9/11 Information 25-Page Summary
Verifiable Media Reports on 9/11
Summary of 9/11 Timeline Developed
by Paul Thompson
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9/11 was one of the most pivotal events in world history. Its impact will be felt for years to come. You owe it to yourself to go beyond the sound bites and the simplified official story. This is an extremely complicated story with numerous players and motives. The 9/11 information doesn't all make sense or fit neatly together. It's a story full of espionage, deceit, and lies. But if there are forces out there tricking us, they can only succeed if we, the general public, remain ignorant and passive.
We are limiting our sources on this 9/11 information summary to those one might call "mainstream." It's not that one can only trust the mainstream media. In fact, much of the best reporting today is coming from alternative media. But many people are initially very skeptical. Some of the 9/11 information below may seem very hard to believe. Yet remember that each entry below is reported by respected major media sources and can easily be verified by clicking on the links provided to the original source. After seeing the importance of what’s being hidden from us, you will very likely want to join in working together to build a brighter future.
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America’s top military leaders drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts
of terrorism in US cities to trick the public into supporting a war against
Cuba in the early 1960s. Approved in writing by the Pentagon Joint Chiefs,
Operation Northwoods even proposed blowing up a US ship and hijacking planes
as a false pretext for war. [ABC News, 5/1/01, Pentagon Documents]
1984: Osama
Bin Laden moves to a Pakistani town bordering Afghanistan, and is running
a front organization for the mujaheddin known as MAK, which funnels money,
arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. [New
Yorker, 1/24/00] "MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state security
services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA's primary
conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow's occupation."
[MSNBC, 8/24/98] He becomes
closely tied to the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and greatly strengthens
Hekmatyar's opium smuggling operations. [Le
Monde, 9/14/01] Hekmatyar had ties with the CIA and drug running, and
has also been called "an ISI stooge and creation" by the Wall
Street Journal. [Atlantic, 5/96, Asia
Times, 11/15/01]
Mid-1980's:
The ISI starts a special cell
of agents who use profits from heroin production for covert actions "at
the insistence of the CIA." "This cell promotes the cultivation
of opium and the extraction of heroin in territory under mujaheddin control
for being smuggled into the Soviet controlled areas, in order to turn the
Soviet troops into heroin addicts. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops,
the ISI's heroin cell started smuggling heroin to the Western countries
and using the money as a supplement to its legitimate economy. [Financial
Times, Asian edition, 8/10/01] The ISI grows so powerful on this money,
that Time magazine later states, "Even by the shadowy standards
of spy agencies, the ISI is notorious. It is commonly branded 'a state within
the state,' or Pakistan's 'invisible government.'" [Time,
5/6/02]
March 1985: The US decides to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
The CIA, British MI6 and the ISI agree to launch guerrilla attacks from
Afghanistan into then Soviet-controlled Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The CIA
also begins supporting the ISI in recruiting radical Muslims from around
the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Afghan mujaheddin. The
CIA gives subversive literature and Korans to the ISI, who carry them into
the Soviet Union. Eventually, around 35,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic
countries will fight with the Afghan mujaheddin. [Washington
Post, 7/19/92, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, 9/23/01, Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
9/23/01, The
Hindu, 9/27/01, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in
Central Asia, Ahmed Rashid, 3/01] In the late 1980's, Pakistan's President
Benazir Bhutto, feeling the mujaheddin network has grown too strong, tells
President George Bush Sr., "You are creating a Frankenstein."
[Newsweek, 10/1/01]
1993: One of bin Laden’s men buys a jet from the US military—and
it was the Pentagon which unwittingly gave permission for the aircraft to
leave the base. This aircraft is later used to transport missiles that kill
US special forces in Somalia. Bin Laden also has some of his followers begin
training as pilots in US flight schools. [Sunday Herald, 9/16/01]
February
26, 1993: An attempt to
blow up the WTC fails. The New York Times later reports on Emad Salem,
an undercover agent who ends up being the key government witness in the
trial against the bomber. Salem testifies that the FBI knew about the
attack beforehand and told him they would thwart it by substituting a harmless
powder for the explosives. However, this plan was called off by an
FBI supervisor, and the bombing was not stopped. [New
York Times, 10/28/93] Several of the bombers were trained by the CIA
to fight in the Afghan war - the CIA later concludes in internal documents
that it was "partly culpable" for this bombing attempt. [Independent,
11/1/98]
1994: Two attacks take place which involve hijacking planes
to crash them into buildings, including one by an Islamic militant group.
In a third attack, a lone pilot crashes a plane at the White House. Yet
after Sept. 11, over and over aviation and security officials say they are
shocked that terrorists could have hijacked airliners and crashed them into
landmark buildings. [New York Times, 10/3/01]
1995: For
the first time, though not the last, the government of Sudan offers the
US all of its files on bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The US turns down the
offer. Sudan was surveilling him, collecting a "vast intelligence
database on Osama bin Laden and more than 200 leading members of his al-Qaeda
terrorist network... [The US was] offered thick files, with photographs
and detailed biographies of many of his principal cadres, and vital information
about al-Qaeda's financial interests in many parts of the globe."
