Counterterrorism czar “Richard Clarke attended meetings on Iraq on September 12 [2001]. He later wrote, ‘At first I was incredulous that we were talking about something other than getting al Qaeda. Then I realized with almost a sharp physical pain that [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz were going […]
9/12/2001
In a principals meeting on September 12, 2001, Secretary of State Colin “Powell countered [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld’s argument that now was the time to ‘get Iraq,’ but Rumsfeld responded that the targets in Afghanistan were not significant enough to bomb and that therefore targets in Iraq should be considered.” – Ian S. Lustick, […]
9/12/2001
“On September 12 [2001], the CIA said it was certain al-Qaeda in Afghanistan had launched the [9/11] attacks, but that very day [former CIA director and Defense Advisory Board member] James Woolsey told [journalist] James Fallows that ‘no matter who proved to be responsible for this attack, the solution had to include removing Saddam Hussein.’ […]
9/12/2001
On September 12, 2001, Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) head General Mahmud Ahmad, who was visiting Washington, “was summoned to the State Department to see Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. According to [Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf’s account of the meeting, Mahmud was told either Pakistan cooperated with the United States against al Qaeda or the […]
9/12/2001
On September 12, 2001, “NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history, which meant that the nineteen member states of the alliance considered the 9/11 attacks as an attack against all of them, to be responded to with force.” – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 59 […]
9/12/2001
Regarding the terrorist attacks on 9/11, on September 12, 2001, “Saddam Hussein himself said that Americans got what they deserved. ‘Those who do not want to harvest evil should not plant evil,’ he said. ‘The American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity.’ ” – Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection, Page xix […]
9/12/2001
Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke was interviewed by Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes on March 21, 2004. “Speaking of White House meetings after the 9/11 attacks [on September 12, 2001], Clarke said that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were all but lost in the shuffle: ‘[Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was saying that we […]
9/12/2001
“In the seventy-two hours before 9/11, four more NSA [National Security Agency] intercepts suggested that a terrorist attack was imminent. But NSA did not translate or disseminate any of them until the day after 9/11 [September 12, 2001]. In one of the two most significant, one of the speakers said, ‘The big match is about […]
9/12/2001
Author “Laurie Mylroie, a darling of the neocons who had falsely reported that Saddam was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, turned in an opinion piece that was published in the Wall Street Journal the next day [September 12, 2001], blaming the Iraqi dictator for 9/11 as well. Intelligence analysts had already begun to […]
9/12/2001
On September 12, 2001, “FBI director Robert Mueller…warned at a high-level meeting that irregular methods for apprehending, detaining, or interrogating terrorism suspects might taint evidence. [Attorney General John] Ashcroft dismissed Mueller’s doubts, directing that Mueller ‘stop the discussion right here… The chief mission of U.S. law enforcement…is to stop another attack and apprehend any accomplices […]