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Cia knew lat { June 3 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-060302cia_wr.storyhttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-060302cia_wr.story
U.S.: CIA Failed to Warn of Hijackers
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
June 3 2002, 10:22 AM PDT
WASHINGTON -- The CIA first learned of two of the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers at a meeting in Malaysia in early 2000 but didn't alert domestic authorities to watch for them until three weeks before the attacks, U.S. officials acknowledged today.
Malaysian authorities monitored the meeting, which was attended by Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, two of the hijackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and passed on the information to the CIA.
At the time, the significance and subject of the 2000 meeting were not clear, said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. But CIA informed FBI headquarters, as well as FBI agents in the CIA's counterterrorism center, that the meeting took place.
But the names of Almihdhar and Alhazmi didn't make it onto a watch list-- used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and State Department to deny entry into the United States-- until Aug. 23, when the two were already in the country, the official said. It's unclear when their identities were confirmed, and whether the FBI learned their names from the CIA.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., complained today of "massive failures of intelligence at the CIA."
"Assuming it's true-- I can't confirm that on this program-- I believe you are going to see a lot more instances like this where, if they had acted on the information they had and followed through, maybe things would be different," Shelby said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We don't know."
He said CIA Director George Tenet "is in denial. But I believe he is totally wrong."
A White House spokesman cautioned against speculation about what law enforcement and intelligence officials knew before a congressional joint intelligence committee can begin reviewing the facts this week.
"Appropriately, the joint intelligence committees are looking into what information our intelligence and law enforcement agencies had prior to Sept. 11, and they should," White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "But again, our focus remains on preventing future attacks on America."
McClellan said the intelligence and law enforcement agencies have made changes since the Sept. 11 attacks to better improve information-sharing.
Also at the January 2000 meeting in Malaysia was Tawfiq Attash Khallad, lately identified as one of the U.S. top 25 targets in the war on Al Qaeda, the intelligence official said. The current status of Khallad is unclear.
The meeting gained much greater significance at some point after the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. Investigators learned that Khallad was one of the masterminds of the plot, and his known associates-- including Almihdhar and Alhazmi-- suddenly took on new importance.
But it's unclear if this new information was transferred to other authorities, such as the FBI, State Department and INS, until months later, the official said. These agencies remained unaware of the new significance given to Almihdhar and Alhazmi by the CIA.
On Aug. 23, 2001, the CIA, worried that a large Al Qaeda operation was in the offing, put out an alert on Almihdhar and Alhazmi, adding them to a watch list. By that time they already had entered the United States.
"We have no way of knowing what would have happened if these individuals had been put on a watch list earlier," the intelligence official said.
At least one other Al Qaeda operative now thought to be a potential Sept. 11 hijacker-- Ramzi Binalshibh-- was denied access to the United States before the attacks. He was not arrested or interrogated, and remains at large.
Failure of the CIA to share its information on Almihdhar and Alhazmi was first reported by Newsweek magazine.
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Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
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