In Overheard Calls, Terrorists Spoke of Major Attack, Officials Say

New York Times ^ | 11/02/01 | JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON

[kattracks]

ASHINGTON, Nov. 1 — Government officials intercepted telephone conversations in recent days in which members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, Al Qaeda, spoke urgently of an imminent attack against American targets even larger than the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, senior government officials say.

Intelligence reports based on the intercepted communications frightened the officials who read them and played a decisive role in the Bush administration's decision to issue its latest warning Monday of an imminent terrorist attack, the senior officials said.

Al Qaeda intercepts were interpreted as extraordinarily clear signals of potential danger in part because of the urgent and serious tone of the conversations. Officials said the terrorist operatives were overheard talking about an operation that would be even bigger than the Sept. 11 hijackings. Officials said they intercepted several of these conversations between Al Qaeda members in several countries.

Counterterrorism analysts at the C.I.A. and F.B.I. who reviewed the intercepts judged their credibility to be high also because they determined that the participants believed no one was eavesdropping on their discussions, the officials added.

The reports, supported by other intelligence, were rushed to President Bush and his national security aides on Monday morning. Senior national security officials were quickly persuaded that the potential threat was grave. But the debate at the White House over whether to issue an alert lasted several hours. Some counterterrorism officials expressed strong disagreement with issuing another nonspecific alert like the warning issued on Oct. 10.

When the administration issued the public warning of another attack on Monday, senior members of Congress criticized the decision, saying it raised fears among Americans without providing any specific information that would allow the nation to prepare. But the administration said the intercepts were so worrying that they had little choice.

Officials who have seen the intelligence reports said they raised greater concerns than did the intelligence that prompted the Oct. 10 warning. The latest intercepts indicated that Al Qaeda operatives were talking about a big event and discussed a specific time frame for action, prompting the government to warn of a terrorist attack within the week.

The intercepted communications did not provide specific clues about where the attacks might come, and the intelligence did not indicate whether the terrorists were planning actions inside the United States or against American interests overseas. The reports also did not even suggest the nature of the plot or the methods, officials said.

Tom Ridge, director of homeland security; George Tenet, director of central intelligence; Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director; and Attorney General John Ashcroft were each advised of the threat soon after the intelligence was collected. The information, along with sanitized but still secret summaries, was described in secret briefings for a few top lawmakers, officials said.

Throughout Monday, the government's still evolving threat-assessment network worked to reach a consensus on whether to issue a new alert — knowing that the Oct. 10 warning was criticized by lawmakers and state and local authorities for spreading fear without offering any information about where or how terrorists might strike.

As a result, some senior officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were reluctant to recommend issuing a second warning on Monday. But Mr. Ashcroft and other senior administration officials were persuaded that the threat was too significant to be ignored. In the end, the White House said it was Mr. Bush who made the decision to issue the threat warning, the officials said.

Officials also said they hoped the warning would persuade state and local authorities to increase their vigilance. They added that they had believed an attack was imminent when they issued the Oct. 10th warning, but that it was delayed or prevented, possibly as a result of the arrests and detentions of suspected Al Qaeda operatives in the United States and overseas.

Frustration by state and local officials about the vague nature of the warnings on both Oct. 10 and Monday may help explain the F.B.I.'s decision to issue a more specific warning that terrorists were planning rush- hour attacks against four California bridges, possibly as early as Friday. Senior officials added, however, that they found the intelligence behind that threat less credible than the intelligence leading to the national warning issued on Monday.

Gov. Gray Davis of California, who announced the threat warning this afternoon, said law enforcement officials believed that the Golden Gate Bridge or Bay Bridge, both in San Francisco, the Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Port of Los Angeles or the Coronado Bridge in San Diego were all potential targets.

While the intelligence that prompted Monday's warning was general, officials have scrambled to respond to potential vulnerabilities. Aviation authorities have barred flights over nuclear power plants and have created a no-fly zone in the vicinity of buildings thought to be potential targets, like the Sears Tower in Chicago.

[takenoprisoner]

They better start deporting these rag-headed-women-abusing-scum pretty damn fast or the morgues of this country won't hold all the bodies

Well you must realize you've been tagged by you know who...and add me to the list. If they don't do it, then it is indeed left up to us.

