Posted on 12/02/2004 6:52:48 AM PST by Calpernia
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just weeks before Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement received several warnings that Islamic terrorists were seeking to strike on American soil and that a likely target was government buildings, documents show.
The information, though it was never linked to McVeigh, was stark enough that the Clinton administration urged stepped up security patrols and screening at federal buildings nationwide, including those in Oklahoma.
The government, however, didn't fortify buildings with cement barriers like those hurriedly installed after McVeigh detonated his explosive-laden truck at the curb of the Murrah building on April 19, 1995, officials said.
Islamic extremists are determined to ``strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future,'' said one warning obtained by The Associated Press.
The intelligence that prompted the warnings was gathered across the globe from Iran and Syria to the Philippines and became more specific as to the potential type attack (suicide bombing), target (government building) and likely date (after the third week in March 1995), the documents show.
The U.S. Marshal's Service issued an alert on March 15, 1995, to federal courthouses it protects, including the one in Oklahoma City across the street from where McVeigh's truck bomb killed 168 people, the documents show.
``Iranian extremists want it made clear that steps are being taken to strike at the Great Satan,'' a term used frequently in the Mideast to describe the United States, the marshal's memo said. It said a fatwa - a religious order - had been issued to attack marshals or their buildings.
``There is sufficient threat potential to request that a heightened level of security awareness and caution be implemented,'' the memo added.
Separately, the General Services Administration received a warning from the FBI and asked hundreds of federal buildings it operates to increase security details, including the Murrah building, officials said.
``We were told there was a fatwa threatening to target federal buildings,'' GSA spokeswoman Viki Reath said this week. ``We increased our patrols to 12-hour shifts.''
More than two dozen current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials interviewed by AP said the period of spring 1995 was a time of heightened ``chatter'' among terrorists seeking to strike the United States.
But the officials cautioned the FBI and CIA exhaustively investigated whether McVeigh could have been aided by Mideast terrorist and found no credible evidence linking him to any Islamic extremists, including those who prompted the 1995 warnings.
The information about 1995 emerges as a joint House-Senate panel examining the intelligence and law enforcement failures that preceded Sept. 11 has expanded its mission to look back at the late 1980s and 1990s.
John Gannon, former deputy CIA director for intelligence under President Clinton, said spring 1995 was one of a handful of periods in the 1990s when intelligence on terror threats peaked as the government increasingly turned its attention to Osama bin Laden and his emerging terrorist network.
Gannon said the 1995 warnings were plentiful enough that he initially assumed Islamic extremists had struck when the bomb exploded in Oklahoma City. Law enforcement too issued initial bulletins looking for Arab suspects and borrowed Arabic translators from the military.
``When I first heard about the Oklahoma bombing, the first reaction I had was I wonder if this were a foreign group that had done this or the Islamic extremists that had come up on our screen,'' Gannon said.
He said it was in 1998, after bin Laden issued a fatwa urging specific attacks on America and two U.S. embassies in Africa were bombed, that U.S. anti-terrorism efforts escalated markedly.
``If there was a watershed year, it was 1998. That significantly elevated our concern and resulted in a concerted effort, and a very strong program to go get Osama bin Laden,'' he said.
The 1995 intelligence was specific enough that ``if that was today, you'd have (Bush Homeland Security Director) Tom Ridge going out and saying we have this threat,'' said former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who in 1995 was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
McCollum formed a congressional task force in the late 1980s that began warning of the growing threat of terrorism, and which issued some of the 1995 alerts.
``For a good number of years, there was a failure to acknowledge the severity of the threat,'' he said. ``There really had been this disbelief or unwillingness to scare people.''
Former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said ``protecting America against terrorists was a high priority'' during the 1990s. ``Threat information regularly came in and steps were taken to deal with it,'' he said.
``In general, the record is very clear that the Clinton administration increased counterterrorism funding and focus more than any other prior administration based on the emerging threats,'' Lockhart added.
Some of the 1995 warnings were pointed.
