9/11 attacks
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Commission_Report | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Commission_Report | ||
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| + | ===Condoleezza Rice Was "Bombarded" with Warnings Before 9/11, Commission Biased Against Clarke=== | ||
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| + | New York Times reporter Philip Shenon’s new book — The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation — paints a damning portrait of Condoleezza Rice. Shenon argues that Rice was “uninterested in actually advising the President,” but was instead more concerned with being his “closest confidante — specifically on foreign policy — and to simply translate his words into action.” | ||
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| + | Today’s Sydney Morning Herald prints an extract from Shenon’s book which provides further details about Rice’s incompetence. “Emails from the National Security Council’s counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats” before 9/11, Shenon writes. Some examples: | ||
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| + | “Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack” (May 3) | ||
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| + | “Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot” (May 23) | ||
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| + | “Bin Ladin’s Networks’ Plans Advancing” (May 26) | ||
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| + | “Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent” (June 23) | ||
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| + | “Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats” (June 25) | ||
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| + | “Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks” (June 30) | ||
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| + | “Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays” (July 2) | ||
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| + | But 9/11 Commission staff director Philip Zelikow was not interested in pursuing criticisms against Rice. Zelikow — who had worked closely with Rice on the Bush transition team in 2000 and 2001 — “made it clear to the team’s investigators that Clarke should not be believed, that his testimony would be suspect.” | ||
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| + | When 9/11 Commission historian Warren Bass uncovered a smoking gun email from Clarke to Rice written on September 4, 2001, which asked, “Are we serious about dealing with the al-Qaeda threat?,” Zelikow reverted to defending Condi. Bass then threatened to resign: | ||
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| + | “I cannot do this,” Bass declared… “Zelikow is making me crazy.” | ||
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| + | He was outraged by Zelikow and the White House; Bass felt the White House was trying to sabotage his work by its efforts to limit his ability to see certain documents from the NSC files and take useful notes from them. … Bass made it clear to colleagues that he believed Zelikow was interfering in his work for reasons that were overtly political - intended to shield the White House, and Rice in particular, from the commission’s criticism. | ||
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| + | The former weapons inspector in Iraq — David Kay — passed word to the 9/11 Commission that he believed Rice was the “worst national security adviser” in the history of the job. | ||
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| + | http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/79059/#more | ||
| ===Newly-released FBI timeline=== | ===Newly-released FBI timeline=== | ||
Revision as of 17:04, 8 March 2008
The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) consisted of a series of coordinated suicide terrorist attacks upon the United States, predominantly targeting civilians, carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
That morning, 19 men affiliated with al-Qaeda[1] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower. Both towers collapsed within two hours. The pilot of the third team crashed a plane into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth hijacked aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. 2,976 people died in these attacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_attacks
see also Conspiracy theory
Contents |
9/11 commision Report
The 9/11 Commission Report, formally titled Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report on the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was prepared by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States at the request of the President and Congress, and it is available to the public for sale or free download.
The report was convened 441 days after the attack [1] and was issued on July 22, 2004. The report was originally scheduled for release on May 27, 2004, but a compromise agreed to by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert allowed sixty days of extension, until July 26.
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/05aug20041050/www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/fullreport.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Commission_Report
Condoleezza Rice Was "Bombarded" with Warnings Before 9/11, Commission Biased Against Clarke
New York Times reporter Philip Shenon’s new book — The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation — paints a damning portrait of Condoleezza Rice. Shenon argues that Rice was “uninterested in actually advising the President,” but was instead more concerned with being his “closest confidante — specifically on foreign policy — and to simply translate his words into action.”
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald prints an extract from Shenon’s book which provides further details about Rice’s incompetence. “Emails from the National Security Council’s counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats” before 9/11, Shenon writes. Some examples:
“Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack” (May 3)
“Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot” (May 23)
“Bin Ladin’s Networks’ Plans Advancing” (May 26)
“Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent” (June 23)
“Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats” (June 25)
“Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks” (June 30)
“Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays” (July 2)
But 9/11 Commission staff director Philip Zelikow was not interested in pursuing criticisms against Rice. Zelikow — who had worked closely with Rice on the Bush transition team in 2000 and 2001 — “made it clear to the team’s investigators that Clarke should not be believed, that his testimony would be suspect.”
