Collection of 9/11 Evidence, Coincidences and Oddities!

(Mainstream Article Citings)

2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006

(Use the WayBack Machine for expired links.)

• January 2001 - Former President Bill Clinton told President George W. Bush about the threat al-Qaida posed, but the Bush Administration ignored the warning.

"US President George W. Bush was told by Bill Clinton about the threat al-Qaida posed months before the September 11 attacks - but ignored the warning.
Mr Clinton this week revealed he told Mr Bush in January 2001 that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida posed the biggest threats to the US. The warning was issued during a meeting between the outgoing and incoming presidents.
President Clinton also passed on a plan for a pre-emptive attack on bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan, but the Bush administration sat on it for eight months because of political hostility to the outgoing president.
The plan, for special forces troops to be sent after bin Laden, was drawn up in the last days of the Clinton administration.
Mr Clinton said Mr Bush failed to heed his warning because he thought Iraq was a greater threat to US security.
"I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden," Mr Clinton said.
Mr Clinton said his inability to convince Mr Bush was "one of the two or three of the biggest disappointments that I had".
He said Iraq ranked well down the list of security concerns at the time.
First was al-Qaida, then absence of a Middle-East peace agreement, followed by weapons of mass destruction. "I would have started with India and Pakistan, then North Korea, and then Iraq after that," he said.
The Clinton-era plan to attack al-Qaida in Afghanistan was approved by the Bush administration only a week before the September 11 attacks, according to a report in Time magazine.
A discussion of the plan took place on September 4. In preceding months, the proposal was shuffled through the bureaucracy by an administration distrustful of anything to do with Mr Clinton.
In August 2001, Attorney-General John Ashcroft turned down FBI requests for $50 million for the agency's counter-terrorist program.
The Clinton plan to take the counter-terrorist battle to al-Qaida was drafted after the attack on the warship the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.
Mr Clinton's terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, presented it to senior officials that December, but it was agreed the decision should be taken by the new administration.
Mr Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were told of the al-Qaida threat in meetings with Mr Clinton's outgoing team.
The plan called for the attack on bin Laden, a freeze on al-Qaida assets, and aid to stamp out remaining terrorists cells." - Herald Sun (10/19/03)

• January 20, 2001 - George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney are sworn in as the 43rd President and Vice President of the United States.

Biography of President George W. Bush

"George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001..."

Career and Public Service
* Owner, oil and gas business
* Partner, Texas Rangers Baseball Team
* Governor of Texas" - White House

Biography of Vice President Richard B. Cheney

Career and Public Service
* White House Chief of Staff to President Ford
* U.S. Congressman, Wyoming
* Secretary of Defense
* Chief Executive Officer of the Halliburton Company
* Vice President of the United States - White House

(See also:  March 21, 1989 - Cheney becomes the 17th US Secretary of Defense; October 1, 1995 - Dick Cheney becomes CEO of Halliburton)

• January 20, 2001 - Donald H. Rumsfeld becomes the U.S. Secretary of Defense for the second time in his career, the only person to do so in history.

"Donald H. Rumsfeld was sworn in as the 21st Secretary of Defense on January 20, 2001. Before assuming his present post, the former Navy pilot had also served as the 13th Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, U.S. Congressman and chief executive officer of two Fortune 500 companies.
Secretary Rumsfeld had directed the actions of the Defense Department in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001." - DoD

Past U.S. Secretaries of Defense - DoD

(See also:  November 20, 1975 - Rumsfeld becomes the 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense)

• January 25, 2001 - Frank A. De Martini, Manager of WTC Construction and Project Management, says in a documentary, World Trade Center - A Modern Marvel, that the WTC twin towers were designed to withstand a crash from a fully loaded Boeing 707, the largest aircraft at the time, and believes it could sustain multiple hits from jetliners, comparing it to poking a pencil through mosquito netting.

"The building was designed to have a fully loaded [Boeing] 707 crash into it.  That was the largest plane at the time.  I believe that the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door -- this intense grid -- and the jet plane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting.  It really does nothing to the screen netting." [Video clip:  Prison Planet, Free Press International; From: 9-11: The Greatest Lie Ever Sold]

World Trade Center - A Modern Marvel 1973-2001

"If the World Trade Center wasn't the most famous building in the world, it must be now it its absence. The History Channel produced World Trade Center: A Modern Marvel before the tragic events of September 11th and the tone of the documentary shows the kind of jaunty, happy-go-lucky attitude of many of these cable shows.

Watching World Trade Center: A Modern Marvel I started to feel my blood boil. When Frank A. DeMartini, manager of WTC Construction and Property Management brags about the powerful, ingenious air conditioning system that pumped water from the Hudson through a huge cooling system, you become aware that not only is that feat of engineering no more, but neither is DeMartini, who perished in the attack.

No section is more difficult than the one where DeMartini explains how the building could withstand the impact of even a large aircraft. He was right; the impact didn't bring the buildings down. As Smith points out, no one took into account the insanely high temperatures from a massive jet fuel fire, a mistake that won't be made again." - DVD Talk (04/22/02)

(See also:  9/11 - Frank A. De Martini dies at the WTC)

• January 25, 2001 - Counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke warns the Bush administration in a memo about the threat al Qaeda poses.

"A newly released memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The memo dated January 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks on New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive Web site Thursday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, had been described during the hearings but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
The document was declassified April 7, 2004, one day before Rice's testimony before the September 11 commission. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive -- a private library of declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting on al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until September 4, 2001." - CNN (02/11/05)

January 25, 2001 Richard Clarke Memo - National Security Archive

(See also:  February 11, 2005 - Newly released memo from Richard Clarke warned the Bush administration about al Qaeda)

• January 31, 2001 - A Treasury Department memo for Secretary Paul O'Neill contains a summary of a "military plan" for a "post-Saddam Iraq" marked secret.

"UNCLASSIFIED WITH SECRET ATTACHMENTS

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20220

JAN 31 2001

MEMORANDUM FOR SECRETARY O'NEILL

FROM:  Mark Sobel, Acting Assistant Secretary, International Affairs

SUBJECT:  Briefing for NSC Principals Meeting on Gulf Policy

DATE AND TIME:  3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m., Thursday, February 1, 2001

LOCATION:  White House Situation Room

PURPOSE:  To review the current state-of-play (including a CIA briefing on Iraq) and to examine policy questions on how to proceed.

ATTACHMENTS:

Tab C:  Executive Summary: Political-Military Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq Crisis (interagency working paper) -- SECRET" - Memo at Paperless Archives

O'Neill: Bush planned Iraq invasion before 9/11

"The Bush administration began planning to use U.S. troops to invade Iraq within days after the former Texas governor entered the White House three years ago, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill told CBS News' 60 Minutes.

O'Neill was the main source for "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill," by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind.

Suskind said O'Neill and other White House insiders gave him documents showing that in early 2001 the administration was already considering the use of force to oust Saddam, as well as planning for the aftermath.
"There are memos," Suskind told the network. "One of them marked 'secret' says 'Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq.'" - CNN (01/14/04)

(See also:  January 13, 2004 - Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says President Bush planned Iraq invasion before 9/11)

• March 2001 - India joins the U.S. in it's anti-Taliban coalition.

"India is believed to have joined Russia, the USA and Iran in a concerted front against Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Military sources in Delhi, claim that the opposition Northern Alliance's capture of the strategic town of Bamiyan, was precipitated by the four countries' collaborative effort." - Jane's Information Group (03/18/01)

(See also:  November 7, 2000 - Pakistan seeks Central Asia gas via pipeline through Afghanistan; May 2001 - U.S. gives $43 million to Afghanistan and becomes the largest donor to Afghanistan for two years in a row)

• April 2001 - NORAD planned to practice a scenario in which a terrorist group hijacks a plane and crashes it into the Pentagon, but it was rejected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as being too unrealistic.

"Five months before Sept. 11, 2001, the officers responsible for defending American airspace wanted to test their ability to prevent a hijacked airliner from being crashed into the Pentagon, but the scenario was rejected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as impractical, a Joint Chiefs spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The disclosure was made after a government watchdog group released a leaked e-mail from a former official at the North American Air Defense Command. In the message, the official told colleagues a week after the attacks that in April 2001 NORAD requested that war games run by the Joint Chiefs include an ''event having a terrorist group hijack a commercial airline . . . and fly it into the Pentagon."
Last night, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Dan Hetlage confirmed the account, saying: ''That scenario was rejected because it would have become a whole exercise in and of itself. It wasn't looked on at the time as being practicable."
The NORAD proposal is the clearest sign yet that national security officials were worried before 9/11 about terrorists using hijacked airliners as missiles, despite testimony that senior leaders, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, didn't know of such concerns.
Peter Stockton, chief investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, said yesterday he was told by the source who provided the memo that a special forces officer attached to the NORAD command at the time had first proposed the Pentagon scenario be practiced.
Concerns that terrorists might use hijacked airliners as missiles dates back to the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, when jets were placed on patrol to guard against such a threat." - Boston Globe (04/14/04)

(See also: 1996 - U.S. officials considered possibility a plane could be flown into the main stadium at Olympics in Atlanta; 1998-99 - Federal Report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government buildings)

• April 2001 - The New York Port Authority granted a 99-year lease of the twin towers and four other buildings to Silverstein Properties (who already owns the WTC 7) making it the most expensive real estate transaction in New York history.

"In April, the Port Authority granted a 99-year lease of the twin towers and four other buildings to Silverstein for an estimated $3.2 billion.
The deal -- which allowed Silverstein to manage the complex and collect rent -- was said by the Port Authority to be the most expensive real estate transaction in New York history." - CNN (09/12/01)

"Silverstein Properties owned 7 WTC outright. It was not part of the original six-building complex." - New York Construction News (01/14/02)

(See also:  July 2001 - Larry Silverstein signs a 99-year lease for the rest of the WTC just six weeks before the attacks; September 12, 2001 - The WTC twin towers were hated, money-losers, collapse benefited owners; Killtown's - Was the WTC 7 pulled?)

• April 23, 2001 - Fort Myer, a mile from the Pentagon, conducts a "Force Protection Exercise" to test its ability to respond to a variety of public safety incidents including terrorism.

Force protection exercise Monday

"Fort Myer and Fort McNair will conduct a Force Protection Exercise Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Fort Myer Military Community is conducting the exercise as part of an ongoing program to test its ability to respond to a variety of public safety incidents. No particular terrorist threat currently exists, and all post facilities will be open as usual, but entrance to and egress from Fort Myer and Fort McNair will be limited on exercise day." - DC Military (04/20/01)

(See also:  September 2001 - Force protection exercise at Fort Myer scheduled week after 9/11 is cancelled; September 5, 2001 - Fort Myer and McNair implement "full access control")

• May 2001 -  U.S. gives $43 million to Afghanistan and becomes the largest donor to Afghanistan for two years in a row.

"Warning that Afghanistan is "on the verge of a widespread famine," Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday announced a $43 million package in humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people.  The sum brings U.S. assistance to $124.2 million for this year, making the United States the largest Afghan donor for the second year in a row.
The package includes $28 million worth of wheat from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, $5 million in food commodities and $10 million in "livelihood and food security" programs, both from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Taliban religious militia, which imposes a harsh brand of Islam, captured Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, in 1996 and now controls an estimated 95 percent of the country.
The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against the Taliban in an effort to pressure the militia to hand over Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is accused of bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa. Humanitarian aid is allowed." - CNN (04/17/01)

(See also:  March 2001 - India joins the U.S. in it's anti-Taliban coalition; June 2001 - India and Iran will "facilitate" U.S. and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban)

• May 2001 - Several of the alleged 9/11 hijackers make six trips to Las Vegas and seen in the local Strip clubs.

Agents of terror leave their mark on Sin City Las Vegas workers recall the men they can't forget

"Samantha remembers the killer settling into the crushed red velvet chair, staring blankly up at her while she undulated her hips inches from his face.
He didn't look evil, she said. Not even interesting. Certainly not like a man who would, just three months later, hijack a jet and smash it into the World Trade Center to slaughter thousands of people in a suicidal fireball.
To the 29-year-old stripper, Marwan Al-Shehhi simply looked "cheap."
"He spent about $20 for a quick dance and didn't tip more."

Samantha would have never given Al-Shehhi another thought if she hadn't seen his photo in a news article naming him as one of five Sept. 11 hijackers who stayed in Las Vegas not long before they pulled off the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Just why the five chose Vegas is still somewhat of a mystery, and FBI agents are knocking on doors up and down The Strip -- the casino-studded road cutting north to south -- to try to solve it.
But one thing seems clear. The self-styled warriors for Allah -- who believed their hijackings would earn them eager virgins in heaven -- engaged in some decidedly un-Islamic sampling of prohibited pleasures in America's reputed capital of moral corrosion.

The fact that she played a role in that sampling was disturbing enough to Samantha, but after recognizing 23-year-old Al-Shehhi's bearded face, she had another shock coming. It turned out one of his accomplices, Mohamed Atta...stayed in the cheap Econo Lodge just a couple of blocks from the Olympic along The Strip.

In addition to Atta, 33, and Al-Shehhi, investigators are telling business owners that Nawaq Alhamzi, age unknown, Ziad Jarrahi, 26, and Hani Hanjour, 29, stayed in Las Vegas off and on between May and August. They say the group -- which chillingly included a hijacker from each of the four flights -- made at least six trips here.

However, locals and investigators are still exploring two main theories for why the radical Islamic killers gathered in a city they undoubtedly saw as a den of infidels wallowing in Western wretchedness.

The other is that the five reckoned as long as they had to meet, they might as well do it where they could gamble and indulge in the same forbidden frolics some of them reportedly found at the Pink Pony strip joint in Florida over the summer.

McCarran Airport Payless Car Rental Manager Suzanne Gerfy told The Chronicle this week that her staff had found receipts showing Jarrahi "and a few of the others" had rented cars over the summer, and they turned the receipts over to the FBI. Jarrahi -- who investigators believe piloted United Airlines Flight 93 on its fatal dive into a Pennsylvania field -- wrote he was staying at the high-rolling Circus Circus casino resort, which is on the gaudier end of The Strip than the Econo Lodge.

Clerks at a Starbucks near the University of Nevada at Las Vegas also say they served high-octane java to at least one of the killers, and a pizza joint reportedly served them slices -- with ham left off by request. Some folks at the Chapel of Love quickie-marriage emporium even swear they saw Atta driving a cab.
"True Muslims don't drink, don't gamble, don't go to strip clubs," said Dr. Osama Haikal, president of the board of directors of the Islamic Foundation of Nevada. "These things are a sin, just like what they did in New York and Washington is a sin."
If the hijackers copped a lap dance or even a watery scotch in most strict Islamic countries, they would be flogged, Haikal said -- and they would be executed for the horror they wrought. Dying doesn't mean they won't be held accountable." - San Francisco Chronicle (10/04/01)

(See also:  September 7, 2001 - Mohamed Atta seen drinking vodka and rum at a Hollywood, FL bar)

September 10, 2001 - Three men talked of impending bloodshed at FL strip club and spent on drinks and lap dances and a copy of the Quran was left at the bar)

• (Date unknown) - Several of the alleged 9/11 hijackers patronized Nardone's Go-Go Bar.

Terrorist Stag Parties

"FBI agents have also reportedly questioned the owners of Nardone's Go-Go Bar in Elizabeth, N.J. Several of the terrorists spent time in nearby Paterson and Newark and reportedly patronized the club." - Wall Street Journal (10/10/01), Boston Herald (10/10/01)

• (Date unknown) -  Alleged Flight 77 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi hang out at Cheetah's, a nude bar in San Diego near their Islamic Center.

The Plot; How terrorists hatched a simple plan to use planes as bombs.

"The one-legged man was Tawfiq bin Atash, for many years a personal aide to Osama bin Laden. With him were two men who would become Sept. 11 hijackers: Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

Acquaintances said the pair seemed to regard their time in California almost as R&R. Alhazmi had season passes to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. They bought a Toyota sedan and liked to make the run up to Las Vegas. In town, they hung out at Cheetah's, a nude bar near the Islamic Center.
The center itself is hardly a haven for radical Islam. It is multiethnic and promotes assimilation. All the signs in the building are in English. In 2000, a group of men showed up and passed out literature praising Bin Laden. Center officials confiscated the leaflets and told the men to leave and not come back." - LA Times (09/01/02) [Wayback Machine]

• May 4, 2001 - PNAC member Dov S. Zakheim, member and a co-author of PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses", is sworn in as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense who was a former vice president of System Planning Corp., a defense contractor which makes remote control and flight termination products.

"Dov S. Zakheim was sworn in as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense on May 4, 2001. Dr. Zakheim has previously served in a number of key positions in government and private business. Most recently, he was corporate vice president of System Planning Corp., a technology, research and analysis firm based in Arlington, Va. He also served as chief executive officer of SPC International Corp., a subsidiary specializing in political, military and economic consulting. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-Governor Bush.
From 1985 until March 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). In that capacity, he played an active role in the Department's system acquisition and strategic planning processes. Dr. Zakheim held a variety of other DoD posts from 1981 to 1985. Earlier, he was employed by the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office.
Dr. Zakheim has been a participant on a number of government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. His government service includes terms on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad; the Task Force on Defense Reform (1997); the first Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools (1998); and the Defense Science Board task force on "The Impact of DoD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry" (2000).
A 1970 graduate of Columbia University with a bachelor's in government, Dr. Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He earned his doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, where he was graduate fellow in programs of both the National Science Foundation and Columbia College, and then a research fellow. Dr. Zakheim has been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was presidential scholar.
Dr. Zakheim has written, lectured and provided media commentary on national defense and foreign policy issues domestically and internationally. He is the author of "Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis" (Brassey's, 1996), "Congress and National Security in the Post-Cold War Era" (The Nixon Center, 1998), "Toward a Fortress Europe?" (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2000), and numerous articles and chapters in books." - DoD

- System Planning Corporation's Command Transmitter Systems (CTS) provide remote control and flight termination functions through a fully-redundant self-contained solid-state system.
- System Planning Corporation's is proud to offer the Flight Termination System (FTS), a fully redundant turnkey range safety and test system for remote control and flight termination of airborne test vehicles.

REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS

Dov Zakheim, System Planning Corporation" - PNAC (Sept. 2000)

"Dr. Dov S. Zakheim is a former political and economic adviser to the United States government.  He is an ordained Orthodox Jewish rabbi...as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations." - Wikipedia

(See also:  September 2000 - PNAC advocates the build up of U.S. military, but won't think it will happen unless U.S. experiences a major catastrophic event such as a "new Pearl Harbor"; September 10, 2001 - Donald Rumsfeld announces that Pentagon has lost track of $2.3 trillion in military spending)

• May 18, 2001 - The Denver Council on Foreign Relations (DCFR) discuss in their meeting about 'The Development of Homeland Defense' that Washington and New York are the "most likely targets" of a terrorist attack, the scenario of a hijacked plane crashing into a "high-value target", and mentions that the alleged WTC '93 bomber's original plan was to blow up one WTC tower to fall into the other WTC tower, thus "collapsing both".

Homeland Defense and the Transportation Industry: The Civil Aviation and Surface Transportation Sectors
"Then came September 11, 2001, when all Americans understood what the attendants of these meetings had concluded beforehand--
In the last meeting (May 2001), participants discussed Washington and New York as the most likely targets, even discussing a scenario in which a plane is hijacked and crashed into a high-value target. In fact, this scenario had been discussed for some 40 years..." - Denver Council on Foreign Relations (12/01)

The Development of Homeland Defense: A New National Imperative
This is an interim, summary report on three regional seminar workshops on Homeland Defense held in Denver, Colorado, and sponsored by the Denver Council on Foreign Relations (DCFR) and the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (IUS), Rocky Mountain Region, also in association with the Institute on Globalization and Security (IGLOS), University of Denver.
May 16, 2000 (Denver Country Club), November 9, 2000 (Loews Giorgio Hotel, Denver), May 18, 2001 (Denver Country Club)
4. In regard to targets of attack, an attacker can take out key centers of energy or transportation without inflicting large casualties, so perhaps numbers of casualties should not be the sole guide for US counter-terrorist and Homeland Defense efforts.
Seminar workshop participants quickly agreed that MAD is not effective today against the likes of Osama Bin Laden or other terrorists so a new doctrine of defense of the homeland is needed.
While the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York several years ago was quite shocking, it was nowhere near what its perpetrator, Achmed Ramsey Youssef, had planned. His plan reportedly was to kill 250,000 people by blowing up the one tower so it would fall into the other tower, thus collapsing both. - Denver Council on Foreign Relations (Summer 2001)

• June 2001 - India and Iran will "facilitate" U.S. and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban.

"India and Iran will "facilitate" US and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban if the contemplated tough new economic sanctions don't bend Afghanistan's fundamentalist regime.
Indian officials say that India and Iran will only play the role of "facilitator" while the US and Russia will combat the Taliban from the front with the help of two Central Asian countries, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to push Taliban lines back to the 1998 position 50 km away from Mazar-e-Sharief city in northern Afghanistan.
Diplomats say that the anti-Taliban move followed a meeting between US Secretary of State Collin Powel and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and later between Powell and Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh in Washington. Russia, Iran and India have also held a series of discussions and more diplomatic activity is expected.
Officials say that the Northern Alliance requires a "clean up" operation to reduce Taliban's war-fighting machinery to launch an attack against the Taliban advance to the Tajik-Afghan border. This "clean up" action is being planned by the US and Russia since the Taliban shows no "sign of reconciliation".
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will lead the ground attack with a strong military back up of the US and Russia. Vital Taliban installations and military assets will be targeted.
The US needs Russian assistance because of Soviet knowledge of the Afghan terrain. The former Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan in 1979 and withdrew in 1989.
Such Central Asian countries as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are threatened by the Taliban that is aiming to control their vast oil, gas and other resources by bringing Islamic fundamentalists into power.
India, Iran and Russia, for example, are working on a broad plan to supply oil and gas to south Asia and southeast Asian nations through India but instability in Afghanistan is posing a great threat to this effort." - News Insight (06/26/01)

(See also:  May 2001 - U.S. gives $43 million to Afghanistan and becomes the largest donor to Afghanistan for two years in a row; July 2001 - U.S. plans an attack on Osama bin Laden and the Taleban)

• June 2001 - Attorney General John Ashcroft stops flying commercial aircrafts three months before 9/11.

"In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term."  - CBS (06/26/01)

- Note:  Watch CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports on Aschcroft's travel arrangements.

• June 2001 - WTC janitor William Rodriguez claims to have been approached in the building by one of the alleged 9/11 hijackers.

Janitor tells 9/11 panel of brush with WTC thug

"A hero janitor who helped victims escape from the World Trade Center's north tower before it collapsed told the 9/11 panel that he came across one of the hijackers in the building a few months before the attack.
William Rodriguez, 43, of Jersey City met with the commission for the first time last week.
A 20-year Trade Center employee who swept stairwells, he swears he saw United Airlines Flight 175 hijacker Mohand Alshehri in June 2001 and told an FBI agent in the family center at Ground Zero about it a month after the attacks. He never heard back from the bureau.
Rodriguez said he was working overtime one weekend cleaning rest rooms on the concourse and mezzanine levels when Alshehri approached him.
"I had just finished cleaning the bathroom and this guy asks me, 'Excuse me, how many public bathrooms are in this area?'" Rodriguez told the Daily News.
"Coming from the school of the 1993 [Trade Center] bombing, I found it very strange," Rodriguez said. "I didn't forget about it."
After Al Qaeda's attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Rodriguez recognized Alshehri's mug in newspapers.
"I'm very certain, I'll give it 90%" that Alshehri was casing the towers before the attacks, the WTC ex-porter said." - New York Daily (06/15/04)

- William Rodriguez's blog; lawsuit:  Rodriguez vs. Bush

(See also:  9/11 - WTC janitor William Rodriguez hears a large explosion in the basement of the North Tower seconds before a plane hits)

• June 2001 - Convicted terrorist provided U.S. officials with very specific info about a terrorist attack in which some of this information is used in the Aug. 6th memo.

Another Lost Opportunity

A convicted terrorist was providing U.S. officials with very specific information about a terrorist attack three months before 9/11.

"In the spring of 2001, one of the U.S. government’s most valuable terror informants gave the FBI a far more alarming account of Al Qaeda plans to attack inside the United States than has ever been publicly disclosed, according to newly available court documents.
Algerian expatriate Ahmed Ressam, whose sentencing for a Millennium-eve plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport was unexpectedly postponed today, told bureau interrogators nearly four years ago that Al Qaeda commander Abu Zubaydah had been discussing plans to smuggle terrorist operatives and explosives into the country for the purpose of launching a strike on U.S. soil, the documents show.
The fresh documents, released in federal court in Seattle in recent days, shed new light on an issue that dominated last year’s hearings by the September 11 commission: precisely how much did the U.S. government know about Al Qaeda plans to strike inside the country in the summer of 2001 when the attacks on the World Trade Towers and Pentagon were in their final stages?

Perhaps no better sign of that was the inclusion of some of Resssam’s information in the now famous presidential daily briefing (PDB)—entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”—that was presented to President Bush by the CIA on Aug. 6, 2001.
The fact that Ressam’s information was the basis for at least part of the PDB to Bush first became known last year when the 9/11 commission hearings forced the White House to make the long-disputed document public. But it turns out, according to the new court documents, the information from Ressam that was contained in the PDB was watered down and seemed far more bland than what the Algerian terrorist was actually telling the FBI.
“Abu Zubaydah asked Mr. Ressam to send him original Canadian passports so Abu Zubaydah could get people to America,” Ressam told the FBI that day, according to the summary. “Abu Zubaydah wanted an operation in the U.S. Abu Zubaydah also talked to Mr. Ressam about need to get explosives into U.S. for operation, but this wasn’t re: Mr. Ressam’s operation,” meaning explosives that could be used for an attack other than the one planned for the Los Angeles airport. The debriefing report went on to say: “Mr. Ressam does not know if any [explosives] made it to U.S. Once possible operation initiated, operators would not talk about it to anyone, including Abu Zubaydah.”
Still, the apparently watered-down nature of the PDB may partly explain why President Bush later told the commission that he viewed the August 2001 briefing as “historical in nature” and that he never followed up with either national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice or Attorney General John Ashcroft to direct them to push more aggressively to identify Al Qaeda cells inside the United States." - Newsweek (04/28/05)

(See also:  August 6, 2001 - CIA PDB memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US")

• June 1, 2001 - Dept. of Defense (DoD) initiates new instructions for military assistance relating to aircraft hijackings, the first time since 1997, which states that for all non-immediate responses, assistance from the DoD must get approval from the Secretary of Defense who is currently Donald Rumsfeld.

"CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF INSTRUCTION; J-3; CJCSI; 3610.01A
1 June 2001
AIRCRAFT PIRACY (HIJACKING) AND DESTRUCTION OF DERELICT AIRBORNE OBJECTS
1. Purpose. This instruction provides guidance to the Deputy Director for Operations (DDO), National Military Command Center (NMCC), and operational commanders in the event of an aircraft piracy (hijacking) or request for destruction of derelict airborne objects.
2. Cancellation. CJCSI 3610.01, 31 July 1997.
3. Applicability. This instruction applies to the Joint Staff, Services, unified commands, and the US Element, North American Aerospace Defense Command (USELEMNORAD).
4. Policy.
a. Aircraft Piracy (Hijacking) of Civil and Military Aircraft. Pursuant to references a and b, the Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has exclusive responsibility to direct law enforcement activity related to actual or attempted aircraft piracy (hijacking) in the “special aircraft jurisdiction” of the United States. When requested by the Administrator, Department of Defense will provide assistance to these law enforcement efforts. Pursuant to reference c, the NMCC is the focal point within Department of Defense for providing assistance. In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will, with the exception of immediate responses as authorized by reference d, forward requests for DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval. DOD assistance to the FAA will be provided in accordance with reference d. Additional guidance is provided in Enclosure A."
ENCLOSURE D; REFERENCES:
d. DOD Directive 3025.15, 18 February 1997, “Military Assistance to Civil Authorities” - Defense Technical Information Center (06/01/01)

"Department of Defense; DIRECTIVE NUMBER 3025.15
February 18, 1997
4.7. Requests for military assistance should be made and approved in the following ways:
4.7.1. Immediate Response. Requests for an immediate response (i.e., any form of immediate action taken by a DoD Component or military commander to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage under imminently serious conditions) may be made to any Component or Command. The DoD Components that receive verbal requests from civil authorities for support in an exigent emergency may initiate informal planning and, if required, immediately respond as authorized in DoD Directive 3025.1 (reference (g)). Civil authorities shall be informed that verbal requests for support in an emergency must be followed by a written request. As soon as practical, the DoD Component or Command rendering assistance shall report the fact of the request, the nature of the response, and any other pertinent information through the chain of command to the DoD Executive Secretary, who shall notify the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and any other appropriate officials. If the report does not include a copy of the civil authorities' written request, that request shall be forwarded to the DoD Executive Secretary as soon as it is available." - Defense Technical Information Center (02/18/97)

Department of Defense; DIRECTIVE NUMBER 3025.1
January 15, 1993
SUBJECT: Military Support to Civil Authorities (MSCA)
References: (e) through (u), see enclosure 1
E1. ENCLOSURE 1
(g) DoD 5025.1-M, "DoD Directives System Procedures," December 1990" - Defense Technical Information Center (01/15/93)

(See also:  January 20, 2001 - Donald H. Rumsfeld becomes the U.S. Secretary of Defense for the second time)

• June 27, 2001 - The Defense Department's budget request for fiscal year 2002 is $328.9 billion, a $37.8 billion (or 11.5%) increase over last years budget request, and is released four months later than previous and future requests.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AMENDED BUDGET FOR FY 2002

"Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today released details of President Bush's Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 amended defense budget. The amended budget adds funding and program details to the broad defense vision the President outlined in February in his budget submission to Congress, A Blueprint for New Beginnings.

Secretary Rumsfeld said the new budget begins an increased focus on future threats. "If we are to extend this period of peace and prosperity, we need to prepare now for the new and different threats we will face in the decades ahead and not wait until they fully emerge." He said the new budget balances preparation for the future with current needs -- through robust funding to improve morale, boost readiness, transform defense capabilities, and upgrade aging facilities.

The amended budget requests $328.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense (DoD)." - DoD (06/27/01)

- FY 1996 request - $246.0 billion - DoD

- FY 1997 request - $243.4 billion  [ $2.60 billion, or 1.1% decrease ] - DoD (03/14/96)

- FY 1998 request - $250.7 billion  [ $7.30 billion, or 2.9% increase ] - DoD (02/06/97)

- FY 1999 request - $257.3 billion  [ $6.60 billion, or 2.6% increase ] - DoD (02/02/98)

- FY 2000 request - $267.2 billion  [ $9.90 billion, or 3.7% increase ] - DoD (02/01/99)

- FY 2001 request - $291.1 billion  [ $23.9 billion, or  8.2% increase ]  - DoD (02/07/00)

- FY 2002 request - $328.9 billion  [ $37.8 billion, or 11.5% increase ] - DoD (06/27/01)

- FY 2003 request - $369.0 billion  [ $40.1 billion, or 10.9% increase ] - DoD (02/04/02)

- FY 2004 request - $379.9 billion  [ $10.9 billion, or 2.9% increase ] - DoD (02/03/03)

- FY 2005 request - $401.7 billion  [ $21.8 billion, or 5.4% increase ] - DoD (02/02/04)

- FY 2006 request - $419.3 billion  [ $17.6 billion, or 4.2% increase -- 42% increase since 1997 ] - DoD (02/07/05)

(See also:  September 2000 - PNAC advocates major US military budget increases, but won't think it will happen without a catastrophic event like a 'new Pearl Harbor'; September 5, 2001 - Defense Secretary Rumsfeld asks Senate to approve 2002 defense budget request; February 4, 2002 - '03 defense budget request is a $40.1 billion, or 10.9% increase over '02)

• June 29, 2001 - A MASCAL (mass casualty) exercise about a terrorist incident involving an explosion is conducted at Fort Belvoir near the Pentagon to test first team's "external response."

Exercise tests Belvoir's first responders

"What seemed like just another ordinary Thursday morning at the Military Police desk here June 29, quickly turned when MPs received a call from a frantic woman about 10 a.m.
"There was an explosion, wounded soldiers are laying all over the place. There are little kids too," the woman yell into a cellular phone directed to the military police desk sergeant on the other end.

"The 'First Team' organizations knew that there was going to be a Post MASCAL [mass casualty] training exercise some where on post. But they didn't know the location, the day or time it was going to happen," said Percy Perry, mobilization officer for the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security here. "This exercise was designed to enhance the first ready response in dealing with the effects of a terrorist incident involving an explosion," he said.

The Fort Belvoir Fire Department arrived soon after and provided stretchers as the MPs carried the victims off the site.

"We do MASCAL training periodically throughout the year," said Sgt. 1st Class Donald McCasland, the noncommissioned officer in charge of training for MEDDAC. "Normally our MASCAL exercises are internal, but this one was designed to test our external response." - Military District of Washington (07/05/01)

- Ft Belvoir to the Pentagon = approx 18 miles - Yahoo Maps

(See also:  9/11 - Fort Belvoir conducts exercise to test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack)

• July 4, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden, wanted by the US government since 1998, undergoes medical treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where he is met by a local CIA chief.

"Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates federation, is northeast of Abu Dhabi. This city of 350,000 inhabitants was the discreet stage for a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA representative, in July. A man, a professional partner of the administrative management of the American hospital of Dubai, affirms that public enemy number one stayed in this hospital from July 4-14.
Coming from the airport of Quetta in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was transferred on arrival at Dubai airport. Accompanied by his personal doctor, and faithful lieutenant, who could be the Egyptian Ayman al Zawahari, -- on this point the eyewitness accounts are not fully confirmed --, four bodyguards, as well as an Algerian nurse, bin Laden was admitted to the American hospital, a glass and marble building situated between the Al-Garhoud Bridge and the Al-Maktoum Bridge.
Each floor has two VIP suites and about 15 rooms. The Saudi billionaire was admitted to the very famous urology department of Dr. Terry Calloway, specialist in kidney stones and male infertility. Reached by telephone, several times, Dr. Calloway did not want to answer our questions.
Already in March 2000, the weekly Asia Week published in Hong Kong, etc. .... a mobile dialysis machine delivered to his hideout in Kandahar, in the first half of 2000. According to our sources, 'bin Laden's move for health reasons' was not the first. Between 1996 and 1998, Osama bin Laden went to Dubai several times for business.
On September 27, 15 days after the attacks against the World Trade Center, on US demand, the central Bank of the U.A.E. announced that it had ordered the freezing of accounts and investments of 26 persons or organizations suspected of having contacts with the organization of bin Laden, especially the Dubai Islamic Bank.
During his hospitalization, Osama bin Laden received visits of several family members, Saudi and Emirate personalities. In the course of the same stay, the local CIA representative, whom many people in Dubai know, was seen taking the main elevator of the hospital to go to Osama bin Laden's room.
A few days later, the CIA man boasted to some friends that he had visited the Saudi billionaire. According to authorized sources, the CIA agent was called by his headquarters on July 15, the day after bin Laden's departure for Quetta.
Following their investigations, the FBI discovered 'structures' that the CIA had developed with its 'Islamist friends' for years. The meeting in Dubai, therefore, is nothing but the logical follow-up of a 'certain American policy'." - Le Figaro (10/31/01) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com]

"In America, where the FBI has been notoriously ineffective, the White House is forced to admit on the record that the country is as vulnerable now as it was on the morning of September 11.
Exactly one year ago, from July 4 to July 14, Osama bin Laden was undergoing medical treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai. He arrived by plane from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan (daily flights either with PIA or Emirates Airlines). He met many wealthy Saudi princes and businessmen. He was also visited by the local CIA chief. He could have been arrested on the spot - and there would be no excuses for a war against terrorism. He was not arrested. The rest, of course, is history - with an al-Qaeda hand in the screenplay." - Asia Times (07/13/02)

"Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro." - Guardian (11/01/01)

"Links: Le Figaro Reports CIA, bin Laden Contacts" - Scoop (11/02/01)

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive - Usama Bin Laden

"USAMA BIN LADEN IS WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE AUGUST 7, 1998, BOMBINGS OF THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, AND NAIROBI, KENYA. THESE ATTACKS KILLED OVER 200 PEOPLE. IN ADDITION, BIN LADEN IS A SUSPECT IN OTHER TERRORIST ATTACKS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD." FBI

(See also:  September 10, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden reportedly undergoes kidney dialysis at a Pakistani military hospital in which a "secret team" replaces the regular urology staff; December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies)

• July 2001 - U.S. plans to invade Afghanistan for an attack on Osama bin Laden and the Taliban by October 2001.

