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| 1996 PDB Details al-Qaida 9/11-style plot |
| 2004-04-19 |
| EFL The 9/11 Commission is not doing its job. The commissioners are ignoring a document that shows that President Clinton was alerted in 1996 to the possibility of a 9/11-style attack; instead they focus on the Aug. 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief (PDB). Having harassed the Bush administration into declassifying the Aug. 6 PDB, the Commission must now demand that a PDB from the Clinton administration also be declassified. Unlike the Aug. 6 document, which gave no information about hijacking jets to crash into U.S. targets, the 1996 PDB gave specifics about al-Qaida plans to carry out exactly that kind of attack. Sometime in the summer of 1996 President Clinton was given a PDB that described in chilling detail an al-Qaida plot known as Operation Bojinka (Arabic for "Loud Bang"). It involved using hijacked jet planes to crash into the Pentagon, the White House, the World Trade Center and other buildings in the U.S. Sometime in the summer of 1996, the Operation Bojinka information was communicated to President Clinton in a PDB, according to now retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson, who was a military aide to Clinton from May 1996 to May 1998, one of five officers entrusted with carrying the satchel containing the codes for launching nuclear weapons. On page 139 of Patterson’s book "Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised National Security," published in March 2003, he wrote: "During the summer of the 1996 attacks, I myself learned firsthand that the administration knew that terrorists were plotting to use commercial airliners as weapons. "One late-summer Saturday morning, the president asked me to pick up a few days’ worth of PDBs that had accumulated in the Oval Office. He gave them to me with handwritten notes stuffed inside the folders and asked that I deliver them back to the NSC. "I opened the PDB to rearrange the notes and noticed the heading "Operation Bojinka." I keyed on a reference to a plot to use commercial airliners as weapons and another plot to put bombs on U.S. airliners. Because I was a pilot, this naturally grabbed my attention. I can state for a fact that this information was circulated within the U.S. intelligence community, and that in late 1996 the president was aware of it." This book was published a full YEAR before the Condi Rice testimony. It makes mention of PDBs on terrorism. Once again, if it ain’t benefitting the LLLs, it ain’t newsworthy. Richard Clarke contradicts himself every three seconds, but HIS claims are important and worthy of investigation while Patterson’s claims are not. Surreal. |
| Posted by:Unmutual |
| #10 1995 - Operation Bojinka |
| Posted by: Lux 2004-04-19 3:52:34 PM |
| #9 I remember them finding plans to do a 9/11 style attack back in the late 90s. Agents in the Philipines found the plans. The planes were to hit the West Coast of the US, but by then they would be low on fuel. I guess Al Queda reconsidered the plans. Still, the plans were there so its hard to credit claims that nobody thought of it. Heck, Tom Clancy thought of it in DEBT of HONOR. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-04-19 3:45:39 PM |
| #8 In the words of Hugh Hewitt in his morning blog post, summing up for Ms. Gorelick: It's not a wall; I didn't build it; And besides, you built it first. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-04-19 2:33:43 PM |
| #7 Yeah, Frank G, THAT'S the name! THANK YOU! He he he |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-19 12:47:10 PM |
| #6 Gore-Lick? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-19 12:45:11 PM |
| #5 Who was implementing her "wall" memo in 1996. Geez-I can't remember - There was this flunkey to Janet Reno - She's on some kinda panel now... Who am I thinking of . Darn. Janey. . . Jamie something-or-other. . . . |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-19 12:24:49 PM |
| #4 This just makes me sad. To think a President would ignore this to such a degree. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-04-19 12:15:41 PM |
| #3 Whenever he wanted to spend private time diddling an intern, he told Hillary "I'm going into a counter-terrorism meeting and can't be disturbed". THAT'S why she thinks he was obsessed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-19 12:14:15 PM |
| #2 Clinton should have no problem remembering this; according to Senator Shrew, he was "obsessed" with stopping terrorism. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-04-19 10:24:27 AM |
| #1 Clinton obviously misread that PDB; he read it as 'Operation Boink', then started his relationship with Monica... |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-04-19 10:18:44 AM |