In testimony before the House of Representatives in October 2001, Oliver B. ‘Buck’ Revell, former associate deputy director of the FBI for investigations, said: “The laundry list of crimes committed against Americans by Islamic terrorists linked to al Qaeda was long and included attacks on American forces in Somalia in 1992, the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the bombing of a U.S. military building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1995. There was also the bombing of the U.S. military residence in Dhahran in 1996, the simultaneous bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the successful suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. Then there were the plots that didn’t hatch. These included attacks on tunnels and bridges in the New York area in 1993, assassinating Pope John Paul II…and assassinating President Bill Clinton in the Philippines in 1995. Other foiled plots included bombing commercial airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995, bombing U.S. landmarks in December 1999 and January 2000, and bombing a U.S. warship in Yemen in January 2000. With all that history, why wasn’t the FBI focused on the possibility of an Islamic terror strike on the United States?” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Bill Gertz, Breakdown, Page 92