[Guardian,
9/30/01, more]
January 6,
1995: One pilot who learned
to fly in US flight schools, confesses that his role was to crash a plane
into the CIA headquarters as part of this phrase of attacks. [Washington
Post, 9/23/01, more]
October 21,
1995: The oil company Unocal
signs a contract with Turkmenistan to export $8 billion worth of natural
gas through a $3 billion pipeline which would go from Turkmenistan through
Afghanistan to Pakistan. Political considerations and pressures allow Unocal
to edge out a more experienced Argentinean company for the contract. Henry
Kissinger, a Unocal consultant, calls it "the triumph of hope over
experience." [Washington
Post, 10/5/98]
1996: Analysts start working through the night in a chamber,
deep in the bowels of CIA headquarters, known as the Bin Laden Room. Approximately
10-15 individuals are assigned to the unit, part of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism
Center. By September 10, 2001, there are approximately 35-40 personnel assigned.
Recognizing the danger posed by Bin Laden, the FBI also created a unit in
1999 at FBI headquarters to focus on him. [Newsweek, 10/1/01, Senate Intelligence
Committee, 9/18/02]
1996: The Saudi Arabian
government is financially supporting Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and other
extremist groups. After 9/11, the Bush Administration chooses not to confront
the Saudi leadership over its support of terror organizations and its refusal
to help in the investigation. [New
Yorker, 10/22/01]
1996-1999: The CIA officer in charge of running
operations against Al Qaeda from Washington writes, “I speak with firsthand
experience (and for several score of CIA officers) when I state categorically
that during this time senior White House officials repeatedly refused to
act on sound intelligence that provided multiple chances to eliminate Osama
bin Laden.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/5/04]
1996-2001: Federal authorities are aware for years before 9/11 that suspected
terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden are receiving flight training at schools
in the US and abroad. In 1996, FBI agents visit two flight school operators to obtain information about several Arab pilots eventually convicted of plotting to bomb U.S. airliners. In 1998, FBI agents question officials from a flight school in Oklahoma, about a graduate later identified in court testimony as a pilot for bin Laden. One convicted terrorist even confesses that his planned role
in a terror attack was to crash a plane into CIA headquarters. A senior government official later acknowledges that law enforcement officials were aware that up to a dozen people with links to bin Laden had attended U.S. flight schools. [Washington
Post, 9/23/01, CBS, 5/30/02, Time, 6/10/02]
April 1996: In
continuing negotiations between the US and Sudan, the US again rejects Sudan's
offer to turn over voluminous files about bin Laden and al-Qaeda [Village
Voice, 10/31/01, Washington
Post, 10/3/01] Around this time Sudan also offers their al-Qaeda
intelligence to MI6, the British intelligence agency, and are also rebuffed.
[Guardian,
9/30/01, more]
August 13,
1996: Unocal and Delta Oil of
Saudi Arabia come to agreement with state companies in Turkmenistan and
Russia to build a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via
Afghanistan. The agreement is finalized the next year. [Unocal
website, 8/13/96]
1997: Former
National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski publishes a book in which
he portrays the Eurasian landmass as the key to world power, and Central
Asia with its vast oil reserves as the key to domination of Eurasia. He
states that for the US to maintain its global primacy, it must prevent any
possible adversary from controlling that region. He notes that because
of popular resistance to US military expansionism, his ambitious strategy
could not be implemented "except in the circumstance of a truly massive
and widely perceived direct external threat." [The Grand Chessboard:
American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives]
May 18, 1998:
An
Oklahoma City FBI agent sends a memo on this day warning that "large
numbers of Middle Eastern males" are getting flight training in Oklahoma
and could be planning terrorist attacks. [CBS,
5/30/02, AP, 9/26/01,
CNN,
9/18/01]
June 1998: US intelligence obtains information from several
sources that bin Laden is considering attacks in the US, including Washington
and New York. This information is given to senior US officials in July 1998.
