à ? Developed the improved Predator, an unmanned aircraft with video capable of spying on al-Qaeda training camps and recognizing Bin Laden. It was being armed with a hellfire missile so that Bin Laden could be found and killed in real time.
à ? Began a global crackdown on terrorist funding involving some 30 industrial nations.
Some additional efforts to take out Bin Laden were aborted. Either the CIA Director pulled the plug or Clinton's national security team rejected the plans, because they were unworkable, or Bin Laden had already left the scene, or there would be too much collateral damage. Clinton personally received a pipeline of daily reports on al-Qaeda activities and exercised extreme caution at the turn of the century to prevent domestic attacks. Several terrorist plots were disrupted and one attack involving the Los Angeles Airport was halted.
Just before the 2000 presidential election, terrorists struck again this time the target was the USS Cole. The ship almost sank and we lost 17 servicemen. The strike prompted the Clinton administration to prepare a bold plan of attack to rout al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. But, the President decided that he first needed proof of responsibility, especially since the war would have to be conducted by a newly elected administration.
During transition, President Clinton personally warned incoming President Bush that Bin Laden and al-Qaeda would be his "gravest" and "greatest" threat. In addition, Clinton's planned response to the USS Cole was passed on to the new administration in special briefings with Vice-President Cheney and National Security Advisor Rice. According to an unnamed Bush official, this response contained all the steps taken in Afghanistan immediately following 9/11.
TERRORISM UNDER THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
In January 2001, at the outset of the new Bush administration, CIA Director Tenet warned Congress in open testimony that "the threat from terrorism is real, it is immediate, and it is evolving." He said that Bin Laden and his global network remained the most immediate and serious threat to U.S interests and that Bin Laden had declared all U.S. citizens to be legitimate targets. He testified further that Bin Laden is capable of planning multiple attacks with little or no warning.
In the face of the recent CIA testimony, the Bush administration proceeded to downgrade terrorism. The Counterterrorism Coordinator in the White House no longer had access to the President or agency heads. In late January 2001, the Coordinator urgently requested a cabinet-level meeting on the al-Qaeda threat. He reported that there were al-Qaeda cells in the United States and that we would make a major error if we underestimated the threat. No meeting was held. Clinton's global crackdown on terrorist funding was abandoned in response to a powerful banking lobby.
At the end of January 2001, a bipartisan U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century reported that the United States was vulnerable to a catastrophic terrorist attack and that many lives may be lost. In White House meetings, the Commission Chair urged creation of a National Homeland Security Agency. Congress was seriously interested and wanted to hold hearings on terrorism. However, the White House cut a deal with Congress -- drop the hearings and new agency, and President Bush would turn over to the Vice President a "national effort" to respond to domestic attacks. That project never got off the ground even though a report was due Congress by October 1.
In early February 2001, Vice-President Cheney received a briefing that the Bin Laden group was indeed responsible for the USS Cole attack. Barton Gellman's Pulitzer Prize winning book (Angler The Cheney Vice-Presidency), notes that during the following spring he received at least five recommendations in writing for a military response to the USS Cole. No action was taken. According to Time's special report on 9/11, Clinton's response to the USS Cole attack became a "victim of not invented here, turf wars and time spent on pet policies of top Bush officials."
During the presidential campaign, Bush had said "there must be a consequence" for the USS Cole. Now in charge, he did not respond to the attack or resume the CIA death warrant against Bin Laden. During the campaign, Cheney said "Any would be terrorist needs to know that if you're going to attack, you'll be hit very hard and very quick." He went on to say: "It's not time for diplomacy and debate. It's time for action." Given the opportunity, he did neither.
The remotely controlled unmanned Predator (called "Operation Afghan Eyes") was the best possible source of intelligence on what was going on in Bin Laden's terrorist camps. However, the program got bogged down because of DOD/CIA bureaucratic infighting over who would control the program, pay for it and have authority to shoot the new hellfire missile. According to Gellman's book, Cheney and Cabinet-rank advisors declined to decide. The Predator was sitting idle on September 11.
FOREIGN ALLIES WARN U.S. OF UPCOMING ATTACKS
Portions of Bin Laden's 9/11 plans had gradually seeped out to intelligence agencies around the world. Our allies, in turn, relayed this information to the Bush administration. Of the many allies reporting to us, some just gave frantic warnings while others identified (1) a time frame, (2) the existence of al-Qaeda members in our country and (3) the actual means of attack. These warnings are fully documented in the book, The Terror Timeline, but omitted from the Commission report.
à ? March 2001 based on wiretaps, Italy warned U.S. of a "very, very secret" plan and the forging of documents for al-Qaeda agents to be sent to the United States. One of the callers sounded like a previous one who had described a massive strike involving aircraft.
à ? April Afghanistan source reported an al-Qaeda plot to attack the U.S. in suicide missions involving airplanes. Al-Qaeda agents were already in place inside the U.S. and were being trained as pilots.
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