IP: Last month Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 12:38:38 -0700
> From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com>
>
>
>         For IP:
> http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/16/wci 
> a16.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/09/16/ixhome.html
>
> Israeli security issued urgent warning
> to CIA of large-scale terror attacks
> By David Wastell in Washington and Philip
> Jacobson in Jerusalem
> (Filed: 16/09/2001)
>
> ISRAELI intelligence officials say that they warned
> their counterparts in the United States last month
> that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible
> targets on the American mainland were imminent.
>
> The attacks on the World Trade Centre's twin
> towers and the Pentagon were humiliating blows to
> the intelligence services, which failed to foresee
> them, and to the defence forces of the most
> powerful nation in the world, which failed to deflect
> them.
>
> The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts
> with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service,
> were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA
> and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200
> terrorists said to be preparing a big operation.
>
> "They had no specific information about what was
> being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin
> Laden and told the Americans that there were
> strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement,"
> said a senior Israeli security official.
>
> The CIA has said that it had no hard information that
> would have led to the prevention of the hijacking,
> but the FBI said it believed that cells operating
> within America and totalling at least 50 terrorists
> were behind last week's devastating hijacks; the
> names of new suspects are being added to the list
> daily.
>
> America's intelligence agencies are being widely
> blamed for their failure to predict the attacks, or
> anything like them, and for not discovering any of
> the terrorist cells before the hijackings on Tuesday.
> Some of those who took part had lived in the US for
> months, or even years.
>
> Evidence that a clear Israeli warning was delivered
> to American authorities, but ignored, would be a
> further blow to the reputation of the CIA, which is
> under fire for its failure last week.
>
> An administration official in Washington said: "If this
> is true then the refusal to take it seriously will mean
> heads will roll. It is quite credible that the CIA might
> not heed a Mossad warning: it has a history of being
> overcautious about Israeli information."
>
>         [snip]



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