9/11 Warning summer of 2000.

[ErikJ]

Bush and friends claim that they had no idea that terrorists would fly into the World Trade Center.

But I specifically remember a TV news story about a year or 2 before, that there was a fear that terrorists would fly into the WTC Towers. They showed a video of the towers and I thought to myself at the time how horrible that would be and how easy too.
Its possible the story might even have been summer 2001.
It made more of an impact on me because I went to the top floor of the WTC a few years before as a tourist to NY.

I wonder if it would be possible to find that press release somewhere on the internet. Can anybody find it?

When 9/11 happened I remember how horrified I was and that THAT WARNING I heard ACTUALLY came TRUE!

[closeupready]

1. I remember reading on the Drudge Report circa 1998 or 1999 that

OBL had expressed an interest in bringing down the WTC entirely since the first attempt in 1993 was unsuccessful. So yeah, it should have been on somebody's radar.

[ErikJ]

3. I saw the story on mainstream media TV news.

And I do remember them mentioning the '93 attack as part of their reasoning too.

[KeepItReal]

2. Here's the information Bush & Co had starting in JANUARY 2001:

The National Security Archive today posted the widely-debated, but previously unavailable, January 25, 2001, memo from counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke to national security advisor Condoleezza Rice - the first terrorism strategy paper of the Bush administration.

The document was central to debates in the 9/11 hearings over the Bush administration's policies and actions on terrorism before September 11, 2001.

Clarke's memo requests an immediate meeting of the National Security Council's Principals Committee to discuss broad strategies for combating al-Qaeda by giving counterterrorism aid to the Northern Alliance and Uzbekistan, expanding the counterterrorism budget and responding to the U.S.S. Cole attack.

Despite Clarke's request, there was no Principals Committee meeting on al-Qaeda until September 4, 2001.

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/

Here is the link to the actual document Richard Clarke sent to Condi Rice January 25, 2001:

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/clarke%20memo.pdf


The page also has Condi's take as well as President Clintons statements on his efforts to kill or capture Bin Laden. (Don't let folks get away with saying George W "started" the effort to get OBL).

[speedoo]

5. Thanks for posting that, KIR.

Great info. I don't recall ever hearing Condiliar explain why nothing was done for so long.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. It was a "historical document".

That was Condi's explanation and she's sticking to it.

No one could have foreseen ...

[RC]

9. There was also the 2½ thick report that the outgoing Clinton Administration gave the

incoming Bush Administration about a probable attack and the time to within a week or so. They just did not know where. Richard Bruce Cheney shelved it, never to be seen again.

[gateley]

14. Wow. They should be made to respond as to why they did

NOTHING.

[CrossChris]

4. I remember an interview w/ Bush in 8/01 where he mentioned a terror threat, surprising me

That idea wasn't even on my radar. I think we were mostly worrying about China at that time. I really wish I could remember when and how exactly Bush said that b/c I never forgot how eerie it was in retrospect.

[cbdo2007]

6. I remember the monday before 9/11 there was a major terror alert overseas from Al Queda...

or Bin Laden threat. So when 9/11 happened and most people in my office had never heard of Bin Laden I was telling them about it and that he was probably responsible because of the recent terror alert.

I've tried to find these news reports since then with no luck, but I can clearly remember it being the Monday before 9/11 and it specifically mentioning Bin Laden.

[quinnox]

8. its remarkable that this attack succeeded

the warnings the Bush admin got were so strong, its as if the Bush admin either didn't care and let the attack proceed, or maybe even were part of it, otherwise it just seems nuts that they were caught unawares with all the intelligence they were getting on the potential danger that was imminent.

[Blue Meany]

10. When Bush attended a summit in Italy earlier in 2001, they had

to surround the building with missiles because of an intercepted al-Qaeda plot to fly planes into the building. Don't tell me he didn't know about this, because he was the target.

And in August 2001, Indian papers were publishing accounts from reporters in Kandahar about the upcoming war between the US and the Taliban/al-Qaeda, speculating about which one would strike first. It is also the case that on-going negotiations with the Taliban over extraditing Osama bin Laden were coming to a head around that time.

[Old and In the Way]

16. Condi should have checked with the FAA

http://www.historycommons.org/news.jsp?oid=140393703-983

FAA training exercises in December 2000 included scenarios “close to the 9/11 plot,” and there was a Boeing 767 FAA hijack exercise in the summer of 2001, as well as a simulated suicide terrorist attack against New York two days before 9/11, and a mock Cuban hijacking the next day.

The WH might have been clueless, but the rest of the government seemed to be gaming the very scenario of the eventual attack.

[Marblehead]

11. The decade from hell...

that is how I will remember it. One unbelievable event after another.

[jimlup]

12. modified LIHOP

My personal view is that a group within the administration knew quite a bit about it and figured they could capitalize on it. They also knew the president was easily manipulated and they did. The memo somewhere sent to someone proving this is (I'm almost certain) smoldering carbon somewhere but I do think it may have existed.

[doublethink]

13. This link might help in your search ......

Lots of scenario's practiced by NORAD prior to Sept 11, 2001 using jet liners flying into buildings as a terrorist tactic. How bush and company could be so blind to the prospect is beyond rational comprehension. The incompetence of that administration was staggering to say the least.

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?before_9/11=militaryExercises&timeline=complete_911_timeline

Some of the headlines in link:

-1991: White House Is Protected from Airplane Attack During Gulf War

-Between 1991 and 2001: NORAD Exercise Simulates Crash into Famous US Building

-1998: Training Exercise Held at the White House, Based Around Militants Using a Plane as a Weapon

-Between September 1999 and September 10, 2001: NORAD Exercises Simulate Plane Crashes into US Buildings; One of Them Is the World Trade Center.

-November 6, 1999: NORAD Conducts Exercise Scenario Based around Hijackers Planning to Crash Plane into UN Headquarters in New York

-2000-2001: ‘Planes as Weapons’ and ‘Simulated Attacks’ Part of Security Planning for Major Events in the US

-June 5, 2000: NORAD Exercise Simulates Hijackers Planning to Crash Planes into White House and Statue of Liberty

-October 16-23, 2000: NORAD Exercise Includes Scenarios of Attempted Suicide Plane Crashes into UN Headquarters in New York

-October 24-26, 2000: Military Holds Exercise Rehearsing Response to a Plane Crash at the Pentagon

-April 17-26, 2001: Joint Chiefs of Staff Holds Exercise for Continuity of Government if US is Attacked; Proposal to Simulate Airliner Crash into Pentagon Rejected

-May 2001: Medics Train for Airplane Hitting Pentagon

etc... etc... etc...

note: sources for these stories are stated at the end of each entry ..... not sure if the links to them are still active online, but hope this helps in your search. peace.

[EFerrari]

15. History Commons have a good record of the pre attack threats

that appeared in the media.

There was plenty of warning.

[Old and In the Way]

17. Lets not forget that Surface-to-Air Missles Bush had with him.

http://www.historycommons.org/essay.jsp?article=essayaninterestingday

Surface-to-air missiles were placed on the roof of the resort , and an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane circled high overhead. It’s not clear if this type of protection was standard for the president or whether security was increased because of possible threats.


Was it SOP to have a portable SAM battery and an AWACS aircraft provide protection...or was this a special case? Sure sounds like Bush was prepared for the worst.