ATTACKERS STUDIED MISTAKES IN PREVIOUS ASSAULTS - WASHINGTONPOST.COM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06716933
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• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: May 15, 2018
• Case Number: F-2018-00242
• Publication Date: September 13, 2001

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Attackers Studied Mistakes in Previous Assaults
By Peter Slevin and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 13, 2001; Page A24
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Plotters of the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon learned from the mistakes
of their terrorist predecessors, reducing the chances of early detection and increasing the deadly
effectiveness of their attack, intelligence experts said yesterday.
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with other cultures and languages.
Unlike earlier conspiracies foiled by an
indiscreet comment or an intercepted
conversation, the hijackers and their superiors
launched Tuesday's coordinated attack with
what appeared to be total surprise. Significant
players in the intelligence community learned
about the assault from television.
U.S. intelligence agencies find themselves
defending their abilities in the aftermath of the
deadliest terrorist assault in the country's
history. Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), vice
chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, said the incident demonstrates the
need for a broader array of recruits familiar
"If we had a warning and missed it, that is a failure of intelligence, big time," Shelby said after
being briefed by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. "If
we didn't have any inkling of this event, as well-planned and well-executed as it became, that's
a failure, too."
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), intelligence committee chairman, said it was "premature" to say
whether the failure was a result of the limitations of intelligence gathering or from people not
doing their jobs. He suspects authorities did not have sources capable of penetrating the
terrorist organization in the United States or abroad. He also said the group likely
communicated by computer, taking advantage of "shortfalls" in the ability to intercept
electronic traffic.
No group has taken responsibility for Tuesday's carnage. U.S. intelligence sources believe the
attack was carried out by terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian who
trains and finances an array of Islamic fundamentalists. Early evidence suggests the
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Attackers Studied Mistakes in Previous Assaults (washingtonpost.com) Page 2 of 3
participation of disciplined warriors operating in small cells -- likely communicating face-to-
face and leaving few written records.
"This is the hardest target there is," said Daniel Benjamin, a former National Security Council
counterterrorism specialist. "There's going to be an awful lot of witch-hunting in the weeks
ahead, but it is fair to say that the intelligence community has been knocking itself out and has
known that bin Laden is a major threat."
Bin Laden has been the most important target of U.S. counter-terrorism forces for years,
according to CIA sources. Earlier this year, U.S. authorities warned Americans living abroad
that bin Laden's network planned attacks on U.S. targets overseas.
There was a time when U.S. agencies monitored bin Laden and his associates by following the
signal of his satellite telephone. As with other Middle Eastern terrorist groups, they often
boasted about their intentions or their successes. About two years ago, word leaked about the
bin Laden intercepts, and his phone went silent.
Not all sources have been shut down, however. After the attacks on Tuesday, intelligence
officers listened to a conversation between bin Laden associates who said they had hit two
targets in the United States, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) told reporters.
Certain details of the devastating World Trade Center assault suggest that the perpetrators of
Tuesday's terror studied the flaws of 1990s conspiracies, including an attempt to destroy one of
the twin towers.
A car bomb that exploded in a World Trade Center basement, killing six people, was designed
to topple the 110-story buildings, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, mastermind of the operation, told a
Secret Service agent. Indeed, the operation was intended to include attacks on the United
Nations headquarters, the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel and the New York
building that housed the FBI.
"And he said that Americans would realize, if they suffered those type of casualties, that they
were at war," Secret Service agent Brian G. Parr testified at Yousefs 1997 trial.
The terrorists discovered that a single van full of explosives would not bring down the
skyscrapers, and they vowed to try again. Just four days after the 1993 bombing, a group
calling itself the Liberation Army Fifth Battalion warned of additional attacks against American
civilian and military targets.
"The American people must know that their civilians who got killed are not better than those
who are getting killed by the American weapons and support," the letter said.
Investigators found a second letter on a suspect's computer that warned of violence against the
World Trade Center. It read, "We promise you that the next time it will be very precise and
WTC will continue to be one [of] our targets in the U.S."
A New York jury convicted Yousef of masterminding the 1993 bombing. He also was found
guilty of a 1995 conspiracy to bomb a dozen airplanes and kill 4,000 passengers as they flew
over the Pacific Ocean. The bombing of a Philippine Airlines jet in 1994-- which killed one
person � was a reported test run.
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Attackers Studied Mistakes in Previous Assaults (washingtonpost.com) Page 3 of 3
In testimony at the Yousef trial, potential terrorists learned the twin towers could withstand
being hit by a Boeing 707, so they used two heavier planes Tuesday. The two hijacked planes
also hit between the 40th and 70th floors, sites calculated to produce the greatest damage.
The U.S. intelligence community is concerned that terrorists are plotting a fresh attack away
from Washington and New York that does not involve a hijacked airplane.
"They are not convinced it is over," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), a ranking member of the
House Intelligence Committee. A former intelligence official added: "The community believes
something suspicious is going on and there is a reason for there to be more. Americans tend to
let down their guard after a couple of days."