US 'planned attack on Taleban'

"A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.
Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.
Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.
The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place - possibly under the leadership of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah.
He said that he was in no doubt that after the World Trade Center bombings this pre-existing US plan had been built upon and would be implemented within two or three weeks.
And he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban." - BBC (09/18/01)

Attack and counter-attack, Evidence suggests that Washington had planned to move against Bin Laden in the summer. Was the attack on America a pre-emptive strike?

"These are the troubling questions raised by the Guardian's disclosure at the weekend that the Taliban received a specific warning - passed during secret diplomacy in Berlin in July - that the Bush team had prepared a new plan to topple the entire Afghan regime militarily unless they handed Bin Laden over.

The Guardian's disclosures are proving controversial. Some analysts say Bin Laden had evidently prepared his suicide pilots up to a year beforehand, thus making Washington's behaviour in July beside the point. Others ask why US threats of military strikes in July should be of any more concern to Bin Laden than previous episodes, such as Clinton's rocketing of his camps.

Reliable western military sources say a US contingency plan existed on paper by the end of the summer to attack Afghanistan from the north." - Guardian (09/26/01)

(See also:  June 2001 - India and Iran will "facilitate" U.S. and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban; August 2001 - Taliban warns the U.S. of a huge attack from Osama bin Laden; September 4, 2001 - White House approves plans to invade Afghanistan; October 7, 2001 - U.S. invades Afghanistan)

• July 2001 - U.S. and Italian officials were warned that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations.

"U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations, officials said Wednesday.
Italian officials took the reports seriously enough to prompt extraordinary precautions during the July summit of the Group of 8 nations, including closing the airspace over Genoa and stationing antiaircraft guns at the city's airport.
In either case, the reports suggest that Western governments were aware that terrorists might one day use a hijacked airplane as a suicide weapon--as they did Sept. 11 in attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
An attack on the summit would have endangered not only President Bush, but also British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and others." - Newsday (09/27/01)

• July 2001 - A briefing prepared for senior government officials warns of spectacular attacks by terrorists with little or no warnings.

"In July 2001, the report says, a briefing prepared for senior government officials warned of "a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks. The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties ... (it) will occur with little or no warning." - CNN (09/12/02)

• July 2001 - Armed pilots banned 2 months before 9/11

"A 40-year-old Federal Aviation Administration rule that allowed commercial airline pilots to be armed was inexplicably rescinded two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leading aviation security experts to lay at least some of the blame for the tragedy at the feet of airlines, none of which took advantage of the privilege while it was in effect.
But in July 2001 – just two months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks – the rule was rescinded." - WorldNetDaily (05/16/02)

• July 2001 - Larry Silverstein, owner of the WTC 7, signs a 99-year lease for the rest of the WTC just six weeks before the attacks.

"A private developer little known to the general public, Silverstein signed a 99-year lease for the twin towers just six weeks before the attack.
His lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey remains in place, making Silverstein, 72, a key figure in the rebuilding of the site.
After much behind-closed-doors wrangling over the site's final design, Silverstein and redevelopment officials reached an agreement that leaves in place architect Daniel Libeskind's centerpiece (the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower) but hands the lead role in construction to Silverstein's hand-picked architect, David Childs." - CBS Interactive

"Silverstein leased the center six weeks before it was destroyed by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001." - Washington Times/UPI (12/06/04)

(See also:  April 2001 - The New York Port Authority granted a 99-year lease of the twin towers and four other buildings to Silverstein Properties; 9/11 - Silverstein said smartest thing for WTC 7 was to 'pull it'; September 12, 2001 - WTC hated, money-losers, collapse benefited owners; Killtown's - Was the WTC 7 pulled?)

• July 10, 2001 - FBI agent Kenneth Williams urges the bureau's headquarters in his "Phoenix memo" to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools who are supporters of Osama bin Laden, suggesting the schools could be used for terror operations.

Flight School Memo Named Bin Laden

"A memo by an FBI agent last summer urged the bureau's headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools and named Osama bin Laden, suggesting followers could use the schools for terror operations, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The memorandum said bin Laden's groups might be sending students to the flight schools to place Islamic militants in the civil aviation industry around the world, the report added, citing government officials.” - CBS (05/15/02)

Senators question 'Phoenix memo' author

"The so-called "Phoenix memo," written July 10, 2001, by FBI agent Kenneth Williams, cited supporters of Osama bin Laden "attending civil aviation universities/colleges in Arizona."
The memo apparently never reached the highest levels of the FBI, the CIA or the Justice Department until after September 11.
It states that law enforcement officials began examining questions about Arab students attending U.S. flight schools in April 2000, almost 17 months before the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is under renewed scrutiny amid questions over whether the government missed clues that might have alerted authorities to impending attacks on New York and Washington." - CNN (05/21/02)

- Copy of the "Phoenix memo" at:  thememoryhole.org

(See also:  May 4, 2002 - Agent's "Phoenix memo" warning doesn't reach top gov't departments until after 9/11)

• July 23, 2001 - Suspected Sept. 11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), receives a U.S. visa despite U.S. authorities chasing him since 1994 and a 1996 indictment linking him with earlier terrorist plots.

Qaeda Military Boss Got U.S. Visa Despite Indictment

"The suspected Sept. 11 mastermind received a U.S. visa a few weeks before the attacks despite a 1996 indictment linking him with earlier terrorist plots, but there is no evidence he entered the country, investigators said on Monday.
Members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States also told a public hearing that several of the Sept. 11 hijackers were known al Qaeda operatives, traveled on doctored passports and made false statements on visa applications which could have been detected.
Previously, U.S. official have said that most of the hijackers came into the United States legally on "clean" travel documents.
"KSM, as he is known, obtained a visa to visit the United States on July 23, 2001, about six weeks before the 9/11 attacks," said in a written statement by several commission staff members who spearheaded the investigation.
It quoted FBI director Robert Mueller as testifying that "(e)ach of the hijackers ... came easily and lawfully from abroad" and CIA chief George Tenet as describing 17 of the 19 hijackers as "clean," and said:
"We believe the information we have provided today gives the commission the opportunity to re-evaluate those statements." - ABC (01/26/04) [WayBack Machine]

The Plot; How terrorists hatched a simple plan to use planes as bombs.

"U.S. agents have been chasing the specter of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed since 1994. They've come close to catching him at least twice, but every time he managed to slip away, to stay a step ahead of his pursuers." - LA Times (09/01/02) [Wayback Machine]

(See also:  March 1, 2003 - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is captured; October 12, 2004 - Report: At least 11 Al-Qaida suspects are "missing" in US custody including KSM)

• July 25, 2001 - Talk show host Alex Jones warns of globalist plan to use Osama bin Laden to attack America.

"During the months of July and August 2001, Alex Jones ran a campaign which he dubbed 'Expose the Government Terrorists' on both his TV and radio shows. He encouraged people to call the White House and tell them not to go ahead and launched the staged terror attack that would become the foundation of their push for martial law.
On Wednesday July 25th 2001, during a taping of Alex's local cable access TV show in Austin, Texas, he elaborated on how the Globalists were set to use their operative Osama bin Laden and that the preparations for a terror attack were in their final stages.
Alex didn't have a crystal ball, he merely studied the elite's propaganda and was able to connect the dots and make a prediction that would materialize on September 11, 2001." - Prison Planet

• July - August 2001 - Flight 77 alleged hijacker Majed Moqed was seen in two stores in Maryland's Washington suburbs looking over adult videos and books.

Tracing Trail Of Hijackers
"Moqed apparently visited a nearby adult video store three times between late-July and mid-August, said the store manager, who would not give his name but said he picked Moqed out "immediately" when the FBI showed him the surveillance photo among seven or eight other photos.
"He was extremely uncomfortable," said the manager, who recalled paying attention to Moqed because he wondered whether the man was studying the store for a possible robbery. Moqed visited three times, always between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., the manager said, adding that he looked at magazines and movies but didn't buy anything." - Newsday (12/23/01) [Archived:  Wayback Machine]

Majed Moqed

"Moqed was listed by the Justice Department as a possible Saudi national who used the aliases Majed M. GH Moqed; Majed Mashaan Moqed. No age or recent residence was listed.
Authorities have alleged in court documents that he was one of a number of suspects who obtained a phony identity card in Virginia on Aug. 2 by falsely claiming to be a resident. Witnesses placed Moqed and other suspected hijackers in Maryland between Sept. 2 and 6, where they were seen working out at a gym in Greenbelt. Moqed also was seen in two stores in Maryland's Washington suburbs looking over adult videos and books, although employees say he made no purchases." - MSNBC

(See also:  September 13, 2001 - Student ID of Moqed found at Pentagon, still able to read his name on it)

• August 2001 - After only 8 months on the job, Bush takes a month long "working vacation" in Crawford, TX.

"Bush is spending a month's vacation at his ranch here, bringing with him a retinue of aides, Secret Service agents and the White House press corps.
Bush is on what the White House calls a "working vacation," meeting with senior staff between time spent jogging and fishing on the 1,600-acre ranch." - CNN (08/07/01)

• August 2001 - Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks

"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." - Telegraph (09/16/01)

• August 2001 - Former assistant director of the FBI and an expert on terrorism John O'Neill becomes chief of security at the WTC, but doesn't start until the day before 9/11.

"After contemplating retirement for a year or more, O'Neill took the World Trade Center job with Silverstein Properties in August.
In April, the Port Authority granted a 99-year lease of the twin towers and four other buildings to Silverstein for an estimated $3.2 billion.
The deal -- which allowed Silverstein to manage the complex and collect rent -- was said by the Port Authority to be the most expensive real estate transaction in New York history. - CNN (09/12/01)

"O'Neill, 49, became chief of security at the World Trade Center last month following a 25-year career with the FBI. While with the FBI, O'Neill was in charge of national security in New York..." - Newsday (09/14/01)

"O'Neill had recently retired from the FBI and had just taken over security for the World Trade Center, said New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik in an interview with CNN's Larry King Live.
"That Tuesday was his first or second day on the job," Kerik said." - CNN (09/21/01)

(See also:  1997 - John O'Neill forecasts the possibility of an organized attack and said that terrorists were already operating in the U.S.; September 10, 2001 - John O'Neill starts his first day of work at the WTC; 9/11 - John O'Neill is feared dead on his second day on the job at the WTC; September 21, 2001 - The body of John O'Neill is recovered from the WTC)

• August 2001 - Alleged Flight 77 hijacker and pilot Hani Hanjour pays a traffic ticket 3 weeks before 9/11.

"One of the hijackers aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon was stopped for speeding within a few miles of the military headquarters six weeks before the attack, police confirmed Tuesday.
Hani Hanjour, who is believed to have piloted the hijacked plane into the Pentagon, was ticketed Aug. 1 for driving 55 mph in a 30 mph zone in the 1800 block of South George Mason Drive, Arlington, Va., police said.
Three weeks after the stop, Hanjour mailed in a money order to pay a $70 fine and $30 in court costs, Arlington General District Court Clerk Kimberly Reazey said Tuesday." - The Tech/Washington Post (01/09/02)

• August 2001 - The Taliban warns the U.S. of a huge attack from Osama bin Laden.

"An aide to the former Taleban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, has revealed that he was sent to warn American diplomats and the United Nations that Osama bin Laden was due to launch a huge attack on American soil.
Neither organization heeded the warning, which was given just weeks before the 11 September attacks.
The attack was imminent, he discovered, and it would be huge. Bin Laden hoped to kill thousands of US citizens.
The minister was deeply worried that the US military would react with deadly vengeance against Afghanistan." - BBC (09/07/02)

(See also:  July 2001 - U.S. plans an attack on Osama bin Laden and the Taliban; September 10, 2001 - U.S. OK’d plan to topple the Taliban and expel Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan)

• August 2001 - A Minneapolis FBI supervisor said in a conversation with headquarters that he wanted to prevent suspicious student pilot Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the WTC.

FBI official made pre-9/11 comment linking Moussaoui, World Trade Center

"A Minneapolis FBI supervisor said in a pre-Sept. 11 conversation with headquarters that he wanted to prevent suspicious student pilot Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center, a congressional investigator testified Tuesday.
The supervisor said he had no reason to believe Moussaoui was planning such an attack, but made the remark in a frustrated attempt to convince headquarters that a special search warrant was needed to search Moussaoui's computer, investigator Eleanor Hill told a House-Senate committee investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.
Moussaoui is now accused of conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to commit terrorism, and Hill outlined the Minneapolis FBI's office's repeated and unsuccessful efforts to convince headquarters that he was a possible terrorist.
The supervisor told the committee staff he was "trying to get people at FBI headquarters 'spun up' because he was trying to make sure that Moussaoui 'did not take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center,'" Hill testified.
Hill said the headquarters agent responded, "That's not going to happen. We don't know he's a terrorist. You don't have enough to show he is a terrorist."
The headquarters agent told the investigators he did not recall the conversation." - USA Today (09/24/02)

Letter shifts heat to FBI

"She said supervisors in Washington, and one unidentified supervisory agent in particular, not only failed to respond to potentially important information, but also worked against Minnesota agents who sought search warrants against Zaccarias Moussaoui, a flight student who had been arrested on immigration charges in August. The French-Moroccan is now charged with being part of the al-Qaeda conspiracy that carried out the attacks.
A Minnesota agent who interviewed Moussaoui last August wrote in his notes that Moussaoui, 33, might be interested in flying a jet into the World Trade Center. Despite Minnesota agents' suspicions about Moussaoui — which later were confirmed by French intelligence reports linking him to al-Qaeda — Rowley said FBI headquarters refused to support a search of Moussaoui's laptop computer.
Even after the Sept. 11 attacks had begun, Rowley wrote, "the (supervisory special agent) in question was still attempting to block the search of Moussaoui's computer, characterizing the World Trade Center attacks as a mere coincidence with Minneapolis' prior suspicions." - USA Today (05/28/02)

(See also:  May 21, 2002 - FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley writes Dir. Mueller a letter accuses bosses of ignoring 9/11 warnings and sabotaging investigation attempts)

• August 6, 2001 - In a CIA memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US", drafted the day before the anniversary of the Al Qaeda linked U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, George W. Bush is warned of possible terrorist attacks and plane hijackings in the U.S. from Osama bin Laden, but this revelation isn't made public until May 16, 2002.

"President Bush and his top advisers were informed by the CIA early last August that terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden had discussed the possibility of hijacking airplanes, according to reliable sources.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed that Bush had been told about the possibility of hijackings but he declined to say what had been revealed during his intelligence briefings." - Washington Post (05/16/02)

"White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes, and that information prompted administration officials to issue a private warning to transportation officials and national security agencies." - ABC (05/16/02)

"George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday.
In a top-secret intelligence memo headlined 'Bin Laden determined to strike in the US', the President was told on 6 August that the Saudi-born terrorist hoped to 'bring the fight to America' in retaliation for missile strikes on al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998." - Guardian (05/19/02)

"FBI and CIA officials were advised in August that as many as 200 terrorists were slipping into this country and planning "a major assault on the United States," a high-ranking law enforcement official said Wednesday.
The advisory was passed on by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. It cautioned that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable," the official said." - LA Times (09/20/01)

"The White House acknowledged Wednesday night that U.S. intelligence agents warned President Bush a month before Sept. 11 that Usama bin Laden's terror network might hijack American planes, but officials said the president had no way of knowing that they would use the planes as missiles for suicide attacks on American landmarks." - FOX/AP (05/16/02)

• Full text of the Aug. 6, 2001 memo:

"Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004
Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives." - Washington Post (04/10/04)

(See also:  June 2001 - Convicted terrorist provided US officials with very specific info about a terrorist attack, info was used in Aug 6 memo; May 16, 2002 - News comes out that the Bush Administration received warnings about terrorist attacks and plane hijackings by Osama Bin Laden; April 10, 2004 - The White House releases the August 6th memo)

• August 7, 2001 -  The third anniversary of the U.S. embassy bombings which were linked to Osama Bin Ladin's Al Qaeda network.

"On August 7, 1998, the United States embassies in the East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya were severely damaged in nearly simultaneous truck bomb attacks. The bombings killed 213 people in Nairobi and a dozen in Dar es Salaam. An estimated 4000 were injured in the Kenyan capital and 85 in Dar es Salaam. Almost all of the victims were African civilians, as well as several US diplomats.
The attacks were linked to local members of the al Qaeda terrorist network, headed by Osama bin Laden. It was this terrorist incident that first brought Bin Laden and Al Qaeda to international notoriety, and led to the FBI's placing him on the agency's Ten Most Wanted List.
While the attacks were aimed at Americans, the vast majority of the victims were Africans: twelve Americans (in Nairobi) and 32 Kenyan and eight Tanzanian Embassy employees were killed. The remainder of the dead were visitors, passers-by, or people in neighboring buildings: the Nairobi embassy lay in a busy downtown location, although that in Dar es Salaam was remoter from the city centre.
In response to these bombings, on August 20 1998, U.S. President Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on targets in Sudan and Afghanistan." - Wikipedia

• August 15, 2001 - A flight instructor warns the FBI about a student (who claims to be Zacarias Moussaoui) when the student becomes belligerent and evasive about his background when the instructor starts speaking to him in French after the student said he was from France, but doesn't seem to understand French even though the real Moussaoui speaks fluent French and the student also causes suspicion with the instructor when he told him he wasn't fluent in French, didn't live in France long, and that he was from "the Middle East" instead of identifying a specific country.

"When a Twin Cities flight instructor phoned the FBI last August to alert the agency that a terrorist might be taking lessons to fly a jumbo jet, he did it in a dramatic way:
"Do you realize how serious this is?" the instructor asked an FBI agent. "This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!"
The aviation student he was talking about was Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested the following day and last week was charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
The still-unidentified flight instructor became wary of Moussaoui immediately, according to Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar and others with direct knowledge of the briefings.
Moussaoui first raised eyebrows when, during a simple introductory exchange, he said he was from France, but then didn't seem to understand when the instructor spoke French to him.
Moussaoui then became belligerent and evasive about his background, Oberstar and other sources said. In addition, he seemed inept in basic flying procedures, while seeking expensive training on an advanced commercial jet simulator.
Oberstar said the flight instructor, a retired military pilot, grew suspicious after he began speaking French to Moussaoui. Oberstar said Moussaoui seemed not to understand, said he wasn't fluent in French, didn't live in France long and added: "I'm from the Middle East."
The instructor found it odd that Moussaoui said he was from the Middle East, rather than identifying a country, Oberstar said. When the instructor inquired further, Moussaoui grew belligerent, several sources said.
It was not clear whether Moussaoui, who was born in France and attended French schools as a youth, did not understand French or merely chose not to speak it.
Over the next three days, Moussaoui seemed to his instructor to be uncoordinated and showed little ability to follow the lessons, several sources said. The instructor "tried to tell him he was wasting his money," one source said, but Moussaoui persisted.
The instructor made three more calls before reaching the right agent on Aug. 15, the sources said. Moussaoui was arrested the next day and held on an immigration violation.
When FBI agents in Minneapolis finally obtained a warrant after the Sept. 11 attacks, they found voluminous information on crop-dusting planes on Moussaoui's computer hard drive, similar to material gathered by the hijackers' ringleader, Mohamed Atta, the indictment said." - Star Tribune (12/21/01) [Reprinted at:  911truth.org Reading Room]

"El Wafi and Roux also planned to set up an appointment Friday with the French Embassy. Her son has refused any assistance from the embassy. Moussaoui was being held at an undisclosed location in Virginia.
El Wafi, who spoke French at the news conference, said she was concerned that her son does not speak any English and cannot understand the charges against him.
She questioned whether he could get a fair trial in the United States and preferred that he be tried in France.
"I think it's better because he's French, he was born in France, he speaks in French, he was educated in France. I prefer he get his legal papers in French so he can understand why he's being accused," El Wafi said." - CNN (12/27/01)

"El-Wafi said her son spoke limited English but had not mastered the language and would need a French translator during his court hearings.
"His case should be translated into French, he was born in France, and he has the right to understand the accusations and what he's being reproached for. You can't accept or deny the accusations if you don't know what they are,'' she said.
Before the indictment, Moussaoui said he was innocent, a position repeated by his lawyer Donald DuBoulay days later.
El-Wafi and her lawyer Francois Roux were waiting to hear whether their request to see Moussaoui would be granted by U.S. authorities. They said they had asked French diplomats for help in arranging a meeting." - New York Times/Reuters (12/27/01) [Reprinted at:  Crime Lynx]

(See also:  August 16, 2001 - Moussaoui is arrested by the FBI for an immigration violation; To date, Moussaoui is the only person charged in the U.S. charged in connection with 9/11)

• Side note - The widely rumored remark about how the terrorists only wanting to "learn how to fly in flight and not wanting to learn how to takeoff or land" was only attributed to Moussaoui and has been denied that he wanted to do that by an individual familiar with his case.

"A person familiar with the briefings said Pan Am denies the most widely reported remark attributed to Moussaoui: that he wanted only to learn to operate the aircraft in flight, and did not need takeoff or landing instructions." - Star Tribune (12/21/01) [Reprinted at:  911truth.org Reading Room]

• August 16, 2001 - Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested by the FBI in Minnesota and charged with an immigration violation.

"Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested by the FBI in Minnesota and charged with an immigration violation. Agents fear his flight training may have violent intentions. The agency's Minnesota bureau tries to get permission to search his laptop computer, but is turned down. Moussaoui had the following items in his possession when he was detained: Two knives, flight manuals for Boeing 747, flight simulator computer program, fighting gloves and shin guards, a piece of paper referring to Global Positioning System, a notebook listing phone numbers in Germany for "Ahad Sabet," computer disk with information about crop-dusting." - CNN (08/16/01)

- More details:  CNN Timeline: The Case Against Zacarias Moussaoui

(See also:  August 2001 - FBI supervisor said in conversation with headquarters he wanted to prevent Moussaoui from flying into the WTC; August 15, 2001 - A flight instructor warns FBI about a student (who claims to be Moussaoui); December 11, 2001 - Moussaoui indicted for 9/11)

• August 17, 2001? - U.S. Ignored Warnings From French

"A key point in unraveling why the FBI failed to follow up leads on Al Qaeda terrorism now centers on the Bureau's contemptuously brushing aside warnings from French intelligence a few days before 9-11. In a footnote to her May 21, 2002, letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, Coleen Rowley, the director of the FBI's Minneapolis office, cryptically alluded to the FBI supervising agent in Washington being given info on the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, by the French last summer, but choosing not to act on it.
French officials were long known to have been frustrated with Washington's neglect.
"Their discussion turned to some of the serious threats made against American interests in Europe, specifically one targeting the U.S. Embassy in Paris," Le Monde continued. "During these talks, the DST directed the American visitors' attention to a Moroccan-born Frenchman who had been detained in the United States since August 17 and who was considered to be a key high-level Islamic fundamentalist. But the American delegation, preoccupied above all with questions of administrative procedure, paid no attention to this 'first alarm,' basically concluding that they were going to take no one's advice, and that an attack on American soil was inconceivable. It took September 11 for the FBI to show any real interest in this man, who we now know attended two aviation training schools, as did at least seven of the kamikaze terrorists."
In her report, Rowley presents a picture of an agency asleep at the wheel." - Village Voice (05/28/02)

• August 22, 2001 - U.S. forces begin participating in a joint multinational peacekeeping exercise in Argentina until Sept.11.

"The Department of Defense announced today that U.S. special operations forces assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, NC and Special Operations Command-South, Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, will participate in "Cabanas 2001," a joint multinational peacekeeping exercise in Salta, Argentina, from Aug. 22 through Sept. 11, 2001.
Cabanas 2001, sponsored by the headquarters, United States Southern Command, Miami, Fla., and hosted by Argentina will involve about 400 U.S. airmen, sailors and soldiers. More than 700 military personnel from the host nation, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay will participate, while Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela will send observers." - DoD (08/21/01)

• August 25, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force successfully auto lands a pilot-less FedEx Boeing 727 six times at Holloman AFB, NM using a military GPS landing system that will enable ground control to take control of a hijacked airplane and force land it.

(TRANSLATED):  "A forced landing system developed in the USA will make plane hijackings more difficult: in case of emergency the crew operates a switch - and the machine steers automatically to the next airport.
The times for an airplane kidnapper are becoming harder: in America engineers are working to land kidnapped machines in the future by an improved autopilot without assistance of the cockpit on the nearest airport - an emergency switch, that a ground control operates crew; the levers in the airplane are then blocked and the kidnappers can no longer control the plane from the hand controls.
According to a recent news release, technicians of US aviation and arms company Raytheon already in August landed a passenger aircraft six times successfully on the military airport at Holloman, New Mexico. The plane was equipped with a special forced landing system without any pilots.
The Boeing 727 oriented itself not, as usual, with the radar signals at the end of the runway, but by a combination of GPS satellite and ground signals, which help, to exactly compute the altitude ­ and thus the necessary angle of approach ­ with deviation no greater than one meter." - Der Spiegel (10/28/01) [Reprinted and translated at:  Cooperative Research]

"A government-industry team accomplished the first precision approach by a civil aircraft using a military Global Positioning System (GPS) landing system Aug. 25 at Holloman AFB, N.M., Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) announced today.
A FedEx Express 727-200 Aircraft equipped with a Rockwell-Collins GNLU-930 Multi-Mode Receiver landed using a Raytheon-developed military ground station. Raytheon designed and developed the differential GPS ground station under an Air Force contract for the Joint Precision Approach and Landings System (JPALS) program. The JPALS system is being developed to meet the Defense Department's need for an anti-jam, secure, all weather Category II/III aircraft landing system that will be fully interoperable with planned civil systems utilizing the same technology. Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force have been conducting extensive flight testing for JPALS at Holloman over the last three months.
The FedEx Express 727-200 aircraft at Holloman successfully conducted a total of sixteen Category I approaches. After completing a number of pilot flown approaches for reference the aircraft conducted six full autolands using the JPALS ground station. "The consistency of the approaches allowed us to proceed to actual autolandings with very little delay," said Steve Kuhar, Senior Technical Advisor Flight Department for FedEx Express. The aircraft was guided by differential GPS corrections, integrity information, and precision approach path points transmitted from the Raytheon developed JPALS ground station. Although the approaches were restricted to Category I, accuracies sufficient to meet Cat II/III requirements were observed.
Raytheon is the world leader in designing and building satellite-based navigation and landing solutions for civil and military applications. In addition to developing JPALS for the Department of Defense, Raytheon is also developing both the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) and the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) for the Federal Aviation Administration. The JPALS and LAAS will provide an interoperable landing capability for military and civil applications." - PR Newswire/Raytheon (10/01/01)  [Also:  Space Daily; Microcom's Space Newsfeed]

"The current flight testing was a continuation of Raytheon's LAAS ground station test program which also included flight tests in August 2001 with a FedEx Express Boeing 727-200 aircraft equipped with a Rockwell-Collins GNLU-930 MMR with GLS software. During those tests, civil-military interoperability of LAAS was demonstrated with Raytheon's civil LAAS ground station in Salt Lake City, and its military joint precision approach and landing system (JPALS) ground station at Holloman AFB in Alamagordo, N.M." - Raytheon (02/21/02)

"Rockwell Collins has successfully completed light tests of the industry’s first Microwave Landing System (MLS) receiver fully integrated in a Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR). Technical Standard Order approval for the Rockwell Collins MMR is expected in the first quarter of next year. Initial production deliveries will be made to the United States Air Force to meet their MLS requirements.
The flight tests included more than 100 MLS approaches at twelve airports in the United States and Europe equipped with military and commercial MLS ground stations from four providers. The results demonstrated the Category IIIb capabilities of the MMR’s integrated MLS module. The flights were conducted with U.S. Federal Aviation Authority and European Civil Aviation Authority oversight, and with cooperation of National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands.
In addition to the MLS Cat IIIb demonstration, Rockwell Collins recently demonstrated GPS Landing System (GLS) Cat I capability at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. " - Rockwell Collins (11/01/01)

(See also:  December 1, 1984 - NASA Dryden experiment flew a Boeing 720 via remote control; 1994 - NASA test involved 110 landings of a Boeing 737 airliner using GPS navigation; September 6, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force demonstrate new technology aircraft precision approach and landing system; September 10, 2001 - Wife of David Kovalcin said her husband woke her up in the middle of the night complaining he couldn't sleep and that he seemed "very distressed" but she didn't know why; 9/11 - Five Raytheon employees are on three of the four hijacked planes)

• September 2001 - 25,000 British troops arrive in Oman for Operation Swift Sword II, the largest British military exercise planned a year ago, and after 9/11 happens, they will help the U.S. in any military operation in Afghanistan if needed.

"The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, announced yesterday that the largest British military exercise undertaken since the Strategic Defence Review will take place in Oman next year.
Over 20,000 British service personnel will take part in Exercise “Saif Sareea II” (Swift Sword II), next Autumn, in Oman, where they will demonstrate the concept of Joint Rapid Reaction Forces." - Ministry of Defense UK (11/08/00)

"In September 2001 an invading enemy force will be repulsed from the Gulf state of Oman.
Not a prediction of doom for the inhabitants of the eastern reaches of the Arabian peninsula, but plans for Operation Swift Sword - the biggest British overseas military exercise in living memory.
The six -week joint military exercises will involve the entire armed forces of Oman and 25,000 personnel from Britain's army, navy and air force.
The Gulf war games are expected to include a British army division, 100 Royal Air Force aircraft and 30 Royal Navy ships." - BBC (11/07/01)

"THE aircraft carrier Illustrious, the command centre for any British military strike against Afghanistan, arrived in the Omani port of Salalah yesterday with elements of Britain's biggest naval deployment since the Falklands war.
Parts of this task force would form the British contribution to any United States offensive. In the meantime, it is playing a leading role in the Saif Sareea 2 (Swift Sword 2) military exercise in Oman.
Rear Admiral James Burnell-Nugent, commander of the naval force of 24 ships and two hunter killer nuclear submarines, said it was ready to carry out any orders issued by the Government to join a strike against the training camps of Osama bin Laden." - Telegraph (10/01/01)

(See also:  October 8, 2001 - Operation Bright Star)

• September 2001? - A force protection exercise for the Fort Myer Military Community (FMMC) that  was scheduled the week after 9/11 is cancelled.

FMMC firefighters respond to terrorist action at Pentagon

"A force protection exercise scheduled for FMMC next week had been cancelled, and some of its participants were breathing a sigh of relief. And then it happened. Hijacked commercial airplanes were deliberately flown into New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington County Tuesday morning in the worst act of terrorism the United States has ever experienced." - DC Military (09/14/01)

(See also:  April 23, 2001 - Fort Myer conducts a "Force Protection Exercise", September 5, 2001 - Fort Myer and McNair implement "full access control")

• September 3, 2001 - Salman Rushdie 'given US air ban week before terrorist attacks'

"Salman Rushdie says US authorities banned him from taking internal flights a week before the terrorist attacks.
He thinks officials were aware of an imminent terrorist strike.
He says the Federal Aviation Authority told his publisher it had intelligence of something about to happen.
The author told The Times the FAA banned him from internal flights in the US and Canada on September 3, unless airlines complied with extra security measures.
He says the airlines weren't willing to upgrade their security.
According to the newspaper, the FAA has confirmed it stepped up security levels relating to Rushdie, but that it refused to give further details." - Ananova (09/27/01)

• September 4, 2001 - The White House approves plans to invade Afghanistan.

Finger-Pointing On Anti-Terror Plan

"An official said one such plan was drafted during the early days of the Bush administration, but was only ready for presentation to the president on Sept. 10, a day before the attacks.
Top Bush administration officials approved what McCormack called the "comprehensive strategy to eliminate al Qaeda" exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks." - CBS (08/05/01)

War not realistic option before 9/11

"Secretary of State Colin Powell testified Tuesday that the option of an invasion was not seriously considered until a week before the Sept. 11 attacks, when Bush's senior foreign policy advisers approved a detailed counterterrorism strategy." - USA Today (03/23/04)

(See also:  July 2001 - US plans an attack on OBL and the Taliban for the middle of October; September 10, 2001 - White House's Afghan invasion plan awaits Bush's approval)

• September 4, 2001 - Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co., partially owned by the Israeli government, moves out of the 16th floor of the WTC.

Shipping line opens headquarters in Norfolk, Zim-American sets up North American shop
"Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co.'s new North American headquarters opens for business today in the Lake Wright Executive Center.
Zim, the world's ninth-largest shipping line, moved here from the World Trade Center in Manhattan to tap into the lower cost of doing business in Hampton Roads.
The company's new $6.2 million building, built by the Gee's Group, will eventually be home base for 235 employees." - Virginian-Pilot, Ledger-Star/Gees Group (09/04/01) [See also:  cooperativeresearch.org]

Hunter retained for Staten Island office project - for Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co

"Serving as Owner's Representative for Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co., which included the relocation of 250 people on Sept. 5 from the 16th floor of the World Trade Center to newly built headquarters in Norfolk, VA, Hunter Management has now been retained to implement the build-out of a 5,000-SF office in Staten Island for the 35 staff members who remained in the New York offices and escaped the Sept. 11 attack, announces James Pirot, principal of Hunter Management Corp.
The New York staff, which comprises the shipping company's Northern District Sales & Marketing Department, will move into its new offices at the Nicotra Group Development Complex in Staten Island in early January 2002. The department was originally slated to occupy a portion of Zim-American's 45,000-SF office at the World Trade Center, and the balance of the space was to be subleased.
Since the attack, the group has been located in the company's Elizabeth, N.J. offices.
Zim-American has taken a ten-year lease at the Staten Island office, which was negotiated by Hunter Management." - Real Estate Weekly/Find Article (11/14/01)

"Zim was incorporated in 1945 by the Jewish Agency, the 'Histadrut' Labor Federation and the Israel Maritime League.

In 1949 alone, Zim ships brought 100,000 immigrants to Israel.

In Israel, Zim became a household name, with its ships featured in children's books, in songs, and in film.

In 1969, the Israel Corporation acquired about half of Zim shares. The Israeli government and other, smaller, investors held the rest.
In April 1999, the Ofer Brothers Group became the major shareholder of the Israel Corporation, and Udi Angel was appointed Chairman of the Board of Zim.
In February 2004 the privatization of the company was completed with the purchase of the government shares by the Israel Corporation." - ZIM

Who Knew?  Israeli Company Mum About WTC Pullout - American Free Press

(See also:  9/11 - Workers at Israeli messaging company get text warnings about attacks 2 hours prior)

• September 5, 2001 - U.S. pulls the plug on Muslim websites.

