The official story is that our defense and security forces were blindsided by those sneaky hijackers on 9-11: nobody in the defense establishment, intelligence sector, or administration - we are led to believe - had any idea that civilian jetliners could be used as weapons.

However, as the following list shows, defense and security authorities can hardly claim ignorance of the threat posed by skyjacked jetliners.

Paul Thompson's Center for Cooperative Research has published online several timelines dealing with the attacks of 9-11-2001. (See links at conclusion of list. I have not enabled the HTML links for the sources for each item posted here. Please visit Mr. Thompson's site for this and much more additional information.)

What follows is my selection of events and/or warnings from one of Mr. Thompson's timelines:

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1993: An expert panel commissioned by the Pentagon discusses how an airplane could be used to bomb national landmarks. But the panel decides not to publish the theory in their report, Terror 2000, partly in fear of inspiring terrorists. However, in 1994 on (sic) of the panel's experts will write in Futurist magazine, "Targets such as the World Trade Center not only provide the requisite casualties but, because of their symbolic nature, provide more bang for the buck. In order to maximize their odds for success, terrorist groups will likely consider mounting multiple, simultaneous operations with the aim of overtaxing a government's ability to respond, as well as demonstrating their professionalism and reach." [Washington Post, 10/2/01]

1994: Coincidentally, three separate attacks this year involve hijacking airplanes to crash them into buildings. A disgruntled Federal Express worker tries to crash a DC-10 into a company building in Memphis but is overpowered by the crew. A lone pilot crashes a small plane into the White House grounds, just missing the President's bedroom. An Air France flight is hijacked by a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, with the aim to crash it into the Eiffel Tower, but French Special Forces storm the plane before it takes off. [New York Times, 10/3/01]

January, 1995: Philippine police investigating a possible attack on the Pope uncover plans for Operation Bojinka, an al-Qaeda operation connected to 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef. Parts of the plan call for crashing up to 12 hijacked airliners simultaneously into civilian targets. The WTC, CIA headquarters, Pentagon and the Sears Tower are mentioned as specific targets. [Agence France Presse, 12/8/01] Details of the plan resurface in Yousef's 1997 trial for the 1993 WTC bombing. One pilot, Abdul Hakim Murad, who incidentally learned to fly in US flight schools, confesses that his role was to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters. [Washington Post, 9/23/01] The 9/11 attack was not just similar to Operation Bojinka, it was nearly an identical repeat. US officials have identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks - he was also one of the major planners of Operation Bojinka. [Independent, 6/6/02] A Philippine investigator said on 9/11, "it's Bojinka." He later said: "We told the Americans everything about Bojinka. Why didn't they pay attention?" [Washington Post, 9/23/01] FTW

July 6-August 11, 1996: US officials identify crop-dusters and suicide flights as potential terrorist weapons, and take steps to prevent air attacks during the Olympic Games in Atlanta. During the games, Black Hawk helicopters and US Customs Service jets are deployed to intercept suspicious aircraft in the skies over the Olympic venues. Agents monitor crop-duster flights within hundreds of miles of downtown Atlanta. Law enforcement agents also fan out to regional airports throughout northern Georgia "to make sure nobody hijacked a small aircraft and tried to attack one of the venues," says Woody Johnson, the FBI agent in charge. Planes are banned from getting near Olympic events. [Chicago Tribune, 11/18/01]

May 18, 1998: An Oklahoma newspaper later reports that the FBI office in Oklahoma City sends a memo on this day warning that "large numbers of Middle Eastern males" are getting flight training in Oklahoma and could be planning terrorist attacks. 9/11 hijackers Atta and Marwan Alshehhi visited the Airman Flight School in Norman in July, 2000 and Zacarias Moussaoui took flight lessons there in 2001. [AP, 9/26/01, CNN, 9/18/01] This remarkable story seems to have only been reported by one Oklahoma daily. [NewsOK, 5/29/02,

1999: MI6, the British intelligence agency, gives a secret report to liaison staff at the US embassy in London. The reports states that al-Qaeda has plans to use "commercial aircraft" in "unconventional ways", "possibly as flying bombs." [Sunday Times, 6/9/02]

