- For Immediate Release From 9/11 CitizensWatch.org
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- Kyle F. Hence
John Judge 401-935-7715
202-277-1992
kylehence@earthlink.net
copa@starpower.net
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- "If only I had an Inkling": The President,
the August 6th PDB and "Planes as Weapons"
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- (Washington, D.C.) In his open press conference of April
13, the President was asked about the recently declassified Presidential
Daily Brief (PDB) of August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to
Strike in the U.S." and what prompted him to ask for the threat assessment.
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- "By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the
Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief headlined 'Bin Laden Determined To
Strike in US,' the president had seen a stream of alarming reports on al
Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national
security team, according to newly declassified information released yesterday
by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacksIn April and
May 2001, for example, the intelligence community headlined some of those
reports 'Bin Laden planning multiple operations,' 'Bin Laden network's
plans advancing' and 'Bin Laden threats are real.'" (Washington Post,
4/14/04)
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- Clearly, the warnings were urgent. But it was a direct
threat on the life of the President that apparently led to the PDB request.
President Bush noted: "I asked for the briefing. There had been a
lot of threat intelligence from overseas. Part of it had to do with Genoa,
that I had to attend."
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- National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice mentioned
the Genoa G-8 Summit twice during her testimony before the 9/11 Commission
but without offering any details. During today's hearings 9/11 Commissioner
Ben-Veniste referred to the Genoa warnings and to air defense preparations
based on those warnings, which included restricting air space.
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- During his press conference the President said that if
he had had "an inkling" that people would hijack planes into
buildings he would have moved "heaven and earth" to prevent it.
However, the public record strongly suggests that the President had far
more than inkling. In fact, it was just such a threat that the President
says led him to request the August 6th PDB.
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- Note these press reports: July 2000, US intelligence
reports another spike in warnings related to the July 20-22 G-8 summit
in Genoa, Italy. The reports include specific threats discovered by the
head of Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service that al-Qaeda will try to kill
Bush as he attends the summit. [CNN, 3/02] The reports are taken so seriously
that Bush stays overnight on an aircraft carrier offshore, and other world
leaders stay on a luxury ship. [CNN, 7/18/01]
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- Two days before the summit begins, the BBC reports: "The
huge force of officers and equipment which has been assembled to deal with
unrest has been spurred on by a warning that supporters of Saudi dissident
Osama bin Laden might attempt an air attack on some of the world leaders
present." [BBC 7/18/01]. July 20-22, 2001, the G8 summit is held in
Genoa, Italy. Acting on previous warnings that al-Qaeda would attempt to
kill Bush and other leaders. Italy surrounds the summit with antiaircraft
guns, keeps fighters in the air, and closes off local airspace to all planes.
No attack occurs. US officials at the time stated that the warnings were
"unsubstantiated" but after 9/11 claim success in preventing
an attack. Distorting information about Genoa keeps the public and the
airlines uninformed about the seriousness of the current terrorist threat.
(Los Angeles Times 9/27/01).
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- Another reason high level officials at least should have
known of warnings specific to this method of attack ('planes as weapons')
is that some were passed on to U.S. intelligence from overseas agencies
and heads of state. In June 2001, German intelligence, the BND, warns the
CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack
commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American
and Israeli culture." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14,
2001).
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- According to Russian press sources, Russian intelligence
notified the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training
for suicide missions. In August 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin
orders Russian intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest
possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings.
(MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15)
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- Jordanian intelligence (the GID) makes a communications
intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's men relay it to Washington,
probably through the CIA station in Amman. To make doubly sure the message
gets through it is passed through an Arab intermediary to a German intelligence
agent. The message states that a major attack, code-named The Big Wedding,
is planned inside the US and that aircraft will be used. "When it
became clear that the information was embarrassing to Bush Administration
officials and congressmen who at first denied that there had been any such
warnings before September 11, senior Jordanian officials backed away from
their earlier confirmations." Christian Science Monitor calls the
story "confidently authenticated" even though Jordan has backed
away from it. [International Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, Christian Science
Monitor, 5/23/02].
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- In today's hearings Ben-Veniste also referred to Operation
Amalgam Virgo '02. NORAD leadership had initiated this plan in 2001, to
run an exercise to prepare for the use of planes as weapons flown into
the Pentagon by suicide. A drill exercise for this possibility was conducted
at the Pentagon in October 2001.
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- Also revealed today, according to "an email obtained
by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), members of the U.S. military
Special Operations Group, "trained to think like terrorists "
and responsible for defending America's airspace were in fact concerned
that a terrorist group would 'hijack a commercial airline [sic] (foreign
carrier) and fly it into the Pentagon.' Officials at the North American
Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in April 2001 - five months prior to
9/11 - wanted to develop a response in the event that a terrorist group
would use an airliner as a missile to attack the Pentagon." (POGO,
(202) 347-1122 or email beth@pogo.org).
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- This clearly suggests that there was awareness and concern,
at least on the part of the President NORAD "Special Operations"
planners that planes might be used as weapons here in the United States.
"All of this suggests that the known possibility of planes being used
as weapons by suicide pilots was not only one possibility among many, but
the specific scenario that led President Bush to take special preparations
at the Genoa summit in July and to request the PDB in August. This threat
also led to extensive exercises and preparations being made by both NORAD
and the Pentagon from 1999 up to the day of the attack, which makes the
lack of response on 9/11 all the more inexplicable," said Kyle Hence,
co-founder of 9/11 CitizensWatch.
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- www.911citizenswatch.org
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