Some interesting reading here...The Intelligence Community's Knowledge of the September 11 Hijackers Prior to September 11, 2001
The CIA employee told us that he had, at the time, been assigned to work at the FBI Strategic Information Operations Center to fix problems "in communicating between the CIA and the FBI." His e-mail, however, makes no mention of the CIA's determination that al-Mihdhar held a U.S. multiple-entry visa.
What a failure SIOC was. And who was in charge? Check it out.
And check this out...John O'Neill was an F.B.I. agent with an obsession: the growing threat of Al Qaeda.
Bodine denied his application to reënter the country. She refuses to discuss that decision. "Too much is being made of John O'Neill's being in Yemen or not," she told me. "John O'Neill did not discover Al Qaeda. He did not discover Osama bin Laden. So the idea that John or his people or the F.B.I. were somehow barred from doing their job is insulting to the U.S. government, which was working on Al Qaeda before John ever showed up. This is all my embassy did for ten months. The fact that not every single thing John O'Neill asked for was appropriate or possible does not mean that we did not support the investigation."
Snip...Meanwhile, intelligence had been streaming in concerning a likely Al Qaeda attack. "It all came together in the third week in June," Clarke said. "The C.I.A.'s view was that a major terrorist attack was coming in the next several weeks." On July 5th, Clarke summoned all the domestic security agenciesthe Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard, Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the F.B.I.and told them to increase their security in light of an impending attack.
Snip...When O'Neill told ABC's Isham of his decision to work at the Trade Center, Isham had said jokingly, "At least they're not going to bomb it again." O'Neill had replied, "They'll probably try to finish the job."
Lots of info and names in there. Happy reading.
Cheney promptly called the president in Florida, who had just boarded Air Force One, and urged him not to come back to Washington immediately. In the PEOC, the vice president was joined by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, among others. . .A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that "Air Force One is next." According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible. (I have a second, on-the-record source about that: Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, tells me: "When the president said 'I don't want some tinhorn terrorists keeping me out of Washington,' the Secret Service informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts. In light of the specific and credible threat, it was decided to get airborne with a fighter escort."). . .The most worrisome aspect of these revelations has to do with the credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It is described clearly as a threat, not a friendly warning but if so, why would the terrorists send the message? More to the point, how did they get the code-word information and transponder know-how that established their mala fides? That knowledge of code words, presidential whereabouts and possession of secret procedures indicates that the terrorists may have a mole in the White House that, or informants in the Secret Service, F.B.I., F.A.A. or C.I.A. If so, the first thing our war on terror needs is an Angleton-type counterspy.
Rice: Not Clear Whether Mole Involved in Air Force One Threat
U.S. intelligence officials have not ruled out the possibilty that a government mole may have given terrorists the top secret code language they used to deliver the threat "Air Force One is next" as the World Trade Center and Pentagon were under attack. In an interview with Tony Snow of "Fox News Sunday," National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice confirmed that the Sept. 11 threat against President Bush's life included a "coded name.". . .In a related development, the FBI has taken into custody two Saudi nationals who were found with computer files labeled "killpresidentbush.exe," the New York Daily News reported Saturday. The two suspects tried to board a plane from New York to Los Angeles on Sept. 13, two days after the Twin Tower and Pentagon attacks. They had tickets dated Sept. 11. "The two are among a group of 10 material witnesses now in custody," the News reported. The FBI has declined to make their identities public.
Have you seen anything following up on this?