MAY 1998: Clinton appoints “counter-terrorism czar” Richard Clarke. After bin Laden’s fatwa, Clinton appoints Richard Clarke to head a cross-agency Counter-terrorism Security Group, and gives him a seat at the Cabinet-level Principals Committee. [
9/11 Commission Report]
JUNE 8, 1998: Grand Jury indicts Bin Laden. He’s charged with “conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States.” [
PBS]
AUGUST 12, 1998: Two simultaneous explosions at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. [
PBS]
AUGUST 20, 1998: Clinton orders missile attack in Sudan, narrowly misses Bin Laden. “The most dramatic attempt to kill bin Laden occurred in August 1998, when Clinton ordered a Tomahawk cruise missile attack on bin Laden’s suspected training camps in Afghanistan in response to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Clinton approved the cruise missile attack recommended by his advisers, and on Aug. 20, 1998, 66 cruise missiles rained down on the training camps. An additional 13 missiles were fired at a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that the Clinton administration believed was a chemical weapons factory associated with bin Laden.” [
Washington Post]
SEPTEMBER 1998: CIA beings secret effort with Pakistani intelligence to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The CIA trained and equipped 60 comandos from the Pakistani intelligence agency. [
Washington Post]
NOVEMBER 1998: Clinton authorizes covert action against Bin Laden and al Qaeda. In addition to a secret “finding” to authorize covert action, Clinton signed three highly classified Memoranda of Notification expanding the available tools. Clinton authorized killing instead of capturing bin Laden, then added several of al Qaeda’s senior lieutenants, and finally approved the shooting down of private civilian aircraft on which they flew. The Clinton administration ordered the Navy to maintain two Los-Angeles class attack submarines on permanent station in the nearest available waters, enabling the U.S. military to place Tomahawk cruise missiles on any target in Afghanistan within about six hours of receiving the order. [
Washington Post]
OCTOBER 12, 1999: Joint effort with Pakistani government to capture Bin Laden aborted with the overthrow of then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. [
Washington Post]
JANUARY 2000: Mihdhar and Hazmi both traveled to Los Angeles and then moved to San Diego, where they associated with a subject of an FBI investigation and also lived with a long-time FBI asset. Intelligence information developed by the CIA had already revealed that Mihdhar was a suspected al Qaeda operative. [
Justice.gov]
MARCH 5, 2000: CIA Bangkok Station reported to CIA that terrorist Mihdhar and Hazmi had arrived in Los Angeles. The CIA monitored a meeting of top Al Qaeda operatives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and then followed Khalid Al Mihdhar and Nawaf Al HazmiKhalid into the USA where they became lead hijackers of Flight 77. George Tenet, Cofer Black, Richard Blee & 48 other CIA officers all knew that the 9/11 hijacking al Qaeda terrorists were in the USA & where they were staying. [
Justice.gov]
OCTOBER 12, 2000: U.S.S. Cole bombed.
NOVEMBER 2000: Sandy Berger tells his successor Condoleezza Rice “she’d be spending more time on terrorism and al Qaeda than any other issue.” [
CNN]
LATE DECEMBER 2000: FBI & CIA source linked Hazmi and Mihdhar to the mastermind of the USS Cole attack. [
Justice.gov]
JANUARY 25, 2001: Clarke memo to Bush Admin "Policy Initiative The Al-Qaeda Network" Attached was Clinton's comprehensive strategy to destroy Al Qaeda. Clarke wrote "Al Qaeda is not some narrow, little terrorist issue that needs to be included in broader regional policy." Al Qaeda is a large powerful network that comprehensive multi-regional policy must focus on & plan around. Key decisions must be made now concerning covert aid to keep the Northern Alliance alive when fighting began again in Afghanistan in the spring, and covert aid to the Uzbeks. Decisions should be made soon on messages to the Taliban and Pakistan over the al Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan, on possible new money for CIA operations, and on "when and how to respond to the attack on the USS Cole." Al Qaeda affects our policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Africa, Central Asia, Morocco, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Islam, Muslim World. The strength of the Al Qaeda Network destabilizes & limits the support from friendly Arab regimes. We would make a major error if we underestimate the challenge Al Qaeda poses. [
Clarke Memo 1/25/2001]
JANUARY 2001: Condoleezza Rice demotes terrorism czar Richard Clarke out of Cabinet access. [
9/11 Commission Report]
JANUARY 2001: During Bush’s first week in office, Richard Clarke requests cabinet level meeting on al Qaeda and Bin Laden. His request was denied. He did not get it - or permission to brief the president directly on the threat - for nearly eight months. [
Washington Post]
JANUARY 29, 2001: 9 days after Bush was inaugurated Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil reports that “going after Saddam Huissein was Topic A.” [
