Who's Lying - Rice And Bush, Or Clarke?

Who's Lying - Rice

And Bush, Or Clarke?

From Robert Lederman

robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net

3-27-4

* RICE CLAIM: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 5/16/02

* FACT: On August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane." In July 2001, the Administration was also told that terrorists had explored using airplanes as missiles. [Source: NBC, 9/10/02; LA Times, 9/27/01]

* RICE CLAIM: In May 2002, Rice held a press conference to defend the Administration from new revelations that the President had been explicitly warned about an al Qaeda threat to airlines in August 2001. She "suggested that Bush had requested the briefing because of his keen concern about elevated terrorist threat levels that summer." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]

* FACT: According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]

* RICE CLAIM: "In June and July when the threat spikes were so high.we were at battle stations." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

* FACT: "Documents indicate that before Sept. 11, Ashcroft did not give terrorism top billing in his strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes the FBI. A draft of Ashcroft's 'Strategic Plan' from Aug. 9, 2001, does not put fighting terrorism as one of the department's seven goals, ranking it as a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. By contrast, in April 2000, Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, called terrorism 'the most challenging threat in the criminal justice area.'" Meanwhile, the Bush Administration decided to terminate "a highly classified program to monitor Al Qaeda suspects in the United States." [Source: Washington Post, 3/22/04; Newsweek, 3/21/04]

* RICE CLAIM: "The fact of the matter is [that] the administration focused on this before 9/11." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04 * FACT: President Bush and Vice President Cheney's counterterrorism task force, which was created in May, never convened one single meeting. The President himself admitted that "I didn't feel the sense of urgency" about terrorism before 9/11. [Source: Washington Post, 1/20/02; Bob Woodward's "Bush at War"]

* RICE CLAIM: "Our [pre-9/11 NSPD] plan called for military options to attack al Qaeda and Taliban leadership, ground forces and other targets -- taking the fight to the enemy where he lived." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

* FACT: 9/11 Commissioner Gorelick: "There is nothing in the NSPD that came out that we could find that had an invasion plan, a military plan." Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage: "Right." Gorelick: "Is it true, as Dr. Rice said, 'Our plan called for military options to attack Al Qaida and Taliban leadership'?" Armitage: "No, I think that was amended after the horror of 9/11." [Source: 9/11 Commission testimony, 3/24/04]

(The above five sets of claim vs fact quotes from Moveon.org)

"We Should Have Had Orange or Red-Type of Alert in June/July of 2001"

By Eric Boehlert Salon.com 3-26-4

A former FBI translator told the 9/11 commission that the bureau had detailed information well before Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists were likely to attack the U.S. with airplanes.

A former FBI wiretap translator with top-secret security clearance, who has been called "very credible" by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has told Salon she recently testified to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that the FBI had detailed information prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted.

Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available." Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. "Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it's a lie."

Edmonds' charge comes when the Bush White House is trying to fend off former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke's testimony that it did not take serious measures to combat the threat of Islamic terrorism, and al-Qaida specifically, in the months leading up to 9/11.

Edmonds, who is Turkish-American, is a 10-year U.S. citizen who has passed a polygraph examination conducted by FBI investigators. She speaks fluent Farsi, Arabic and Turkish and worked part-time for the FBI, making $32 an hour for six months, beginning Sept. 20, 2001. She was assigned to the FBI's investigation into Sept. 11 attacks and other counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases, where she translated reams of documents seized by agents who, for the previous year, had been rounding up suspected terrorists.

She says those tapes, often connected to terrorism, money laundering or other criminal activity, provide evidence that should have made apparent that an al- Qaida plot was in the works. Edmonds cannot talk in detail about the tapes publicly because she's been under a Justice Department gag order since 2002.

"President Bush said they had no specific information about Sept. 11, and that's accurate," says Edmonds. "But there was specific information about use of airplanes, that an attack was on the way two or three months beforehand and that several people were already in the country by May of 2001. They should've alerted the people to the threat we're facing."

