“Two months after Osama bin Laden’s operatives blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1998, Congress invited ten leading military, intelligence, and law enforcement experts to recommend changes in policy for preventing and punishing terrorism. After consulting the country’s top terrorism specialists, the National Commission on Terrorism […]
6/2/2000
“Czech officials say they do not believe that Mohamed Atta, suspected of having led the attack on the World Trade Center, met with any Iraqi officials during a brief stop he made in Prague [Czech Republic] last year [on June 2, 2000].” – John Tagliabue, “No Evidence Suspect Met Iraqi in Prague,” The New York […]
5/29/2000
“On May 29 [2000], [future 9/11 hijacker Marwan] al Shehhi flew from Brussels, Belgium, into Newark International Airport in New Jersey. He…waited for Amir [aka fellow hijacker Mohammed Atta], who followed five days later, flying out of Prague [Czech Republic] to Newark. …Both Amir and Shehhi were admitted for six-month visits. Amir’s visa was issued […]
5/25/2000
On May 25, 2000, Pakistan’s leader Pervez “Musharraf threw Pakistan’s full weight behind the Taliban, saying that he would never ‘alienate’ the Taliban because Pakistan felt obliged to look out for the interests of Pashtuns on either side of the border. ‘We cannot alienate the Taliban, as we want the Pushtoons on our side. It […]
5/15/2000
Pakistani leader Pervez “Musharraf’s aides made it clear that they would oppose all U.S. efforts to undermine the Taliban regime. ‘We are trying to stop the U.S. from undermining the Taliban regime. They cannot do it without Pakistan’s help, because they have no assets there, but we will not allow it to happen,’ said Maj.-Gen. […]
5/15/2000
In May 2000, “Ramzi bin al-Shibh applied for a visa to travel to the United States and was denied. American investigators would later say that Mr. Shibh, a Yemeni living in Germany as part of a Qaeda terrorist cell, was intended to be the 20th hijacker in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.” [The 15th […]
5/1/2000
On May 1, 2000, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator Michael Sheehan “told reporters that he did not believe the Taliban was hostile to the United States. ‘In fact,’ he said, ‘they repeatedly tell me that they want good relations with the United States, and I believe that to be a sincere desire. However, within the […]
4/25/2000
“UN inspectors independently verified the existence of the [terrorist training] camps [in Iraq], and the airplane at Salman Pak [military facility near Baghdad]. When they asked the Iraqis for an explanation, they were told that the instruction focused not on terrorism but on counterterrorism. Satellite imagery taken by a private U.S. firm, called Space Imaging […]
4/15/2000
In April 2000, “the 2.5 terabytes of data gathered by the Able Danger operation are ordered destroyed by the Pentagon. …Between April and September 2000, three separate meetings in which [Lt. Col. Anthony] Shaffer seeks to brief the FBI on the Able Danger findings are cancelled by lawyers for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).” It […]
4/15/2000
In April 2000, Former Chief of Intelligence at LIWA (Land Information Warfare Activity), Major Eric “Kleinsmith and other LIWA personnel on the Able Danger project were told by DOD [Department of Defense] lawyers that the vast amount of open-source data may have violated Executive Order 12333, an intelligence directive signed in 1981 by President Ronald […]