[Senate
Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02]
August 1998:
A CIA intelligence report asserts that Arab terrorists are planning to fly
a bomb-laden aircraft into the WTC. [NY Times, 9/19/02,
Senate Intelligence
Committee, 9/18/02]
August 1998:
Within minutes of each other, truck bombs blow up
the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing more than 220. For some
of the time that bin Laden’s men were plotting to blow up the two embassies,
US intelligence was tapping their phones. [Newsweek,
10/1/01]
September
1998: US intelligence finds information
that bin Laden’s next operation could possibly involve crashing an aircraft
loaded with explosives into a US airport. This information is provided to
senior US officials. [Senate
Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02, Washington
Post, 9/19/02]
December
21, 1998: In a Time magazine
cover story entitled "The Hunt for Osama," it is reported intelligence
sources "have evidence that bin Laden may be planning his boldest move
yet - a strike on Washington or possibly New York City in an eye-for-an-eye
retaliation. [Time, 12/21/98]
Late 1998:
President Clinton signs a directive authorizing the CIA to plan an assassination
of bin Laden. The CIA draw up detailed profiles of bin Laden's daily routines,
where he sleeps, and his travel arrangements. The assassination never happens,
supposedly because of inadequate intelligence. An officer who helped draw
up the plans says, "We were ready to move" but "we were not
allowed to do it." [Philadelphia
Inquirer, 9/16/01]
Late 1998-Early
2000: The US permanently stations
two submarines in the Indian Ocean to hit al-Qaeda with cruise missiles
on short notice. Six to ten hours advance warning is needed to have them
reach their target. On at least three occasions, spies in Afghanistan report
bin Laden's location with information suggesting he would remain there for
some time. Each time, Clinton approves the strike. Each time, CIA Director
Tenet says the information is not reliable enough and the attack cannot
go forward. [Washington
Post, 12/19/01, New York Times, 12/30/01]
1999: MI6,
the British intelligence agency, gives a secret report to liaison staff
at the US embassy in London. The reports states that al-Qaeda has plans
to use "commercial aircraft" in "unconventional ways",
"possibly as flying bombs." [Sunday Times, 6/9/02]
September
1999: A report prepared for US
intelligence states: "Al-Qaeda could crash-land an aircraft packed
with high explosives (C-4 and Semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House." The
report is by the National Intelligence Council, which advises the President
and US intelligence on emerging threats. [AP, 5/18/02, read the complete report] The Bush
administration later claims to have never heard of this report until May
2002, despite the fact that it had been publicly posted on the internet
since 1999, and "widely shared within the government." [CNN, 5/18/02,
New York
Times, 5/18/02]
November
3, 1999: The head of Australia's
security services admits that the Echelon global surveillance system exists.
The US still denies its existence. The BBC describes Echelon's power as
"astounding," and elaborates: "Every international telephone
call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful
computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key
words, or patterns of messages. They are looking for evidence of international
crime, like terrorism." [BBC, 11/3/99]
January 2000:
George Bush Sr. meets with the
bin Laden family on behalf of the Carlyle Group. He also met with them in
1998. Bush’s chief of staff could not remember that this meeting took place
until shown a thank you note confirming the meeting. [Wall Street Journal,
9/27/01, Guardian,
10/31/01]
January-June
2000: Pakistani ISI Director
General Ahmad orders an aide to wire transfer about $100,000 to hijacker
Atta. [Dawn, 10/8/01, Times
of India, 10/9/01, Wall Street Journal,
10/10/01, AFP,
10/10/01] The individual who makes the wire transfer at Ahmad's direction
is Saeed Sheikh, later convinced for kidnapping and murdering reporter Daniel
Pearl in February 2002. [ABC
News, 9/30/01]
July 2000:
The Taliban ban poppy growing
in Afghanistan. As a result, the opium yield drops dramatically in 2001,
from 3,656 tons to 185 tons. [Guardian, 2/21/02,
Reuters,
3/3/02, Observer,
11/25/01]
Summer 2000: A secret military operation named
Able Danger identifies four future 9/11 hijackers, including lead hijacker
Mohamed Atta, as a potential threat and members of Al Qaeda. Yet none of
this is mentioned later in the 9/11 Commissions' final report .When questioned,
the 9/11 commission's chief spokesman initially says that staff members
briefed about Able Danger did not remember hearing anything about Atta.
Days later, however, after provided detailed information, he says the uniformed
officer who briefed two staff members had indeed mentioned Atta. Officials
say that the information was not included in the report because the account
had sounded inconsistent with what the commission knew about Atta.
[New
York Times, 8/11/05, more]
September
2000: A neo-conservative think-tank
writes a blueprint for the creation of a “global Pax Americana." Written
for the Bush team even before the 2000 Presidential election, the report
calls itself a blueprint for maintaining global US preeminence, precluding
the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security
order in line with American principles and interests. The plan shows Bush
intended to take military control of the Persian Gulf whether or not Saddam
Hussein was in power. The report calls for the subversion of any growth
in political power of even close allies. It also mentions that "advanced
forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform
biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." The report advocates the transformation of the US military. But, the authors acknowledge: "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 Harbour". [BBC, 2/14/07, Sunday Herald, 9/7/02,
click here to
download report]
September
15-October 1, 2000: Olympics
officials later reveal that "A fully loaded, fueled airliner crashing
into the opening ceremony before a worldwide television audience at the
Sydney Olympics was one of the greatest security fears for the Games."
[Sydney Morning
Herald, 9/20/01]
October 24-26,
2000: Pentagon officials
carry out a "detailed" emergency drill based upon the crashing
of a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon. [Military District
of Washington News Service, 11/3/00, Mirror,
5/24/02] After 9/11, a Pentagon spokesman will claim: "The Pentagon
was simply not aware that this aircraft was coming our way. I doubt prior
to Tuesday's event, anyone would have expected anything like that here."