``Iranian sources confirmed Tehran's desire and determination to strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future,'' said a Feb. 27, 1995, terror warning by the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
The warnings became increasingly specific as to the possible location, type of attack and likely dates.
``These strikes are most likely to occur either in the immediate future or in the new Iranian year - starting 21 March 1995,'' the congressional task force predicted.
U.S. intelligence monitored a series of meetings and conferences between senior officials of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other terror organizations in mid-February 1995 in which the subject of killing Americans on U.S. soil came up, officials said.
During these conferences, known terrorists made specific mention of Congress and the White House as ``institutions that are great enemies of the Islamist movement,'' according to a congressional warning.
``This is a deviation from past discussions beyond referring to the U.S. as a single entity to pointing to specific branches of government as their true enemies,'' it added.
Around the same time, the FBI received intelligence from the Philippines that two men later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had been arrested as they were plotting to blow up U.S. airliners. The men planned to hijack one airliner and crash it into the CIA, Pentagon or White House, documents show.
The marshal's warning explained that Islamic extremists had issued a fatwa to kill marshals personnel or strike their buildings because of an episode at the end of the World Trade Center bombing trial in which deputy marshals accidentally stepped on a copy of the Koran during a scuffle.
``Allegedly, the fatwa is being disseminated to persons in the United States who have the capability to carry it out,'' the memo said.
The terrorists could be suicide bombers who may ``target as many victims as possible and draw as much media coverage as possible,'' it added. ``Once the press is on the scene the new plans call for blowing up everyone.''
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Ping - Good find nw_arizona_granny. I had not heard about the Fatwas before either.
Clinton knew.
I've no idea who's right but I think there's more to be told about this event.
http://www.jaynadavis.com/
Even though he's quite insane with his conspiracy theories, Alex Jones made a film that thoroughly dissected the OKC bombing and even though I don't buy into his NWO/government conspiracy concerning the event I definitely feel as though there is alot more than meets the eye about that horrible tragedy.
Much is always made of "warnings" before attacks. The OKC Bombing, the first WTC Attack, even 9-11. "Why didn't someone do something?" is always the cry. What I have always wondered is this, How many warning are there a year about these things and nothing happens? I can see why a lot of these threats are filed away.
bump for later
"The information, though it was never linked to McVeigh"
The islamic jihadist muslim murderers were the FIRST suspects in this bombing, and McVeigh was seen, and reported , in the company of a "mideastern looking man"
Thank you for the organized bump lists.
::bookmarking::
What do you think Sandy "Pantload" Berger was doing? He was trying to hide the fact that Islamists were, if not behind OKC, were considering such an attack. OKC has plenty of Arabs.
Now that is interesting...
Why did this nugget fall out of the MSM? (rhetorical, of course)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39545
Al-Qaida-OKC link included in Berger doc?
Author: Missing draft possibly presents evidence of Al-Zawahiri visit
By Ron Strom
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
The woman who wrote the definitive book on a Middle Eastern connection to the Oklahoma City bombing says the classified terror-threat report at the center of a criminal investigation of former Clinton aide Sandy Berger might include information about a high-level al-Qaida operative having visited OKC ahead of the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Berger removed handwritten notes and secret documents from a National Archives reading room prior to his testimony before the 9-11 Commission. One of the documents was the draft of an after-action report he ordered his anti-terror czar, Richard Clarke, to write in early 2000. Berger has spoken publicly about how the review brought to the forefront the realization that al-Qaida had reached America's shores and required more attention. The draft report of the NSC "Millennium After Action Review" addresses the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.
Jayna Davis, author of "The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing," points out the writing of the report was in the same timeframe Yossef Bodansky, former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, confirmed that Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, one of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's lieutenants, traveled to Oklahoma City in the spring of 1995 " to insure the smooth execution of the pending terrorist strike against the Murrah federal complex," said Davis.
"Bodansky explained that he did not confirm Al-Zawahiri's mission to the heartland state until late 1999," Davis told WND. "This revelation coincides with Richard Clarke's drafting of the Berger-directed review regarding the realization that al-Qaida had reached America's shores."
