“On November 16 [2001], the bombing campaign [in Afghanistan] scored its first big victory. Mohammed Atef, bin Laden’s military commander, died in a Predator [drone] missile attack in Gardez, just south of Kabul.” – Julian E. Zelizer, ed., The Presidency of George W. Bush, Page 72 […]
Category: quotes
11/15/2001
In November 2001, al-Qaeda military commander Mohammed “Atef was killed in a U.S. Predator drone strike. Atef, a former Egyptian policeman, was one of the most hard-line members of al-Qaeda. …The loss of al-Qaeda’s military commander was a blow to the organization, since it was Atef who had performed as bin Laden’s chief executive officer, […]
11/15/2001
On November 15, 2001, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo sent a memo to Senior Associate Counsel John Bellinger, titled, ‘Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Provisions of the ABM Treaty.’ In reference to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with the USSR, Yoo wrote that the President had the constitutional power to terminate and […]
11/15/2001
According to author Rohan Gunaratna’s interview with an Al Qaeda member in November 2001: “Al Qaeda believes that until US troops are ejected from Saudi Arabia, Muslim society will be ‘living a life of sin.’ As one fighter put it, ‘Until the US troops are removed from all lands of the Muslims, no Muslim is […]
11/15/2001
From the Chilcot inquiry, the British public inquiry into their involvement in the war in Iraq: “For the first time, the inquiry yesterday [January 19, 2011] released evidence from MI6 [UK’s foreign intelligence service] officers spelling out their warnings, as early as November 2001 as the Bush administration was already preparing for war, of the […]
11/15/2001
In an article in the November/December 2001 issue of Foreign Affairs, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, regarding the response to the 9/11 attacks: ” ‘This is a new kind of war, a new kind of battlefield, and the United States will need the help of Arab and Muslim countries,’ …The Palestinian issue, he added, […]
11/15/2001
From “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “51. In November 2001, the [UK] JIC [UK Joint Intellegence Committee] assessed that Iraq had played no role in 9/11 attacks on the US and that practical co-operation between Iraq and Al Qaida was ‘unlikely’. There was no ‘credible evidence of covert transfers of WMD-related technology […]
11/15/2001
Osama bin Laden discussed the events of September 11 in a video which was recorded in November 2001: ” ‘We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four […]
11/15/2001
” ‘This war is fundamentally religious,’ bin Laden said in November 2001. ‘Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For, the enmity is based on creed.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, Page 19 […]
11/15/2001
According to a November 15, 2001, interview with CIA Islamabad (Pakistan) station chief Milton Bearden: “for the first time came complaints from some Afghan fighters to the CIA about a rising force in their jihad: Arab volunteers. Thousands of them were arriving in Afghanistan. …Bearden recalled the thrust of the very early reports arriving from […]