Scot Paltrow is the terrific reporter who writes for that left wing rag, the Wall Street Journal. You may recall he had a hard hitting piece last Monday, Government Accounts of 9/11 Reveal Gaps, Inconsistencies.

Today, he puts the nail in the coffin of Condi Rice's claims that terrorist use of commercial aircraft was unforeseeable:

"In the aftermath of those attacks, Bush administration officials have said they received no intelligence warning of such a tactic. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a May 2002 news briefing.

Yet on several occasions starting in the mid-1990s, U.S. intelligence agencies had passed on information concerning such a possibility, including early plans by al Qaeda officials to use passenger jets as kamikaze weapons, according to records and current and former government officials."

Paltrow includes a listing of the many warnings the White House recieved: He begins with the strategy Richard Clarke worked on (and discusses in his book) to prevent Kamikaze Aircraft from being used at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; These were applied to several other situations:

As a consequence, a strategy for protecting airspace over special events was drawn up by the National Security Council staff for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, in response to concerns about possible Iranian-backed terrorism. It included closing airspace over events to civilian air traffic, placing armed Air National Guard fighter jets on alert at a nearby base and launching on patrol a small air force belonging to the U.S. Customs Service, including jets, Black Hawk helicopters and a special radar-equipped plane. The customs service had the aircraft to interdict drug smuggling.

The article also notes the plan was also used for:

· Mr. Clinton's second inauguration in 1997
· North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 50th anniversary celebration in Washington in 1999
· Republican and Democratic conventions in 2000.
· Bush inauguration in 2001

"The plan's use for designated "National Security Special Events" was made official in a classified portion of a "presidential decision directive" that Mr. Clinton signed in 1998. Use of the plan at these events wasn't publicized, and officials were forbidden to talk about it."

In his book, "Against All Enemies," Mr. Clarke describes the security planning for the Atlanta Olympics, and mentions later efforts to get the same measures applied permanently to Washington. Also, John A. Flaherty, chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, confirmed that before Sept. 11, the Bush administration was involved in planning airspace protection that was provided for the 2002 winter Olympics in Utah.

The possibility of terrorists using hijacked jets against major U.S. buildings had been raised in a public federal-government report in 1999 on terrorist threats facing the U.S. Prepared by the federal-research division of the Library of Congress, it warned: "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, or the White House." The report, referring to an al Qaeda leader captured in 1995, added that "Ramzi Yousef had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters." Bush administration officials have said publicly that they weren't aware of the report before Sept. 11.

Warning Signs A look at some intelligence reports in the 1990s that warned of terrorist attacks with airliners:

1994 Eiffel Tower threat: "Algerian Armed Islamic Group terrorists hijacked an Air France flight…and threatened to crash it into the Eiffel Tower."

1995 Bojinka Plot to blow up American jets over the Pacific: "An accomplice of Ramzi Yousef told police in the Philippines [and the FBI] that a variant of the plot involved flying a plane on a suicide mission into CIA headquarters."

1996 Iranian plot to crash Japanese jet in Israel: "A passenger would board the plane in the Far East, commandeer the aircraft, order it to fly over Tel Aviv, and crash the plane into the city."

1998 Alleged plan by al Qaeda-linked terrorists to crash plane into World Trade Center: "…A group, since linked to al-Qa'ida, planned to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center."

1998 Alleged Osama bin Laden plot to crash plane into a U.S. airport: "…Bin Ladin's next operation might involve flying an explosives-laden aircraft into a U.S. airport…"

1999 Federal Research Division Report on terrorism: "Suicide bomber(s)… could crash-land an aircraft…into the Pentagon…or the White House."
Sources:
1999: Federal Research Division Report; 1998, 1996, 1994: Congressional Joint Inquiry on intelligence relating to Sept. 11, issued July 2003; ''The Age of Sacred Terror'' by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, published October 2002.

Kinda makes you wonder who was really out of the loop.

Source:
Kamikaze Terrorism Wasn't a New Idea
White House Statements Aside, Protective Steps Date Back Through Clinton Administration
SCOT J. PALTROW
Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2004; Page A4
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108077920066470982,00.html

Posted at 10:03 AM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c52a953ef00d83420af8653ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Speaking of "Out of the Loop":

The comments to this entry are closed.