US pulls the plug on Muslim websites

"Five hundred websites - many of them with an Arab or Muslim connection - crashed last Wednesday when an anti-terrorism taskforce raided InfoCom Corporation in Texas.
The 80-strong taskforce that descended upon the IT company included FBI agents, Secret Service agents, Diplomatic Security agents, tax inspectors, immigration officials, customs officials, department of commerce officials and computer experts." - Guardian (09/10/01)

FBI accused of anti-Muslim bias

"Muslim leaders have accused the FBI of conducting an "anti-Muslim witch hunt" following a raid on the Texas offices of a Middle East internet service provider.
An 80-strong US terrorism task force searched the Texas offices of Infocom Corporation on Wednesday and Thursday.
The company is host to a number of Arabic websites, including that of the Arab world's leading independent television news channel.
"American Muslims view the action as just one of a long list of attempts by the pro-Israel lobby to intimidate and silence all those who wish to see Palestinian Muslims and Christians free themselves of a brutal apartheid-like occupation," said a statement by a coalition of Muslim groups.

Infocom said the raid resulted in a temporary shutdown of websites it hosted for about 500 customers, including that run by Al-Jazeera television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both based in the Gulf state of Qatar.
A lawyer for Infocom said the company had no links to terrorist groups and was co-operating with the FBI.

Muslim leaders have rallied around Infocom. In a statement, several American Islamic groups condemned the search as "an anti-Muslim witch hunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America"." - BBC (09/07/01)

FBI Agents Raid Muslim-Owned Internet Company

"Anti-terrorism agents" from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other federal law enforcement agencies, continued Thursday to search the offices of the Muslim-owned InfoCom Corporation, a Texas-based Internet service provider, after raiding its offices early Wednesday morning without any explanation.

InfoCom hosts more than 500 web sites worldwide, both in the Middle East and in the United States, according to a media advisory from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The company hosts a web portal that services the Middle East, and the FBI search resulted in disruption of satellite television service in the United Arab Emirates, according to reports from Dubai.
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television, a popular and world renowned Arabic news source, has been frequently criticized by Israel for its reporting on the Middle East conflict, according to CAIR's advisory.

Among the domestic web sites whose servers are currently blocked as the "investigation" continues are those of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), whose annual conference took place in Chicago this past weekend, and CAIR's southwest office, as well as its e-mail listserv service, which the organization moved to another server.
The website of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) was also affected." - Islam Online (09/06/01)

• September 5, 2001 - Forts Myer and McNair, just miles from the Pentagon, implement "full access control" which will increase military police surveillance of those who enter the installations and will let commanders know who is entering the installation 24 hours a day.

Forts Myer, McNair to implement access plan

"Forts Myer and McNair will implement full access control on Sept. 5, which will increase military police surveillance of those who enter the installations.

The measures being taken throughout the Army will let commanders know who is entering the installation 24 hours a day and provide commanders the capability to adjust security measures immediately as needed." - MDW (08/03/01)

(See also:  September 2001 - Force protection exercise at Fort Myer scheduled week after 9/11 is cancelled;  9/11 - A training exercise in "airport emergency operations" is being conducted at Fort Myer)

• September 5, 2001 - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asks the Senate to approve the DoD's 2002 budget request -- the largest defense spending increase since the mid 80's -- and talks about the importance of U.S. homeland defense, warns about the threats of terrorism and missile attacks, and later reports that he is confident that his budget request will pass.

"Rumsfeld asked the senators to approve DoD's fiscal 2002 budget request so the department can reverse the effects of a decade of "overuse and underfunding" and to fund the transformation of the military to combat the threats of the 21st century.
The 2002 request is the largest increase in defense spending since the mid-1980s.
Rumsfeld told the senators DoD's priorities in the budget. "As we prepare for the new challenges … certainly U.S. homeland defense takes on an increasing importance," he said. Asymmetric threats are the more likely threats in the period ahead, he said. These threats include terrorism, attacks by cruise missiles, ballistic missile threats and cyberattacks, and DoD must address these issues.
"The proliferation of weapons with increasing range and power in the hands of multiple potential adversaries means that the coming years will see an expansion of the risks to U.S. population centers as well as our allies and friends," Rumsfeld said. "We will face new threats. Today we're vulnerable to missile attack. That's a fact."  - DoD (09/06/01)

"Rumsfeld spoke to reporters in the Pentagon Sept. 6, a day after presenting budget testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense. DoD has requested an $18.4 billion increase over the president's proposed fiscal 2002 budget.
"When push comes to shove, the Congress and the American people tend to use good judgment about national security issues," he said. "I have every confidence that we'll end up with our budget." - DoD (09/07/01)

(See also:  September 2000 - PNAC advocates major US military budget increases, but won't think it will happen without a catastrophic event like a 'new Pearl Harbor'; June 27, 2001 - '02 defense budget request is a $37.8 billion or 11.5% increase from last years)

• September 5, 2001 - Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies before the Senate about military readiness.

"In what may have been his last appearance before the Senate, the nation's top uniformed leader said that while the U.S. military is the best in the world, the country cannot become complacent.
Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Sept. 5 before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. He retires Sept. 30.
He told the lawmakers he has learned three lessons in 38 years as a soldier. "The first is, that in this noble profession of arms, there simply is no substitute for being ready when the nation calls," he said.
His second lesson is that the military is about people, and the third is the military must be ready for the threats of tomorrow while countering the threats of today.
"If we should have to fight tomorrow, I'm confident that our front-line troops are trained and ready," he told the senators. "However, it is important to note that many other operational units are not as ready." These latter, he said, include the U.S. strategic airlift fleet, intelligence capabilities, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, and the training bases." - DoD (09/06/01)

• September 5, 2001 - Two or three of the alleged 9/11 hijackers go gambling on a SunCruz Casino boat.

Hijackers linked to local cruise

"Employees on a SunCruz gambling ship that sails from John's Pass think some of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were gambling on the ship the week before the attacks.
The FBI is investigating. SunCruz Casinos has turned over security videotapes and documents to FBI investigators.
Two or three men linked to the hijackings may have been customers on the SunCruz ship that is based at John's Pass, said Michael Hlavsa, chairman of the gambling cruise company.
The FBI has not confirmed the men's identities, and the cruise line is declining to identify the men being investigated. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
Hlavsa said that in the days after the attack, cruise employees said they recognized some of the hijacking suspects as former customers.
One name on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise is the same as one of the suspected terrorists' names, Hlavsa said. A cash advance was taken out on that passenger's credit card, he said.
"They acted just like normal guests of ours and they were courteous," he said. "There were no issues."
The ship's extensive security systems, which are in place to protect its gaming operations and customers, may help the FBI confirm the men's identifies, Hlavsa said.
The cruise line also is giving the FBI a videotape from a Port Canaveral ship of a former customer that a casino manager thinks resembles one of the terrorists." - St Petersburg Times (09/27/01)

Justice Dept. releases photos of suspected hijackers

"In Florida, Michael Hlavsa, chairman of SunCruz Casinos gambling cruise company, said two or three men linked to the hijackings may have been customers on a ship that sailed from Madeira Beach. One name on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise was the same as one of the suspected terrorists, Hlavsa said. SunCruz Casinos turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers." - USA Today (09/27/01)

Scotland Yard Says Hijackers May Have Trained in Britain

"SunCruz Casinos LLC has turned over to the FBI surveillance pictures and other records from two Florida gambling cruises on Sept. 5. In both cases, a company official said, there was a passenger who looked similar to one of the hijackers, and the name given by the passenger was either the same or similar to the hijacker's name." - Washington Post (09/27/01)

• September 6, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force demonstrate new technology aircraft precision approach and landing system

"Raytheon Company and the U.S. Air Force have successfully completed the initial phase of flight testing of a system that provides accurate and reliable landing guidance for both rotary and fixed wing aircraft during low visibility (Category I and II) approaches.
The system, known as the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System, or JPALS, works with the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation. JPALS is a joint Department of Defense (DoD) development to provide an all weather, all mission, all user capability for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army and Marine Corps.
The flight testing, which took place at Holloman AFB, N.M., employed a Raytheon- developed JPALS demonstration system based on local area differential GPS technology." - Raytheon (09/06/01)

(See also:  August 25, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force force lands a Boeing 727 in a anti-hijacking experiment; September 10, 2001 - Wife of David Kovalcin said her husband woke her up in the middle of the night complaining he couldn't sleep and that he seemed "very distressed" but she didn't know why; 9/11 - Five Raytheon employees are on three of the four hijacked planes)

• September 6, 2001 - A two week heightened security alert at the WTC is lifted and bomb-sniffing dogs there were abruptly removed and officials had recently taken steps to secure the towers against "aerial attacks" by installing bulletproof windows and fireproof doors in the 22nd-floor computer command center.

"The World Trade Center was destroyed just days after a heightened security alert was lifted at the landmark 110-story towers, security personnel said yesterday.
Daria Coard, 37, a guard at Tower One, said the security detail had been working 12-hour shifts for the past two weeks because of numerous phone threats. But on Thursday, bomb-sniffing dogs were abruptly removed.
"Today was the first day there was not the extra security," Coard said. "We were protecting below. We had the ground covered. We didn't figure they would do it with planes. There is no way anyone could have stopped that."
Security guard Hermina Jones said officials had recently taken steps to secure the towers against aerial attacks by installing bulletproof windows and fireproof doors in the 22nd-floor computer command center." - Newsday (09/12/01)

(See also:  September 12, 2001 - WTC tenant says weeks before the attacks they had an "unusual" amount of evacuations and says he thinks "they had an inkling something was going on.")

• September 6, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on United Airlines stock betting that the stock price would fall.

"Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors -- whose identities and nationalities have not been made public -- had advance knowledge of the strikes.  Authorities here and abroad have not publicly disclosed any conclusions they have reached and refuse to discuss the case.
Other financial professionals have told The Chronicle that an estimated $5 million to $10 million in all could have been made on the trades, including trading on other days and purchases of options on the parent company of American, AMR Corp. Four United and American aircraft crashed in the attacks.
The money was made on Sept. 6, 7 and 10 in transactions involving United, American, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co., the center said. Morgan Stanley occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center; Merrill Lynch's headquarters offices were nearby.
The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of the options. Rohini Pragasam, a bank spokeswoman, declined comment." - San Francisco Chronicle (09/29/01)

"Securities regulators around the world are investigating whether the terrorists involved in last week's attack profited in financial markets, possibly by buying options on the stock of United Airlines, Boeing, American Airlines and other companies in the knowledge that prices would fall.
On Sept. 6, put volume on United Airlines was 3,150, more than four times its average daily put volume this year, according to data from the Options Clearing Corp. Put volume for Boeing on Sept. 7 totaled 27,294, more than five times its average daily put volume this year.
The insurance industry, also expected to be hard hit by the effects of the terrorist attacks, saw similar plays on its put options. Citigroup, which has a large insurance arm, and insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. experienced extraordinarily high put volumes just days before the attacks." - Chicago Tribune (09/19/01)

"Claim: In the days just prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, unusually large quantities of stock in United and American Airlines were shorted.
Status: True." - Snopes.com (10/03/01)

- More news articles on 9/11 insider trading at:  9/11 Truth.org's Reading Room

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Put options placed on United Airlines were purchased through Bank formally ran by the No. 3 CIA man, "Buzzy" Krongard; September 7, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on Boeing stock; September 10, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on American Airlines stock; July 22, 2004 - SEC say no evidence anyone who had advance knowledge of 9/11 traded on basis of that information)

• September 6, 2001 - Some of the put options placed on United Airlines stock were purchased through the investment banking firm of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in which the current Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, used to be the company's CEO up until 1998.

"Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of the options. Rohini Pragasam, a bank spokeswoman, declined comment." - San Francisco Chronicle (09/29/01)

"Share speculators have failed to collect $2.5m (£1.7m) in profits made from the fall in the share price of United Airlines after the 11 September World Trade Centre attacks.  The fact that the money is unclaimed more than a month later has re-awakened investigators' interest in a story dismissed as coincidence.
It may be that investors who were able to predict the share price crash so skillfully are reluctant to be seen profiting from tragedy. But investigators now wonder whether there is a more sinister explanation.
To the embarrassment of investigators, it has also emerged that the firm used to buy many of the "put" options – where a trader, in effect, bets on a share price fall – on United Airlines stock was headed until 1998 by "Buzzy" Krongard, now executive director of the CIA.
Until 1997, Mr Krongard was chairman of Alex Brown Inc, America's oldest investment banking firm. Alex Brown was acquired by Bankers Trust, which in turn was bought by Deutsche Bank. His last post before resigning to take his senior role in the CIA was to head Bankers Trust – Alex Brown's private client business, dealing with the accounts and investments of wealthy customers around the world.
There is no suggestion that Mr Krongard had advance knowledge of the attacks.
It was not just airlines that were targeted by remarkably canny investors. One of the biggest occupants of the World Trade Centre was Morgan Stanley, the investment bank. In the first week of September, an average of 27 put option contracts was bought each day in its shares. The total for the three days before the attacks was 2,157. Merrill Lynch, another WTC tenant, saw 12,215 put options bought in the four days before the attacks, when the previous days had seen averages of 252 contracts a day." - The Independent (10/14/01) [Reprinted at:  Prison Planet]

"The Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), George J. Tenet, announced today the appointment of A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard to serve as Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The Executive Director is the third ranking position within the CIA and the incumbent functions essentially as the Chief Operating Officer of the Agency. For the past three years Mr. Krongard has served as Counselor to the DCI.
A longtime consultant to DCIs, Mr. Krongard joined the Agency full time in February, 1998 following an extraordinary 29-year business career. During his private sector career he served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Alex. Brown Incorporated, the nation’s oldest investment banking firm, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust.
Mr. Krongard received an A.B. degree with honors from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law. He served three years of active duty as an infantry officer with the United States Marine Corps.
Mr. Krongard will succeed David W. Carey. Mr. Carey has been Executive Director since July, 1997...
Mr. Krongard will assume his new duties effective Monday March 26, 2001." - CIA (03/16/01)

"A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard was appointed Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on March 26, 2001. From February 1998 until March 2001, Mr. Krongard served as Counselor to the Director of Central Intelligence.
Mr. Krongard had previously worked in various capacities at Alex. Brown Incorporated, the nation’s oldest investment banking firm. In 1991 he was elected as Chief Executive Officer and assumed the additional duties of Chairman of the Board in 1994. Upon the merger of Alex. Brown with Bankers Trust Corporation in September 1997, Mr. Krongard became Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust and served in such capacity until joining CIA.
Mr. Krongard was involved in many industry and community activities. He served as Chairman of the Securities Industry Association in 1996 and was named the outstanding executive in the financial services industry in 1995 and 1996 by Financial World." - CIA (03/26/01) [Reprinted at: NewsMine]

"A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard '58 once punched a great white shark in the head on a bet. He practices lethal martial arts with an intensity that is frightening. And the only guns he collects are ones he can use.
...at 61, Krongard signed on with the company -- the CIA. That's right. The Central Intelligence Agency. Spooks. Classified briefings. Krongard has left behind high finance to jet around the world clandestinely as counselor to CIA Director George Tenet. The CIA created the job for him.
Colleagues and family say they're not surprised Krongard chose a second career in the perilous world of international espionage. He's a former Marine with an outspoken nogutsnoglory persona that made him stand out among the reserved, grayflanneled ranks of investment bankers.
Some intelligence experts say Krongard might be just what the CIA needs now. He earned a reputation for being brutally honest while building Baltimore brokerage Alex. Brown into a respected Wall Street player before Bankers Trust bought it in 1997.
Krongard is a larger-than-life character whose words often beg to be accompanied by the Marine anthem. Friends say he exudes a stormthebeach brand of patriotism.
Krongard's business experience began 36 years ago when he went to work for his father-inlaw's label and patch company in Baltimore after a threeyear stint in the Marines. He got hooked on the art -- and adrenaline -- of dealmaking when negotiating the sale of the company. He knew finance was for him. In 1971, he joined what was then called Alex. Brown & Sons as a finance associate. Under Krongard's leadership as CEO at Alex. Brown, the firm was transformed from a regional brokerage into a Wall Street force, all the while remaining headquartered in Krongard's native Baltimore. Between 1992 and 1996, the firm's revenue grew from $445 million to more than $1 billion. The firm also became a leader in underwriting initial public offerings, a lucrative business that made Alex. Brown an attractive target for Bankers Trust. The bank bought the firm for $1.7 billion last year, and the deal left Krongard with $71 million in Bankers Trust stock. In his last year at the firm, Krongard made $4 million in salary and bonus." - Princeton Class Notes (11/04/98)

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on United Airlines stock; January 9, 2005 - Let bin Laden stay free, says ex-No. 3 CIA man "Buzzy" Krongard)

• September 7, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on Boeing stock betting that the stock price would fall.

"Securities regulators around the world are investigating whether the terrorists involved in last week's attack profited in financial markets, possibly by buying options on the stock of United Airlines, Boeing, American Airlines and other companies in the knowledge that prices would fall.
Put volume for Boeing on Sept. 7 totaled 27,294, more than five times its average daily put volume this year." - Chicago Tribune (09/19/01)

- More news articles on 9/11 insider trading at:  9/11 Truth.org's Reading Room

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on United Airlines stock; September 10, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on American Airlines stock)

• September 7, 2001 - The State Department issues a worldwide alert warning that American citizens may be the target of a terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda.

"Most recently, on Friday, Sept. 7, the State Department issued a worldwide alert warning "American citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to [Osama bin Laden's] al Qaeda organization."
That report cited information gathered in May that suggested an attack somewhere was imminent. It warned that individuals in al Qaeda "have not distinguished between official and civilian targets." - ABC (09/15/01)

• September 7, 2001 - Jeb Bush signs a two year Florida executive emergency order four days before attacks.

EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 01-261
"WHEREAS, the Florida National Guard has the statutory responsibility to provide support to law-enforcement personnel and emergency-management personnel in the event of civil disturbances or natural disasters;" Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida (09/07/01) - MyFlorida.com

Florida under martial law?  Rumors persist despite official denial from Jeb Bush administration
WHO KNEW? Jeb Bush signed Florida TWO YEAR emergency order 4 days BEFORE ATTACK

"Those words, as frightening as they are shocking, headlined one of several Internet articles that appeared in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Published Sept. 24 on PsyOpNews, the article unequivocally proclaimed:

(See also:  9/11 - President Bush is in Florida; 9/11 - Jeb Bush declares state of emergency in Florida; September 16, 2001 - At least 15 of the 19 hijackers have Florida ties)

• September 7, 2001 - Alleged hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi both seen 'wasted' at a Hollywood, FL bar called Shuckums.

The roots of the worst terrorist attack in history

"Last Friday Atta, the most prominent face of the hijack teams and the man who linked them together, and two other Middle Eastern men were spotted at a bar in Holly-wood in Florida called Shuckums. They ran up a bill and started rowing with waitress Patricia Idrissi over the cost of their vodkas and rums. Atta shouted at the manager: 'You think I can't pay? I'm a pilot for American Airlines. I can pay my f***ing bill.' He pulled out a wad of $100 and $50 bills and threw money at Idrissi, leaving her an insultingly small tip." - Sunday Herald (09/16/01)

FBI seizes records of students at flight schools

"A bar manager in Hollywood told FBI agents he saw the two men drinking heavily last week.
Tony Amos, the night manager at Shuckums Bar in Hollywood, told the Palm Beach Post that Atta argued with him over his tab. When Amos asked Atta whether he could pay, Atta got offended and said, "I'm a pilot for American Airlines and I can pay my bill," bartender Patricia Idrissi said.
"They were wasted," said Idrissi, who said she directed the two men to a Chinese restaurant a few doors down.
They later returned and each ordered about five drinks, she said. The bill came to $48 and the men began arguing in broken English. After the confrontation with Amos, she said, Atta paid her with a $100 bill from a thick wad of currency in large denominations." - St. Petersburg Times (09/13/01)

Terrorists tasted lusty lifestyle they so despised

"I would reproduce the $48 bar tab that Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi ran up Sept. 7 at a Hollywood, Fla., watering hole called Shuckums. Atta (five Stolys and orange juice) is presumed to have rammed American Flight 11 into 1 World Trade Center, and Marwan al-Shehhi (five rum and Cokes), is a suspected hijacker of United Flight 175, which hit 2 World Trade Center.

Their religion forbids drinking, the public display of feminine flesh, and, one assumes, Las Vegas, where some hijackers reportedly gambled and took in some shows." - USA Today (09/25/01)

(See also:  May 2001 - Atta and several other 9/11 hijackers make six trips to Las Vegas and seen in the local Strip clubs; September 10, 2001 - Atta and two Arab men talked of impending bloodshed at FL strip club and spent on drinks and lap dances and a copy of the Quran was left at the bar)

• September 8, 2001 - Most of a Marine Aviation group moves further away from where the explosion at the Pentagon will happen.

"Most of Marine Aviation had just the weekend before been moved to the "Butler building," an extension of the Pentagon and about 200 yards from where the impact occurred, not nearly as close as their previous offices." - Leatherneck

• September 9, 2001 - General Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, is assassinated by two Arabs posing as journalists and at some point after learning about General Massoud's assassination, California Congressmen Dana Rohrabacher (R) scheduled an appointment to meet with top White House officials in the National Security Council at 2:30 pm on Sept. 11th to warn them that "something big was about to happen".

"Ahmed Shah Massoud was an Afghani military leader of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of various Afghani opposition groups in a prolonged civil war. As the Taliban established control over most of Afghanistan, Massoud's forces were increasingly forced into the mountainous areas of the north, where they controlled some 10% of Afghanistan's territory and perhaps 30% of its population.
Massoud was the victim of a suicide attack which occurred at Khvajeh Ba Odin on September 9, 2001, two days before the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack in the United States, a timing considered significant by some commentators. The attackers were two Arabs who claimed to be Belgians originally from Morocco. However their passports turned out to be stolen. According to some accounts they were posing as journalists, perhaps intending to attack several Northern Alliance council members simultaneously. They set off a bomb hidden in either a video camera or a belt worn by one of the attackers. It appears that Massoud died within 30 minutes, although his death was denied until September 13." - Wikipedia

"The last time I went in was to see Commander Massoud. The attack on the commander told me something terrible was about to happen, something terrible was about to happen, because Massoud was someone that bin Laden understood that if he did something that would make the United States or someone else very angry at him, that Massoud was someone that would be turned to immediately by our side to ally with.
I was so concerned about this, understanding that this was telling us that something horrible was going to happen, that I made an appointment to see the top officials in the White House in the National Security Council. My appointment with the National Security Council at the White House was to warn them that this attack on Massoud obviously meant something big was about to happen. My appointment was for 2:30 that afternoon. Unfortunately, at 8:45 that morning, the first plane slammed into the World Trade Center." - CHALLENGE FACING AMERICA by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (09/17/01) - Tom Marr Show (10/25/01)

(See also:  9/11 - Possible terrorist incident against President Bush early in the morning at his hotel resort in Florida.)

• September 9, 2001 - NORAD conducts operation "Northern Vigilance," planned months in advance, which deploys fighter jets to the Alaskan region to monitor a Russian air force exercise.

"NORAD Maintains Northern Vigilance
The North American Aerospace Defense Command shall deploy fighter aircraft as necessary to Forward Operating Locations (FOLS) in Alaska and Northern Canada to monitor a Russian air force exercise in the Russian arctic and North Pacific ocean.
“NORAD is the eyes and ears of North America and it is our mission to ensure that our air sovereignty is maintained,” said Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of NORAD. “Although it is highly unlikely that Russian aircraft would purposely violate Canadian or American airspace, our mission of vigilance must be sustained.”
NORAD-allocated forces will remain in place until the end of the Russian exercise." - NORAD (09/09/01)

"Operation Northern Vigilance, planned months in advance, involves deploying fighter jets to locations in Alaska and northern Canada. Part of this exercise is pure simulation, but part is real world: NORAD is keeping a close eye on the Russians, who have dispatched long-range bombers to their own high north on a similar exercise." - Toronto Star (12/09/01) [Reprint at:  9/11 Truth Reading Room]

(See also:  9/11 - NORAD's operation "Northern Vigilance" that had jetfighters patrolling the Alaskan region to monitor a Russian air force exercise is called off)

• September 9, 2001 - Alleged Flight 175 hijacker pilot Marwan Al-Shehhi reportedly leaves behind Boeing 757 manuals, east coast flight maps, an airplane fuel tester, and a protractor in his hotel room.

Boeing manuals, maps found in hijacker's motel room

"A motel owner said he found Boeing 757 manuals, three illustrated martial arts books and an 8-inch stack of East Coast flight maps while cleaning out an alleged hijacker's room two days before he flew into the World Trade Center.
Marwan Al-Shehhi and another Arab man spent a week at the Panther Motel in Deerfield Beach, and they had a constant visitor, owner Richard Surma said Saturday. Surma said he recognized Al-Shehhi from FBI photographs, but not the other two men.

Surma kept many of the items from the room and called a sheriff's deputy Wednesday, when officers began scouring the oceanfront strip of small motels 12 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. The FBI quickly followed, interviewing guests and lifting fingerprints from Al-Shehhi's room.
Al-Shehhi checked out last Sunday without taking a three-ring binder full of handwritten notes, an English-German dictionary, an airplane fuel tester, a protractor, tote bag, aircraft manuals, maps and books, Surma said.
''They were aeronautical maps. I'm sure it was almost half of the eastern United States,'' he said." - Augusta Chronicle (09/16/01)

(See also:  9/11 (9:03 am) - Flight 175, a Boeing 767, allegedly crashes into the WTC 2)

• September 9, 2001 - Alleged Flight 11 hijacker sleeps with a high-priced prostitute.

Terrorists partied with hooker at Hub-area hotel

"While preparing to unleash their twisted "holy war'' on America, some of the suicide hijackers set aside strict religious beliefs to whet their lusty appetites, partying with a high-priced hooker in Hub hotel rooms.
A driver for a pair of local escort services told the Herald yesterday that he drove a call girl to the Park Inn in Chestnut Hill on Sept. 9 around 10:30 p.m. where she bedded down with one of the mass murderers. It was her second trip to the terrorist's room that day.
Two of the hijackers aboard Flight 11 that crashed into the World Trade Center - Waleed M. Alshehri and Wail Alshehri - spent Sept. 9 in the Route 9 hotel, sources said.
"She went there earlier in the day and then again later in the night,'' the driver said of the escort. "She saw just one guy when I drove her over there.''
The escort, a white blond woman in her early 20s, had a 20 minute tryst in the hotel room with one of the hijackers. She was paid $180 in cash, the driver said.
"She freaked out when she saw his picture on TV,'' he said. "She recognized one of the faces.'' Managers for the Park Inn did not return phone calls seeking comment.
In the days before the attack, the driver brought the same woman to the Days Hotel on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton where some of the hijackers are known to have stayed. The woman, who worked for Broadway International and Day and Night Encounters escort services, told the driver she partied with one of the hijackers at the hotel. Day and Night Encounters advertises escorts "for the most discriminating of gentlemen and their most important occasion.''
According to Days Hotel manager Adam Sperling, one of the hijackers was a registered guest at the hotel from Sept. 8 through Sept. 11. Sources told the Herald that more than one of the terrorists stayed there those nights.
The FBI confiscated guest records, but there were no traceable phone calls on the hotel bill because they apparently used a calling card to make their calls. Sperling said he had "no knowledge'' that the hijackers were visited by call girls in their room.
The driver, who was unsure of the names of the hijackers seen by the woman, said he also routinely brought women to a male relative of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"I drove some of the girls to him,'' the driver said, adding that the relative often had friends with him. "They were using them right up until the day (the attacks) happened. He used to see the girls once a week. Now, since the bombings, no calls.''
Bin Laden has several relatives in the Boston area, many of whom returned to Saudi Arabia in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The FBI has interviewed the driver and the call girl and has seized records from the two escort services, the driver said. The woman, shaken by her sudden involvement in the international probe, has hired a lawyer, he added.
Workers at several escort services called by the Herald yesterday reported that they have been questioned by the FBI as to whether any of their women may have been with the hijackers.
FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz would not confirm or deny whether any of the hijackers rented hookers in the days before the attacks. She also would not comment on whether agents have questioned workers at the city's many escort services.
The dirty Hub dalliances of the terrorists is just the latest link between the Koran-toting killers and America's seedy sex scene. In Florida, several of the hijackers - including reputed ringleader Mohamed Atta - spent $200 to $300 each on lap dances in the Pink Pony strip club.
The group ran up drink tabs, spewed anti-American sentiments and talked of impending bloodshed a few days before the attacks, according to published reports. The group left behind a copy of the Koran - the Muslim holy book - at the Florida bar.
And in Las Vegas, at least six of the hijackers spent time living it up on the Strip on various occasions between May and August. Marwan Al-Shehhi, who was aboard the second plane that slammed into the World Trade Center, frequently got lap dances at the Olympic Garden Topless Cabaret where he had a reputation as a lousy tipper, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
FBI agents have also reportedly questioned the owners of Nardone's Go-Go Bar in Elizabeth, N.J. Several of the terrorists spent time in nearby Paterson and Newark and reportedly patronized the club." - Boston Herald (10/10/01) [Archived:  WayBack]

• September 10, 2001 -  Four of the alleged 9/11 hijackers spend the night looking for prostitutes in Boston.

Hijackers said to seek prostitutes

"Four alleged terrorists spent their last night looking for prostitutes in Boston before hijacking two planes out of Logan Airport and smashing them into the World Trade Center towers in New York, according to law enforcement sources.
The hijackers called several local escort services on Sept. 10, asking how much it would cost for prostitutes to have sex with the four men who were staying at the Milner Hotel in Boston's Park Square, but didn't make a deal.
''It was going to be really expensive and they couldn't come to a consensus on price, so that was the end of it,'' said one law enforcement official. ''Either they thought it was too extravagant or they didn't have enough money left.''
One of the services contacted was VIP Escorts, the official said.
A woman who answered the toll-free number for VIP Escorts, which does not advertise prostitution services, said she had been contacted by the FBI about whether the hijackers had solicited their services but declined to comment further.
Another woman who advertises under ''adult services'' in a local weekly newspaper said last night that she went to the Boston FBI office three days after the hijackings and reviewed photos of men whom she might have seen in local hotels prior to Sept. 11.
She told the FBI she had had no contact with the alleged hijackers, she said, and was unable to identify any men in six pages of photos. Two other women, she said, were also called to the FBI office. The woman asked not to be identified in this story.
After spending Sunday night, Sept. 9, at the posh Charles Hotel in Cambridge, two of the hijackers were en route by taxi on Monday to join two others at the Milner Hotel when they asked the driver for names of local escort services, the source said.
A Cambridge cab driver, Pierre Louis, told the Globe last night that FBI agents brought photographs to his home and asked if he could pick out any who might have been his fares that day. He said he was able to tentatively identify one man for the FBI, but he declined to discuss any questions that agents asked him.
The Globe has reported that four of the hijackers - Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Rashid Ahmed, Mohand Alshehri, and Satam M. A. Al Suqami, - spent Monday night, Sept. 10, at the Milner, according to the hotel's general manager.
It's unclear which of the men made the calls, but law enforcement sources said one of the terrorists inquired about how much it would cost for all four men to have sexual intercourse with a prostitute.
''It was over $400 and that was too much,'' said the source.
The FBI has not turned up evidence that the men spent their last night with any local women.
The next day, Al-Shehhi, Ahmed, and Alshehri are believed to have joined two other men in hijacking United Flight 175, while Al Suqami and four others allegedly hijacked American Flight 11." - Boston Globe (10/10/01) [Archived:  WayBack]

• September 10, 2001 - A man matching the description of Mohamed Atta and two other Arab men spew anti-American sentiments and talk of impending bloodshed at a Daytona Beach, FL strip club, the Pink Pony, and spent $200-300 apiece on drinks and lap dances and a copy of the Quran was left at the bar along with a business card left by one of the men.

Manager: Men spewed anti-American sentiments

"The night before terrorists struck New York and Washington, three men spewed anti-American sentiments in a bar and talked of impending bloodshed, according to a strip club manager interviewed by the FBI. John Kap, manager of the Pink Pony and Red Eyed Jack's Sports Bar in Daytona Beach, said the men made the claims to a bartender and a patron. "They were talking about what a bad place America is. They said 'Wait 'til tomorrow. America is going to see bloodshed,"' Kap said.

He said he told FBI investigators the men in his bar spent $200 to $300 apiece on lap dances and drinks, paying with credit cards. Kap said he gave the FBI credit card receipts and a business card left by one man and a copy of the Quran that was left at the bar." - USA Today (09/14/01)

The roots of the worst terrorist attack in history

"The day before the attack they may also have been in the lapdancing bar, The Pink Pony, in Daytona Beach. One man matching the description of Atta and two other Arabs were overheard voicing anti-American sentiments, and speaking of 'coming bloodshed'." - Sunday Herald (09/16/01)

FBI pieces details of suspects' lives

"Barroom bravado at the Pink Pony Nude Theater in Daytona Beach on the eve of the assault has left owners wondering.
"Tomorrow, America will see bloodshed,'' a man with a Middle Eastern accent seated with two other men reportedly said there Monday night.
John Kap, vice president at the Pink Pony, shrugged it off.
On his way into work Tuesday morning, Kap heard the news from the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"We knew right then we had to call the FBI,'' said Kap, who has turned over to FBI agents credit-card receipts, driver's license numbers and a copy of the Quran left by one of the men." - Orlando Sentinel (09/14/01) [Wayback Machine]
 

(See also:  May 2001 - Atta and several other hijackers make six trips to Las Vegas and seen in the local Strip clubs)

• September 10, 2001 - The wife of David Kovalcin, an engineer for Raytheon who would be on Flight 11, said her husband woke her up in the middle of the night complaining he couldn't sleep and that he seemed "very distressed" but she didn't know why and he would leave a note for his wife and two daughters Tuesday morning saying "I will miss everybody very much."

"Mr. Kovalcin, 42, was a passenger on Flight 11, on a business trip for Raytheon, where he was a senior mechanical engineer. Mrs. Kovalcin said they had carved out a "Father Knows Best" kind of life, with him coming home at six every evening, choosing to know his family well rather than to work longer hours for more money.
She remembers that her husband had trouble sleeping two nights before his departure. "He woke me up at 3 a.m., and said 'I'm pacing the house. I can't sleep,' " she said.
"I rubbed his head and tried to calm him down. He was very distressed, but had no idea what it was. Then three days later I remembered, and thought, 'Holy cow, I wonder what that was about.' "
The morning he left home he had written a note for his family: "Rebecca, Marina and Mommy, I will miss everybody very much. See you Friday night." At the end he added, "I fed the dogs but not the fish."
David Kovalcin, 42, an engineer for Raytheon from New Hampshire, was headed to the West Coast for business on American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston Tuesday morning. He left a note for his wife of five years and their daughters--ages 4 and 1--telling the three how much he would miss them while he was away, said a cousin of Kovalcin's wife." - Legacy.com

David P. Kovalcin, 42, Hudson, New Hampshire - Raytheon Co. senior mechanical engineer for electronic systems in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for 15 years. - September11Victims.com

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force demonstrate new technology aircraft precision approach and landing system;; 9/11 - Five Raytheon employees are on three of the four hijacked planes)

• September 10, 2001 - A group of top Pentagon officials cancel their travel plans for the next morning because of security concerns.

"On Sept. 10, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." - MSNBC (09/24/01) [Reprinted at:  wanttoknow.info]

• September 10, 2001 - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces that the Pentagon has lost track of $2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS of military spending.

