Powell: Early Action (from 1/20/2001 to 9/11) Might Not Have Stopped 9/11

Sept 11 panel: http://www.9-11commission.gov

Commission statements are available at:

http://wid.ap.org/documents/documents/911commission6.pdf

http://wid.ap.org/documents/documents/911commission5.pdf

Tuesday, July 8, 2003: First Interim Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/report_2003-07-08.pdf

Wednesday, September 23, 2003: Second Interim Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Press Briefing http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/report_2003-09-23.pdf



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&ncid=716&e=11&u=/nm/20040323/pl_nm/security_commission_dc

Powell: Early Action (from 1/20/2001 to 9/11) Might Not Have Stopped 9/11 By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even if the United States had gone after al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks it might not have prevented them from taking place, Secretary of State Colin Powell told investigators on Tuesday.

In a defense of the administration's conduct before the attacks that killed 3,000 people, Powell also said top officials mistakenly believed the main danger from the militant network was against targets abroad. <snip>

"Anything we might have done against al Qaeda in this period or against Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) may or may not have had any influence on these people who were already in this country, already had their instructions, were already burrowed in and were getting ready to commit the crimes that we saw on 9/11," Powell said.

Separately, a commission report said the Clinton administration had four opportunities in the late 1990s to try to kill bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader, but held back -- for fear of killing innocent civilians or out of lack of confidence in the intelligence. <snip>

Albright said she and other members of the administration would have been prepared to kill bin Laden from the time of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa until the day Clinton left office. <snip>


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAZEUWC6SD.html
Preliminary Findings of Sept. 11 Commission The Associated Press Published: Mar 23, 2004

<snip>-From the spring of 1997 to September 2001 the U.S. government tried to persuade the Taliban to expel Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to a country where he could face justice and that would not be a sanctuary for his organization. The efforts employed inducements, warnings and sanctions. All these efforts failed.

-The U.S. government also pressed two successive Pakistani governments to demand that the Taliban cease providing a sanctuary for bin Laden and his organization and, failing that, to cut off their support for the Taliban. Before Sept. 11 the United States could not find a mix of incentives or pressure that would persuade Pakistan to reconsider its fundamental relationship with the Taliban.

-From 1999 through early 2001, the United States pressed the United Arab Emirates, one of the Taliban's only travel and financial outlets to the outside world, to break off ties and enforce sanctions, especially related to air travel to Afghanistan. These efforts achieved little before Sept. 11.

-The government of Saudi Arabia worked closely with top U.S. officials in major initiatives to solve the bin Laden problem with diplomacy. On the other hand, before Sept. 11 the Saudi and U.S. governments did not achieve full sharing of important intelligence information or develop an adequate joint effort to track and disrupt the finances of the al-Qaida organization. <snip>

-Both civilian and military officials of the Defense Department said that neither Congress nor the American public would have supported large-scale military operations in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20040323/ap_on_re_us/sept_11_commission

9/11 Panel Blames Intelligence Failures By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Lacking the intelligence information they needed to strike directly at Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), Clinton and Bush administration officials fruitlessly sought a diplomatic solution to get the al-Qaida leader out of Afghanistan (news - web sites), a federal panel said Tuesday.

Not until the day before the Sept. 11 attacks did U.S. officials settle on a strategy to overthrow the Taliban Afghan government if a final diplomatic push failed. That strategy was expected to take three years, the independent commission investigating the attacks said in one of two preliminary reports.

U.S. officials feared that a failed attempt on bin Laden could kill innocents and would only boost bin Laden's prestige. And the American public and Congress would have opposed any large-scale military operations before the September 2001 attacks, the report said. <snip>

_ U.S. officials were concerned that Taliban supporters in Pakistan's military would warn bin Laden of pending operations. The U.S. government had information that the former head of Pakistani intelligence, Hamid Gul, as a private citizen, had contacted Taliban leaders in July 1999 and assured them that he would provide three or four hours of warning before any U.S. missile launch as he had the "last time'" — an apparent reference to a failed 1998 cruise missile attack on bin Laden. <snip>

_ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the commission that "he did not recall any particular counterterrorism issue that engaged his attention before" the Sept. 11 attacks, other than using unmanned aircraft against bin Laden.

"From the spring of 1997 to September 2001, the U.S. government tried to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden to a country where he could face justice," the report said. "The efforts employed inducements, warnings and sanctions. All these efforts failed." <snip>

The report described Saudi Arabia as "a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism," citing lax oversight of charitable donations that may have funded terrorists. <snip>

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1080041663014&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

9/11 commission chides Clinton's diplomacy
Decision not to pursue terrorists militarily cost later, panel says
HOPE YEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Clinton administration turned to the Saudis for help. Clinton designated CIA Director George Tenet as his representative to work with the Saudis, who agreed to make an "all-out secret effort" to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden.

Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal, using "a mixture of possible bribes and threats," received a commitment from Taliban leader Mullah Omar that bin Laden would be handed over.

But Omar reneged on the agreement during a September 1998 meeting with Turki and Pakistan's intelligence chief.

"When Turki angrily confronted him Omar lost his temper and denounced the Saudi government. The Saudis and Pakistanis walked out," the report said.<snip>

The commission's report Tuesday said Clarke pushed for immediate and secret military aid to the Taliban's foe, the Northern Alliance. But Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, proposed a broader review of the Al Qaeda response that would take more time. The proposal wasn't approved for Bush's review until just weeks before Sept. 11.<snip>

Powell says Early Action might not stop-AP says bad Clinton (Tenet)
diplomacy. But all agree military invasion of Afghanistan was not possible because not supported by public pre 9/11