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Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Tracing those Phone Calls in 1998 - did you know this?

Found this extremely interesting little passage while reading the official 9/11 Commission Report that ties into the current hysteria over President Bush's order for surveillance of SUSPECTED TERRORISTS by the NSA...

1998:
“US counterterrorism officials also worried about possible domestic attacks. Several intelligence reports, some of dubious sourcing, mentioned Washington as a possible target. On October 26, Clarke’s CSG took the unusual step of holding a meeting dedicated to trying to ‘evaluate the threat of a terrorist attack on the United States by the Osama bin Laden network’. The CSG members were ‘urged to be as creative as possible in their thinking’ about preventing a Bin Laden attack on US territory. Participants noted that while the FBI had been given additional resources for such efforts, both it and the CIA were having problems exploiting leads by tracing US telephone numbers and translating documents obtained in cell disruptions abroad. The Justice Department reported that the current guidelines from the Attorney General gave sufficient legal authority for domestic investigation and surveillance.” page 127-128.

Have yet to see this brought up in the arguments about the "spying". So the FBI and the CIA were tracing US telephone numbers and translating documents from conversations in 1998. Where was the outrage and the call for an investigation into the "abuse of executive powers" by President Clinton? Oh Yeah... it's okay if the President is a Democrat but not for a Republican President.

What is also VERY interesting is the date - 1998 and that intelligence officials were worried about "the threat of a terrorist attack on the US by Osama bin Laden". Remind me - who was President in 1998?

A little tease for tomorrow...Did you know that in November 1998 the US Attorney's office unsealed indictments for a certain terrorist leader that has masterminded the killing of over 3000 innocent Americans????? Guess which country was listed as a "cooperating" country??

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