Posted on 04/11/2004 9:08:50 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - The FBI this week will be pressed to explain why 70 separate investigations did not uncover the Sept. 11 hijacked airliner plot, members of the commission investigating the attacks said on Sunday.
Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, seizing on the revelation that so many probes were under way weeks before the deadly attacks, also said former President Bill Clinton told the panel he was frustrated by his inability to give the FBI direct orders.
"The greatest surprise to me was that President Clinton said how limited the White House is in dealing with the FBI," Gorton, a Republican member of the bipartisan commission, told "Fox News Sunday."
"You know, after all of the scandals of J. Edgar Hoover and some in the Nixon years, the White House has felt that it couldn't give direct directions to the FBI and I think that was a great inhibiting factor."
The secretive and autocratic Hoover ran the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972, during which time agents routinely spied on political protesters and others. Nixon resigned from the U.S. presidency in 1974 after the Watergate break-in.
Clinton testified behind closed doors to the national commission on Thursday, following public testimony from Condoleezza Rice, U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser.
After Rice's testimony, the White House released a secret briefing for Bush that showed he was told a month before Sept. 11, 2001, that al Qaeda members were in the United States and the FBI had detected suspicious activity "consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." The briefing was given Bush on Aug. 6, 2001, at his central Texas ranch.
The bureau has been criticized for failing to heed terrorism warnings from agents in Phoenix and Minneapolis in the weeks before the attacks on New York and suburban Washington.
FLIGHT SCHOOLS
Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste said the information, including reports of Arab men training at U.S. flight schools, "might have led to unraveling the plot."
"Perhaps, perhaps if it had been utilized effectively," the former Watergate prosecutor told Fox.
Gorton added: "It's the reason I am so interested in these so-called 70 field investigations. I don't know what they were. I don't know what they did. I don't think they got to a point where anyone could take action on them."
"It seems to me the FBI has more questions to answer than Condoleezza Rice or ... anyone who has testified before us so far."
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who left the bureau a few months before the attacks, comes before the commission on Tuesday. Although appointed by Clinton in 1993, the two maintained an uneasy relationship.
Attorney General John Ashcroft will also testify that day as will his Democratic predecessor, Janet Reno. On Wednesday the panel will hear from CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Ben-Veniste said the performance of Ashcroft, who has been criticized by the acting FBI director at the time, Thomas Pickard, would also come under scrutiny.
"We are going to look at how the Justice Department prioritized counterterrorism and its various activities," he said.
Information in the page-and-a-half President's Daily Brief, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the U.S.," was as recent as May 2001, despite White House assertions it was "historical" in nature, Ben-Veniste added.
"That, perhaps, should have alerted individuals to try to get this information up. And so we ask, what did the FBI do in this interim?"
1) The FBI did not care that its files were taken by the DNC
and used and used and used and used and used and used. Why is that?
2) FBI Arab translators cheered the Sept. 11 Atrocities at FBI !!!!
3) FBI: American Jews need not apply for Arabic linguist jobs - Thread 1
FBI: American Jews need not apply for Arabic linguist jobs - Thread 2
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppin093747412apr09,0,1427025,print.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
He is a total moron. Someone should tell him that we could find no one willing to give their life for his freedom anymore.
The FBI's Efforts to Improve Sharing of Intelligence & Other Information (redacted and declassified)
U.S. warned in 1995 of plot to hijack planes, attack buildings (9/18/01 flashback)
Tomorrow's Terrorist Threats - Pulse Weapons, WMD, Cyber Terror, Agroterrorism (1999 FBI Report)
First, how can anyone believe a word a known liar such as Clinton tells them? Especially since all he's about is covering his big fat butt and legacy building.
And second, the Republican Gorton looked like that smilin' Bob guy on those Enzyte ads, the guy who is smiling all the time. This is the face of the Republican party???
I couldn't watch them for more than a few minutes as I'm having a very difficult time watching the American political theater being paraded out in the media forum. "Oh no, we're not being political...blah, blah, blah." And Ben-Veniste going on about how he only had ten minutes when they already had plenty of private time with Condi Rice to find out everything they really needed to know. Those ten minutes were his show time, nothing more.
These people make me sick. Some of our country's most serious business, at least in my lifetime, is before them and this is what we, the people, get in return.
May 19, 1996 (Handwritten) Yousef gave a very detailed paper on how to smuggle explosives into an airplane. He referenced RDX explosives and 747 airliners. He gave detailed information on the weights of explosives and flying heights of airplanes and the types of explosives to be used as well as where they should be placed in the airplane. He detailed smuggling procedures for explosives in the heels of shoes, medicine capsules, baby powder containers, and how TNT- Tetryl can be melted and shaped into a soap or candle. He gave this information two months before TWA Flight 800 went down in New York killing 230 passengers. TWA Flight 800 was a 747 and RDX explosives were found on the remnants of the crash. This flight was not considered a terrorist act.
Month of June papers are all missing from Scarpa's file and no materials are in my possession for June's FBI 302's. On June 22, 1996 I have one document (Handwritten) stating that Yousef told Scarpa that his people were checking the security measures in Atlanta and then they were on their way back to New York he further stated that nothing could be done over there (meaning Atlanta). He also said that he would stop the plane explosion for now because his trial was going well and didn't want anything to "dirty up" his trial.
July 2, 1996 (FBI 302, date investigated June 29, 1996) Yousef spoke of Bojinga doing the bombing in Saudi Arabia. Yousef stated that he was originally sent on that mission to check the security measures and that tanker truck was discussed.
July 17, 1996 (FBI 302) TWA Flight 800 crashed killing 230 passengers off Long Island, New York. Yousef asked to use the telephone the night of July 17, 1996 he also had a visit with his attorney until 10:00pm and still requested use of the telephone which was denied.
July 18, 1996 ( FBI 302) Jerry Koupakis a former U.S. Customs Agent that was corrupt told Scarpa that he told his father not to travel TWA or American Airlines on the morning of July 18, 1996. Yousef told him this information prior to July 18, 1996.
July 23/24, 1996 (FBI 302 & Handwritten) Ismoil told Scarpa, "I told you this is going to happen." He was also referencing a conversation Scarpa and he had months prior where Ismoil said that "nothing would be left of New York just give it some time."
July 28, 1996 (FBI 302 & Handwritten) Yousef was questioned by Scarpa about the Atlantic Park bombing. Yousef said that his friends left Atlanta to come to New York.
August 5, 1996 (FBI 302, investigation occurred July 28, 1996) Yousef refused to speak about the TWA Flight 800 because he was afraid that the government would link him to it.
I wonder if the case of an American muslim FBI agent refusing to wear a wire to secretly record conversations with a terrorist suspect will see the light of day.
No. Reno was an unmitigated disaster.
Just as was Madeline 'Not At' Albright.
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