The Eleventh Day_ The History and Legacy of 9_11 - Anthony Summers [317]
38 Berlin visit: The German officials known to have spoken with the U.S. congressional delegation were Ronald Schill, minister of the interior for Hamburg, Deputy Minister Walter Wellinghausen, Reinhard Wagner, chief of the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Hamburg, his deputy Manfred Murck, and Bruno Franz of the Hamburg police. (Contemporary information provided to the authors)
CHAPTER 31
1 Soon after 1:00 P.M./“Oh, Jesus”: Suskind, One Percent Doctrine, 3–, & see Tenet, 167. Tenet’s aide Michael Morell, the president’s CIA briefer, remembered of the videoconference on the afternoon of 9/11, “They had done name traces on the flight manifests. And when we got to Omaha, and we got to the briefing area, George Tenet briefed the President on the fact that we already knew three of these guys were al Qaeda.” Tenet has recalled that, when he told Bush the CIA had been aware of information about Mihdhar and Hazmi he “shot Mike Morell one of those, ‘I thought I was supposed to be the first to know’ looks.” The reference to three, as distinct from two, of the men on the planes being associated with al Qaeda presumably includes Nawaf al-Hazmi’s brother Salem (Suskind, 9; Tenet, 169).
2 manifest: Exhibit P200054, U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui,; Tenet claimed/“CIA had multiple”: Tenet, 195–, 205;
3 Tenet on oath/“like a grand”: Shenon, 256–;
4 “We just didn’t believe”/outraged: New Yorker, 11/8/04.
5 NSA identified/Hada/“hub”: Bamford, Shadow Factory, 7–, FBI report, “PENTTBOM, Summary of Captioned Investigation,” 11/5/01, authors’ collection, transcript, Nova: The Spy Factory, 2/3/09, www.pbs.org, Wright, 275–;
6 NSA did not share: Report, JI, 145, Atlantic, 12/04, Bamford, Shadow Factory, 16, 26–, & see Scheuer, Marching Toward Hell, 91–.
7 Hada phone/FBI/1998 attack/OBL phone/link: Report, JI, 129, 145, Wright, 277–, 343, Testimony of [unnamed] CIA Officer [accepted as Wilshire], 9/20/02, JI. Bin Laden stopped using his satellite phone in September 1998, apparently because he knew or guessed it was being intercepted (WP, 12/22/05, Report, JI, 69).
8 1999 intercept/“Khalid”/“Nawaf”/Malaysia: The intercepted conversation also included a reference to “Salem” as making the trip, too—evidently Hazmi’s brother Salem, who was also to be one of the hijackers. Although the NSA had access to information indicating that the three first names were all linked to the surnames Hazmi and Mihdhar, they did not pass those names to the CIA and FBI—thus making the CIA’s task more difficult than it need have been (CR, 181, JI Report, 145–, 155–, Staff Statement 2, CO, Bamford, Shadow Factory, 16–).
9 “something more”: CR, 181;
10 “operational”/“operatives”: ibid., Report, JI, 144;
11 passport photographed: The Dubai stopover and the copying of Mihdhar’s passport was briefly mentioned earlier in Ch. 27, p. 319. “This is as good”: Mayer, 18;
12 Mihdhar tracked/photographed/pay phones/computers: CR, 181–, Staff Statement 2, CO, Die Zeit, 10/2/02, FBI IG;
13 directors/Berger/Clarke: Staff Statement 2, CO, CR, 181.
14 Bangkok: Staff Statement 2, CO. It would later be established that two suspects who had already, on January 6, made short trips out of Malaysia—for only a matter of hours—had also been Attash and Hazmi (Staff Statement 2, CO, CR, 159).
15 according CIA trail lost/Thai authorities responded/Jan. 15 to LA/cables: CR, 181–, FBI IG, Staff Statement 2, CO, Tenet, 196–. The two terrorists flew in aboard UA 002, arriving at 1:27 P.M. Bin Laden aide Attash had reportedly headed back to Afghanistan via Karachi to report to bin Laden (UA 002: “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE; Attash: CR, 159);
16 “OBL associates”: Executive Summary, Report on CIA Accountability with Respect to the 9/11 Attacks, Office of the Inspector General, CIA, 6/05;
17 “Action Required”: Report, JI, 147;
18 “The threat”: CR, 176, 501n17;