Month: January 2021

21 January 1998

Posted on by Featherproof Books

The Monica Lewinsky affair becomes public when several news media organizations report on a sexual relationship between Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton. The Washington Post reports the existence of taped recordings of the two. The president tells PBS’s Jim Lehr that “there is no improper relationship.”

January 21 is the beginning of a sleazy tale of late-night phone calls, clandestine meetings in the Oval Office, recorded phone calls, a blue dress, a cigar, and a story that would become known as “Monica-gate.” The year-long public scandal and impeachment of Clinton is said to have never diverted his attention from national security matters.

20 January 2001

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President George W. Bush takes the oath of office. The “compassionate conservative” vows to lead “through civility, courage, compassion and character.”

The former Texas governor had been briefed by the outgoing Clinton administration about the threat from al Qaeda, and while most of the principals in the new administration thought the fixation on terrorism “odd” (Against all Enemies, p. 226), in truth, the new team had an ABC policy: “Anything But Clinton.”

During the campaign, Condoleezza Rice argued in an article in Foreign Affairs that a new foreign policy was required that “separates the important from the trivial.” She took the Clinton administration to task for having “assiduously avoided implementing such an agenda.” Terrorism, she contended, only needed attending to insofar as it was used by rogue states to advance their interests.

Richard Clarke and his counter-terrorism staff was kept on, National Security Advisor Rice admitting that the Bush team was more focused on Cold War issues. Clarke was demoted and would eventually be seen as a pest, constantly promoting warnings and crisis. By the time summer rolled in, most in the administration had grown tired of the chicken littles constantly warning of upcoming terrorist attacks.

19 January 2001

Posted on by Featherproof Books

 

UAE national Marwan al-Shehhi, the pilot of the plane that would attack the South Tower of the World Trade Center, arrives back in Florida, having thwarted secondary inspection and lied his way into the United States.

The previous day, he flew on a Royal Moroccan Air flight from Casablanca, Morocco to JFK. He then flew on Delta Airlines to Tampa, Florida.

The purpose of al-Shehhi’s trip to Morocco is never fully explained. He enters the U.S. two days before the inauguration of George W. Bush (one might think a period of extra vigilance), but largely because of his nationality, he is never closely scrutinized.

The veteran immigration inspector later tells the 9/11 Commission that she was suspicious that al-Shehhi might be an intending immigrant, noting from the stamps in his passport that he had left the United States just a week earlier after a six-month stay. She typed into the computer record: “Sub[ject] left one week ago after entry in May. Has extension and now returning for a few more months.” She referred al-Shehhi to a secondary immigration inspection for closer examination.

The secondary inspector told the Commission that Shehhi wore conventional Western clothing, had glasses and facial hair, and “did not look like he had just come from boot camp.” The secondary inspector said that he had completed the required arrival and customs forms, adding that he spoke English well during the course of the 10-minute interview. “I had the impression Shehhi had money,” the inspector said. “I remember looking at his passport, and it showed he had been in and out of the United States and there were other travel stamps. I remember asking how much money he had—he had a substantial amount, three credit cards and more than $2,000.” Shehhi also mentioned applying for an extension of stay in the United States to remain until September 8, 2001. To the inspector, “that seemed reasonable.”

The inspector asked Shehhi the purpose of his trip to the United States, trying to determine if he intended to remain permanently, as the primary inspector suspected. Shehhi told the inspector that he was coming back to the United States for continued flight training, that he had previously attended Huffman Aviation School, and that he was finished with flight school but wanted to log more hours in the sky. The inspector thought Shehhi was seeking private flying lessons, but did not ask Shehhi for supporting documentation. The admission could have ultimately led to al-Shehhi being denied entry under either a tourist or business visa if it was determined, in fact, that he was still a student, but no further action was taken.

18 January 1993

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Piece of a Tomahawk missle that was launched by the U.S. against Iraq

 

Just days before Bill Clinton takes office as president, 46 Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missiles are used to attack supposed WMD-related buildings around Baghdad after Iraq refuses to cooperate with U.N. inspectors.

One missile reportedly veers off course and hits the Al-Rasheed Hotel, the main hotel used by diplomats and VIP visitors to the country, killing two, according to Iraqi officials. A mosaic depicting President George H.W. Bush is installed at the entrance the lobby, forcing visitors to walk over his face to enter the hotel.

It’s funny that George Bush the son would later come into office with a bad taste in his mouth about the promiscuous use of cruise missiles by Clinton, that such attacks were just “swatting at flies” and “pounding sand,” even though his father was the originator of a tactic that now—with drones and hyper-accurate weapons and perpetual war placing U.S. aircraft globally—seems so obsolete.

By the way, I visited the “Museum of the Aggression” in Baghdad just weeks later, where parts of the Tomahawk missiles used in the attack were on display. The most intriguing was the “brain” of the missile seeker, with Texas Instruments circuitry visible. I “obtained” the piece and later showed it during a talk I gave at the Naval War College. Naval Investigative Service agents then arrived at my office in Washington demanding that I give the part back. I declined to turn it over and told them that they should be glad that I had it and not the Russians. It all seems so long ago.

