From the 9/11 Commission Report’s list of Operational Opportunities: “May 2001: a CIA official does not notify the FBI about [future 9/11 hijacker Khalid al] Mihdhar’s U.S. visa, [fellow hijacker Nawaf al] Hamzi’s U.S. travel, or [African embassy bombing conspirator] Kallad’s having attended the Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia] meeting (identified when he reviewed all of the […]
Category: quotes
5/15/2001
“In May 2001, the drumbeat of reporting grew louder with reports to top officials that ‘Bin Ladin public profile may presage attack’ and ‘Bin Ladin network’s plans advancing.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Pages 255-256 […]
5/15/2001
“at a May 15, 2001 meeting in Berlin [Germany] [to negotiate a deal for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan]…a U.S. official ominously presented the following ultimatum to the Pakistani delegation (who were the Taliban’s interlocutors at the meeting), ‘Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet […]
5/15/2001
According to an article in the May 2001 edition of the Multinational Monitor, Vice President “Dick Cheney…[former] CEO of the energy services giant Halliburton [said]: ‘You’ve got to go where the oil is. I don’t think about [political volatility] very much.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Antonia […]
5/15/2001
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Policy Report, issued in May 2001, “in the spring of 2001, when Vice President [Dick] Cheney issued the [Bush] administration’s national energy plan, the one that had been devised in secret by corporations and lobbyists that he still refuses to name, the report included this declaration: ‘The Persian […]
5/15/2001
Regarding the preparations of the 9/11 hijackers: “[B]eginning in May [2001], the leaders and logistics men began taking trial flights on cross-country routes, though they never took the exact flights that they would later hijack.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Kate Zerinke and Don Van Natta Jr., “Hijackers’ […]
5/15/2001
According to the President’s Daily Brief on August 6, 2001, “in May 2001…the American embassy in Abu Dhabi [United Arab Emirates] had received a call claiming ‘that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Elisabeth […]
5/15/2001
Attorney General John Ashcroft “released a statement about the Justice Department’s top ten priorities in May 2001. Terrorism wasn’t one of them.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 44 […]
5/15/2001
“Already in May 2001, in an interview with the New Yorker, [Vice President Dick] Cheney had linked North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as threats to American security.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Julian E. Zelizer, ed., The Presidency of George W. Bush, Page 94 […]
5/12/2001
According to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: “Bin Ladin had been urging him to advance the date of the [September 11] attacks.” At first, “Bin Ladin wanted the operation carried out on May 12, 2001, seven months to the day after the [USS] Cole bombing.” Later, “the second time he was urged to launch the […]