Edmonds testified before 9/11 commission staffers in February for more than three hours, providing detailed information about FBI investigations, documents and dates. This week Edmonds attended the commission hearings and plans to return in April when FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify. "I'm hoping the commission asks him real questions -- like, in April 2001, did an FBI field office receive legitimate information indicating the use of airplanes for an attack on major cities? And is it true that through an FBI informant, who'd been used [by the Bureau] for 10 years, did you get information about specific terrorist plans and specific cells in this country? He couldn't say no," she insists.

Edmonds first made headlines in 2002 when she blew the whistle on the FBI's translation department, which was suddenly thrown into the spotlight as investigators clamored for original terrorist-related information, often in Arabic. Edmonds made several reports of serious misconduct, security lapses and gross incompetence in the FBI translations unit, including supervisors who told translators to work slowly during the crucial post-9/11 period to ensure the agency would get more funds for its next annual budget. As a result of her reports, Edmonds says she was harassed at the FBI. She was fired in March 2002.

Litigation followed, and in October 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the Edmonds case, taking the extraordinary step of invoking the rarely used state secrets privilege in order "to protect the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States." Ashcroft's move was made at the request of Mueller.

During a 2002 segment on "60 Minutes" exploring Edmonds' initial charges of FBI internal abuses, Sen. Grassley was asked if Edmonds is credible. "She's credible and the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story," he said.

The Inspector General's office then launched an investigation into Edmonds' charges and told her to expect a finding in the fall of 2002. The report has yet to be released. Edmonds suspects if it is ever publicly released Ashcroft will demand that it be immediately classified. "They're pushing everything under the blanket of secrecy," she says.

That's why she felt it was so important to appear before the 9/11 commission: "It's the only hope I have left to get this issue added to the public domain."

http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/26/translator/index_np.html

GW Bush's "Had known..." defense is a recurring pattern that comes up as his routine response to various scandals. If you look through his public statements throughout his political career you'll find he uses this had known line a lot................



Dubya Hits Clarke Account NY Post 3-26-4

"President Bush insisted yesterday he had no advance warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and challenged the assertions of a former aide who accused him of not placing a high enough priority on pursuing al Qaeda prior to the tragedy.

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of the government, to protect the American people," Bush said at a New Hampshire campaign stop, appearing with Cheryl McGinnis, the wife of a pilot killed in the attacks."

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." -GW Bush CNN 5/17/02

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/17/bush.sept.11/

Prior Hints Of September 11-Style Attack

Report Warned Of Suicide Hijackings CBS News 5-17-22

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives ... into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House." --1999 federal report

(CBS) Two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, an analysis prepared for U.S. intelligence warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon.

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said. The Bush administration has asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020517-1.html

"The American people know this about me, and my national security team, and my administration: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people. We will use the might of America to protect the American people." -White House press release 5/17/2002

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn04079.htm

"I absolutely had no idea and would not have sold it had I known," he said during his 1994 campaign for governor.

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?file=article&name=News&op=modload&sid=583

"Surrounded by Air Force Academy cadets at a Rose Garden ceremony, the president earnestly declared that "had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice echoed similar sentiments at a White House briefing. After acknowledging that the president had "general" information about Al Qaeda plans to hijack American airlines, she pleaded that he and his advisors had no idea that hijacked airplanes would be used as missiles to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, her implication being that such an idea was so outlandish it was beyond comprehension."

------------------------

EXCERPT from: Is terrorism's threat overblown? (National Affairs).(Column) USA Today (Magazine), Jan, 2003, by Scherer. John L.