17 January 1996

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The Egyptian national Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (the “Blind Sheikh”), a resident of Brooklyn, is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center and the Landmarks Case—or the so-called “days of terror” attacks, the spring 1993 conspiracy to attack multiple buildings and tunnels in New York City.

Together with nine other defendants who do not enter in plea agreements with the government, Abdel-Rahman is sentence to life in prison for “sedition.” It is the end of active plotting in the New York area, most of it only ever tentatively connected to al Qaeda, but the beginning of the era of “homegrown violent extremists.”

16 January 1999

Posted on by Featherproof Books

 

Osama bin Laden is indicted—the most complete federal indictment to date, including 11 other suspected members of al Qaeda. The twelve are charged with conspiring to murder American citizens. Al Qaeda’s objectives, according to the indictment, include: killing members of the American military stationed in Saudi Arabia (1995 and 1996) and Somalia (1991 and 1992); killing United States embassy employees in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (August 1998); and “concealing the activities of the co-conspirators by, among other things, establishing front companies, providing false identity and travel documents, engaging in coded correspondence, and providing false information to the authorities in various countries.”

The indictment also says: “USAMA BIN LADEN, the defendant, and al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with representatives of the government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hizballah …”

And that “… al Qaeda (and the affiliated Egyptian Islamic Jihad) sent some of its members to Lebanon to receive training from members of the terrorist group Hizballah.”

15 January 2000

Posted on by Featherproof Books

 

The first two hijackers associated with 9/11, Saudi nationals Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, arrive in the United States, 18 months before the attacks. The two arrive in Los Angeles on United Airline Flight 2 from Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite CIA admission (see January 13) that al-Mihdhar, a “known” al Qaeda operative, is on the loose, neither is ever put on any watchlist—that is, until days before the attacks in August 2001. But the real problem here is how the two could live in the United States for so long, even while the CIA and FBI exchange hundreds of emails and reports about them. (And then al-Mihdhar will actually leave the United States and return on another flight on July 4, 2001, a far more troublesome lapse for the counterterrorism watchers.

Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar told immigration authorities at LAX that they would be staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles. The FBI later found that their names never appeared in the hotel’s records. Then the FBI searched the records of other hotels near the airport, as well as smaller establishments in Culver City, failing to find any trail of the two as they reconstructed the road to 9/11.

They are, in fact, picked up by an intelligence officer of Saudi Arabia and taken to San Diego, residing in the officer’s apartment from January 15 to February 2, 2000. But then that’s another story.

14 January 1996

Posted on by William Arkin

 

The special Osama bin Laden virtual station inside the CIA Counterterrorism Center (CTC) gets underway. The “virtual” station is similar to the virtual Iran station (located in Frankfurt, Germany) that was created because of an inability to have an actual physical station in Tehran.

But because the bin Laden “station” is not about a country, and it is in the backwater of the then secondary and unimportant counterterrorism portfolio, few pay much attention. If anything, it even has an opposite effect. Rather than creating a bin Laden czar who focuses the Agency’s attention, it is seen as a hotbed of obsessed extremists focused on a questionable threat. That legacy would persist even through CIA director Tenet’s December 1998 declaration of war against al Qaeda and up until 9/11—the station an epicenter of analysis (and obsession), but the actual action regarding countering bin Laden taking place in the physical Pakistan and Uzbekistan stations (and in Yemen and other country stations) where covert action is being undertaken.

13 January 2000

Posted on by William Arkin

 

A CIA operational cable, “Efforts to Locate al-Mihdhar,” is issued, admitting that “known” terrorist Khalid al-Mihdhar (spotted in the United Arab Emirates and in Malaysia, and then lost thereafter) is on the loose.

The CIA’s understanding of al-Mihdhar, and their evident lack of concern that the Saudi national possesses an American visa, is one of the great mysteries of 9/11.

The Agency sleuths state in their cable that Mihdhar flew to Bangkok, Thailand with at least two other al Qaeda operatives. The cable also speculated that Mihdhar met with an Iraqi Fedayeen Colonel in Malaysia, later found to be a case of false intelligence and mistaken identity. But the Iraqi connection would dog and confuse U.S. intelligence for another four years.

The CIA also speculated that Mihdhar was in Malaysia to discuss some kind of maritime attack plan (now known to be false), though “Khallad” (who was shepherding around Mihdhar and his partner Nawaf al-Hazmi) was later involved in the attack on the USS Cole.

12 January 1999

Posted on by William Arkin
AC-130 plane

 

After the December 1998 decision was made not to use Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missiles in a strike in Afghanistan to target Osama bin Laden in Kandahar (fear of civilian collateral damage being the most important factor in rejecting the missiles), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry (“Hugh”) Shelton directs the development of a new plan that would use an AC-130 gunship to assassinate bin Laden and be used in other retaliatory strikes. (911 Commission, p. 134)

The aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, would in theory be able to use its cannons to inflict a more precise and intense attack. The precision of AC-130 gunships would later become a major factor in collateral-damage incidents during the Afghanistan war (and later in Iraq), as the aircraft proved not to be quite as precise as advertised. But more important, the special operations asset’s attacks and record get buried in official secrecy, the plane never being scrutinized alongside fighter aircraft and bombers.