| Two
Years Ago Today,
Bush Was Given a Warning. And He's Keeping it a Secret
By
Allan P. Duncan
August
6, 2003
opednews.com
Two years ago today President George W. Bush received an intelligence
briefing at his Crawford ranch titled “Bin Laden determined to strike in
the U.S.”. The contents of the briefing have never been released to the
American public and have been the center of a firestorm ever since
information regarding the briefing hit the news shortly after 9-11.
The Bush Administration has done everything in its power to hide the
information contained in the report from both the Congressional Joint
Inquiry and the Independent Commission investigations into 9-11, including
the citing of Executive Privilege to block its release.
Condoleezza Rice stated in May of 2002 that the briefing only included
information about Bin Laden's methods of operation from a historical
perspective and contained no specific warnings. Ms. Rice also stated that
the administration had never thought of the possibility that planes could
be hijacked and flown into buildings.
If what Condoleeza Rice stated is true, then why is the Bush
Administration so afraid to release the report?
To answer this question I think it’s important to look back on what
our intelligence services knew about the threat of hijackings by Al Qaeda
prior to August 6, 2001 so that it will put the briefing in a different
perspective.
On September 18, 2002, Eleanor Hill, Staff Director of the
Congressional Joint Inquiry issued a report. The report revealed that
“A briefing prepared for senior government officials at the
beginning of July 2001 contained the following language, "Based on a
review of all source reporting over the last five months, we believe that
UBL 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".
From the same report we find that “Between May and July, the National
Security Agency reported at least 33 communications indicating a possible,
imminent terrorist attack.”
In another section of the report we learn “Four terrorism warning
reports or warning report extensions issued by the Department of Defense
on June 22, June 26, July 6, and July 20, 2001, primarily to alert U.S.
military forces and agencies and organizations within the Department of
Defense to indications that Usama Bin Ladin's network was planning a near
term, anti - U.S. terrorist operation;”
Eleanor Hill’s report also had a section titled Intelligence
Information on Possible Terrorist Use of Airplanes as Weapons. Here are some of the findings from that section.
·
In January 1995, a Philippine National Police raid turned up
materials in a Manila apartment indicating that three individuals - Ramzi
Yousef, Abdul Murad and Khalid Shaykh Mohammad - planned, among other
things, to crash an airplane into CIA headquarters. The Philippine
National Police said that the same group was responsible for the bombing
of a Philippine airliner on December 12, 1994. Information on the threat
was passed to the FAA, which briefed U.S. and major foreign carriers;
·
In January 1996, the Intelligence Community obtained
information concerning a planned suicide attack by individuals associated
with Shaykh Omar Adb al-Rahman and a key al-Qa'ida operative. The plan was
to fly to the United States from Afghanistan and attack the White House;
·
In August 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained
information that a group of unidentified Arabs planned to fly an explosive
laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center. The
information was passed to the FBI and the FAA. The FAA found the plot
highly unlikely given the state of that foreign country's aviation
program. Moreover, they believed that a flight originating outside the
United States would be detected before it reached its intended target
inside the United States. The FBI's New York office took no action on the
information, filing the communication in the office's bomb repository
file. The Intelligence Community has acquired additional information since
then indicating there may be links between this group and other terrorist
groups, including al-Qa'ida;
·
In September 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained
information that Usama Bin Ladin's next operation could possibly involve
flying an aircraft loaded with explosives into a U.S. airport and
detonating it; this information was provided to senior U.S. Government
officials in late 1998;
·
In April 2000, the Intelligence Community obtained
information regarding an alleged Bin Ladin plot to hijack a 747. The
source, who was a "walk-in" to the FBI's Newark office, claimed
that he had been to a training camp in Pakistan where he learned hijacking
techniques and received arms training. He also stated that he was supposed
to meet five to six other individuals in the United States who would also
participate in the plot. They were instructed to use all necessary force
to take over the plane because there would be pilots among the hijacking
team. The plan was to fly the plane to Afghanistan, and if they would not
make it there, that they were to blow up the plane. Although the
individual passed an FBI polygraph, the FBI was never able to verify any
aspect of his story or identify his contacts in the United States.
At the end of this section it states” The CIA disseminated
several of these reports to the FBI and to agencies that would be
responsible for taking preventive actions, including the FAA. The FAA has
staff assigned to the DCI's CTC, the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, and
to the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service to gather relevant
intelligence for domestic use. The FAA is responsible for issuing
information circulars, security directives and emergency amendments to the
directives alerting domestic and international airports and airlines of
threats identified by the Intelligence Community.”
We also know that President Bush was worried about his own personal safety
from airborne attacks during 2001.
The Los Angeles Times reported on 9-27-01 that “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.”
On September 10, 2002 The
Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported on the security preparations for Bush
on September 10, 2001, “At the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort, the
Secret Service was getting everything secured for when the president
arrived on Sept. 10. That included snipers and surface-to-air missiles on
the roof and the Coast Guard patrolling just offshore.”
I don’t know if it’s routine or not, but does the president always
have surface-to-air missiles protecting him on the roof of every hotel he
stays in? Just wondering. Note that this took place on the eve of 9-11!
So looking back on just some of the evidence that our intelligence
services had in their hands prior to the August 6th briefing,
its preposterous to believe that the Bush Administration had absolutely no
clue that Osama Bin Laden could possibly hijack planes and slam them into
buildings.
That’s what makes the August 6th briefing so important.
Apparently Bush was given information that Bin Laden was planning an
attack in the US and if this fact is revealed, it will then make him
accountable for not warning the public and for not taking measures to
protect the public from the attacks.
It will also point out the fact, that as Commander-In-Chief of the
military on 9-11, our entire national defense system failed under his
watch since none of the hijacked planes were intercepted and our nation
was totally undefended even though there were numerous warnings of an
impending attack.
To make matters even worse, The Pentagon of all places, the
headquarters and nerve center of the greatest military power in the world
was sneak attacked and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, didn’t
even know his own building was being attacked until he heard the crash
from his office!
Perhaps the most ironic thing I found in my research into this article was
a quote Bush made on August 29, 2001 at the American Legions 83rd
Annual Convention, “We recognize it's a dangerous world. I know this
nation still has enemies, and we cannot expect them to be idle. And that's
why security is my first responsibility. And I will not permit any course
that leaves America undefended."
Bush left the United States undefended on 9-11 and nearly 3,000
innocent souls lost their lives because of it. It's time for him to come
clean about what he was told on August 6, 2001 and release the documents.
“We The People” deserve to know the truth!
Allan Duncan is
a Social Worker who lives in New Hope, PA. This
article is copyright by Allan Duncan ADuncan282@aol.com
originally published by opednews.com
Permission is granted to forward this or to place it on a website as long
as the article is included intact, including this statement.
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