IRAQ NEWS, MONDAY,
APRIL 12, 2004
I. PBD, AUGUST 6, 2001
Ed Epstein and another reader made a
key observation to Iraq News regarding the Presidential Daily
Briefing, released Saturday by the White House. The Aug 6, 2001,
PDB implies that the CIA and FBI did not believe, even as
late as August 2001, that al Qaida was behind the 1993 Trade Center bombing
or any other terrorist plot inside the US prior to 1997.
It states: "[R]eports indicate Bin
Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin
implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would
follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and 'bring the
fighting to America.' . . .
"The millennium plotting in Canada in
1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to
implement a terrorist strike in the US."
This is contrary to the assertions of
Richard Clarke and others that al Qaida was behind the February 26,
1993, Trade Center bombing and the plot to bomb several New York landmarks later
that spring. The latter was, in reality, an FBI undercover operation,
with the "bomb" maker (the mix the conspirators concocted would not have
exploded) an FBI informant. But that still leaves the important question:
Who was behind the first attack on the Trade Center?
I. PBD, AUGUST 6, 2001
Bin Ladin
Determined To Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media
reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in
the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his
followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and
"bring the fighting to America."
After US missile strikes on his base in
Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in
Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.
An Egyptian
Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the
same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the
US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999
may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist
strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he
conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that
Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the
operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US
attack.
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles
operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the
US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares
operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin
associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as
1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested
and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US
citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group
apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida
members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were
US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the
mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New
York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been
able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that
from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted
to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd
al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information
since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country
consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including
recent surveillance of federal buildings in New
York.
The FBI is conducting
approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers
Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in
the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US
planning attacks with explosives.