"Al Qaeda had planned attacks in London, Paris, Marseilles, Strasbourg, Singapore, and Rome, but most of the conspirators were arrested a short time after the Sept. 11 attacks. Meanwhile, no one had hijacked an aircraft in the U.S. using a "real" weapon in almost 15 years, although crashing planes into structures is not new. The Israelis shot down a Libyan jetliner they said was headed for a building in Tel Aviv in the 1980s. A Cessna 150 fell 50 yards short of the White House in September, 1994. French commandos prevented a jumbo jet, hijacked in Algeria by the Armed Islamic Group, from crashing into the Eiffel Tower the following December. In the mid 1990s, terrorist Ramzi Yousef plotted to have his friend Abdul Hakim Murad fly a light plane loaded with chemical weapons into CIA headquarters at Langley, Va., or to have him spray the area with poison gas. A Turkish hijacker attempted to crash an aircraft into the tomb of former Pres. Kemal Ataturk in Ankara in 1998. With enhanced security on at airports and passengers on commercial airliners who will react to any danger, this threat has diminished." ------------------------

Evidence Bush Knew of Attack Before it Happened..........

ABC NEWS What Happened?

Bush Was Warned of Hijackings Before 9/11 Lawmakers Want Public Inquiry 5-16-2

The Bush administration defended its handling of the information about possible hijackings of American planes by Osama bin Laden' s terrorist network as congressional leaders called for a public inquiry into what White House officials knew and how they responded. White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes, and that information prompted administration officials to issue a private warning to transportation officials and national security agencies."

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/warningmemo020516.html

More evidence from thousands of websites showing they knew of the attack beforehand.............

http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=340_0_1_0_C http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/911bush.html http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/LEV212A.html http://www.septembereleventh.org/



9/11 Probers Say Agencies Failed To Heed Attack Signs

Washington Post 9-19-2

"U.S. intelligence agencies received many more indications than previously disclosed that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was planning imminent "spectacular" attacks in the summer of 2001 aimed at inflicting mass casualties." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36754-2002Sep18.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/printable303601.shtml CBS News Ashcroft Flying High WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001 Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart. In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term. "There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it."

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/15/bush.sept.11/index.html Bush briefed on hijacking threat before September 11 CNN May 16, 2002 "President Bush's daily intelligence briefings in the weeks leading up to the September 11 terror attacks included a warning of the possibility that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network would attempt to hijack a U.S.-based airliner, senior administration officials said Wednesday."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=331115 Revealed: The Taliban minister, the US envoy and the warning of September 11 that was ignored September 7, 2002 "Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0110/S00008.htm Bin Laden's Relatives Evacuated From NYC Tuesday, 2 October 2001, 8:29 am Article: The Scoop Editor "Patrick Tyler of the New York Times is reporting from Washington: "In the f irst days after the attacks on Sept. 11, the Saudi Arabian ambasador to Washington, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, supervised the urgent evacuation of 24 members of Osama bin Laden's extended family from ther United States fearing they might be subjected to violence." " The young members of the bin Laden clan were taken under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then flown to Washington, from which they left the United States on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks."

Heads-Up To Ashcroft Proves Threat Was Known Before 9/11 June 3, 2002 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/gate/archive/2002/06/03/hsorensen.DTL

Egypt Warned U.S. of a Qaeda Plot, Mubarak Asserts June 3, 2002 "Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/national/04WARN.html

U.S. Ignored Warnings From French May 28, 2002 "A key point in unraveling why the FBI failed to follow up leads on Al Qaeda terrorism now centers on the Bureau's contemptuously brushing aside warnings from French intelligence a few days before 9-11." http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0222/ridgeway2.php

FROM http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=39828

Claim vs. Fact: Administration Officials Respond to Richard Clarke Interview

March 22, 2004 Download: DOC, RTF, PDF

Bob Boorstin's Column: The Canary in the Coalmine

In the wake of Richard Clarke's well-supported assertions that the Bush Administration neglected counterterrorism in the face of repeated terror warnings before 9/11, the Bush Administration has launched a frantic misinformation campaign - often contradicting itself in the process.

