Posted on 06/20/2002 10:39:50 AM PDT by I_Publius
Jun 20, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just weeks before Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, U.S. authorities received several warnings that Islamic terrorists were seeking to strike on American soil and that a likely target was government buildings, documents show.
The information, though it was never linked to McVeigh, was stark enough that the Clinton administration urged stepped-up security patrols and screening at federal buildings nationwide, including those in Oklahoma.
The government, however, didn't fortify buildings with concrete barriers like those hurriedly installed after McVeigh detonated his explosive-laden truck at the curb of the Murrah building on April 19, 1995, officials said.
Islamic extremists are determined to "strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future," said one warning obtained by The Associated Press.
McVeigh's former trial attorney decried the disclosure Thursday, and accused the government of a cover-up.
"We specifically asked on the record for all evidence, documents and tangible objects to show whether the government had received a warning of acts of terror against federal buildings. We didn't receive this," attorney Stephen Jones said.
Some survivors and relatives of victims said they still don't think the intelligence would have led to McVeigh because it pointed to Islamic extremists.
"What bothers me is that people say the government was warned, but there was nothing specific. How can you lock down all federal buildings?" asked Dan McKinney, whose wife, a Secret Service employee, and niece perished in the attack.
The intelligence that prompted the warnings was gathered across the globe from Iran and Syria to the Philippines and became more specific as to the potential type attack (suicide bombing), target (government building) and likely date (after the third week in March 1995), the documents show.
The U.S. Marshals Service issued an alert on March 15, 1995, to federal courthouses it protects, including the one in Oklahoma City across the street from where McVeigh's truck bomb killed 168 people, the documents show.
"Iranian extremists want it made clear that steps are being taken to strike at the Great Satan," a term used frequently in the Mideast to describe the United States, the marshals memo said. It said a fatwa - a religious order - had been issued to attack marshals or their buildings.
"There is sufficient threat potential to request that a heightened level of security awareness and caution be implemented," the memo added.
Separately, the General Services Administration received a warning from the FBI and asked hundreds of federal buildings it operates to increase security details, including the Murrah building, officials said.
"We were told there was a fatwa threatening to target federal buildings," GSA spokeswoman Viki Reath said this week. "We increased our patrols to 12-hour shifts."
More than two dozen current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials interviewed by AP said the period of spring 1995 was a time of heightened "chatter" among terrorists seeking to strike the United States.
But the officials cautioned the FBI and CIA exhaustively investigated whether McVeigh could have been aided by Mideast terrorist and found no credible evidence linking him to any Islamic extremists, including those who prompted the 1995 warnings.
The information about 1995 emerges as a joint House-Senate panel examining the intelligence and law enforcement failures that preceded Sept. 11 has expanded its mission to look back at the late 1980s and 1990s.
John Gannon, former deputy CIA director for intelligence under President Clinton, said spring 1995 was one of a handful of periods in the 1990s when intelligence on terror threats peaked as the government increasingly turned its attention to Osama bin Laden and his emerging terrorist network.
Gannon said the 1995 warnings were plentiful enough that he initially assumed Islamic extremists had struck when the bomb exploded in Oklahoma City. Law enforcement too issued initial bulletins looking for Arab suspects and borrowed Arabic translators from the military.
"When I first heard about the Oklahoma bombing, the first reaction I had was I wonder if this were a foreign group that had done this or the Islamic extremists that had come up on our screen," Gannon said.
He said it was in 1998, after bin Laden issued a fatwa urging specific attacks on America and two U.S. embassies in Africa were bombed, that U.S. anti-terrorism efforts escalated markedly.
"If there was a watershed year, it was 1998. That significantly elevated our concern and resulted in a concerted effort, and a very strong program to go get Osama bin Laden," he said.
The 1995 intelligence was specific enough that "if that was today, you'd have (Bush Homeland Security Director) Tom Ridge going out and saying we have this threat," said former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who in 1995 was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
McCollum formed a congressional task force in the late 1980s that began warning of the growing threat of terrorism, and which issued some of the 1995 alerts.
"For a good number of years, there was a failure to acknowledge the severity of the threat," he said. "There really had been this disbelief or unwillingness to scare people."
