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Keys to symbols
July 2001:
==Jul.01 > [•X] California
Senator Diane Feinstein, who is on the Intelligence Committee, warns CNN
“Intelligence staff tell me that there is a major probability of a terrorist
incident within the next three months.” [time.May.27.2002]
==Jul.02 > [•X]
The FBI warns law enforcement agencies and the White House of possible
overseas attacks by al-Qaeda - although it does not rule out domestic
attacks. The warning is reiterated on July
18. [time.May.27.2002 / jdw]
==Jul.03 > [•X]
Convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam, who has been giving detailed accounts of
al-Qaeda’s plans, testifies that US airports are a prime
target. [nwwk.May.27.2002]
==Jul.03 > [•X]
CIA Director Tenet urgently appeals to 20 foreign intelligence services for
the arrest of known al-Qaeda operatives. [wap.May.17.2002]
==Jul.04 > [•]
The Israeli Cabinet gives the army almost complete freedom to assassinate
‘security risks’ in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Next day, the
Cabinet falls into an uproar as right-wing members demand full-scale military
action against the occupied territories. Continued assassinations,
bombings, and other violence by both sides continues through the
summer. [gdn.Oct.17.2001]
==Jul.05 > [•X]
Bush becomes aware of the increasing intelligence chatter indicating an
imminent terror attack: he directs National Security Adviser Rice to review
the situation, and Rice meets with counterterrorism chief Richard
Clarke. In addition to his conference with Rice, the busy Clarke
convenes two meetings this same day on the possibility of terrorist
attacks. The larger briefing is held in the White House Situation Room
with officials from a dozen federal agencies - Clarke tells them “Something
really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon,”
and warns that the attack will be designed to inflict mass casualties and
will come with little or no warning. For several weeks, the US
government is on the highest level of alert. July marks the pre-9/11
height of US government fears of a major terrorist attack.
[nyt.May.17.2002 / wap.May.17.2002 / jdw]
==Jul.05 > [X]
In Florida, Atta is pulled over for speeding. During the routine check,
the police computer fails to report that he has an outstanding warrant for
failing to appear in court for a traffic
violation. [inside]
==Jul.06 > [•X]
The Pentagon issues another anti-terrorism alert to US military
forces. [jdw]
==Jul.06 > [•X] Clarke puts the Counterterrorism Security
Group on full alert, directs its members to restrict non-essential travel,
and orders it to report anything unusual - “even if a sparrow should fall
from a tree.” On Jul.07, Clarke meets with senior federal security officials
and repeats this urgent request for information… but in the weeks to come,
both the CIA and the FBI fail to disclose critical intelligence.
[nyt.May.17.2002 / clarke]
==Jul.08-19 > [X] Atta visits Spain, probably to work out the
final details of 9/11 with an al-Qaeda operational
commander. [lat.Sep.01.2002]
==Jul.10 > [•X] Agent
Kenneth Williams in Arizona sends a memo to FBI headquarters and to two field
offices warning that suspected terrorists have been attending flight training
schools, and urging a nation-wide investigation. The FBI takes no
action and neglects to pass the memo to other concerned
agencies. [time.Aug.04.2002 /
wap.May.17.2002]
==Jul.12 > [•] The House scuttles the campaign
finance reform bill. [info]
==Jul.16 > [•X]
British intelligence agencies warn Prime Minister Blair that al-Qaeda is in “the
final stages” of preparing an attack on the West, most likely against US or
Israeli interests. The report is presumably passed on to US
intelligence. [tml.Jun.14.2002]
==Jul.16 > [••] A
Russian-Chinese friendship treaty is signed, inspired by their opposition to
the Bush administration’s missile defense
program. [info]
==Jul.17 > [•]
India and Pakistan break off talks on Kashmir. [info]
==Jul.17 > [•] Katherine Graham, the widely admired
former publisher of the Washington Post, dies at the age of 84.
[info]
==Jul.17-22 > [•X] At a
UN-sponsored conference on Afghanistan held in Berlin, senior American
diplomats tell former Pakistani Foreign Minister Niaz Naik that the US is
already planning to attack Afghanistan by mid-October unless bin Laden is
handed over. The warning is presumably passed on to the Taliban.
