| Rice's statement about pre-9/11 intelligence | 6 August 2001 PDB |
| ... they don't tell us when. | CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Lladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives. Bin Ladin['s] ... attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance. |
| They don't tell us where. | Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, ... FBI information since [1998] indicates patterns of suspicious activity ... including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America." |
| They don't tell us who. | CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives. |
| And they don't tell us how. | ... FBI information since [1998] indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings. We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that ... [which says] Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd aI-Rahman and other US-held extremists. |
