“FBI and CIA officials were advised in August [2001] 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 [September 19, 2001]. 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. It is not known whether U.S. authorities thought the warning to be credible, or whether it contained enough details to allow counter-terrorism teams to come up with a response. But the official said the advisory linked the information ‘back to Afghanistan and [exiled Saudi militant] Osama bin Laden.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Richard A. Serrano and John-Thor Dahlburg, “Officials Told of ‘Major Assault’ Plans,” The Los Angeles Times, Sep. 20, 2001