Report Warned of Possible Al-Qaida Attacks in United States

The White House declassified the document at the request of the 9/11 commission, which was established by Congress to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The document, reportedly prepared by a CIA analyst, was entitled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S.”

“After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington,” the document stated.

The document further stated that the New Year’s Eve 2000 plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport may have been bin Laden’s first attempt at a terrorist strike inside the United States.

“Al-Qaida members — including some who are U.S. citizens — have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks,” the document said.

The document also said some reports of possible terrorist planning in the United States could not be substantiated. Much of the information was given to U.S. officials by foreign intelligence services, the names of which were redacted in the declassified version of the document.

“We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a … (redacted portion) … service in 1998 saying that bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of ‘Blind Shaykh’ ‘Umar’ Abd al-Rahman (convicted for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center) and other U.S.-held extremists,” the document said.

The document ends with two paragraphs about intelligence on al-Qaida gleaned after 1998.

“FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York,” the document, which was released Saturday, reads.

The document further stated that the FBI had “70 full field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related,” and that the “CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the [United Arab Emirates] in May saying that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.”

President Bush said on Sunday that the document was prepared at his request and included in his presidential daily briefing (PDB), an intelligence report he receives daily from his top national security officials and advisers.

“As you might recall, there was some specific threats for overseas that we reacted to. And as the president, I wanted to know whether there was anything, any actionable intelligence. And I looked at the August 6th briefing, I was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into,” the president said. “But that PDB said nothing about an attack on America. It talked about intentions, about somebody who hated America — well, we knew that.”

Mr. Bush further said that the brief lacked specific information about an impending attack.

“I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America — at a time and a place, an attack. … The question was, who was going to attack us, when and where, and with what,” the president said. “And you might recall the hijacking that was referred to in the PDB. It was not a hijacking of an airplane to fly into a building, it was hijacking of airplanes in order to free somebody that was being held as a prisoner in the United States.”

The PDB document was declassified by the White House after it became one of the focal points of the 9/11 commission’s questioning of White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on April 8.

During her testimony Rice told commissioners that the Aug. 6 document was based on past intelligence and lacked any information that could have been acted upon.

“It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States,” Rice said.

“I can also tell you that there was nothing in this memo that suggested that an attack was coming on New York or Washington, D.C.” Rice said. “There was nothing in this memo as to time, place, how or where. This was not a threat report to the president or a threat report to me.”

Rice said that the Bush administration was already working on the issues raised in the PDB document.

“There were no specifics, and, in fact, the country had already taken steps through the FAA to warn of potential hijackings.” Rice said “The country had already taken steps through the FBI to task their 56 field offices to increase their activity. The country had taken the steps that it could given that there was no threat reporting about what might happen inside the United States.”

During Rice’s testimony Commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, asked “What is a warning, if August 6th isn’t?”

“Well, August 6th is most certainly an historical document that says, ‘Here’s how you might think about al-Qaida,'” Rice responded.

A number of 9/11 commission members have said that their public and private hearings, including Rice’s testimony on Thursday, have raised serious concerns about longstanding organizational problems within the U.S. intelligence community.

On Thursday, the 9/11 commission met in private with former President Clinton. On Friday the commission met with former Vice President Al Gore in a private session.

On April 13th and 14th the commission will hold a hearing to “examine the performance of law enforcement and the intelligence community prior to September 11 and evaluate post-9/11 reforms in these areas.”

Commissioners will question Attorney General John Ashcroft, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Attorney General Janet Reno, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, and former Acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard.

“This hearing will focus on four important questions: How was our government structured before 9/11 to address the terrorist threat inside the United States? What was the threat in 2001 and our government’s response to it? How did the intelligence community address the threat? What reforms have been taken since 9/11 to respond to the terrorist threat inside the United States, and what have these reforms achieved?” commission Chairman Thomas Kean said, according to a commission press release.