CIA Warned of Attacks As Early As '95

My Way News ^ | 04-15-04 | JOHN SOLOMON

[MamaLucci]

CIA Warned of Attacks As Early As '95

WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA warned as early as 1995 that Islamic extremists were likely to attack U.S. aviation, Washington landmarks or Wall Street and by 1997 had identified Osama bin Laden as an emerging threat on U.S. soil, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.

The official took the rare step of disclosing information in the closely held National Intelligence Estimate for those two years to counter criticisms in a staff report released Wednesday by the independent commission examining pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures.

That staff report accused the CIA of failing to recognize al-Qaida as a formal terrorist organization until 1999 and mostly regarding bin Laden as a financier instead of a terrorist leader during much of the 1990s.

But the U.S. intelligence official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the 1997 National Intelligence Estimate produced by the CIA mentioned bin Laden by name as an emerging terrorist threat on its first page. The National Intelligence Estimate is distributed to the president and senior executive branch and congressional intelligence officials.

The 1997 assessment, which remains classified, "identified bin Laden and his followers and threats they were making and said it might portend attacks inside the United States," the official said.

Philip Zelikow, executive director of the Sept. 11 commission, confirmed the 1997 warning about bin Laden but said it was only two sentences long and lacked any strategic analysis on how to address the threat. "We were well aware of the information and the staff stands by exactly what it says," he said.

The intelligence official also said that while the 1995 intelligence assessment did not mention bin Laden or al-Qaida by name, it clearly warned that Islamic terrorists were intent on striking specific targets inside the United States like those hit on Sept. 11, 2001.

The report specifically warned that civil aviation, Washington landmarks such as the White House and Capitol and buildings on Wall Street were at the greatest risk of a domestic terror attack by Muslim extremists, the official said.

Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin testified Wednesday that by early 1996 his agency had developed enough concern about bin Laden to create a special unit to focus on his threat. "We were very focused on this issue," McLaughlin told the commission.

The commission's report did credit the CIA after 1997 with collecting vast amounts of intelligence on bin Laden and al-Qaida, which resulted in thousands of individual reports circulated at the highest levels of government. These carried titles such as "Bin Laden Threatening to Attack U.S. Aircraft" in June 1998 and "Bin Laden's Interest in Biological and Radiological Weapons" in February 2001.

Despite this intelligence, the CIA never produced an authoritative summary of al-Qaida's involvement in past terrorist attacks, didn't formally recognize al-Qaida as a group until 1999 and did not fully appreciate bin Laden's role as the leader of a growing extremist movement, the commission said.

"There was no comprehensive estimate of the enemy," the commission report alleged.

But the senior intelligence official said the commission report failed to mention that CIA had produced large numbers of analytical reports on the growth, capabilities, structure and threats posed by al-Qaida throughout the late 1990s and those detailed reports were distributed to the front lines of terror-fighting agencies.

The CIA most frequently provided these individual and highly detailed analyses to the White House Counterterrorism Security Group charged with formulating anti-terrorism policies and responses, the official said.

[MamaLucci]

The CIA most frequently provided these individual and highly detailed analyses to the White House Counterterrorism Security Group charged with formulating anti-terrorism policies and responses, the official said.

Pointing the finger back at Richard Clarke?

[MNJohnnie]

Hold up. Still just rumor and innuendo. This "unnamed source" could be either lying or a figment of the "journalists" mind. I sure want to believe that Richard Clarke will get nailed for this but with out cooberation, it is just hearsay.

[Delta 21]

They will have cooroboration when Gore-lick takes the stand under subpoena.


(Or not.)

[MNJohnnie]

They will have cooroboration when Gore-lick takes the stand under subpoena.

Have you sent your daily email to info@9-11Commission.org today demanding Gorelick resign and testify? Got to hold these bozos feet to the fire. It would be cosmic justice if Gorelick squealed on Clark!

