Bush's Pre-9/11 al-Qaida Memo Released
Sat Apr 10, 8:04 PM ET
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By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush was told
more than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks that al-Qaida had
reached America's shores, had a support system in place for its
operatives and that the FBI had detected suspicious
activity that might involve a hijacking plot.
Since 1998, the FBI had observed "patterns of
suspicious activity in this country consistent
with preparations for hijackings or other types
of attacks," according to a memo prepared for
Bush and declassified Saturday. They
included evidence of buildings in New York
possibly being cased by terrorists.
The document also said the CIA and FBI were investigating a call to the
U.S. embassy in the United Arab Emirates in
May "saying that a group of (Osama) bin
Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning
attacks with explosives."
Senior administration officials said Bush had
requested the memo after seeing more than
40 mentions of al-Qaida in his daily
intelligence updates during the first eight
months of his presidency.
The Aug. 6, 2001, memo made plain that bin Laden had been scheming
to strike the United States for at least six years. It warned of indications
from a broad array of sources, spanning several years.
"Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden
since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US," the
memo to Bush stated. Bin Laden implied in U.S. 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."
The "presidential daily brief" said that after President Clinton launched missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, "bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in
Washington."
The memo cited intelligence from another country, but the White House
blacked out the name of the nation. It was the first time a presidential
daily brief has ever been released publicly.
Efforts to launch an attack from Canada around the time of "Y2K" "may
have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a
terrorist strike in the U.S.," the document states.
Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam, who was caught trying to cross the
Canadian border with explosives about 60 miles north of Seattle in late
1999, told the FBI that he alone conceived a planned attack on Los
Angeles International Airport, but that bin Laden lieutenant Abu
Zubaydah "encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation," the
document said.
Al-Qaida members, some of them American citizens, had lived in or
traveled to the United States for years, the memo said.
"The group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid
attacks," it warned.
The document said that "some of the more sensational threat reporting"
- such as warnings that bin Laden wanted to hijack aircraft to win the
release of fellow extremists" - could not be corroborated.
One item in the memo referred to "recent surveillance of federal buildings
in New York." A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity
that that was a reference to two Yemeni men the FBI interviewed and
concluded were simply tourists taking photographs.
On May 15, 2001, a caller to the U.S. embassy in the United Arab
Emirates warned of planned bin Laden attacks with explosives in the
United States, but did not say where or when.
The CIA reported the incident to other government officials the next day,
and a dozen or more steps were taken by the CIA and other agencies
"to run down" the information from the phone call, senior administration
officials said Saturday evening.
One official said references to al-Qaida in prior presidential briefings
"would indicate 'they are here, they are there' in other countries and the
CIA director would tell the president what was being done to address
"these different operations."
The official said those types of references prompted
the president to ask for a report on domestic activity.
The senior administration officials refused to say what
Bush's response to the memo was, or precisely what
government action it had triggered.
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