Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks
By David Wastell in Washington and Philip Jacobson in Jerusalem
(Filed: 16/09/2001)
ISRAELI intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre's twin towers and the Pentagon were humiliating blows to the intelligence services, which failed to foresee them, and to the defence forces of the most powerful nation in the world, which failed to deflect them.
The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service, were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation.
"They had no specific information about what was being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin Laden and told the Americans that there were strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement," said a senior Israeli security official.
The CIA has said that it had no hard information that would have led to the prevention of the hijacking, but the FBI said it believed that cells operating within America and totalling at least 50 terrorists were behind last week's devastating hijacks; the names of new suspects are being added to the list daily.
America's intelligence agencies are being widely blamed for their failure to predict the attacks, or anything like them, and for not discovering any of the terrorist cells before the hijackings on Tuesday. Some of those who took part had lived in the US for months, or even years.
Evidence that a clear Israeli warning was delivered to American authorities, but ignored, would be a further blow to the reputation of the CIA, which is under fire for its failure last week.
An administration official in Washington said: "If this is true then the refusal to take it seriously will mean heads will roll. It is quite credible that the CIA might not heed a Mossad warning: it has a history of being overcautious about Israeli information."
I mean - hey - this is NOT NEW!
The message was ignored by Bill Clinton and his fellow Clintonistas. They thought they'd solved the problem by blowing up an aspirin factory in Sudan.
Unfortunately that didn't quite work.
Conspiracy fans (and I'm not calling you one) generally can't or won't make that distinction.
I don't believe it. I flat out don't believe it.
Thanks to the Freeper who posted in response that Israel did in fact report details in advance about the possibility of a major terrorist operation with links to Osama bin Laden. Too bad the paper pushers at the FBI, CIA etc. let dreams of future promotions and bonuses cloud their judgement.
Israeli intelligence DID know something about the attacks--and they also told the CIA (according to the Jerusalem Post).
Excerpt from here RE EXEC ORDER #2001-261.
. "Section 6.
This Executive Order shall remain in full force and effect until the earlier of its revocation or June 30, 2003.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and have caused the Great Seal of the State of Florida to be affixed at Tallahassee, the Capitol, this 7th day of September 2001."
The reporter is Carl Cameron.
I'd post a link but can't find anything on the foxnews site about this story.
It was a lot more than just a blip on the ticker. Brit Hume started with a reference to Pollard. Some outrageous stuff: they put up a map of the USA and marked 10? 20? states with suspected Israeli intelligence operative groups. They listed just about every major govt agency as being "targeted" by these groups. They gave a description of one group as posing as "art students". Another was selling toys at malls nationwide. Foxnews called the toy operation a "front". Apparently the company closed all of its mall "kiosks" fast and put up an excuse on their website. I can't remember the address. Fox showed the site and quoted from it.
Carl Cameron quoted from several sources various what I would call fairly outrageous accusations. Think the title of this thread is misleading. The real gist of the story was the existence of a very aggressive coordinated nationwide network of foreign intelligence agents.
There was mention at least twice I believe that in CA the Israelis were spying on Arab groups. This was a relief. But the other parts of the story were about US agencies being targeted. A long list!
Seems Foxnews is the most pro-Israel news on TV. Especially Brit Hume's show. That's why this was more of a shock. Think these are the last people in the media who are going to spread wild rumors about the Israelis.
As grownups we gotta recognize allies spy on each other. It's part of the game but this story pissed me off! I will tune in tomorrow and see what part II says.
I discovered that one in a Wall Street Journal graphic up after the attacks which listed all the tenants in the WTC, their square footage, amount of employees, etc.
Now I don't know if Sept. 11th specifically was known, but they knew it was a matter of time before their lack of action would lead to attack and they had this war planned out and ready to go.
As far as Israel goes, the Mossad is highly expert and it's very plausible that they knew as well. But who knows?