Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11

CBS News ^

[RCW2001]

Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2002


CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.

That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

At 9:53 a.m., just 15 minutes after the hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon, and while Rumsfeld was still outside helping with the injured, the National Security Agency, which monitors communications worldwide, intercepted a phone call from one of Osama bin Laden's operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

The caller said he had "heard good news" and that another target was still to come; an indication he knew another airliner, the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, was at that very moment zeroing in on Washington.

It was 12:05 p.m. when the director of Central Intelligence told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation.

Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," that it "might not mean something," and that there was "no good basis for hanging hat." In other words, the evidence was not clear-cut enough to justify military action against bin Laden.

But later that afternoon, the CIA reported the passenger manifests for the hijacked airliners showed three of the hijackers were suspected al Qaeda operatives.

"One guy is associate of Cole bomber," the notes say, a reference to the October 2000 suicide boat attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which had also been the work of bin Laden.

With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." – meaning Saddam Hussein – "at same time. Not only UBL" – the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden.

Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.

"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

[Peach]

Watch the libs go nuts over this report. They just don't understand that the Secretary of Defense is supposed to make sweeping plans for all eventualities BEFORE AND AFTER an attack.

[Shermy]

He's pissed off, and that was the line at that time - going after all the terrorism in the world.

Leaker probably promised a post-govt Saudi lobby gig or something.

[lmr]

I have been thinking about WTC quite a bit lately. You know, these b*st*rds not only killed 3000 people, they destroyed one of the modern wonders of the world. Wonders like this are built in times of prosperity and when egos are high. Now everyone talks of making it a graveyard. Now the media talks as if there is no way Sadaam had anything to do with it, unless they say so. Forget Anthrax, Forget Sadaam's WMD, Forget the fact that Sadaam is trying to get the bomb. WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND OURSELVES. We are truly a nation in decline, just open up the gates and let the barbarians in, the citzenry has given up without a fight.

[Diogenesis]

CBS: "Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld."

THIS JUST IN: CBS NEWS COVERS UP IRAQ'S ROLE IN BOTH 911 and West Nile Fever (through Castro)

Why could that be? Could CBS be terroristophilic?

[The Great Satan]

That 9/11 was the work of Saddam Hussein was really a no-brainer. The mythology of the "loose-knit network of extremists" created by the Clinton administration in response to Saddam's first attempt to destroy the WTC is about to collapse like a house of cards.

[Argus]

Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks

The hell there isn't but who cares. Saddam has threatened the US enough to earn his place at the front of the line.

D-Day for the liberation of Iraq is September 11, 2002.

[mdittmar]

Ahh yes,where was the outrage from cbs back when?

Clinton: Iraq has abused its final chance American president defends timing and need for strikes

We all know what happened 3 days later.

[Thom Pain]

Wy don't we find the person who leaked what I assume to be privileged & secret information & throw his/her ass in jail for treason??!! If we lock up enough leakers there will soon be far fewer leaks.

[SirAngus]

Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.

"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

Interesting, I tend to believe this as well.

[Common Tator]

That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Mart

Ok who is the source? It is obvious that either Rumsfeld has already fired the source or CBS wants him to think that someone is the source who is not. This doen't leave much dobout about who to suspect of leaking.

It is obvious that Rumsfeld wouild have an officer busted and a civilian fired who leaked this.. that is if he didn't want it leaked.

I am not sure it is a real story. A reporter who reveals sources so explicitly soon does not have any. The finger is being put on someone for a reason. Either someone is geting a payback or that someone has nothing to fear.

The other option is that Rumsfeld is the source. We certainly want Sadams underlings to understand that we are going to take them and him down. We may be making the point to Sadams underlings that the only way to survive the next year is for them to take Sadam down for us.

In any event there is more to this story than meets the eye. Otherwise the story would not got to such lengths to pinpoint the source for Rummy and Bush. It is almost as if the source wanted the story athenticated. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[tet68]

Hang them.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Plans for strikes on Iraq should have happened at least in 1995 or 96. As a bare minimum, they should have started in 1998 after Saddam threw out the weapons inspectors.

[alnick]

If there is a leaker. It could have been total fabrication.

[jwfiv]

Yes, agreed, the libdimwits will go nuts and run this one as far as they can take, which aint' really gonna be very far.

Wait'll Dubya lays all the info that CBS says doesn't exist on the table for the world to see. The American public will know the difference twixt shit and shinola.

Rumsfeld correctly identified the likely perps, if it had been algore in office, he would have followed x42dirtpotus' playbook, which would have been to blame 9/11 on 'hate radio' and, that hate-filled hate-monger, Rush Limbaugh.

[okie01]

"Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld."

Speaking of gratuitous slurs. And editorializing in what is supposed to be a report.

David Martin, the reporter, has no idea what Rumsfeld and Bush might have known then -- or what they might know now. He only knows what the leaker might say (which isn't necessarily what the leaker might know).

And he saw an opportunity to take a cheap shot. So, he took it. And his editor signed on.

Pathetic partisanship, with no concern for what might be the national interest. Or the lives of those who might be at risk. Which, in terrorist wars, includes his own and his family's...

CBS roundly deserves a slap upside the head for this one...

[Endeavor]

Who's leakin' this stuff???

[The Great Satan]

[The_Media_never_lie]

WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND OURSELVES.

What in the flying foxtrot are we supposed to do? Wait until SH lobs a nuke in the men's room of the Pentagon?

Sometimes the libs minds are amazing!

[sweetliberty]

"We are truly a nation in decline, just open up the gates and let the barbarians in, the citzenry has given up without a fight."

Only the socialist liberals. I fear that if we don't start treating them as the enemy as surely as foreign terrorists are our enemies, then there really is little hope that America will ever be as great as it once was.