CLAIM #1: "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to." - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

FACT: Clarke sent a memo to Rice principals on 1/24/01 marked "urgent" asking for a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with an impending Al Qaeda attack. The White House acknowledges this, but says "principals did not need to have a formal meeting to discuss the threat." No meeting occurred until one week before 9/11. - White House Press Release, 3/21/04

CLAIM #2: "The president returned to the White House and called me in and said, I've learned from George Tenet that there is no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11." - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

FACT: If this is true, then why did the President and Vice President repeatedly claim Saddam Hussein was directly connected to 9/11? President Bush sent a letter to Congress on 3/19/03 saying that the Iraq war was permitted specifically under legislation that authorized force against "nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11." Similarly, Vice President Cheney said on 9/14/03 that "It is not surprising that people make that connection" between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, and said "we don't know" if there is a connection.

CLAIM #3: "[Clarke] was moved out of the counterterrorism business over to the cybersecurity side of things." - Vice President Dick Cheney on Rush Limbaugh, 3/22/04

FACT: "Dick Clarke continued, in the Bush Administration, to be the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and the President's principle counterterrorism expert. He was expected to organize and attend all meetings of Principals and Deputies on terrorism. And he did." - White House Press Release, 3/21/04

CLAIM #4: "In June and July when the threat spikes were so high.we were at battle stations.The fact of the matter is [that] the administration focused on this before 9/11." - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

FACT: "Documents indicate that before Sept. 11, Ashcroft did not give terrorism top billing in his strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes the FBI. A draft of Ashcroft's 'Strategic Plan' from Aug. 9, 2001, does not put fighting terrorism as one of the department's seven goals, ranking it as a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. By contrast, in April 2000, Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, called terrorism 'the most challenging threat in the criminal justice area.'" - Washington Post, 3/22/04

CLAIM #5: "The president launched an aggressive response after 9/11." - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04

FACT: "In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows. The papers show that Ashcroft ranked counterterrorism efforts as a lower priority than his predecessor did, and that he resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding before and immediately after the attacks." - Washington Post, 3/22/04

CLAIM #6: "Well, [Clarke] wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff." - Vice President Dick Cheney, 3/22/04

FACT: "The Government's interagency counterterrorism crisis management forum (the Counterterrorism Security Group, or "CSG") chaired by Dick Clarke met regularly, often daily, during the high threat period." - White House Press Release, 3/21/04

CLAIM #7: "[Bush] wanted a far more effective policy for trying to deal with [terrorism], and that process was in motion throughout the spring." - Vice President Dick Cheney on Rush Limbaugh, 3/22/04

FACT: "Bush said [in May of 2001] that Cheney would direct a government-wide review on managing the consequences of a domestic attack, and 'I will periodically chair a meeting of the National Security Council to review these efforts.' Neither Cheney's review nor Bush's took place." By comparison, Cheney in 2001 formally convened his Energy Task Force at least 10 separate times, meeting at least 6 times with Enron energy executives. - Washington Post, 1/20/02 , GAO Report, 8/22/03, AP, 1/8/02

CLAIM #8: All the chatter [before 9/11] was of an attack, a potential al Qaeda attack overseas. - Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, 3/22/04

FACT: Page 204 of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 noted that "In May 2001, the intelligence community obtained a report that Bin Laden supporters were planning to infiltrate the United States" to "carry out a terrorist operation using high explosives." The report "was included in an intelligence report for senior government officials in August [2001]." In the same month, the Pentagon "acquired and shared with other elements of the Intelligence Community information suggesting that seven persons associated with Bin Laden had departed various locations for Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States." [Joint Congressional Report, 12/02] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/18/attack/main509488.shtml

Report Warned Of Suicide Hijackings

CBS NEWS WASHINGTON, May 17, 2002

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives ... into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House." 1999 federal report

(CBS) Two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, an analysis prepared for U.S. intelligence warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon.

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said.

The Bush administration has asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened.

"Had I know that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people," Mr. Bush told U.S. Air Force Academy football team members who were visiting the White House on Friday. It was his first public comment on revelations this week that he was told Aug. 6 that bin Laden wanted to hijack planes.

