"Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key Al Qaeda operative," he said. "Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how Al Qaeda hoped to execute it."
Please note that the NSA domestic spying and the CIA had nothing to do with detecting the plot. Had a foreign nation's intelligence service not detected it, an airplane might have indeed crashed into an LA skyscraper. Especially since the AF general that was in charge of NORAD on 9/11 was still there and presumably no more skilled at directing the intercept of hijacked aircraft in early 2002 than in September, 2001. Although CICBush43 later deemed him fully qualified to be promoted up one star and put in command of NORTHCOM which is responsible for Homeland Security. Another day in Bushland. David Bier http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/politics/09cnd-bush.html February 9, 2006 Bush Offers Details of 2002 Plot in Defense of Terror Strategy By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 President Bush defended his anti-terrorist policies anew today, asserting that the United States and its allies had foiled a terrorist plot meant to bring down a Los Angeles building that is the tallest in the United States west of the Mississippi River. Mr. Bush said that just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, terrorists planned to hijack another airplane by using "shoe bombs" to breach the cockpit door. Their target, had the hijacking been carried out, would have been the U.S. Bank Tower, the president said. (Government counterterrorism officials have acknowledged before that the tower would be a particularly inviting target.) Osama bin Laden himself was involved in the plot, which was to be carried out by Southeast Asian men on the assumption that they would not arouse as much suspicion as Middle Easterners, Mr. Bush told the National Guard Association here. "Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key Al Qaeda operative," he said. "Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how Al Qaeda hoped to execute it." "This critical intelligence helped other allies capture the ringleaders and other known operatives who had been recruited for this plot," Mr. Bush said. The U.S. Bank Tower, formerly named the Library Tower after the nearby Los Angeles Central Library, is 1,018 feet tall and topped by a glass crown that is illuminated at night. The building, completed in 1989, was "destroyed" by alien invaders in the 1996 movie "Independence Day." The independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks said in its 2004 report that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 assaults on New York City and Washington, had originally envisioned an even broader assault on America, with as many as 10 hijacked aircraft flying into buildings on both coasts. And last October, government counterterrorism officials provided further details, saying that Mr. Mohammed and a terrorist ally, Riduan Isamuddin (better known as Hambali), had planned a new spate of attacks after Sept. 11 and that Los Angeles was in their sights. Counterterrorism officials said months ago that the Los Angeles skyscraper (Mr. Bush mistakenly called it the "Liberty Tower") would be a logical target for a West Coast attack, although Mr. Bush had not spoken in detail before about the officials' suspicions. Given the building's iconic status, it is easy to see why America-haters would rejoice at seeing it fall as some rejoiced when the Twin Towers in New York collapsed. The president's national security adviser, Frances Townsend, told reporters later today that the West Coast plot was originally to have been part of the Sept. 11 attacks, but that Al Qaeda could not train enough agents by that deadline. She said investigators did not known what flight or kind of plane the plotters were zeroing in on or even if their planning had reached that stage. Ms. Townsend, who spoke to reporters on a conference call, declined to say whether the secret surveillance of electronic communications between people in the United States and terror suspects abroad had played a role in finding the terror cell involved. "We use all available sources and methods in the intelligence community, but we have to protect them, and so I'm not going to talk about what we did or did not use in this particular case," she said. The president did not use the National Guard speech to defend the surveillance program undertaken by the National Security Agency since he took office. But he did defend his general anti-terrorist policies in several ways. He said, for example, that his "aggressive strategy of bringing the war to the terrorists" had not cost the United States international support but, rather, had enhanced America's standing. A shining example is Pakistan, he said. "A little over four years ago, Pakistan was only one of three countries in the world that recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan," Mr. Bush said. "Today, Pakistan forces are risking their lives in the hunt for Al Qaeda." Perhaps reaching out to Muslim countries whose people have been infuriated by Western cartoons poking fun at the prophet Muhammad, Mr. Bush praised President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan for remaining a United States ally despite threats on his life. "President Musharraf is right," Mr. Bush said. "In the war against terror, there is no separate peace; and no nation can stand on the sidelines." Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Bush said other countries had to choose "You're either for us or against us." Today, he said the United States' aggressive pursuit of terrorists had made that choice clearer than ever. "We're clarifying the choice facing every nation in this struggle between freedom and terror," he said. "Every nation has responsibilities, and no one can remain neutral." -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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