posted on April 17, 2007 11:57:06 AM new
from Reuters today in full:
French "knew in 2001 al Qaeda was planning hijack"
Mon Apr 16, 10:02 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) -
French secret services produced nine reports between September 2000 and August 2001 looking at the al Qaeda threat to the United States, and knew it planned to hijack an aircraft, the French daily Le Monde said on Monday.
The newspaper said it had obtained 328 pages of classified documents that showed foreign agents had infiltrated
Osama bin Laden's network and were carefully tracking its moves.
One document prepared in January 2001 was entitled "Plan to hijack an aircraft by Islamic radicals," and said the operation had been discussed in Kabul at the start of 2000 by al Qaeda, Taliban and Chechen militants.
The hijack was meant to happen between March and September 2000 but the planners put it back "because of differences of opinion, particularly over the date, objective and participants," Le Monde said, citing the report.
The attacks on U.S. cities that eventually took place on September 11, 2001 killed almost 3,000 people.
Le Monde said the French report of January 2001 had been handed over to a CIA operative in Paris, but that no mention of it had ever been made in the official U.S. September 11 Commission, which produced its findings in July 2004.
The newspaper quoted a former senior official at France's DGSE secret service agency as saying that, although France thought a hijack was being planned, the DGSE did not know that the plot involved flying aircraft into buildings.
"You have to remember that a plane hijack (in January 2001) did not have the same significance as it did after September 11. At the time, it implied forcing a plane to land at an airport and undertaking negotiations," said Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi.
Le Monde said the documents showed the French believed bin Laden was still receiving help from family members and senior officials in Saudi Arabia ahead of September 11, 2001, despite attempts to clamp down on the network after al Qaeda's attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 17, 2007 03:27:37 PM new
History repeating itself. The Dutch navy intercepted Japanese wireless traffic and warned the British military attache of a naval attack on Hawaii. They also boarded then sunk a Japanese support ship that had Imperial Navy code and cypher books. Somehow word never got passed from Britain to the (still isolationist) USA. This coupled with Japanese confusion over the time zones meant Hawaii was bombed before the final ultimatum was presented by the Japanese ambassador in Washington.
If the USA had prevented the 9/11 attacks then there would be far less public outrage to fuel the Iraqi Oil War and pass the Big Brother provisions of the PATRIOT Act. Likewise the bin Laden family living in the USA wouldn't have escaped so easily.
"An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications".
posted on April 17, 2007 03:53:15 PM new
My personal position is that even if we did have this information....we still didn't know WHERE or WHEN it might happen.
And we also can look to all the other 'intelligence' reports that turned out to be faulty.
On the Patriot Act....I don't believe enough Americans are aware that many of the changes were inacted by the clinton administration and then put together in the Patriot Act.
I believe some FALSELY believe this was all ONLY this Presidents doing...when in FACT...it wasn't.
And all those dems signed it...approved it too.
Did they not bother to read what it said? They seem to want to CLAIM that now.
Then IF they didn't....they weren't doing the job they're REQUIRED by law to do.
Bringing more surveilance laws up to date, was imo, very necessary. They were outdated when compared to all the new technologies we have now-a-days.
No American has lost any of their civil rights.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
Ann Coulter
[ edited by linda_K on Apr 17, 2007 03:54 PM ]
posted on April 17, 2007 05:36:02 PM new
If the airline industry would have fortified the cockpits doors back in the 1970's or 1980's when it was first suggested, perhaps the 9/11 hijackers would have looked for an alternative attack method.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on April 17, 2007 05:49:08 PM new
How would that have prevented the terrorists from putting those plastic knives to the throats of the crew and passengers?
There are many ways to gain entrance to cockpits...many.
posted on April 19, 2007 11:02:51 AM new
Le Monde said the French report of January 2001 had been handed over to a CIA operative in Paris.
This is nothing new. And Stonecold is correct, it is when both the PRESIDENTS Klinton knew. If you think He was the only one running the nation, you better think again.
posted on April 19, 2007 11:12:17 AM new
While we know this had been mentioned before in the press....I think the article is making the point that it was NOT mentioned in the official U.S. Commission report.
And many Americans have/are basing their arguments/sides on what that report DID say.
That this info was left out....might change a few minds on the whole subject.
Don't you agree?
...."but that no mention of it had ever been made in the official U.S. September 11 Commission, which produced its findings in July 2004."
Imo, it SHOULD have been included as many other things SHOULD have been and weren't.
Are YOU a Bunghole?