Thanks to an FOIA request by George Washington University we now have evidence that the president received a Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) informing him that Bin Laden was interested in acquiring some commercial airplanes. By force.
But in 1998. The president was Clinton:
The cable is the latest of several signs made public that U.S. officials had concerns, long before the 2001 hijacked airplane attacks on New York and Washington, that al Qaeda might be targeting aircraft.
Others include a highly classified President's Daily Brief report to former President Bill Clinton dated December 4, 1998, which was titled "Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks."
I thought the 9/11 Commission represented the last word on Islamic terror leading to the 2001 event. How did they miss this? I'm shocked. I'll be interested to hear Richard Clarke weigh in.
In all seriousness, this shouldn't be a surprise. Ramzi Yousef was already in jail in 1998 after being charged in the "Operation Bojinka" plot to destroy commercial aircraft.
Although the mainstream media and port side punditry will likely give Clinton a pass here, that's OK as long as the same benefit is extended to the Bush administration. Clinton probably never imagined they'd crash planes into American buildings, either. My opinion of 20/20 hindsight has always been that it's usually 20/20.
But as stated above, it does seem to knock another chink out of the 9/11 Commission report. A quick search turned up no mention of this PDB or Saudi Arabia warning in section five where it discusses the genesis of the "planes operation". Makes you wonder how many other items were missed.
And once again we have a terrorism story from 1998.
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