ederal investigators have received evidence that some Middle Easterners in the New York area were warned ahead of time to stay out of lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, the Daily News has learned.Posted on 10/12/2001 2:20:46 AM PDT by sarcasm
ederal investigators have received evidence that some Middle Easterners in the New York area were warned ahead of time to stay out of lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, the Daily News has learned.
The FBI was able to confirm several such warnings occurred but has been unable to discover the source of the warnings.
Agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force have interviewed school officials in Jersey City and Brooklyn and questioned members of a Bronx mosque about the warnings, sources told The News.
James Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office, confirmed that agents were looking into several reports of warnings that preceded the attack against the World Trade Center.
"Among the e-mails and tips we received are a number of reports of people overhearing people boasting about or warning about coming attacks," he said.
Suspicious Comments
He declined to discuss specifics and would not say whether any of the 600-plus people detained in the terror probe were questioned about pre-attack warnings.
But officials and sources familiar with the investigation said the incidents include the following:
Jersey City school administrators confirmed that several days before the attack, a student of Middle Eastern descent issued a vague warning not to travel into lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11.
Joanne Kenny, associate superintendent of the Jersey City public schools, said, "Crisis staff determined that comments made or notes written were serious enough so we called the juvenile bureau of the Jersey City police and they followed up."
Sources Not Found
Jersey City police did not return calls seeking comment, but a source said the matter wound up being investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force.
Kenny wouldn't discuss the nature of the warning or reveal the name of the student who made the comment. But a source said federal authorities investigated the matter and could not determine the source of the warning.
"They ran into a dead end, and whoever may have given the warning denied it," the source said.
In the Bronx, federal investigators received reports about a similar warning at a mosque, sources said. The sources would not reveal the name of the mosque.
Sources with the Joint Terrorist Task Force questioned dozens of members of the mosque, many of whom told agents they had been given a vague warning to stay out of lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, sources said.
One source said investigators again hit a dead end when the mosque's hierarchy denied having prior knowledge of the attack.
The source pointed out that in years past, law enforcement had received tips about warnings to stay away from specific locales and of planned attacks that never materialized.
"There's a cry-wolf aspect to this that you need to put this in context," the source said.
At Brooklyn's New Utrecht High School, the FBI was notified that a Pakistani student in a bilingual class "made a comment to a teacher the week prior about the twin towers," said Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Board of Education.
Finney would not reveal the nature of the comment, but the Journal-News of Westchester reported yesterday that the student pointed at the tower during a heated political argument and declared, "Look at those two buildings. They won't be here next week."
School officials would not release the name of the student, but said he was still attending classes at New Utrecht. They said they notified New York police and that the matter was turned over to the FBI.
"I don't know what the status of the FBI's investigation is," Finney said.
Original Publication Date: 10/12/01
General George Patton was incredibly perceptive about so many things. We could use a guy like him right now.
Is there no surveillance at all?
Or did the FBI just brush it off?
Yes I can. The socialists would be crying for the investigation of every priest, minister, active church goer in America.
Lets see youve taken a hand full of "reported" cases and extrapolated that to thousands. Maybe we should put you in charge of our economy, seems like you know how to make things grow.
And just how do you know that none of them reported it. The FBI knew that something was goign to occur on or around 9/11. They just didnt know what. Isnt it likely that some of their intelligence on this came from people in the Muslim community? Just what were these people suppose to report. That something major was going to occur on September 11. If someone told you about the planned halloween attack on shopping malls would you report that to the FBI? Would you believe them, after all you are not likely to hear it directly from anyone involved. By the way the Halloween attack is an urban legand.
I dont know that anyone has proved that many people other than the terrorists knew what was goign to occur.
I guess that doesnt hold true if you are one of the true believers and are involved in the terrorist attacks. Atta and many of the other terrorists who were involved in the hijackings spent their last days getting lap dances in strip clubs, drinking (which is forbidden in Islam, try to drink in Saudi Arabia), and running to Las Vegas for prostitutes.
Because he was either stupid or wanted to get caught. How about speeding in a car missing a license plate. Get pulled over by a cop and then inform him that you have a concealed weapon. By the time the FBI had found the axle of his truck and traced it to him, he was still in jail. From that point on it was just a matter of collecting surveillance videos.
I've gone from the "Oh isn't it wonderful how Muslims and Jews live side-by-side in Brooklyn" to, "Holy sh!t! I've been a sucker."
The utter silence or moral equivocation from high-profile Arabs & Muslims tells me all I need to know.
Arafat vaporized himself as a credible counter-party by turning down Barak's surrender.
The Arabs and Muslims similarly have revealed themselves to be medieval bloodthirsty primitives.
I won't grieve if W returns them to the Dark Ages permanently.
How else to explain all the Jewish partners at Cantor and Sandler who somehow missed the warning?
I heard their eulogies on Yom Kippur on the Upper East Side.
MISTER Sandler was a member of the synagogue I attend.
A quick search of FR and the web turned up nothing.
And a personal best bump for your 'best single comment in a thread'.
From The Article: ... ****In the Bronx, federal investigators received reports about a similar warning at a mosque, sources said. The sources would not reveal the name of the mosque.****
We must face the plain fact that our politicians are UNABLE/UNWILLING to face reality. Political correctness has rotted their souls. The American people are going to have to take this into their own hands. It is inevitable.
Don't hold your breath.
My wife, a Jew, has totally given up on him. I still have faint hope. Evidence strongly suggests that our President is a political animal first and an American second. I hate to say this. Perhaps he can be shocked into reality by more of our slaughter.
WE MUST DEPORT NOW!!!
American people will never be given the option to "take this into their own hands. The Establishment will use police, national guard, and then military -- either our own or NATO now that the taboo has been broken -- to maintain order. What THEY define as order.
Don't forget, one of the reasons this "war" is being fought is because in the Middle East the "will of the people" is out of step with the ruling establishments. But it's the "will of the people" that is getting bombed. (The family Saud and so many others will come out of this engagement more deeply entrenched because the Taliban were the ONLY people in the region (well, other than possibly Iraq and they seem to be next) calling for the overthrow of the Saud family and other Western puppets.)
What's happening in the Middle East is a statement of principle -- the Establishment has the might, and the "will of the people" is a convenient fiction when it matches the will of the Establishment and, otherwise, it is just incipient terrorism.
Be careful.
Mark W.
You are right!
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