CBS Senior White House Correspondent Bob Schieffer reports that other top officials were less forthcoming. The usually talkative Attorney General John Ashcroft just stared when reporters asked him about the terror warnings. FBI Chief Robert Mueller also refused to comment.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the administration was aware of the 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council, which advises the president and U.S. intelligence on emerging threats. He said the document did not contain direct intelligence pointing toward a specific plot but rather included assessments about how terrorists might strike.

"What it shows is that this information that was out there did not raise enough alarm with anybody," Fleischer acknowledged.

Former CIA Deputy Director John Gannon, who was chairman of the National Intelligence Council when the report was written, said officials long have known a suicide hijacking was a threat.

"If you ask anybody could terrorists convert a plane into a missile, nobody would have ruled that out," he said.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress Friday raised the volume of their calls to investigate what the government knew before Sept. 11.

"I think we're going to learn a lot about what the government knew," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said during an appearance in New York. She said she was unaware of the report created in 1999 during her husband's administration.

Sen. Charles Grassley, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees, demanded the CIA inspector general investigate the report, which

he called "one of the most alarming indicators and warning signs of the terrorist plot of Sept. 11."

Meanwhile, court transcripts reviewed by The Associated Press show the government had other warning signs between 1999 and 2001 that bin Laden was sending members of his network to be trained as pilots and was considering airlines as a possible target.

The court records show the FBI has known since at least 1999 that Ihab Mohammed Ali, who was arrested in Florida and later named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, had been sent for pilot training in Oklhhoma before working as a pilot for bin Laden.

He eventually crashed a plane owned by bin Laden in Sudan that prosecutors alleged was used to transport al Qaeda members and weapons. Ali remains in custody in New York.

In February 2001, federal prosecutors told a court they gained information in September 2000 from an associate of Ali's, Morrocan citizen L'Houssaine Kherchtou, that Kherchtou was trained as an al Qaeda pilot in Kenya and attended a meeting in 1993 where an al Qaeda official was briefing Ali on Western air traffic control procedures.

"He (Kherchtou) observed an Egyptian person who was not a pilot debriefing a friend of his, Ihab Ali, about how air traffic control works and what people say over the air traffic control system," then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a New York court.

"And it was his belief that there might have been a plan to send a pilot to Saudi Arabia or someone familiar with that to monitor the air traffic communications so they could possibly attack an airplane perhaps belonging to an Egyptian president or something in Saudi Arabia."

That intelligence is in addition to information the FBI received in July 2001 from its Phoenix office that a large number of Arabs were training at U.S. flight schools and a briefing President Bush received in August of that year suggesting hijacking was one possible attack the al Qaeda might use against the United States.

The September 1999 report, entitled "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?" described suicide hijacking as one of several possible retribution attacks the al Qaeda might seek for a 1998 U.S. airstrike against bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.

The report noted an al Qaeda-linked terrorist first arrested in the Philippines in 1995 and later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had suggested such a mission.

"Ramzi Yousef had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters," the report said.

Bush administration officials have repeatedly said no one in government had imagined such an attack.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that ... they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

The report was written by the Federal Research Division, an arm of the Library of Congress that provides research for federal agencies.

"This information was out there, certainly to those who study the in-depth subject of terrorism and al-Qaeda," said Robert L. Worden, the agency's chief.

"We knew it was an insightful report," he said. "Then after Sept. 11 we said, 'My gosh, that was in there.'"

Gannon said the 1999 report was part of a broader effort by his council to identify the full range of attack options of U.S. enemies.

The vice president has repeatedly asked Congress not to investigate the intelligence failures. But with the new commotion, the White House now says it will cooperate with an investigation if it's done the right way.

©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report.

http://www.rense.com/general50/bushrice.htm

Here's how this Clarke thing is going to come down.