Former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said "protecting America against terrorists was a high priority" during the 1990s. "Threat information regularly came in and steps were taken to deal with it," he said.
"In general, the record is very clear that the Clinton administration increased counterterrorism funding and focus more than any other prior administration based on the emerging threats," Lockhart added.
Some of the 1995 warnings were pointed.
"Iranian sources confirmed Tehran's desire and determination to strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future," said a Feb. 27, 1995, terror warning by the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
The warnings became increasingly specific as to the possible location, type of attack and likely dates.
"These strikes are most likely to occur either in the immediate future or in the new Iranian year - starting 21 March 1995," the congressional task force predicted.
U.S. intelligence monitored a series of meetings and conferences between senior officials of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other terror organizations in mid-February 1995 in which the subject of killing Americans on U.S. soil came up, officials said.
Around the same time, the FBI received intelligence from the Philippines that two men later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had been arrested as they were plotting to blow up U.S. airliners. The men planned to hijack one airliner and crash it into the CIA, Pentagon or White House, documents show.
The marshals warning explained that Islamic extremists had issued a fatwa to kill marshals personnel because of an episode at the end of the World Trade Center bombing trial in which deputy marshals accidentally stepped on a copy of the Quran during a scuffle.
"Allegedly, the fatwa is being disseminated to persons in the United States who have the capability to carry it out," the memo said.
AP-ES-06-20-02 1220EDT
This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAYWLGUO2D.html
Well, with the recent growth of feafulness regarding admission to memberships to certain currently "out-of-favor" groups, starting with hard-over paramilitary patriot groups to any extreme idology groups, left or right... I'm impressed that you have confessed to "membership" even kiddingly!!!
You are a brave soul, indeed! I like the cut of your jib and your meaningful screen name as well. My mental movies of a Chinese rocket in clinton's pants left me with the question of whether it is pointing inbound, or outbound!(grin)
That's not true.
The terrorists can be defeated easily.
Socialists are harder to control, and pose a greater danger to our society.
President Bush let Clinton off the hook long before the terrorists attacked. Do you defend that decision too?
President Bush has done nothing to stop the terrorists. Islamic men from countries that support terrorism, our enemies, are still allowed to enter the country.
We can't be unfair, you see.
No profiling here.
How about deporting all Islamic men from terrorist countries who've taken flight training? No, can't do that either. Wouldn't be fair, you see.
How about searching every citizen of an Islamic country before allowing them to board a plane? No, that wouldn't be fair, either.
Clinton doesn't care about history, he cares about power.
Thanks to President Bush, former-President Clinton still has power.
These guys arent trying to cover their tracks very well..
So, this was in the early 90's? And bil Clinton rejected his opportunities to go after bin Laden after the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole, the '93 WTC attack, and how many other justifications?! Osama bil Clinton is every bit as responsible for the 3000+ lives lost on 9/11 as is bin Laden, IMHO!!
RE-IMPEACH. CONVICT. DETHRONE.
DISBAR. DE-PENSION. DE-LEGITIMIZE.
INDICT. CONVICT. IMPRISON. DISCARD KEY.
Quite Sincerely...MUD
CK says a ME dude rode in the truck with Mc Veigh as he parked it in front of the building according to witnesses. Says intelligence documents replete with warnings from Saudi Arabia to the Phillipeans a month before the event. Whites, Middle Easterns and even Hispanics converged in groups intent on destroying some heartland symbol of Federal power.
Mark Williams keeps re-reading the AP story at each break!
CK says they targeted the Fed building in Huston, LA & SFO as well as the Murrah building. Large number, over 10,000 Iraqi soldiers brought to the U.S. by the Clinton State Department with little or no documentation. Some politicians objected, but to no avail. Mentioned Dick Morris and what he's been saying. Now says Clinton wanted to use this to go after the "right wing." (well duh!)
Oh... now Mark Williams is saying this is a recorded interview from a couple weeks ago and he's playing it now due to the AP story! Heck, I thought it was live! Oh well...
From your lips to God's ears! This is what I am thinking and hoping so much for.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.