It's 20:09 MDT and the White House just admitted that they had "warnings" that al-Qaeda would hijack a U.S. airliner starting in thspring of 2001. This is obviously in response to multiple admissions from the FBI that they had warning not just of an impending attack, but of specific students training at flight schools in the United States for such an attack. This would appeard to be only part of the truth.
It turns out that we had lots of warning of the attacks on the World Trade Center, starting in April of 2001, that included the method and the target of the attacks. We received multiple warnings from the intelligence services of Russia, Germany, Israel, and Egypt that included a variety of information, including that the hijacked airplanes would be used to attack the Twin Towers. All of the warnings were ignored by the CIA, the FBI, the DOD, and ultimately by the President of the United States.
The warning from German intelligence , the BND, is perhaps the most troubling because it was based on information gathered using Echelon, a system that monitors telecommunications around the world. Echelon is, of course, run by the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. So Germany warned us of an attack on U.S. soil based on information gathered using our own intellignce network, and we ignored it. A description of the foreign intelligence warnings regarding the attack can be found here.
There are other items that would imply that the Bush Administration knew well in advance that the attacks would happen, where they would happen, and when they would happen. One report indicates that elements of FEMA were deployed to New York City a few days before the attacks. Other reports indicate that there was a significant amount of unusual stock activity surrounding American Airlines, United, and the companies that insured the World Trade Center, and that $2.5 million in unclaimed profits were made as the stocks lost value. There are claims that executives working on the upper floors of the towers were evacuated shortly before the attacks (I don't buy this one), and that the CIA met with Ossama bin Laden in Dubia in July 2001, and that warnings that the Taliban should take the "carpet of gold" offered in exchange for a Caspian Sea Oil pipeline, or face a "carpet of bombs".
It is now becoming obvious that despite the mealy mouthings of the Bush Administration, there was incontrovertible evidence that they knew about the impending attacks, and then used those attacks to shore up their domestic political standing. Since Sept. 11, law enforcement agencies have gottena wish list of powers they've tried to get for years, the President is suddenly seen as noble and honorable, no one asks questions about the conduct of the "War of Terrorism", or our support for Israel.
We now know why the Presidnet is against any Congressional investigation. He's afraid that Congress, the American people, and the world thyat he allowed the attacks on September 11th to occur, despite having plenty of notice. The Bush Administration may not have known the exact date of the attacks, but they had plenty of time to increase security at airports, or arrest the attackers before the attacks took place.
The President is definitely guilty of negligence, the Vice President is no better. It is time to impeach them both. Better yet, they should both resign.
Posted by Chris at May 15, 2002 07:15 PM