"On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America." - CBS (01/29/02)

Rumsfeld: "According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." - DoD (09/10/01)

(See also:  May 4, 2001 - PNAC member Dov Zakheim is sworn in as Comptroller and CFO for the Department of Defense; 9/11 - Pentagon is hit right in the middle of only retrofitted section, important budget information located in the damaged area, attack came near the end of fiscal year, fatalities included civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts; Killtown's: Flight 77 Theories - Motives)

• September 10, 2001 - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warns of Iraq's pursuit of WMD's hours before US and British planes bomb Iraqi missile sites.

6:34:58 AM
"Iraq’s pursuit of chemical and biological weapons threatens to become a serious problem, US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld has said.
Without monitoring by UN weapons inspectors, the Iraqis have been ‘‘working diligently to increase their capabilities in every aspect of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology,’’ he said.
‘‘That problem, particularly biological weapons, over the coming decade is going to be an increasingly serious one,’’ Rumsfeld said.
‘‘It will have to be attacked from a whole range of methods,’’ including bombing. ‘‘Some of them are mobile. They can move them; they’re in vans. So it is not a simple thing. But it’ll have to be dealt with using a variety of techniques.’’
He commented a few hours before British and US planes attacked missile sites in southern Iraq as part of a pattern the Pentagon says is in response to recent Iraqi hostile threats against aircraft monitoring the so-called no-fly zone established over southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War." - TCM Breaking News (09/10/01)

2:55:56 PM
"It is reported that British and US warplanes have killed eight civilians in a strike on southern Iraq.
The US military said its planes attacked missile sites in the south of the country in response to Iraqi threats against American and British aircraft patrolling no fly zones over Iraq.
An Iraqi news agency said: “The US-British warplanes targeted our citizens in al-Salhiya in Wasit province, resulting in the killing of eight civilians and the wounding of three others.” The Pentagon has given no word of any casualties.
Witnesses said the civilians were preparing for prayers when attacked by the warplanes.
The US central command claims to have struck two or more surface to air missile sites, but Iraqi sources say the planes hit properties and shops in the Wasit province, about 100 miles south of Baghdad." - TCM Breaking News (09/10/01)

• September 10, 2001 -  Former assistant director of the FBI and an expert on terrorism John O'Neill starts his first day of work at the WTC.

"O'Neill had recently retired from the FBI and had just taken over security for the World Trade Center, said New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik in an interview with CNN's Larry King Live.
"That Tuesday was his first or second day on the job," Kerik said." - CNN (09/21/01)

(See also:  1997 - John O'Neill forecasts the possibility of an organized attack and said that terrorists were already operating in the U.S.; August 2001 - John O'Neill becomes chief of security at the WTC; 9/11 - John O'Neill is feared dead on his second day on the job at the WTC; September 21, 2001 - The body of John O'Neill is recovered from the WTC)

• September 10, 2001 - San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown receives a travel warning eight hours before the attacks.

"For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel.
Exactly where the call came from is a bit of a mystery. The mayor would say only that it came from "my security people at the airport."
"We can only do what we can," the mayor said, adding, "Hell, if they can't protect the Pentagon from attack, what can they protect?" - SFGate.com (09/12/01)

Side note:  It has been rumored that Condoleezza Rice gave Mayor Brown this warning.  Here is were that came from...

"David Irving comments:  ACCORDING to a report today Friday, May 17, 2002, on Pacifica Radio, the warning to San Francisco's mayor came from squeaky-clean Condoleezza Rice." - Action Report (05/16/02)

• September 10, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on American Airlines stock betting that the stock price would fall.

"An extraordinary number of trades were betting that American Airlines stock price would fall.
The trades are called "puts" and they involved at least 450,000 shares of American. But what raised the red flag is more than 80 percent of the orders were "puts", far outnumbering "call" options, those betting the stock would rise.
Sources tell 60 Minutes that the initial options were bought through at least two brokerage firms including NFS, a subsidiary of Fidelity Brokerage, and TD Waterhouse, a discount firm.
TD Waterhouse says they handled approximately 3 percent of the initial orders for "puts" on American Airline stock. The company says it has looked at the orders and has determined no evidence of any suspicious activity.
The same thing happened with United Airlines on the Chicago Board Options Exchange four days before the attack. An extremely unbalanced number of trades betting United's stock price would fall — also transformed into huge profits when it did after the hijackings." - CBS (09/19/01)

"There was an unusually large jump in purchases of put options on the stocks of UAL Corp. and AMR Corp. in the three business days before the attack on major options exchanges in the United States. On one day, UAL put option purchases were 25 times greater than the year-to-date average. In the month before the attacks, short sales jumped by 40 percent for UAL and 20 percent for American.
Other financial professionals have told The Chronicle that an estimated $5 million to $10 million in all could have been made on the trades, including trading on other days and purchases of options on the parent company of American, AMR Corp. Four United and American aircraft crashed in the attacks.
The money was made on Sept. 6, 7 and 10 in transactions involving United, American, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co., the center said. Morgan Stanley occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center; Merrill Lynch's headquarters offices were nearby.
The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of the options. Rohini Pragasam, a bank spokeswoman, declined comment." - San Francisco Chronicle (09/29/01)

"Securities regulators around the world are investigating whether the terrorists involved in last week's attack profited in financial markets, possibly by buying options on the stock of United Airlines, Boeing, American Airlines and other companies in the knowledge that prices would fall.
The day before the attacks, put volume on American Airlines stock was 4,516, nearly 11 times its average daily volume for the year." - Chicago Tribune (09/19/01)

- More news articles on 9/11 insider trading at:  9/11 Truth.org's Reading Room

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on United Airlines stock; September 07, 2001 - Large number of "put" options are placed on Boeing stock)

• September 10, 2001 - The Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force -- one of the first teams deployed to the WTC -- arrives late in the evening and goes into action the following morning on 9/11 according to task force member Tom Kenney on a Dan Rather taped interview that aired on Sept. 13th.

"We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City of New York for this disaster," Kenney said. "We arrived on late Monday night and went into action on Tuesday morning, and not until today did we get a full opportunity to work the entire site." -CBS News (09/13/01) [Audio Clip]

(See also:  September 12, 2001 - FEMA and hundreds of other state and federal government officials were scheduled to participate in a biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City;  September 13, 2001 - Dan Rather's taped interview of Tom Kenney airs/FEMA says Kenney "misstated".)

• September 10, 2001 - Officials shut down flights at Newark International Airport for 35 minutes because of a fire.

"Officials shut down flights at Newark International Airport for 35 minutes Monday because of a fire at a construction site.
The fire was at the new administration building, which is several miles from the main terminals. No injuries were immediately reported.
Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said flights were halted because airport firefighting equipment was used to put out the blaze.
Major delays were not expected because the fire happened at about 1 p.m. and midday schedules are generally light, Coleman said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation." - California Aviation/AP (09/10/01)

"LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR? We are watching that fire in New Jersey at the Newark International Airport. We showed you a little bit ago the fire at a building under construction. It's being put out, which is causing delays at the airport." - CNN (09/10/01)

"It seemed like just plain bad luck. On September 11, 2001, Jeremy Glick boarded United Flight 93 only because a fire at Newark Airport had prevented him from flying out the day before." - Amazon

• September 10, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden reportedly undergoes kidney dialysis at a Pakistani military hospital in which a "secret team" replaces the regular urology staff.

"In a tale as twisted as the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CBS Evening News has been told that the night before the Sept. 11 terrorists attack, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He was getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan.
Pakistan intelligence sources tell CBS News that bin Laden was spirited into a military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment.
"On that night," said a medical worker who wanted her identity protected, "they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them." She said it was treatment for a very special person and "the special team was obviously up to no good."
"They military had him surrounded," said a hospital employee who also wanted his identity masked, "and I saw the mysterious patient helped out of a car. Since that time," he said, "I have seen many pictures of the man. He is the man we know as Osama bin Laden. I also heard two army officers talking to each other. They were saying that Osama bin Laden had to be watched carefully and looked after."
Those who know bin Laden say he suffers from numerous ailments — back and stomach problems.
Ahmed Rashid, who has written extensively on the Taliban, said the military was often there to help before Sept. 11.
"There were reports that Pakistan intelligence had helped the Taliban buy dialysis machines and the rumor was that these were for wanted for Osama bin Laden," said Rashid.
Doctors at the hospital told CBS News there was nothing special about that night, but they declined our request to see any records. Government officials reached Monday night denied that bin Laden received any medical treatment that night.
The U.S. has no way of knowing who in Pakistan's military or intelligence supported the Taliban or Osama bin Lade, maybe up to the night before Sept. 11 by arranging dialysis to keep him alive. So the U.S. may not know if those same people might help him again — perhaps to freedom." - CBS (01/28/02)

"As the United states and its allies in the war on terrorism press the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CBS News has exclusive information tonight about where bin Laden was and what he was doing in the last hours before his followers struck the United States September 11.
CBS News has been told that the night before the September 11 terrorist attack, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He was getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan.
Pakistan intelligence sources tell CBS News that bin Laden was spirited into this military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment. On that night, says this medical worker who wanted her identity protected, they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them. She says it was treatment for a very special person. The special team was obviously up to no good." - CBS (01/28/02) [Reprinted at:  cooperativeresearch.org]

(See also:  July 4, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden undergoes medical treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai where he is met by a local CIA chief; December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies)

• September 10, 2001 - Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg is on the phone with the FBI talking about who has command of the MASCAL emergency plane crash plan if a plane hits the Pentagon.

Excerpts from an interview with Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg, a medic at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"We had virtually completed our MASCAL plan. I was setting up training for medics, I was in the process of ordering new supplies, and trying to reinvent what we would do, how we would go about it. We still had the old MASCAL kits in place, and everything under the old guidance, and we were trying to take that a step beyond. Believe it or not, the day prior to the incident, I was just on the phone with the FBI, and we were talking ‘so who has command should this happen, who has the medical jurisdiction, who does this, who does that,’ and we talked about it and talked about it, and he helped me out a lot. And then the next day, during the incident, I actually found him. He was out there on the incident that day, and I made the joke, “You know, I used to have questions about all this, about who would have the command.” He would say, “You got any more questions?” I went, “Nope, not anymore.” - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

(See also:  October 24, 2000 - The Pentagon conducts the first of two emergency training exercises called MASCAL which is about a mock plane crash of a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon; 9/11 - Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg was studying the MASCAL plane crash plan right before the Pentagon was hit)

• September 10, 2001 - The White House's battle plan to invade Afghanistan and topple the Taliban and Osama bin Laden awaits President Bush's approval.

Finger-Pointing On Anti-Terror Plan

"An official said one such plan was drafted during the early days of the Bush administration, but was only ready for presentation to the president on Sept. 10, a day before the attacks.
Top Bush administration officials approved what McCormack called the "comprehensive strategy to eliminate al Qaeda" exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks." - CBS (08/05/02)

White House Reveals Pre-9/11 Plan

"The White House acknowledged Friday it had a battle plan to topple Osama bin Laden awaiting President Bush's approval in the days before the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration accused Democrats of seeking political gain by suggesting that Bush ignored warning signs of an attack.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of an anonymity, said the options memo was prepared by Bush's foreign policy team as threats of terrorism spiked. It was dated Sept. 10 and sat on national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's desk for Bush's review when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were struck.
"Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information? And what specific actions were taken by the White House in response?" Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. "I'm not going to jump to any conclusions, but it's hard to understand why the information was not released."
House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., posed a variation on the famous Watergate-era question: What did the president know and when did he know it?" - Yahoo News/AP (05/17/02) [Reprinted at:  NewsMine.org]

U.S. OK’d plan to topple Taliban a day before 9/11

"After years of delay caused by inadequate intelligence, the U.S. government decided just one day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that it would try to overthrow the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan if a diplomatic push to expel Osama bin Laden from the country failed...
In the report, which was released at the outset of Tuesday’s hearing, the commission said the plan that senior Bush officials agreed upon on Sept. 10, 2001, featured three phases aimed at forcing the Taliban to expel bin Laden:
The United States would initially use diplomacy to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden and, if that failed, conduct a covert program aimed at “encouraging anti-Taliban Afghans to attack al-Qaida bases.”
If those steps failed, the senior Bush administration officials “agreed that the United States would seek to overthrow the Taliban regime through more direct action,” the report said.
But before the plan could be submitted to the president, bin Laden’s terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people." - MSNBC (03/25/04)

(See also:  August 2001 - Taliban warns the U.S. of a huge attack from Osama bin Laden; September 4, 2001 - September 4, 2001 - White House approves plans to invade Afghanistan.; October 7, 2001 - U.S. invades Afghanistan; March 23, 2004 - War in Afghan would have been politically impossible pre-9/11)

• September 10, 2001 - The Washington Times publishes an article about an exercise study by the Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) about an enforcement plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in which the SAMS officers mention that the MOSSAD has the capability to "target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."

"An elite U.S. Army study center has devised a plan for enforcing a major Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that would require about 20,000 well-armed troops stationed throughout Israel and a newly created Palestinian state.
But a 68-page paper by the Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) does provide a look at the daunting task any international peacekeeping force would face if the United Nations authorized it, and Israel and the Palestinians ever reached a peace agreement. Located at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the School for Advanced Military Studies is both a training ground and a think tank for some of the Army's brightest officers.
The exercise was done by 60 officers dubbed "Jedi Knights," as all second-year SAMS students are nicknamed.
The SAMS paper attempts to predict events in the first year of a peace-enforcement operation, and sees possible dangers for U.S. troops from both sides.
It calls Israel's armed forces a "500-pound gorilla in Israel. Well armed and trained. Operates in both Gaza and the West Bank. Known to disregard international law to accomplish mission. Very unlikely to fire on American forces. Fratricide a concern especially in air space management."
Of the MOSSAD, the Israeli intelligence service, the SAMS officers say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."
James Phillips, a Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said it would be a mistake to put peacekeepers in Israel, given the "poor record of previous monitors."
"In general, the Bush administration policy is to discourage a large American presence," he said. "But it has been rumored that one of the possibilities might be an expanded CIA role." - Washington Times (09/10/01) [Reprinted at:  Public Action]

• September 10, 2001 - Alleged Flight 93 hijacker pilot, Ziad Jarrah, reportedly sends a farewell letter along with some of his supposed flight training documents to his girlfriend in Germany, however he's claimed to have wrote her address wrong and the letter is later sent back and passed to the FBI.  Jarrah's relatives say the letter was fabricated to frame him and that he had known her for five years and wouldn't have made such an error. 

Hijacker's farewell love letter

One of the 11 September hijackers sent his German girlfriend a farewell letter on the eve of the attacks, the German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported.

"I have done what I had to do," says the letter from Ziad Jarrah, urging his girlfriend to be proud of him, the magazine reported in its Monday edition.

But Jarrah apparently made a mistake when he wrote the German address, and the package was returned to the US, where it was passed to the FBI, said Der Spiegel.
Jarrah is believed to have been at the controls of the Boeing 757 which crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently after passengers tried to seize back the plane.
German prosecutors have confirmed that the package also contained documents relating to flight training which Jarrah had undergone.

 The four-page letter was sent to Jarrah's girlfriend, described as a medical student, in the western German city of Bochum.

Jarrah's relatives - who say he was a passenger, not a hijacker - have insisted that the letter is not genuine.
"The letter has been fabricated in an attempt to find evidence against Ziad Jarrah," his uncle, Jamal Jarrah told the US news agency Associated Press.
And he said it was suspicious that the letter's address reportedly contained a mistake, as he had known his girlfriend for five years and would not have made such an error. " - BBC (11/19/01)

September 11 hijacker questioned in January 2001; Sources: CIA was interested in his travels in Afghanistan

"A month after the hijackings, U.S. authorities also discovered a letter written by Jarrah to his girlfriend in Germany and postmarked September 10. In the letter -- which was mistakenly addressed and returned to the United States, where authorities found it -- Jarrah told his girlfriend he had done his duty." - CNN (08/01/02)

• September 10, 2001 - Ex. CIA-director, former President, and President Bush's Dad, George H.W. Bush, meets with one of Osama Bin Laden's brothers at a Carlyle business conference in Washington D.C.

"It didn't help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a brother of Osama bin Laden. Former president Bush, a fellow investor, had been with him at the conference the previous day." - Washington Post (03/16/03) [Reprinted at:  wanttoknow.info]

The Carlyle Group - The Honorable George H. W. Bush, Senior Advisor

(See also:  9/11 - Former President Bush spent the night at the White House; 9/11 - Carlyle Group holds a conference in Washington D.C. and hosts Osama's brother; October 21, 2003 - Former President Bush retires from the Carlyle Group)

September 11, 2001

The most devastating terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America, the world's mightiest superpower.

(See also: March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba; February 26, 1993 - The WTC was first bombed by Islamic terrorists and the F.B.I. knew about the plot)

• September 12, 2001 - FEMA and hundreds of other state and federal government officials were scheduled to participate in a biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City conducted by the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in which their command center was going to be at Pier 92, the spot where the command center for 9/11 eventually became.

"NEW YORK CITY OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HOLDS TRIAL POINT-OF-DISPENSING DRILL (TRIPOD)
Drill for Distribution of Medication In the Event of a Biological Attack Had Been Scheduled for September 12, 2001
The New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) today held the first-ever Trial Point of Dispensing drill — also known as "Operation TriPOD" — to test OEM's effectiveness in responding to a biological attack (see Event Photos). Tripod is a six-hour, real-time drill administered by OEM, in cooperation with the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), the Weill Medical College of Cornell Medical Center, the New York City Department of Health (DOH), the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD), along with the American Red Cross of Greater New York.
Tripod had originally been scheduled to take place on September 12th, 2001, at Pier 92-which ironically had served as the temporary home of OEM shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
"The setting for our first-ever Tripod drill should serve as a poignant reminder of the importance of preparedness," said John T. Odermatt, Commissioner of OEM. "Today, we find ourselves in the same place where the City regrouped following 9/11. Since that fateful day, New York has returned to normal, and we now use this venue not in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, but rather to prepare for one." - NYC.gov  (05/22/04)

"MR. RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI: ...we selected Pier 92 as our command center. And the reason Pier 92 was selected as the command center was because on the next day, on September 12th, Pier 92 was going to have a drill. It had hundreds of people here, from FEMA, from the federal government, from the state, from the State Emergency Management Office, and they were getting ready for a drill for biochemical attack." - 9/11 Commission (05/19/04)

(See also:  September 10, 2001 - The Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force arrives late in the evening in NYC and goes into action at the WTC the following morning on 9/11 according to task force member Tom Kenney on a Dan Rather taped interview;  9/11 (6 a.m.) - NORAD was in day two of a week long exercise called "Vigilant Guardian"; 9/11 (9:00 am) - The CIA began an exercise to simulate a plane crashing into one of it's buildings; September 13, 2001 - Dan Rather's taped interview of Tom Kenney airs/FEMA denies personnel where there on 9/11; May 19, 2004 - Mayor Rudy Giuliani discusses "Operation TRIPOD" at the 9/11 Commission hearings)

• September 12, 2001 - Ben Fountain, who worked in the 47th floor of the south tower, says weeks before the attacks they had an "unusual" amount of evacuations from the WTC and says he thinks "they had an inkling something was going on."

"Ben Fountain, 42, a financial analyst with Fireman's Fund, was coming out of the Chambers Street Station, headed for his office on the 47th floor of the south tower.
How could they let this happen? They knew this building was a target. Over the past few weeks we'd been evacuated a number of times, which is unusual. I think they had an inkling something was going on." - People (09/12/01) [Reprinted with:  WayBack Machine]

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - A two week heightened security alert at the WTC is lifted and bomb-sniffing dogs there were abruptly removed)

• September 12, 2001 - Mohammed Atta allegedly calls his father.

Father insists alleged leader is still alive

"The father of Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the September 11 attacks, said in an interview published yesterday that his son was still alive.
"He is hiding in a secret place so as not to be murdered by the US secret services," Mohammed el-Amir Atta, 66, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. He also vehemently denied that his son - believed to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Centre - had taken part in the atrocities, blaming them instead on "American Christians".

"As I saw the picture of my son," he said, "I knew that he hadn't done it. My son called me the day after the attacks on September 12 at around midday. We spoke for two minutes about this and that.
"He didn't tell me where he was calling from. At that time neither of us knew anything about the attacks." - Guardian (09/02/02)

(See also:  September 25, 2001 - Father says Atta called him on Sept 12 and that it's not him the Portland airport security video)

• September 12, 2001 - Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, General Anatoli Kornukov, says it's "generally impossible" how the 9/11 attacks happened in the U.S.

SENSATION: RUSSIA ALSO BECAME AN OBJECT FOR AIR TERRORISTS’ ATTACKS

"Generally it is impossible to carry out an act of terror on the scenario which was used in the USA yesterday. This was said by the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Anatoli Kornukov. We had such facts too, - said the general straightforwardly. Kornukov did not specify what happened in Russia and when and to what extent it resembled the events in the US. He did not advise what was the end of air terrorists- attempts either.
But the fact the general said that means a lot. As it turns out the way the terrorists acted in America is not unique. The notification and control system for the air transport in Russia does not allow uncontrolled flights and leads to immediate reaction of the anti-missile defense, Kornukov said. As soon as something like that happens here, I am reported about that right away and in a minute we are all up, -said the general." - Pravda (09/12/01)

• September 12, 2001 - Joint Chiefs of Staff nominee and former NORAD Commander Air Force Gen. Richard Myers mentions in his testimony before the Senate that the U.S. military did not shoot down Flight 93.

Senate Grills Myers on Homeland Defense, Transformation

"President Bush's nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff faced questions about terrorism and the emerging threats the United States faces during Senate testimony Sept. 12.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers categorically put to rest a rumor that the Air Force shot down the hijacked airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.
"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," he told Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin. "When it became clear what the threat was, we did scramble fighter aircraft, AWACS, radar aircraft and tanker aircraft to begin to establish orbits in case other aircraft showed up in the FAA system that were hijacked. But we never actually had to use force."
Myers, currently the vice chairman, previously has commanded the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Space Command. "We had plans to deploy our fighters to defend from external threats," he said. "I never thought that we'd see what we saw the last few days, where we had fighters over our cities defending against a threat that originated inside the United States of America." - DoD (09/14/01)

• September 12, 2001 - Before it was even clear who was behind the attacks, Donald Rumsfeld insisted at a Cabinet meeting that Saddam's Iraq should be "a principal target of the first round of terrorism".

"The next morning — before it was even clear who was behind the attacks — Rumsfeld insisted at a Cabinet meeting that Saddam's Iraq should be "a principal target of the first round of terrorism," according to Bob Woodward's book Bush At War." - ABC (03/10/03)

• September 12, 2001 - Al Qaeda deny responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

"Members Of Bin Laden's Al Quaida have denied any involvement in yesterday's terrorist attacks.
Bin Laden has topped a US suspect list." - TCM Breaking News (09/12/01)

• September 12, 2001 - U.S. intelligence translates conversations intercepted on Sept 10 from al-Qaeda operatives boasting in Arabic, "The match begins tomorrow" and "Tomorrow is Zero Hour."

Heard 9/10: 'Tomorrow is Zero Hour'

Conversations intercepted the day before Sept. 11 caught al-Qaeda operatives boasting in Arabic, "The match begins tomorrow" and "Tomorrow is Zero Hour." But U.S. intelligence didn't translate them until Sept. 12, congressional and administration sources disclosed Wednesday. The failure of the National Security Agency to translate the conversations until the day after the terrorist attacks became the focus of an eight-hour closed hearing on Capitol Hill. Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, head of the NSA, and CIA Director George Tenet told a House-Senate investigative committee that the intercepted communications were too vague to be of use, according to officials familiar with their testimony.

The NSA viewed the intercepts as "background chatter" rather than clear-cut intelligence that would have enabled counterterrorism experts to thwart the attacks or alert possible targets, the officials said.

The NSA uses spy satellites and sophisticated antennae to collect, decode and translate telephone, computer, radio and other communications abroad. Officials did not disclose the type of communication intercepted Sept. 10." - USA Today (06/19/02)

• September 12, 2001 - The WTC twin towers were hated and such poorly designed that they were money-losers that had to be subsides with millions from the State and the only reason they weren't torn down was because of the high cost of asbestos removal, in which the 9/11 attacks benefited the owners by efficiently destroying the complex in a way that they didn't have to pay for any of it.

Loved, hated, center's profile was towering
"The twin towers were not beautiful, or poetic. The towers were sheer power expressed in steel, concrete, aluminum and glass, bearing in their staggering ascension a certain arrogance, too.
These towers -- part of a seven-building complex -- were two gigantic boxes, forcing themselves upon the quirky rhythms of the Manhattan skyline.
When the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey leased the towers in the spring to a Paramus, N.J., real estate firm for $3.25 billion, the biggest such deal ever, the New York Times ran a piece headlined: "Learning to Love the World Trade Center."
It had never been easy.
From the beginning, the towers were considered an unfortunate example of urban renewal, an unsightly answer to the question of how to improve conditions in a shabby section of lower Manhattan. Sixteen acres of neighborhood were sacrificed to the project. According to the Times, the towers disrupted flight patterns of birds, which crashed into the towers by the dozens and fell dead to the pavement." - Baltimore Sun (09/12/01)

New York's most disliked building?
"The World Trade Center represented the essence of American financial power, but critics hated the towers and the public never embraced them.
The towers were acknowledged as a wonder of modern engineering, yet were riddled with quirks, like the way pencils rolled off desktops on the top floors when the wind began to gust. Real estate developers in the '60s and '70s derided the World Trade Center as government-sponsored folly. Yet this past summer the twin towers morphed into the most valuable piece of privately run real estate in New York.
How best to remember the World Trade Center? The irony is that over the years many critics wished the towers were never there to begin with. Writing for the New York Times, architectural commentator Paul Goldberger often referred to the twin towers as "banal," and once suggested the World Trade Center represented "New York's most disliked building."
Hardy instead opts for "arrogant." Arrogant in the way the bullying, flat-top towers "gave no recognition to the skyline" around them; "arrogant in their placement."
The World Trade Center's off-putting, five-acre concrete plaza, created to set the towers off as two jewels, also never made much sense. "The plaza has always been alienating," says skyscraper historian Willis. "It's so vast, so out of scale with human beings. They would try to populate it during the lunchtime hour with outdoor dance performers and set up a stage. But inevitably the stage would look like a toy. Plus, there was always heavy wind swirling around. It was not an oasis, but more like a tundra. It was not the type of place that drew people to it."
And then there were the unusually narrow office windows that robbed tower inhabitants of what should have been an indisputable perk: the view. Yamasaki was afraid of heights and decided in order to make everyone feel secure while they worked in the offices, the windows, set between columns, would be just 18 inches across, narrower than Yamasaki's own shoulder span.
The problem with Yamasaki's window design, says Willis, is the towers offered "no sense of the spectacular panorama" for the workers inside, which is why she, like many professionals, declares the towers' interior "a failure, aesthetically." The irony is that one of the tower's selling points was its unique floor construction of prefabricated trussed steel, only 33 inches in depth. That allowed everyone a chance to look out the windows because the massive office space was uninterrupted by columns, a modernist ideal of the day.
In the end, the views, due to poor design, were a bust." - Salon (09/17/01)

A New Garden of Eden

"Though this may be hard for some to believe, especially in these sentimental times, the so-called Twin Towers at the World Trade Center were hated by many New Yorkers, who before September 11, 2001 would have been happy if the goddamned things had never been built and after September 11th are glad that they're gone.
Built for an enormous amount of money between 1966 and 1970 by the Port Authority of the State of New York...the Twin Towers were always money-losers as rental properties and required huge subsidies (tens of millions of dollars a year) from the State of New York to remain solvent. Because all of the windows in both towers were sealed up tight...the WTC complex was ludicrously costly to heat and light.
In New York City, obsolete buildings are infrequently saved, whatever their historical or architectural interest. Most often, they are simply torn down and replaced. The only thing that saved the Twin Towers from demolition was the fact that they were filled with asbestos, which would be released into the air if the buildings were destroyed by controlled explosions. In 2000, the Port Authority calculated that it would cost $1 billion -- i.e., much more money than the Port Authority could afford to spend -- to remove the asbestos before the buildings were destroyed. And so the Port Authority was stuck with the Twin Towers, that is, until 26 April 2001, when it found a consortium of business interests (Westfield America, led by Larry Silverstein, the owner of the building at 7 World Trade Center) that was willing to lease the property. Supposed to last for 99 years, the $3.2 billion lease mandated that the Port Authority continue to pay taxes on the property. "This is a dream come true," Silverstein said at the 23 July 2001 celebration of the lease's signing. "We will be in control of a prized asset, and we will seek to develop its potential, raising it to new heights."
And so, quite paradoxically, the mass-murdering hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers by flying fully fueled passenger airplanes into them did Westfield America an immense favor. Even though Westfield America would obviously have preferred that both the planes and the buildings were unoccupied (save for the hijackers themselves) at the time that the former were used to destroy the latter, the terrorists got rid of the towers quickly, efficiently -- the towers fell down instead of over -- and in such a way that Westfield America didn't have to pay for any of it, including the asbestos, which was "removed" from the site by the wind, the rain and the search-and-rescue teams employed by the City of New York in the months after the buildings exploded, collapsed and gave off thick clouds of toxic dust." - New York Psychogeographical Association/Not Bored (11/30/01)

Why The World Trade Center Shouldn’t Be Rebuilt As Before
"DEAR ANN COULTER:
...in your article supporting the rebuilding of the World Trade Center as it was before, you overlook a dirty little secret about the towers that we New Yorkers, mindful of the world’s sympathies, have managed to keep: Almost everyone hated them.
I realize that the WTC has become a symbol of everything good about America that those bastards were out to destroy. But lest anyone be puzzled about why we almost certainly aren’t going to rebuild the WTC the way it was, let’s recall the reasons why on September 10, 2001, no one would have been terribly upset if it had been peacefully replaced by something else:
It was ugly... Most people don’t realize that those two towers were surrounded by a cluster of ugly brown metal buildings less than ten stories high... It was not built by a private developer, but by government, in the form of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, our local bi-state agency that’s supposed to manage local transportation facilities... WTC was a monument to big government, corporatism, incompetence, and megalomania. It lost money... Under reasonable accounting assumptions and leaving out government subsidies of one kind or another, (such as the entire thing’s exemption from local taxes due to its being owned by a government agency) it was a financial disaster, partly because its cost overran estimates by more than 100%... It wrecked the street grid of Lower Manhattan. WTC replaced all that with a vast superblock like something from Brasilia, which disrupted traffic flow and made New York’s notorious traffic jams even worse.
It was shabbily constructed... It was a pain to do business in, because it took twice as long to get in and out of as any other skyscraper in New York. Due to that huge plaza, you couldn’t take a cab up to the door, but had to slog through rain, snow, or sweltering heat just to get to the front door. Then you had to take not one but two elevators to get wherever you were going: a bizarre combination of a "local" and an "express" elevator that I’ve never seen in any other building. It was so tall your eardrums hurt if you didn’t continually swallow on the way up. At street level, it was surrounded by a huge concrete plaza that was alternately sweltering (as it was completely unshaded by so much as a sapling) in summer and windswept (due to the vortex effect of the towers) in winter. The rest of the time, it was an open-air zoo of homeless people. The American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City rightly records that the shopping mall underneath it "drains the plaza of any meaningful activity." This mall, which brought the sophistication of Paramus, NJ to the world’s greatest city, killed the retail life of the streets of Lower Manhattan by siphoning off purchasing power... To build it, they had to demolish the old Electronics District of New York, destroying thousands of jobs and a good number of homes. It diverted billions in public investment from New York’s real infrastructure needs like the subways and the airports. It failed to provide easy connections between the different subway lines that ran beneath it. It was energy-inefficient. Its windows were untinted glass, leading to huge solar heat gain. It was built with inefficient pre-oil shock technology throughout.
It is no accident that when WTC was in effect expanded by the construction of the World Financial Center next door in the ‘80s, just about every design principle was reversed:
Sick irony or no, al Qaeda has given New York a chance to correct one of its great urban-planning mistakes... It would be a pity to waste this opportunity rebuilding something that we know, in our heart of hearts, was a mistake top begin with." - Front Page Magazine (06/11/02)

FEMA Releases Additional $57 Million For Debris Removal
"The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that the agency is releasing an additional $57 million to assist New York City in debris removal at the World Trade Center site. This brings the total amount to date FEMA has provided for public assistance to more than $339 million.
FEMA public assistance funds are being used to help the city repair damaged infrastructure, restore critical services, cover costs associated with immediate response activities, and the removal, transport and sorting of debris." - FEMA (11/09/01)

(See also:  April 2001 - Port Authority grants 99-year lease of WTC to Silverstein Properties; June 2, 2002 - Silverstein profits $478 million from WTC 7 collapsing; Killtown's:  Real Reason WTC was Targeted)

• September 13, 2001 - The student ID of alleged Flight 77 hijacker Majed Moqed is reportedly found in the Pentagon rumble after the crash, still able to read his name on it.

"Sept. 13, 2001. A “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Student Identity Card” was found in the rubble at the Pentagon with Moqed’s name on it. Forensic examination indicated that it may have been fraudulent. United States Secret Service Forensic Services report for the FBI PENTTBOM investigation regarding the physical examination of forensic science research request, Oct. 10, 2001." - 9/11 Commission: Monograph on 9/11 and Terrorist Travel, Chp 2 (PDF)

(Note: Photo of Moqed is from FBI website and not from his ID after it was supposedly found at the Pentagon.)

(See also:  July-August 2001 - Moqed seen in two stores looking over adult videos and books.; September 17, 2001 - Passport from hijacker found at WTC; Killtown's:  Flight 77 - Suspicious Debris)

• September 13, 2001 (11 am) - FAA opens airspace to commercial aviation.

"Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has ordered the national airspace system re-opened to commercial aviation, effective at 11 a.m. Eastern time Thursday." - FAA (09/13/01)

• September 13-19, 2001 - Bush Administration allows members of the Bin Laden family and other top Saudi Arabian officials to be evacuated from the U.S. before the government's flight restrictions for the general public were lifted.

"In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks while U.S. airspace was restricted, planes sanctioned by the Bush administration flew about the country gathering some 140 high-ranking Saudi Arabians – including several relatives of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden – who were then spirited out of the country within a week of the terror, according to a senior official.
Citing Clarke, the magazine reports that within a week of the hijackings private planes picked up individuals from 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Houston and Boston. Aviation officials complained the flights took place before the government had lifted flight restrictions for the general public.
Once the flight ban was lifted, two jumbo jets transported the Saudis out of the country. The Boston Globe reported at the time that two flights bound for Saudi Arabia with members of the bin Laden clan on board left Logan on Sept. 18 and 19. Other reports put the departure date at Sept. 14." -  WorldNetDaily (09/04/03)

"Saudi Arabia supervised urgent evacuation of 24 members of Osama bin Laden's extended family from United States in first days after terror attacks on New York and Washington, fearing that they might be subjected to violence..." - New York Times (09/30/01)

"The twin-engine Lear jet streaked into the afternoon sky, leaving Tampa behind but revealing a glimpse of international intrigue in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on America.
The federal government says the flight never took place.
But the two armed bodyguards hired to chaperon their clients out of the state recall the 100-minute trip Sept. 13 quite vividly.
In the end, the son of a Saudi Arabian prince who is the nation's defense minister and the son of a Saudi army commander made it to Kentucky for a waiting 747 and a trip to their homeland.
The hastily arranged flight out of Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar on the outskirts of Tampa International Airport, was anything but ordinary. It lifted off the tarmac at a time when every private plane in the nation was grounded due to safety concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.
For private investigators Dan Grossi and Manuel Perez, the bodyguards on the Lear, it was a trip they can't forget.
A Special Situation Grossi said Tampa police intelligence detectives called him about 11 a.m. Sept. 13, needing help with a special situation: They had been watching three young Saudi men - at least one a student at the University of Tampa - at their south Tampa apartment, and the trio was scared and wanted to go home.
Grossi said he was told the clearance came from the White House after the prince's family pulled a favor from former President Bush. Prince Sultan, the Saudi defense minister, was part of the coalition that fought the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
At Raytheon airport, Grossi met with the Tampa detectives who had brought the young men. The Lear's pilot, who had flown in from Fort Lauderdale, introduced himself.
By 4:30 p.m., the twin-engine, eight-passenger jet lifted off.
Grossi and Perez recalled the strange feeling of flying in the near-empty sky, knowing of the ban on private flights.
In less than two hours, the Lear landed at the Blue Grass airport, where the passengers were met by Saudi security officials, Grossi said. He and Perez saw several private 747s parked on the tarmac with foreign flags on the tails and Arabic lettering on the sides.
Within the hour, the Lear took off again for Tampa with Grossi and Perez. Neither would say how much they were paid.
But the Lear was not headed back to Fort Lauderdale, Grossi said the pilot told him. It was bound for New Orleans to pick up someone who needed a ride to New York.
"Who knows who they really were," Grossi said. "It was certainly somebody important to obtain clearance to fly." -  Tampa Tribune (10/05/01) [Reprinted at:  UnansweredQuestions.Org]

"The Bin Ladens are among the most influential families in Saudi Arabia. They maintain close links with the Saudi royal family and have ties with the UK and America.
The Saudi Arabian Bin Laden Group is one of the biggest construction companies in the world, with clients in America that include General Electric.
The brothers who run the construction and property business in the US fled the country in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks." - Guardian (11/22/01)

• September 13, 2001 - On a Dan Rather taped interview, Tom Kenney of The Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force says his squad was one of the first teams to be deployed to the WTC for support and says his squad arrived late in the evening of Monday Sept. 10 and goes into action the following morning on Tuesday Sept. 11 causing a stir on the internet that FEMA had prior knowledge about the attacks, but FEMA officials and Mr. Kenney's wife later say he simply "misstated" his arrival date in the heat of the moment, although Mr. Kenney was never actually interviewed and FEMA never mentions their planned participation of a biochemical attack drill in NYC scheduled to take place the day after 9/11. 

"We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City of New York for this disaster," Kenney said. "We arrived on late Monday night and went into action on Tuesday morning, and not until today did we get a full opportunity to work the entire site." -CBS News (09/13/01) [Audio Clip]

"Drill for Distribution of Medication In the Event of a Biological Attack Had Been Scheduled for September 12, 2001
Tripod had originally been scheduled to take place on September 12th, 2001, at Pier 92-which ironically had served as the temporary home of OEM shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11." - NYC.gov  (05/22/04)

"FEMA officials said Kenney, in the heat of the moment, misstated his team's arrival date. Kenney could not be reached for comment." - WorldNetDaily (11/15/01)

"If you do a Web search on key words in the story, you'll find various versions, including an audio of Rather's interview indicating that, indeed, "Kennedy'' did say he arrived Monday.  Likewise, common sense dictates Kenney simply said Monday when he meant Tuesday.
To confirm, the Herald called the Kenney home on Cape Cod and spoke to Kenney's wife, who said that her husband did go to New York on Sept. 11, not Sept. 10. She explained that he was under extreme stress when Rather interviewed him, and added wryly that it was typical of her husband to confuse dates." - Boston Herald (09/05/02) [Reprinted at: billstclaire.com]

"When Tom Kenney misspoke in a post-9/11 interview with CBS News' Dan Rather, he started a minor Internet firestorm that included allegations the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, had prior knowledge of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Rumors that the agency had prior knowledge surfaced following the Sept. 13, 2001, CBS interview. In that interview, Kenney, a FEMA contract employee, told Rather he had arrived in New York City "late Monday," though the attacks there occurred at around 9 a.m. the next day, on Tuesday.
"We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City of New York for this disaster," Kenney said. "We arrived on late Monday night and went into action on Tuesday morning, and not until today did we get a full opportunity to work the entire site."
Information provided through FOIA requests, however, show that FEMA had no personnel in place Sept. 10, 2001 – the day before Sept. 11, 2001 – which would have suggested the agency had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks." - WorldNetDaily (11/27/02)

(See also:  September 10, 2001 - The Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force arrives late in the evening in NYC and goes into action at the WTC the following morning on 9/11; September 12, 2001 - FEMA and hundreds of other state and federal government officials were scheduled to participate in a biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City; May 19, 2004 - Mayor Rudy Giuliani discusses "Operation TRIPOD" at the 9/11 Commission hearings)

• September 13, 2001 - On the 700 Club, TV evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson say that pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU, and the People For the American Way were partially to blame for 9/11.

"Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.
"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."
Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."
Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' " - Washington Post (09/14/01)

"I am deeply saddened that in the wake of this week's devastating terrorist attacks, Religious Right political leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have chosen the path of division rather than unity.
Below is a partial transcript of the 700 Club television program from Thursday, September 13, 2001." - People for the American Way (09/13/01)

• September 13, 2001 - Interview With Huffman Aviation Casts Doubt on Official Story

Interview conducted by Jared Israel around noon, 13 September, 2001.
"Israel: Hi, is this Huffman Aviation?
Dekkers: ...Yes this is Huffman Aviation.
Israel: Ok, I'm going to keep you on for ten seconds. I just have a very quick question to ask you. Emperors-Clothes, we're a news Website. Do you train people on the actual planes that were used in that horrible thing in NY?
Dekkers: No sir. We train small single engine, small multi-engine airplanes. And they are good for four people; that's it. That's not turbine. Total different systems. Not capable to fly anything like that. I have learned yesterday from the media - you are talking to Rudi Dekkers.
Israel: Could you spell your name?
Dekkers: R-u-d-i D-e-k-k-e-r-s.
Israel: And you're talking to Jared Israel at Emperor's Clothes which is at www.tenc.net and is very skeptical about the story because it didn't make sense.
Dekkers: No, what happened was after the training they had here they went to another flight school in Pompano Beach and they had jet training there, simulator or big planes, but there is where they conducted the training to do what they had to do.
Israel: Are you sure of that?
Dekkers: Yeah we have heard that from several directions.
Israel: But even so, with the training you would get would you trust somebody to get in a plane and fly?
Dekkers: No, I fly 20 years in these kind of small planes and I would not do for a million dollars to take over that cockpit.
Israel: So it's still questionable, isn't it?
Dekkers: Oh, you bet. (Phone rings.) One second...(Off line) Larry, Larry keep on the line I have 30 seconds and then I am with you...(Back on line) 30 seconds.
Israel: Yes. You're very helpful. Your point is the more sophisticated training with the other place but that might give you a certificate but would you trust somebody to do the kind of sophisticated thing they did?
Dekkers: No they didn't have the certificate to do that. They only had only a multi-commercial license but not for commercial airlines. That is a different license. But these people didn't need a license, so that's another question.
Israel: But wouldn't what they did require sophistication?
Dekkers: Yeah, they want to that school, I have heard the name, they call it a jet center for simulator training, there is no way - this is not my opinion. My opinion is I don't think it is possible. I have spoken to many captains from the airlines and they say there is no way what the planes did they could have done that. They changed altitude. They changed speed. They changed direction. They had to know about the equipment to do what they had to do and there is no way that could have been done." - Emperor'sClothes.com (09/13/01)

(See also:  January 24, 2003 - Rudi Dekkers, who ran flight school that trained 9/11 hijackers, survives helicopter crash into freezing river)

• September 13, 2001 - The first partial passenger lists from all the four hijacked planes list no Arab names.

Flights:  11, 175, 77, 93 - Guardian (09/13/01)

American Airlines Flight 11	United Airlines Flight 175	American Airlines Flight 77	United Airlines Flight 93
Crew Captain John Ogonowski First Officer Thomas McGuinness Barbara Arestegui Jeffrey Collman Sara Low Karen Martin Kathleen Nicosia Betty Ong Jean Roger Dianne Snyder Madeline Sweeney Passengers Anna Allison David Angell Lynn Angell Seima Aoyama Myra Aronson Christine Barbuto Carol Bouchard Neilie Casey Jeffrey Coombs Tara Creamer Thelma Cuccinello Patrick Currivan Andrew Currygreen Brian Dale David Dimeglio Donald Ditullio Albert Dominguez Al Filipov Carol Flyzik Paul Friedman Karleton Fyfe Peter Gay Linda George Edmund Glazer Page Hackel Farley Peter Hashem Robert Hayes Edward Hennessy John Hofer Cora Holland Nicholas Humber John Jenkins Charles Jones Robin Kaplan Barbara Keating David Kovalcin N Janis Lasden Danny Lee Daniel Lewin Jeff Mladenik Antonio Montoya Laura Morabito Mildred Naiman Laurie Neira Renee Newell Jacqueline Norton Robert Norton Jane Orth Thomas Pecorelli Bernthia Perkins Sonia Puopolo David Retik Philip Rosenweig Richard Ross Heath Smith Douglas Stone Xavier Suarez James Trentini Mary Trentini Mary Wahlstrom Kenneth Waldie John Wenckus Candace Williams Christopher Zarba	Crew Captain Victor Saracini First Officer Michael Horrocks Robert J Fangman Amy N Jarret Amy R King Kathryn L Laborie Alfred G Marchand Michael C Tarrou Alicia N Titus Passengers Alona Avraham Garnet Bailey Mark Bavis Graham Berkeley Klaus Bothe David Brandhorst Daniel Brandhorst John Cahill Christoffer Carstanjen John Corcoran Dorothy Dearaujo Gloria Debarrera Lisa Frost Lynn Goodchild Francis Grogan Carl Hammond Gerald Hardacre Eric Hartono James Hayden Roberta Jalbert Ralph Kershaw Heinrich Kimmig Brian Kinney Maclovia Lopez Marianne Macfarlane Juliana Mccourt Ruth Mccourt Wolfgang Menzel Shawn Nassaney Marie Pappalardo Patrick Quigley Jesus Sanchez Kathleen Shearer Robert Shearer Jane Simpkin Brian Sweeney Tim Ward William Weems	Crew Captain Charles Burlingame First Officer David Charlebois Michele Heidenberger Jennifer Lewis Kenneth Lewis Renee May Passengers Paul Ambrose Yemen Betru MJ Booth Bernard Brown Suzanne Calley William Caswell Sarah Clark Asia Cottom James Debeuneure Rodney Dickens Eddie Dillard Charles Droz Barbara Edwards Charles Falkenberg Zoe Falkenberg Dana Falkenberg James Ferguson Budd Flagg Dee Flagg Richard Gabriel Ian Gray Stanley Hall Bryan Jack Steve Jacoby Ann Judge Chandler Keller Yvonne Kennedy Norma Khan Karen Kincaid Norma Langsteuerle Dong Lee Dora Menchaca Chris Newton Barbara Olson Ruben Ornedo Lisa Raines Todd Reuben John Sammartino Diane Simmons George Simmons Mari Rae Sopper Robert Speisman Leonard Taylor Sandra Teague Leslie Whittington John Yamnicky Vicki Yancey Shuyin Yang Yuguag Zheng	Crew Captain Jason Dahl First Officer Leroy Homer Lorraine G Bay Sandra W Bradshaw Wanda A Green Ceecee Lyles Deborah A Welsh Passengers Christian Adams Todd Beamer Alan Beaven Mark Bingham Thomas Burnett William Cashman Georgine Corrigan Joseph Deluca Patrick Driscoll Edward Felt Colleen Fraser Andrew Garcia Jeremy Glick Lauren Grandcolas Donald Greene Linda Gronlund Richard Guadagno Toshiya Kuge Waleska Martinez Nicole Miller Mark Rothenberg John Talignani Honor Wainio

• September 14, 2001 - The FBI releases the names of the alleged 9/11 hijackers.

"The following is a list of the nineteen (19) individuals who have been identified as hijackers aboard the four airliners that crashed on September 11, 2001, into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania. Information listed for each hijacker differs, but may include date of birth, address provided, or visa status. This is the extent of the information available at this time." - FBI (09/14/01)

American Airlines #77
Boeing 757
8:10 am departed Washington Dulles for Los Angeles
9:39 am crashed into the Pentagon
1) Khalid Al-Midhar - Possible residence (s) : San Diego, California and New York, New York; Visa Status: B-1 Visa, but B-2 Visa had expired.
2) Majed Moqed - No information available.
3) Nawaq Alhamzi - Possible residence (s) : Fort Lee, New Jersey and Wayne, New Jersey and San Diego, California.
4) Salem Alhamzi - Possible residence (s) : Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Wayne, New Jersey.
5) Hani Hanjour - Possible residence (s) : Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California. Believed to be a pilot.

American Airlines #11
Boeing 767
7:45 am departed Boston for Los Angeles
8:45 am crashed into North Tower of the World Trade Center
1) Satam Al Suqami - Date of birth used: June 28, 1976; Last known address: United Arab Emirates.
2) Waleed M. Alshehri - Dates of birth used: September 13, 1974/January 1, 1976/ March 3, 1976/ July 8, 1977/ December 20, 1978/ May 11, 1979/ November 5, 1979; Possible residence (s) : Hollywood, Florida/ Orlando, Florida/ Daytona Beach, Florida; Believed to be a pilot.
3) Wail Alshehri - Date of birth used: July 31, 1973; Possible residence (s) : Hollywood, Florida, and Newton, Massachusetts; Believed to be a pilot.
4) Mohamed Atta - Date of birth used: September 1, 1968; Possible residence (s) : Hollywood, Florida/ Coral Springs, Florida/ Hamburg, Germany; Believed to be a pilot.
5) Abdulaziz Alomari - Date of birth used: December 24, 1972 and May 28, 1979; Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida; Believed to be a pilot.

United Airlines #175
Boeing 767
7:58 am departed Boston for Los Angeles
9:05 am crashed into South Tower of the World Trade Center
1) Marwan Al-Shehhi - Date of birth used: May 9, 1978; Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida; Visa Status: B-2 Visa; Believed to be a pilot.
2) Fayez Ahmed - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
3) Ahmed Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
4) Hamza Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
5) Mohald Alshehri - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.

United Airlines #93
Boeing 757
8:01 am departed Newark, New Jersey, for San Francisco
10:10 am crashed in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania
1) Saeed Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
2) Ahmed Alhaznawi - Date of birth used: October 11, 1980; Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
3) Ahmed Alnami - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida.
4) Ziad Jarrahi - Believed to be a pilot.

(See also:  September 20, 2001 - FBI Director Robert Mueller admits that some of the alleged 19 hijackers identities are in doubt as at least seven of them appear to be alive; September 27, 2001 - FBI releases hijackers photos; August 16, 2002 - None of the remains of the alleged hijackers on Flight 11 and Flight 175 have been identified, but the remains of the alleged hijackers on Flight 77 and Flight 93 have been identified by a "process of elimination.")

• September 14, 2001 - The Taliban said a country that could train pilots was responsible for the attacks.

"...the Taliban regime in Afghanistan said prime suspect Osama bin Laden was innocent because the country had no facility to train pilots. The regime claimed a country that could train pilots was responsible." - TCM Breaking News (09/13/01)

(See also:  September 10, 2001 - U.S. OK’d plan to topple the Taliban and expel Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan; September 14, 2001 - Unocal issues a press statement declaring they are not supporting the Taliban in any way)

• September 14, 2001 (4:00 pm) - FAA allows certain general aviation back in the air.

"Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has approved restoration of the next phase of national air service, allowing certain general aviation flights back into the air effective at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time today." - FAA (09/14/01)

• September 14, 2001 - At a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) about national security, board member Gary Hart* says that the 9/11 attacks is a chance for the President of the United States to carry out a "new world order."

National Security in the 21st Century: Findings of the Hart-Rudman Commission
Transcript of the September 14 2001 General Meeting in Washington, D.C.
"On the other hand, a careful reading of this report will find a remarkable thing. We didn't ... unlike what we've said today ... we didn't just emphasize the negative, the dangers. We emphasized the opportunities. And Americans are brilliant at many things, not least of which is turning lemons into lemonade. There is a chance for the President of the United States to use this disaster to carry out what his father ... a phrase his father used I think only once, and it hasn't been used since ... and that is a new world order." - Council on Foreign Relations

*The CFR's transcript reads that Warren Rudman said this, but video shows Gary Hart actually said it.

(See also:  September 11, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush twice references the phrase "new world order" in an address before congress.)

• September 14, 2001 - Unocal issues a press statement declaring they are not supporting the Taliban in any way.

"El Segundo, Calif., Sept. 14, 2001 -- Unocal Corporation is not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan in any way whatsoever. Nor do we have any project or involvement in Afghanistan.
Beginning in late 1997, Unocal was a member of a multinational consortium that was evaluating construction of a Central Asia Gas (CentGas) pipeline between Turkmenistan and Pakistan. Part of this pipeline would have crossed western Afghanistan. However, Unocal suspended its participation in the CentGas consortium in August 1998 and formally withdrew from that consortium in December 1998. Our company has had no further role in developing or funding that project or any other project that might involve the Taliban. The pipeline was never constructed." - Unocal (09/14/01)

(See also:  September 14, 2001 - The Taliban said a country that could train pilots was responsible for the attacks; September 20, 2001 - President Bush delivers his non-negotiable demands to the Taliban)

• September 16, 2001 - Osama bin Laden releases a press statement denying he had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.

September 16, 2001
"Osama bin Laden denies any involvement in the 9/11 attacks in a statement to Al Jazeera television, saying, "I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons." - PBS

Bin Laden and family flee to the hills and family go into hiding, Terror suspect denies role in attack on US

• September 16, 2001 - President Bush says Osama Bin Laden is the "prime suspect."

"Q Mr. President, do you believe Osama bin Laden's denial that he had anything to do with this?
THE PRESIDENT: No question he is the prime suspect. No question about that." - White House (09/16/01)

• September 16, 2001 - President Bush claims that nobody had ever thought that terrorists would hijack U.S. airplanes and fly them into buildings despite evidence to the contrary and also talks about the decision he made to shoot down civilian airliners.

"THE PRESIDENT: No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft - fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people - and show no remorse. This is a new kind of -- a new kind of evil.
Q: Mr. President, would you confirm what the Vice President said this morning, that at one point during this crisis you gave an order to shoot down any civilian airliner that approached the Capitol? Was that a difficult decision to make?
THE PRESIDENT: I gave our military the orders necessary to protect Americans, do whatever it would take to protect Americans. And of course that's difficult. Never did anybody's thought process about how to protect America did we ever think that the evil-doers would fly not one, but four commercial aircraft into precious U.S. targets - never. And so, obviously, when I was told what was taking place, when I was informed that an unidentified aircraft was headed to the heart of the capital, I was concerned. I wasn't concerned about my decision; I was more concerned about the lives of innocent Americans. I had realized there on the ground in Florida we were under attack. But never did I dream we would have been under attack this way.
That's why I say to the American people we've never seen this kind of evil before. But the evil-doers have never seen the American people in action before, either - and they're about to find out." - White House (09/16/01); NATO (09/16/01)

(See also:  1999 - NORAD starts conducting exercises in which airplanes are hijacked and crashed into targets which include the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.)

• September 17, 2001 - Bush wants Osama Bin Laden "Dead or Alive".

"President Bush Monday repeated his vow to track down Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in last week's terror attacks...
"I want justice," Bush said. "And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'"
Bush again vowed to track down bin Laden and put countries and individuals who make have harbored and fed the hijackers responsible for last week's attacks "on notice." - ABC (09/17/01)

• September 17, 2001 - Attorney General John Ashcroft asked Congress to bolster the powers federal authorities have to fight terrorism, including a proposal to substantially loosen restrictions on wiretapping.

"Ashcroft seeks "roving" wiretap authority, allowing one order to cover all phones a suspect may use. Plus, he wants the ability to get a nationwide wiretap order from a federal judge, rather than having to obtain a separate order for individual jurisdictions." - ABC (09/17/01)

• September 17, 2001 - A passport is supposedly found belonging to one of the alleged hijackers who's plane crashed into one of the WTC's!.

"New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said Sunday a passport belonging to one of the hijackers was discovered a few days ago several blocks from the crash site by a passerby. Based on the new evidence, the FBI and police decided to widen the search area beyond the immediate crash site." - CNN (09/17/01)

(See also:  September 13, 2001 - Student ID of Flight 77 hijacker found at Pentagon)

• September 19, 2001 - Russian Secret Services claims to have obtained circumstantial evidence proving Osama bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.

RUSSIAN SECRET SERVICES HAVE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE PROVING BIN LADEN'S INVOLVEMENT IN TERRORIST ATTACKS ON USA
"Russian secret services have obtained circumstantial evidence proving international terrorist Osama bin Laden's involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA.
By US request, the evidence was handed over to US secret services." - Pravda (09/19/01)

• September 19, 2001 - Iraq denies role in US attacks

"Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri has fiercely denied his country was involved in last week's suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington.
Mr Sabri told the al-Iqtisadi weekly there was "no link, near or far" between Iraq and the attacks, which have left nearly 6,000 people dead or missing.
The BBC's Caroline Hawley says many Iraqis feel the US is determined to try to pin the blame on Baghdad in some form, in order to justify a fresh round of attacks on the country." - BBC (09/19/01)

• September 19, 2001 - President Bush talks about dipping into the Social Security surplus he'd promised only to do in an emergency, a recession, or war.

"Q Mr. President, you promised only to dip into the Social Security surplus in an emergency, a recession, or war. And in your words, this constitutes a war. How much of the Social Security surplus are you prepared to spend?
THE PRESIDENT: We are -- not only has someone conducted an act of war on us, our economy has slowed way down and this is an emergency. We've had all three, it seems like to me. And I'm going to work with Congress to send a clear message to America, American workers, American business people, that this government will respond to this emergency.
We'll respond to the emergency in terms of working on a package for the airline industry that has been severely affected. We'll respond to work to fight terrorism. The Congress has already responded, with a supplemental that will not only help fund our military, but as importantly, will send a clear message to the people of New York and New Jersey and Connecticut that we'll help you rebuild.
And this is exactly the subject we talked about. The definition of how much -- is enough to get America going again as to be able to endure this emergency." - White House (09/19/01)

• September 20, 2001 - In his state of the union speech, President Bush gives his nearly impossible non-negotiable demands to the Taliban to hand over all leaders of al Qaeda, hand over every terrorist and close all terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, give the U.S. full access to every terrorist training camps and says the war on terror won't stop until every terrorist group in the world has been defeated.

"And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." - White House (09/20/01)

(See also:  August 13, 1996 - Unocal and Delta Oil plan to build a gas pipeline through Afghanistan; September 14, 2001 - Unocal issues a press statement declaring they are not supporting the Taliban in any way; October 7, 2001 - U.S. invades Afghanistan)

• September 20, 2001 - President Bush says 9/11 attacks happened because these people "hate our freedoms".

"Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." - White House (09/20/01)

 "On September 11, 2001, there was an attack on America.
There are some men that decided that they didn’t like what America stands for: freedom, liberty, and the rights of men and women of all races, backgrounds, and beliefs. So on the morning of September 11, 2001, they hijacked four planes and attacked America in a terrible way.
The men that arranged this terrible attack want Americans to feel afraid and disorganized. They want to make people who live in this country do what they say by threatening us. Basically they’re big bullies." - Class Brain.com

(See also:  October 29, 2004 - new videotape of Bin Laden says U.S. foreign policy is to blame for attacks and Bush misled Americans saying attacks was because Al Qaeda hates America's freedoms.)

• September 20, 2001 - FBI Director Robert Mueller admits that some of the alleged 19 hijackers identities are in doubt as at least seven of them appear to be alive.

"FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Thursday that investigators may not know the true identities of some of the 19 suspected airplane hijackers from last week's suicide attacks.
But while in Pennsylvania on Thursday for a tour of the crash site there, he raised fresh doubts about the accuracy of the identifications.
"We have several hijackers whose identities were those of the names on the manifests," Mueller said. "We have several others that are still in question. The investigation is ongoing, and I am not certain as to several of the others."
Officials refused to say how many hijackers may have used false identities, but officials of the Saudi Arabian government said Thursday that six of the men that the United States has named as hijackers killed in the attacks appear to be living in the Middle East.
The six Saudis are: Abdulaziz Alomari [Flight 11], Salem Alhamzi [Flight 77], Saeed Alghamdi [Flight 93], Ahmed Alnami [Flight 93], Wail Alshehri [Flight 11], and Waleed M. Alshehri [Flight 11]." - LA Times (09/21/01) [Archived:  Wayback Machine]

"A Saudi-Arabian aircraft pilot who was named as one of five suspects on board one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre, has turned up alive and well in Morocco.
The man, Waleed Al-Shehri [Flight 11], has told Saudi journalists in Casablanca that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco at the time.
Mr Al-Shehri said he has now been interviews by the American authorities, who apologised for the misunderstanding." - BBC (09/22/01)

"Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.   The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt:  Waleed Al Shehri [Flight 11], Abdulaziz Al Omari, [Flight 11], Saeed Alghamdi [Flight 93], and Khalid Al Midhar [Flight 77]." - BBC (09/23/01)

(See also:  September 14, 2001 - Alleged hijackers names released the FBI)

• September 21, 2001 - The body of ex-FBI agent John O'Neill is recovered from the WTC.

"The body of John P. O'Neill, a former assistant director of the FBI and an expert on terrorism, was recovered Friday from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
O'Neill had recently retired from the FBI and had just taken over security for the World Trade Center, said New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik in an interview with CNN's Larry King Live.
"That Tuesday was his first or second day on the job," Kerik said. "He was going to go into One World Trade, the tower one, and when the strike came he went into the second tower in an attempt to help people get out of the building, and he died there. We found his body today."
O'Neill, 50, was the chief of international terrorism operations for the FBI. He supervised on-site investigations of the bombing by terrorists of the USS Cole in Yemen last year, and the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
A 1996 article published in the Van Impe Intelligence Briefing quoted O'Neill as saying, "No longer is it just the fear of being attacked by international terrorist organizations -- attacks against Americans and American interests overseas. A lot of these groups now have the capability and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to do so."
In a 1997 speech to a meeting of the National Strategy Forum in Chicago, he called Afghanistan's conflict with Russia "a major watershed event" in terrorism.
Aided by the United States, Afghanistan "beat one of the largest standing armies in the world at that time, which gave them a buoyed sense of success and that they could take on other countries like the U.S. and be likewise successful," he said." - CNN (09/21/01)

(See also:  1997 - John O'Neill forecasts the possibility of an organized attack and said that terrorists were already operating in the U.S.; August 2001 - John O'Neill becomes chief of security at the WTC; September 10, 2001 - John O'Neill starts his first day of work at the WTC; 9/11 - John O'Neill is feared dead on his second day on the job at the WTC)

• September 21, 2001 - N.M. Tech expert retracts his statement that explosives were planted in the WTC.

"A New Mexico explosives expert says he now believes there were no explosives in the World Trade Center towers, contrary to comments he made the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
"Certainly the fire is what caused the building to fail," said Van Romero, a vice president at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
The day of the attack, Romero told the Journal the towers' collapse, as seen in news videotapes, looked as though it had been triggered by carefully placed explosives.
Subsequent conversations with structural engineers and more detailed looks at the tape have led Romero to a different conclusion.
Romero supports other experts, who have said the intense heat of the jet fuel fires weakened the skyscrapers' steel structural beams to the point that they gave way under the weight of the floors above.
That set off a chain reaction, as upper floors pancaked onto lower ones.
Romero said he believes still it is possible that the final collapse of each building was triggered by a sudden pressure pulse caused when the fire reached an electrical transformer or other source of combustion within the building.
But he said he now believes explosives would not have been needed to create the collapse seen in video images.
Conspiracy theorists have seized on Romero's comments as evidence for their argument that someone else, possibly the U.S. government, was behind the attack on the Trade Center.
Romero said he has been bombarded with electronic mail from the conspiracy theorists.
"I'm very upset about that," he said. "I'm not trying to say anything did or didn't happen." - Albuquerque Journal (09/21/01) [Reprinted with:  WayBack Machine]

(See also:  9/11 - Explosives Planted In Towers, N.M. Tech Expert Says)

• September 22, 2001 - Bush signs into law the "Airline Transportation and Systems Stabilization Act" which gives federal aid to the airlines industry and compensation to 9/11 victims, but if the victims accept this compensation, they forego their right to sue the airlines or even the U.S. government for any reason.

"Today I signed the Airline Transportation and Systems Stabilization Act, which will provide urgently needed tools to assure the safety and immediate stability of our Nation's commercial airline system. This important legislation also establishes a process for compensating victims of the terrorist attacks." - White House (09/22/01) - September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001

"Congress swiftly approved a $15-billion federal aid package for the battered U.S. airline industry Friday while setting up a government fund to compensate the families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. President Bush was expected to sign the measure.
It provides $5 billion in cash assistance and $10 billion in loan guarantees, and it limits the liability of American Airlines and United Airlines for their hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside.
Under the measure, individual air carriers' liability stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks would be limited to the amount of their insurance.
It also provides for ways for those injured or victims' families to seek compensation, but not punitive damages." - LA Times (09/22/01)

"When it was first launched, many Sept. 11 families criticized the program as a tightfisted effort to protect airlines from negligence claims and put insulting dollar values on individual lives.
Those who accept money from the fund must forego suing the airlines or other U.S. entities for negligence in the death of their loved ones.
More than 70 families to date have insisted on suing instead of registering with the fund, blaming airlines, security companies, and government officials for allowing the terrorist conspiracy to succeed.
Even after filing an initial application with the fund, families can still choose later to opt out of the program and sue." - Guardian (12/17/03)

• September 22, 2001 - A demolition company called "Controlled Demolition Inc." is hired to help clean up the World Trade Center disaster, their president, Mark Loizeaux, had said that he knew that the Twin Towers were "coming down" after the planes struck them, and his company "without a doubt" would have been called to demo the WTC if they had not collapsed after the attacks.

Construction Company Proposes Plan for WTC Site

"Phoenix, Md.-based Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI) has developed a plan that may be used to clean up the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster. The plan, delivered on Sept. 22 to the city's Department of Design and Construction, outlines a site-wide master plan.
Among other things, CDI recommends that the steel beam structures be removed first and that attention must be paid to restoring transit service in the area. With regard to the steel structures, CDI recommends that workers use liquid oxygen-propane torches to prevent the steel from welding back, which could slow operations.
CDI also asserts that maintaining the slurry wall beneath the foundation is important to keep it from collapsing and suggests implementing a slurry wall tieback system." - Waste Age (10/16/01)

Bringing Down The House

"Mark Loizeaux likens it to the best shots of a golf game when he's "in the zone"--completely in control, master of his domain.

It is an immutable law: Any structure that goes up will eventually come down--by the laws of nature or the will of man. The bigger, more difficult ones will be razed in seconds with spectacular explosive elegance by experts in the art and science of controlled demolition.
The technique was pioneered by the late Jack Loizeaux, who began as a forester in Baltimore. "We kick out the supports, and the good Lord and gravity do the rest," he liked to say.
In 1960, when Jack incorporated the business, Mark, 13, was already working with his father after school. Doug joined in 1972, and in 1991, Mark's daughter Stacey, 32, became the third generation of America's first family of Unbuilders. By now Maryland-based Controlled Demolition Inc. has brought down thousands of structures, reportedly more than all its global competitors combined.

Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of blasting techniques can blow up a building. The Loizeauxs implode things down. They collapse a structure inward within its footprint or lay it down in a predetermined direction to avoid collateral damage to adjacent structures. After a detailed structural analysis, they use a minimum amount of explosives strategically placed in holes drilled in critical support columns or strapped to support beams. These are detonated in an exquisitely timed sequence lasting from milliseconds to a full nine seconds. Weight and gravity do the rest. Some Loizeaux techniques developed over the decades are proprietary and the principal reason for their commercial success and safety record. Their implosions have never caused a death or injury.

The tools of destruction range from standard dynamite, used to shatter concrete, to linear shaped charges that concentrate the force of a high explosive called RDX, slicing through steel with millions of pounds of pressure per square inch. In a 2001 project, for example, it took a mere 80 pounds of shaped charges to bring down each of two New York gas storage tanks built with 5 million pounds of steel.

There is a more somber side to CDI's work. In 1995, the company was asked to demolish the remains of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Building, blown up by Timothy McVeigh. The Murrah building was a prelude to the greater disaster of Sept. 11, 2001. Like most Americans, the Loizeauxs were transfixed by the televised scenes of destruction shortly after the first jet struck. But as experts in buildings' vulnerabilities, they knew right away what few Americans realized. "I told Doug immediately that the tower was coming down, and when the second tower was hit, that it would follow," remembers Mark.
Horrified, the Loizeaux brothers watched first responders streaming into the doomed towers and tried frantically, and unsuccessfully, to phone in warnings. In the following days, CDI was called to ground zero to consult on safety and develop plans for demolition and debris removal. What if the twin towers, though badly damaged, had somehow remained standing? Without doubt, the Loizeaux family would have been called upon to bring them down. "Quite simply," says Mark in a rare moment of introspective uncertainty, "I don't know how we would have done it." - USNews / Pg 2 (06/06/03)

(See also:  December 2002 - CDI's is demolishing the facility at Fort Detrick that made weapons-grade anthrax; April 12, 2004 - Mark Loizeaux is reported by AFP saying he would have put explosives in the basement of the Twin Towers to help bring it down)

• September 22, 2001 - European Union finance officials help investigate suspicious insider trading preceding the 9/11 attacks.

EU Searches for Suspicious Trading

"European Union finance officials Saturday stepped up efforts to sniff out suspicious insider trading preceding the attacks on the United States.
German central bank president Ernst Welteke said a study by his bank strongly points to "terrorism insider trading" not only in shares of heavily affected industries such as airlines and insurance companies, but also in gold and oil.
"If you look at movements in markets before and after the attack, it makes your brow furrow. But it is extremely difficult to really verify it," Welteke said. Nevertheless, he said he believes that "in one or the other case it will be possible to pinpoint the source." - FOX (09/22/01)

• September 23, 2001 - When asked about if those who attacked the U.S. on 9/11 acted alone on CBS “Face the Nation”, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that a network like that can not function so effectively without the help from governments and corporations.

"MS. BORGER: Mr. Secretary, are you still convinced that Osama Bin Laden's network acted alone?
SEC. RUMSFELD: -- ...I've never been convinced that that is the case. There is no way in the world that a network can function as effectively over such a long period of time, with such excellent finances, and false passports, and all of the intelligence information they had to have, without the being fostered, and facilitated, and assisted, and financed by states, and by businesses, and by non-governmental organizations, and by corporations. It is a -- it is a large network."  - DoD (09/23/01)

• September 25, 2001 - Mohamed Atta's father says Atta called him day after attacks around noon and that it's not his son in the Portland airport's 9/11 security video.  Says his son "hated" Osama bin Laden, thinks the Mossad and "American Christians" carried out the attacks and accuses them of kidnapping his son.

Hijacking suspect's father says son `hates bin Laden,' isn't terrorist

"Mohamed Al-Amir, the father of a hijacking suspect in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, said Monday that his son hated Osama bin Laden and would never commit terrorism.
The FBI has called Al-Amir's son, Mohamed Atta, 33, the "axis" of a terrorist network that carried out the bloodiest attack on U.S. soil.
"I challenge any person who has any proof that one member of this family belongs to any political party," said Al-Amir, shaking a forefinger as his face reddened. "My son hates bin Laden - and this is the only political opinion he had in his life."
Al-Amir's crowded afternoon news conference dissolved into a shouting match with reporters. He said Atta hated bin Laden because the accused mastermind of the recent terrorist strike in New York also attacked the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan in the mid-1990s.
In a quivering voice that rose to a shout, he blamed Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, for the attacks: "America knows that it was the Mossad who did this operation!" He accused Mossad or another intelligence agency of kidnapping his son.
Al-Amir, a middle-class lawyer in Cairo, described his son as a quiet, happy child who grew into a hard-working, religious man "like all the people in our family. ... He only had one hobby; that was playing chess with me."
Atta graduated from Cairo University with a degree in architecture in 1990. He studied English at American University in Cairo and wrote and spoke English perfectly, according to his father.
He studied German before studying urban planning at a technical university in Hamburg, Germany.
His son phoned home 12 to 36 hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, he said, in what was "a normal phone conversation."
Pressed to explain where the call came from, Al-Amir said he did not know, screaming back: "Is it written on the telephone where he is?"
Airport security videotapes of his son on the morning of the terrorist attacks were "falsified," he declared.
"That is not my son," he shouted, pointing to a security-camera photo published in an Arabic newspaper. "This person has more muscle than my son. He has a big nose, and he apparently is wearing a mask. This is not my son!"
Other individuals initially identified as hijackers, he said, were found to be living in Saudi Arabia." - PittsburgLive (09/25/01)

Father insists alleged leader is still alive

"The father of Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the September 11 attacks, said in an interview published yesterday that his son was still alive.
"He is hiding in a secret place so as not to be murdered by the US secret services," Mohammed el-Amir Atta, 66, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. He also vehemently denied that his son - believed to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Centre - had taken part in the atrocities, blaming them instead on "American Christians".

 The interview painted a picture of a tortured man who has not come to terms with his 33-year-old son's death or with the huge crime laid at his door. He said he feared the US would try to poison him.
Speaking from his Cairo home, Mr Atta described hearing about the attacks after returning from a holiday on the Red Sea on the evening of September 12. "My daughter called and said she was going to drop in. She stood at the door and said 'turn on the TV'," he said. Amid images of the jets crashing into the Twin Towers, he saw his son's passport photograph.
"As I saw the picture of my son," he said, "I knew that he hadn't done it. My son called me the day after the attacks on September 12 at around midday. We spoke for two minutes about this and that.
"He didn't tell me where he was calling from. At that time neither of us knew anything about the attacks."

Mr Atta said he did not condone the attacks, but could understand the hijackers' motivation. "Every day our Palestinian brothers are being murdered, their houses destroyed. If their relatives were to fly a plane into the Empire State Building I couldn't hold it against them," he added.
Mr Atta called his son a "gentle and tender boy", who enjoyed reading history and geography books and was nicknamed "Bolbol", or nightingale, by his parents." - Guardian (09/02/02)

(See also:  9/11 (5:45 am) - Atta and Al-Omari allegedly videotaped at a Portland, ME airport)

• September 26, 2001 - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani bans all video and photography at the WTC.

"Photography at the World Trade Center site, where thousands of curious New Yorkers and tourists have gathered with still and video cameras since the terrorist attacks, was banned by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"No photographic equipment or video equipment may be brought into the area or used, except with the approval of the Police Commissioner," said a statement issued by the mayor's office on Tuesday.
The statement said that the ban was issued because the site is a crime scene and that cameras and video equipment could be seized. No one from the mayor's office was available early Wednesday to explain why the order wasn't issued earlier." - Boston Globe/AP (09/26/01)

"The official attitude to photography was often negative; those with cameras were seen as ghouls and made unwelcome near Ground Zero. Many photographers were warned off and some arrested shortly after the events, with police claiming that photography was not permitted because the whole area was a crime scene. Then on September 26 Mayor Rudy Giuliani banned photography of the WTC, but the following day, realising he had no right to do so, he lifted the ban. Despite this, many police officers continued to harass all photographers in the area, especially those without press credentials.
As Fred Krughoff commented, after being physically threatened with assault by a young officer for taking photographs in mid-November without a press pass,"you can't fight the police when they decide to do something that may later turn out to be wrong. When it comes to the street, the police are pretty in a position to make up whatever rules they want." - About.com

• September 27, 2001 - The FBI releases the photographs of the 19 alleged 9/11 hijackers.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation is today releasing 19 photographs of individuals believed to be the hijackers of the four airliners that crashed on September 11, 2001, into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania. The FBI requests the public's assistance in obtaining more information about these individuals.

It should be noted that attempts to confirm the true identities of these individuals are still under way." - FBI (09/27/01)

American Airlines #11 - Boeing 767 Mohamed Atta, pilot and group leader Age: 33. Nationality: Egyptian. Most Floridians who encountered Atta remember him as always serious and frequently boorish. Thought to be a mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot. Abdulaziz Alomari (Believed to be a pilot) Age: Unknown. Nationality: Saudi. His grinning face captured at an ATM machine in Portland, Maine, gave rise to an FBI theory that some hijackers did not know the Sept. 11 plot was a suicide mission. Satam M.A. Al Suqami Age: 25. Nationality: Saudi. Tied to a foiled millennium plot to blow up tourist sites. Wail M. Alshehri (Believed to be a pilot) Age: 28. Nationality: Saudi. Waleed M. Alshehri (Believed to be a pilot) Age: 22. Nationality: Saudi. Their father last saw them in December 2000 when Wail Alshehri went away to seek religious help for a psychological problem.

United Airlines #175 - Boeing 767 Marwan al-Shehhi, pilot and group leader Age: 23. Nationality: United Arab Emirates. Al-Shehhi was a friendly foil to his frequent companion, the brooding Atta, as they earned their commercial pilots licenses together in Venice, then trained on a simulator in Opa-Locka near Miami. Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad Age: 28. Nationality: Saudi. A year ago this past Tuesday, he purchased his first-class ticket on Flight 175. Ahmed Alghamdi Age: 21. Nationality: Saudi. One of two Sept. 11 terrorists with ties to a foiled millennium plot to attack tourist destinations. Lived in Delray, but moved to Virginia by this time last year to get in place for the attack. Hamza Alghamdi Age: 20. Nationality: Saudi. Mohand Alshehri Age: 21. Nationality: Unknown. Not related to the Alshehri brothers aboard Flight 11.

American Airlines #77 - Boeing 757 Hani Hanjour, pilot and group leader Age: 29. Nationality: Saudi. In the weeks before Sept. 11, he met twice with Mohamed Atta in Las Vegas. The FBI now believes those sessions at a discount motel were crucial in planning the attacks. Hanjour took flying lessons in Scottsdale, Ariz., where his instructors said his skills were poor. Investigators say that could be the reason Flight 77, with Hanjour at the controls, began to jerk. Nawaf Alhazmi Age: 25. Nationality: (Possible Saudi national) Majed Moqed Age: Unknown. Nationality: (Possible Saudi national) Khalid Almihdhar Age: Unknown. Nationality: (Possible Saudi national) Salem Alhazmi Age: Uknown. Nationality: Saudi.

United Airlines #93 - Boeing 757 Ziad Samir Jarrah, pilot and group leader Age: 26. Nationality: Lebanese. Jarrah was the leader of the only hijacking group with four members, a factor that may have enabled a group of passengers to overpower them. Germany, he partied and seemed to enjoy Western culture. In 1999, after meeting Atta, he got his pilot’s license in Hamburg and dropped out of school. He turned up several months later in Venice, Fla., to take flying lessons. Saeed Alghamdi Age: 25. Nationality: Saudi. One of three hijackers who rented a $900-a-month condo in the Delray Beach Racquet Club near I-95. Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi Age: 20. Nationality: Saudi. Once lived in Lauderdale by the Sea, two blocks from the beach, with Jarrah. Drove Jarrah’s sporty Mitsubishi Eclipse. Ahmed Alnami Age: 23. Nationality: Saudi. At 5-feet-9 inches tall, he was among the taller hijackers. -Compiled from:  St. Petersburg Times, FBI

(See also:  September 14, 2001 - FBI releases hijacker names; September 20, 2001 - FBI Director Robert Mueller admits that some of the alleged 19 hijackers identities are in doubt as at least seven of them appear to be alive; August 16, 2002 - None of the remains of the alleged hijackers on Flight 11 and Flight 175 have been identified, but the remains of the alleged hijackers on Flight 77 and Flight 93 have been identified by a "process of elimination.")

• September 28, 2001 - Osama bin Laden denies involvement with 9/11 in the Pakistani newspaper interview, Ummat, suggests that Jews or U.S. secret services were behind the attacks, and says he's not hostile to the United States, but to the U.S. government.

Bin-Ladin Denies Involvement in the 9/11 Attacks

"The Al-Qaidah group had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks on the USA, according to Usama bin Ladin in an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Ummat. Usama bin Ladin went on to suggest that Jews or US secret services were behind the attacks, and to express gratitude and support for Pakistan, urging Pakistan’s people to jihad against the West. The following is the text of an interview conducted by a "special correspondent", published in the Pakistani newspaper Ummat on 28 September, place and date of interview not given.

UMMAT: You have been accused of involvement in the attacks in New York and Washington. What do you want to say about this? If you are not involved, who might be?
USAMA BIN LADEN: I am thankful to the Ummat Group of Publications, which gave me the opportunity to convey my viewpoint to the people, particularly the valiant and momin (true Muslim) people of Pakistan who refused to believe the lies of the demon (Pakistani military dictator General Pervez Musharraf).
I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle. It is the United States, which is perpetrating every maltreatment on women, children and common people of other faiths, particularly the followers of Islam. All that is going on in Palestine for the last 11 months is sufficient to call the wrath of God upon the United States and Israel.
Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed. According to my information, the death toll is much higher than what the U.S. Government has stated. But the Bush Administration does not want the panic to spread. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the U.S. system, but are dissenting against it. Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country, or ideology could survive. They can be anyone, from Russia to Israel and from India to Serbia. In the U.S. itself, there are dozens of well-organized and well-equipped groups, which are capable of causing a large-scale destruction. Then you cannot forget the American-Jews, who are annoyed with President Bush ever since the elections in Florida and want to avenge him.
Then there are intelligence agencies in the U.S., which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year. This [funding issue] was not a big problem till the existence of the former Soviet Union but after that the budget of these agencies has been in danger. They needed an enemy. So, they first started propaganda against Usama and Taleban and then this incident happened. You see, the Bush Administration approved a budget of 40 billion dollars. Where will this huge amount go? It will be provided to the same agencies, which need huge funds and want to exert their importance. Now they will spend the money for their expansion and for increasing their importance. I will give you an example. Drug smugglers from all over the world are in contact with the U.S. secret agencies. These agencies do not want to eradicate narcotics cultivation and trafficking because their importance will be diminished. The people in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Department are encouraging drug trade so that they could show performance and get millions of dollars worth of budget. General Noriega was made a drug baron by the CIA and, in need, he was made a scapegoat. In the same way, whether it is President Bush or any other U.S. President, they cannot bring Israel to justice for its human rights abuses or to hold it accountable for such crimes. What is this? Is it not that there exists a government within the government in the United Sates? That secret government must be asked as to who carried out the attacks.
UMMAT: The losses caused in the attacks in New York and Washington have proved that giving an economic blow to the U.S. is not too difficult. U.S. experts admit that a few more such attacks can bring down the American economy. Why is Al-Qa'idah not targeting their economic pillars?
USAMA BIN LADEN: I have already said that we are not hostile to the United States. We are against the [U.S. Government] system, which makes other nations slaves of the United States, or forces them to mortgage their political and economic freedom. This system is totally in the control of the American Jews, whose first priority is Israel, not the United States. It is clear that the American people are themselves the slaves of the Jews and are forced to live according to the principles and laws laid down by them. So the punishment should reach Israel. In fact, it is Israel, which is giving a blood bath to innocent Muslims and the U.S. is not uttering a single word." - Khilafah (12/28/01) [Reprinted at:  911review.com]

(See also:  September 16, 2001 - OBL denies 9/11 involvement in press release; November 7, 2001 - OBL denies 9/11 involvement in 'Dawn' interview)

• September 28, 2001 - The FBI claims to have found a letter handwritten in Arabic in the suitcase of Mohamed Atta -- which the letter lists Islamic prayers, instructions for a last night of life, and a checklist of reminders for their operation -- and claim to have found additional copies of the letter at the crash site of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and at a Dulles International Airport parking lot in a car registered to one of the alleged hijackers on Flight 77.

Hijacking letter found at three locations - FBI (09/28/01)

instructions for the last night

 "U.S. authorities found this letter handwritten in Arabic in the suitcase of Mohamed Atta. It includes Islamic prayers, instructions for a last night of life, and a practical checklist of reminders for the final operation. The FBI released an untranslated copy of the letter; the British newspaper The Observer published this translation. Additional copies of this letter were found at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and at a Dulles International Airport parking lot in a car registered to one of the hijackers on American Flight 77." - PBS/Frontline

• September 28, 2001 - Judicial Watch blasts former President Bush Sr. for working with the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through his company the Carlyle Group.

"Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, reacted with disbelief to The Wall Street Journal report of yesterday that George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm. The senior Bush had met with the bin Laden family at least twice. (Other top Republicans are also associated with the Carlyle group, such as former Secretary of State James A. Baker.) The terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had supposedly been “disowned” by his family, which runs a multi-billion dollar business in Saudi Arabia and is a major investor in the senior Bush’s firm. Other reports have questioned, though, whether members of his Saudi family have truly cut off Osama bin Laden. Indeed, the Journal also reported yesterday that the FBI has subpoenaed the bin Laden family business’s bank records.
Judicial Watch earlier this year had strongly criticized President Bush’s father’s association with the Carlyle Group, pointing out in a March 5 statement that it was a “conflict of interest (which) could cause problems for America’s foreign policy in Middle East and Asia.” Judicial Watch called for the senior Bush to resign from the firm then.
“This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President’s father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman." - Judicial Watch (09/28/01)

(See also:  October 21, 2003 - Former President and CIA Director, George H. W. Bush, retires from the Carlyle Group.)

• September 28, 2001 - Landing by remote control doesn't quite fly with pilots

Landing by remote control doesn't quite fly with pilots

"The military has been flying planes and landing them safely by remote control for years, but airline pilots say questions about security must be answered before that technology is used aboard commercial jetliners to thwart hijackers the way President Bush suggested Thursday during a speech in Chicago.
"We will look at all kinds of technologies to make sure that our airlines are safe," Bush said at O'Hare International Airport. "... including technology to enable controllers to take over distressed aircraft and land it by remote control."
Pilots said after the speech that though they support other proposals for airplane security that Bush outlined, the idea of aircraft being remotely controlled concerns them.
"If the good guys can take control of the plane" from the ground, said John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, "maybe the bad guys can take control of it too."
Taking control of a hijacked aircraft from the ground appears to be less feasible than other measures, he said.
"We would view that as a very--very--long-term type of undertaking," Mazor said. "There are enormous technical difficulties in trying to rig up an aircraft for that."
But companies that have designed such systems for the military say it wouldn't be difficult to adapt the technology for commercial aircraft.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. developed a remote-controlled reconnaissance plane for the Air Force called Predator, which flew in Bosnia during the conflict there. Used by the military since 1994, it can be landed by pilots linked by satellite using controls on the ground or ordering an onboard computer to do the job.
Tom Cassidy, president and CEO of the San Diego company, said he sent Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta a letter shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Such a system would not prevent a hijacker from causing mayhem on the aircraft or exploding a device and destroying the aircraft in flight," the letter said, "but it would prevent him from flying the aircraft into a building or populated areas."
Cassidy said Thursday that a pilot aboard a commercial airliner could turn the plane's guidance over to ground controllers at the press of a button, preventing a hijacker--or anyone else aboard--from flying the plane.
That system also would keep people on the ground from taking control of a plane away from the pilot, Cassidy said, because the pilot would first have to give up control.
Aircraft anywhere in the nation could be remotely controlled from just one or two locations using satellite links, Cassidy said. Those locations could be heavily fortified against terrorists.
"The technology is available," Cassidy said. "We use it every day." - Chicago Tribune (09/28/01) [Reprinted with Wayback Machine]

• October 1, 2001 - Many investigators into the 9/11 attacks believe that some of the initial clues that were uncovered about the terrorists' identities and preparations, such as flight manuals, were meant to be found and that whatever trail was left was "left deliberately for the F.B.I. to chase."

What Went Wrong

"After more than two weeks of around-the-clock investigation into the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the American intelligence community remains confused, divided, and unsure about how the terrorists operated, how many there were, and what they might do next. It was that lack of solid information, government officials told me, that was the key factor behind the Bush Administration's decision last week not to issue a promised white paper listing the evidence linking Osama bin Laden's organization to the attacks.

The investigators are now split into at least two factions. One, centered in the F.B.I., believes that the terrorists may not have been "a cohesive group," as one involved official put it, before they started training and working together on this operation. "These guys look like a pickup basketball team," he said. "A bunch of guys who got together." The F.B.I. is still trying to sort out the identities and backgrounds of the hijackers. The fact is, the official acknowledged, "we don't know much about them."

These investigators suspect that the suicide teams were simply lucky. "In your wildest dreams, do you think they thought they'd be able to pull off four hijackings?" the official asked. "Just taking out one jet and getting it into the ground would have been a success. These are not supermen."

It is widely believed that the terrorists had a support team, and the fact that the F.B.I. has been unable to track down fellow-conspirators who were left behind in the United States is seen as further evidence of careful planning. "Look," one person familiar with the investigation said. "If it were as simple and straightforward as a lucky one-off oddball operation, then the seeds of confusion would not have been sown as they were."
Many of the investigators believe that some of the initial clues that were uncovered about the terrorists' identities and preparations, such as flight manuals, were meant to be found. A former high-level intelligence official told me, "Whatever trail was left was left deliberately—for the F.B.I. to chase."

In interviews over the past two weeks, a number of intelligence officials have raised questions about Osama bin Laden's capabilities. "This guy sits in a cave in Afghanistan and he's running this operation?" one C.I.A. official asked. "It's so huge. He couldn't have done it alone."

"These people are not necessarily all from bin Laden," a Justice Department official told me. "We're still running a lot of stuff out," he said, adding that the F.B.I. has been inundated with leads. On September 23rd, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a television interviewer that "we will put before the world, the American people, a persuasive case" showing that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks. But the widely anticipated white paper could not be published, the Justice Department official said, for lack of hard facts. "There was not enough to make a sale."
The Administration justified the delay by telling the press that most of the information was classified and could not yet be released. Last week, however, a senior C.I.A. official confirmed that the intelligence community had not yet developed a significant amount of solid information about the terrorists' operations, financing, and planning. "One day, we'll know, but at the moment we don't know," the official said." - New Yorker (10/01/01)

• October 4, 2001 - Tony Blair's U.K. Government releases a 70 point dossier as evidence against Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network for their alleged involvement in 9/11, but experts and media reports say that their case against Osama is "thin on facts,"  "full of conjecture," and "still no smoking gun."

The UK's Bin Laden dossier in full

"This is the full text of the document, entitled Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States, released by Downing Street on Thursday about the evidence against Osama Bin Laden.
This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Osama Bin Laden in a court of law.
Intelligence often cannot be used evidentially, due both to the strict rules of admissibility and to the need to protect the safety of sources.
But on the basis of all the information available HMG is confident of its conclusions as expressed in this document." - BBC (10/04/01)

Blair: 'no doubt' of Bin Laden's involvement

"The prime minister, Tony Blair, today told MPs that Osama bin Laden told associates he planned "a major operation" in the US before September's terrorist attacks.
Opening an emergency debate on the international crisis at the second recalled session of parliament since the September 11 attacks, Mr Blair told a packed chamber there was "absolutely no doubt" that Bin Laden and his network committed the atrocities.
A dossier of evidence which established that link would be given to MPs, but the prime minister said much detail had to be omitted for security reasons.
Mr Blair told MPs that the coalition would "ensure that Afghanistan ceases to harbour terrorists" and warned that failure of the Taliban to cooperate "must bring about change in the regime".
He said: "The Taliban must yield them up or become our enemy also.
"It was Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida that planned and carried out this atrocity.
"They were able to commit these attacks because of the close alliance with Taliban in Afghanistan that allows them to act with impunity."
For the Conservatives, Iain Duncan Smith said Bin Laden was "guilty as charged"." - Guardian (10/04/01)

Still no smoking gun

"In the improbable event that Osama bin Laden ever faces a formal prosecution for the September 11 terrorist atrocities, the case against him that was published by the British government yesterday would be almost worthless from a legal point of view. Though the finger of suspicion universally points at Bin Laden and at no one else, most of the document which Tony Blair released at the start of the Commons debate is entirely circumstantial at best. The rest is summed up in a single sentence on the document's penultimate page: "There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of Bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release." More than three weeks after the Bush administration said it would produce the evidence against Bin Laden, the reality is that Mr Blair's case comes down to two words: trust me." - Guardian (10/05/01)

Case against Osama thin on facts: experts

"The evidence presented to British Parliament on Thursday linking Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organisation to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. has been received with widespread scepticism both on legal grounds and in terms of its diplomatic value in convincing the Arab world, in particular, that the West has an open and shut case against him.
The 17-page dossier, which begins with the disclaimer that it does not purport to present a ``prosecutable case'', has been described by legal experts as being too thin on facts to stand scrutiny in a court of law. Even the circumstantial evidence, according to them, is based more on conjecture than hard facts.
``This may carry weight with politicians used to public immunity certificates but not with lawyers who require direct and admissible evidence,'' said Mr. Anthony Scrivener, a lawyer, in The Times. He pointed out that a legal case could not be made simply on the strength of motive and the fact that the attacks on September 11 bore ``hallmarks'' of a bin Laden operation. There were many terrorist groups who shared ``the same hatred of the Americans who might have carried out this atrocity'', he said arguing that the main weakness of the document was that it sought to present ``assertion'' as ``evidence''.
The lawyer also questioned the legal basis of the claim that since three of the 19 suicide hijackers had been identified as ``associates of Al-Qaeda'' it proved that Al-Qaeda and by further association bin Laden were behind the operation.
Political pundits too were deeply sceptical saying that the Government had failed to produce a ``smoking gun'' that would prove bin Laden's guilt beyond doubt. ``The dossier relies heavily on circumstantial evidence about the previous atrocities carried out by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and the similarities between these acts and the atrocities on September 11...'' said Independent. He said only nine of the 70 points in the dossier related to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and these ``often rely on conjecture than evidence''.
The Times, in an analysis, called the document a ``puzzling and worrying piece of work''. ``There is no evidence presented that directly links bin Laden to September 11,'' asserted its foreign affairs commentator, Mr. Brownwen Maddox, calling the document ``a political dance, not a serious attempt to preach to the unconverted''. The Guardian, in an editorial headed ``Still No Smoking Gun'', described the evidence as ``almost worthless from a legal point of view'' and said Mr. Blair's case that there was sufficient ammunition to hang bin Laden boiled down to ``two words: trust me''. And, outside the hawkish political circles, not many seemed to be inclined to do that." - The Hindu (10/05/01)

Missing: crucial facts from the official charge sheet against Bin Laden
What the Government's dossier against bin Laden doesn't say and can't say: One thing is missing from the document 'proving' Bin Laden's guilt – the proof

"It was too good to be true. We were told we would be getting evidence of Osama bin Laden's guilt. Instead, close analysis of the 21-page document put out by the Government on Thursday reveals a report of conjecture, supposition and unsubstantiated assertions of fact. It uses every trick in the Whitehall drafter's arsenal to make the reader believe they are reading something they are not: a damning indictment of Mr bin Laden for the events of 11 September.
No wonder Tony Blair and his officials are delighted with the reaction to publication of the dossier. One Whitehall source told the Independent on Sunday they were "chuffed with two newspapers for hailing it as 'proof' of bin Laden's involvement and delighted it got such a good reaction overall". Ministers believe the document has sealed the propaganda war, convincing the country of the need to move against Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida and to accept limited British and civilian casualties. To their relief they are not being subjected to rigorous questioning on the report, either from their own supporters, the Opposition, or much of the media. Officials are also pleased: the document successfully papers over the cracks in their own intelligence operations.
The report was put together by a committee which included senior members of MI5 and MI6, working round the clock, with drafts going backwards and forwards to Washington. Within Whitehall, the dossier was seen as vital to gaining the approval of a naturally cautious and sceptical British public. As a paper produced by mandarins anxious to brook no argument it is a classic of its kind, straight from the script of Yes Minister: short on checkable detail; long on bold assertion; highly selective with the choice of facts.
The document carries a health warning that intelligence material has been withheld to protect the safety of sources. But, lawyers point out, this is not good enough. Assuming one aim of the military build-up is to try to capture Mr bin Laden and put him on trial, that so-far-unseen evidence would have to be displayed – because on the basis of what has been released there is no chance of his being prosecuted, let alone convicted. "The Prime Minister told Parliament that this evidence was of an even more direct nature indicating guilt," said Richard Gordon QC. "The document makes it clear that the additional evidence is 'too sensitive to release'. That may be so, but in any criminal prosecution against bin Laden the necessary evidence would have to be adduced for the case to be proved."
For page after page, the paper spews out facts about Mr bin Laden.  It might look like evidence of something, but it is not proof he organised the 11 September attacks. "All this shows, in the language of the lawyers, propensity, but it proves little," said Mr Gordon.
Again, said Mr Gordon, it is not enough. "This material shows that bin Laden may well have been responsible for the 11 September massacre but it does not, of itself, prove that he was." The document goes into great detail about the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. But there is not one single fact presented that was not already known. While the operation was similar to 11 September – well planned, two attacks on the same day, suicide attackers indiscriminate killing of civilians, including Muslims – it does not prove anything.
Officials deny that the minute description of the previous bombings was designed to cover up cracks in their own intelligence about 11 September. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that in a 21-page document the overwhelming bulk of it is devoted to rehashing old information. It is not until page 18 and paragraph 61 that the reader is told something new about 11 September.
This is that three of the 19 hijackers have been "positively identified as associates of Al Qaida" and that one of them "has been identified as playing key roles in both the East African embassy attacks and the USS Cole attack". The word "associates" suggests the authorities lack intelligence on al-Qa'ida: they think they know who may be involved but they are not sure, and they are not certain where they come in the pecking order – hence the catch-all, "associates". The three are understood to be: Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, both filmed secretly in Kuala Lumpur meeting other al-Qa'ida members involved in the USS Cole bombing in Aden; and Mohamed Atta. Suspected of being the ringleader, Atta is believed to have been a member of Islamic Jihad, a major grouping within al-Qa'ida, and the authorities are convinced he received training at a bin Laden camp in Afghanistan. The hijacker who played a key role in the embassy, USS Cole and 11 September attacks, is thought to refer to Almihdhar. If there is a hijacker linking all three, that is a crucial piece of evidence since there is no doubt al-Qa'ida committed the earlier bombings.
The next paragraph, 62, promises much and delivers little. Prefaced with another rider about names remaining anonymous to protect sources, it begins by saying how, prior to 11 September, Mr bin Laden "mounted a concerted propaganda campaign ... justifying attacks on Jewish and American targets". It was well known in the Middle East that, earlier this year, a bin Laden recruitment video was in circulation, exhorting Muslims to lay down their lives for the jihad. The video makes no mention of any coming big assault nor does it refer to 11 September or possible targets in the US.
Last week it emerged that Mr bin Laden called his adoptive mother in Syria on 10 September to tell her there would be "big news", subsequent to which he might be out of touch for some time. It is hard to believe that someone as cautious as him would risk such a call. However, this is understood to be what is being referred to when the document says, in paragraph 62: "We have learned, subsequent to 11 September, that bin Laden himself asserted shortly before 11 September that he was preparing a major attack on America." The document goes on, saying that in August and early September, close bin Laden associates were warned to return to Afghanistan by 10 September.
This is new, and odd. Since the attacks, known al-Qa'ida associates have been picked up or they are being watched. If there was advice to go to Afghanistan presumably they ignored it or did not receive it. The names of the "close associates" are not specified, neither is any more detail made available – which is a mystery. It is hard to see why giving a bit more detail would compromise anybody or a foreign intelligence service that may be monitoring their calls.
Again, this tantalising paragraph – by far the most intriguing in the document – says that just before the attacks "some known associates of bin Laden were naming the date for action as on or around 11 September". What associates? How? When? Again, no detail is supplied.
Then, the paragraph continues, "one of bin Laden's closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks". This is thought to be a reference to either Mohamed Atef, al-Qa'ida's operations chief, or Ayman al Zawahiri, Mr bin Laden's deputy. Another senior al-Qa'ida member being mentioned by those close to the investigation is Abu Zubeidah.
After all this, the most vital paragraph in the paper ends with this curious sentence: "There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release."
What this document is not is a detailed exposition of the investigation to date. To be fair, that is still ongoing, but providing that amount of information would distract from the paper's main purpose, to blame Mr bin Laden. This is summarised in the final narrative paragraph, 69: "No other organisation has both the motivation and the capability to carry out attacks like those of the 11 September – only the Al Qaida network under Osama bin Laden." This smacks of exasperation. To ram that point home, paragraph 70, "conclusion", repeats the message of the introduction. This, in the end, is what the paper is for, a Government plea for trust: it was Mr bin Laden. To which the response must be: we believe you – but prove it." - Independent UK (10/07/01) [Wayback Machine]

• October 5, 2001 - Bob Stevens becomes the first person to die from the anthrax attacks who was a photo editor at American Media, Inc., the parent company who owns the National Enquirer which published a photo of Bush's daughter Jenna shown drunk with a cigarette in her hand falling on top of another girl.

"Robert Stevens, 63, photo editor, the Sun, American Media Inc, Boca Raton, Florida.
Contracted inhaled anthrax...[found on his keyboard]
Died October 5." - Guardian (11/23/01)

"You won't find stories about anthrax in the newest issues of the tabloids produced by American Media, the company that evacuated its Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters last week after the lethal bacteria was found to have killed one employee and infected several others.
But just as the National Enquirer, Star, Sun, etc., are pledging not to stray from their respective missions, their direction already has taken a detour since Sept. 11.
The Sun, where anthrax claimed the life of photo editor Bob Stevens and sent other employees to the hospital, actually has been the least topical of the tabloids...
Days before anthrax hit his company, Coz said the tabloids already were covering -- or not covering -- certain stories differently. For instance, at least one of this year's headline grabbers now would be considered off limits: "Jenna and Barbara Bush. The Enquirer two or three months ago did one pretty big story after [Jenna] got arrested for underage drinking violations. That is an example of a story that the tabloids wouldn't do at this time. We wouldn't do that under the umbrella of patriotism." - Chicago Tribune (10/16/01)

"LAURA & GEORGE AT WAR OVER DAUGHTERS' BOOZING
The drinking problems of President Bush's teenage daughters Jenna and Barbara have triggered an all-out First Family feud!" - National Enquirer (06/08/01)

(See also:  December 2002 - Controlled Demolition, Inc is demolishing the facility at Fort Detrick that made weapons-grade anthrax; September 24, 2003 - The widow of the first anthrax victim Bob Stevens sues the federal government for $50 million)

• October 7, 2001 - Barely two weeks after President Bush's nearly impossible demands on the Taliban, the U.S. invades Afghanistan.

"The United States, with support from the United Kingdom invaded Afghanistan in October, 2001 as part of its "War on Terrorism". The military campaign, led by U.S. general Tommy Franks, was initially dubbed Operation Infinite Justice but quickly renamed Operation Enduring Freedom, due to the perceived religious connotations of the former.
According to the US, the purpose of Operation Enduring Freedom was to target Osama bin Laden, suspected of planning and funding the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and his terrorist network al-Qaida, as well as and the Taliban government in Afghanistan which refused to unconditionally extradite bin Laden and members of his organization. Many journalists have reported that plans to attack al-Qaida and the Taliban had been made as early as the Clinton administration, but bureaucratic wrangling had delayed action until after the September 11 attack.
Before October 7, there were reports that U.S. and British special-forces soldiers were covertly landed in Afghanistan at some time after September 11, presumably for reconnaisance purposes, and that several of these troops were captured by the Taliban. As of October 1, all such reports had been officially denied by the U.S., British, and Afghani governments.
At approximately 16:30 UTC (12:30 EDT, 17:00 local time) on Sunday October 7, 2001, US and British forces struck at the Taliban forces and those of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan. The US government justified these attacks as a response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. The Taliban condemned these attacks and called them an 'attack on Islam.'" - Wikipedia

"THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps; hand over leaders of the al Qaeda network; and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price." - White House (10/07/01)

"President Bush announced the U.S. military has launched attacks on Al Qaeda training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The attacks started at about 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The strikes follow the Taliban rejection of U.S. demands following the terror attacks of Sept. 11." - DoD (10/07/01)

(See also:  July 2001 - US plans to invade Afghanistan by October; September 20, 2001 - President Bush delivers his non-negotiable demands to the Taliban; October 24, 2001 - Who will run Caspian natural gas through Afghanistan?; March 23, 2004 - War in Afghan would have been politically impossible pre-9/11)

• October 7, 2001 - U.S. Ties Hijackers' Money to Al Qaeda

"U.S. investigators have established strong financial links between the al Qaeda terrorist network and the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said senior government officials who now consider the money trail the key to the investigation." -  Washington Post (10/07/01)
 

• October 8, 2001 - 23,000 U.S. troops are in the Middle East along with 50,000 foreign troops to begin participating in Operation "Bright Star", the largest joint military exercise conducted by U.S. Central Command.

"Egyptian military forces and members of the U.S. Central Command's Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and special operations components will participate in Bright Star, a joint/combined training exercise in Egypt. Military forces from eight other nations -- France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Spain and the United Kingdom -- will also participate.
Bright Star 01/02, the 11th in a series, is scheduled to take place Oct. 8 through Nov. 1, 2001.
Bright Star 01/02 is the largest and most significant coalition military exercise conducted by the Central Command. This exercise is an important part of U.S. Central Command's theater engagement strategy and is designed to improve readiness and interoperability and strengthen the military and professional relationships between U.S., Egyptian and participating forces." - DoD (10/03/01)

"Bright Star 01/02 is the month-long 10-nation, 70,000-soldiers exercise just completed in Egypt. Approximately 23,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were involved in the exercise." - Third United States Army

(See also:  September 2001 - 25,000 British troops arrive in Oman for Operation Swift Sword.)

• October 8, 2001 - President Bush signs an executive order establishing the Office of Homeland Security.

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. I hereby establish within the Executive Office of the President an Office of Homeland Security (the "Office") to be headed by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security.  GEORGE W. BUSH, THE WHITE HOUSE, October 8, 2001." - White House (10/08/01)

(See also:  November 25, 2002 - Bush signs legislation to create the new Department of Homeland Security.)

• October 11, 2001 - Two men whom police described as Middle Eastern were detained by federal immigration authorities after being found with detailed video footage of the Sears Tower in Chicago.

2 found with video of Sears Tower

"Two men whom police described as Middle Eastern were detained in the township by federal immigration authorities after being found with detailed video footage of the Sears Tower in Chicago.
Plymouth Police encountered the men after an officer responded to Pizzeria Uno on the 1000 block of West Ridge Pike at 2:40 p.m. Thursday for a report of illegal dumping, according to reports.

