9/11 advance-knowledge debate

Following the September 11 attacks, many people were asking whether there was any way in which the attacks could have been prevented. Ever since that day there has been lively debate about whether anybody had foreknowledge of the attacks and should have taken action to try and prevent them. The 9/11 advance-knowledge debate is usually associated with 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Some of the issues under debate include whether the Bush Administration or military knew about the threat of planes being used as missiles; how much the intelligence agencies knew about al Qaeda activities inside the United States; whether the put options placed on United Airlines and American Airlines and other trades indicate foreknowledge, and why the identities of the traders have never been made public.

Also under question is whether the warnings received from foreign countries were specific enough to have warranted action; whether intelligence information gathered about imminent al Qaeda attacks was specific enough to have warranted action; the extent to which the alleged hijackers were under surveillance prior to the attacks; and whether agents of the Mossad or the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence were aware that the attacks were going to take place.

World Trade Center security lapses

Many different theories within the 9/11 Truth Movement allege of strange or unusual security lapses in the days and weeks prior to 9/11, a potential sign of foreknowledge and planning consistent with preparations for a controlled demolition. These include the allegation that President George W. Bush's own brother, Marvin Bush, was in charge of security for the World Trade Center complex and that his contract expired on the morning of September 11, 2001. Others include the removal of bomb-sniffing dogs as well as a "power down" lasting the full weekend prior to 9/11. As is common when fact-checking these claims, one finds that each posses varying degrees of truth and hyperbole. Some of the more prevalent:

*George W. Bush's brother, Marvin Bush, was in charge of security at the World Trade Center complex, and that his contract expired on the morning of 9/11. [ [http://www.infowars.com/martial_law_911.htm MARTIAL LAW-9/11: THE RISE OF THE POLICE STATE ] at www.infowars.com] In 1996, the Port Authority awarded a $28 million contract to E-J Electric Installation Co., the country's oldest independent electrical contractor, and an $8.3 million contract to Securacom, a company in which Marvin Bush was on the Board of Directors, to perform electronic security services. [http://september11.ceenews.com/ar/electric_towering_security_2/index.htm Towering security ] at september11.ceenews.com] [http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20050215bushes_3.cfm Welcome to Washington Spectator Online ] at www.washingtonspectator.com] These included running 2 million feet of fiber-optic cable, installing hundreds of security cameras, and ensuring systems integration. Securacom's contract ended in 1998, and Marvin Bush left Securacom in June 2000, over a year before 9/11 and before his older brother became President of the United States. [ [http://www.physics911.ca/Burns:_Security,_Secrecy,_and_a_Bush_Brother Burns: Security, Secrecy, and a Bush Brother - Physics911 ] at www.physics911.ca ] On 9/11, the Port Authority was and had always been in charge of security for the World Trade Center complex since its construction. In an interview with Securacom's current CEO (at the time), Barry McDaniel, he states that the company had a contract with the Port Authority for "designing a system" and that the work was "not quite completed" and continued "up to the day the buildings fell down", suggesting that the work ended on the morning of 9/11 because the towers were destroyed, not because any contract was set to expire. [ [http://www.populist.com/03.02.burns.html 03.02.burns ] at www.populist.com]

*"September 6, 2001. ... Bomb-sniffing dogs are pulled from the World Trade Center and security guards end two weeks of 12-hour shifts." [loosechange911.com] This apparently followed a "heightened security alert" put in place due to "numerous phone threats" that was later lifted and extra security was taken away. [ [http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-nyaler122362178sep12,0,1255660.story Heightened Security Alert Had Just Been Lifted -- Newsday.com ] at www.newsday.com] On the morning of 9/11, World Trade Center security was instead at its normal level, with two bomb-sniffing dogs on site.

