Re: The PDB

Earlier this week Laurie Mylroie circulated the following via her Iraq Newsletter email service:

Ed Epstein and another reader made a key observation to Iraq News regarding the Presidential Daily Briefing, released Saturday by the White House. The Aug 6, 2001, PDB implies that the CIA and FBI did not believe, even as late as August 2001, that al Qaida was behind the 1993 Trade Center bombing or any other terrorist plot inside the US prior to 1997.
It states: “[R]eports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. 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.’ . . .
“The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US.”
This is contrary to the assertions of Richard Clarke and others that al Qaida was behind the February 26, 1993, Trade Center bombing and the plot to bomb several New York landmarks later that spring. The latter was, in reality, an FBI undercover operation, with the “bomb” maker (the mix the conspirators concocted would not have exploded) an FBI informant. But that still leaves the important question: Who was behind the first attack on the Trade Center?

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses