Just to defuse Ari's "well, we didn't know they would be weapons..and, we didn't know it would be more than one..."spin:
By Ned Stafford, Newsbytes.
FRANKFURT, GERMANY,
13 Sep 2001, 1:16 PM CST
Newspaper: Echelon Gave Authorities Warning Of Attacks 09/13/01 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 2001 SEP 13 (NB) -- By Ned Stafford, Newsbytes. U.S. and Israeli
intelligence agencies received warning signals at least three months ago that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons
to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture, according to a story in Germany's daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
The FAZ, quoting unnamed German intelligence sources, said that the Echelon spy network was being used to collect information about the terrorist threats, and that U.K.
intelligence services apparently also had advance warning. The FAZ, one of Germany's most respected dailies, said that even as far back as six months ago western and near-east
press services were receiving information that such attacks were being planned.
Within the American intelligence community, the warnings were taken seriously and surveillance intensified, the FAZ said. However, there was disagreement on how such terrorist
attacks could be prevented, the newspaper said.
Valid source? Who knows.
Look, it was obvious from day one that the administration knew more than they let on about what happened, either in the deterministic or probabalistic sense. It's time we find out what.