They're going to declassify and release his sworn testimony before the Senate committee in 2002. That's going to directly contradict his book. He's going to be entirely discredited for lying under oath.

This is not at all complicated or difficult to understand.

In 2002 he was a brown nosing bureaucrat trying to kiss Bush's ass in hopes of getting a promotion. It didn't work. Instead he rubbed people the wrong way and they eased him out.

In 2004 he was a disgruntled former employee seeking revenge. Being a bullshit artist he figured he could pull it off.

But wasn't that kind of dumb? Forgetting about his own contradictory sworn testimony?

The guy is about to become a major embarrassment to the Democrats. Kerry will start to backpedal and distance himself.

Perhaps Clarke can get an entry Visa to Venezuela. He'd get on famously with Hugo Chavez.



*** This comment was posted from an IP associated with a disruptive poster. The MD5 hash of their IP is ccadbfeecabfcbdf. This value is the same even if the user uses another name. Only posters deemed disruptive by the editorial collective will have this text appended to their posts. We apologize for any erroneous misidentifications.

First of all, we don't know what his previous testimony was - it is classified.

Secondly, Democrats who heard it say there is no contradiction between the two testimonies.

Thirdly, there seems to be a difference in the level of praise - not the factual content. Any charge or perjury would be based on factual content, as known at the time, and not the level of praise.

The reality is, Clarke's position is supportable by the facts - independent of his assessment and Bush's position is not. Anyone who has bothered to read about the history of terrorism knows that Philippine Intelligence warned the US in 1996 that such attacks were planned. That is not disputable.

BA, I suggest you change your name to "BS".

Before the looney left cavalry arrives screaming "CIA!"

Both W. and Clinton can shoulder blame for not maintaining a strong defense and spy network.

Clinton did nothing after the USS Cole was bombed and the WTC 93 bombing. Our Most Corrupt President ever was too busy writing letters to Penthouse Forum about interns. (Apparently torching innocents in Waco really impresses the ladies).

W. Bush, STILL scared today of the "Hispanic (traitor) vote, refuses to lock down the border. Before 9-11 he didn't do anything particularly noteworthy to increase national defense.

These hearings are the lasp gasp of the morally bankrupt left, desperate to appear sane or competent. They won't bring back the almost-3000 WTC dead.

and when is O'Brien going to testify?

Please inform us of the O'Brien factor....

On April 30, 2001, CNN reported that the Bush Administration's release of the government's annual terrorism report contained a serious change: "there was no extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden" as there had been in previous years. When asked why the Administration had reduced the focus, "a senior Bush State Department official told CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden."

... One major reason the administration and its supporters are having such difficulty in discrediting Mr Clarke is that, aside from the authority he brings as a counter-terrorism expert who has served four presidents - three of them Republican - his allegations are remarkably consistent with those of previous whistle-blowers and officials speaking off the record to the press.

As early as May 2002, Newsweek magazine described a handover meeting at the start of the Bush administration in which President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, briefed his successor, Condoleezza Rice, in detail about Osama bin Laden and said: "You will be spending more time on this issue than on any other."...

The post "Another bullshit post from an O'Brien.

by A Saturday March 27, 2004 12:50 PM " is yet another attempt by a certain "anarchist" to smear an individual.

(By the way, this is how I solve mysteries. I collect information, check out the connections, analyze information flow and occasionally post things to watch their behavioral effects. It seems to be driving my stalker nuts as she is currently spamming IndyMedia with a cut and paste job of this disorganized set of notes. I own this website and will use it and modify it as I see fit. If my stalker doesn't like it, too bad.)

Random Notes by Steve DeVoy, a happily married guy.

Source of the KOBE name found?

K. O'Brien?

California State Police?

(By the way, KOBE once posted that KOBE means Kenneth O'Brien Evans)

Harassment website owner?

We think it's G. O'Brien

Former host of the harassment website, "Sarge" from Computers N.L.A.

