[IP] TEXT-White House Aug. 6, 2001 Al Qaeda Intel Brief
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 20:19:39 -0400
From: Lynn <lynn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: fyi
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J1HY131MYBQSKCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=4797260
TEXT-White House Aug. 6, 2001 Al Qaeda Intel Brief
Sat Apr 10, 2004 07:25 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The following is the full text of an Aug. 6,
2001, intelligence briefing for President Bush that outlined al Qaeda
plans to strike within the United States.
It was released on Saturday by the White House.
Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004
Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin
since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin
implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers
would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and
"bring the fighting to America."
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin
told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a
...(redacted portion) ... service.
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion)
... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the
operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin
Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US.
Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the
idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin
Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the
operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his
own US attack.
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares
operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin
associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as
early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the
bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US citizens -- have resided
in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a
support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found
guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US
citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was
recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
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 Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the
release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held
extremists.
Nevertheless, 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 FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations
throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI
are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a
group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with
explosives.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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