8 years ago today: Bin Laden determined to attack in the US

[barnesfoto]

Published on Saturday, May 18, 2002 in the Washington Post
August Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S.
By Bob Woodward and Dan Eggen

The top-secret briefing memo presented to President Bush on Aug. 6 carried the headline, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," and was primarily focused on recounting al Qaeda's past efforts to attack and infiltrate the United States, senior administration officials said.

The document, known as the President's Daily Briefing, underscored that Osama bin Laden and his followers hoped to "bring the fight to America," in part as retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998, according to knowledgeable sources.

Bush had specifically asked for an intelligence analysis of possible al Qaeda attacks within the United States, because most of the information presented to him over the summer about al Qaeda focused on threats against U.S. targets overseas, sources said. But one source said the White House was disappointed because the analysis lacked focus and did not present fresh intelligence.

New accounts yesterday of the controversial Aug. 6 memo provided a shift in portrayals of the document, which has set off a political firestorm because it suggested that bin Laden's followers might be planning to hijack U.S. airliners.

In earlier comments this week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials stressed that intelligence officials were focused primarily on threats to U.S. interests overseas. But sources made clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks within the United States, indicating that he and his aides were concerned about the risks.

The new reports came amid continued demands for an independent investigation on Capitol Hill, along with more revelations about possible intelligence missteps before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Intelligence sources said last night that at least two names listed in a July 2001 FBI memo about an Arizona flight school have been identified by the CIA as having links to al Qaeda. The FBI memo was never acted upon or distributed to outside agencies prior to Sept. 11 and was not provided to the CIA until last week, sources said.

The memo, sent to FBI headquarters by a Phoenix FBI agent, warned that bin Laden could have been using U.S. flight schools to train terrorists and suggested a nationwide canvass for Middle Eastern aviation students. The CIA's discovery of an al Qaeda link was first reported by ABC News.

more: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0518-04.htm

[Lorax]

A sad anniversary for our nation, which should always be remembered as the moment when crass politics decided the fate of thousands of American lives, and the reputation of this nation for decades to come.

Here's an interesting perspective of the events of that period, and the person directly responsible for the failures:


VI. George W. Bush [[1946-present, Yale, Skull & Bones, class of 1968).

As governor of Texas, the 43rd president of the United States presided over the execution of 52 inmates, including mentally retarded prisoners- more than any other governor in US history. He did, however, pardon one death row prisoner, a serial killer. As governor, he changed pollution laws to benefit energy companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the nation. Some of his other notable contributions include:

• 1) Presiding over the government’s complicity and cover-up of the killing of about 3,000 people at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 [[see many references below).
  
  2) Presiding over the greatest rollback of Constitutional civil liberties in the history of the country. The Patriot I and Homeland Security Acts, passed in 2001 and 2002, respectively, along with the pending Patriot II Act eliminate or threaten Constitutional rights guaranteed in our 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments [[see attachment).
  
  3) The high-tech massacre of many thousands of innocent and defenseless Afghani and Iraqi civilians who posed no security threat to the U.S. whatsoever and had no part in the crimes of 9-11. The two primary resources thereby controlled are opium and an oil pipeline in Afghanistan and, of course, oil in Iraq. The Bush administration, obviously responding to demands from the major oil companies, is clearly pursuing a strategy to dominate the world’s last, greatest fossil fuel reserves in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Basin.
  
  4) Leading a “pre-emptive� war against Iraq in violation of international law [[including the UN charter, the Nuremburg Tribunal and the Geneva Accords) and on the basis of entirely false pretexts. Representative Henry Waxman [[D-CA) carefully documents 237 lies told by the Bush administration in their efforts to convince the American people, the Congress, and the UN to go to war in Iraq. Interestingly, this document is no longer on the web.
  
  5) Proposing an endless “War on Terror� [[i.e., military conquest abroad in service of resource looting for international corporations and a police state at home to suppress dissent), when, in fact, evidence shows that the “War on Terror� is a fraud and that the greatest purveyor of terror in the world, by far, is the U.S. government, with its CIA, School of the Americas, etc.
  
  6) Presiding over the loss, mostly by outsourcing, of some 2.5 million American jobs in his first two years in office.
  
  7) Granting trillions of dollars worth of tax cuts to the richest 2% of Americans. Thereby, spending the $7 trillion surplus he inherited from Clinton and allowing the federal deficit to exceed a record $7 trillion, mainly by granting gigantic tax cuts to the rich and making huge increases in military spending.
  
  8) Presiding over one of the greatest Wall Street scandals [[and stock market crashes) of all time [[the Enron scandal, the creation of artificial gas shortages in California, etc.).
  
  9) De-funding and thereby further crippling our education, social services, health care, etc.
  
  10) The worst environmental record of any U.S. president in history, including the systematic weakening and rollback of all major environmental laws and regulations.

[Gannon]

This is known behavior in black False Flag operations...prime the pump with the public portion of your plan...set up the dupe for the fall so you can get away easily while the mob has their way with him.


Have all in place to sew seeds of the official cover story and quell any and all news stories that have actual truth in them. Fix all leaks and quickly.


The CIA knows Bin Laden very well...they have been working with him for years and years. The Bushes know all of the Bin Laden family, very very well. Indeed, after the staged attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon...when all air traffic was grounded nationwide, our very government used OUR resources to fly everyone in the family out of the country.

Someone with TOP SECRET clearance was able to trump the FAA's hard rule grounding all planes for those three days after the disaster...the false flag operation that some still think was perpetrated by foreigners [[who oddly had the power to tell NORAD to stand down!).




When will we all wake up?!

[Bobl]

A sad day, indeed, September 11:

[ccbatson]

First, Osama was on the most wanted list long before this memo to Bush...don't forget that Clinton called off strikes against Osama [[at least twice) while he was ion office. What do you think these potential strikes were for? Loitering?

Second...what would the libs expect GWB to do about this memo? Air strikes? Assasination? Invasion? AS if the libs would have approved of that.

[Lorax]

First, Osama was on the most wanted list long before this memo to Bush...don't forget that Clinton called off strikes against Osama [[at least twice) while he was ion office. What do you think these potential strikes were for? Loitering?

Second...what would the libs expect GWB to do about this memo? Air strikes? Assasination? Invasion? AS if the libs would have approved of that.

He could have started by having the Air Force somewhere near NY and DC on 9/11. He could have taken Richard Clarke's advice and detained those hijackers who were being followed, including the one working at "Shuckers" oyster bar in Hollywood, Florida, which I frequented at that time.

He could have read the PDB presented to him by Condi Rice in August, 2001, or taken it with him on his extended vacation. No, it was designed to be ignored, and the Traitor in Chief continued to pull the wool over the nation's eyes for years to come. Welcome to the fascist state.

[barnesfoto]

John Ashcroft [[later part of the Bush Admin) on Clinton's attempted strike on OBL in August, 1998:

“‘We support the president out of a sense of duty whenever he deploys military forces, but we’re not sure - were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?‘ Ashcroft said during the taping of a TV program in Manchester, N.H.� [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8/21/98]

[Gannon]

Yeah, thanks Barnes for the memory...


...of the guy who couldn't win an election against a DEAD MAN because the citizens of Missouri saw the true ugliness through his facade...


...who was sold out on his OWN deathbed, with the intrusion of his replacement demanding a signature to hand over some power or authority that the administration knew it needed!


What was that all about again?

[jiminnm]

This type of nonsense is why I expect Obama to solve our economic problems by Septemeber 11, 2009.

[Lorax]

This type of nonsense is why I expect Obama to solve our economic problems by Septemeber 11, 2009.

He can start by throwing the private health insurers under the bus. Any freak who is allowed to take home 4 million per week, as is the case with Stephen Hemley of United Health Scare, should be the poster child for corruption.

This twatwaffle gets to take home money that was ill-gotten from denying care to those who had the audacity to pay their premiums and get sick.

There is a special place in hell for these fascist bastards.