[Newsday, 9/23/01]
2000 – 2001:
The military conducts 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 imagined target
is the WTC. [USA Today,
4/19/04]
2001:
Julie Sirrs, a Defense Intelligence Agency agent, travels twice to Afghanistan. She
claims DIA officials knew in advance about both trips. Sirrs sees a
terrorist training center, and meets with the Northern Alliance leader who
is later assassinated by the Taliban. On her second trip she returns
with a treasure trove of information, including evidence that bin Laden
is planning to assassinate Massoud. However, upon returning, a security
officer meets her flight and confiscates her material. The DIA and
the FBI investigate her. No higher-ups want to hear what she has learned
in Afghanistan. Ultimately, Sirrs' security clearance is pulled. She
eventually quits the DIA in frustration. [ABC,
2/18/02]
January 2001:
An Arizona flight school alerts the FAA that hijacker Hani Hanjour lacks
the English and flying skills necessary for the commercial pilot's license
he has. An FAA official actually sits next to Hanjour in class to observe
his skills. This official offers a translator to help Hanjour pass, but
the flight school points out "that went against the rules that require
a pilot to be able to write and speak English fluently before they even
get their license." [AP, 5/10/02]
Late January
2001: The BBC later reports,
"After the elections, [US intelligence] agencies [are] told to 'back
off' investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals." This follows
previous orders to abandon an investigation both of bin Laden relatives
and of difficulties in investigating Saudi royalty. [BBC,
11/6/01]
February-July
2001: A trial is held in
New York City for four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 US
embassy bombings. Testimony reveals that two bin Laden operatives had
received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma and another had been asked
to take lessons. One bin Laden aide becomes a government witness and
gives the FBI detailed information about a pilot training scheme. This
new information does not lead to any new FBI investigations into the matter. [Washington
Post, 9/23/01, more]
March 2001: A
Taliban envoy meets with reporters, State Department bureaucrats and Afghanistan
experts in Washington. He discusses turning bin Laden over. But the US wants
to be handed bin Laden directly, and the Taliban want to turn him over to
some third country. About 20 meetings on giving up bin Laden take place
between 1996 and Sep 2001, all fruitless. [Washington
Post, 10/29/01]
Spring 2001:
Over several months beginning
in April a series of military and governmental policy documents are released
that seek to legitimize the use of US military force in the pursuit of oil
and gas. An article in by a former staff member of the Senate armed services
committee argues for the legitimacy of "shooting in the Persian Gulf
on behalf of lower gas prices." He also "advocate[s] the acceptability
of presidential subterfuge in the promotion of a conflict" and "explicitly
urge[s] painting over the US's actual reasons for warfare as a necessity
for mobilising public support for a conflict." In April, the commander
of US forces in the Persian Gulf/South Asia testifies to Congress that his
command's key mission is "access to energy resources." [Sydney Morning
Herald, 12/26/02, more]
April 2001:
A report commissioned by former
US Secretary of State James Baker and the Council on Foreign Relations argues
"the US remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma." One of the
consequences of this is a "need for military intervention" to
secure its oil supply. It argues that Iraq needs to be overthrown so the
US can control its oil. [Sunday Herald, 10/5/02, Sydney Morning
Herald, 12/26/02]
May 2001: Secretary
of State Powell gives $43 million in aid to Afghanistan's Taliban government,
purportedly to assist hungry farmers who are starving since the destruction
of their opium crop in January on orders of the Taliban. [[Los Angeles Times, 5/22/01] This follows $113 million given by the US in 2000
for humanitarian aid. [State
Department Fact Sheet, 12/11/01]
May 2001:
The US introduces the "Visa Express" program in Saudi Arabia,
which allows any Saudi Arabian to obtain visas through their travel agent
instead of appearing at a consulate in person. An official later states,
"The issuing officer has no idea whether the person applying for the
visa is actually the person in the documents and application." [US News
and World Report, 12/12/01, Congressional
Intelligence, 9/20/02]
At the time, warnings of an attack against the US led by the Saudi bin Laden
are "off the charts" as one Senator later puts it. [LA
Times, 5/18/02, Senate
Intelligence, 9/18/02] Five hijackers use Visa Express over the next
month to enter the US. [Congress,
9/20/02]
May-Aug 2001: A number of the 9/11 hijackers make at least six trips
to Las Vegas. These "fundamentalist" Muslims drink alcohol, frequent
strip clubs, and smoke hashish. Some even have strippers perform lap dances
for them. [San
Francisco Chronicle, 10/4/01, Newsweek, 10/15/01]
June 2001: German
intelligence warns the CIA, Britain's MI6, and Israel's Mossad that Middle
Eastern terrorists are planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as
weapons to attack "American and Israeli symbols." [Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, 9/11/01, Washington
Post, 9/14/01, Fox
News, 5/17/02]
June 1-2,
2001: A multi-agency planning
exercise sponsored by NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command,
in charge of defending US airspace) involves the hypothetical scenario of
a cruise missile launched from a barge off the East Coast. Bin Laden is
pictured on the cover of the proposal for the exercise. [American
Forces Press Service, 6/4/02] After 9/11, the government claims that
this type of an attack was completely unexpected, and as a result it had
only 14 fighters on standby to defend the entire US. [Newsday, 9/23/01]
June 13,
2001: Egyptian President
Mubarak claims that Egyptian intelligence discovers a "communiqué from
bin Laden saying he wanted to assassinate George W. Bush and other G8 heads
of state during their summit in Italy." The communiqué specifically
mentions this would be done via "an airplane stuffed with explosives."