A manager there advised the police officer that a tractor-trailer was observed backed up to the Dumpster at the rear of the restaurant. The manager noticed a freshly dumped pile of furniture adjacent to the Dumpster, according to police.
The manager confronted the vehicle's operator, a Middle Eastern man, police said.
The man, who later identified himself as Moshe Elmakias, 30, denied that he did anything and fled the scene, heading west on West Ridge Pike, according to police.
The manager was able to provide township police with the Florida registration number of the tractor-trailer and said that a sign posted on the side of the vehicle read "Moving Systems Incorporated" and included a phone number, police said.

The area was searched by township police, and the vehicle was spotted parked on the curb in front of John Kennedy Ford on Ridge Pike, just west of Industrial Way.
An officer proceeded to make contact with the occupants of the truck by knocking on the cab, according to reports.
A Middle Eastern man, later identified as Ron Katar, 23, exited the sleeper area of the cab and said that the operator was across the street as he pointed toward the Don Rosen Porsche dealer, reports said.
Elmakias and a white female, Ayelet Reisler, 23, were approaching the vehicle from the dealership, but the female then began walking in a different direction, acting as if she were not with Elmakias, according to reports.
Reisler was detained and checked for identification. She had a German passport in her name and medication in a different name, police said.
Elmakias allegedly admitted to being behind Pizzeria Uno, although he said that he did not dump furniture, he was only turning around.
Elmakias said that his destination was New York and that he was also coming from New York. He said he was in Plymouth because he was supposed to make a pickup from a male in the morning and pointed toward the Storage USA facility on Belvoir Road and West Ridge Pike, police said.
Elmakias could not, however, provide a name or telephone number of the customer.
Schwartz discovered through his investigation that the operator's log had been falsified and put the truck out of service due to violations, police said. In addition, the vehicle reportedly had numerous equipment violations that rendered the truck unsafe.
Inspection of the tractor-trailer's contents revealed a load three-quarters full containing household items, including furniture and boxes.
Among the items in the truck was a Sony video camera.
Plymouth Police Officer David McCann reviewed the tape found inside the camera. The tape had video footage of Chicago with zoomed-in shots of the Sears Tower, according to police.
Elmakias and Katar were eventually detained by INS and transported to a federal facility, said police. Reisler was released." - The Mercury (10/17/01)

• October 12, 2001 - In an interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by Parade Magazine, Rumsfeld talks as if the Pentagon was hit by a missile on 9/11.

"Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center." - Defense Link (10/12/01)

'We Have To Defend Our Way Of Life'
Winik, Lyric Wallwork. Parade. New York: Nov 18, 2001. pg. 1, Abstract (Article Summary)
"The war against terrorism is more than a struggle for our physical survival, says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It's a fight to preserve American values." - Parade (11/18/01)

(See also:  9/11 (8:44 am) - Donald Rumsfeld is in his office at the Pentagon talking about missile defense and the risk of terrorism and predicts there will be a terrorist attack two minutes before the first plane crashes into the WTC; 9/11 (9:35 am) - For the second time of the day, Donald Rumsfeld predicts another terrorist attack right before it happens and correctly predicts it will happen to the Pentagon; March 23, 2004 - 9/11 Commission member referrers to the object heading towards the Pentagon on 9/11 as a "missile" when questioning Rumsfeld; December 24, 2004 - In a speech, Donald Rumsfeld talks as if the plane that was said to have crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 was shot down)

• October 23, 2001 - Air Force General Richard Myers said the military has never thought of the scenario of terrorists hijacking planes and using them as missiles despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

"You hate to admit it, but we hadn't thought about this," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said. - DoD 10/23/01

NORAD had drills of jets as weapons

"In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties.
One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center. In another exercise, jets performed a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of a jet supposedly laden with chemical poisons headed toward a target in the United States. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon — but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic, NORAD and Defense officials say." - USA Today (04/18/04)

(See also:  1998/99 - A Federal Report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government buildings; 1999 - NORAD starts conducting exercises in which airplanes are hijacked and crashed into targets which include the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; and April 2001 - NORAD planned to practice a scenario in which a terrorist group hijacks a plane and crashes it into the Pentagon)

• October 24, 2001 - Afghanistan has huge strategic importance for the west as a corridor to the untapped fuel reserves in central Asia - Guardian (10/24/01)

The Great Gas Game; Who will run Caspian natural gas through Afghanistan? - Christian Science Monitor (10/25/01)

(See also:  October 7, 2001 - U.S. invades Afghanistan; November 8, 2001 - A war for the pipelines?)

• October 26, 2001 -  Only a month and a half after 9/11, the 342 page USA PATRIOT ACT is signed into law in which civil liberty groups say it violates the Constitution and fear it will endanger civil liberties.

"...this legislation gives law enforcement officials better tools to put an end to financial counterfeiting, smuggling and money-laundering. Secondly, it gives intelligence operations and criminal operations the chance to operate not on separate tracks, but to share vital information so necessary to disrupt a terrorist attack before it occurs.
Surveillance of communications is another essential tool to pursue and stop terrorists. The existing law was written in the era of rotary telephones. This new law that I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet, and cell phones.
As of today, we'll be able to better meet the technological challenges posed by this proliferation of communications technology. Investigations are often slowed by limit on the reach of federal search warrants.
Law enforcement agencies have to get a new warrant for each new district they investigate, even when they're after the same suspect. Under this new law, warrants are valid across all districts and across all states. And, finally, the new legislation greatly enhances the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them.
This bill was carefully drafted and considered. Led by the members of Congress on this stage, and those seated in the audience, it was crafted with skill and care, determination and a spirit of bipartisanship for which the entire nation is grateful. This bill met with an overwhelming -- overwhelming agreement in Congress, because it upholds and respects the civil liberties guaranteed by our Constitution.
It is now my honor to sign into law the USA Patriot Act of 2001." - White House (10/26/01)

"The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 is a law in the United States. It was passed and signed into law on October 26, 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack.
The bill passed 98-1 in the United States Senate, and 356-66 in the United States House of Representatives; Senator Russ Feingold (Democrat, Wisconsin) cast the Senate's lone dissenting vote.
President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on October 26, 2001. Assistant attorney general Viet D. Dinh was the chief architect of the act.
The USA PATRIOT Act is an extremely complex and lengthy piece of legislation containing 1,016 sections and amending over 15 federal statutes. Much of it incorporates previous foreign intelligence acts particularly the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Amended statutes include laws governing criminal procedure, computer fraud, foreign intelligence, wiretapping, and immigration. Also contained are provisions dealing with financial assistance to victims of terrorism, increased benefits for public-safety workers and consumer protection from fraudulent charitable solicitations after an attack.
There has been strong criticism of the act on the grounds that certain parts of it violate the Constitution and endanger civil liberties, notably by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (For instance (according to the ACLU), the PATRIOT Act's permitting issuing warrants on grounds lesser than those mandated by the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, without question violates the plain language of the Constitution, and some have noticed that these warrants resemble the general warrants that were one reason the colonists fought the American Revolution). Critics allege that the act was passed without serious review amidst a climate of fear and represents a reactionary agenda that has little or nothing to do with the September 11th attacks, pointing to the fact that the act has been around as proposed legislation, in various forms, since well before the attacks themselves occurred, and that some groups had been unsuccessfully seeking its passage for a long time.
Many cities in the United States, including Eugene, Oregon and Cambridge, Massachusetts have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act for attacking civil liberties. The city of Oakland, California is considering passing a resolution that will bar city employees (including police and librarians) from assisting or cooperating with any Federal investigations under the PATRIOT Act that would violate any civil liberties protected under the Bill of Rights or United States Constitution. Arcata, California became the first city to actually pass such a law. Pundits question the legality of such a law, given the court system's tendency to favor federal laws over local ones in, for example, medical marijuana cases." - Wikipedia

(See also:  June 5, 2003 - John Ashcroft asks Congress to expand the Patriot Act)

• October 30, 2001 - Hundreds of gold bars that had been stored in vaults under WTC 4 have been discovered by Ground Zero recovery workers in a delivery tunnel under WTC 5 that was being transported on the morning of September 11 by a 10-wheel truck that had been crushed along with several other cars by debris, yet no bodies were recovered during the recovery operation!.

Cache of gold found at WTC; Two truckloads retrieved through a tunnel in rubble

"Workers at Ground Zero unearthed last night a buried treasure of gold, hidden for weeks under the ruins of the World Trade Center.
As a small army of federal agents with shotguns and automatic rifles stood guard, city cops and firefighters packed two Brink's armored trucks with the lode, sources said.
This is not a shocker, as it was rumored that as much as $160 Billion in bullion was stored under the Trade Center. Let's read on.
The sources said the gold was found in a delivery tunnel under 5 World Trade Center.
"They are taking gold out of there right now," one source said last night. "They've brought in extra cops."
It wasn't immediately clear how much gold was recovered last night - or exactly how much was buried under the complex after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia has said its vault under 4 World Trade Center alone held more than $200 million in gold and silver. Bank spokeswoman Pam Agnew didn't immediately know if any of that gold was found last night.
Other companies are believed to have lost untold gold and valuables in the disaster.
For the last couple of days, construction workers - directed by the feds - had been clearing a delivery tunnel that runs under the complex.
Officials finally got to the gold through that tunnel yesterday, after workers hauled out a 10-wheel truck, several crushed cars and mounds of debris.
No bodies were recovered during the operation.
As workers inched closer to the gold yesterday, authorities began restricting access to the north side of Ground Zero and FBI and Secret Service agents joined cops and firefighters at the site.
"If I tried to go down there, they would have shot me," said a construction worker shooed away from the tunnel.
A handful of heavy-machinery operators and other workers, under the watchful eyes of more than 100 armed officers, built and graded a ramp into the delivery tunnel.
A small bulldozer knocked down a wall inside the tunnel, and a Brink's armored truck drove in just before sunset.
It came out about 7 p.m. with the first load of gold, sources said. A second truck entered the tunnel a short time later and also was loaded with gold before leaving.
A handful of construction workers were held over from the day shift, which ends at 7 p.m., to help.
"They sent most of us on our merry way," said one worker." - NY Daily News (10/31/01) [Reprinted at:  sierratimes.com; rense.com]

Crushed towers give up cache of gold ingots

"RECOVERY workers at Ground Zero have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion dollar cache which was lost when the twin towers fell.
Workers clearing rubble in a service tunnel underneath one of the collapsed World Trade Centre buildings found themselves surrounded by more than 100 armed FBI and secret service personnel, who had been tipped off by the owners where the gold was buried.
The collapsed buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold.
The Comex metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3,800 gold bars — weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $100 million (£70 million) — in vaults in the building’s basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others with a value of about $220 million. It also held more than 102 million ounces of silver, worth $430 million.
The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported $200 million of gold lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking.
The gold, which was discovered on Tuesday, was being transported through the basement of the building on the morning of September 11. Recovery workers reached a service tunnel and discovered a ten-wheel lorry and a number of cars which had been crushed by falling steel.
A temporary ramp was built to gain access to the tunnel and a small bulldozer was used to break through a wall. Then a team of police and firefighters arrived to put the gold into an armoured bullion lorry. Other workers were told to make themselves scarce. “If I tried to go down there they would have shot me,” one said.
Eight years ago, when the World Trade Centre was bombed by terrorists, more than $1 billion in gold was being kept in the basement vaults, the property of the Kuwaiti Government. The vaults withstood the blast.
At first police believed the terrorist attack was an attempted gold robbery. Since then the amount of gold kept under the World Trade Centre has been a carefully guarded secret." - Times Online (11/01/01)  [Archived at:  911research.wtc7.net] 

Crushed towers give up gold cache - Irish Independent

- See also:  WTC Attack - Some Serious Questions - Sierra Times (11/01/01)

(See also:  February 26, 1993 - Police first believed '93 WTC attack was an attempted gold robbery; 9/11 - Over a billion dollars in gold and silver were stored in a vault under the WTC 4)

• November 2001 - The U.S. offers a reward of $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Osama Bin Laden, but doesn't even mention that he's wanted in connection with 9/11.

"MURDER OF U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; CONSPIRACY TO MURDER U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; ATTACK ON A FEDERAL FACILITY RESULTING IN DEATH
USAMA BIN LADEN IS WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE AUGUST 7, 1998, BOMBINGS OF THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, AND NAIROBI, KENYA. THESE ATTACKS KILLED OVER 200 PEOPLE. IN ADDITION, BIN LADEN IS A SUSPECT IN OTHER TERRORIST ATTACKS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Usama Bin Laden. An additional $2 million is being offered through a program developed and funded by the Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association." - FBI

(See also:  December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies)

• November 1, 2001 - President Bush signs Executive Order 13233 which limits public access to presidential records.

Bush's passion for secrecy

"In 2001, Bush issued an executive order rolling back the Presidential Records Act. The order shifts the burden of accessing presidential archives to the public; scholars could be forced to sue for memos and records of former presidencies. So even history may never know what Bush really intended when he pulled the wool over the people's eyes." - Boston Globe (12/21/04)

HISTORIANS, PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS SUE TO STOP BUSH ORDER

"Today the National Security Archive at George Washington University joined the American Historical Association (AHA) and other scholars and public interest groups in filing suit to stop implementation of President Bush’s November 1st executive order 13,233 which limits public access to presidential records.

The legal brief filed today in U.S. District Court in Washington argues that the Bush executive order violates the Presidential Records Act and asks for a declaratory judgment preventing the Archivist of the United States from implementing the order. The suit also requests the court to compel release of 68,000 pages of records from former President Reagan’s files that have been withheld at the direction of the Bush White House since January despite the direct requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
“The Presidential Records Act of 1978 was meant to shift power over White House documents from former presidents to professional government archivists and ultimately to the public,” commented National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton. “But the Bush order attempts to overturn the law, take the power back, and let presidents past and present delay public access indefinitely.” - National Security Archives (11/28/01)

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13233

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish policies and procedures implementing section 2204 of title 44 of the United States Code with respect to constitutionally based privileges, including those that apply to Presidential records reflecting military, diplomatic, or national security secrets, Presidential communications, legal advice, legal work, or the deliberative processes of the President and the President's advisors, and to do so in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court's decisions in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (1977), and other cases..." - White House (11/01/01), FAS (11/01/01)

(See also:  March 25, 2003 - Bush signs Executive Order 13292 which allows for documents to be kept secret for up to 25 years and gives classification powers to the Vice President; September 21, 2004 - Number of documents classified by Bush increased over 50 percent since 2001)

• November 7, 2001 - Osama bin Laden denies involvement with 9/11 in the Pakistani newspaper interview, The Dawn, and asked the U.S. to “live and let live,” a simple formula he says even a child can understand.

BIN LADEN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN SEPTEMBER 11 AND ASKS U.S. TO “LIVE AND LET LIVE”

"Osama bin Laden, the man whom the U.S. considers the “most wanted” man in the world, gave his first interview since the September 11 attacks today and asked the U.S. - currently engaged in massive military attacks on Afghanistan - to “live and let live,” a simple formula he says even a child can understand.
Bin Laden also went on to deny responsibility for the September 11 attacks.
In a special interview for the Pakistani daily newspaper, The Dawn, bin Laden spoke to Hamid Mir, editor of Pakistani daily, Ausaf, at an undisclosed location near Kabul.
Mir was taken, blindfolded, in a jeep from Kabul on the night of November 7 to a place he says was extremely cold and where one could hear the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing away.
Responding to a question on how killing is justified in the light of Islamic teachings, bin Laden said, “if an enemy occupies a Muslim territory and uses common people as human shield, then it is permitted to attack that enemy.”
“For instance, if bandits barge into a home and hold a child hostage,” he said, “then the child's father can attack the bandits and in that attack.” Bin Laden added that the U.S. and its allies had massacred Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir and Iraq and that the Muslims have the right to attack America in reprisal.
“Islamic Shari’ah [law] says Muslims should not live in the land of the infidel [unbeliever] for long. The September 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power,” said bin Laden.
Bin Laden further explained, “The Holy Prophet [Mohammad, peace be upon him] was against killing women and children. When he saw a dead woman during a war, he asked, ‘Why was she killed?’ ”
Mir stated to MSNBC earlier this morning that bin Laden denied being responsible for the September 11 attacks and said that the 19 men the U.S. has declared as hijackers and perpetrators of the attacks were nothing more than passengers.
In his interview, bin Laden declared that if the United States used chemical or nuclear weapons against him, then he may also respond with chemical and nuclear weapons. “We have the weapons as deterrent,” he said, while refusing to say where he got the weapons.
Bin Laden said that he has been disappointed by the stance taken by Pakistani military President General Pervez Musharraf. He said the Pakistani government should not have surrendered to the demands of America. “America does not have solid proof against us. It just has some surmises. It is unjust to start bombing on the basis of those surmises.”
“He [Musharraf] says that the majority is with him,” added bin Laden. “I say the majority is against him. Bush has used the word ‘crusade’. This is a crusade declared by Bush. It is no wisdom to barter off blood of Afghan brethren to improve Pakistan's economy. He will be punished by the Pakistani people and Allah.”
Mir wrote in The Dawn that “Osama bin Laden is a man at ease, even though he feels the Americans will eventually kill him.”
Mir said that he first met with bin Laden in 1997 and then again in 1998. He added that when he saw bin Laden this time, he found him greatly changed.
“Previously he was very soft-spoken," the 36-year-old Mir told Agence-France Press (AFP). "But now he speaks like an experienced orator. He is very hard-hitting. He was in high spirits. He's very healthy and he laughs a lot.”
The world's most hunted man, bin Laden feels certain the Americans will kill him sooner or later, according to Mir." - Islam Online (11/10/01)

(See also:  September 16, 2001 - OBL denies 9/11 involvement in press release; September 28, 2001 - OBL denies 9/11 involvement in 'Ummat' interview)

• November 7, 2001 - US agents told to back off bin Ladens and Saudi Royals soon after George W Bush became president.

US agents told to back off bin Ladens

"The BBC says that America's special agents backed away from the bin Laden family soon after George W Bush became president.
Agents were also told to back off the Saudi royals - although that has all changed since September 11.
The findings come from documents obtained from the FBI investigation of the US terror attacks by the Newsnight programme.
The papers show that despite the myth that Osama is the black sheep of the family, at least two other American-based members of it are suspected of links with a possible terrorist organisation.
Newsnight says it has uncovered a long history of shadowy connections between the State Department, the CIA and the Saudis.
The former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah from 1987 to 1989, Michael Springman, told the programme: "In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants.
"People who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained there. I complained here in Washington to Main State, to the Inspector General and to Diplomatic Security and I was ignored."
He added: "What I was doing was giving visas to terrorists - recruited by the CIA and Osama bin Laden to come back to the United States for training to be used in the war in Afghanistan against the then Soviets."
The US allegedly wanted to keep the pro-American Saudi royal family in control of the world's biggest oil spigot, even at the price of turning a blind eye to any terrorist connection - so long as America was safe.
The programme said the younger George Bush made his first million with an oil company partly funded by the chief US representative of Salem bin Laden, Osama's brother, who took over as head of the family after his father Mohammed's death in a plane crash in 1968." - Ananova (11/07/01) [Archived:  WayBack; Reprinted:  Propaganda Matrix]

Has someone been sitting on the FBI?

"PALAST: I received a phone call from a high-placed member of a US intelligence agency. He tells me that while there's always been constraints on investigating Saudis, under George Bush it's gotten much worse. After the elections, the agencies were told to "back off" investigating the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals, and that angered agents. I'm told that since September 11th the policy has been reversed. FBI headquarters told us they could not comment on our findings. A spokesman said: "There are lots of things that only the intelligence community knows and that no-one else ought to know." - BBC (11/06/01)

(See also:  1977 - One of G.W. Bush's first business partners for his oil start up company was Osama Bin Laden's eldest brother)

• November 8, 2001 - Suit: $100M Missing From WTC Brokerage

"More than $100 million from accounts handled by a World Trade Center brokerage was discovered missing in the days after the terrorist attack, according to a lawsuit.
The suit brought by Dirk Karreman, of Queensland, Australia, accuses First Equity Enterprises owner Andre Koudachev and other executives of "spending or absconding (with the money) to a presently unknown location."
The $108 million belongs to 1,400 investors in 14 countries, according to several foreign news accounts. Karreman claims he lost about $2 million and is seeking that amount in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages.
According to court papers filed Wednesday, executives informed a trader 11 days after the terrorist attack that Koudachev had disappeared with the investors' money and "they were never going to see him again." - Washington Post/AP (11/08/01)

• November 8, 2001 - Some say the current military campaign in Afghanistan has a hidden objective - to revive a gas pipeline and open the way for U.S. companies to build further facilities to carry central Asian oil.

A war for the pipelines?

"Just four years ago Taleban officials were at the Texas headquarters of the US energy company Unocal to discuss building a gas pipeline across Afghanistan to Pakistan.
The discussions did not get far and the project was abandoned the following year after the US launched cruise missile strikes against Afghanistan - part of an earlier assault on Osama Bin Laden.
But some say the current military campaign has a hidden objective - to revive that pipeline and open the way for US companies to build further facilities to carry central Asian oil.
If the US has an oil and energy agenda in its war on terrorism, it is not in Central Asia.
Some oil experts have dismissed the notion of a hidden proposal outright.
"There was discussion of the pipeline to carry gas to Pakistan, but it was abandoned way before current events because of political, economic and stability problems," said Paul Stevens, professor of petroleum policy and economics at Dundee University.
"So the idea that oil is now driving this war is totally unrealistic. It would be more sensible to be considering a pipeline on the moon."
But oil is nonetheless becoming an issue in this conflict in another way: the growing concerns about the future security of supplies from the world's key oil-producer, Saudi Arabia.
In the home of Islam's two holiest places, there is widespread sympathy for Osama bin Laden's aims as well as opposition to the US strikes, and that has left the traditionally pro-western royal family exposed.
But the crisis means Saudi Arabia is more important than ever for the stability of world oil supplies.
Even before the events of 11 September, energy security was a concern for President Bush.
Now the administration is considering moves such as boosting America's strategic oil reserves.
And it could decide to give the go-ahead to controversial plans to expand oil drilling in Alaska.
But even if this happens, this new oil won't be sufficient to replace imports - which account for more than half of America's needs.
"Its own drilling output is dwindling and Alaska wouldn't replace it," said Leo Drollas, chief economist at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.
"The key thing is Saudi's spare capacity - 51 per cent of the world total - and that would be even more important if the US decided to expand war to attack Iraq, thereby almost inevitably leading to Baghdad suspending exports."
Such concerns have made the Bush administration very careful in what it has said about the Saudi government, despite anger in some US military and intelligence circles over allegations that the monarchy turned a blind eye to fundraising for Osama bin Laden within the kingdom.
"We're hostage to oil, that's as simple as you can put it. We have let the economic considerations take precedence," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer with close links to serving intelligence officials.
Some say this crisis should be the spur for the US and other Western nations to make more use of renewable and other energy sources, to reduce their reliance on oil.
But that will not happen overnight and in the meantime, the more pessimistic say the US has to be ready for the possibility of serious disruption to oil supplies because of instability in Saudi Arabia.
One senior military figure who has served in top posts in previous administrations told the BBC that if this were to happen, the US would be prepared to send in its forces to take control of the oil fields." - BBC (10/08/01)

(See also:  October 24, 2001 - Who will run Caspian natural gas through Afghanistan?; January 1, 2002 - Bush appoints PNAC member and former Unocal advisor Zalmay Khalilzad to be U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan)

• November 10, 2001 - In a United Nations speech, Bush lashes out at conspiracy theories regarding the 9/11 attacks.

"We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of 11 September - malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty." - United Nations [pg. 9] (11/12/01)

• November 11, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden allegedly admits to Sept 11 attacks in an undisclosed videotape.

"It has been reported Osama Bin Laden has admitted for the first time that his al-Qaida network carried out the September 11 attacks.
The Sunday Telegraph in Britain says it has obtained previously undisclosed video footage in which the Islamic extremist confesses to the atrocities.
There have also been claims the video tape is forming the centrepiece of evidence currently being compiled by Britain and the US against the network.
The tape is due to be released on Wednesday." - TCM Breaking News (11/11/01)

(See also:  September 16, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden releases a press statement denying he had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks; December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video showing a husky looking Osama bin Laden bragging about the attacks)

• November 21, 2001 - Trade center death toll drops below 4,000

"The death toll from the destruction of the World Trade Center has dropped significantly, according to numbers released Wednesday by Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He said authorities have come up with a new way of reporting the numbers.
A total of 3,682 people are either confirmed dead or missing and presumed dead, the mayor said.
Estimates of the missing and dead in the days after the attacks had at one point exceeded 6,500, but by the end of October had dropped to around 4,600." - CNN (11/21/01)

• November 21, 2001 - Three eyewitnesses claim alleged 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi were at a Longboat Key, Florida hotel on Sept. 7, the day the media announced President Bush would be coming to the area on Sept. 11.

"If three eyewitnesses are correct, terrorist hijacker Mohamed Atta came to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites-Longboat Key Sept. 7 — the day the media announced President George W. Bush would be coming to the area Sept. 11 to speak at a Sarasota school. Atta may have been there to meet a second hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi." - Longboat Observer (11/21/01)

• November 30, 2001 - Experts blame fire for the mysterious collapse of the WTC 7 on Sept. 11th which would make it the first steel high-rise building to collapse in history solely from a fire.

Diesel suspected in 7 WTC collapse
"Almost lost in the chaos of the collapse of the World Trade Center's twin towers is a mystery that under normal circumstances would probably have captured the attention of the world: the collapse of a nearby 47-story building, seven hours after flaming debris from the towers rained down on it, igniting what became an out-of-control fire.
The 2 million-square-foot building, 7 World Trade Center, had suffered mightily from the fire, and had been wounded by beams falling off the towers. But experts said no building like it, a modern, steel-reinforced high-rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire. They have been trying to figure out exactly what occurred, and whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the country.
Engineers and other experts have begun considering whether a type of fuel stored inside the building created intensely hot fires like those in the towers: diesel fuel intended to run electricity generators in a power failure.
"Even though Building 7 didn't get much attention in the media immediately, within the structural engineering community, it's considered to be much more important to understand," said William F. Baker, a partner in charge of structural engineering at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Most of the three other buildings in the complex, 4, 5 and 6 World Trade, remained standing despite suffering damage of all kinds, including fire. Still, experts concede, in a hellish day, 7 World Trade might have sustained structural injuries never envisioned in fire codes." - Chicago Tribune (11/30/01) [Archived:  WayBack Machine]

"WTC-7 was a 47-story building and became a two-story pile of rubble," Hamburger said, "making it the first major structure in the United States to collapse because of fire." - Stanford Report (12/03/01)

(See also:  9/11 - The 47-story WTC 7 mysteriously collapses)

• December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies.

"Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted and personal bodyguards, his family members and some "Taliban friends," attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final tribute to the "great leader."
The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden's face before burial said "he looked pale ... but calm, relaxed and confident."
Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source vehemently said "no." Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of "pagans" against Islam. Bin Laden, he said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.
When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished." - FOX News (12/26/01)

"OSAMA bin Laden's supporters yesterday issued a statement on the internet saying he was dead.
The claims, repeated in the Al Bayan newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, said that the al-Qaeda terror chief died when the Americans bombed the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan.
The details tally with dates of bombing missions in which US intelligence experts suspected that he may have been killed.
The newspaper's story, headlined, "Yes, Osama bin Laden is dead but the Jihad will continue until Judgement Day'', quotes witness Shahid Ayan saying he perished on December 10, 2001." - Mirror UK (09/14/02)

"Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information." - New York Times (07/11/02) [Reprinted at:  benadorassociates.com]

(See also:  September 10, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden reportedly undergoes kidney dialysis at a Pakistani military hospital; December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video showing a husky looking Osama bin Laden bragging about the attacks; December 28, 2001 - US casts doubt on bin Laden's latest message, suggests he's already dead.; October 29, 2004 - Video of OBL admitting to attacks is released four days before election)

• December 2001 - Northwest airlines gives passenger data to NASA.

"Northwest Airlines said on Sunday it had acted appropriately and in line with company policy when it provided passenger data for a U.S. government air security study after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The airline's security department provided passenger information for July, August, and September of 2001 for a federal study aimed at improving aviation security but did not violate its own privacy policies, Northwest said in a statement.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday the Northwest gave three months of passenger data from October through December 2001 to NASA's Ames Research Center and that federal records showed more than 10 million passengers traveled with the airline during that period." - Washington Post/Reuters (01/18/04)

“In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, NASA had discussions with Northwest Airlines’ Security Department regarding a NASA research study to improve aviation security. In December 2001, NASA requested that Northwest’s Security Department provide it with passenger name record data from the period July, August, and September 2001 for NASA’s exclusive use in its research study. Northwest Airlines agreed to provide that data.
On September 23, 2003, after a speech to the St. Paul (Minn.) Rotary Club, Richard Anderson, Northwest Airlines chief executive officer, responded to a reporter’s question regarding JetBlue Airway’s release of passenger data to a private contractor. He said, “Northwest Airlines will not share customer information, as JetBlue Airways has.”
At the time Mr. Anderson answered this question, he had no knowledge of the Northwest Security Department’s provision of passenger data for the NASA research study.
Northwest Airlines’ current policy is to not provide passenger name record data to private contractors or federal government agencies for use in aviation security research projects. While Northwest Airlines still believes it would be appropriate to provide such data to the U.S. Government to advance aviation security, in light of current privacy concerns, Northwest believes a data protection protocol addressing privacy concerns should be developed before any further aviation security research with passenger data is conducted.” - Northwest Airlines (01/18/04)

• December 4, 2001 - In a speech in Florida, Bush claims he saw one of the planes crash into the WTC live on a TV in his holding room at Booker Elementary school right before he goes into a classroom for his scheduled reading with 2nd graders and thinks the crash was just a "horrible accident."

THE PRESIDENT: "Thank you, Jordan. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.
"But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, 'A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack.'" - White House (12/04/01)

What Did Bush See and When Did He See It?

"Which is why, ever since the one-year anniversary, various Web citizens have been puzzling and arguing over President George W. Bush's recollection of the first moments of Sept. 11. E-mails and Web sites drew my attention to transcripts posted at www.whitehouse.gov.

Here is a section, verbatim: President Bush was at a town meeting in Florida in December, 2001. A third grader asked: "How did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?''

"THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jordan. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. (On Sept. 11, Bush was visiting the Booker Elementary School to promote literacy programs.) And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card - actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower - the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.

"But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, `A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack.' ''

- (Posted at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html)

Think about that. Bush's remark implies he saw the first plane hit the tower. But we all know that video of the first plane hitting did not surface until the next day. Could Bush have meant he saw the second plane hit - which many Americans witnessed? No, because he said that he was in the classroom when Card whispered in his ear that a second plane hit.

Was Bush's comment a simple mistake? Maybe. But here's what Bush said in January 2002 at a town meeting in Ontario, Calif. posted at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html:

"Q: What was the first thing that went through your head when you heard that a plane crashed into the first building?''

"THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Well, I was sitting in a schoolhouse in Florida. I had gone down to tell my little brother what to do, and - just kidding, Jeb. (Laughter.) And - it's the mother in me. (Laughter.) Anyway, I was in the midst of learning about a reading program that works. . . . I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff - well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or - anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, `America is under attack.'

"And in the meantime, this teacher was going on about the curriculum, and I was thinking about what it meant for America to be under attack. It was an amazing thought. But I made up my mind that if America was under attack, we'd get them.''

Again, the question: How could the commander-in-chief have seen the plane fly into the first building - as it happened?

The Web has spun dozens of theories - some quite bizarre - about why Bush made these comments - you can get a sense of some at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline. You can also see a Booker School-produced video of Bush at the school at sites like: http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/2002/06/12_BookerLinks.html. It catches the moment when Card whispered in Bush's ear.

Perhaps Bush saw a replay of the second plane hitting the second tower, but simply remembers the hit as the first plane. Or maybe he did see the second plane hit - and then went on to read to the children. It's not conspiracy - just confusion. But it's confusion on a grand scale.

I ask again: Will you ever forget how you heard about Sept. 11? And what do you think of Bush's comments?

Read the transcripts and think about it." - Boston Herald (10/22/02)

(See also:  January 5, 2002 - Bush again claims to have seen one of the hijacked planes crash into the WTC live on TV at the school he was at; Killtown's:  Did Bush see the 2nd WTC plane crash?)

• December 7, 2001 - U.S. focuses bombing runs over Tora Bora region, Osama bin Laden not there and might have slipped into Pakistan.

U.S., ANTI-TALIBAN FORCES FOCUS ON TORA BORA

"With Kandahar in the hands of ethnic Pashtun tribes, the U.S. and anti-Taliban factions are focusing their attack on a series of caves in eastern Afghanistan where hundreds of al-Qaida fighters may be hiding.
Witnesses reported numerous U.S. bombing runs over the Tora Bora region south of Jalalabad. Al-Qaida troops reportedly responded by firing mortars at hundreds of tribal forces arrayed below the mountains.
Tribal leaders told reporters they are growing more convinced that Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaida and suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is in the area.
"We have intercepted radio messages from Kandahar to the al-Qaida forces here, and they ask, 'How is the sheik?' The reply is, 'The sheik is fine,'" Zein Huddin, one of the commanders, told the Associated Press. He said he is convinced "the sheik" is bin Laden.
Another tribal leader said his troops had seen someone resembling bin Laden riding on horseback near the al-Qaida front line.
As U.S. jets and anti-Taliban ground forces intensified their assaults on the cave complex, most al-Qaida troops reportedly left the larger base and moved higher into the mountains.
By late Friday, the Northern Alliance said they had capture the major caves in the region and that Osama bin Laden was not there.
"Osama was not in Tora Bora during the past days of fighting and if he had been, he has probably slipped into Pakistan," Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammad Habeel told Reuters.
The U.S. said it would continue the hunt for bin Laden and his associates. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, said his forces were working to make sure that any al-Qaida fighters that had been in Tora Bora would not escape into neighboring Pakistan.
Tora Bora, which means "black dust," is the name of one of the most influential anti-Soviet guerilla bases. It was carved into the side of Ghree Kil mountain in the 1980s with U.S. backing." - PBS (12/07/01)

Tora Bora falls, but no bin Laden

"A US Special Forces team, sometimes hiding behind tinted pickup truck windows, directs the operations of the Afghan fighters and target US bombing runs. Together, they have hammered Al Qaeda forces and cleared two major mountain valleys near the Tora Bora cave complex.
But yesterday, after tribal fighters said they captured the last of the Al Qaeda positions, killing more than 200 fighters and capturing 25, there was still no sign of the world's most wanted terrorist - Osama bin Laden. And there were far fewer fighters both captured and killed than were originally thought present.
Could this be called the siege of Tora Bora, or was it something more akin to a sieve? Was bin Laden here, did he die in the bombing, or did he flee days ago?
Mr. Ghamsharik said he had no information on the whereabouts of Mr. bin Laden. The Tora Bora region was the last major pocket of Al Qaeda resistance in the country. And a cave where alliance commanders had thought bin Laden might be hiding was the last Al Qaeda holdout.
The Saudi, who had arrived in Jalalabad about six months earlier with a $3 million contribution to the Al Qaeda cause, said he drove in a truck with bin Laden from Jalalabad toward Tora Bora on the night of Nov. 6.
He was present when bin Laden met with several chiefs of the Ghilzi tribe, whose villages straddle the rugged border between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Some 400 Kalashnikovs were given as "gifts" to the Ghilzi tribesmen. In exchange, the tribesmen promised to help smuggle Afghan and Arab leaders to freedom in Pakistan. It was a quid pro quo that the Ghilzis understood well.
When bin Laden finally decided that remaining inside the embattled Tora Bora terror base had become too risky, he used the same Ghilzi contacts to escape the siege.
"Most of us firmly believe that Osama left to Parachinar in Pakistan days ago," says Abdul Wafi, a lieutenant for Commander Ghamsharik. Eight Afghan Al Qaeda prisoners, who surrendered Thursday night, gave similar accounts. They told their captors that bin Laden had left Tora Bora almost two weeks ago.
The battle for Tora Bora finally got under way a full week after newspapers published accounts of bin Laden entering Tora Bora with his closest aids." - Christian Science Monitor (12/17/01)

• December 11, 2001 - Zacarias Moussaoui, dubbed the "20th hijacker", is indicted on six counts of conspiracy charges for the attacks on 9/11.