A US delegate later admits that Naik could have been told that America “might
be considering some military action” against the Taliban, but denies
mentioning any details. In any event, it is unlikely that American
public opinion would have supported large-scale military operations in
Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks. See
Sep.09 [hiro1 / gdn.Sep.22.2001]
==Jul.19 > [•] VP Cheney refuses a demand from the
GAO that he hand over the records of his energy task
force. [cnn.Jul.19.2001]
==Jul.19 > [•X]
The State Department warns that terrorist attacks could be imminent in the
Arabian Peninsula. [spi.Jul.19.2001]
==Jul.20 > [•X]
The Pentagon issues yet another anti-terrorism alert to US military
forces. [jdw]
==Jul.20-22 > [••X] The Genoa G8 economic summit is held,
with Bush, Blair, Chirac, Putin, and other heads of state present.
Western and Russian intelligence agencies have had many warnings of terrorist
attacks on the meeting - in particular, Italian officials have received
reports that Islamist terrorists are plotting to crash a hijacked airliner
into the conference. Security measures are unprecedented, including
deployment of 15,000 police and military personnel in the town, emplacement
of surface-to-air missiles at the airport, underwater patrols by frogmen, and
the closure of airspace over the city. After an attack fails to materialize, US
fears of terrorist attacks subside until September 11.
[lat.Sep.27.2001 / time.May.27+Aug.04.2002 / cnn.Jul.18.2001]
==Jul.23 > [•] 178 nations reach an accord on global
warming. The United States is not one of
them. [info]
==Jul.24 > [•] Real estate magnate Larry Silverstein
finalizes the purchase of the lease of the World Trade Center from the New
York Port Authority for $3.2 billion. [irei.Jul.26.2001]
==Jul.28 > [•X]
al-Qaeda operative Jamal Beghal is arrested in Dubai on his way to suicide
bomb the US Embassy in Paris. He eventually talks after rough
interrogation and reveals the existence of a widespread terrorist network in
Western Europe - but the information comes too late to compromise the 9/11
plot. [nyt.Dec.28.2001 / time.May.27.2002 /
gdn.Jan.20.2002]
==Jul.31 > [•X]
The FAA issues another terrorism advisory, urging “a high degree of
alertness” for the possibility of hijackings. The warning will expire
before September 11. [wap.May.17.2002]
==Jul.31 > [•X] A UN
Security Council Resolution calls for posting UN officials on Afghanistan’s
borders to enforce the arms embargo against the Taliban. The Taliban
and its Pakistani supporters threaten to kill any UN monitors they can get
their hands on. [hiro1]
==Jul.--- > [•X] Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed
Muttawakil, who opposes his regime’s alliance with bin Laden, reportedly
sends warnings to both a US diplomat in Pakistan and UN personnel in Kabul
that al-Qaeda is preparing to launch a major attack within the United States.