[tallhappy]

Despite this intelligence, the CIA never produced an authoritative summary of al-Qaida's involvement in past terrorist attacks, didn't formally recognize al-Qaida as a group until 1999 and did not fully appreciate bin Laden's role as the leader of a growing extremist movement, the commission said.

This all such bogus tripe.

In 1998 bin Laden was indicted by US Attorneys for the bombings and mass murders in Kenya and Tanzania and as part of the background to the indictment he and al Qaeda were discussed as well as the agreement between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein to cooperate with regard to weapons development.

There is no way the US Attorney's office that wrote the indictment could have worked fully independently of the CIA and FBI and State for that matter to write such an indictment.

All this chatter and politicizing is a dog chasing its tail or like spinning around in circles.

[MamaLucci]

Hey, I'm just guessing that that is what's being insinuated here, it's kind of hard to follow. I do think Clark was the White House Counterintelligence guy during that time.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> I do think Clark was the White House Counterintelligence guy during that time.

And I'll add I'm almost certain Clinton was President (though it'd be hard to tell from the lamestream media accounts of testimony that discusses events in that time frame).

[MamaLucci]

Yes, the late 90's.

[mikegi]

From wikipedia.org:

A report from the Philippines to the United States on January 20, 1995 stated, "What the subject has in his mind is that he will board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. Then he will hijack [the] said aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the CIA headquarters."

Clinton and Clarke had this information available to them for six years yet did nothing about it.

[Azzurri]

And I'll add I'm almost certain Clinton was President

Well, in Clinton's defense, he was busy boinking fat interns and wasn't as adept at compartmentalizing his private life from his public life as we were led to believe. < /sarcasm>

[MamaLucci]

That's a great find.....wonder if it will end up in the 911 Omission's report?

[MamaLucci]

lookee post #9

[wingster]

Isn't that about the time frame that Klinton was suffering from "post-coital fatigue."

[ladyinred]

And this will be still be Bush's fault right, because maybe in 1995 he was considering running for President?

[MamaLucci]

Isn't that about the time frame that Klinton was suffering from "post-coital fatigue."

More like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome........................

[MamaLucci]

It would be funny if it wasn't so darned serious! :)

[ladyinred]

This is my third email of the day thank you very much! I see the link, I gotta respond! :-)

[ladyinred]

LOL, but let's not forget who was really in charge of policy in that white house shall we? You don't really believe Bubba was do you?

[SFConservative]

Isn't that about the time frame that Klinton was suffering from "post-coital fatigue."

More like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome........................

Or maybe Post-Sinkum Depression?

[mikegi]

That's a great find.....wonder if it will end up in the 911 Omission's report?

The most damning thing about Bojinka is that it was the genesis of 9/11. However, there were many more signs that the Mudslimes were interested in kamikaze attacks with airliners. Throughout the 1990s, the intelligence community found plots:

• A 1994 Eiffel Tower threat: "Algerian Armed Islamic Group terrorists hijacked an Air France flight.and threatened to crash it into the Eiffel Tower."
• 1995 Bojinka Plot to blow up American jets over the Pacific: "An accomplice of Ramzi Yousef told police in the Philippines [and the FBI] that a variant of the plot involved flying a plane on a suicide mission into CIA headquarters."
• 1996 Iranian plot to crash Japanese jet in Israel: "A passenger would board the plane in the Far East, commandeer the aircraft, order it to fly over Tel Aviv, and crash the plane into the city."
• 1998 Alleged plan by al Qaeda-linked terrorists to crash plane into World Trade Center: ".A group, since linked to al-Qa'ida, planned to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center." Alleged Osama bin Laden plot to crash plane into a U.S. airport: ".Bin Ladin's next operation might involve flying an explosives-laden aircraft into a U.S. airport."
• 1999 Federal Research Division Report on terrorism: "Suicide bomber(s). could crash-land an aircraft.into the Pentagon.or the White House."