*Power Down... In April 2004, an email was sent to 9/11 Truth Movement author John Kaminski by someone named Scott Forbes, alleging to have worked at the World Trade Center and having participated in preparations for a "power down" which lasted approximately 36 hours on the weekend prior to 9/11 and affected the South Tower from the 50th floor up. The email goes on to read, "Of course without power there were no security cameras, no security locks on doors and many, many 'engineers' coming in and out of the tower." [http://911review.com/errors/wtc/forbes.html 9-11 Review: UNLIKELY: 'The South Tower Was Powered Down Before the Attack' ] at 911review.com] The email did not provide any documentation that Scott Forbes had indeed ever worked at the World Trade Center, nor documentation of a power down, nor any additional personal testimonies of any of the 50,000 employees at the World Trade Center. It still does not explain the apparent access to the lower 50 floors of the South Tower, nor to any of the North Tower, nor to any of Building 7, which are also alleged to have been brought down by controlled demolitions. More recently, the "power down" claim has been challenged within the 9/11 Truth Movement itself.

Using planes as missiles

Immediately following the attacks, President George W. Bush stated that "nobody in our government at least, and I don't the think the prior government, could envisage flying air planes into buildings" and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice claimed no-one "could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile". An Air Force generalWho|date=July 2008 called the attack "something we had never seen before, something we had never even thought of." [http://web.archive.org/web/20021208092449/http://www.publicedcenter.org/faaterrorist.htm The Public Education Center ] ] Soon after the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller announced "there were no warning signs that I'm aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country."

Some mainstream media reports have conflicted with these statements, claiming that the FBI and CIA knew of the threat of planes being used as missiles as early as 1995, following the foiling of the Bojinka Plot. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that:

The FBI had advance indications of plans to hijack U.S. airliners and use them as weapons, but neither acted on them nor distributed the intelligence to local police agencies. From the moment of the September 11th attacks, high-ranking federal officials insisted that the terrorists’ method of operation surprised them. Many stick to that story. Actually, elements of the hijacking plan were known to the FBI as early as 1995 and, if coupled with current information, might have uncovered the plot.”

The book "The Terror Timeline" includes numerous articles that are often cited to suggest that the method of flying planes into buildings was known by U.S. officials: [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&complete_911_timeline_key_events=complete_911_timeline_key_warnings Complete 911 Timeline: Key Warnings ] ]

*In 1994, there were three examples of failed attempts to deliberately crash planes into buildings, including one where a lone pilot crashed a small plane into the lawn of the White House. [ [http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq36.html#_Toc9410686 Did Bush Know? :: Warning Signs of 9-11 and Intelligence Failures :: (by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed) - Media Monitors Network ] ]
*The Bojinka Plot was a foiled large-scale al Qaeda terrorist attack to blow up eleven airliners and their passengers as they flew from Asia to America, due to take place in January 1995.
*The 2000 edition of the FAA’s annual report on Criminal Acts Against Aviation said that although Osama bin Laden ‘is not known to have attacked civil aviation, he has both the motivation and the wherewithal to do so,’ adding, ‘Bin Laden’s anti-Western and anti-American attitudes make him and his followers a significant threat to civil aviation, particularly to U.S. civil aviation.’”
*In April 2001, NORAD ran a war game in which the Pentagon was to become incapacitated; a NORAD planner proposed the simulated crash of a hijacked foreign commercial airliner into the Pentagon but the Joints Chiefs of Staff rejected that scenario as "too unrealistic" [ [http://www.geocities.com/libertystrikesback/lead-up.html] Charles Aldinger, "Pentagon crash scenario rejected before Sept. 2001", Reuters, 14 April 2004]
*In July 2001 at the G8 summit in Genoa, anti-aircraft missile batteries were installed following a report that terrorists would try to crash a plane to kill George Bush and other world leaders. [LA Times]
*On the morning of September 11, 2001, the National Reconnaissance Office, who are responsible for operating U.S. reconnaissance satellites, had scheduled an exercise simulating the crashing of an aircraft into their building, four miles (6 km) from Washington Dulles International Airport.

A 2004 "USA Today" article, "NORAD had drills of jets as weapons", describes pre-9/11 NORAD drills that suggest they were prepared for such an attack as happened on 9/11:

"In the two years before the September 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties. One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center. In another exercise, jets performed a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of a jet supposedly laden with chemical poisons headed toward a target in the United States. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon — but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic." [ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm USATODAY.com - NORAD had drills of jets as weapons] ]

That NORAD was aware of the threat of terrorists hijacking commercial airliners within the United States, and using them as guided missiles, was flatly denied by the 9/11 Commission, which asserted several times in their report that "The threat of terrorists hijacking commercial airliners within the United States -- and using them as guided missiles -- was not recognized by NORAD before 9/11."