Old fake address of the website's fake owner:

Across the street from the Palos Verdes Police Station.

Current fake address of the fake IndyMedia website.

Former address of B. O'Brien

Source of libel?

I'll tell you soon enough.

And yes, I know who it is.

Approximate sequence:

(1) Member of NEFAC sets the FBI on my tail for having an anarchist website.

(2) Originating office of the harassment program: Baltimore Field Office of the FBI.

(3) Harassers trick my employer into firing me.

(4) FBI recruits old political operatives.

(5) One joins for personal reasons.

(6) Up goes the harassment website and useful idiots, cyber stalkers and backstabbers use it to commit crimes in anonymity.

(7) One of the parties involved uses it to unload her anger at my marriage to another woman, (yes, I once had a crush on this woman) thus the sliming of my wife, the claims that I married her only out of honor, that my wife is miserable and the claims that my daughter is not my own (all false claims).

(8) Now that I've seen her real personality, I'm sure glad it didn't work out between us. Things could have been different. I gave her countless opportunities to work things out between us, face to face or indirectly, but being the passive-aggressive type she is, she never allowed resolution. I now believe she interpreted what were attempts to achieve peace for both of us as stalking - thus her zeal to stalk me online. The only thing I ever wanted, during that period, was an opportunity to understand. I have always known how to contact her, I merely decided more than a decade ago to forget about her. Had I been stalking her, she would have heard from me in the last decade. Nevertheless, I learned, long before I became her online victim, never again to get close enough to anyone to care when things ended. That is what I took away from my relationship with her. I used the last 12 years to evolve. She seems to have used it to devolve.

I will eventually show how her doctoring of photos of me, in some cases, are intended as clues, whether conscious or subconscious, as to her identity. In particular, there is a reason why she always edits the eyes in my photos. The first thing that attracted her to me were my eyes. In particular, what she saw as a sparkle in my eyes (she told me this). I've known she was involved for a year now, but I waited until the weight of the evidence was overwhelming and until I became convinced that she would not just stop the harassment on her own before I would point to her. Deep down inside, I did not want out her specifically because I care about her and do not wish to hurt her by exposing her role in the harassment. Time's up.

Since this one was once praised by me and placed upon a pedestal, the name Judas comes to mind, as its meaning is "The praised one." And as "The praised one" sold me out to the state, according to emails from the harassment project - for money, the parallels with the historical Judas are quaint, though I am, of course, a far lesser man than the historical Judas' victim. And as the female derivation of Judas is Judie, I will begin, in my writing on this website to refer to her as Judie, allocating a page for that purpose and transferring this information to that page. However, her real name is not Judie.

There is another dissident website owner that I got together with at a protest in another city. She had been observing the harassment against me for some time. I could tell from my conversation with her that she was sure some ex-romantic interest of mine was involved. She was right, thus confirming that I should listen to the advice of women more often.

Helpers of the harassment program: Austin Field Office of the FBI, two former members of CISPES, several members of Boston IndyMedia, several high level members of NEFAC, NYC IndyMedia, DC Registry (owned by brother of Cycorp employee), Ned Lyle of Computers NLA (Sarge) (relative of B O'Brien), an asshole in Tucson, a fake paralegal in Seattle (known for harassing other anarchists), an employee of Graphine Systems in Boston, a mentally defective Franklin (MA) High School student, one individual at DARPA and several individuals at Cycorp (Cycorp was a defense contractor for the IAO and my former employer).

The mission of KOBE: To use government resources for the purpose of a personal axe to grind?

The post "Another bullshit post from an O'Brien.

by A Saturday March 27, 2004 12:50 PM " is yet another attempt by a certain "anarchist" to smear an individual.

(By the way, this is how I solve mysteries. I collect information, check out the connections, analyze information flow and occasionally post things to watch their behavioral effects. It seems to be driving my stalker nuts as she is currently spamming IndyMedia with a cut and paste job of this disorganized set of notes. I own this website and will use it and modify it as I see fit. If my stalker doesn't like it, too bad.)

