Anyone have WSJ article today about known risks planes into buildings

Been listening to local Pittsburgh talk host Lynn Cullen talk about article in today's WSJ - page 4 about how much those in the counterterrorism knew about the risk of planes flying in to buildings, the # of times they established no-fly zones prior to 9-11 including the Repug 2000 convention and *'s inauguration.

Wonder if anyone here has access to online article and can post some of it?

In Debt of Honor and Executive Decision (1996), two VERY POPULAR books. (plane flying into Capitol Bldg during joint session of Congress)

not to be aware of Clancy's scenario. I'm convinced that the Capitol would have been 93's target. Think how that would have changed the country's political dynamics, Bush would have been the dictator that he's told us he wants to be....

If Condi never thought about planes flying into buildings, she should have been fired on the spot by Bush.

If she lied, then this administration should be held accountable for lying to the american people....and we should wonder about what other lies this administration has told us.

Kamikaze Terrorism
Wasn't a New Idea

White House Statements Aside,
Protective Steps Date Back
Through Clinton Administration
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April 1, 2004; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Despite official assertions that the U.S. had little reason to suspect before Sept. 11 that airliners would be used as weapons, there is new evidence that the federal government had on several earlier occasions taken elaborate, secret measures to protect special events from just such an attack.

The events that were protected included the 1996 Olympics and President Bush's inauguration in 2001. Planning for similar special protection for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah was under way at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials say.

New questions have emerged, in part from the just-published book by former senior National Security Council aide Richard Clarke, as to why the Clinton administration in the late 1990s failed to push through a proposal to extend the measures beyond special events to permanent protection of the skies over Washington. According to Mr. Clarke's book, and interviews with other former federal-government officials, that plan foundered because federal agencies whose cooperation was needed balked. The plan for permanent protection of Washington, however, was revived after Sept. 11 and was fully in effect by January 2003, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said"


snip


"John F. Lehman, a Republican on the 9/11 Commission and a former secretary of the Navy, agreed that the idea of using aircraft as weapons by crashing them into something wasn't new on Sept. 11. "You can't say that the idea of using them as kamikazes is not something people should have been worried about," Mr. Lehman says in an interview. "The fact is that kamikazes were first used in 1944, so it's not exactly a new concept."

snip

"But a stream of intelligence beginning in 1995, which reached the White House, did indicate that terrorists were plotting attacks using hijacked jets.

Intelligence specifically linking al Qaeda to such plans emerged from the foiling of the so-called Bojinka plot in the Philippines in 1995. Al Qaeda operatives in Manila, led by Mr. Yousef, were preparing to blow up over the Pacific a dozen Boeing 747s belonging to U.S. airlines. During the ensuing investigation, one conspirator, Abdul Hakim Murad, disclosed that Mr. Yousef and other al Qaeda operatives also planned to hijack a U.S. commercial aircraft and ram it into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

A congressional joint inquiry in December 2002 found that beginning in the mid-1990s, other warnings were passed to U.S. national-security officials about kamikaze plans for hijacked jetliners. Separately, Ms. Rice confirmed in 2002 that information picked up by U.S. intelligence services indicated that an attack might be made on Mr. Bush and other leaders at the July 2001 Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy. Former White House officials confirmed that in response to the warning, Italian authorities closed the local airport, restricted airspace and positioned surface-to-air missiles around the city."

snip

WSJ reporters are doing a better job than many others. I'll have to see if boss threw out his WSJ tonight.

Glad to see this in WSJ where a lot of the movers and shakers read. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will defect or stay home election day.

Page A4 "Kamikaze Terorism wasn't New Idea" White House Statement Aside, Protective Steps Date Back Through Clinton Administration. By Scot J Paltrow.
Here's a little sample, I haven't read the whole thilng yet:

"...there is new evidence that the federal government had on several earlier occasions taken elaborate, sectet measure to protect special events from just such an attack.
The events that were protected included the 1996 Olympics, and President Bush's inaugeration in 2001. Planning for similar special protection for the 2002 Winter Olympics was underway at the time of the September 11 attacks, officials say."

Oops, I type slowly.
Anyhoo...I remember quite clearly when I heard Rice say no one could have known the highjackers would do such a thing. Tom Clancy came immediately to mind. And then I thought if they didn't know they were either stupid or incompetent. Well, they are neither stupid nor totally incompetent. Now, I have no idea what they are. Tunnel vision cold war warriors is the kindest I can come up with.