September, 1999: A report prepared for US intelligence entitled the "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism" is completed. It states: "Al-Qaeda's expected retaliation for the US cruise missile attack ... could take several forms of terrorist attack in the nation's capital. Al-Qaeda could detonate a Chechen-type building-buster bomb at a federal building. Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and Semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House. Whatever form an attack may take, bin Laden will most likely retaliate in a spectacular way." The report is by the National Intelligence Council, which advises the President and US intelligence on emerging threats. [AP, 4/18/02, read the complete report on-line] The Bush administration later claims to have never heard of the report until May, 2002, despite it being publicly released and posted on the web in 1999. [CNN, 5/18/02]

2000: At some point during this year, an FBI internal memo states that a Middle Eastern nation has been trying to purchase a flight simulator in violation of US restrictions. FBI refuses to disclose the date or details. [Los Angeles Times, 5/30/02] FTW

August 12, 2000: Italian intelligence were successfully wiretapping al-Qaeda terrorist cells in Italy from August of this year until 9/11. In a wiretapped conversation from this day, a suspected Yemeni terrorist tells an Egyptian based in Italy about a massive strike against the enemies of Islam involving aircraft and the sky, a blow that "will be written about in all the newspapers of the world." FBI experts helped Italian police analyze the intercepts. [Los Angeles Times, 5/29/02] FTW

September 15-October 1, 2000: Olympics officials later reveal that "A fully loaded, fueled airliner crashing into the opening ceremony before a worldwide television audience at the Sydney Olympics was one of the greatest security fears for the Games." During the Olympics, Australia has 6 planes in the sky at all times ready to intercept any wayward aircraft. In fact, "IOC officials said the scenario of a plane crash during the opening ceremony was uppermost in their security planning at every Olympics since terrorists struck in Munich in 1972." [Sydney Morning Herald, 9/20/01]

October 24-26, 2000: Pentagon officials carry out a "detailed" emergency drill based upon the crashing of a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon. [Mirror, 5/24/02] The Pentagon is such an obvious target that, "For years, staff at the Pentagon joked that they worked at "Ground Zero", the spot at which an incoming nuclear missile aimed at America's defenses would explode. There is even a snack bar of that name in the central courtyard of the five-sided building, America's most obvious military bullseye." [Telegraph, 9/16/01] After 9/11, a Pentagon spokesman will say to the press, "The Pentagon was simply not aware that this aircraft was coming our way, and I doubt prior to Tuesday's event, anyone would have expected anything like that here." [Newsday, 9/23/01] FTW

February-July, 2001: A trial is held in New York City for four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. All are ultimately convicted. The trial reveals that two bin Laden operatives had received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma and another had been asked to take lessons. One bin Laden aide becomes a government witness and gives the FBI detailed information about a pilot training scheme. This new information does not lead to any new FBI investigations into the matter. [Washington Post, 9/23/01]

June, 2001: German intelligence warns the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack "American and Israeli symbols, which stand out." A later article quotes unnamed German intelligence sources who state the information was coming from Echelon surveillance technology, and that British intelligence had access to the same warnings. However, there were other informational sources, including specific information and hints given to, but not reported by, Western and Near Eastern news media six months before 9/11. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9/11/01, Washington Post, 9/14/01] FTW

June 13, 2001: Egyptian President Mubarak claims that Egyptian intelligence discovers a "communiqué from bin Laden saying he wanted to assassinate George W. Bush and other G8 heads of state during their summit in Italy." The communiqué specifically mentions this would be done via "an airplane stuffed with explosives." The US and Italy are sent urgent warnings of this. [New York Times, 9/26/01] Mubarak claims that Egyptian intelligence officials informed American intelligence officers between March and May, 2001 that an Egyptian agent had penetrated the bin Laden organization. Presumably this explains how Egypt is able to give the US these warnings (see also August 30, 2001). [New York Times, 6/4/02]

June 28, 2001: CIA Director Tenet writes an intelligence summary for National Security Adviser Rice, saying: "It is highly likely that a significant al-Qaeda attack is in the near future, within several weeks." Rice will later claim that everyone was taken by complete surprise by the 9/11 attack. [Washington Post, 5/17/02]

