From the August 6, 2001, President’s Daily Brief: ” ‘Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden 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 Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [foreign intelligence] service. …Al-Qa’ida members–including some who are US citizens [Wadih-El-hage and Ali Mohamed]–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 [Egyptian Islamic Jihad] member [Mohamed, again] lived in California in the mid-1990s. …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 Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] in May saying that a group of Bin Laden supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.’ ”
– James Bamford, A Pretext for War, Pages 242-244