Cole attack probe nearly unraveled 9/11 plot

[SoCalDem]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2498399

April 11, 2004, 1:06AM

Cole attack probe nearly unraveled 9/11 plot
By DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN
New York Times
WASHINGTON --

The American investigators probing the October 2000 terrorist attack against the Navy destroyer Cole came tantalizingly close to detecting the Sept. 11 plot, FBI and CIA officials now say. But the government missed the significance of a series of clues because some investigators believed that the evidence fit narrowly into their case against the ship bombers and, others say, they did not have access to all the information.

The lost opportunity, described by the officials for the first time in interviews last week, involved two of the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who fell under suspicion by the CIA early in 2000 but were not put on a watch list of foreigners barred from entering the United States until August 2001, after they were already here.

A reconstruction of events shows the FBI and the CIA failed to recognize the significance of the two men and to act in concert to intercept them, because of internal miscommunications and legal restrictions on the sharing of CIA intelligence information with criminal investigators at the FBI. Problems developed even though FBI agents and CIA officers were assigned to each other's operational and analytical units. The reconstruction also shows that the importance of the two men, who have figured centrally in examinations of the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, was misunderstood before the attacks because investigators thought the two were associated with the Cole bombing, and they were not connected to a plot to strike targets within the United States before Sept. 11, 2001.

snip.......

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links from google regarding Bush's handling of the investigation

Web Results 1 - 10 of about 49,300 for Cole investigation + Bush with Safesearch on. (0.25 seconds)

Unknown News - www.UnknownNews.net - The news you need, whether ...
... the Clinton administration's efforts to conduct an investigation of a ... chief suspect
is the son of a Bush family business ... at least in part, for the Cole disaster ...
www.unknownnews.net/cdd052402.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

FBI Stonewalls USS Cole Investigation
... FBI Stonewalls USS Cole Investigation. ... Almost a month after the bombing of the USS
Cole in Yemen ... named Ed Wilson dating back to the Reagan/Bush administration in ...
www.twf.org/News/Y2000/1109-Stalling.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

CNN Transcript - Sunday: USS Cole Investigation Under Way; Injured ...
... Sunday. USS Cole Investigation Under Way; Injured Sailors Reunite With Their
Families. Aired October 15, 2000 - 4:07 pm ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. ...
www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/15/sun.02.html - 37k - Cached - Similar pages

CNN Transcript - WorldView: USS Cole Investigation: List of Yemeni ...
... WorldView. USS Cole Investigation: List of Yemeni Detainees Continues to
Grow. Aired October 22, 2000 - 7:10 pm ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. ...
www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/22/wv.03.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from www.cnn.com >

DoD Press Briefing on USS Cole Investigation -- 01/09/01
... quite positive in terms of what President-elect Bush will have ... upon our return from
visiting the USS Cole at Aden ... We conducted a review, not an investigation. ...
www.fas.org/irp/news/2001/01/cole.html - 86k - Cached - Similar pages

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: February 29, 2004 ...
... office noted that KTOK's reference to Cole's Hitler comparison ... poll out from Pew:
Kerry 48%, Bush 44% among ... staff memos could lead to an investigation of the ...
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/ week_2004_02_29.html - 101k - Cached - Similar pages

Newsday.com - Fugitive Caught in USS Cole Investigation
Fugitive Caught in USS Cole Investigation ... United States has blamed the USS Cole attack
on ... Yemeni government, which supports the Bush administration's campaign ...
www.intellnet.org/news/2003/09/25/20022-1.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages

John McCaslin: Straight, Bush high
... Besides Bush, the new photo-filled deck honors top military brass and servicemen
and ... FBI Agent John O'Neill, who took the early lead in the Cole investigation. ...
www.townhall.com/columnists/johnmccaslin/ jm20030521.shtml - 62k - Cached - Similar pages

Other News -- January 24, 2001
... of accountability in his review of the JAGMAN investigation. ... USS Cole is presently
undergoing repairs at Ingalls ... Bush calls on citizens to build nation of ...
www.navy.mil/homepages/cvn68/news/other.htm - 45k - Cached - Similar pages

HoustonChronicle.com - Heading investigation:USS Cole investigator ...
... from AP America mourns - AP Bush's statement and text ... who helped investigate the USS
Cole terrorist bombing to lead an independent investigation of the ...
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ space/sts107/crew/1761751 - 36k - Cached - Similar pages

[Florida_Geek]

1. Sad part is John O'Neill made that

connection. But he did not fit Louis Freech idea of what an FBI agent should be doing.

[Widgetsfriend]

2. John O'Neill made the connection...

But he was TAKEN OFF the USS Cole case by the State Department at the behest of our ambassador to Yemen. Like the sudden decision to not grant any more FISA warrants at just the moment that Moussaoui's hard drive needed to be looked at (a FISA warrant had never been denied to that point!!). FBI agent Colleen Rowley said that agents were joking that the higher ups at the FBI seemed to be working for the terrorists. Now Sibel Edmonds says that explicit translations of terrorist's communications were made and that there were terrorist moles in the FBI translation department and that once she reported those activities, SHE was fired...not the moles. How can anyone not imagine that someone was allowing the terrorists to do their dirty work?

I think the maladministration is going to try to allow the meme that they ignored the warnings when in fact, they did things that explicitly allowed the terrorist attacks to happen. Why?

[dbt]

3. Why? Try this:

If they allow the meme that they ignored warnings, they look merely incompetent and thus could avoid (stretching a good bit here) criminal prosecution.

Allowing the meme would serve to direct attention away from the possibility that they Let It Happen On Purpose.

:freak:
dbt

[BeFree]

4. Old news

John O'Neill had it all figured out and that's why he is now dead. It's why he was retired from the FBI. Someone knew his investigation would lead to the comng 9/11 Plan and they got him, first, off the case, and secondly....dead.

Like I say...it's old news. But I wonder... is the 9/11 Commission delving into O'Neill's investigation and retirement? If they don't cover it this time, the next Commission should.

[JoFerret]

5. The man who knew

died.