Pre-9/11 Warnings - What Should Have Been Done?

cerulean · 05-17-2002, 10:04 AM

Bush Seeks to Deflect Questions About Warnings Over Sept. 11
By DAVID STOUT

ASHINGTON, May 17 â€” With current and future Air Force officers as a supporting cast, President Bush sought today to deflect questions about the Sept. 11 attacks, saying he would have done everything he could to protect the United States if he had known the terrorists' plans.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/po...7CND-BUSH.html

The article also goes on to say that Bush was told in a security briefing on August 6 that bin Laden wanted to hijack planes.

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From the Washington Post:
1999 Report Warned of Suicide Hijack

WASHINGTON â€“â€“ 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-Qaida'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.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002May17.html

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cerulean · 05-17-2002, 10:06 AM

Of course the 1993 attack on the World Trace Center should have been a huge warning, but apparently it wasn't as much as one would hope.

How to balance being an alarmist with being properly prepared for enormous risk?

Is the Islamic terrorist threat yet being taken seriously enough?

Morpheus · 05-17-2002, 10:14 AM

Why always bring up "Islam terror". Why don't you all get your facts straight and just look at the biggest terror attack that took place in the US before 9-11, Oklahoma, was not accomplished by a Muslim but by a white rightwing American.

Just drop the Islam and talk about terror as a whole. And no, Bush could not have prevented the attacks from hapenning, unless he declared Martial law upon the US and let the military take all decisions. There are probably thousands of telephones and letters each year addressed to US embassies all over the world with the threat that more terrorism will follow. Although Bush is not a very intelligent man, he can't be held responsible for 9-11.

On the other hand, it pleases me that democrates have started politics again and maybe now can criticise Bush. Since 9-11 we haven't heard much of them.

cerulean · 05-17-2002, 10:18 AM

It's Islamic terror that is the concern here. That's what caused 9/11. That's what is threatening the West and Israel now.

It's not just Bush who's to blame. It's Clinton, the State Department, the CIA, the Congress, and on and on. There is plenty of bipartisan blame to go around. There wasn't a coherent strategy to fight Islamic terrorists.

**Mediocrates** · 05-17-2002, 10:43 AM

But even after 9-11 airport security was and continues to be to this day, a drunk monkey rodeo. If you are one of these two groups you will be stopped:

1) A good looking woman
2) A businessman on business travel

Everybody else could just as well be dressed in a Klingon suit and pushing a wheelbarrow full of cocaine and dynamite.

If we put our lives in the hands of some minwage mouthbreather who can't even hold their own paperwork right side up then we are going to die screaming.

It doesn't matter who you blame. No one is fixing it anyway.

L@mplighterM · 05-17-2002, 01:18 PM

But even after 9-11 airport security was and continues to be to this day, a drunk monkey rodeo. If you are one of these two groups you will be stopped:

1) A good looking woman
2) A businessman on business travel

Make that a white business man and I'll agree.

L@mplighterM · 05-17-2002, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by cerulean
Of course the 1993 attack on the World Trace Center should have been a huge warning, but apparently it wasn't as much as one would hope.

How to balance being an alarmist with being properly prepared for enormous risk?

Is the Islamic terrorist threat yet being taken seriously enough?

No the Islamic terrorist threat isn't being given enough attention.

**NewsGuy** · 05-17-2002, 02:47 PM

Originally posted by Morpheus
Why always bring up "Islam terror".

Well, because 9-11 was done by members of an Islamic terrorist organization. As you know, this organization based its recruiting on Islamic principles and operates suicide (homicide) bombers based on the teachings of Islam.

But, you are correct to look also at extremist American hate groups, because the Oklahoma bombing was tragic, as well.

I hope you noticed how we deal with our own terrorists, i.e., by catching them, throwing them in jail and then executing them. I hope we do the same with the Islamic suspects under arrest.

cerulean · 05-17-2002, 02:49 PM

There are a lot of similarities in outlook between Islamic terrorist groups and right-wing US terrorist groups (a rather smaller, but not non-existent threat).

For one thing, both sets of groups hate Jews, blame Jews for all problems, and are Holocaust deniers.

Gatorade · 05-17-2002, 04:17 PM

Didn't OBL say on one of his tapes that some of the guys on the planes didn't even know the mission they were going on?

I don't like how the blame of 9-11 is being shifted on anyone but those who carried out the act.

Could US security be better? Yes. And after 9/11 there was a lot of talk about improving it. This was no secret. I don't know if it is any better now. I do know that I did have to take off my shoes and my nail clippers were taken out of my bag when before I got on a plane but it would be so easy to fashion a weapon and take over a plane if ever if someone really wanted to do it.

Skogan · 05-17-2002, 04:42 PM

Originally posted by Mediocrates
But even after 9-11 airport security was and continues to be to this day, a drunk monkey rodeo.

Everybody else could just as well be dressed in a Klingon suit and pushing a wheelbarrow full of cocaine and dynamite.

If we put our lives in the hands of some minwage mouthbreather who can't even hold their own paperwork right side up then we are going to die screaming.

That is too funny!

L@mplighterM · 05-17-2002, 06:36 PM

Originally posted by Morpheus
Why always bring up "Islam terror". Why don't you all get your facts straight and just look at the biggest terror attack that took place in the US before 9-11, Oklahoma, was not accomplished by a Muslim but by a white rightwing American.

Radical Islam and its Fundamentalism will hopefully be dealt with severely. I believe the EU is finally beginning to wake up and move to the right even if it may not seem so at the moment.

Islam can and will be dealt with I hope severely whereas domestic terrorism can be more difficult to eliminate. You can only deal with things that can be identified and Islamic Fundamentalism certainly fits that description.

Morpheus · 05-17-2002, 09:52 PM

Well, in Europe, we've got terrorists here as well, but we never had mass-scale suicide attacks (Israel) or apocaliptic attacks (NYC).

The Spanish ETA,
The Real IRA ...

In fact, the IRA was trained in Lybia, thanks to money given by Gadafhi and the training as well. However, the UK did not think of bombing Lybia untill the US did so in 1986 (Operation El Dorado Canyon). Probably because Lybia is close enough from Europe to retalliate, Afghanistan not.

Europeans shouldn't complain about actions taken in Af'stan. They helped the US as well, in fact, France was the only ally which provided air support for troops on the ground during Operation Anaconda. So it's wrong to think that the US and the EU are not on the same line anymore. US is still our biggest trading partner (and vica versa, especially now Japan is an economic recession). I'm pro-EU, but our gov'ts should have the right to criticise Israel, something I want to do as well. Israel has made some terrible mistakes in the (recent).

So the EU supports the US in a "fight against terror". But we don't agree with all the military actions they've done. And Israel is a total other story, it's not just a war against terrorism, but also one against a people (The Palestinians) they're doing right now. And this should not be tolerated.

cerulean · 05-29-2002, 08:56 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/national/30INQU.html

There clearly are a lot of changes at the FBI lately. Although it's upsetting to hear that 9/11 could be headed off, it's actually encouraging in one way to know the FBI had info, because that means there is a potential at least of averting future attacks. At least I hope so.