The Joint Inquiry of 2002 confirmed that the Intelligence Community had received at least twelve reports over a seven-year period suggesting that terrorists might use planes as weapons. After briefly discussing each of them, it says that "The CIA disseminated several of these reports to the FBI and to agencies responsible for preventive actions. They included the FAA... Despite these reports, the Intelligence Community did not produce any assessments of the likelihood that terrorists would use planes as weapons, and U.S. policymakers apparently remained unaware of this kind of potential threat." [ [http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/911rpt/ part 2, pages 209,212] ] Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger testified to the Joint Inquiry:

"We heard of the idea of planes as weapons, but I don't recall being presented with any specific threat information about an attack of this nature, or highlighting this threat, or indicating it was more likely than any other" [ [http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/911rpt/ part 2, page 212] ]

Insider trading

"The Times" reported on September 18 that investigations were under way into the unusually large numbers of shares in insurance companies and airlines sold off before the attack, in the UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France and the US. [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/sept11/londontimes_insidertrading.html Stocks Inquiry: Millions of shares sold before disaster] by James Doran, The Times, September 18, 2001] News accounts in the weeks that followed reported a notable pattern of trading in the options of United and American Airlines [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/19/BU142745.DTL SEC wants data-sharing system: Network of brokerages would help trace trades by terrorists] October 19, 2001] as well as Morgan Stanley and [ [http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/24/gen.europe.shortselling/ Probes into 'suspicious' trading] September 24, 2001] other market activity. [ [http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/23/woil23.xml Bin Laden rigged oil and gold prices - bank chief] 2001-09-23] An article published in "The Journal of Business" in 2006 provides statistical evidence of unusual put option market activity days before 9/11:

Examination of the option trading leading up to September 11 reveals that there was an unusually high level of put buying. This finding is consistent with informed investors having traded options in advance of the attacks. [url=http://www.business.uiuc.edu/poteshma/research/poteshman2006.pdf]

In a statement to the 9/11 Commission in 2003, Mindy Kleinberg, of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, said:

Never before on the Chicago Exchange were such large amounts of United and American Airlines options traded. These investors netted a profit of at least $5 million after the September 11th attacks. Interestingly, the names of the investors remain undisclosed and the $5 million remains unclaimed in the Chicago Exchange account. [ [http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States] March 31, 2003]

Regarding these trades, the 9/11 Commission found no malfeasance:

A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95% of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10... much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, that recommended these trades. [page 51 of the [http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Notes.pdf Commission Report] , PDF]

9/11 Truth Movement members Jim Hoffman, Michael Ruppert and David Ray Griffin are among those who criticise the 9/11 Commission for using a circular argument in concluding that the trades were innocuous primarily because there were no ties to Al-Qaeda. [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/stockputs.html Insider Trading: Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge] 2007-01-17] [ [http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_profits_pt1.html Profits of Death - Insider Trading and 9-11] 2001-12-06] [cite web|author=David Ray Griffin|title= The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-page Lie|url=http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050523112738404] Ruppert also claims that the intelligence agencies constantly monitor the stock exchange and should have "connected the dots" to realise that an event was about to take place involving American Airlines, United Airlines, and the World Trade Center.

The papers of two finance researchers also suggest some profited from foreknowledge of 9/11. Allen Poteshman, a professor of finance at the University of Illinois, published a paper demonstrating insider trading in options on United and American airline stocks. He concluded that, “There is evidence of unusual option market activity in the days leading up to September 11.” [ [http://www.business.uiuc.edu/poteshma/WorkingPapers/UnusualOptionActivityAndTerroristAttacks10March2004.pdf Narrative Proposal ] ] [http://www.business.uiuc.edu/poteshma/research/poteshman2006.pdf] . Similarly, Marc Chesney and Loriano Mancini, professors at the University of Zurich, reached the same conclusion in their research. [ [http://www.911blogger.com/node/11728 September 11, 2001: Unusual volumes on Put Options just before the attack. Swiss study | 911blogger.com ] at www.911blogger.com]

