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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (42361)	4/12/2004 11:18:41 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 89467

'99 Report Warned Of Suicide Hijacking WASHINGTON, May 17, 2002 Former CIA Deputy Director John Gannon, who was chairman of the National Intelligence Council when the report was written, said U.S. intelligence long has known a suicide hijacker was a possible threat. (AP) Exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building. "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said. The report, entitled the "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?," described the suicide hijacking as one of several possible retribution attacks al Qaeda might seek for the 1998 U.S. airstrike against bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. The report noted that an al Qaeda-linked terrorist first arrested in the Philippines in 1995 and later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had suggested such a suicide jetliner mission. "Ramzi Yousef had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters," author Rex Hudson wrote in a report prepared for the National Intelligence Council and shared with other federal agencies. The intelligence council is attached to the CIA and is made up of a dozen senior intelligence officers who assist the U.S. intelligence community in analysis of threats and priorities. The report contrasts with Bush administration officials' assertions that none in government had imagined an attack like Sept. 11 before that time. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. The report was written by the Federal Research Division, an arm of the Library of Congress that provides research for various federal agencies under contracts. The report was based solely on open-source information that the federal researchers gathered about the likely threats of terrorists, according to Robert L. Worden, the division's chief. "This information was out there, certainly to those who study the in-depth subject of terrorism and al Qaeda," Worden said. "We knew it was an insightful report," he said. "Then after Sept. 11 we said, 'My gosh, that (suicide hijacking) was in there.'" Asked about the report at his daily press briefing, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described it as a psychological, sociological evaluation of terrorism. "I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that terrorists think in evil ways," he said. "It is not a piece of intelligence information suggesting that we had information about a specific plan." Former CIA Deputy Director John Gannon, who was chairman of the National Intelligence Council when the report was written, said U.S. intelligence long has known a suicide hijacker was a possible threat. "If you ask anybody could terrorists convert a plane into a missile, nobody would have ruled that out," he said. He called the 1999 report part of a broader effort by his council to identify for U.S. intelligence the full range of attack options for terrorists and U.S. enemies. "It became such a rich threat environment that it was almost too much for Congress and the administration to absorb," he said. "They couldn't prioritize what was the most significant threat." Gannon, who served both Democratic and Republican presidents, said Americans need to make a distinction between knowing the type of vulnerabilities terrorist could exploit and knowing the attacks were imminent. He said criticism that President George W. Bush's August briefing should have alerted the administration to the attacks was "egregiously unfair. The president wasn't given actionable intelligence," he said. cbsnews.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (42361)	4/12/2004 11:32:54 AM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

With all of the mentioning of Vietnam... Posted on Mon, Apr. 12, 2004 Vietnam's Central Highlands in Lockdown MARGIE MASON Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam's Central Highlands remained sealed off Monday by police and security officials following protests by hundreds of ethnic minority Christians over Easter weekend. Scores were arrested and injured when more than a thousand people took to the streets Saturday in Buon Ma Thuot, the provincial capital of Daklak, in what was supposed to be peaceful prayer demonstrations against religious repression and land confiscation. Most of the indigenous mountain tribes are Protestant. One witness said some protesters converged on the capital driving tractors, while police said demonstrations drawing 300-400 people each took place at several spots around the city. State-controlled media reported Monday that thousands of people, including ethnic minority groups, celebrated Easter in the Central Highlands provinces of Daklak, Gia Lai and Kon Tum. There was no mention of protests. The area has been closed off to all foreigners, with flights to Buon Ma Thuot canceled since Saturday and roads leading into the town blocked. Over the weekend, a U.S. Embassy delegation was forced by police to turn back in neighboring Binh Phuoc province. Vietnam has blamed "overseas instigation" for triggering the protests, which are a repeat of mass demonstrations in 2001. "In recent days, some extremists in some localities in Daklak and Gia Lai provinces - with overseas instigation - have engaged in actions of causing social disorder, even assaulting authorities, destroying public welfare projects and property in some villages," Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a statement. Police confirmed that dozens of ethnic minority villagers, collectively called Montagnards, were detained Saturday while scores of people were injured in an area of Vietnam that has been politically volatile over issues of ethnic minority rights. On Monday, police said the situation in the city was "peaceful," while one Buon Ma Thuot resident said things had returned to normal following Saturday's demonstrations. International human right groups said they received independent reports from witnesses of violent clashes and multiple arrests. "We've heard there have been many arrests; many more people are going into hiding," a representative from New York-based Human Rights Watch said. Vietnam recognizes only a handful of state-sponsored religions and has clashed many times with Buddhists and Christians. International human rights groups allege some ethnic minorities have been persecuted for their beliefs and forced to publicly renounce their faith. The European Union and the U.S. State Department have criticized Vietnam for religious repression. On Monday, Nikola Mihajlovic, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office in Phnom Penh, said 74 Montagnards have crossed the border and sought asylum in Cambodia since January. In 2001, similar unprecedented protests took place in the Central Highlands, triggering a mass exodus into Cambodia. Nearly 1,000 refugees were accepted by the United States for political asylum. Human rights groups assert that more than 100 people have been jailed in Vietnam for helping organize those demonstrations. Government officials have blamed the North Carolina-based Montagnard Foundation for organizing both demonstrations. The U.S-based organization was founded by former members of a group of anti-communist Montagnard fighters allied with the United States during the Vietnam War.