Intelligence and Surprise Attack by Dahl Erik J.;

Author:Dahl, Erik J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Millennium Plot and Afterward

A number of plots uncovered around the millennium heightened the sense of danger. In early December 1999, the Jordanian authorities broke up a plot to attack hotels and tourist sites in Amman that had been planned by a Palestinian man working together with an American cab driver in Boston. Then on December 14, Ahmed Ressam was arrested while trying to cross into the United States at Port Angeles, Washington. The authorities later learned that he had planned to detonate a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport.69 In late December Richard Clarke’s staff warned in a memo, “Foreign terrorist sleeper cells are present in the US and attacks in the US are likely” (underlined in the original).70

There were several alarming reports in 2000, including one in February that bin Laden was making plans to assassinate US intelligence officials, and another in March that described the types of facilities that al-Qaeda might strike. Potential targets included the Statue of Liberty, along with skyscrapers, ports, airports, and nuclear power plants.71

Then on October 12, 2000, the USS Cole was attacked, killing seventeen crew members and wounding thirty-nine. US officials immediately suspected that al-Qaeda was responsible, and intelligence was acquired that linked al-Qaeda to the attack, but they were not able to prove that bin Laden was personally responsible until several key planners were captured after 9/11. In the course of the investigation into the Cole attack, US officials learned that there had been an earlier attempt, in January 2000, to attack the USS The Sullivans. That attempt had failed because the attack boat was overloaded and sank; but the boat was salvaged and used in the successful attack ten months later.72

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