Intelligence warnings

The 9/11 Commission Report states that "the 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamic extremists had given plenty of warnings that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers." [9/11 Commission Report Executive Summary, p2] The Report continued:

"During the spring and summer of 2001, U.S. intelligence agencies received a stream of warnings about an attack al Qaeda planned, as one report puts it "something very, very, very big." Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet told us "the system was blinking red."" [9/11 Commission Report Executive Summary, p6]

The US administration, CIA and FBI received multiple prior warnings from foreign governments and intelligence services, including France, Germany, the UK, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco and Russia. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,53065,00.html FOXNews.com - Clues Alerted White House to Potential Attacks - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum ] ] The warnings varied in their level of detail, but all stated that they believed an Al Qaeda attack inside the United States was imminent. British Member of Parliament Michael Meacher cites these warnings, suggesting that some of them must have been deliberately ignored. [cite web| last = Meacher| first = Michael| authorlink = Michael Meacher| year = 2003| url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/comment/0,12956,1036687,00.html| title = This war on terrorism is bogus| work = The Guardian Unlimited - Comment| publisher = Guardian Newspapers Limited | accessdate = 2006-06-11] Some of these warnings include the following:

*March 2001 - Italian intelligence warns of an al Qaeda plot in the United States involving a massive strike involving aircraft, based on their wiretap of al Qaeda cell in Milan.
*July 2001 - Jordanian intelligence told US officials that al-Qaeda was planning an attack on American soil, and Egyptian intelligence warned the CIA that 20 al Qaeda jihadists were in the United States, and that four of them were receiving flight training.
*August 2001 - The Israeli Mossad gives the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US and say that they appear to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future.
*August 2001 - The UK is warned three times of an imminent al Qaeda attack in the United States, the third specifying multiple airplane hijackings. According to the Sunday Herald, the report is passed on to President Bush a short time later.
*September 2001 - Egyptian intelligence warns American officials that al Qaeda is in the advanced stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, probably within the US.

A classified military intelligence program known as "Able Danger" was created in October 1999 specifically targeting al Qaeda. According to statements by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and those of four others, Able Danger had identified the September 11, 2001 attack leader Mohamed Atta, and three of the 9/11 plot's other 19 hijackers, as possible members of an al Qaeda cell linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. [cite web| last = The Associated Press| year = 2005| url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9163145/| title = More remember Atta ID’d as terrorist pre-9/11| work = MSNBC News - US Security| publisher = MSNBC.com| accessdate = 2006-06-11] In December 2006, an investigation by the US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that those assertions were unfounded. It rejected as untrue "one of the most disturbing claims about the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes." Reacting to the Pentagon report, Curt Weldon (R-PA) said "The report trashes the reputations of military officers who had the courage to step forward and... describe important work they were doing to track al-Qaida prior to 9/11".

In her testimony to the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice stated that "the threat reporting that we received in the spring and summer of 2001 was not specific as to time nor place nor manner of attack. Almost all the reports focussed on al Qaeda activities outside the United States." However, on August 6 2001, President Bush's Presidential Daily Briefing, which was entitled "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States" warns that Bin Laden was planning to exploit his operatives' access to the U.S. to mount a terrorist strike:

FBI information... indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country, consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attack.

Rice responded, when being asked about the PDB at the Commission hearings, that "it wasn't something that we felt we needed to "do" anything about".

On August 15, 2005, Army intelligence officer Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pa), charged before the Senate Judiciary Committee that a Special Operations Command data mining program run by a secret US intelligence unit had identified alleged 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and three other al-Qaeda operatives operating in the United States prior to 911.

