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 Condoleezza Rice Briefing On Pre-9/11 Intelligence May 16, 2002 1618EDT RICE: Good afternoon. I'm going to give you a chronology of the events that occurred during the spring and summer of 2001, but I want to start with a little definitional work. When we talk about threats, they come in many varieties. Very often we have uncorroborated information. Sometimes we have corroborated but very general information. But I can tell you that it is almost never the case that we have information that is specific as to time, place or method of attack. In the period starting in December 2000, the intelligence community started reporting increase in traffic concerning terrorist activities. In the April-May time frame, there was specific threat reporting about Al Qaeda attacks against U.S. targets or interests that might be in the works. Now, there was a clear concern that something was up, that something was coming, but it was principally focused overseas. The areas of most concern were the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. In the June time frame, arrests for the millennium plot--there was testimony by the participants in the millennium plot that Abu Zubaydah had said that there might be interest in attacking the United States. And this comes out of testimony that was there as a result of the millennium plot. And then on June 26, there was a threat spike, and as a result, again focusing overseas, the State Department issued a worldwide caution. Again, that was June 26, and you probably remember that caution. Now, the FAA was also concerned of threats to U.S. citizens, such as airline hijackings, and therefore issued an information circular that--and an information circular goes out to private carriers from law enforcement--saying that we have a concern. The areas of most concern were the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. In the June time frame, arrests for the millennium plot--there was testimony by the participants in the millennium plot that Abu Zubaydah had said that there might be interest in attacking the United States. And this comes out of testimony that was there as a result of the millennium plot. That was a June 22 information circular. At the end of June, there was a status of threat and action meeting that the--what we call the counterterrorism security group. It is a group that is interagency, that meets under the direction of an NSC special assistant, Dick Clarke at that time. There was a meeting that and Dick Clarke reported to me that steps were being taken by the CSG. On July 2, as a result of some of that work, the FBI released a message saying that, there are threats to be worried about overseas, but we cannot--while we cannot foresee attacks domestically, we cannot rule them out. This is an inlet (ph). And again, an inlet (ph) goes out to law enforcement from the FBI. On July 2, the FAA issued another IC saying that, Ressam--again associated with the millennium plot--said that there was an intention of using explosives in an airport terminal. This was a very specific IC. On July 5, the threat reporting had become sufficiently robust, though, not, again, very specific, but sufficiently robust. There was a lot of chatter in the system. That in his morning meeting, the president asked me to go back and to see what was being done about all of the chatter that was there. Andy Card and I met that afternoon with Dick Clarke, and Dick Clarke informed us that he had already had a meeting of the CSG Core Group, and that he was holding another meeting that afternoon that would be focused on threats and that would bring the domestic agencies into the CSG. On July 6, the CSG core players met again, because there was concern about--very high concern--about potential attacks in past Turkey, Rome, and they acted to go so far as to suspend nonessential travel of U.S. counterterrorism staff. So this is a period in which, again, of potential attacks overseas were heightened enough that there was almost daily meeting now, sometimes twice a day, of either the CSG or it's subgroups. Contingency planning was done on how to deal with multiple simultaneous attacks around the world. The period in mid-July was a point of another major threat spike. And it all related to the G-8 summit that was coming up. And in fact, there was specific threat information about the president. There was a lot of work done with liaison on services abroad. In fact, the CIA went on what I think you would call a full-court press to try and deal with these potential attacks and, indeed, managed, through these intelligence activities and liaison activities, to disrupt attacks in Paris, Turkey, and Rome. On July 18, the FAA issued another IC saying that there were ongoing terrorist threats overseas, and that, although there were no specific threats |
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