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911 Title: George Schultz warned not to fly prior to 911 After covering up and distorting its prior knowledge of terrorist threats, the Bush Administration is now trying to scapegoat the FBI. But responsibility for the FBI rests with the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft. If Ashcroft had done his job, the September 11 terrorist attacks might never have happened. . Top officials saw something coming, very possibly by means of a conventional hijacking or a plane flown into a building. On September 12, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Mayor Willie Brown, who had a ticket to fly to New York on September 11, received a call from his “security people” at San Francisco International Airport eight hours before the attacks “advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel,” even though the Federal Aviation Administration had not issued an official warning. On September 7, the State Department distributed a memo stating that it had received information in May "that American citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization." Former Secretary of State George Schultz said that he was “startled” when he received that communication. “"They had some sort of rumbling of something," he said. "Something was cooking." Months before 9/11, the head of the FBI's counter-terrorism unit delivered to the Justice Department a lengthy report, the Director's Report on Terrorism, that warned about serious threats, described the FBI as being unprepared, and asked for substantially increased funding. Key members of Congress were aware of this information. During the summer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, for example, pushed openly and behind the scenes for reforms and more money to counter the danger. For weeks before 9/11, there was a consensus in the intelligence community that an Al-Qaeda attack on the United States, in the United States, was imminent. A widely circulated 1999 government study, available on the Internet, had warned that terrorists might "crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosive into the Pentagon, the CIA or the White House." In 1994, the French had stopped an effort to fly a hijacked airplane into the Eiffel Tower. Plans to fly planes into governmental buildings had been revealed in the 1995 trial of Ramsi Yousef for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. In July, Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airliners, and Vice President Dick Cheney began his disappearing act. On August 6, the warnings, after having been carefully screened, moved up through the chain of command and were presented to President Bush in person during a briefing at his ranch in Texas. Perhaps because they had broken Al-Qaeda encryption codes, American intelligence agents overheard bin Laden tell his mother on September 9, "In two days you're going to hear big news, and you're not going to hear from me for a while." Newsweek reported that on September 10, "a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." Within 24 hours of the 9/11 attack, the FBI had identified about 20 perpetrators, suggesting strongly that significant information had been gathered in advance. As background to these details, the Clinton and Bush Administrations were well aware that American foreign policy was inflaming Arab public opinion, providing a breeding ground for terrorists to recruit fanatics. Particularly offensive had been placing American troops on the holy land of Saudi Arabia, continuing the boycott and other attacks on Iraq, and taking sides with Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. Terrorists had already bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. Attacks on U.S. targets, including Saudi Arabia in 1996, East Africa in 1998, and Yemen in 2000, had been escalating. And anti-terrorism legislation had been enacted by Congress. Clearly, something serious was on the horizon Nevertheless, the United States continued to pursue a provocative foreign policy, even refusing to participate in the United Nations conference on racism in Africa shortly prior to 9/11. And President Bush apparently responded to his August 6 heads-up by doing nothing significant (which is how he responded when first informed about the attacks). According to Greg Palast with the BBC, high-placed intelligence sources in Washington reported, "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis," and these restrictions were intensified under the Bush administration, when agents were told to "back off" from investigations involving members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan. "There were particular investigations that were effectively killed," they said. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not warn pilots, strengthen locks on cockpit doors, or circulate photos of suspected terrorists. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mike McCarron, assistant deputy director at San Francisco International Airport, reported that the FAA issued only two or three routine security notices about possible threats in the two months prior to 9/11. The military did not place fighter jets on emergency stand-by status. And in his September 10 request to the Bush administration's budget office, Attorney General Ashcroft did not include anti-terrorism on his list of priorities, rejected the FBI's request for $58 million for 149 new counter-terrorism field agents, 200 additional analysts, and 54 additional translators. He also proposed a $65 million reduction in counter-terrorism grants for equipment and training for local and state governments. According to the New York Times, a retired special agent in Phoenix, James H. Hauswirth, wrote last December that counter-terrorism had been "the lowest investigative priority in the Phoenix division.... A perceived lack of investigative zeal at headquarters had startled agents in field offices around the country.... 'These problems have become legendary — the lack of analysis by headquarters, the lack of support from headquarters, the lack of ability to get things approved by headquarters,'" one former official said. Surely Attorney General John Ashcroft knew about these problems, even if his budget staff did not see the Director's Report on Terrorism, as claimed. And if he didn't, he should have. Neither President Bush nor his Administration prioritized anti-terrorism prior to 9/11. They did not convene working groups or conferences focused on the issue. They did not issue policy directives ramping up efforts to collect, coordinate, centralize, and analyze intelligence information. There's plenty of blame to share, but no one is more responsible than Attorney General Ashcroft. Ashcroft knew much and did little. Congress and the American people should hold him accountable and demand that he resign immediately.
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
He's often in hiding at Site Romeo.
#2. To: Fred Mertz (#1)
I wonder what he is doing.
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