“In April 2000, the intelligence community obtained information regarding an alleged bin Laden plot to hijack a Boeing 747. The source, a ‘walk-in’ to the FBI’s Newark [New Jersey] office, claimed that he had learned hijacking techniques and received arms training in a Pakistani camp. He also claimed that he was to meet five or […]
4/12/2000
CIA Director George Tenet and NSA (National Security Agency) Director Michael Hayden appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on April 12, 2000, and “stated in unequivocal terms that NSA did not engage in spying on U.S. citizens. Tenet had told the committee, ‘We do not collect against US persons unless they are agents of a […]
4/6/2000
“When FBI Director Louis Freeh met [Pakistani leader Pervez] Musharraf in Lahore on April 6 [2000] and pleaded for help on bin Laden, he found the general ‘polite but unhelpful.’ Musharraf explained that he had ‘personal assurances from [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar’ that bin Laden was innocent of terrorism.” – Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, […]
4/6/2000
FBI Director Louis Freeh described a meeting on April 6, 2000, with Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf, in which he tried to convince the leader to help capture Osama bin Laden. “In the end, Musharraf refused to help. Taliban leader Mullah [Mohammad] Omar, he said, had given his personal assurances that Osama bin Laden was innocent […]
4/5/2000
In a April 5, 2000, CIA report on the Islamic extremist terrorist threat, a comment in the ‘Budget Concerns’ section read: “Due to budgetary constraints…CTC/UBL [the Counterterrorist Center’s Bin Laden Issue Station, the unit dedicated to tracking Usama Bin Laden] will move from offensive to defensive posture.” – CIA, “EXDIR Update – Islamic Extremist Terrorist […]
3/25/2000
President Bill Clinton made a brief visit to Pakistan on March 25, 2000. “He intentionally avoided the topic of bin Laden in meetings at which ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence] officials were present and saved his pleas for his one-on-one session with [leader Pervez] Musharraf. ‘I offered him the moon when I went to see him, […]
3/25/2000
During a one-day visit to Pakistan on March 25, 2000, President Bill Clinton met with Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf. “Clinton pressed ‘very hard’ and told the general ‘to use Pakistan’s influence with the Taliban to get bin Laden.’ “ – Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 512 […]
3/21/2000
In a March 21, 2000, interview in The Washington Times, “General Pervez Musharaf, the military ruler of Pakistan’s 140 million Muslims, aptly summarized bin Laden’s [OBL’s] appeal at the time: ‘The Western demonization of OBL, as he is known in Pakistan, made him a cult figure among Muslims who resent everything from the decline in […]
3/21/2000
On March 21, 2000, Jacob L. Bosen of Orion Scientific used data from Operation Able Danger to build a declassified chart of the two cells of terrorist Ramzi Yousef (in New York and Manila, Philippines), showing links to the WTC bombing. “The chart, which represents the most active intelligence known to the DIA [Defense Intelligence […]
3/21/2000
Operation Able Danger, which had been created to mine data and identify links between known terrorists, had a chart declassified on March 21, 2000. This chart linked double agent Ali Mohamed “inside a box with [al Qaeda leaders] bin Laden, [Ayman] al-Zawahiri, [Mohammed] Atef, Wadih El-Hage, and [bin Laden’s brother-in-law] Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. That box […]