On May 15, 2002, CBS News reported “that a daily briefing presented to [President] Bush a few weeks before the [9/11] attacks [August 6, 2001] warned him specifically about the threats of a domestic hijacking by al-Qaeda.” – Philip Shenon, The Commission, Page 212 […]
5/13/2002
“For the past three years, a band of Islamic radicals called Ansar al-Islam, led by a suspected Iraqi intelligence operative, have waged a terror campaign against Kurdish officials. According to a [May 13, 2002] report in Time, the group was trained by Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan and returned to Iraq after the battle of […]
5/11/2002
Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir was interviewed by journalist Peter Bergen on May 11, 2002. Mir said: ” ‘…I engaged [al Qaeda second-in-command] Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri in a conversation and I asked, *It is difficult to believe that you have a nuclear weapon. How can you purchase these kind of weapons?* He said, *Mr. Hamid […]
5/11/2002
“Saturday, May 11, 2002, had been set aside for a major review of the [Iraq invasion] planning by the president [Bush] at his Camp David retreat. The president was not just getting a briefing, but offering advice. It was important, Bush instructed, to portray the invasion as the liberation of Iraq. Messages should be prepared […]
5/9/2002
“On May 9 [2002], [General Tommy] Franks formally asked his commanders to develop a plan for a second or northern front option for an attack into Iraq through Turkey…all planning had focused on the southern or Kuwait-only attack.” – Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, Page 123 […]
5/8/2002
“Congress had been unwilling to criticize the CIA and FBI in the months after 9/11, particularly as the agencies focused on trying to thwart new attacks. But that began to change on May 8 [2002], when [Robert] Mueller, who had become FBI director a few days before the attacks, told a Senate subcommittee that his […]
5/8/2002
“Interrogators alternatively provided and then withheld short-term pain killers from [al-Qaeda operations chief] Abu Zubaydah, who was shot in the groin during his arrest in March 2002 in the eastern Pakistani city of Faisalabad. It was perhaps no surprise that he provided information that led to the arrest of Jose Padilla upon landing at Chicago’s […]
5/8/2002
In testimony before Congress on May 8, 2002, FBI director Robert Mueller said: ” ‘The [9/11] hijackers also apparently left no paper trail. In our investigation, we have not yet uncovered a single piece of paper–either here in the U.S. or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere–that […]
5/5/2002
Appearing on ABC’s This Week on May 5, 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, regarding Iraq: ” ‘The United States reserves its option to do whatever it believes might be appropriate to see if there can be a regime change. …The U.S. policy is that regardless of what the [weapons] inspectors do, the people […]
5/2/2002
According to a Vanity Fair article on May 2, 2002, the terrorist organization Hamas “has benefited from Saddam’s generosity, apparently receiving training in weapons and even suicide bombing at Iraq’s Salman Pak terrorist camp.” – Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol, The War Over Iraq, Page 25 […]