The 9/11 Files: They Could Have Stopped It | Ep 3
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The Bush administration did everything it possibly could to undermine an actual investigation into what happened on September 11th. But why? What were they trying to hide?
There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on you.
They fooled me. We can't get fooled again. Well, for one thing, the United States had incredible intelligence on bin Laden and his plans. Precise intelligence. Actionable intelligence. On August 6, 2001, President Bush received a presidential daily briefing. Its title, literally, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S., It continued, Al Qaeda members, including some who are U.S. citizens, have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. And then it added this, FBI information indicates patterns of suspicious activity consistent with preparations for hijacking. Bin Laden was mentioned no fewer than 40 times in the president's daily intelligence briefing.
CIA Director George Tenet said that in the summer of 2001, quote, the system was blinking red. So how far-fetched was it that al-Qaeda might hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings? Not very far-fetched, it turns out. In May 2001, an intelligence report concluded this. Operatives may hijack airplanes, end quote. The FAA issued a circular to airlines warning of heightened increase in hijackings. And then in July of 2001, the FAA issued another circular, this one noting that, quote, currently active terror groups were known to plan and train for hijackings and were able to build and conceal explosives and luggage. Between 1999 and 2001, NORAD, which defends North American airspace, simulated a foreign hijacked airliner crashing into a building in the United States as part of a training exercise.
And they were not alone. The National Reconnaissance Office, a little-known intelligence agency that runs our spy satellites and remote-controlled surveillance planes, was planning an exercise in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. That exercise was on September 11th, 2001, and planned to take place just a couple of miles from Dulles Airport. That's where the American Airlines flight number 77 had taken off before it crashed into the Pentagon. In other words, the idea of al-Qaeda hijacking an airplane and flying into a building was entirely plausible before 9-11. Officials knew it could happen, and there were other signs as well. During the presidential transition in 2000 and 2001, nine months before 9-11, Bill Clinton told President Bush, I think by far your greatest threat is bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
In January of 2001, Philip Zelikow, the future executive director of the 9-11 Commission, attended a briefing in which Condoleezza Rice, the future national security advisor, was warned by Sandy Berger, that would be Bill Clinton's outgoing national security advisor, that, quote, the biggest national security threat facing this country is al-Qaeda. On July 10th, 2001, the CIA director, George Tenet, and his counterterrorism deputy, Jay Kofor Black, were so alarmed by intelligence pointing to an impending attack by Al Qaeda that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House with Condoleezza Rice and her Security Council staff. In fact, on the morning of the attacks, Director of Central Intelligence Tennant told a U.S.
Senator, quote, I wonder if it has anything to do with this guy taking pilot training. And of course it did. By any measure, including according to the heavily biased commission report, George W. Bush, and particularly Condoleezza Rice, had ample warning that Al-Qaeda was plotting an attack. And by all accounts, the US intel agencies were fully aware the hijackers were in the United States. And in fact, it helped at least two of them get to the United States. US intelligence was so strong at the time, on the morning of the attacks, the majority of the hijackers were flagged at the airport for additional screening.
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