"U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Tuesday what he said were the first federal indictments directly related to the September 11 terror attacks.
Ashcroft said Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, has been charged with conspiring with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to "murder thousands of people" in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota weeks before the attacks on a passport violation charge and was in custody at the time of the attacks. Authorities said he has long been suspected of somehow being involved in the plot.
Ashcroft also named Ramzi bin al Shibh as a co-conspirator, whom authorities said was a member of the al Qaeda Hamburg, Germany, cell and who is alleged to have transferred funds to Moussaoui.
Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted on six counts:
1) Conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism
2) Conspiracy to commit air piracy
3) Conspiracy to destroy aircraft
4) Conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction
5) Conspiracy to commit murder
6) Conspiracy to destroy property" - CNN (12/12/01)

"Mr Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is accused of conspiring with Osama Bin Laden, the hijackers and others to commit the attacks on the US.  Prosecutors believe he was meant to be the 20th hijacker and he is the only person charged over the 11 September attacks.
The plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field only had four hijackers on board, while the other three planes carried five." - BBC (04/23/02)

(See also:  August 16, 2001 - Moussaoui is arrested by the FBI for an immigration violation; January 2, 2002 - Judge enters innocent plea on Moussaoui's behalf)

• December 12, 2001 - FOX News:  Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 1 of 4

(These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site.)

BRIT HUME, HOST: It has been more than 16 years since a civilian working for the Navy was charged with passing secrets to Israel. Jonathan Pollard pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is serving a life sentence. At first, Israeli leaders claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but later took responsibility for his work. 
Now Fox News has learned some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn't tell us before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the first of a four-part series. 
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations. A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States. 
There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said there are "tie-ins." But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, "evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." 
Fox News has learned that one group of Israelis, spotted in North Carolina recently, is suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group of Arabs who the United States is also investigating for links to terrorism. Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicate that even prior to September 11, as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the United States. 
Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a working group that's been compiling evidence since the mid '90s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and towns across the country that investigators say, "may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity." 
The first part of the investigation focuses on Israelis who say they are art students from the University of Jerusalem and Bazala Academy. They repeatedly made contact with U.S. government personnel, the report says, by saying they wanted to sell cheap art or handiwork. 
Documents say they, "targeted and penetrated military bases." The DEA, FBI and dozens of government facilities, and even secret offices and unlisted private homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel. The majority of those questioned, "stated they served in military intelligence, electronic surveillance intercept and or explosive ordinance units." 
Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and arrests of dozens of Israelis at American mall kiosks, where they've been selling toys called Puzzle Car and Zoom Copter. Investigators suspect a front. 
Shortly after The New York Times and Washington Post reported the Israeli detentions last months, the carts began vanishing. Zoom Copter's Web page says, "We are aware of the situation caused by thousands of mall carts being closed at the last minute. This in no way reflects the quality of the toy or its salability. The problem lies in the operators' business policies." 
Why would Israelis spy in and on the U.S.? A general accounting office investigation referred to Israel as country A and said, "According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any U.S. ally." 
A defense intelligence report said Israel has a voracious appetite for information and said, "the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts which dictate every possible facet of their political and economical policies. It aggressively collects military and industrial technology and the U.S. is a high priority target." 
The document concludes: "Israel possesses the resources and technical capability to achieve its collection objectives." 
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy here in Washington issued a denial saying that any suggestion that Israelis are spying in or on the U.S. is "simply not true." There are other things to consider. And in the days ahead, we'll take a look at the U.S. phone system and law enforcement's methods for wiretaps. And an investigation that both have been compromised by our friends overseas. 
HUME: Carl, what about this question of advanced knowledge of what was going to happen on 9-11? How clear are investigators that some Israeli agents may have known something? 
CAMERON: It's very explosive information, obviously, and there's a great deal of evidence that they say they have collected — none of it necessarily conclusive. It's more when they put it all together. A bigger question, they say, is how could they not have know? Almost a direct quote. 
HUME: Going into the fact that they were spying on some Arabs, right? 
CAMERON: Correct." - FOX (12/12/01) [Reprinted and video clip at:  Information Clearinghouse]

(See also:  9/11 - Workers at Israeli company get text warnings about attacks 2 hours prior; 9/11 - Elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic allegedly shot on Flight 11; 9/11 - Israeli spies caught cheering while filming themselves with the WTC burning in the background; 9/11 - Netanyahu says 9/11 attacks are " very good" for US/Israeli relations; December 13, 2001 - Israeli spy scandal, pt 2)

• December 13, 2001 - The Pentagon releases a poor quality amateur video that was supposedly made on November 9, 2001 and "found" in a house in Afghanistan that shows a husky looking Osama bragging about the 9/11 attacks and who is wearing a gold ring -- and possible gold watch -- which are strictly forbidden in Islam, and the Bush Administration uses this video to confirm his guilt and vindicate US military action in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Releases Bin Laden Videotape, U.S. Officials say Tape Links Him to Sept. 11 Attacks

"The Pentagon has released a videotape of Osama bin Laden, that it says provides additional evidence that the al Qaeda leader is responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Administration officials say the tape shows bin Laden had specific knowledge of when and where those attacks would occur before they took place.

The videotape -- discovered in a private home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan -- shows a relaxed bin Laden discussing the attacks in Arabic with another man who appears to be a cleric. On the tape, bin Laden says he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of destruction caused at the World Trade Center; he only expected the top portion of the twin towers to collapse.

Bin Laden also indicates on the tape that he knew of the attacks in advance. "We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day," he says." - NPR (12/13/01) [Read transcript / original video / re-ordered video]

OSAMA BIN LADEN VIDEO TAPE

"RAY SUAREZ: The tape bore a label indicating it was made on November 9. Administration officials wouldn't reveal exactly how or when they got it, except to say it was found in a house in Jalalabad after anti-Taliban forces moved in. The US Government translated the Arabic conversation and provided subtitles. The tape, which has a home video quality, shows bin Laden sitting on the floor in a bare room in a house in Kandahar." - PBS/Online NewsHour (12/13/01)

The Bin Laden video: is this the clinching evidence? Some Arab opinion claims tape was doctored

"Osama bin Laden laughs and boasts in a captured videotape released by the Pentagon yesterday as he describes how he sent the September 11 hijackers to their deaths without revealing their mission until moments before they boarded the planes.
In the most decisive evidence to date of the Saudi-born fugitive's guilt in the murder of more than 3,000 people in the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks, the 40-minute camcorder tape shows Bin Laden telling a visiting Muslim cleric, referred to only by the honorific title of sheikh, details of the planning for the attacks and his delight at the devastation they had caused.
The video, thought to have been made in early November, is also likely to focus attention on Bin Laden's fervent support among ultra-conservative Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia.
Before the tape was released, US officials had suggested that at least some of the hijackers were not aware they were going to die, but Bin Laden's remarks suggest that although they did not know the details of the plan, they were aware they would end up dead. It was a "martyrdom operation".
The tape's release may turn out to be an ironic death knell for Bin Laden's terrorist career. In the aftermath of September 11 he used carefully staged videos with great effect to rally Muslim support for his cause. By contrast, most analysts agreed that this amateur video was never intended for broadcast, and is likely to puncture the Bin Laden legend in the Islamic world.
In the course of the video, Bin Laden says he had been informed of the timing of the attacks the previous Thursday, September 6, and he makes it clear that the plan succeeded beyond his expectations, with the collapse of the twin towers.
"We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors," he says, illustrating the impact with his hands, one palm vertical for the World Trade Centre and one horizontal, a plane.
"I was the most optimistic of them all," he continues. "Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for."
According to US officials, the tape was found in a house in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, and handed to US officials by a person or group the Pentagon has refused to identify. President Bush first watched it at the end of November.
The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said Mr Bush had held up the release of the tape so its authenticity could be verified, and to make sure that no intelligence sources would be jeopardised. The administration also brought in independent translators to ensure that it would not be accused of twisting the tape's interpretation.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said: "By boasting about his involvement in the evil attacks, Bin Laden confirms his guilt. This totally vindicates the action that we, the US and the international coalition have taken in Afghanistan." - Guardian (12/14/03)

Videotape simply confirms views

"That's why U.S. officials from President Bush on down were eager to release the grainy videotape that dominated the airwaves Thursday. They said they were convinced it would validate their belief that bin Laden is the linchpin of the terrorist network responsible for the historic attacks of Sept. 11.

U.S. officials and their coalition partners saw all the justification they needed for the war. "How could there be any doubt in anyone's mind any longer ... that he was the head of an organization that participated in this kind of evil?" asked Secretary of State Colin Powell. Sheik Abdullah bin Zaid al-Nahayan, a United Arab Emirates spokesman, said the tape confirms bin Laden's guilt "in a way that leaves no room for doubt."

The beginning of bin Laden's visit to the house comes last. Bin Laden is seen coming through the doorway, looming over everyone. He sits on gray flowered cushions on the floor of the small room. He's wearing American fatigues, a white turban and a long white scarf trailing down his left shoulder. On his right hand are a gold ring and a wristwatch." - USA Today (12/13/01)

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive - Usama Bin Laden

"DESCRIPTION

Remarks:  Bin Laden is the leader of a terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda, "The Base". He is left-handed and walks with a cane." - FBI

Fatwa Bank

"Title of Fatwa:  Men Wearing Gold-Plated Objects

Question of Fatwa:  Dear Sheikh, I would like to know if Muslim men are permitted to wear golden rings, chains and so on. What about watches plated with gold and other similar objects?

First of all, it is important to note that men are prohibited to wear golden rings or anything that is made of gold, and this prohibition extends to chains, watches and so on.
Concerning watches that are plated with gold, Muslim scholars hold different views regarding them. Some say that is allowed to use such things if the amount of gold is very small. Anyhow, it is better to avoid such materials so as to be safe from any doubtful matter.

The prohibition of gold for men includes pure gold, gold alloys, cut pieces, joined pieces, gold inlay, etc. As for gold-plating and gilding, some scholars are of the opinion that such articles are forbidden for men if it is possible to extract gold from them (by peeling or shaving, for example); if no gold can be extracted from it, then such items are permitted. Some scholars say that it is not permitted to wear an item which is wholly or mostly gold-plated, but if only a little part of it is gold-plated (like the hands of a watch, or the numerals, or the tiny points denoting numbers), then it is permitted. They say that the issue is its appearance, not its value: if the gold-plating is obvious and covers all the article, it is not permitted, because most people can not make the distinction between gold-plate and real gold, and some may follow this person’s example and begin to wear pure gold." - Islam Online

- See video of "OBL" writing with his right hand and wearing a gold ring (Courtesy of Loose Change.)  See stills of this video at:  September11News.com

(See also:  December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; December 15, 2001 - Special effects experts say fake video would be easy to make; December 26, 2001 - A video of Osama bin Laden, looking thin and weak, is released and officials suggest the video may have been recorded in November; October 29, 2004 - Four days before the 2004 Presidential elections, a videotape is released of Osama bin Laden admitting publicly for the first time that he ordered the attacks of 9/11)

• December 13, 2001 - FOX News:  Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 2 of 4

(These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site.)

BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on the approximately 60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation. Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators suspect that some of these Israelis were spying on Arabs in this country, and may have turned up information on the planned terrorist attacks back in September that was not passed on.
Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by Israelis in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based private communications company, for whom a half-dozen of those 60 detained suspects worked. American investigators fear information generated by this firm may have fallen into the wrong hands and had the effect of impeded the Sept. 11 terror inquiry. Here's Carl Cameron's second report.
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fox News has learned that some American terrorist investigators fear certain suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to stay ahead of them, by knowing who and when investigators are calling on the telephone. How?
By obtaining and analyzing data that's generated every time someone in the U.S. makes a call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What city and state, please?
CAMERON: Here's how the system works. Most directory assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private elecommunications company.
Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide. The White House and other secure government phone lines are protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it.
In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have investigated Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly and adamantly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing. But sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret national security agency, headquartered in northern Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands – in Israel, in particular.
Investigators don't believe calls are being listened to, but the data about who is calling whom and when is plenty valuable in itself. An internal Amdocs memo to senior company executives suggests just how Amdocs generated call records could be used. “Widespread data mining techniques and algorithms.... combining both the properties of the customer (e.g., credit rating) and properties of the specific ‘behavior….’” Specific behavior, such as who the customers are calling.
The Amdocs memo says the system should be used to prevent phone fraud. But U.S. counterintelligence analysts say it could also be used to spy through the phone system. Fox News has learned that the N.S.A has held numerous classified conferences to warn the F.B.I. and C.I.A. how Amdocs records could be used. At one NSA briefing, a diagram by the Argon national lab was used to show that if the phone records are not secure, major security breaches are possible.
Another briefing document said, "It has become increasingly apparent that systems and networks are vulnerable.…Such crimes always involve unauthorized persons, or persons who exceed their authorization...citing on exploitable vulnerabilities."
Those vulnerabilities are growing, because according to another briefing, the U.S. relies too much on foreign companies like Amdocs for high-tech equipment and software. "Many factors have led to increased dependence on code developed overseas.... We buy rather than train or develop solutions."
U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli government is involved in a misuse of information, and Amdocs insists that its data is secure. What U.S. government officials are worried about, however, is the possibility that Amdocs data could get into the wrong hands, particularly organized crime. And that would not be the first thing that such a thing has happened. Fox News has documents of a 1997 drug trafficking case in Los Angeles, in which telephone information, the type that Amdocs collects, was used to "completely compromise the communications of the FBI, the Secret Service, the DEO and the LAPD."
We'll have that and a lot more in the days ahead – Brit.
HUME: Carl, I want to take you back to your report last night on those 60 Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror investigation, and the suspicion that some investigators have that they may have picked up information on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and not passed it on.
There was a report, you'll recall, that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, did indeed send representatives to the U.S. to warn, just before 9/11, that a major terrorist attack was imminent. How does that leave room for the lack of a warning?
CAMERON: I remember the report, Brit. We did it first internationally right here on your show on the 14th. What investigators are saying is that that warning from the Mossad was nonspecific and general, and they believe that it may have had something to do with the desire to protect what are called sources and methods in the intelligence community. The suspicion being, perhaps those sources and methods were taking place right here in the United States.
The question came up in select intelligence committee on Capitol Hill today. They intend to look into what we reported last night, and specifically that possibility – Brit.
HUME: So in other words, the problem wasn't lack of a warning, the problem was lack of useful details?
CAMERON: Quantity of information." - FOX (12/13/01) [Reprinted and video clip at:  Information Clearinghouse]

(See also:  Israeli spy scandal - Part1, Part 3)

• December 14, 2001 - FOX News:  Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 3 of 4

(These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site.)

HUME: Last time we reported on an Israeli-based company called Amdocs Ltd. that generates the computerized records and billing data for nearly every phone call made in America. As Carl Cameron reported, U.S. investigators digging into the 9/11 terrorist attacks fear that suspects may have been tipped off to what they were doing by information leaking out of Amdocs.
In tonight's report, we learn that the concern about phone security extends to another company, founded in Israel, that provides the technology that the U.S. government uses for electronic eavesdropping. Here is Carl Cameron's third report.
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company is Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecommunications firm, with offices throughout the U.S. It provides wiretapping equipment for law enforcement. Here's how wiretapping works in the U.S.
Every time you make a call, it passes through the nation's elaborate network of switchers and routers run by the phone companies. Custom computers and software, made by companies like Comverse, are tied into that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and at the same time transmit them to investigators.
The manufacturers have continuing access to the computers so they can service them and keep them free of glitches. This process was authorized by the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. Senior government officials have now told Fox News that while CALEA made wiretapping easier, it has led to a system that is seriously vulnerable to compromise, and may have undermined the whole wiretapping system.
Indeed, Fox News has learned that Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were both warned Oct. 18 in a hand-delivered letter from 15 local, state and federal law enforcement officials, who complained that "law enforcement's current electronic surveillance capabilities are less effective today than they were at the time CALEA was enacted."
Congress insists the equipment it installs is secure. But the complaint about this system is that the wiretap computer programs made by Comverse have, in effect, a back door through which wiretaps themselves can be intercepted by unauthorized parties.
Adding to the suspicions is the fact that in Israel, Comverse works closely with the Israeli government, and under special programs, gets reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. But investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career suicide.
And sources say that while various F.B.I. inquiries into Comverse have been conducted over the years, they've been halted before the actual equipment has ever been thoroughly tested for leaks. A 1999 F.C.C. document indicates several government agencies expressed deep concerns that too many unauthorized non-law enforcement personnel can access the wiretap system. And the FBI's own nondescript office in Chantilly, Virginia that actually oversees the CALEA wiretapping program, is among the most agitated about the threat.
But there is a bitter turf war internally at F.B.I. It is the FBI's office in Quantico, Virginia, that has jurisdiction over awarding contracts and buying intercept equipment. And for years, they've thrown much of the business to Comverse. A handful of former U.S. law enforcement officials involved in awarding Comverse government contracts over the years now work for the company.
Numerous sources say some of those individuals were asked to leave government service under what knowledgeable sources call "troublesome circumstances" that remain under administrative review within the Justice Department.
And what troubles investigators most, particularly in New York, in the counter terrorism investigation of the World Trade Center attack, is that on a number of cases, suspects that they had sought to wiretap and survey immediately changed their telecommunications processes. They started acting much differently as soon as those supposedly secret wiretaps went into place – Brit.
HUME: Carl, is there any reason to suspect in this instance that the Israeli government is involved?
CAMERON: No, there's not. But there are growing instincts in an awful lot of law enforcement officials in a variety of agencies who suspect that it had begun compiling evidence, and a highly classified investigation into that possibility – Brit." - FOX (12/14/01) [Reprinted and video clip at:  Information Clearinghouse]

(See also:  Israeli spy scandal - Part 2, Part 4)

• December 14, 2001 - President Bush says the video of Osama bin Laden discussing the attacks is a "devastating declaration of guilt" and scoffs at the notion that the tape might not be authentic.

President Bush: Tape a 'devastating declaration of guilt'

"President Bush scoffed Friday at any suggestion that the videotape of Osama bin Laden discussing the September 11 terrorist attacks might not be authentic.
"It is preposterous for anybody to think that this tape is doctored," he said during a brief photo opportunity with the prime minister of Thailand. "That's just a feeble excuse to provide weak support for an incredibly evil man."
Bush acknowledged he had mixed emotions about releasing it to the public.
"I was hesitant to allow there to be a vivid reminder of their loss and tragedy displaced on our TVs," he said. "On the other hand, I knew that the tape would be a devastating declaration of guilt for this evil person."

Barry Pollack, an attorney, said the tape could be a key piece of evidence if bin Laden is captured and brought to trial. Pollack pointed to one sentence in the transcript in which bin Laden said of the hijackers: "We asked each of them to go to America."
Testimony would be needed from experts to say that it had not been doctored, he added.

On the streets of Cairo, Egypt, the reaction was different. "There is still no proof in America, so they come up with this tape," one man said.
"People will continue to be suspect of anything that is American," he said. The United States should release more information about how it got the tape, Kamal said.
Officials said the approximately hour-long tape, dated November 9 and made in Kandahar, was found in a private residence in Jalalabad, although they haven't explained details of its discovery.
Asked Friday whether he preferred bin Laden's capture dead or alive, Bush said it "doesn't matter to me," but vowed that he would not escape." - CNN (12/14/01)

(See also:  December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video of OBL bragging about 9/11; December 15, 2001 - Special effects experts say fake video would be easy to make)

• December 14, 2001 - Sheik in bin Laden videotape may be Saudi cleric Ali Ben Said al-Ghamdi.

"U.S. officials said Friday they believe the sheik seen on a videotape with Osama bin Laden is Ali Ben Said al-Ghamdi, a former Islamic theology professor once jailed by the Saudi government.
On the videotape released by the U.S. government Thursday, the man thought to be al-Ghamdi flatters bin Laden and repeatedly praises him for organizing the attacks on New York and Washington. The man also suggests that he is aware of a further attack planned before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends Sunday.
Unnamed Saudi officials quoted in The New York Times describe al-Ghamdi as a militant cleric from the same tribe as several of the aircraft hijackers of September 11 -- a tribe from Saudi Arabia's Asir Province, north of the Saudi border with Yemen.
Al-Ghamdi was fired from his teaching post in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and briefly jailed. His detention was protested at the time by a Saudi dissident group known as the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, according to U.S. officials.
The sheik appears to be paralyzed from the waist down, and Saudi analysts said that may be a result of injuries received in fighting either in Afghanistan or Chechnya. Neither U.S. nor Saudi officials could confirm that, however." - CNN (12/14/01)

(See also:  December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video of OBL bragging about 9/11)

• December 15, 2001 - Muslim doubts grow over authenticity of bin Laden tape, special effects experts say a fake video would be relatively easy to make.

US urged to detail origin of tape, As Muslim doubts grow over authenticity, special effects experts say fake would be relatively easy to make

"The White House yesterday came under pressure to give more details of the video which purports to show Osama bin Laden admitting his part in the September 11 attacks.
There was growing doubt in the Muslim world about the authenticity of the film while special effects experts said computer technology made it possible to fake such a video. Unless the US gives more information about how the tape was found or provides more technological details about it, doubts are bound to linger.
The 40-minute poor-quality tape, apparently shot with a camcorder, shows Bin Laden telling a visiting Muslim cleric details of the planning for the attack and his delight in the carnage.
According to US officials the tape was found in a house in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, and handed to the Pentagon by an unnamed person or group. Officials say Mr Bush first watched the tape in November but release was delayed until it could be authenticated. Independent translators were used to make sure the US could not be accused of twisting the words of the men on the film.
But for many the explanation is too convenient. Some opponents of the war theorise that the Bin Laden in the film was a lookalike, others claim images of him had been manipulated.
It was also pointed out that it was surprising that a man with the ability to organise the attacks on America would be naive enough to confess on tape. And some observers point out that Bin Laden appears to be wearing a ring on his right hand. In previous film of Bin Laden released by him, he has worn no jewellery apart from a watch.
Riaz Durrani, a spokesman for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, which spearheaded pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan, said: "This videotape is not authentic. The Americans made it up after failing to get any evidence against Osama."
Legal experts in the US said that prosecutors seeking to bring Bin Laden to justice would certainly be keen to produce the tape but might struggle to prove its authenticity.
Henry Hingson, a former president of the national association of criminal defence lawyers, said: "In this day and age of digital wizardry, many things can be done to alter its veracity."
On the other hand it would be foolish to fake a video confession, knowing that if Bin Laden is ever tried his defence team will have experts pore over the video.
Sean Broughton, director of the London-based production company Smoke and Mirrors and one of Britain's leading experts on visual effects, said it would be relatively easy for a skilled professional to fake a video of Bin Laden.
The first step would be to transfer images shot on videotape on to film tape. Distortion or "noise" and graininess would be removed. A "morphing package" would then be used to manipulate the image on a computer screen.
Using such a package it is possible to alter the subject's mouth and expressions to fit in with whatever soundtrack is desired. The final step is to put the "noise" and graininess back on and transfer the doctored images on to videotape.
In a recent advert that Smoke and Mirrors made for a US insurance company, the technique was used to place Bill Clinton's head on an actor's body for comic effect.
Mr Broughton said that while it would be relatively easy to fake a Bin Laden video, to fool the top experts was much more difficult.
Bob Crabtree, editor of the magazine Computer Video, said it was impossible to judge whether the video was a fake without more details of its source. "The US seems simply to have asked the world to trust them that it is genuine."
Mr Bush said it was "preposterous for anybody to think this tape was doctored".
He added: "Those who contend it's a farce or a fake are hoping for the best about an evil man. This is Bin Laden unedited. This is... the Bin Laden who murdered the people. This is a man who sent innocent people to their death."
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, insisted there was "no doubt it is the real thing"." - Guardian (12/15/01)

(See also:  December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video of OBL bragging about 9/11; December 14, 2001 - Bush scoffs at notion that OBL tape is a fake)

• December 15, 2001 - U.S. 'reasonably certain' it heard bin Laden radio call.

"The United States is "reasonably certain" that one of the voices it has been monitoring on battlefield radios in eastern Afghanistan is that of Osama bin Laden, a U.S. official said Saturday.
U.S. officials have said publicly they do not know Bin Laden's whereabouts, but they have said privately they believe he is in the Tora Bora area." - CNN (12/15/01)

(See also:  December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; April 26, 2002 - Rumsfeld says they haven't heard "anything hard" from Osama bin Laden since last December)

• December 17, 2001 - FOX News:  Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 4 of 4

(These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site.)

TONY SNOW, HOST: This week, senior correspondent Carl Cameron has reported on a longstanding government espionage investigation. Federal officials this year have arrested or detained nearly 200 Israeli citizens suspected of belonging to an "organized intelligence-gathering operation." The Bush administration has deported most of those arrested after Sept. 11, although some are in custody under the new anti-terrorism law.
Cameron also investigates the possibility that an Israeli firm generated billing data that could be used for intelligence purpose, and describes concerns that the federal government's own wiretapping system may be vulnerable. Tonight, in part four of the series, we'll learn about the probable roots of the probe: a drug case that went bad four years ago in L.A.
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Los Angeles, 1997, a major local, state and federal drug investigating sours. The suspects: Israeli organized crime with operations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Canada, Israel and Egypt. The allegations: cocaine and ecstasy trafficking, and sophisticated white-collar credit card and computer fraud.
The problem: according to classified law enforcement documents obtained by Fox News, the bad guys had the cops’ beepers, cell phones, even home phones under surveillance. Some who did get caught admitted to having hundreds of numbers and using them to avoid arrest.
"This compromised law enforcement communications between LAPD detectives and other assigned law enforcement officers working various aspects of the case. The organization discovered communications between organized crime intelligence division detectives, the FBI and the Secret Service."
Shock spread from the DEA to the FBI in Washington, and then the CIA. An investigation of the problem, according to law enforcement documents, concluded, "The organization has apparent extensive access to database systems to identify pertinent personal and biographical information."
When investigators tried to find out where the information might have come from, they looked at Amdocs, a publicly traded firm based in Israel. Amdocs generates billing data for virtually every call in America, and they do credit checks. The company denies any leaks, but investigators still fear that the firm's data is getting into the wrong hands.
When investigators checked their own wiretapping system for leaks, they grew concerned about potential vulnerabilities in the computers that intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls. A main contractor is Comverse Infosys, which works closely with the Israeli government, and under a special grant program, is reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Asked this week about another sprawling investigation and the detention of 60 Israeli since Sept. 11, the Bush administration treated the questions like hot potatoes.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would just refer you to the Department of Justice with that. I'm not familiar with the report.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm aware that some Israeli citizens have been detained. With respect to why they're being detained and the other aspects of your question – whether it's because they're in intelligence services, or what they were doing – I will defer to the Department of Justice and the FBI to answer that.
CAMERON: Beyond the 60 apprehended or detained, and many deported since Sept. 11, another group of 140 Israeli individuals have been arrested and detained in this year in what government documents describe as "an organized intelligence gathering operation," designed to "penetrate government facilities." Most of those individuals said they had served in the Israeli military, which is compulsory there.
But they also had, most of them, intelligence expertise, and either worked for Amdocs or other companies in Israel that specialize in wiretapping. Earlier this week, the Israeli embassy in Washington denied any spying against or in the United States – Tony.
SNOW: Carl, we've heard the comments from Ari Fleischer and Colin Powell. What are officials saying behind the scenes?
CAMERON: Well, there's real pandemonium described at the FBI, the DEA and the INS. A lot of these problems have been well known to some investigators, many of who have contributed to the reporting on this story. And what they say is happening is supervisors and management are now going back and collecting much of the information, because there's tremendous pressure from the top levels of all of those agencies to find out exactly what's going on.
At the DEA and the FBI already a variety of administration reviews are under way, in addition to the investigation of the phenomenon. They want to find out how it is all this has come out, as well as be very careful because of the explosive nature and very political ramifications of the story itself – Tony." - FOX (12/17/01) [Reprinted and video clip at:  Information Clearinghouse]

(See also:  Israeli spy scandal - Part 3)

• December 21, 2001- Bin Laden named 9 hijackers on tape; White House, Pentagon defend translation

"Osama bin Laden named several of the alleged hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States, according to an independent review of a videotape of a meeting in Afghanistan between the suspected terrorist chief and supporters.
The translation and transcript released last week by the Pentagon said bin Laden spoke about "Mohamed," which the translators concluded was a reference to Mohamed Atta, who was on board the first airliner to slam into New York City's World Trade Center.
But experts who reviewed the tape for CNN said bin Laden also named the brothers Nawaf al Hazmi and Salam al Hazmi, cited by the Justice Department as hijackers on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Later, bin Laden said that four other hijackers were from the al Ghamdi tribe. He also mentioned two others, both named al Shehri.
In doing so, bin Laden makes reference to nine hijackers, not just one, according to the independent translator -- who did not want to be identified -- and Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Saudi Institute, a nonprofit organization that works for human rights for Saudis.
That finding would seem to bolster the government's view that bin Laden was involved in the planning of the hijackings.
But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the latest review wasn't all that startling. Bush administration officials have long said they are convinced of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks.
In cases where the four outside translators could not agree on what was said, Rumsfeld said no translation was provided.
Rumsfeld said the government was interested in reviewing "every bit" of the tape for intelligence, but added there is no value in providing a new, public transcript.
"From a public standpoint, as I stood up here and said, I don't stand behind that," he said of the tape. "I don't speak Arabic. And it's for everyone to make their own judgment. If someone wants to get their own translator, they can do it."
The tape, which the U.S. government said was found in a home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and had poor audio quality, was believed to have been made in Kandahar on or around November 9
The translators hired by CNN to independently review the tape concluded that significant elements of what bin Laden said were left out of the translation provided by the government.
"They missed the fact that there were fatwahs -- religious edicts issued and played on Saudi government radio supporting what happened in New York," said al-Ahmed.
"The translators missed a lot of things on the tape. They missed the names of the hijackers -- two of them mentioned by full names," he said. They missed that four hijackers that come from the same tribe were also mentioned, not by name, but by their tribe name, he added.
Al-Ahmed speculated the government might have reasons to leave out parts of the translation.
"If you want to use the conspiracy theory, (one could) say they didn't want to embarrass the Saudi government," Al-Ahmed said.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer dismissed the suggestion that the U.S. government had deliberately withheld information as "far-fetched."
Al-Ahmed and the independent translator -- who did not want to be identified -- also said the original translation did not include the names of three Saudi clerics who publicly backed the attacks, according to the man speaking with bin Laden on the tape. At least one of those three Saudi clerics was possibly a government official.
According to al-Ahmed and the independent translator, there was one other striking example of detail left out of the government translation: bin Laden's description of exactly what he said to others just before the radio announcement was heard that the first of the attacks had succeeded.
They quote him as saying, "When you hear a breaking news announcement on the radio, kneel immediately, and that means they have hit the World Trade Center."
While the two claimed the information was left out, the two did not dispute the overall message: That bin Laden had known about the September 11 attacks ahead of time and boasted about the death and destruction that resulted from the attacks.
Fleischer said the administration, when it released the tape, encouraged news organizations to hire independent experts to assess the tape as well.
The new translation "doesn't change anything for the president" because Bush already knew that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, Fleischer said." - CNN (12/21/01)

(See also:  December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video showing a husky looking Osama bin Laden bragging about the attacks)

• December 21, 2001 - Despite the worst attacks in America's history just happening three months ago and the anthrax attacks on America, Bush sums up 2001 as a "fabulous year" for himself and his wife Laura.

"But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." - White House (12/21/01)

• December 26, 2001 - A video of Osama bin Laden, looking thin and weak, is released in which he praises the attacks, but doesn't admit to them and officials suggest the video may have been recorded in November.

"In a five-minute excerpt of a new videotaped statement broadcast Wednesday, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called the September 11 attacks against the United States "blessed terror" and accused the West of hating Islam.
The videotape, broadcast on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network, showed bin Laden dressed in his now-familiar fatigues and seated in front of a brown curtain with an automatic rifle propped next to him.
Al-Jazeera's managing director, Mohammed Jassim al-Ali, said the 34-minute tape was mailed to the network from somewhere in Pakistan and would be aired in its entirety at 1835 GMT (1:35 p.m. ET) Thursday.
Network executives told CNN they do not know where or when the videotape was recorded, despite bin Laden's reference in the tape to it being made three months after September 11.
One clue might be this comment by bin Laden: "A few days ago, the Americans started bombing the al Qaeda base in Khost, and a stray bomb landed on a mosque while some elders were praying."
The U.S. military reported a mosque was damaged during a bombing run in Khost November 16.
He accused the United States of leading its own campaign of terror against Muslims.
"We say our terror against America is blessed terror in order to put an end to suppression, in order for the United States to stop its support to Israel," bin Laden said.
The last previous release from bin Laden, broadcast over Al-Jazeera, came November 3.
On December 13, the U.S. released a videotape it said was found in a private Afghan home. The tape showed bin Laden smiling and laughing as he recounted hearing about the September 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people." - CNN (12/27/01)

(See also:  December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; December 13, 2001 - Pentagon releases a poor quality video showing a husky looking Osama bin Laden bragging about the attacks; February 1, 2002 - CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged 'enormously')

• December 28, 2001 - US casts doubt on bin Laden's latest message, suggests he's already dead.

"OSAMA BIN LADEN heaped praise on 'the 19 students who shook the American empire' in the September 11 attacks in a chilling video shown in full last night by an Arab television station.
The recording was dismissed by the Bush administration yesterday as sick propaganda possibly designed to mask the fact the al-Qa'eda leader was already dead.
Reacting last night to the contention of the new Afghan defence minister, Gen Rashid Dostum, that bin Laden had fled, Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said: "We get six, seven, eight, 10, 12 conflicting reports every day. I've stopped chasing them.
He added, to laughter from reporters at a Pentagon briefing: "We do know of certainty that he is in Afghanistan or some other country or dead."
American officials argued that bin Laden's frequent references to US support for Israel were a bogus justification for his terrorism because in the "dinner party" tape of a private conversation, there was no mention of the Middle East.
Bin Laden's voice was detected regularly until two weeks ago by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon.
Since then, nothing has been heard from the al-Qa'eda leader and President Bush has hinted in private that bin Laden's silence could mean he has been killed.
White House aides said the video could have been made more than a month ago as the only proof of timing was a reference to the damage to a mosque in Khost taking place "a few days ago".
That meant the filming took place after Nov 16, when a stray bomb hit the mosque.
Bin Laden claimed in the video that he was speaking three months after the September 11 attacks but Mr Bush's advisers believe he would have held up a newspaper or other proof of the date had this been the case.
Bin Laden's beard was much whiter than on Nov 3, the last time al-Jazeera broadcast a video of him, and he appeared much older than his 44 years. Lack of sunlight and a poor diet seemed to have taken a toll on him.
Attention was also drawn to bin Laden's left arm, which hung limply by his side while he gesticulated with his right. Bin Laden is left-handed and there was speculation he may have been injured in an American strike." - Telegraph (12/28/01)

(See also:  December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies)

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