New York Times. 3 October 2001. Powell Says U.S. Had Signs, but Not Clear Ones, of a Plot. Excerpts.
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the Bush administration had received a "lot of signs" that terrorists were planning attacks against the United States but extensive efforts by intelligence agencies failed to pick up enough information to stop the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Early this summer "there were a lot of signs that there was something going on," Secretary Powell said. "But we never got the fidelity and the information that we would have liked to, some warning of what did actually happen." In looking back today in an interview in his State Department suite, Secretary Powell expressed frustration that, despite a summer of warnings of possible terrorist actions against American civilian and military sites around the world, the information was not sufficient to identify the specific targets that were struck last month. "The intelligence agencies were trying," he said. "We were watchful throughout all of our embassy systems." Mr. Powell praised George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, a holdover from the Clinton administration. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is urging far-reaching changes in intelligence operations and an independent investigation into why the government did not foresee or prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. While he was generally upbeat in his accounting of the progress so far in the global campaign against terror, he made it clear that the administration was still at the early stages of winning full cooperation from allied and other nations. Secretary Powell insisted that the administration is demonstrating to allies and moderate Arab governments that the case against Osama bin Laden and his network is convincing. He asserted that "all paths" lead to Mr. bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network, although he cautioned not to see it in terms of a case "that's going to trial in a court." Instead, administration officials have been briefing allies on what he called "pretty good information" establishing the link between the airplane hijackers and Mr. bin Laden. While the administration has not made any documents public, as General Powell suggested that it might 10 days ago, he said today that "over time enough information would surface" to convince the American people. Secretary Powell also touched, gingerly, on the political future of Afghanistan. Despite a policy statement from the Bush administration last week stating that the Taliban does not represent the Afghan people, General Powell stopped well short of saying that the overthrow of the hard-line Islamic government is an explicit goal. Addressing the possibilty that the Taliban might not survive the coming confrontation, Secretary Powell said he hoped for the emergence of a new government that would be "representative" of the many ethnic groups that make up the Afghan people. Asked how he would define victory in the long campaign ahead, Secretary Powell gave a broad and ambitious definition -- one that centered more on how Americans felt than any specific military victory. "I see the success of this campaign being measured in the restoration of a degree of security in society, where people are not as frightened as they are now," he said. President Bush has often said many victories would arise from covert operations, never seen by the American people. But Secretary Powell said: "Even covert activities eventually produce visible results." The intelligence warnings about terrorist attacks that Secretary Powell discussed today were received during the spring and summer, particularly before the Fourth of July and the summit meeting of industrialized nations in Genoa, Italy, that month. In June and early July, United States intelligence officials warned that Mr. bin Laden and Al Qaeda appeared to be planning terrorist attacks against American interests. Those warnings prompted public alerts by the administration of possible terrorist attacks timed for the Fourth of July holidays. When no attacks occurred around July 4, American intelligence officials began to assume that the immediate threat had passed. In retrospect, some American officials say that their focus on that holiday may have been a misreading of the information they had received. ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