[mercy]

Phone was tapped about ten days ago.

[patriciaruth]

Yankees win!!

[patriciaruth]

Link to Robert Heinlein home page

[BearPaw1]

They did miss some. In fact they didn't do what the Lord told them to do and that was to kill them all and their livestock as well. And that has been the problem from the beginning of time. I don't disagree with you about deporting people who are not legal, I do agree but it does take time to round them all up and to figure out which ones are legal and the ones who are not.

[mercy]

LAUGHING LONG AND HARD!

I agree. Bush is all we have right now. God how I wish we had RWR with us instead. People need to think a minute though. Clintoon is gone. Both of em but one doesn't know it yet. Comparing W to those people is not logical. It's meaningless at this moment. W is failing right here right now. There can be no greater failure than to succumb to PCness in time of war. Maybe the greatest war of all time. There are a billion and a half people out there, lots of em right here, with a 5 or 6% birth rate who are bound and determined to push us off the face of the planet. And what does W say? Islam is a religion of peace. That's gonna make a great line in a history book some day. A history book in hell.

[takenoprisoner]

Phone was tapped about ten days ago.

How does one know if his phone has been tapped?

[mercy]

Shise Dreck!

[piasa]

I don't think bin-Laden is that important, frankly. He is not the head of the snake- he's only the rattle.

[rwfromkansas]

See a shrink. If you support a Democrat, you are a traitor to this country by violatig your principles and supporting a person who is against the Constitution. Then again, you can do what you wish. But, if you do, you will not be welcome on FR ever again....and hopefully not in America.....though I am sure you would fit in at Democratic Underground.

[patriciaruth]

Our God is an awesome God!
He reigns from Heaven above
With wisdom, power and love.
Our God is an awesome God!

Do you know the music?

Put your trust in Him and nothing bad can happen to you.
If you die, you go to Heaven. Not bad.
If you live, you live. Not bad.
If you become disabled, He will show you a new path. Not bad.

All in all, not bad.

He loves you, and that is the best!

[mercy]

I haven't gone out and purchased the equipment to 'prove' it but they are on my internet connection line. My dial tone comes and goes. My machine will not connect and says there is a busy signal when there is none. I get cut off all the time and never used to. None of this used to happen. It all began the day after I started my anti Bush (his PCness anyway) vanity campaign.

[rwfromkansas]

You did hear that they are startig to tighten up immigration, didn't you? Of course, you are probably one of the kind who wants to kick out anybody who even remotely resembles an Arab.

[patriciaruth]

The Egyptian is the brains, but bin Laden is the figurehead. The body is a Planaria. The soul is Wannahbism.

Your opinion may be better. What is it?

[mercy]

No. Only the real ones.

[Quix]

TRUE ENOUGH.

But I really do think we (A) have to choose our battles especially early on.

Or

(B) have to have the fortitude, the means, the spiritual, emotional, social, political, national UMPH to go for broke against virtually the whole world. . . . I wonder if even Canada would stand with us or Britain. . . . if we said, look--the religion is violent. . . .Any religionist who's acted out or shown sympathy with such religious teachings will be wiped from any further chances of such violence. . . terminally.

I just don't think it's viable even if Bush AND ALL HIS CABINET AND ALL REPUBLICANS IN BOTH HOUSES AND EVEN 3 MEDIA OUTLETS ALL CHEERED HIM ON.

But I DO STRONGLY BELIEVE God has PLENTY up HIS SLEEVE for doing away with the whole Islam problem and that HE WILL DO IT in HIS OWN TIME but rather dramatically and in HIS OWN somehow redemptive way.

[BearPaw1]

What does PCness mean?

[rightwinggardeninggirl]

That's a good one! :0)

[takenoprisoner]

And what does W say? Islam is a religion of peace.

That's what he keeps telling us. Problem is, he ain't got the evidence to back it up. In fact, all the periphical evidence is to the contrary.

[mercy]

Yes, I know the music. Yes this is my foundational attitude. But God made me a warrior. It is my nature. I want to kill the enemy as my final chapter in life. This is all I want. Nothing else really matters any more. I am convinced this is the final battle and it is just so wrong to countenance passivity any longer in the face of evil.