[New
York Times, 9/26/01]
June 28, 2001: CIA Director George J. Tenet has been "nearly frantic" with concern. A written intelligence summary for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice says: "It is highly likely that a significant al Qaeda attack is in the near future, within several weeks." Rice will later claim that everyone was taken
by complete surprise by the 9/11 attack. By late summer, one senior political appointee says, Tenet had repeated this threat "so often that people got tired of hearing it." [Washington Post, 5/17/02]
July
4-14, 2001: Bin Laden allegedly
receives kidney treatment from Canadian-trained Dr. Callaway at the American hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Callaway refuses to answer any questions on this matter. [Le
Figaro, 10/31/01, Sydney
Morning Herald, 10/31/01, UPI, 11/1/01, London Times 11/1/01]
During his stay, bin Laden is visited by "several members of his family
and Saudi personalities," including Prince al Faisal, then head of
Saudi intelligence, as well as two CIA officers. [Guardian,
11/1/01]
July 10,
2001: Phoenix, Arizona FBI agent
Ken Williams sends a memorandum warning about suspicious activities involving
a group of Middle Eastern men taking flight training lessons in Arizona. The
memorandum specifically suggests that bin Laden's followers might be trying
to infiltrate the civil aviation system and recommends a national program
to track suspicious flight-school students. The memo is sent to the
counter-terrorism division at FBI headquarters in Washington and to two
field offices, including the counter-terrorism section in New York, which
has had extensive experience in al-Qaeda investigations. The memo is ignored
in all three places, not passed on to others, and no action is taken. [New York Times, 5/21/02, Fortune, 5/22/02]
Vice President Cheney states in May 2002 that the memo should never be released
to the media or public. [CNN, 5/20/02]
July 13,
2001: With the threat of a new
terrorist attack on the rise, the CIA has agents reexamine records in the
search for new leads. A CIA cable is rediscovered showing that Khallad bin
Atash had attended a January 2000 meeting in Malaysia. The CIA official
who finds it immediately e-mails the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC),
saying bin Atash "is a major league killer, who orchestrated the Cole
attack and possibly the Africa bombings." Yet bin Atash is still not
put on a terrorist watch list. [Congressional
Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02]
Mid-July
2001: John O'Neill, FBI
counter-terrorism expert, privately discusses White House obstruction in
his bin Laden investigation. O'Neill says: "The main obstacles to investigate
Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests and the role played by
Saudi Arabia in it." [CNN,
1/8/02, CNN,
1/9/02, Irish
Times, 11/19/01, Bin
Laden: The Forbidden Truth, (the link is an excerpt containing Chapter
1)]
July 24,
2001: Larry Silverstein's $3.2
billion purchase of the WTC is finalized. [NY
Times, 02/16/03, Ireizine,
7/26/01] It's the only time the WTC has ever changed hands. [ICSC, 4/27/01] Silverstein
may get $7 billion in insurance from the 9/11 destruction of the WTC towers.
[Guardian,
10/24/01]
July 26,
2001: CBS News reports that
Attorney General Ashcroft has stopped flying commercial airlines due to
a threat assessment, but "neither the FBI nor the Justice Department
would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it."
[CBS,
7/26/01] In May 2002, it’s claimed the threat assessment had nothing
to do with al-Qaeda, but Ashcroft walked out of his office rather than answer
questions about it. [AP, 5/16/02, more] CBS's
Dan Rather later says of this warning: "Why wasn't it shared with the
public at large?" [Washington
Post, 5/27/02]
July 31, 2001: The FAA issues another warning to US airlines, citing
no specific targets, but saying "terror groups are known to be planning
and training for hijackings. The text of these warnings remain classified.
[CNN,
3/02, Ananova,
5/17/02]
Late July
2001: The Taliban Foreign
Minister learns that bin Laden is planning a "huge attack" on
targets inside America. The attack is imminent, and will kill thousands.
He sends an emissary to pass this information on to the US consul general,
and another US official, "possibly from the intelligence services,"
also attends the meeting. The message is not taken very seriously. The emissary
then takes the message to the Kabul offices of UNSMA, the political wing
of the UN. They also fail to take the warning seriously. [Independent,
9/7/02, Reuters,
9/7/02]
Late July
2001: David Schippers, noted
Chicago lawyer and the chief investigator in the Clinton impeachment trial,
claims that FBI agents contact him around this time and tell him that a
terrorist attack is going to occur in lower Manhattan. The agents had
been developing extensive information on the planned attack for many months. However,
the FBI soon pulls them off the terrorist investigation and threatens them
with prosecution under the National Security Act if they go public with
the information. Schippers tries to pass the information on to high government
officials but his efforts are ignored. He is now representing at least ten
FBI agents in a suit against the government to have their testimony subpoenaed,
which would enable them to legally tell what they know without going to
jail. [Judicial Watch, 11/14/01,
Alex
Jones Show, 10/10/01, World Net Daily, 10/21/01,
note sources are partisan]
Late July
2001: Just days after Atta returns
to the US from Spain, Egyptian intelligence in Cairo says it received a
report from operatives in Afghanistan that 20 al-Qaeda members had slipped
into the US and four of them had received flight training on Cessnas. They
pass on the message to the CIA, fully expecting Washington to request information.