July 1, 2001: Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) and Richard Shelby (R), both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, appear on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer", and warn of potential attacks by bin Laden. Says Feinstein, "One of the things that has begun to concern me very much as to whether we really have our house in order, intelligence staff have told me that there is a major probability of a terrorist incident within the next three months." [CNN, 3/02]

July 16, 2001: British spy agencies send a report to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top officials warning that al-Qaeda is in 'the final stages' of preparing a terrorist attack in the West. The prediction is "based on intelligence gleaned not just from MI6 and GCHQ but also from US agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency," which cooperate with the British. "The contents of the July 16 warning would have been passed to the Americans, Whitehall sources confirmed." The report states there is "an acute awareness" that the attack is "a very serious threat." [London Times, 6/14/02]

July 20-22, 2001: The G8 summit is held in Genoa, Italy. Acting on previous warnings that al-Qaeda would attempt to kill Bush and other leader at the G-8 summit, Italy surrounds the summit with antiaircraft guns, keeps fighters in the air, and closes off local airspace to all planes. No attack occurs. US officials at the time state that the warnings were "unsubstantiated" but after 9/11 claim success in foiling the attack. Lying about Genoa keeps the public and the airlines uninformed about the seriousness of the current terrorist threat. [Los Angeles Times, 9/27/01] FTW

July 31, 2001: The FAA issues another warning to US airlines, citing no specific targets but saying "terror groups are known to be planning and training for hijackings, and we ask you therefore to use caution." These alerts had expired by 9/11. Note that pilots and flight attendants later claim they were never told about warnings such as these. The airlines also disagree about the content of pre-9/11 warnings generally. For instance, American Airlines states these warnings were "extremely general in nature and did not identify a specific threat or recommend any specific security enhancements." Like so many other things, the text of these warnings remain classified. [CNN, 3/02, Ananova, 5/17/02]

late summer, 2001: Jordanian intelligence (the GID) makes a communications intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's men relay it to Washington, probably through the CIA station in Amman. To make doubly sure the message gets through it is passed through an Arab intermediary to a German intelligence agent. The message states that a major attack is planned inside the US and that aircraft will be used. The code name of the operation is The Big Wedding. "When it became clear that the information was embarrassing to Bush Administration officials and congressmen who at first denied that there had been any such warnings before Sept. 11, senior Jordanian officials backed away from their earlier confirmations." Christian Science Monitor calls the story "confidently authenticated" even though Jordan has backed away from it. [International Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, Christian Science Monitor, 5/23/02] FTW

August, 2001: Two high ranking agents from the Mossad come to Washington and warn the FBI and CIA that as many as 200 terrorists have slipped into the US and are planning "a major assault on the United States." They say the attack is from bin Laden, and say indications point to a "large scale target", and that Americans would be "very vulnerable." [Telegraph, 9/16/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/20/01] In light of later revelations of a Mossad spy ring trailing numerous Muslim terrorists in the US, it is easy to see that Mossad would have known this info. Could this be later disinformation by the Mossad to spin the spy ring story, or it is another smoking gun showing extensive US foreknowledge?

August, 2001: Russian President Putin later states that during this month, "I ordered my intelligence to warn President Bush in the strongest terms that 25 terrorists were getting ready to attack the US, including important government buildings like the Pentagon." [MSNBC, 9/15/01] He also states, "Washington's reaction at the time really amazed me. They shrugged their shoulders and said matter-of-factly: 'We can't do anything because the Taliban does not want to turn him over.'" [Guardian, 9/22/01] The head of Russian intelligence also states, "We had clearly warned them" on several occasions, but they "did not pay the necessary attention." [Agence France-Presse, 9/16/01] A Russian newspaper on 9/12 claims that "Russian Intelligence agents know the organizers and executors of these terrorist attacks. More than that, Moscow warned Washington about preparation to these actions a couple of weeks before they happened." Interestingly, the article claims that at least two of the terrorists were Muslim radicals from Uzbekistan. [Izvestia, 9/12/02, (the story currently on the Izvestia web site has been edited to delete a key paragraph, the link is to a translation of the article from From the Wilderness)] FTW

