On August 10, 2001, potential terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui left Oklahoma for Minnesota, where he began flight simulator training at Pan Am. “His conduct, however, raised the suspicions of his flight instructor. It was unusual for a student with so little training to be learning to fly large jets without any intention of obtaining a pilot’s […]
8/16/2001
“Working with the FBI, federal immigration officers in Minneapolis arrested Zacarias Moussaoui on August 16, 2001. Based on his bizarre behavior at a local flight school FBI agents were convinced Moussaoui, who held a French passport, was a Muslim extremist interested in hijacking a commercial jet.” – Philip Shenon, The Commission, Page 138 […]
8/16/2001
“Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, said law enforcement officials had decided before Sept. 11 that they lacked legal authority to obtain a court-approved intelligence warrant, known as a F.I.S.A. warrant, to search [potential terrorist] Mr. [Zacarias] Moussaoui’s laptop computer [following his arrest on August 16, 2001]. It was later found to contain data […]
8/16/2001
Potential terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was in Minnesota for “a week before he was arrested, on Aug. 16 [2001]. He had a host of suspicious items, two knives, binoculars, flight manuals for a Boeing 747-400, a flight simulator computer game, fighting shields, shinguards, a piece of paper referring to a G.P.S. receiver, a notebook with telephone […]
8/16/2001
“August 16, 2001: The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] issues a warning about disguised weapons. Officials cite reports that the terrorists have made breakthroughs in using cell phones, key chains and pens as weapons.” – Gerald Posner, Why America Slept, Page 192 […]
8/15/2001
CIA Director George Tenet provided a written statement for the 9/11 Commission on March 24, 2004. He wrote: “We documented the increased threat in the intelligence analysis that we provided to senior policymakers. We cited plots in the Arabian Peninsula and Europe, and ultimately in August 2001 we warned about Bin Ladin’s desire to conduct […]
8/15/2001
“In August 2001, [future President of Afghanistan] Hamid Karzai, along with two other prominent Pashtun emigres, Abdul Haq and Gen. Rahim Wardak (who was to become Afghan defense minister in 2004), went to London to meet with British officials. Karzai’s message was simple: Osama bin Laden was making key decisions for the Taliban, and al […]
8/15/2001
“Due to penetration of Pakistan’s nuclear establishment by Britain’s MI6 [foreign intelligence service], the CIA learned astonishing information about contact between Pakistani nuclear scientists and al Qaeda. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, two retired nuclear scientists from the stable run by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, met with […]
8/15/2001
“According to an eyewitness in the al Qaeda camp at the time, an Australian convert to Islam, Osama had told his closest advisers and [Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad] Omar in August 2001 that an attack on America was imminent, but many of his aides objected to the idea as too dangerous. Osama decided to go […]
8/15/2001
“In August 2001, either NSA [National Security Agency] or Britain’s GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters] intercepted a telephone call from one of bin Laden’s chief lieutenants, Abu Zubaida, to an al Qaeda operative believed to have been in Pakistan. The intercept centered on an operation that was to take place in September. At about the same […]