Random Notes by Steve DeVoy, a happily married guy.

Source of the KOBE name found?

K. O'Brien?

California State Police?

(By the way, KOBE once posted that KOBE means Kenneth O'Brien Evans)

Harassment website owner?

We think it's G. O'Brien

Former host of the harassment website, "Sarge" from Computers N.L.A.

Old fake address of the website's fake owner:

Across the street from the Palos Verdes Police Station.

Current fake address of the fake IndyMedia website.

Former address of B. O'Brien

Source of libel?

I'll tell you soon enough.

And yes, I know who it is.

Approximate sequence:

(1) Member of NEFAC sets the FBI on my tail for having an anarchist website.

(2) Originating office of the harassment program: Baltimore Field Office of the FBI.

(3) Harassers trick my employer into firing me.

(4) FBI recruits old political operatives.

(5) One joins for personal reasons.

(6) Up goes the harassment website and useful idiots, cyber stalkers and backstabbers use it to commit crimes in anonymity.

(7) One of the parties involved uses it to unload her anger at my marriage to another woman, (yes, I once had a crush on this woman) thus the sliming of my wife, the claims that I married her only out of honor, that my wife is miserable and the claims that my daughter is not my own (all false claims).

(8) Now that I've seen her real personality, I'm sure glad it didn't work out between us. Things could have been different. I gave her countless opportunities to work things out between us, face to face or indirectly, but being the passive-aggressive type she is, she never allowed resolution. I now believe she interpreted what were attempts to achieve peace for both of us as stalking - thus her zeal to stalk me online. The only thing I ever wanted, during that period, was an opportunity to understand. I have always known how to contact her, I merely decided more than a decade ago to forget about her. Had I been stalking her, she would have heard from me in the last decade. Nevertheless, I learned, long before I became her online victim, never again to get close enough to anyone to care when things ended. That is what I took away from my relationship with her. I used the last 12 years to evolve. She seems to have used it to devolve.

I will eventually show how her doctoring of photos of me, in some cases, are intended as clues, whether conscious or subconscious, as to her identity. In particular, there is a reason why she always edits the eyes in my photos. The first thing that attracted her to me were my eyes. In particular, what she saw as a sparkle in my eyes (she told me this). I've known she was involved for a year now, but I waited until the weight of the evidence was overwhelming and until I became convinced that she would not just stop the harassment on her own before I would point to her. Deep down inside, I did not want out her specifically because I care about her and do not wish to hurt her by exposing her role in the harassment. Time's up.

Since this one was once praised by me and placed upon a pedestal, the name Judas comes to mind, as its meaning is "The praised one." And as "The praised one" sold me out to the state, according to emails from the harassment project - for money, the parallels with the historical Judas are quaint, though I am, of course, a far lesser man than the historical Judas' victim. And as the female derivation of Judas is Judie, I will begin, in my writing on this website to refer to her as Judie, allocating a page for that purpose and transferring this information to that page. However, her real name is not Judie.

There is another dissident website owner that I got together with at a protest in another city. She had been observing the harassment against me for some time. I could tell from my conversation with her that she was sure some ex-romantic interest of mine was involved. She was right, thus confirming that I should listen to the advice of women more often.

Helpers of the harassment program: Austin Field Office of the FBI, two former members of CISPES, several members of Boston IndyMedia, several high level members of NEFAC, NYC IndyMedia, DC Registry (owned by brother of Cycorp employee), Ned Lyle of Computers NLA (Sarge) (relative of B O'Brien), an asshole in Tucson, a fake paralegal in Seattle (known for harassing other anarchists), an employee of Graphine Systems in Boston, a mentally defective Franklin (MA) High School student, one individual at DARPA and several individuals at Cycorp (Cycorp was a defense contractor for the IAO and my former employer).

The mission of KOBE: To use government resources for the purpose of a personal axe to grind?