When 9/11 Commission historian Warren Bass uncovered a smoking gun email from Clarke to Rice written on September 4, 2001, which asked, “Are we serious about dealing with the al-Qaeda threat?,” Zelikow reverted to defending Condi. Bass then threatened to resign:
“I cannot do this,” Bass declared… “Zelikow is making me crazy.”
He was outraged by Zelikow and the White House; Bass felt the White House was trying to sabotage his work by its efforts to limit his ability to see certain documents from the NSC files and take useful notes from them. … Bass made it clear to colleagues that he believed Zelikow was interfering in his work for reasons that were overtly political - intended to shield the White House, and Rice in particular, from the commission’s criticism.
The former weapons inspector in Iraq — David Kay — passed word to the 9/11 Commission that he believed Rice was the “worst national security adviser” in the history of the job.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/79059/#more
Newly-released FBI timeline
Newly-released records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request contradict the 9/11 Commission’s report on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and raise fresh questions about the role of Saudi government officials in connection to the hijackers. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/FBI_documents_contradict_Sept._11_Commission_0228.html
The 9/11 Report: A graphic adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
This is really good!
http://www.slate.com/id/2147309/nav/tap1/
Run up to the Attacks
PDB August 06, 2001
"Bin Laden Determined To Strike inside US"
The U.S. White House briefing on terror threats of August 6, 2001 is the briefing given to U.S. president George W. Bush and members of his administration by security agencies on that date, concerning terror threats from Osama bin Laden and others.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/images/04/10/whitehouse.pdf
Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice
October 1, 2006 On July 10, 2001, two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, then-CIA Director George J. Tenet met with his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, at CIA headquarters to review the latest on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Black laid out the case, consisting of communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States. The mass of fragments made a compelling case, so compelling to Tenet that he decided he and Black should go to the White House immediately.
Tenet called Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, from the car and said he needed to see her right away. There was no practical way she could refuse such a request from the CIA director.
The two men told Rice that the United States had human and technical sources, and that all the intelligence was consistent. Black acknowledged that some of it was uncertain "voodoo" but said it was often this voodoo that was the best indicator.
Tenet and Black felt they were not getting though to Rice. She was polite, but they felt the brush-off. President Bush had said he didn't want to swat at flies.
Tenet left the meeting feeling frustrated. Though Rice had given them a fair hearing, no immediate action meant great risk. Black felt the decision to just keep planning was a sustained policy failure. Rice and the Bush team had been in hibernation too long. "Adults should not have a system like this," he said later.
Afterward, Tenet looked back on the meeting with Rice as a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the attacks. Rice could have gotten through to Bush on the threat, Tenet thought, but she just didn't get it in time. He felt that he had done his job and been very direct about the threat, but that Rice had not moved quickly. He felt she was not organized and did not push people, as he tried to do at the CIA.
Black later said, "The only thing we didn't do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282.html
Tenet Recalled Warning Rice
Former CIA Chief Told 9/11 Commission of Disputed Meeting
October 03, 2006 Former CIA director George Tenet told the 9/11 Commission that he had warned of an imminent threat from al-Qaeda in a July 2001 meeting with Condoleezza Rice, adding that he believed Rice took the warning seriously, according to a transcript of the interview and the recollection of a commissioner who was there.
Tenet's statements to the commission in January 2004 confirm the outlines of an event in a new book by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward that has been disputed by some Bush administration officials. But the testimony also is at odds with Woodward's depiction of Tenet and former CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black as being frustrated that "they were not getting through to Rice" after the July 10, 2001, meeting.
Rice angrily rejected those assertions yesterday, saying that it was "incomprehensible" that she would have ignored such explicit intelligence from senior CIA officials and that she received no warning at the meeting of an attack within the United States.
Rice acknowledged that the White House was receiving a "steady stream of quite alarmist reports of potential attacks" during that period, but said the targets were assumed to be in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel and Jordan.
"What I am quite certain of, however, is that I would remember if I was told -- as this account apparently says -- that there was about to be an attack in the United States," Rice said. "The idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible."
Condoleezza Rice(L) smiles during a joint press conference with Saud al-Faisal
Rumsfeld, Ashcroft received warning of al Qaida attack before 9/11
Records Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat
Rice: No memory of CIA warning of attack
How 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented
How 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented
