says that more money is needed for intelligence and counter-terrorism measures. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

July 2: FBI warns law enforcement agencies and the White House of possible al Qaeda attacks overseas, and also says domestic strikes cannot be ruled out. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

July 5: July 4 passed with no terrorist attacks, but the CIA tells President Bush that attacks are still possible. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did") According to Newsweek (May 27), Bush directs National Security Adviser Rice to find out what might be going on regarding domestic terrorism.

July 6: A National Security Council group led by Richard Clarke, national coordinator for counter-terrorism, meets to discuss intelligence and terrorist threats overseas. Nonessential travel by counter-terrorism staff is suspended. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

July 5: In a White House meeting, counter-terrorism officials warn the FBI, CIA, INS, and others that a major attack on the United States is coming soon (Newsweek, May 27, page 32)

July 10: Kenneth Williams, a counter terrorism agent in the FBI's Phoenix office, notices that a number of suspected terrorists were learning to fly airplanes and asking questions about airport security. Williams's superior, William Kurtz, writes a memo urging all U.S. flight schools be checked. However, the warnings from the Kurtz team are ignored in Washington. (Romesh Ratnesar, Michael Weisskopf, "How the FBI Blew the Case," Time, June 3, 2002)

July 18: The FBI warns law enforcement of threats made in connection to the conviction of Ahmed Ressam. The White House is also informed. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

July 21: Violence marks a summit of the Group of Eight held in Genoa, Italy. CNN reports that "metal detectors, sniffer dogs and agents will stand guard at the luxury cruiser housing the leaders." However, "U.S. President George W. Bush will not stay with other world leaders because of fear of terrorist attack." ("G8 Summit Death Shocks Leaders," CNN, July 21, 2001)


WASHINGTON U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations, officials said Wednesday.

Italian officials took the reports seriously enough to prompt extraordinary precautions during the July summit of the Group of 8 nations, including closing the airspace over Genoa and stationing antiaircraft guns at the city's airport. (Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2001)

July 26: CBS News reports that Attorney General Ashcroft is traveling by private jet because of a threat assessment. (CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart, "Ashcroft Flying High.")

August: Mossad officials travel to Washington to warn the CIA and the FBI that a cell of up to 200 terrorists was planning a major operation. The Israelis specifically warn their counterparts in Washington that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent. (Douglas Davis, "Mossad Warned CIA of Attacks," Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2001)

August 6: A daily briefing of the vacationing President Bush presented the possibility of an airplane hijacking as a terrorist threat. According to National Security Adviser Rice (Newsweek, May 27, 2002), the briefing was "an analytic report that talked about [bin Laden's] methods of operation, talked about what he had done historically."

August 15: A flight school in Minneapolis reports Zacarias Moussaoui to the FBI. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

August 17: Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested in Minnesota. (Newsweek, May 27, page 33)

August 27: French authorities notify the FBI that Zacarias Moussaoui is a suspected Islamic extremist. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

September: In a memo on the Moussaoui case, a Minnesota FBI agent suggested that the suspect could fly a plane into the World Trade Center. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did")

September 10: Senator Feinstein asks for a meeting with Vice President Cheney to discuss terrorism. (Cheney had been directed to create a national counter-terrorism plan). Cheney's chief of staff tells the senator they need six months to prepare for this meeting. (Time, May 27, 2002, "What They Knew, and When They Did"; the Vice Presidents chief of staff disputes this account.)

In a press conference on May 16, 2002, Condoleeza Rice flapped about nervously and claimed "I don't think anybody could have predicted these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center. ... that they would use an airplane as a missile." As pointed out in the May 27, 2002, Newsweek (page 33), "Intelligence agencies abroad had foiled two earlier terrorist plots to hijack commercial airliners and crash them into the Eiffel Tower and the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va."

Further, in July at the G8 Summit in Genoa, the President had taken special security precautions because of intelligence that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations. (See above, July 21.)