“On July 30, 2001, former CIA officer and neoconservative author Reuel Marc Gerecht denounced the Bush administration’s Iraq policy in the influential neoconservative journal the Weekly Standard. In an essay entitled ‘The Cowering Superpower,’ Gerecht declared, ‘From the spring of 1996, the Clinton Administration’s Iraq policy was in meltdown; under the Bush administration, it has […]
Category: quotes
7/30/2001
“On July 30, 2001, as Islamabad [Pakistan] continued to supply arms to the Taliban, the [UN] Security Council passed Resolution 1363, which authorized monitors on Afghanistan’s borders to ensure that the UN arms embargo was enforced. The Taliban and their Pakistani supporters said they would kill any UN monitors who arrived.” – Ahmed Rashid, Descent […]
7/28/2001
“A French-Algerian man has provided authorities with intricate details of a plot to carry out a suicide mission against the U.S. Embassy in Paris, saying he was recruited by Osama bin Laden’s deputy [Abu Zubaydah] and told the time to act had come, officials said Tuesday [October 2, 2001]. Djamel Beghal, 35, a French-Algerian, was […]
7/27/2001
“On July 27 [2001], [counterterrorism czar Richard] Clarke informed [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice and [Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen] Hadley that the spike in intelligence about a near-term al Qaeda attack had stopped.” He suggested that, according to another report, “an attack had just been postponed for a few months ‘but will still happen.’ […]
7/27/2001
“After reviewing recent history, he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] argued in the memo [he approved on July 27, 2001] that sanctions [on Iraq] were proving insufficient to compel Saddam to change his policies and were getting weaker: ‘[Saddam] undid the UN inspections in the 1990s and is working now to further undo the sanctions […]
7/27/2001
Regarding sanctions on Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote, in a July 27, 2001, memo: ” ‘We can publicly acknowledge that sanctions don’t work over extended periods and stop the pretense of having a policy that is keeping Saddam ‘in the box,’ when we know he has crawled a good distance out of the […]
7/27/2001
“On July 27 [2001], [counterterrorism czar] Richard Clarke informed [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice that the spike in intelligence about a near-term al Qaeda attack had ceased. He advised, however, that the alert level should remain high, because some of the reporting indicated that bin Laden’s plans had been delayed, not canceled.” – John Farmer, […]
7/27/2001
“In a four-page memo marked ‘Secret’ that he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] sent to [Vice President Dick] Cheney, [National Security Adviser Condoleezza] Rice, and [Secretary of State Colin] Powell on the afternoon of July 27 [2001], the defense chief proposed meeting to discuss three options [for dealing with Iraq]: give up the no-fly zones […]
7/26/2001
After an incident with a U-2 plane, a member of the press questioned what the U.S. may do about it, and President George W. Bush responded: “Well, we’re going to keep the pressure on Iraq. The no-fly zone strategy is still in place. We are in — plus, I’m analyzing the data from the incident you […]
7/25/2001
9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, “concerned that [hijacker Ziad] Jarrah might be backing out of the operation, instructed [co-conspirator Ramzi] bin al Shib to wire money to [suspected terrorist] Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui had been taking flying lessons in Norman, Oklahoma, beginning in February [2001], but had stopped in May. Bin al Shib wired money to […]