Then-CIA Director George Tenet wrote: “By early September [2001], CIA had a group of assets from a Middle Eastern service working on our behalf. None of the more than twenty individuals knew they were working for us. They were targeted against a range of terrorism issues. One third of them worked against al-Qa’ida. By September […]
Category: quotes
9/5/2001
“Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 [2001] that Osama bin Laden’s network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday [June 2, 2002]. Using a secret agent they had recruited who was in close contact […]
9/4/2001
“Early in September [4, 2001, counterterrorism czar Richard] Clarke unloaded his frustrations in a memo to [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice. ‘Decision makers should imagine themselves on a future day when CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] has not succeeded in stopping al Qaeda attacks and hundreds of Americans lay dead in several countries, including the U.S.,’ […]
9/4/2001
On September 4, 2001, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke wrote National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice a memo “in which Clarke seemed to predict what was just about to happen. It was a memo that seemed to spill out all of Clarke’s frustration about how slowly the Bush White House had responded to a cascade of terrorist […]
9/4/2001
“On September 4 [2001], [counterterrorism czar Richard] Clarke was finally given the chance to present his strategy [for attacking al Qaeda] at a meeting of the administration’s so-called Principals Committee, a group of high-level cabinet-ranking policy makers. …it was only their second meeting about terrorism [in seven and half months]–out of 90 to 100 meetings […]
9/4/2001
Counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke presented his plan against Al Qaeda on September 4, 2001, in a Principal’s meeting with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, CIA director George Tenet, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. “If the group […]
9/4/2001
“The Bush Cabinet met at the White House on September 4 [2001]. Before them was a draft copy of a National Security Presidential Directive, a classified memo outlining a new U.S. policy toward al Qaeda and Afghanistan. The stated goal of the draft document was to eliminate bin Laden and his organization. Its provisions included […]
9/4/2001
“During July [2001], the [National Security Council] deputies’ committee recommended a comprehensive plan, not just to roll back al Qaeda but to eliminate it. It was a plan to go on the offensive and destabilize the Taliban. …It was not until September 4 [2001] that they approved and recommended a plan that would give the […]
9/4/2001
Counterterrorism czar Richard “Clarke sent an agonized note that morning [September 4, 2001] to Condoleezza Rice, begging the national security adviser to envision hundreds of Americans lying dead from the next attack. He said the agency [CIA] had become ‘a hollow shell of words without deeds,’ relying on foreign governments to stop bin Laden, leaving […]
9/4/2001
On September 4, 2001, “the FBI finally informed the Federal Aviation Administration’s [FAA’s] liaison to the Bureau, Jack Salata, about [potential terrorist Zacarias] Moussaoui’s detention. The Bureau told him that Moussaoui might have intended to hijack a plane, but that there was no evidence he was part of a larger plot. Since he was already […]