"There is only one politically serious explanation of this now-indisputable fact: powerful forces within the US military/intelligence complex wanted a terrorist incident on US soil in order to create the needed shift in public opinion required to embark on a long-planned campaign of military intervention in Central Asia and the Middle East. Whether or not they knew the scale of the impending attacks and what the precise targets would be, they acted in such a way as to block the arrest of known terrorist operatives and allow them to carry out their plot."
--Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

The 911 commission rejected the claim after citing a lack of supporting evidence. [ [http://www.onlinejournal.org/Special_Reports/082405Chin/08-24-05_Chin.pdf More pre-9/11 US intelligence connections to al-Qaeda exposed and spun] Online Journal.Com August 24, 2005 pdf] [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/19/MNGH5EA5121.DTL&hw=claim+about+9%2F11&sn=004&sc=719 Claim about 9/11 takes new twist] San Francisco Chronical August 19, 2005]

Blocked al-Qaeda investigations

Numerous whistleblowers and officials have surfaced, claiming that there was a deliberate effort, from high-ranking officials, to prevent investigations into Al Qaeda.

In 2002, FBI agent Coleen Rowley wrote to FBI director Robert Mueller describing her experience working with Minneapolis FBI agents tracking suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui prior to the attacks.. [ [http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html Time Magazine article] ] She describes how FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C. had mishandled and failed to take action on information provided by the Minneapolis Field Office, and had failed to issue a warrant to search Moussaui's computer despite having probable cause. [ [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/FBI_eMails_concerning_Moussaoui FBI eMails concerning Moussaoui] ] Rowley goes on to describe her superior, Agent Marion "Spike" Bowman, as having “consistently, almost deliberately thwarted the Minneapolis FBI agents' efforts” to obtain the search warrant. Senator Chuck Grassley later wrote that “If the application for the FISA warrant had gone forward, agents would have found information in Moussaoui's belongings that linked him ... to a major financier of the hijacking plot". Rowley was credited as a whistleblower and jointly awarded the "TIME Magazine" "Person of the Year" for 2002. Her testimony to the 9/11 Commission was omitted from their final report.

FBI agent and Al-Qaeda expert John P. O'Neill warned of an Al-Qaeda threat to the United States in 2000. He retired from his position in mid 2001, citing repeated blocking of his investigations of Al Qaeda by FBI officials. After his retirement from the FBI, the World Trade Center hired him as its chief of security. He started work on September 11 2001; 9/11 rescue workers found his body in a staircase inside the south tower rubble. [cite web| last = Kirk| first = Michael| coauthors = Jim Gilmore | year = 2002| url = http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html| title = The Man Who Knew| work = Transcript of Frontline program #2103| publisher = WGBH Educational Foundation| accessdate = 2006-06-11]

Shortly after the attacks, David Schippers, the chief prosecutor for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, stated that the government had been warned in 1995 about a future attack on a government building and that later he was contacted by three FBI agents who mentioned uncovering a possible terrorist attack planned for lower Manhattan. [cite web | title=Interview with David Schippers| work=Alex Jones Infowars.com | url=http://infowars.com/transcript_schippers.html| accessdate=2006-05-02] [cite web| last = Crogan| first = Jim| year = 2002| url = http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/37/news-crogan.php| title = Another FBI Agent Blows the Whistle| work = LA Weekly News| publisher = LA Weekly, LP| accessdate = 2006-06-11] According to Mr. Schippers, as the agents informed their superiors, they were briefed not to pursue the issue and were threatened with prosecution. Mr. Schippers declared, "Five weeks before the September 11 tragedy, I did my best to get a hold of Attorney General John Ashcroft with my concerns." According to Mr. Schippers, Ashcroft responded that the Justice Department does not start investigations at the top. Author William Norman Grigg agrees with Mr. Schippers in his article "Did We Know What Was Coming?" According to the article, three unnamed veteran federal law enforcement agents confirmed "the information provided to Schippers was widely known within the Bureau before September 11." [cite web| last = Grigg| first = William Norman| year = 2002| url = http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2002/03-11-2002/vo18no05_didweknow.htm| title = Did We Know What Was Coming?| work = The New American magazine| publisher = American Opinion Publishing Incorporated| accessdate = 2006-06-11]

According to Senator Bob Graham, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from June 2001 through the buildup to the Iraq war, "Two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship," as reported by the Miami Herald. And in Graham's book, "Intelligence Matters", he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees." [cite web| url=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9584265.htm| title=Graham book: Inquiry into 9/11, Saudi ties blocked| publisher=Miami Herald.com|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20040907022815/http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9584265.htm|archivedate=2004-09-07]