The warnings are ignored. An American diplomat later says “We were
hearing a lot of that kind of stuff. When people keep saying the sky's
going to fall in and it doesn't, a kind of warning fatigue sets in.” At
about the same time, the CIA learns from an informant that in Afghanistan
“Everyone is talking about an impending (terrorist) attack.” The agency
notes an increase in al-Qaeda propaganda
efforts. [reu.Sep.07.2002 /
senic.Sep.18.2002]
==Jul.--- > [•X]
The FAA announces it intends to fine American Airlines $99,000 for lax
security. [wap.Sep.12.2001]
Summer 2001:
== > [•X]
The Taliban regime begins a harsh policy of burning villages in ethnic
minority regions in northern, western, and central Afghanistan. Many of
the troops used in these actions are foreign Muslims enlisted by
al-Qaeda. [bbc.Sep.18.2001]
August 2001:
==Aug.05 > [•X]
The Taliban arrests 24 aid workers - eight foreigners and 16 Afghans - on the
charge of propagating Christianity. The arrested Afghans could face the
death penalty. [cnn.Aug.07.2001]
==Aug.06 > [•X] A couple days after Bush begins a month-long
vacation at his ranch, he is presented with a CIA Presidential Daily Briefing
entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.' The PDB reports that al
Qaeda is actively preparing for major terrorist attacks inside the United
States, possibly involving hijacked planes. New York and Washington are
specifically mentioned as likely targets. Despite the alarming nature of the
PDB, no action is taken. [cnn.Apr.10.2004 / nyrb.Sep.23.2004]
=Later
during Bush's August vacation, alarmed officials at the CIA sent a group of
analysts to Crawford to speak directly to the president on the threat of a
terrorist attack. Bush was not impressed. After the briefing, he scornfully
told one of the CIA men "All right. You've covered your ass,
now." [susk2]
==Aug.09
> [•X]
A Hamas suicide bomber kills 15 Israelis and wounds 90 in a Jerusalem pizza
restaurant. Six of the dead are children. Next day, Israel levels
the Palestinian police headquarters in Ramallah with an air
attack. [gdn.Oct.17.2001]
==Aug.13 > [•]
A peace agreement is reached in Macedonia, which has been ravaged by fighting
for months. [info]
==Aug.13-14 > [X] Mohammad Atta and the 9/11 hijacker pilots
gather in Las Vegas. It is believed that the plans for 9/11 are
finalized at this meeting. Al-Shehhi pays visits to the Olympic Garden
Topless Club - afterwards, his dancer recalls “Some big-man terrorist, huh?…
He gave me a really shitty tip.” [inside /
tele.Oct.06.2001]
==Aug.14 > [•]
Israeli tanks destroy the Palestinian police headquarters in Jenin, in the
largest Israeli incursion into the West Bank since the Palestinians took over
in 1994. [gdn.Oct.17.2001]
Jeff Skilling
==Aug.14 > [•] Jeff Skilling resigns as CEO of Enron,
and Chairman Ken Lay takes over the job. Showing signs of burn-out,
Skilling publicly claims he wants to spend more time with his family, but
privately he’s horrified at the potential consequences of Enron’s falling
stock prices. The company is secretly approaching a crisis, but
analysts continue to rate it as a “strong
buy.” [wap.Jul.29.2002 /
npr.Aug.13.2003]
==Aug.15 > [•] Enron Vice President Sherron Watkins
writes a memo to Ken Lay warning “I am incredibly nervous that we will
implode in a wave of accounting scandals.” By early September, a feeble
internal investigation concludes there are no serious problems. But Watkins
memo also reaches Enron’s accounting firm Arthur Anderson, and the previously
compliant accountants begin to worry. [wap.Jul.29+Jul.30.2002]
==Aug.15-16 (night) > [•XX] Al-Qaeda operative Moussaoui is arrested in
Minnesota for visa violations while making a second attempt at completing
flight training, after the suspicious flight school staff reports him to the
FBI. [time.May.27.2002]
==Aug.17 > [•]
Popular support for Ariel Sharon is falling - because much of the Israeli
public considers him too soft on the
Palestinians. [gdn.Oct.17.2001]
==Aug.20 > [•] Stephen S. Roach, chief economist of
Morgan Stanley, says ''We have gone from boom to bust faster than anytime
since the oil shock (of 1973). When you screech to a halt like that, it feels
like getting thrown through the windshield.'' [nyt.Aug.20.2001]
==Aug.21 > [•X]
Minneapolis FBI agents working on the Moussaoui case warn FBI Headquarters
that al-Qaeda may be planning to hijack a plane overseas and then use it to
attack Washington. [jdw]
==Aug.21-23 > [•XX] Twenty months after it identified them at an
al-Qaeda conference in Malaysia, the CIA finally puts the future hijackers
Almihdhar and Alhazmi on the terror watch list and alerts the INS and the
FBI. The FBI is unable to find them before 9/11. [wsj.Oct.16.2001
/ senic.Oct.17.2002]
==Aug.21 > [•] Three weeks before 9/11, the
Washington Post prints an article on the “quiet debate” over the nature of US
foreign policy. Tom Donnelly, deputy director of the highly
influential neoconservative Project for the New American Century, believes
that the United States should openly conduct itself as an imperial power and
should adopt a far more aggressive foreign policy. Retired army colonel
Andrew Bacevich agrees that the US is taking on an imperial role, but
suspects “that we'll end up paying a higher cost, morally and materially,
than we currently can imagine.” Other critics point out that greater
American belligerence will provoke greater international resistance to
American power. Historian Richard Kohn argues that most Americans would
not give long-term support to an imperialist foreign policy, and that they
“recognize that it would cost us our soul.”
