On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:34:03 GMT, Jim wrote:


The White House this weekend released a section of the classified August
6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing

Do you really need 12-15 different news sources to tell you what was in the PDB
of 6 August. Here it is, just read it. Where does it give the who, what, when,
where?

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 [deleted text]
service. An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an [deleted text]
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 [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin
Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh"
'Umar' Abd aI-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.
*****************************************

John H

On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!