There have also been allegations that the hijackers preparations may have been given assistance by U.S. intelligence. According to CBS news, "two of the Sept. 11 hijackers who lived in San Diego in 2000 rented a room from a man who reportedly worked as an undercover FBI informant....the FBI informant prayed with them and even helped one open a bank account. [ [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/09/attack/main521223.shtml CBS News | Hijackers Lived With FBI Informant | September 9, 2002 10:44:35 ] ] Doubts have been raised about the speed with which the hijackers were identified, leading to suggestions that the FBI already had the names of the hijackers in advance. In his book "Against All Enemies", Richard Clarke said that at 9:59 am on September 11, which is the time when WTC2 collapsed and 8 minutes before NORAD even knew Flight 93 had been hijacked, the FBI already had a list of the 19 alleged hijackers. [ [http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SCO20061220&articleId=4207 JFK and 9/11 ] ] A former high-level intelligence official said that "Whatever trail was left was left deliberately--for the F.B.I. to chase." [ [The New Yorker - What Went Wrongby Seymour Hersh - 10/1/01 [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/10/08/011008fa_FACT] ]

Foreign government foreknowledge

It has been suggested that some foreign governments and intelligence agencies may have had some foreknowledge of the attacks. In particular, the possible foreknowledge of the Israeli Mossad, and possible financial ties to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, have raised doubts about the 9/11 Commission Report conclusion that no one outside the terrorist organisation al Qaeda was involved or had foreknowledge of the attacks. There are also questions about how much was known by other governments and intelligence agencies in countries such as France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt, which all warned the United States of an imminent attack.

Iran

Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator, stated that the FBI received information in April 2001, from a reliable Iranian intelligence asset, that Osama Bin Laden was planning attacks on 4-5 cities with planes, and that some of the plotters were already in the country and the attacks would happen in a few months. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20040602210202/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=507514 April 2, 2004 'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes' The Independent ] ] [ [http://www.justacitizen.com/articles_documents/FBI%20&%20911.htm FBI & 9/11 - by Sibel Edmonds ] ]

Israel

It has been claimed that Israeli espionage agents, and particularly the Mossad, may have had foreknowledge of the attacks. [http://www.christopherketcham.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/Final%20PDF%20of%20CounterPunch%20article%20re%20Israelis%2001-29-07.pdf] Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies] [ [http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/9-11conspiracytheories.pdf #2172 conspiracy theories2(DH) ] ]

In September, 2001, The New York Times and Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz'" reported that four hours after the attack, the FBI arrested five Israelis who had been filming the smoking skyline from the roof of a white van in the parking lot of an apartment building, for "puzzling behavior". They were charged with illegally residing in the United States and working there without permits. The Israelis were said to have been videotaping the disaster with cries of "joy and mockery". [cite news
author=JAMES RISEN AND DON VAN NATTA JR.
title=AFTER THE ATTACKS: THE INVESTIGATION; Authorities Have Learned the Identities Of 18 Hijackers, Attorney General Says
date=2001-09-14
work=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2DD1E38F937A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
accessdate=2008-08-05] [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=75266&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Haaretz.com] – 5 Israelis detained for `puzzling behavior' after WTC tragedy] Police found the van and a search revealed $4,700 in cash hidden, along with foreign passports and a boxcutter which aroused suspicions and led to the detention of the occupants. The men were held in detention for more than 2 months, during which time they were subjected to interrogation and lie detector tests, before being deported back to Israel; one of the men (Paul Kurzberg) refused to take the test for 10 weeks, and then failed it. [Sanders, Doug. "U.S. arrests of Israelis a mystery." "The Globe and Mail", Dec. 17., 2001.] There has been speculation as to whether the men had advance knowledge of the attacks.