[wap.Aug.21.2001]
==Aug.22 > [•] The Bush administration admits that
the budget surplus is dwindling. [info]
==Aug.23 > [•] Bush confirms that the US is
abandoning the anti-ballistic missile treaty of
1972. [info]
==late Aug. > [•] The height of the Gary Condit flap.
The conservative Democratic Congressman, whose intern/lover has vanished, is
being furiously attacked by pundits. [info]
==late Aug. > [•X] About this time, Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of
the London-based Arabic magazine al-Quds al-Arabi, is told by sources close
to bin Laden that al-Qaeda will soon launch a “huge and unprecedented attack”
on American interests. Atwan, who has heard claims like this before,
doesn’t take the warnings seriously. [irex.Sep.11.2001]
==late Aug. > [•X] An
anonymous letter accuses three Afghans detained in the Cayman Islands of
being involved in “a major terrorist act against the U.S. via an airline or
airlines.” [lat.Sep.20.2001]
==Aug.26-Sep.05 > [X] The 9/11 hijackers buy their tickets - Atta
buys his online on August 28. By this time many of the hijackers
are holed up in small groups in modest motels and apartments in
Florida. [inside / aubc.Nov.12.2001 / annot]
==Aug.27 > [•XX] In an intercepted phone call to an al-Qaeda
leader in Madrid, an operative says “In our lessons we have entered the field
of aviation. We’ve even cut the throat of the bird.” Another
translation of the last sentence could be “We are even going to cut the
eagle's throat,” possibly a reference to the impending attacks on America.
[nyt.Dec.28.2001 / obs.Nov.25.2001]
==Aug.27 > [•XX] French intelligence informs the FBI that the
arrested flight school student Moussaoui has “Islamic extremist
beliefs.” FBI investigators working on the case begin to suspect that
Islamists could be planning a terrorist attack involving hijacker-pilots
seizing control of airliners - in a memo to FBI Headquarters one of the
Minneapolis agents writes that he wanted to make sure that Moussaoui “did not
take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center.”
See August 28 [nyt.May.24.2002 / jdw]
==Aug.28 > [•XX] FBI Headquarters refuses to approve a search
warrant for Moussaoui’s laptop computer, despite urgent requests from its
Minneapolis field office. [jdw]
==Aug.28-30 > [•] After four
days of bloody attacks and reprisals, the first extended Israeli troop
incursion into a Palestinian ruled area occurs at Beit Jala near
Jerusalem. [info / gdn.Oct.17.2001]
==Aug.29 > [•] Bush refuses to alter his spending
plans despite the rising budget crunch. [info]
==Aug.29 > [•XX] FBI Headquarters rejects urgent requests from
a New York agent for an investigation into the whereabouts of 9/11 hijacker
Almihdhar. In response, the agent angrily e-mails “Whatever has
happened to this - someday someone will die....the public will not understand
why we were not more effective in throwing every resource we had at certain
‘problems.’” [jdw]
==Aug.29 > [XX] Mohammad Atta informs al-Qaeda leader Ramzi
bin al-Shibh that the attacks will take place on September 11. Bin
al-Shibh presumably orders al-Qaeda cells in Europe and elsewhere to
evacuate. [gdn.Sep.09.2002]
==Aug.30 > [•X]
According to Egyptian President Mubarak, he warns the US that al-Qaeda is in
the final stages of preparing a major attack against an American target -
information he has gained from an Egyptian agent who has penetrated the
terrorist organization. US officials deny they received such a
warning. [ap.Dec.07.2001 / nyt.Jun.04.2002]
==Aug.--- > [•] Newt Gingrich, historian Bernard
Lewis, and others complete a report for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s office
on how ancient and medieval empires maintained dominance. New York
Times columnist Maureen Dowd later ridicules the study in a piece entitled
‘What Would Genghis Do?’ [nyt.Mar.05.2003]
==Aug.--- > [•X] A
former FAA special agent warns the agency that security is lax at Boston's
Logan Airport. Two of the four hijacked flights will take off from Logan on
9/11. [911cm]
==Aug.--- > [•X] Former
