In June 2002, Puerto Rican former gang member Jose Padilla “found himself incarcerated in a naval brig in South Carolina on the direct authority of the secretary of defense [Donald Rumsfeld]. Padilla was one of three prisoners accused of terrorism held in the jail who were subjected to a carefully designed regime of isolation and […]
6/15/2002
“In a statement posted on an al-Qaeda Web site in June 2002, [al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman] Abu-Ghaith justified the principle of massive attacks on the United States by calculating the number of Muslims who had been unjustly killed as a result of American and Israeli actions. Based on this calculation Abu-Ghaith declared that al-Qaeda had ‘the […]
6/15/2002
“In June 2002, NSA [National Security Agency] and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community turned their attention away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and toward a new target–Iraq.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Page 234 […]
6/15/2002
“Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a cleric of Kuwaiti origin and spokesman for al-Qa’ida, posted a statement on the Internet in June 2002 saying that ‘Al-Qa’ida has the right to kill four million Americans, including one million children, displace double that figure, and injure and cripple hundreds and thousands.’ Ghaith’s rationale for such grisly figures was based […]
6/15/2002
“The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which was critical of many [Bush] administration policies, issued a report in June 2002 entitled Deadly Arsenals, which asserted that Saddam was determined to develop nuclear weapons, may have hidden up to 600 metric tons [600 short tons] of CW [chemical weapons] agents, had the capability to conduct clandestine […]
6/15/2002
During a June 2002 meeting of various agency representatives tasked with tracing al Qaeda financing, FBI Agent Dennis Lormel reported on recent disclosures by the government of the United Arab Emirates. “What Lormel and his team learned was that [UAE financial kingpin Pacha] Wazir was responsible for handling a startling $67 million in assets for […]
6/15/2002
Vice President Dick “Cheney and his personal national security adviser, I. Lewis Libby, known by his nickname as Scooter, argued and reargued the case for the link [between Saddam and 9/11] until the eve of war. Often they went to the agency [CIA] personally, bringing fresh allegations, acquired from their own sources, and pressing CIA […]
6/15/2002
“…under pressure from Democrats, President George W. Bush in June 2002 announced the creation of a new cabinet agency called the Department of Homeland Security whose mission is to consolidate dozens of federal agencies under a super security agency. ‘Right now, as many as a hundred different government agencies have some responsibilities for homeland security–and […]
6/15/2002
“Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, believes that the U.S. intelligence community, and the FBI specifically, had more than enough information to spot the September 11 plot. …’I think there was a virtual blueprint,’ Specter told [FBI Director Robert] Mueller during a June 2002 Judiciary Committee hearing.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting […]
6/14/2002
Explaining the Bush Administration’s rationale for war against Iraq in The Wall Street Journal on June 14, 2002, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice stated: ” ‘It is not because you have some chain of evidence saying Iraq may have given a weapon to al-Qaeda. …It is because Iraq is one of those places that is […]