US President George W. Bush's Aug. 6, 2001, daily intelligence briefing included information from three months beforehand that al-Qaeda members were trying to enter the US for an attack with explosives, sources familiar with the document said on Friday.
The document gave neither a time nor a suspected target for such an attack, the sources said. They said the information was based on a May 2001 intelligence report that suggested followers of Osama bin Laden wanted to cross from Canada into the US.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has described the President's Daily Brief of Aug. 6, 2001, as mostly a historical document. The sources said the report did include historical information citing al-Qaeda's desire to attack domestic US targets dating to 1997.
Democratic members of the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks demanded on Thursday that the Aug. 6, 2001, document be released to help them with their probe. They questioned whether Bush could have done more to stop the attacks based on the memo.
The White House is working with the CIA and other agencies to declassify the intelligence memo, a highly unusual if not unprecedented public release of secret presidential intelligence briefing documents.
White House officials refused to discuss the sensitive, page-and-a-half document in any way because it was still classified. It could be released as early as today in Washington, and will likely intensify the debate over whether the Sept. 11 attacks could have been prevented.
Parts of the document were disclosed during Rice's testimony to the commission on Thursday. It is entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the United States."
Commissioner Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator, said it appeared the classified memo hinted at a possible hijacking.
"This is what the Aug. 6 memo said to the president -- that the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity, and I'd say it's consistent with preparations for hijacking," Kerrey said.
The sources familiar with the document said it advised Bush that at least 70 terrorism-related investigations were under way by the FBI in 2001.
Democratic commissioners demanded to know why the document was not seen as a warning of the attacks little more than a month later when al-Qaeda hijackers crashed two airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon and seized another that appeared headed toward Washington but crashed in Pennsylvania.
Rice said the memo referred to uncorroborated reporting from 1998 that a terrorist might try to hijack a US aircraft and blackmail the government.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
CLOSER TO CHINA: The upgraded Type-12 missile has a range of about 1,000km, compared with the original model’s range of 200km, and can reach mainland China Japan is preparing to deploy its first batch of domestically developed long-range missiles, with their launchers arriving at an army camp yesterday, as the country accelerates its offensive capability in response to rising challenges in the region. The upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles are to be deployed at Camp Kengun in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto by the end of this month, completing the process of deployment, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said without giving details. Army vehicles carrying the launchers and other equipment arrived past midnight in a highly secretive mission criticized by residents. Dozens of people stood outside of the
RSS