April 10, 2004
MASTERS OF THE OBVIOUS (via California Yankee: :
Raw Data: Text of Released PDB (Fox News, April 10, 2004)
The following is a redacted text of the presidential daily briefing from August 6, 2001:Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997' has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [deleted text] service. An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an [deleted text] service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa'ida members — including some who are US citizens — have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.
Wasn't the attempt to blow up the World Trade Center a pretty big hint that they wanted to use high explosives on a building in New York? Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2004 8:14 PM
Imagine if the PDB contained this addendum;
erAddendum to August 6, 2001 PDB
According to reports from the 1995 XXXXX XXXXXXXX interrogation of Akim Mourad, an
associate of WTC bombing suspect, Ramzi Yousef, Al Queda has planned to use commercial aircraft to attack the following possible targets, the WTC,. . . The Pentagon, The CIA Headquarters,. . .
The leader of this operation is believed to Khalil Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle, a Kuwaiti
born, American educated chemical engineer , of Palestinian extraction, who was residing in the Phillipines, until the XXXXXXXX XXXXX seized Mr. Murad,. . .Mourad, is believed to have
conducted flight training in Oklahoma, for this purpose
FBI Reports from the Phoenix and San Diego offices, indicate middle eastern men, 18 -35 years old possibly affiliated with Al Queda, are conducting flight training. They are paying cash, yet have
no visible means of support
FBI is investigating whether two Saudi men, Khalid Al Midhar and Nawwaf Al Hazmi, who are San
Diego , are the same men flagged by XXXX XXXX and CIA as having participated in a Jan 2000
meeting in Kuala Lampur with KSM and Walid Attash, AKA Kallad, in connection with the Oct.
200O bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, both men are in the employ of Osama Al Bayoumi, A Saudi national who had been an employee of the Saudi ministry of Defense. . .according to XXXX XXXX
they have been involved in the Chechen separatist campaign
Reports from XXXXX XXXX indicate a French born Morroccan, Zaccarias Moussaoi, who XXXX
XXXXX have indicated may have Chechen separatist ties, has been conducting flight training in
the Minneapolis area. Unconfirmed reports that he is not interested in taking off and landing. . . .Mr.
Moussaoi, a former London resident, has been indentified by XXXX XXXXX as having attended the
Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where he has been in the company of Abu Hamza
Reports from the Hamburg office of XXXXX XXXXX have identified an Egyptian born, German resident, Mohammed Atta, as having entered the US, through MIA from BIA, Madrid, Spain,
with improper documentation, . . .is believed to be living in the Ft. Lauderdale area. . . is believed to
be an associate of Lebanese born Ziad Jarrah, who has been under investigation, since a July 2001
trip from Abu Dhabi, also were residents of the same Hamburg suburb, in the area of 54 Marienstrasse and attended the Al Quds ,mosque, . . .flight schools in the areas of Del Ray, Vero Beach and
Opalocka AFB
A clandestine source said in 1998 that Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
If the rest of the PDB is so obvious that Bush should have prevented the 9/11 attack then what are we now doing about the youthful Muslim-American terrorist ready to strike the USA.
Posted by: Gary Porter at April 11, 2004 11:42 PMIf only Bob Kerrey had been shooting Muslims.
Posted by: jim hamlen at April 12, 2004 9:02 AM