CBS News]
FEBRUARY 2001: CIA and FBI finally certify that al Qaeda was responsible for Cole Bombings. [
Bill Clinton, Fox News]
MARCH 2001: “Federal Aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations"...“Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if ‘the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable.’ "
The FAA had indeed considered the possibility that terrorists would hijack a plane and use it as a weapon. The FAA distributed a CD-ROM presentation to airlines and airports that "cited the possibility of a suicide hijacking" Aviation officials amassed so much information about the growing threat posed by terrorists that they conducted classified briefings for security officials at 19 of the nation's busiest airports to warn of the threat posed in particular by Mr. bin Laden, the report said." [
NYT]
APRIL 2001: Bush administration finally has deputy-level cabinet meeting on al Qeada. Clarke writes, the meeting “did not go well.” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, scowled and asked,
“why we are beginning by talking about this one man, bin Laden.” When Clarke told him no foe but al Qaeda “poses an immediate and serious threat to the United States,” Wolfowitz said that "Iraqi terrorism posed at least as much of a danger." FBI and CIA representatives backed Clarke in saying they had no such evidence. [
Washington Post]
MAY 1, 2001: The CIA Tenet & Black report to the White House stated “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. They asked for CIA authority to attack Al Qaeda & Bin Laden but Bush would not grant it. [
NYT,
CBS 60 Minutes & Tenet's Book]
JUNE 22, 2001: The presidents daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible. Neoconservative leaders at Pentagon were warning the White House that
the C.I.A. had been fooled; Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, who is a greater threat. Intelligence officials protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day. [
NYT]
MAY 29, 2001: Four Bin Laden followers found guilty of murder at trial. Four followers of Osama bin Laden are found guilty of charges stemming from the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, and Wadih El Hage are convicted of charges including murder, conspiracy and perjury after a nine-week federal trial during which prosecutors called over 90 witnesses, including al Qaeda informants and survivors of the bombings. Owhali and Mohamed face the death penalty at their sentencing, while Odeh and El Hage face life in prison. [
PBS]
JUNE 29, 2001: Bush receives Presidential Daiy Brief entitled “The U.S. is not the target of a disinformation campaign by Usama Bin Laden” the document recited much of the evidence, including an interview that month with a Middle Eastern journalist in which Bin Laden aides warned of a coming attack, as well as competitive pressures that the terrorist leader was feeling, given the number of Islamists being recruited for the separatist Russian region of Chechnya. [
NYT]
JUNE 2001: Bush give speech to NATO allies on top five defense issues, and the “only reference to extremists was in Macedonia.” [
Washington Post]
JULY 9, 2001: The C.I.A. repeated the warnings in the briefs that followed June 29 2001. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, expected the planned near-term attacks to have “dramatic consequences,” including major casualties... Yet, the White House failed to take significant action. Officials at the Counter-terrorism Center of the C.I.A. grew apoplectic. On July 9, at a meeting of the counter-terrorism group, one official suggested that the staff put in for a transfer so that somebody else would be responsible when the attack took place, two people who were there told me in interviews. The suggestion was batted down, they said, because there would be no time to train anyone else. [
NYT]
JULY 10, 2001: Cofer Black and George Tenet met with Condoleezza Rice to inform her about communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States. They asked for CIA authority to attack Al Qaeda & Bin Laden but Bush would not grant it. Rice listened but was unconvinced, having other priorities on which to focus. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld questioned the information suggesting it was a deception meant to gauge the U.S. response. [
Washington Post,
CBS 60 Minutes & Tenet's Book]
AUGUST 6, 2001: Bush receives Presidential Daiy Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.” FBI information 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. [
National Archive]
SEPTEMBER 4, 2001: 8 months after Clarke demands Comprehensive Strategy to Fight Al-Qaeda, Bush finally holds the principals meeting to concoct an Al Qaeda strategy.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2001: Russian President Putin calls President Bush & says he is worried that Al Qaeda has just started it's international plot for a major attack.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda attacks reach the USA. Prior to this attack Bush knew Who, What, Where. When, Why & How the attack would happen. Bush thought Bin Laden was bluffing to distract him from Saddam Hussein in Iraq.