The five men worked at the company Urban Moving Systems, owned and operated by Dominick Suter. After the men were arrested the FBI searched their offices and questioned Suter, however Suter fled to Israel before he could be questioned further. Eventually, Suter's name appeared on the May 2002 FBI Suspect List, along with the Sept. 11 hijackers and other suspected Muslim extremists. [Times Herald, 08/29/2005]

According to a former CIA chief of operations for counterterrorism Vince Cannistraro, there was speculation that Urban Moving Systems may have been a front for an intelligence operation investigating fund-raising networks channeling money to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. [wayback|http://web.archive.org/web/20020802194310/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html |The White Van:Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies? June 21, 2002] On June 21, 2002, ABC reported that the FBI had concluded that the van's driver, Paul Kurzberg, and his brother Sivan, were indeed Mossad operatives. [ [http://positiontoknow.com/S-11/html/Americans%20Probing%20Reports%20of%20Israeli%20Espionage.htm FORWARD : News ] ] According to an FBI spokesman, the men explained that they were celebrating because "...the United States would now have to commit itself to fighting [Middle East] terrorism, that Americans would have an understanding and empathy for Israel’s circumstances, and that the attacks were ultimately a good thing for Israel."Fact|date=April 2008

In March, 2001, the US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive had issued a warning about people identifying themselves as "Israeli art students" attempting to bypass security and gain entry to federal buildings, and even to the private residences of senior federal officials.cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070124104741/http://www.ncix.gov/archives/nacic/news/2001/mar01.html|title=Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive: Suspicious Visitors to Federal Facilities (archived at Internet Archive}] cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/07/wspy07.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/03/07/ixworld.html|title=Telegraph.co.uk: US arrests 200 young Israelis in spying investigation] cite web|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/05/07/students/index_np.html|title=Salon.com: The Israeli "art student" mystery] cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20060423065411/http://ww1.sundayherald.com/37707|title=Sunday Herald (UK) via Internet Archive: Were they part of a massive spy ring which shadowed the 9/11 hijackers and knew that al-Qaeda planned a devastating terrorist attack on the USA?] It has been suggested that operatives in this "art student spy ring" were tracking the 9/11 hijackers and knew that the attacks were going to take place, although a Drug Enforcement Agency memo leaked in December 2001, warning military bases to be on the alert for “possible intelligence collection being conducted by Israeli art students”, was primarily concerned with the students' efforts to foil investigations into unrelated Israeli organized crime. [An Enigma: Vast Israeli Spy Network Dismantled in the US. Le Monde (Paris) March 5 2002]

The Associated Press reported that "Israeli intelligence services were aware several months before Sept. 11 that bin Laden was planning a large-scale terror attack" and that this information was passed on to Washington. According to Fox News, In August 2001, Israel warned the US that an al-Qaeda attack is imminent. Reportedly, two high-ranking agents from the Mossad come to Washington and warned the FBI and CIA that up to 200 terrorists have slipped into the US and are planning "a major assault on the United States... [on a] large scale target."

France

On December 5, 2007 French authorities filed preliminary charges against Guillaume Dasquié, a reporter for the daily "Le Monde", for publishing state secrets related to the 9/11 hijackings. Dasquié's April 16 article in Le Monde, titled "September 11: the French had long known" claimed the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), had warned the U.S. of a possible terrorist plot that involved al-Qaeda hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings some eight months before 9/11. The article contained excerpts from a 328-page classified DGSE report on al-Qaeda activities which included maps, analyses, graphics, and satellite photos. [ [http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/europe/france10dec07na.html French journalist investigated over intelligence leaks] Committee to Protect Journalists December 10 2007]

Afghanistan

Moderate elements of the Taliban are reported to have given the USA advance warning of the attacks.cite news
author=Kate Clark
publisher=BBC
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2242594.stm
date= September 7, 2002
title=Taleban 'warned US of huge attack'
accessdate=2007-01-16
quote=An aide to the former Taleban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, has revealed that he was sent to warn American diplomats and the United Nations that Osama bin Laden was due to launch a huge attack on American soil. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fworld%2Fsouth_asia%2F2242594.stm&date=2008-05-29 mirror] ] The "BBC" reports that
Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban's Foreign Minister, sent the USA an advance warning of the attack, after being tipped off himself by Tohir Yo‘ldosh the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.Like al Qaeda the Taliban allowed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to place training camps in Afghanistan. Tohir Yo‘ldosh was reported to have been concerned that if al Qaeda wasn't stopped prior to launching the attacks, the USA would retaliate against all of Afghanistan, which would have a negative effect on his movement's efforts.