The request never comes. [CBS,
10/9/02]
Summer 2001: Intelligence officials know that al Qaeda both
hopes to use planes as weapons and seeks to strike a violent blow within
the US, despite government claims following 9/11 that the World Trade Center
and Pentagon attacks came “like bolts from the blue.” [Wall Street Journal, 09/19/02]
Late summer
2001: Jordanian intelligence
makes a communications intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's
men relay it to Washington. To make doubly sure the message gets through
it is passed through an Arab intermediary to a German intelligence agent. The
message states that a major attack is planned inside the US and that aircraft
will be used. Christian Science Monitor calls the story "confidently
authenticated" even though Jordan has backed away from it. [International
Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, Christian Science
Monitor, 5/23/02]
August 2001: Russian
President Putin later says publicly that he ordered
his intelligence agencies to alert the US of suicide
pilots training for attacks on US targets. [Fox
News, 5/17/02] The head of Russian intelligence also states, "We
had clearly warned them" on several occasions, but they "did not
pay the necessary attention." [Agence
France-Presse, 9/16/01] A Russian newspaper on September 12, 2001 claims
that "Russian Intelligence agents know the organizers and executors
of these terrorist attacks. More than that, Moscow warned Washington about
preparation for these actions a couple of weeks before they happened.” [Izvestia,
9/12/01, the story currently on the Izvestia web site has been edited
to delete a key paragraph, the link is to a translation of the original
article]
Early August
2001: Britain gives the US another
warning about an al-Qaeda attack.The previous British warning on July 16th
was vague as to method, but this warning specifies multiple airplane hijackings.
This warning is included in Bush's briefing on August 6. [Sunday Herald, 5/19/02]
August 6,
2001: President Bush receives
a classified intelligence briefing indicating that bin Laden might be planning
to hijack commercial airliners. The memo read to him is titled "Bin
Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Yet
Bush later states the briefing “said nothing about an attack on America.”
[Washington
Post, 4/12/04, White House,
4/11/04] The memo focuses on
the possibility of terrorist attacks inside the US, and specifically mentions
the World Trade Center. National Security Advisor Rice later claims the
memo was "fuzzy and thin". The existence of this memo is kept
secret until May 2002. [Newsweek,
5/27/02, New York Times, 5/16/02, Die
Zeit, 10/1/02] Incredibly, the New York Times later reports that
Bush "broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing."
[New York
Times, 5/25/02, Intelligence
Briefing, 8/6/01 posted on George Washington University’s National Security
Archives]
August 8-15,
2001: At some point between
these dates, Israel warns the US that an al-Qaeda attack is imminent. [Fox News, 5/17/02]
Two high ranking agents from the Mossad come to Washington and warn the
FBI and CIA that from 50 to 200 terrorists have slipped into the US and
are planning "a major assault on the United States." They say
indications point to a "large scale target.” [Telegraph,
9/16/01, Los
Angeles Times, 9/20/01, Ottawa
Citizen, 9/17/01] The Los Angeles Times later retracts the story
after a CIA spokesman says, "There was no such warning. Allegations
that there was are complete and utter nonsense." [Los
Angeles Times, 9/21/01]
August 13-15,
2001: Zacarias Moussaoui trains
at a flight school in Minneapolis. After just one day of training the
staff is suspicious that he's a terrorist. They discuss "how much fuel
[is] on board a 747-400 and how much damage that could cause if it hit anything."
They call the FBI later that day. [New York Times,
2/8/02, Senate
Intelligence Committee, 10/17/02] Failing to get much initial interest
from the FBI, the flight instructor tells the FBI agents, "Do you realize
how serious this is? This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded
with fuel could be used as a weapon!" [New York Times,
2/8/02]
August 15,
2001: Based on the concerns
of flight school staff, Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested and detained. [Time,
5/27/02] The FBI confiscates his possessions, including a computer laptop,
but doesn't have a search warrant to search through them. He is supposedly
in the US working as a "marketing consultant" for a computer company,
but is unable to provide any details of his employment. Nor can he convincingly
explain his $32,000 bank balance. [MSNBC,
12/11/01, Senate
Intelligence, 10/17/02] The report also notes "Moussaoui was extremely
evasive in many of his answers." [CNN,
9/28/02] But Minnesota FBI agents quickly become frustrated at the lack
of interest in the case from higher ups. [NY Times, 2/8/02]
On August 21, they e-mail FBI headquarters saying it's "imperative"
that the Secret Service be warned of the danger a plot involving Moussaoui
might pose to the President's safety. But no such warning is ever sent.
[Senate
Intelligence, 10/17/02, New York Times,
10/18/02]
August 22,
2001: Counter-terrorism
expert John O'Neill quits the FBI. He was the government's "most committed
tracker of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network of terrorists."
[New Yorker, 1/14/02]
He says it's partly because of the recent power play against him, but also
because of repeated obstruction of his investigations into al-Qaeda. [New
Yorker, 1/14/02]
August 23,
2001: John O'Neill begins
his new job as head of security at the WTC. [New
Yorker, 1/14/02] On September 10, he moves into his new office
on the 34th floor of the North Tower. That night, he tells colleague Jerry
Hauer, "We're due for something big. I don't like the way things are
lining up in Afghanistan." O'Neill is killed the next day in the 9/11
attack. [PBS
Frontline, 10/3/02]
August 23,
2001: According to German newspapers,
the Mossad gives the CIA a list of terrorists living in the US, and say
that they appear to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future.
