“How the U.S. intelligence community…missed the September 11 [2001] attacks is a story of a system hamstrung by bad politics, poor leadership, and bureaucratic ineptitude. But the most important problem…is the lack of accountability.” – Bill Gertz, Breakdown, Pages 4-5 […]
Category: quotes
9/11/2001
“Osama was in Kandahar [Afghanistan] on September 11 [2001] and gathered some of his closest lieutenants together to watch the plot unfold on television. Apparently he alone anticipated the magnitude of the destruction, perhaps because of his work in construction for his father, although he was surprised at the total collapse of the two towers.” […]
9/11/2001
“Within fifteen minutes of the attacks [on September 11, 2001], the National Security Agency [NSA] intercepted a call from an Al Qaeda operative in Asia to a contact in a former Soviet republic reporting the ‘good news’ of the attacks in New York and on the Pentagon. [CIA Director George] Tenet passed that report on […]
9/11/2001
At 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001, “UA [United Airlines Flight] 175 hits the WTC’s South Tower. As millions watch on TV, at least one hundred people are killed or injured on impact; another six hundred eventually die.” – Peter Lance, Cover Up, Page 234 […]
9/11/2001
On September 11, 2001, “The 9/11 teams realised that their scheme might be compromised if team members were caught trying to smuggle illicit knives on board the planes and so carried box-cutter knives less than four inches long which were permitted by the Federal Aviation Authority. In addition to pepper sprays, these boxcutting knives were […]
9/11/2001
A few hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush spoke with CIA briefer Michael Morell. ” ‘Who do you think did this?’ Bush asked. ‘There are two terror states capable, Iran and Iraq, but both have everything to lose and nothing to gain,’ Morell said. ‘If I had to guess I’d […]
9/11/2001
“At Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, President Bush convened the first meeting of the National Security Council for the terrorist crisis at 3:30 p.m. [on September 11, 2001]. [CIA director George] Tenet reported with near certainty that bin Laden was behind the attacks. Passenger manifests showed three known al Qaeda operatives had been on […]
9/11/2001
“According to [Vice President Dick] Cheney’s Meet the Press interview with Tim Russert on September 16 [2001], [on the morning of September 11, 2001] the Secret Service evacuated him from his office in response to ‘a report that an airplane was headed for the White House…which turned out to be Flight 77.’ As Cheney told […]
9/11/2001
“The attacks of September 11 [2001] represented the greatest failure of intelligence since the Trojan horse. Each of the nation’s spy agencies was responsible in part, but after an eighteen-month investigation, the evidence presented…shows that the FBI in particular had multiple opportunities to stop the devastation of 9/11 and simply failed to follow through.” – […]
9/11/2001
On the evening of September 11, 2001, “The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued a denial [of bin Laden’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks] through a spokesman in Kandahar [Afghanistan], Abdul Hai Mutmain: ‘Mullah Omar condemns this act. Mullah Omar says Osama is not responsible. We have brought peace to this country and we […]