CIA Director George Tenet provided a written statement for the 9/11 Commission on March 24, 2004. He wrote: “We documented the increased threat in the intelligence analysis that we provided to senior policymakers. We cited plots in the Arabian Peninsula and Europe, and ultimately in August 2001 we warned about Bin Ladin’s desire to conduct […]
Category: quotes
8/15/2001
“In August [15] of 2001, FBI headquarters denied its Minneapolis field office permission to search the laptop computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, an Al Qaeda operative training for a second wave of attacks.” – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 17 […]
8/15/2001
In August 2001, potential hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui raised concerns at his flight school in Egan, Minnesota, “after attempting to rush his flight training, calling his desire to fly a jumbo jet an ‘ego-boosting thing,’ and asking instructors how much damage a hijacker could do flying a fully loaded 747. Fortunately, an alert flight manager…contacted the […]
8/15/2001
“[I]n August [2001], the Central Intelligence Agency issued a secret report warning senior policy makers that Al Qaeda, Mr. bin Laden’s network, hoped to launch a strike against the domestic United States. The report combined both new and older intelligence gathered by the C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies to depict Mr. bin Laden’s long-term […]
8/14/2001
Potential hijacker Zacarias “Moussaoui’s classroom instructor knew that affluent hobbyists sometimes signed up for simulator training even if they didn’t have a [pilot’s] license, but Moussaoui’s decision to rush the training, and to ask so many questions about things like protocol for communicating with air traffic controllers, created worry. At a routine staff meeting on […]
8/13/2001
“On August 13 [2001], [potential hijacker] Zacarias Moussaoui started his new [flight] training [near Minneapolis, Minnesota]. …Two days later, the school called the local FBI office, telling agents they had what they thought was a potential hijacker on their hands. …By the next afternoon, the FBI was at the school. By nightfall, Moussaoui was in […]
8/11/2001
“The Washington Post story the next day [August 11, 2001] on page A18 characterized the attack [on air defense sites in Iraq] as one of ‘relatively limited scope’ and business-as-usual. ‘Yesterday’s strikes appeared to continue the Clinton-era pattern of hitting Iraqi air defenses every six months or so.’ “ – Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, […]
8/10/2001
“On August 10 [2001], US and British jets bombed three air defense sites in Iraq, the largest strikes since February.” – Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, Page 23 […]
8/8/2001
President George W. Bush’s comments on decisions being made with the help of the Secretary of Defense: “I’ve got a lot of national security concerns that we’re working on — Iraq; Macedonia, very worrisome right now. Kind of a blowup last night and yesterday it looked like we had a peaceful resolution; it’s now in doubt. […]
8/7/2001
“Although the [August 7, 2001] SEIB [Senior Executive Intelligence Brief] repeated the title of [the August 6] PDB [Presidential Daily Brief, titled ‘Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.‘], it did not contain the reference to the hijackings, the alert in New York, the alleged casing of buildings in New York, the threat phoned in […]