National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft submits a 20-page report on the
status of American intelligence agencies in which he recommends a broad
reorganization with greater consolidation under the CIA. Scowcroft discusses
his proposals with Cheney, who seems supportive. After 9/11, Scowcroft's
plans are blocked by Rumsfeld, whose enormous Defense Department intelligence
empire would be threatened by the proposed reform. [susk2]
==Aug.---
> [•X]
US intelligence learns that al-Qaeda has obtained a highly detailed map of
the US diplomatic compound in Jakarta - one of the first indications that
al-Qaeda and its allies are becoming active in Indonesia. In August and
October, Indonesian authorities briefly detain a number of foreign Muslims
who are later found to be linked to al-Qaeda. [wap.Jan.11.2002]
Late summer 2001:
== > [•X] A
senior political appointee says that CIA Director Tenet has "repeated
(warnings of a terrorist attack) so often that people got tired of hearing
it.” The intense terrorist alert of the early summer is
relaxing. [wap.May.17.2002]
September 2001:
Early September:
== > [X]
Speaking at a conference in Frankfurt, structural engineer Les Robertson says
he designed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to be strong enough to
withstand a collision with a Boeing 707. [ctr.Sep.11.2001]
September 1:
== > [•X]
In northern Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance detects a build-up of Taliban
and al-Qaeda forces, evidently in preparation for an offensive. See
Sep.09 [time.Aug.04.2002]
September 4:
== > [•X]
More than seven months after Richard Clarke first urgently requested it, the
Bush administration finally holds a Cabinet-level ‘Principals’ meeting on terrorism.
Most of the counterterrorism plan Clarke drew up at the end of the Clinton
administration is agreed to, but no funding is provided for it. A
proposal to use armed Predator drone planes to hunt bin Laden is opposed by
the CIA and the Defense Department. Rumsfeld continues to insist that
Iraq is the major source of terrorism and to downplay the significance of
al-Qaeda. Clarke’s proposals amount to "everything we have done
since 9/11," a senior administration official later admits. The
new policies are not implemented until after the
attacks. [wap.May.17.2002 / clarke /
time.Aug.04.2002]
== > [•X] Robert
Mueller is sworn in as FBI Director. [fbi]
==Sep.04 or Sep.05 > [•XX] The FBI cables information on the Moussaoui
case to the FAA and to other intelligence agencies. Nothing in the
cable indicates that Moussaoui is linked to terrorist groups, and nothing
indicates that he might be part of a larger, ongoing
plot. [senic.Sep.24.2002 / jdw]
== > [•]
General Mahmood Ahmad, the pro-Taliban head of Pakistani intelligence (the
ISI) arrives in Washington and meets with senior US State Department and
intelligence officials over the next week. He is evidently bluntly told
to cut the ISI’s ties to the Taliban or face grave consequences. Ahmad
is still in Washington on 9/11 and is left stranded after the
attacks. [tele.Sep.14.2001 / hiro1]
September 5:
== > [•X]
Three weeks after a Wall Street Journal piece by the anti-Muslim scholar
Daniel Pipes had called on federal authorities to suppress anti-Israeli
websites, a task force of 80 agents raids InfoCom ISP near Dallas, searching
for alleged links to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. InfoCom’s
shut-down causes 500 mostly Arab websites to crash, including al-Jazeera
news. The raid is only the beginning of prolonged legal troubles for
InfoCom’s Muslim owners. [gdn.Sep.10.2001]
September 6:
== > [•] The Bush administration drops the
anti-trust case against Microsoft. [info]
== > [X]
In a high school classroom in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, the son of Pakistani
immigrants points out the window at the World Trade Center and tells his
teacher “Do you see those two buildings? They won’t be standing there
next week.” Police investigations after 9/11 found no trace of al-Qaeda
involvement by the boy or his family. One cop says “It’s creepy.
