Posted on 05/09/2003 10:30:14 AM PDT by knighthawk
WASHINGTON: Despite having concrete evidence on the terrorist penetrations of several Islamic charities worldwide, the United States government apparently did not take any action, a 1996 CIA report made public now, reveals.
"The Administration woke up to the contents of the report and started acting on it only after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington," the Wall Street Journal said in a reports.
The issue is now under investigation by a special US Commission which is also probing possible involvement in terrorism by Saudi Arabian officials, the reports said.
According to interviews with former intelligence officials and the newly available document, the paper said, the CIA in 1996 provided the State Department and other agencies with detailed reporting on the charity-terror link.
The 1996 CIA document states that of the more than 50 Islamic Non-Governmental Organizations then existing, "available information indicates that approximately one-third of these Islamic NGOs support terrorist groups or employ individuals suspected of having terrorist connections."
The report would not have seen the light of day but for investigators for lawyer Ronald Motley, who is suing a number of Islamic charities on behalf of victims of the 9/11 attacks. Motley said he obtained the report from a foreign source, but that it was composed by the CIA.
Six former US intelligence officials told the Journal in interviews that the document is typical of the reports the CIA was producing at the time.
"It was an important tasked objective of the agency to develop such information and analysis," said former National Security Council counterterrorism official William Wechsler.
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Refresh me on this one, wasn't a DUmmycrat in charge in 1996? Ergo, the DUmmycrat did NOTHING with this report?
1996? Wow! Bush isn't clairvoyent, so I guess I won't vote for him!
Yes, but thank God he finally "woke up."
Who wrote this, Terry McAuliffe?
Please re-read: "The Administration woke up to the contents of the report and started acting on it only after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks ..."
The way I read it, This article is critical of the Bush administration for not acting on the 1996 CIA report until after 9-11. No mention of Clinton.
I saw that, and felt the need to point out what the author so carefully ignored. You're correct that the article implies that a CIA report that hung around unnoticed for 4 Clinton years (years after the wake-up call of WTC's first bombing) should have been jumped on by THIS administration between Jan. 2001 and Sept. 2001.
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