Bush knew of al-Qaeda jet hijack strategy Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Times of London - May 17, 2002 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2022-298943,00.html May 17, 2002 Bush knew of al-Qaeda jet hijack strategy by James Doran in Washington PRESIDENT BUSH faced a congressional investigation yesterday after admitting that he received warnings of possible al-Qaeda plans to hijack a US aircraft shortly before the suicide attacks on New York and Washington. Republican and Democrat politicians demanded an immediate inquiry to determine whether the information could have prevented the September 11 attacks. Congress also demanded to know why Mr Bush did not disclose for nine months that he had information about a possible terrorist hijacking so close to September 11, despite being questioned repeatedly about US intelligence prior to the attack. Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority leader and a Democrat, said he was ?gravely concerned? by the revelation and asked Mr Bush to turn over to Congress all the information he had received. ?There is a lot more to be learnt before we can come to any final conclusion about all of the facts but it clearly raises some very important questions that have to be asked and have to be answered,? he said. The White House confirmed that Mr Bush personally received a CIA intelligence report in the first week of last August that described a hijacking threat by members of Osama bin Laden?s terrorist organisation. The information was handed to the President at an early morning meeting while he was resting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, and Condoleezza Rice, the National Security adviser, were also understood to have been party to the information. Officials said that Mr Bush had been given a first warning about a heightened ?spike? of terrorist activity against American targets overseas in May last year and that the August briefing was a response to the President?s demand for clearer information about the possibility of attack. Mr Bush?s daily intelligence report from the CIA, the most classified government document in America, contains a so-called ?threat matrix?, which shows the extent to which the US is under threat from terrorists or foreign enemies. The risk to the US rose from early 2001 to a peak in August, when the President was informed. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said that the information received in August by Mr Bush was ?generalised information about potential hijackings? and contained no specific threat. Neither the CIA, the FBI nor the President had had any idea that hijacked aircraft would be used as missiles against targets on American soil. ?This was a new type of attack which had not been foreseen,? Mr Fleischer added. Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who sits on the Government Affairs Committee, said he would push for a full commission on the scandal. ?There were two separate FBI reports plus a CIA warning, none of which were co-ordinated. The question is: would, if all three had been connected, that have led to more vigorous activity?? Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat Congressman from New York, described Mr Bush?s lack of action after receiving the security briefing as ?non-feasance of public office of the highest order?. He said the President should take responsibility for the attacks if it was proved he was given ample warning. The White House said that all relevant departments, including Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration, national airline carriers and the Department of Transportation, were informed of the threat. Members of the Congress Intelligence Committee denied that any such information had been passed to them. The admission comes after the FBI was criticised for ignoring warnings about Middle Eastern men attending a flight school in Arizona and criticism of Mr Bush for giving away pictures of himself aboard his personal jet on September 11 in exchange for donations to the Republican Party. Yasser al Siri, a publisher in Paddington, is the latest al-Qaeda suspect to have terror charges against him dropped after a judge ruled there was no evidence against him. After he left the Old Bailey, where he had been accused of helping to plot the murder of the anti-Taleban commander Ahmed Shah Masood, Mr al Siri, 39, was arrested on a US extradition warrant alleging that he provided money for al-Qaeda. For a more graphic view of what The Times says smirk knew, and when, see: http://208.133.38.112/nytransfer-subs/images/warnings.html ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmed-05.19.02-21:44:08-30355