Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 18, 2002

LOC REPORT - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A 1999 federal report warned the executive branch that terrorists might hijack a plane and crash it into government buildings. "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, the CIA, or the White House," it stated. The report, prepared for the National Intelligence Council, counters assertions made by the Bush administration that none in government had imagined such an attack. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people ... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

ARIZONA MEMO - FBI

In the summer of 2001, an FBI agent in Arizona alerted Washington headquarters that several Middle Easterners were training at a U.S. aviation school. "FBIHQ should consider seeking the necessary authority to obtain visa information ... on individuals obtaining visas to attend these types of schools and notify the appropriate FBI field office," the agent recommended in the memo. The intelligence was sent to FBI terrorism experts in Washington and New York, but was not immediately shared with the CIA. FBI Director Robert Mueller has said the memo should have made its way to the CIA sooner.

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI - FBI

Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested in August 2002 after a flight school instructor in Minnesota became suspicious of his desire to learn to fly a commercial jet. Agents, wanting to search his belongings, asked FBI headquarters to try to get a special search warrant under a law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Their request was denied. We now know that, back in August, Moussaoui's possessions contained evidence that would expose key elements of the Sept. 11 conspiracy. This includes a German phone number tracing back to the roommate of lead hijacker Mohammad Atta.

AL QAEDA SUMMIT - CIA

Since Jan. 2000, the CIA had been tracking two of the Sept. 11 hijackers but didn't share its information with the FBI or other agencies until the two had disappeared into the U.S. The CIA began watching both men during an al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia, but never reported to the INS their travel to Los Angeles. The INS could have denied them entry into the U.S. Both men lived openly, using their real names, obtaining driver's licenses and enrolling in flight schools. When one of the men's visa expired, he was issued a new one, despite the fact that he had already been linked to one of the bombers of the USS Cole.

AL QAEDA CAMP - FBI

The FBI had a chance to infiltrate an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan months before Sept. 11, but top agents responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden rejected the plan, according to a U.S. News & World Report. It said an informant told a bureau field agent that he was invited to attend a commando training course at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. The information was relayed to a supervisor, who passed it on to FBI headquarters, where it went nowhere, the magazine said. The bin Laden unit flatly nixed the request. The FBI wouldn't comment.

Terror Timeline

Before Sept. 11
The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington shocked the world, but reports of clues given to the U.S. intelligence community before Sept. 11 indicate not everyone should have been surprised.
1994
An Algerian hijacking is foiled in Marseille, France. The French government reveals the target was the Eiffel Tower and warns the next step for terrorists is to train as pilots. A Pentagon-commissioned report concludes that religious terrorists could hijack commercial airliners and crash them into the Pentagon or the White House.
1995
Philippine authorities arrest Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Abdul Hakim Murad. Murad admits a link to Osama bin Laden and tells of a plot to fly a plane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. He says Mideast pilots were training at U.S. flight schools in preparation for a plan to blow up U.S. planes over the Pacific. The FBI is alerted and interviews flight school attendees, but fails to produce evidence against the Middle Easterners.
1995
U.S. officials involved in the Murad investigation focus mostly on the Pacific Ocean plot because it was considered developed and imminent. The plan to use a plane as a weapon is largely discounted.
1999
French intelligence places Zacarias Moussaoui (suspected 20th hijacker on trial in the U.S.) on a watch-list for links to the Armed Islamic Group, responsible for 1995 bombings in the Paris subway.
1999
A Library of Congress report concludes that 'suicide bombers' could 'crash-land' an aircraft into the Pentagon, the CIA or the White House.
1999
U.S. Customs arrest al Qaeda terrorist, Ahmed Ressam, as he tries to cross the Canadian border in a rental car packed with explosives. His mission: To blow up the Los Angeles airport.
2000
A Philippine investigation leads to Malaysia and an Indonesian cleric named Hambali, who has ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. In January he meets with two future Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, in Kuala Lumpur. Surveillance data shared with U.S. authorities reveals an unidentified al Qaeda operative from the Middle East, who will later become wanted in connection with the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole.
Jan. -Sept. 2001
FAA issues several warning to the airline industry of likely imminent hijackings of airplanes inside the United States.
Feb. 2001
Moussaoui is granted a U.S. visa to train as a pilot in the United States.
June 2001
CIA Director George Tenet warns National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice that a significant al Qaeda attack in the near future is 'highly likely'.
July 2001
In a White House meeting, counter-terrorism officials warn FAA, FBI and INS that a major attack on the U.S. is coming soon. Non-essential travel of U.S. counter-terrorism staff is suspended.
July 2001
Agent Kenneth Williams, in Phoenix, Az., sends an electronic memo to FBI headquarters, warning of an unusual number of Middle Eastern men enrolling in U.S. flight schools. He speculates they may be connected to a bin Laden plot. The memo recommends that the FBI canvass other schools nationwide. Officials never follow up.
July 2001
Italy closes Genoa's airspace during the G-8 summit after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak passes information to Washington about a possible threat on President Bush's life, following a June 13 video made by bin Laden.
July 2001
French-Algerian Djamel Beghal is arrested in Dubai with a false passport. He details an al Qaeda plot to blow up U.S. interests in Europe, including the American Embassy in Paris. He says he met with bin Laden operatives at mosques in Britain, had weapons training in Afghanistan and met at bin Laden's home with his top aide, Abu Zubaydah.
Summer 2001
Israeli intelligence services, aware bin Laden is planning a large-scale terror attack, pass information along to Washington.
Aug. 2001
CIA warns government agencies that Alhazmi and Almihdhar, who later crashed American Airlines 77 into the Pentagon, should be put on a terrorist watch list.
Aug. 2001
President Bush is briefed at his Crawford, Texas ranch, about possible attacks, including a warning that bin Laden may hijack planes. The administration quietly puts law enforcement, certain federal agencies and U.S. embassies on alert.
Aug. 2001
Moussaoui is arrested on a visa violation after telling his flight instructor in Minnesota that he wants to learn to fly a commercial plane, but not to take off or land. FBI Headquarters subsequently deny requests from the Ninneapolis FBI field office to search Moussaoui's computer.
Sept. 9, 2001
Suspected bin Laden operatives assassinate northern alliance leader Gen. Ahmed Shah Massood in Afghanistan. The killing was designed to weaken the northern alliance just days before attacks on the U.S. prompted a response against the Taliban.
Sept 10, 2001
European authorities begin looking into the plot against U.S. interests in Europe.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/17/national/main522319.shtml