Four names on the list are known and are names of the 9/11 hijackers: Nawaf
Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta. [Die
Zeit, 10/1/02, Der
Spiegel, 10/1/02, BBC, 10/2/02,
Ha’aretz,
10/3/02] Yet apparently this warning and list are not treated as particularly
urgent by the CIA and also not passed on to the FBI. [Der
Spiegel, 10/1/02] The US has denied knowing about Atta before
9/11 [Senate
Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02]
August 23-27,
2001: In the wake of a French
intelligence report on Zacarias Moussaoui, FBI agents in Minnesota are "absolutely
convinced he [was] planning to do something with a plane." One agent
writes notes speculating Moussaoui might "fly something into the World
Trade Center." [Newsweek,
5/20/02] Minnesota FBI agents become "desperate to search the computer
laptop," especially since he acted as if he was hiding something important
there. [Time, 5/21/02,
Time,
5/27/02] They apply for a search warrant under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA). [Washington
Post, 11/4/01] However, as FBI agent Coleen Rowley later puts it, FBI
headquarters "almost inexplicably, throw[s] up roadblocks" and
undermines their efforts. Headquarters personnel bring up "almost ridiculous
questions in their apparent efforts to undermine the probable cause."
[Time, 5/21/02,
Time,
5/27/02]
August 24,
2001: Frustrated with lack of
response from FBI headquarters about Zacarias Moussaoui, the Minnesota FBI
contact an FBI agent working with the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center, and
asks the CIA for help. [Senate
Intelligence Committee, 10/17/02] On this day, the CIA sends messages
to stations and bases overseas requesting information about Moussaoui. The
message says that the FBI is investigating Moussaoui for possible involvement
in the planning of a terrorist attack and mentions his efforts to obtain
flight training. [Senate
Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02] It calls him a "suspect 747 airline
attacker" and a "suspect airline suicide hijacker" - showing
that the form of the 9/11 attack isn't a surprise, at least to the CIA.
[Senate
Intelligence Committee, 10/17/02] FBI headquarters responds by chastising
the Minnesota FBI for notifying the CIA without approval. [Time, 5/21/02]
August 27,
2001: An agent at the FBI headquarters'
Radical Fundamentalist Unit (RFU) tells the FBI Minnesota office supervisor
that he is getting people "spun up" over Moussaoui. The supervisor
replies that he is trying to get people at FBI headquarters "spun up"
because he is trying to make sure that Moussaoui does "not take control
of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center." He later alleges
the headquarters agent replies, "We don't know he's a terrorist. You
have a guy interested in this type of aircraft - that is it." [Senate Intelligence, 10/17/02] Three weeks earlier, Dave Frasca, the head of the
RFU unit, had received Ken Williams' memo expressing concern about terrorists
training in US flight schools, but he apparently wasn't "spun up"
enough to connect the two cases. [Time,
5/27/02] Neither he nor anyone else at FBI headquarters who saw Williams's
memo informed anyone at the FBI Minnesota office about it before 9/11. [Time,
5/21/02]
August 28,
2001: The above RFU agent edits
the Minnesota FBI's request for a search warrant to search Moussaoui's possessions.
The FBI Deputy General Counsel decides that there isn't enough to allow
an application for a search warrant through FISA. [Senate
Intelligence, 10/17/02] According to a later memo written by Minneapolis
FBI legal officer Coleen Rowley (see memo here: Time, 5/21/02),
FBI headquarters is to blame for not getting the warrant because of this
rewrite of the request. She asks, "Why would an FBI agent deliberately
sabotage a case?" The superiors acted so strangely that some agents
in the Minneapolis office openly joked that these higher-ups "had to
be spies or moles working for bin Laden." FBI headquarters refuses
to contact the Justice Department to get a search warrant through ordinary
means. Rowley later notes that the headquarters agents who blocked the Minnesota
FBI were promoted after 9/11. [Sydney Morning
Herald, 5/28/02, Time, 5/21/02]
August 30-September
4, 2001: According to Egyptian
President Mubarak, Egyptian intelligence warns American officials that bin
Laden's network is in the advanced stages of executing a significant operation
against an American target, probably within the US. [AP,
12/7/01, New
York Times, 6/4/02]
Early September
2001: An Iranian man known
as Ali S. in a German jail repeatedly phones US law enforcement to warn
of an imminent attack on the WTC in the week of September 9-15. He
calls it "an attack that will change the world." After a month
of badgering his prison guards, he is finally able to call the White House
14 times in the days before the attack. German police later confirm the
calls. Similar warnings also come from a Moroccan man being held in a Brazilian
jail. [Deutsche
Presse-Agentur, 9/13/01, Ottawa
Citizen, 9/17/01, Ananova, 9/14/01,
Sunday Herald, 9/16/01]
September
6-10, 2001: Suspicious trading
occurs on American and United, the two airlines used in the 9/11 attacks.