Asked Davis: "Was Bodansky's confirmation that the chief lieutenant of the bin Laden terror network traveled to the U.S. to oversee final preparations for the 1995 terrorist strike on the Oklahoma City federal building included in Clarke's draft reports that are now officially missing from National Archives?
"Did Berger and Clarke review Bodansky's skillful analysis of the Murrah Building bomb that drew striking parallels to the techniques used by known Islamist groups for operations in Argentina and elsewhere?"
Bodansky penned several task force warnings in 1995, which were generated from multiple intelligence sources in several Middle Eastern countries over a period of 18 months prior to the Oklahoma City bombing. Information was also gleaned from terrorist conferences that took place in the fall of 1994 and early 1995 in which Iran's desire to strike inside the "Great Satan" was unveiled. Davis noted President Clinton wielded the power of executive privilege to seal the 1995 task force warnings.
Yesterday, President Bush announced his administration is investigating links between Iran and the 9-11 attacks.
"As to direct connections with September the 11th, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one," Bush said.
Bodansky is the author of the new book "The Secret History of the Iraq War," as well as "Bin Laden – The Man Who Declared War on America."
Davis' book documents her contention the government purposefully and willfully ignored evidence that implicated Middle Eastern suspects in the OKC attack – evidence that FBI and governmental sources believe possibly could have prevented the terrorist attacks of 9-11.
That's the first thing I thought!
"But the officials cautioned the FBI and CIA exhaustively investigated whether McVeigh could have been aided by Mideast terrorist and found no credible evidence linking him to any Islamic extremists, including those who prompted the 1995 warnings." - article
BS - Terry Nichols (Timmy's partner) went to the Philipines and met with Ramsi Yousef the first trade center bomber and al queada connected muslim terrorist. He went and learned how to make the explosive.
No credible evidence my butt.
I'm glad you started a thread on this.
That there was a 'fatwa' was news to me.
May 3, 2004
"Iraq claimed to have information about the OK City bombing," said [Former press secretary for Illinois Senator Carol Mosely Braun, Susan] Lindauer.
"In a letter to you?" asked ABC7's Chuck Goudie.
"In a formal letter that they sent by diplomatic pouch which I then communicated to the White House," said Lindauer.
Lindauer says shortly after a mammoth fertilizer bomb tore through the Murrah Federal Building here in Oklahoma City, Iraqi intelligence agents uncovered a fundamentalist Muslim link to the bombing.
"I know they have identified specific individuals who were tied to it and the financing mechanism for Oklahoma City," said Lindauer.
In meetings at the United Nations and in Baghdad following September 11th, Lindauer says Iraqi officials told her that Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh was carrying out the orders of violent Arab radicals. Lindauer says the Iraqis actually learned of the Islamic terrorist plot against Oklahoma City years ago.
"That they previously had tried to give to the Clinton administration and had been rebuffed," said Lindauer.
"These are Iraqis who were identified?" asked Goudie.
"The Iraqi intelligence service identified them. I do not believe they are Iraqi," said Lindauer.
...
Lindauer claims she sent the Oklahoma City information in a letter to her second cousin, White House Chief Of Staff Andrew Card. When Lindauer was arrested in March on spy-related charges, she says the FBI seized the actual letter from Iraqi diplomats that laid out the Oklahoma City plot.
Goudie: Did you believe it then?
Lindauer: Yes
Goudie: Do you believe it now?
Lindauer: Yes I'm absolutely convinced. At one point we were going to invite the chief of police of Oklahoma City to Baghdad.
Lindauer, 40, was born in Oklahoma. She grew up in Alaska, graduated from Smith College and the London School Of Economics. Before politics, she worked as reporter for U.S. News, Fortune and the Seattle Post.
Did you read post 14 yet? Yossef Bodansky has a statement that was posted here yesterday. Seemed pretty darn inappropriate. He pretty much promised there would be a WMD attack here in the US.
Whether there is or isn't, I just thought his unofficial analysis was delivered unprofessionally.
Where did you find that interview? And is the letter public record yet?
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