The Eleventh Day_ The History and Legacy of 9_11 - Anthony Summers [297]
129 Predator: Staff Statement 7, CO, CR, 506n118, 513n238;
130 negotiations: CounterPunch, 1/16/08, 9/9/09, 11/1/04, Reuters, 6/4/04;
131 U.N. resolution: Resolution 1333, 12/19/00, http://avalon.law.yale. edu;
132 Tenet warned: Tenet, 128.
133 Pakistani told FBI: Statement of Eleanor Hill, 9/18/02, JI, NBC News, 7/26/04, Sunday Times (London), 2/13/05. The Pakistani was Niaz Kahn, a former waiter from Oldham, near Manchester in the U.K., who apparently became involved in terrorism not because of his ideals but because he needed money. Two men he met in the U.K., he said, encouraged him to go to a camp in Pakistan, where he was given instruction in “conventional” hijackings, not suicide operations. He was eventually flown by a roundabout route to New York, but evaded the contact waiting for him and went to the FBI. Kahn’s story was first reported publicly in late 2004 (NBC News, 7/26/04, Vanity Fair, 11/04, transcript, int. Niaz Khan, 5/18/04, in collection of Jean-Charles Brisard).
134 Italian police/“studying”: int. Bruno Megale, Bergen, OBL I Know, 281, Miller & Stone, 274–. A U.S. Justice Department official was quoted after 9/11 as saying that a “small cadre of U.S. intelligence experts might have been privy to the Italian surveillance material.” On the other hand, other press reporting suggests that the surveillance of the two Yemenis was “not translated by Italian police” until May 2002 (LAT, 5/29/02, Chicago Tribune, 10/8/02).
135 Olympics: Sydney Morning Herald, 9/20/01. In October, the Defense Department held a tabletop exercise simulating the crash of an airliner into the courtyard of the Pentagon. Critics have cited this as an indication that the Pentagon received early intelligence of terrorist plans to target the building with an airplane. On the evidence, however, the exercise may simply have been designed to ensure readiness for any possible sort of plane crash into the Pentagon—which is close to Reagan National Airport (“Contingency Planning Pentagon MASCAL Exercise,” 11/3/00, www.dcmilitary.com, UPI, 4/22/04).
136 FBI/FAA downplayed: In April 2000, an FAA advisory issued to airlines and airports had stated that U.S. airliners could be targeted but that hijacking was “more probable outside the United States.” The advisory would not have been replaced as of September 11, 2001 (Staff Report, “The Four Flights and Civil Aviation Security,” 8/26/04, CF, 59);
137 “do not suggest”: Statement of Eleanor Hill, 9/18/02, JI, Report, JI, 104–;
138 “imprudent”: Report, JI, 334.
139 “Americans would”: CR, 198;
140 Clinton authorized: Tenet, 135;
141 Cheney/Powell/Rice: Testimony of Sandy Berger, 3/24/04, CO, Time, 8/12/02, DeYoung, 344;
142 “As I briefed”: Richard Clarke, 229;
143 “sitting”/“cognizant”: Rice int., www.whitehouse.gov, 3/24/04, Testimony, 4/8/04, CO;
144 did not know: Richard Clarke, 31;
145 “not an amateur”: ibid., 328;
146 Commission/“on American”: Phase III Report, Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change, U.S. Commission on National Security, 2/15/01, viii, 6, Tenet, 16, Columbia Journalism Review, Nov/Dec 2001;
147 pressed to see: Hurley to Gorelick, 4/5/04, “Commissioner Prep for Rice,” B7, T3, CF;
148 “did not remember”: CR, 199, Ben-Veniste, 302–;
149 OBL biggest/“listened”: Clinton, 935–.
CHAPTER 26
1 “We are not”: George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, 1/20/01, www.bartleby.com, Time, 1/20/01;
2 “empty rhetoric”: WP, 1/20/02;
3 “They ridiculed”: int. of Clinton for Fox News, 9/24/06;
4 “What we did”: “Report: Rice Challenges Clinton on Osama,” http://wcbstv.com, 9/26/06;
5 “I’m tired”: CR, 202 & see Testimony of Condoleezza Rice, 4/8/04, CO, CR, 510n185, int. of Stephen Hadley, 60 Minutes, CBS, 3/21/04;
6 “just solve”: “Transcript: Clarke Praised Bush Team in 02,” Fox News, 3/24/04.
7 nothing effective done: As Rice recalled it, it was in May that the President told her