Between 6 and 7 September, The Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases
of 4,744 put option contracts [a speculation that the stock will go down]
in UAL versus 396 call options [a speculation that stock will go up]. On
September 10, more trading in Chicago saw the purchase of 4,516 put options
in American Airlines, the other airline involved in the hijackings. This
compares with a mere 748 call options in American purchased that day. No
other airlines saw such trading in their put options. [Associated Press,
9/18/01, San
Francisco Chronicle, 9/19/01] "To the embarrassment of investigators,
it has also emerged that the firm used to buy many of the ‘put’ options
on United Airlines stock was headed until 1998 by ‘Buzzy’ Krongard, now
executive director of the CIA." [Independent,
10/14/01]
September
10, 2001: In a speech to the
Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld announces that the Department
of Defense "cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." CBS later
calculates that 25% of the yearly defense budget is unaccounted for, and
quotes a long-time defense budget analyst: “The books are cooked routinely
year after year." Coverage of this rather shocking story is nearly
nonexistent given the events of the next day. [DOD, 9/10/01,
CBS,
1/29/02]
September
10, 2001: Two days after
9/11, Newsweek reports: "The state of alert had been high during
the past two weeks. A particularly urgent warning may have been received
the night before the attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to cancel
a trip. Why that same information was not available to the 266 people who
died aboard the four hijacked commercial aircraft may become a hot topic
on the Hill." [Newsweek, 9/13/01] Far
from becoming a hot topic, the only additional media mention of this story
is in the next issue of Newsweek: "a group of top Pentagon officials
suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because
of security concerns." [Newsweek,
9/24/01, more]
September
10, 2001: George Bush Sr. is with a brother of Osama bin Laden at a
Carlyle business conference. The conference is interrupted the next day
by the attacks. [Washington Post, 3/16/03]
September
10, 2001: Eight hours prior
to the attacks, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown receives a warning from
"my security people at the airport" advising him to be cautious
in traveling. [San
Francisco Chronicle, 9/12/01] He was scheduled to fly to New York
the next morning. [San
Francisco Chronicle 9/14/01, San
Francisco Chronicle, 9/12/01, US
State Department, 9/7/01]
September
11, 2001 (A): Warren Buffett,
the second richest man on Earth [BBC, 6/22/01], schedules a morning charity event inside Offutt
Air Force Base in Nebraska. A small group of business leaders attend, including
at least one who would otherwise have died in the WTC. [San Francisco
Business Times, 2/1/02, Forbes 10/15/01] Bush
flies to this same base that day, where there is an underground command
center. [CNN,
9/12/01, CBS,
9/11/02] The timing, attendance,
and location of the meeting is curious, to say the least.
September
11, 2001 (B): An advertisement
for a "homeland security" event in 2002 will mention the following
curious sentence: "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. [John]
Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to
explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were
to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come
true in a dramatic way that day." [National
Law Enforcement Security Institute, 8/02] Fulton's team is part of the
National Reconnaissance Office, which "operates many of the nation's
spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA."
The simulation was to start at 9:00 A.M., four miles from where one of the
real hijacked planes took off. [AP,
8/22/02] Four wargames were also in progress at the time of the attacks. [C-SPAN Congressional Testimony, 3/11/05]
September
11, 2001 (C): Data recovery experts
later looking at 32 hard drives salvaged from the 9/11 attacks discover
a surge in credit card transactions from the WTC in the hours before and
during the attacks. Unusually large sums of money were rushed through computers
even as the disaster unfolded. Investigators say, "There is a suspicion
that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane
crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million. They thought
that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main
frames were destroyed." [Reuters, 12/18/01, CNN,
12/20/01, more]
September
11, 2001 (D): Four planes are hijacked, two crash into the
WTC, one into the Pentagon, and one into the Pennsylvania countryside. At
least 3,000 people are killed. According to officials, the entire US
is defended by only 14 fighters (two planes each in seven military bases).
[Dallas
Morning News, 9/16/01] And "they no longer included any bases close
to two obvious terrorist targets - Washington, DC, and New York City."
A defense official says: "I don't think any of us envisioned an internal
air threat by big aircraft." [Newsday, 9/23/01]
September
11, 2001
Department of Defense (6/1/01) and FAA (7/12/01) procedure:
In the event of a hijacking,
the FAA hijack coordinator on duty at Washington headquarters requests the
military to provide escort aircraft. Normally, NORAD escort aircraft take
the required action. The FAA notifies the National Military Command Center
by the most expeditious means. [DOD/, 6/1/01, FAA, 7/12/01, FAA 7/12/01]
"Pilots
are supposed to hit each fix with pinpoint accuracy. If a plane deviates
by 15 degrees, or two miles from that course, the flight controllers will
hit the panic button. They’ll call the plane, saying "American 11,
you’re deviating from course." It’s considered a real emergency, like
a police car screeching down a highway at 100 miles an hour. [MSNBC,
9/12/01]
If NORAD (North
American Aerospace Defense Command) hears of any difficulties in the skies,
they begin the work to scramble jet fighters [take off and intercept
aircraft that are off course]. Between Sep 2000 and June 2001 fighters
were scrambled 67 times. [AP,
8/12/02] When the Lear jet of golfer Payne Stewart didn’t respond in
1999, F-16 interceptors were quickly dispatched.
According to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided
an
