“On Thursday, March 11, 2004, thirteen bombs exploded on four morning rush-hour commuter trains in Madrid [Spain], killing 191 and wounding more than 1,500. Had the bombs exploded only a minute or so later, experts calculated, the glass roof of the main Atocha station might well have collapsed, resulting in many more casualties. The operation […]
Category: quotes
3/11/2004
In an interview with FBI Special Agent George Piro on March 11, 2004, Saddam Hussein discussed the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Saddam declared: ” ‘Kuwait is Iraqi.’ According to Hussein, Kuwait was ‘stolen’ from Iraq by a British resolution. He added that if Kuwait had not been a country with oil, it would not […]
3/11/2004
In an interview with Saddam Hussein on March 11, 2004, FBI Special Agent George Piro asked why Iraq did not use chemical weapons against the coalition in the First Gulf War. Saddam “stated that it is not Iraqi policy to use chemical weapons against coalition forces. …He asked how Iraq would have been described if […]
3/11/2004
On March 11, 2004, President “Bush decided to reauthorize the NSA [National Security Agency] [warrantless surveillance] program in spite of the view by his own Justice Department that it was not legal. It had not been legal from the start, but Bush and [NSA Director Michael] Hayden had at least taken comfort from the fact […]
3/11/2004
” ‘The [National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance] program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting to its legality,’ he [acting Attorney General James Comey] said [on March 11, 2004]. ‘And I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th… I didn’t […]
3/11/2004
In Spain on March 11, 2004, “a group of mostly Moroccan Spaniards had launched multiple bombings on Madrid’s transportation system, killing 191 and wounding hundreds more, attacks designed to protest Spanish support for the war in Iraq. …the Madrid attacks were largely the work of leaderless jihadis who financed the bombings with the proceeds of […]
3/11/2004
“The brutal challenge for U.S. intelligence, [psychologist and former CIA case officer Marc] Sageman said, is that ‘you don’t know who’s going to be a terrorist’ anymore. Citing the 15 men who killed 190 passengers [in Madrid, Spain] on March 11 [2004] in synchronized bombings of the Spanish rail system, he said ‘if you had […]
3/11/2004
From the Bush-Cheney Reception in East Meadow, New York: “September the 11th, 2001 taught a lesson I will never forget: America must confront threats before they fully materialize. In Iraq, my administration looked at the intelligence, and we saw a threat. The Congress looked at the same intelligence, and they saw a threat. The United Nations […]
3/10/2004
According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, who visited Attorney General (AG) John Ashcroft in the hospital on March 10, 2004, along with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and presidential counsel Alberto Gonzales: “Ashcroft complained that he, the attorney general, was never able to get the full details of the NSA [National Security Agency] […]
3/9/2004
Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith concluded that the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which allowed for domestic wiretapping, was illegal. On March 9, 2004, “Goldsmith and [Deputy Attorney General James] Comey went to the White House to explain in person…that the program was illegal and so they planned to let it lapse. [Vice […]