Attorney General John Ashcroft “released a statement about the Justice Department’s top ten priorities in May 2001. Terrorism wasn’t one of them.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 44 […]
5/15/2001
According to the President’s Daily Brief on August 6, 2001, “in May 2001…the American embassy in Abu Dhabi [United Arab Emirates] had received a call claiming ‘that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Elisabeth […]
5/15/2001
Regarding the preparations of the 9/11 hijackers: “[B]eginning in May [2001], the leaders and logistics men began taking trial flights on cross-country routes, though they never took the exact flights that they would later hijack.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Kate Zerinke and Don Van Natta Jr., “Hijackers’ […]
5/15/2001
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Policy Report, issued in May 2001, “in the spring of 2001, when Vice President [Dick] Cheney issued the [Bush] administration’s national energy plan, the one that had been devised in secret by corporations and lobbyists that he still refuses to name, the report included this declaration: ‘The Persian […]
5/15/2001
According to an article in the May 2001 edition of the Multinational Monitor, Vice President “Dick Cheney…[former] CEO of the energy services giant Halliburton [said]: ‘You’ve got to go where the oil is. I don’t think about [political volatility] very much.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Antonia […]
5/15/2001
“at a May 15, 2001 meeting in Berlin [Germany] [to negotiate a deal for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan]…a U.S. official ominously presented the following ultimatum to the Pakistani delegation (who were the Taliban’s interlocutors at the meeting), ‘Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet […]
5/15/2001
“In May 2001, the drumbeat of reporting grew louder with reports to top officials that ‘Bin Ladin public profile may presage attack’ and ‘Bin Ladin network’s plans advancing.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Pages 255-256 […]
5/15/2001
From the 9/11 Commission Report’s list of Operational Opportunities: “May 2001: a CIA official does not notify the FBI about [future 9/11 hijacker Khalid al] Mihdhar’s U.S. visa, [fellow hijacker Nawaf al] Hamzi’s U.S. travel, or [African embassy bombing conspirator] Kallad’s having attended the Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia] meeting (identified when he reviewed all of the […]
5/15/2001
“In May [2001] the chief of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center, Cofer Black, warned [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice that the threat level was close to the level it had reached during the millennium, when major plots were thwarted in Jordan and in the United States, including one targeted on Los Angeles International Airport.” [The 15th […]
5/12/2001
According to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: “Bin Ladin had been urging him to advance the date of the [September 11] attacks.” At first, “Bin Ladin wanted the operation carried out on May 12, 2001, seven months to the day after the [USS] Cole bombing.” Later, “the second time he was urged to launch the […]