Graham said the CIA warned there was no "specific information to lead to who, where, when,"
but the intelligence community advised "caution for a considerable period of time."
0 2001 The Washington Post Company
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salon:: :: politics:: feature :: The weak case for military tribunals, By Jake Tapper:: Page 1 Page 1 of 3
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WEXCLUSIVE
The weak case for military
tribunals
The White House -- and Time, the New Republic
and the National Review � say dangerous
information has leaked from the courts. Like what?
By Jake Tapper
873-682505331. That was Osama bin Laden's
phone number. Or, at least, it was the number of a
satellite phone listed for Abu Abdallah, one of bin
Laden's aliases.
This information isn't difficult to obtain -- I got it from trial testimony from May 1,
2001, in United States of America vs. Usama bin Laden, et al. And that is one of the
more convincing arguments in favor of President Bush's military tribunal executive
order.
http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/12/05/tribunals/index.html
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salon:: politics :: feature :: The weak case for military tribunals, By Jake Tapper:: Page 1 Page 2 of 3
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Writing in the National Review, Judge Robert Bork cites what happened in the trial
of those responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that
killed 224 as a "conclusive argument ... that in open trials our government would
inevitably have to reveal much of our intelligence information, and about the means
by which it is gathered." Bork says the prosecution in that case had to reveal that
U.S. intelligence had intercepted bin Laden's satellite phone calls, that as a result
bin Laden stopped using the phone, and that after this revelation, intelligence
sources lost bin Laden and were therefore unaware of his fiendish plot for Sept. 11.
Also used as an argument for the secrecy of a military tribunal is a theory about
whether a specific type of jetliner was chosen to destroy the World Trade Center
towers Sept. 11. "Because defendants in criminal trials are entitled under the Sixth
Amendment to open proceedings, any information introduced in them becomes
public � which can cause problems," wrote the New Republic's Jason Zengerle. "In
the 1997 trial of Ranizi Yousef for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing, it was disclosed that the twin towers were engineered to withstand a
direct hit from a Boeing 707 plane. Is that why the Sept. 11 hijackers used planes
bigger than the 707?"
Both points make for a compelling argument. And they feed the insecure post-9/11
part of us that wants to grant the executive branch omnipotence in order to protect
us. There's just one problem with these two stories, which have emerged in the
media with increasing frequency as among the best reasons for supporting the
privacy afforded a military tribunal -- they're demonstrably false.
Want to read more? This article Is Salon
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CNN.com CIA: Tape likely contains al Qaeda deputy's voice - Aug. 4, 2003
Page 1 of 2
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CIA: Tape likely contains al Qaeda
deputy's voice
Recording threatens U.S. over Guantanamo detainees
From Pam Benson
CNN Washington Bureau
Monday, August 4, 2003 Posted: 8:32 PM EDT (2232 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) A CIA
technical analysis of an
audlotape purported to have
been recorded by al Qaeda
leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
found that the voice on the
tape is "most likely" his, a CIA
official said.
The CIA could not determine when the
recording was made.
On the tape, a man who identifies
himself as al-Zawahiri says the United
States and its allies will pay a "very
high price' if detainees being held at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are tried in
military tribunals and face the death
penalty.
'We are saying to America one thing:
What you saw with your eyes so far are
only initial skirmishes," the voice says.
"The real battle didn't start yet."
The tape was broadcast Sunday on the
Dubai-based Arabic-language network
Al Arabiya.
Al-Zawahiri is Osama bin Laden's
closest adviser, as wellas his doctor.
He has made frequent appearances at
bin Laden's side, usually In a trio
completed by the late military
committee commander Mohammed
Atef, who was killed in November 2001
during an airstrike in Afghanistan.
The tape makes no mention of bin
Laden. It tells those 'working or
cooperating" with the United States that
America is too weak to protect Itself or �
its allies.
Ayman al-Zawahiri spent three years in
prison in connection with the
assassination of Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat In 1981.
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CNN.conl - CIA: Tape likely contains al Qaecla deputy's voice - Aug. 4, 2003
Page 2 of 2
"The crusader America will pay a very
high price for any harm that will affect
any of the prisoners that they are holding," the voice says. "Those who are allies or
helping America will pay the same price. Those who are handing over our brothers
will pay the same price.
"We haven't identified who actually submitted the tape," Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge said Sunday on CNN's 'Late Edition with Wolf BlItzer." 'But
[coming] from a terrorist, threatening American Interests is not really surprising.
"We take the threat, and have taken [every] threat since September 11, seriously,"
he said.
Ridge also said al-Zawahiri and bin Laden were among the "ever-diminishing
number of al Qaeda leaders who have been able to avoid apprehension to date.
"I'm confident that, as the president said, the leaders, particularly one or two, will be
brought to justice," he said.
The last purported al- Zawahlri tape was released in May, just after the near-
simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 23 people,
including nine Americans.
Investigators believe al-Zawahiri played an important role in the terrorist attacks of
September 11. He Is on the U.S. government's list of most-wanted terrorists
because of his indictment In the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Intelligence suggests al-Zawahlri Is not far from bin Laden, somewhere along the
border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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