“In February 2001, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Usama bin Ladin was tried in absentia and others were tried in person for their involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It was here that al-Qa’ida’s pursuit of WMD became clear: one of the key […]
Category: quotes
2/14/2001
“At moments in today’s [February 14, 2001] speech, [President] Mr. Bush echoed a theme that President Bill Clinton often returned to in talking about new threats to the United States: the fear of a biological or nuclear attack, perhaps delivered in a small container to an American city, by terrorists rather than a hostile state. […]
2/14/2001
According to testimony of captured terrorist Essam al-Ridi on February 14, 2001, “Most of the thousands of employees in bin Laden’s vast array of businesses had no idea that al-Qaeda existed. That was a secret; to know of the group’s existence you had to be a member. Salaries for al-Qaeda members ranged from $500 to […]
2/14/2001
”Though [President] Mr. Bush never used the phrase today [February 14, 2001], the movement he endorsed is known within the military establishment as the ‘revolution in military affairs.’ It takes many forms, but focuses on the development of new weapons, often designed to attack not only enemy states, but small groups of terrorists who, like […]
2/14/2001
From a CIA analytical report on February 14, 2001: “Bin Ladin and his associates have experimented by crude means to make and deploy biological agents. [Redacted] the recipes have been shared among extremists, including via the Internet. [Redacted] Bin Ladin has sought to acquire military-grade biological agents or weapons.” – CIA, “Afghanistan: Bin Ladin’s Interest […]
2/10/2001
“The United States, citing United Nations sanctions, has told the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan to close their office in New York, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said today [February 10, 2001].” – New York Times Staff, “U.S. Tells Taliban to Close New York Office,” The New York Times, Feb. 10, 2001 […]
2/8/2001
“The decentralized command structure of Mr. bin Laden’s organization makes it far more difficult to investigate. Al-Qaeda, [CIA Director] Mr. [George] Tenet noted [in testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on February 8, 2001], ‘is continuing to place emphasis on developing surrogates to carry out attacks in an effort to avoid detection, blame […]
2/8/2001
In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on February 8, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet failed to reference Iraq as a country willing to use weapons of mass destruction to support terrorism. “Mr. Tenet also warned that the threat from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remained high in flashpoints like the […]
2/8/2001
“A briefing memo circulated on February 8, 2001, by the Project on Defense Alternatives…challenged military planners to address the three ‘paradoxes’ of post-Cold War U.S. policy: first, that ‘defense spending has remained near Cold War levels…and is now rising, despite the continuing decline in the magnitude of military threats to U.S. interests’; second, that ‘Ten […]
2/7/2001
“In testimony delivered on February 7, 2001, for the first time the CIA Director [George Tenet] listed al Qaeda first [among the dangers listed on the CIA’s annual threat assessment].” – Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 661 […]