The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 31 Issue: 11 - Sunday, April 11, 2004

Smoking Gun Shooting Blanks

The newly-declassified Presidential Briefing detailing the threat
assessment a month before the attacks on New York and Washington topped
the headlines for Resurrection Day, 2004.

The Chicago Sun-Times headline told its readers, "Bush Told Before 9/11 Of
Al-Qaida Activity In US, Memo Reveals".  The San Jose Mercury News
reported, "2001 Memo Raises Issues Of Credibility"; The Australian said,
"Pre 9/11 Memo Warned Bush"; the Indianapolis Star noted, "Briefing Cited
Hijacking Threat; while Newsday simply reported, "US Was Warned."

The New York Times is already speculating hopefully as to whether or not
the memo's release will "do lasting damage to Mr. Bush's presidency and
re-election prospects."

The memo is seventeen sentences long.  The redacted portions are replaced
by xxxx.  Compare its contents to the headlines about it.
 
 

"Bin Ladin Deterimined to Strike US"

"Clandestine, foreign government and media reports indicate Bin Ladin
since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. 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
xxxxxxxxxxx service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an xxxxxxxxxx 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 xxxxxxxxxx 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 UAE in May saying that a group of
Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives."
 
 

Assessment:

Do YOU see an actionable warning in there?  I don't see anything in there
that wasn't public knowledge at the time. I've been looking at it for an
hour.  I probably could have written this memo myself on August 6, 2001.
Two things jump out at me.

The first is that the memo admits on its face that some of the more
'sensational threat reporting' was 'uncorroborated'.  The second is that
the FBI had seventy 'full field investigations' related to Osama bin-Laden
that were underway BEFORE September 11.

The only reference to hijackings was the routine kind, in which hijackers
steal a plane and leverage the passengers to get somebody (in this case,
the blind Sheik) out of prison.

The memo mentions an attack against the US by bin-Laden using explosives,
mentions the first World Trade Center bombing, says that bin-Laden wants
to attack Washington, but nowhere does it even hint of hijackers using
aircraft as missiles.

There isn't a single thing in this classified, secret assessment briefing
that I didn't know on August 6th.  Except for the 70 FBI investigations --
I didn't know how many there were.

I had been writing about bin-Laden for years, and I expected an attack
someday, just as pretty much everybody else.

Remember when everybody was saying a major terrorist strike against the US
was a matter of 'when' and not 'if'?   Because all this information was
ALREADY in the public domain.

What this memo reveals is that the Bush administration didn't know
anything that anybody who was paying attention wouldn't have known on
August 6th, 2001.

Now, go back up and read some of the headlines, keeping in mind that there
is a reason why 'skimming the headlines' is a commonly-used phrase.

Skim THOSE headlines, skip all the boring reading, and what do you learn?
The US was warned and did nothing.

It is really quite incredible, when you look at it.
 
 

Happy Resurrection Day:

In the movie, 'The Passion',  the actor playing Jesus says from the Cross,
"It is accomplished."  Untrue. What Jesus said from the Cross was "It is
FINISHED",  literally, in Greek, "Tetelestai", meaning 'paid in full'.

In His Death we have full payment for all our sins. "And he is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins
of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)

In His Resurrection, we have eternal life. "But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (1
Corinthians 15:13-15)

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept." (1 Corinthians 15:20)

At Pentecost, the risen, Resurrected Jesus ascended into Heaven,  the Book
of Acts tells us.  As His apostles watched Him, two angels stood by and
said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11) Even so, come,
Lord Jesus!

May God grant each of you a happy and joyful Resurrection Day.