August, 2001: The CIA issues a report warning the White House, Pentagon and Department of State that bin Laden is intent on launching a terrorist attack soon, possibly inside the US. [Sunday Herald, 9/23/01]

early August, 2001: AP later reports that the "CIA had developed general information a month before the attacks that heightened concerns that bin Laden and his followers were increasingly determined to strike on US soil." A CIA official affirmed that, saying: "There was something specific in early August that said to us that [bin Laden] was determined in striking on US soil." A major excuse given since 9/11 is that the Bush administration was focused on overseas attacks, and didn't expect a domestic attack. [AP, 10/3/01]

August 1, 2001: Actor James Woods is flying first class on an airplane. He notices four Arabic looking people, the only other people in the first class section. He notifies the stewardess that he thinks they are terrorists, acting very strangely, for instance only talking in whispers. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01] The flight staff later notifies the FAA about these suspicious individuals. Woods claims that later he was told by the FBI that all four did take part in the 9/11 attacks, and the flight he was on was a practice flight for them. [O'Reilly Factor, 2/14/02] The FBI later reports that this may have been just one of a dozen test run flights starting as early as January. Flight attendants and passengers later recall men looking like the hijackers who took pictures of the cockpit aboard flights and/or took notes on these test run flights. [AP, 5/29/02] Given these highly suspicious activities, doesn't it seem likely that James Woods was not the only one to alert authorities before 9/11?

August 6, 2001: President Bush receives classified intelligence briefings at his Crawford, TX ranch indicating that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. The memo read to him is titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US", and the whole 11 page memo focused on the possibility of terrorist attacks inside the US. The contents have never been made public. Incredibly, the New York Times later reports that Bush "broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing." [New York Times, 5/15/02, New York Times, 5/25/02] FTW Could the exact timing of this memo be related to the British warning from a few days before (see early August, 2001)?

August 15, 2001: Zacarias Moussaoui, later referred to as the "20th hijacker" on suspicions that he was to have participated in the 9/11 attacks, is training at a flight school in Minnesota. The staff contacts the FBI, telling them they suspect he is a terrorist. He also claims to be from France, but fails to understand when any French is spoken to him. He had asked the instructor how much fuel was on board a 747-400 and how much damage that could cause if it hit anything. The flight instructor tells the FBI agents, "Do you realize how serious this is? This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!" [New York Times, 2/8/02] (note: the widely reported fact that he was interested in learning how to fly planes in the air but not how to take off or land is refuted both by little noticed testimony by Transportation Secretary Mineta and statements from the flight school instructors. It appears he was mostly interested in flying in the air, but not exclusively so) [Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune, 12/21/01, New York Times, 5/22/02]

August 22, 2001: Walid Arkeh, a Jordanian serving time in a Florida prison, is interviewed by FBI agents after warning the government of an impending terrorist attack. He had been in a British jail a few months earlier, and while there had befriended three inmates, whom he identifies as Khalid al-Fawwaz, Adel Abdel Bary and Ibrahim Eidarous. All three have been indicted as coconspirators with bin Laden in the US embassy bombings in 1998. Arkeh conveys to the FBI that "something big was going to happen in New York City," and that they had called the 1993 attack on the WTC "unfinished business." The FBI later confirms the meeting and his connections to the three terrorists. But after 9/11 Arkeh is whisked to an undisclosed location, where he presumably remains today, and even his name and photo have been removed from the Department of Corrections website. [Orlando Sentinel, 1/6/02]

August 30, 2001: According to Egyptian President Mubarak, Egyptian intelligence warns American officials that bin Laden's network is in the advanced stages of executing a significant operation against an American target. [AP, 12/7/01]

late August, 2001: In an interview with the London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, bin Laden boasts that he is planning a "very, very big" and "unprecedented" strike against the US. The interview is not publicly released until after 9/11, however. [Independent, 9/17/01, ABC News, 9/12/01]

Complete list of warnings related to airliner suicide attacks:
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/timeline.htm

Complete 9-11-2001 Timeline
http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/AAadvanceinfo.html

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The lame excuse that we were "blindsided" by the events of 9-11 is a crock of crap.

sp