But what the hell are we going to do about it now?” (This unlikely
story seems to have been reliably confirmed.) [msnbc.Oct.12.2001]
== > [X]
The 9/11 hijackers evidently begin casing Logan airport in
Boston. [jdw]
== > [XX] Osama bin Laden learns of the date of the
9/11 attacks through a message from Ramzi bin
al-Shibh. [gdn.Sep.09.2002]
September 7:
== > [•] America’s jobless rate jumps sharply
to 4.9%, a four-year high. [bbc.Sep.10.2001]
== > [•] Fashion Week begins in New York
City. The fashion shows will come to an abrupt end on September
11. [spi.Sep.14.2001]
== > [X]
In south Florida, Mohamed Atta, al-Shehhi, and a third hijacker spend an
evening at Shuckum’s Oyster Bar. While his companions down mixed
drinks, Atta drinks cranberry juice and intently plays video golf for four
hours. The hijackers get irate when presented with the bill. “You
think we cannot pay?” Atta screams at the manager. “Who do you think we
are? We are American Airlines pilots!” Four days later, Atta
flies American Flight 11 into the World Trade
Center. [inside]
== > [•X]
The US State Department issues a little-noticed worldwide travel advisory in
connection with threats from al-Qaeda. The warnings are mainly directed
to American military personnel in Korea and Japan, and no mention is made of
any possibility of domestic attacks. [usdos.Sep.07.2001]
== > [•X]
While officiating at a wedding in Todi, Italy, Father Jean-Marie Benjamin
reportedly mentions to a judge and several politicians that terrorists are
preparing an attack on American and British population centers using hijacked
airplanes. Father Benjamin is internationally known for his work in
Islamic countries, where he has many contacts. [zen.Sep.16.2001]
==Sep.07-09 > [X] Most of the hijackers split up and move
north to Newark and Boston, staying in hotels. [jdw
/ wsj.Oct.16.2001]
September 9:
==Sep.09 or Sep.10 > [•] The carrier
USS Carl Vinson replaces the USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf. After the
9/11 attacks, the departing Enterprise will be ordered to turn back and
remain in the region. [wap.Sep.13.2001]
Ahmad Shah Massoud
== > [•X]
Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud is fatally wounded by al-Qaeda
suicide bombers posing as journalists. Within hours of the
assassination, the Taliban launch a powerful offensive, but the Northern
Alliance conceals Massoud’s death until September 15 and holds out against
the Taliban assault. [time.Aug.04.2002 /
wiki]
== > [•X]
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld threatens to urge a veto if the Senate diverts
$600 million from missile defense to
counter-terrorism. [wap.Jan.20.2002]
== > [•X]
A National Security Directive authorizing military strikes against al-Qaeda
bases in Afghanistan is on Condoleeza Rice’s desk, awaiting Bush’s
approval. [msnbc.May.16.2002]
== > [XX] A foreign intelligence service reportedly
intercepts a phone call from Osama bin Laden to his adoptive mother in Syria,
in which he tells her “In two days, you're going to hear big news, and you're
not going to hear from me for a while.” But the story is apparently
false, and US intelligence soon discounts it. [cnn.Oct.02.2001]
== > [X]
Ziad Jarrah is ticketed in Maryland for driving 90 mph in a 65 mph
zone. The fine remains unpaid. [jdw]
==Sep.09-10 > [X] In Boston, some of the hijackers sow their
last oats. Two hire a hooker, and four others price call girls but
evidently can’t afford their last-minute
services. [reu.Oct.10.2001]
September 10:
== > [•] Michael Jordan’s pending return to
professional basketball is perhaps the hottest news story in America on
September 10. [wap.Sep.12.2001]
== > [•] On the eve of 9/11, American stock
prices are volatile, but at the end of the trading day the Dow Jones index
manages to remain flat. In the rest of the world, however, share prices
drop sharply - the Nikkei index in Tokyo reaches a 17-year low.
