The CIA, FBI and the American media ignored repeated warnings over the last six years that terrorists cells linked to the 1993 Trade Center bombing were planning to use aircraft as suicide weapons against high-profile U.S. targets. Though intelligence bureaucrats universally declared that they had had no warning, much of this information was already in FBI and CIA files. At least one reporter tried to interest colleagues in the media of the story only to be ignored.
"We've been focusing on this perpetrator Osama bin Laden for 3 years, and yet we didn't see this one coming," said Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of CIA counter-terrorism operations. An Air Force general called the attack "something we had never seen before, something we had never even thought of." FBI Director Robert Mueller announced "there were no warning signs that I'm aware of."
While there may have been no specific warning of the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. government knew as far back as 1995 that terrorists convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had planned to use aircraft to dive-bomb targets in the American homeland.
In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration sent a replacement commercial pilot's license to a suspected terrorist at a post office box in the United Arab Emirates only six days after he had been arrested in the Philippines.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by independent television documentary/news producer Brad White, the FAA wrote that it had sent a "replacement" license to ABDUL HAKIM MURAD on January 12, 1995 (see FAA response to FOIA request).
However Murad was in no position to receive that pilot's license since he had been arrested six days earlier by authorities in the Philippines in connection with the FBI's investigation of Ramzi Yousef and his role in allegedly masterminding the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
Murad was considered a close confidant and right-hand man to Yousef, who was convicted of crimes relating to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which left six people dead and 1,000 injured.
Federal investigative sources have confirmed that Murad detailed an entire plot to dive bomb aircraft in the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, VA.. They say the plot was contained on a laptop computer recovered from the Manilla apartment where Murad was arrested.
Yousef independently boasted of the plot to U.S. Secret Service agent Brian Parr and FBI agent Charles Stern on an extradition flight from Pakistan to the United States in February 1995. The agents later testified to that fact in court.
Philippine investigators say the plan targeted not only the CIA but other U.S. government buildings in Washington, including the Pentagon.
Murad is not merely a "suspected" terrorist, he is a "convicted" terrorist. Together with Yousef and Wali Khan Amin Shah, he was convicted of planning a terrorist attack which, had it succeeded, would easily have been the most deadly aviation disaster in U.S. history.
Their plan was called "Bojinka" and involved a plot to place bombs on 11 airliners flying trans-pacific flights and detonate them simultaneously.
Investigators say the bombs the Bojinka conspirators planned to use were among the most sophisticated they had ever run across. Yousef and Murad would have used liquid nitro-gylcerin, which is virtually undetectable by airport security screening.
In a test run for Bojinka, Yousef boarded Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bound for Tokyo from Manilla. He carried the volatile liquid onto the airliner in a plastic contact-lens solution bottle. Once airborne, Yousef went to the restroom to complete construction on the bomb. Using a Casio watch as a timer and batteries from children's toys, he assembled the bomb, which he then placed under a passenger seat. He left the plane during a stop-over in the Philippine city of Cebu. The bomb exploded soon after the airliner left Cebu. One person was killed and several were injured, though the pilot was able to make an emergency landing.
After confirming that the FAA had issued a pilot's license to a suspected terrorist and the discovery that he was involved in a plot to dive bomb U.S. government buildings, producer White tried to interest the U.S. television networks in the story, including ABC's "20-20." He was rebuffed.
"I was continually told that this was a hypothetical story," says White. "In other words, because no terrorist had used that strategy the story was not viewed as valid. And then of course the network news magazines told me what they always tell you, if there's no good character and it's video poor then they don't want it." (See White's memo to ABC's then Senior Producer of Investigations for 20/20)
The story of how the government failed to react to the extensive terrorist planning to dive bomb American buildings is not merely a failing of the U.S. government but also of the U.S. news media. The Public Education Center's National Security News Service is now working with White in an effort to encourage the news media to fully cover what many earlier rejected as valid news.
PEC President Joseph Trento says, "Reporters should be challenging the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of this country. They need to be held accountable for their obvious lackadaisical attitude toward a threat that was verified six years ago. Enough with this "we had no idea" line. It doesn't wash. Just as government officials should be held to a certain standard so should our business. When Brad White failed to get a response at "20-20" I personally contacted the Executive Producer and his Deputy and got a similar rebuff."
http://www.publicedcenter.org/faaterrorist.htm