Warnings given to individuals

There have been claims that some individuals received warnings in advance of the attacks. [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/warnings.html 9-11 Research: Attack Warnings ] ] [ [http://www.snopes.com/Rumors/israel.asp snopes.com: 9/11 Forewarned Jews ] ] Shortly after the attacks, "Newsweek" reported that "Three weeks ago there was another warning that a terrorist strike might be imminent - On September 10, Newsweek has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly cancelled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/sept11/newsweek_wereatwar.html Pentagon Generals Cancel Travel Plans One Day Before 9/11/01 ] ]

Additionally, there have been claims that the following individuals were given warnings:
*It's often alleged that San Francisco Mayor, Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. canceled his flight plans for September 11, after a receiving a warning late on September 10 from what he described as his airport security. [cite web| coauthors = Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross| year = 2001| url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/12/MN229389.DTL| title = Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel| work = Matier and Ross| publisher = San Francisco Chronicle | accessdate = 2006-06-11] In fact it was Brown who first called his security staff at the airport, to check on his flight for the following morning, and they then warned him that he should be cautious about flying. Brown says, "they always alert me when I ought to be careful", and he decided to fly anyway. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/12/MN229389.DTL Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel ] at www.sfgate.com] In September 2006, Willie Brown responded to these escalating conspiracy rumors by calling them an "ongoing myth." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/BAGG9L4KI81.DTL Angelides aides damned if they do or don't ] at www.sfgate.com]
*Author Salman Rushdie believes that US authorities knew of an imminent terrorist strike. On September 3, the Federal Aviation Administration made an emergency ruling to prevent Mr Rushdie from taking internal flights in Canada and the US. The FAA confirmed that it had stepped up security measures concerning Mr Rushdie but refused to give a reason. [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/sept11/londontimes_rushdieairban.htm Rushdie's air ban ] ]
*Odigo Messenger, a company based in Israel, reported that two of its employees received instant messages two hours before the attack, warning them that "something big" was going to happen soon. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=77744&contrassID=/has%5C Odigo says workers were warned of attack] Haaretz September 26 2001] [Interview with Odigo's vice president, Alex Diamandis in "The Washington Post" on October 4, 2001: page 24] Odigo Vice President of Sales and Marketing Alex Diamandis later said that the message did not identify the United States or the World Trade Center as to be involved in the event, and that "it could easily be coincidence." [http://amenusa.org/prior.htm] [ [http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/8471_893851 InternetNews Realtime IT News - Odigo: Instant Messages Warned Of Terrorist Attacks ] at www.atnewyork.com]

Prominent individuals or groups who avoided the WTC that day

*Anne Tatlock, CEO of Fiduciary Trust Company International, and various other business leaders based in the World Trade Center, who were alleged to be at a meeting hosted by Warren Buffett at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, though this claim is now doubted. [ [http://911myths.com/index.php/Anne_Tatlock Anne Tatlock Issue Debunked on 911Myths.com] ]
*Jim Pierce, cousin of President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to attend a conference on the 105th floor of the South Tower, which at the last moment was relocated to a building across the street.Fact|date=May 2008
*Silverstein Properties who, according to the "New York Times", had planned to meet on September 11 on the 88th floor of one of the towers to "discuss what to do in the event of a terrorist attack," but canceled the meeting late on September 10 "because one participant could not attend." [ [http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/warnings.html#ref10 9-11 Research: Attack Warnings ] ]
*Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, was supposed to fly on American Airlines Flight 77, but was told the wrong time by his travel agent and was hungover from the night before. [http://www.mania.com/10-questions-family-guys-seth-mcfarlane-part-two_article_39625.html]

Other related events

On September 6, 2001, a freshman of New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn said to his English teacher, Antoinette DiLorenzo, that the two World Trade Center towers "won't be standing there next week." After DiLorenzo reported the incident on September 13, the youth and his older brother were questioned by the FBI and local police. According to police, the youth admitted to making the comment but he and his brother said he had been kidding. [ [http://www.newsweek.com/id/75425/page/1 Between The Lines Online: A Chilling Tale | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com ] ]

References

External links