Overall, prospects are gloomy but not yet desperate. The New York Times
writes of “the darkening economic outlook” while noting that most economists
don’t anticipate a full-blown recession. [bbc.Sep.10.2001
/ nyt.Sep.11.2001]
== > [•]
The Saudis cancel high-level military talks with the US, in protest against
the Bush administration’s inaction in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Anti-American sentiment is rising in the Arab
world. [bbc.Sep.10.2001]
== > [•]
Iran denies US charges that it is seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal,
pointing out that Iran itself was a victim of weapons of mass destruction
during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. [reu.Sep.10.2001]
== > [•X] A
conference of deputy Cabinet secretaries agrees on a three-step strategy to
force the Taliban to deport bin Laden. The plan is expected to take up to
three years. [ap.Mar.23.2004]
== > [•X] Attorney General
Ashcroft rejects a proposed $58 million increase in FBI counterterrorist
funding - ignoring urgent requests for more translators, counterterrorism
agents, and intelligence researchers - and proposes a $65 million cut in
spending for state and local counterterrorism
efforts. [nyt.Jun.02.2002 /
camp.Mar.22.2004]
== > [•X]
After being ignored for weeks, California Senator Feinstein contacts Vice
President Cheney’s office to check on the status of urgent proposals for
counterterrorism reforms that she submitted on July 20 (Cheney heads the
administration’s counterterrorism efforts). An aide tells her that it
could take Cheney another six months to get around to reviewing the
material. [nwwk.May.27.2002 / feinst]
== > [•X]
The Congressional Research Service releases the report ‘Terrorism: Near
Eastern Groups and State Sponsors.’ The paper describes al-Qaeda as a
“global threat” and rates its terrorist activity level as ‘Extremely High,’
the highest of any terrorist group on the list.
[crs.Sep.10.2001]
== > [•XX] The NSA intercepts several conversations
between al-Qaeda members indicating that a terrorist attack is imminent,
including “tomorrow is zero hour” and “the match begins tomorrow.” The
messages aren’t translated until September 12. [ust.Jun.20.2002]
== > [X]
Neil Levin - executive director of the New York Port Authority, operator of
the city’s airports, port facilities, bridges, and tunnels, and landlord of
the World Trade Center - tells a reporter what he thinks of his job: “It's
just fabulous. I wake up each morning having no idea what challenges
the day will bring.” Levin works out of the North Tower of the WTC, and
next morning he is having breakfast at Windows on the World on the 107th
floor when the first plane hits. [nyt.Sep.15.2001]
== > [X]
John O’Neill enjoys an evening at Elaine’s Restaurant in New York City.
Formerly the FBI’s leading counterterrorism expert, O’Neill was recently
forced out by bureaucratic infighting, and began his new job as head of
security for the World Trade Center on August 23. At Elaine’s he
discusses the possibility of a terrorist attack: “We're due. And we're due
for something big. Some things have happened in Afghanistan (evidently
referring to the al-Qaeda assassination of Massoud the day before). I
don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan… I just -- I sense a
shift, and I think things are going to happen.” When asked when, he says, “I
don't know, but soon.” Next morning, O’Neill is in the South Tower when
it collapses. [nykr.Jan.14.2002 /
pbsf.Oct.03.2002]
== > [X]
On the afternoon of September 10, hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi wires $5,400 in
unused funds back to the United Arab Emirates from Boston. [mcder]
=In the late afternoon, Atta and fellow
hijacker al-Omari drive from Boston to Portland, Maine, for undetermined
reasons. They eat their last dinner at a Pizza Hut, buy a pair of box
cutters at Wal-Mart, and spend their last night in a Comfort Inn.
[inside / prsac.Dec.01.2001]
=The hijackers have apparently been issued a
five-page set of instructions that includes a section meant to console them
during their final night. They are advised to pray and to “be
optimistic,” and are assured that they are about to enter “the infinite
paradise.” [wap.Sep.29.2001]
=Hijacker Ziad Jarrah has concealed the extent
of his extremist beliefs from his family and from his wife, with whom he has
only sporadic contact. On the last night of his life, Jarrah writes her a
farewell letter: “You should be very proud, because it is an honor and in the
end you will see that everyone will be happy.” [mcder
/ bbc.Nov.19.2001]
Ziad Jarrah
|
