Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11

[Gold9472]

Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in520830.shtml

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2002

(CBS) CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.

That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

At 9:53 a.m., just 15 minutes after the hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon, and while Rumsfeld was still outside helping with the injured, the National Security Agency, which monitors communications worldwide, intercepted a phone call from one of Osama bin Laden's operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

The caller said he had "heard good news" and that another target was still to come; an indication he knew another airliner, the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, was at that very moment zeroing in on Washington.

It was 12:05 p.m. when the director of Central Intelligence told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation.

Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," that it "might not mean something," and that there was "no good basis for hanging hat." In other words, the evidence was not clear-cut enough to justify military action against bin Laden.

But later that afternoon, the CIA reported the passenger manifests for the hijacked airliners showed three of the hijackers were suspected al Qaeda operatives.

"One guy is associate of Cole bomber," the notes say, a reference to the October 2000 suicide boat attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which had also been the work of bin Laden.

With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." – meaning Saddam Hussein – "at same time. Not only UBL" – the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden.

Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.

"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[somebigguy]

Good find man!!!

Speaks to the credibility of the administration, however, now that I think about it, its a little off topic.

[Gold9472]

Good find man!!!

Speaks to the credibility of the administration, however, now that I think about it, its a little off topic.

Well geez... if you think that's a good find, take a look at this...

Letter to President Clinton on Iraq, January 26, 1998
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

[somebigguy]

Well geez... if you think that's a good find, take a look at this...

Letter to President Clinton on Iraq, January 26, 1998
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Holy crap, good find. Proof that those weasels were hard at work even when they weren't in office.

[Gold9472]

Holy crap, good find. Proof that those weasels were hard at work even when they weren't in office.

Yah... Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, etc...

[somebigguy]

Yah... Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, etc...

Not really good enough for the pamphlet though. Shows Rummie as an opportunist and a lying prick, but not a murderer.

How about foreknowledge of airplanes as weapons? Any proof of that?

[Gold9472]

Not really good enough for the pamphlet though. Shows Rummie as an opportunist and a lying prick, but not a murderer.

How about foreknowledge of airplanes as weapons? Any proof of that?

Sure, here you go... http://www.metatech.org/lonegunmanpilo-2.wmv

[somebigguy]

Sure, here you go... http://www.metatech.org/lonegunmanpilo-2.wmv

Yeah, but I'm thinking of somthing similar to the "Bin Laden Determined to Attack" memo. Is there such a thing stating that terrorists would use airplanes as weapons? This directly refutes the claims that they couldn't have known they'd use airplanes as weapons.

[Gold9472]

Yeah, but I'm thinking of somthing similar to the "Bin Laden Determined to Attack" memo. Is there such a thing stating that terrorists would use airplanes as weapons? This directly refutes the claims that they couldn't have known they'd use airplanes as weapons.

April 2001

A new entry from www.cooperativeresearch.org

FBI translators Sibel Edmonds and Behrooz Sarshar will later claim to know of an important warning given to the FBI at this time. In their accounts, a reliable informant on the FBI's payroll for at least ten years tells two FBI agents that sources in Afghanistan have heard of an al-Qaeda plot to attack the US and Europe in a suicide mission involving airplanes. Al-Qaeda agents, already in place inside the US, are being trained as pilots. By some accounts, the names of prominent US cities are mentioned. It is unclear if this warning reaches FBI headquarters or beyond. The two translators later privately testify to the 9/11 Commission. [World Net Daily, 4/6/04; Village Voice, 4/14/04; Salon, 3/26/04] Sarshar's notes of the interview indicate that the informant claimed his information came from Iran, Afghanistan, and Hamburg, Germany (the location of the primary 9/11 al-Qaeda cell). However, anonymous FBI officials claim the warning was very vague and doubtful. [Chicago Tribune, 7/21/04] In reference to this warning and apparently others, Edmonds says, “President Bush said they had no specific information about September 11, and that's accurate. However, there was specific information about use of airplanes, that an attack was on the way two or three months beforehand, and that several people were already in the country by May of 2001. They should've alerted the people to the threat we were facing.” [Salon, 3/26/04] She adds, “There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about how they would be used and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers.” [Independent, 4/2/04]

[Gold9472]

August 17 and 31, 2001

Another new entry from www.cooperativeresearch.org

CIA records show that Tenet briefed the president twice in August—once in Crawford, Texas, on August 17, and once in Washington, on August 31. By the time of the second briefing, Tenet is aware of Zacarias Moussaoui's arrest, but, apparently, he fails to tell Bush about it. [Washington Post, 4/15/04 (B)] In April 2004, Tenet will testify under oath before the 9/11 Commission that he had no direct communication with President Bush during the month of August. [New York Times, 4/15/04] This is quickly discovered to be untrue. A CIA spokesperson will then claim, “He momentarily forgot [about the briefings].” [Washington Post, 4/15/04 (B)]