[ccbatson]

20/20 hindsight of shoulda woulda couldas...just like Clinton shoulda approved of the strike against obama when he had the chance.

[Lorax]

20/20 hindsight of shoulda woulda couldas...just like Clinton shoulda approved of the strike against obama when he had the chance.

What a disingenuous load of crap.

Clinton's decision not to kill hundreds of others by taking out one person was a measured, thoughtful act.

Tush puprosely ignoring intelligence by design, sent 3000 Americans to their deaths, more human sacrifice than Montezuma could have imagined, all for a lame excuse to go to war with a country that didn't have anything to do with it.

One is a presidential act, the other is treason, punishable in better times with hanging.

[ccbatson]

Check your facts, the opportunities were prime in terms of hitting a nest of vipers without innocent bystanders.

[Ravine]

What a resource for learning this forum can be.

I never knew that Clinton had considered a strike against Obama.
Maybe it started out as one of those Southern Democrat vs. Northern Democrat squabbles.

[Detroitej72]

what would the libs expect GWB to do about this memo?

Nothing. It is well known that the bin Laden family and the House of Bush have had a long, warm, and personal friendship for years, thats why Bush the Elder was having a meal with bin Laden's brother on the morning of Sept. 11.

Coincidence? I think not. America has been duped, and the sad thing is some conservatives here still think Bush was our savior.

[Lorax]

Check your facts, the opportunities were prime in terms of hitting a nest of vipers without innocent bystanders.

Nothing but a nest of lies...

[ccbatson]

Transcripts of the conversation in which Clinton declined the opportunity are now publicly available....shouldn't you familiarize yourself with them before alleging that they are lies?

[Lorax]

Transcripts of the conversation in which Clinton declined the opportunity are now publicly available....shouldn't you familiarize yourself with them before alleging that they are lies?

I've heard them, and seen the interviews with Clinton on the subject. Your position is still a lie. There was a reason why, and it was stated above, perhaps you didn't read it.

[Detroit Stylin]

20/20 hindsight of shoulda woulda couldas...just like Clinton shoulda approved of the strike against obama when he had the chance.

Damn... first he was a socialist....then the anitchrist...now he was a terrorist during the Clinton admin too? Wow this president really HAS gotten around....

[Detroit Stylin]

What a resource for learning this forum can be.

I never knew that Clinton had considered a strike against Obama.
Maybe it started out as one of those Southern Democrat vs. Northern Democrat squabbles.

I know right Ravine....

I knew politics was a dirty game but thats taking it to the extreme right?

[ccbatson]

Twice, not once reagarding Clinton and covert strike opportunities against Bin Laden...that we know of [[maybe there were more that are still classified).

[rb336]

Transcripts of the conversation in which Clinton declined the opportunity are now publicly available....shouldn't you familiarize yourself with them before alleging that they are lies?

yep, i read em. and by the time the military had a plan in place, intelligence said bin laden was out of the area. good for bill to not go in and attack a place where bin laden was no longer.

fact remains, dubya had intelligence that something was imminent, but the right hated the clintons so much that, since it came from clinton-era intelligence, they chose -- ACTIVELY CHOSE -- to ignore it, resulting in, of course, 1000s of deaths, and 1000s more with serious life-long medical problems

[Lorax]

What those on the right deny, and I know it's gotta be hard to accept the fact, but their president willfully ignored intelligence that would have resulted in stopping 9/11, which would have been a super victory for them politically, but was outweighed by the perceived excuse they would have in starting another war for oil profit, which was always the objective, long before the 2000 election.

These guys plan so far in advance, that the agenda is always set first.

[ccbatson]

The 2 incidents referred to were definitely hot opportunities with Bin Laden in their sights. There may have been other less opportune instances.

[rb336]

The 2 incidents referred to were definitely hot opportunities with Bin Laden in their sights. There may have been other less opportune instances.

no, they weren't. they new where he was, but by the time they were able to get the info to the military, he wasn't there anymore. if you'd read source material instead of worshipping rush/hannity/etc, you might know that