World Trade Center (WTC I); the 1996 attack on the U.S. military barracks Khobar The Joint Inquiry Staff chose to review these five attacks for several reasons. First, they suggest how the radical Islamist cause grew from a disparate band of relatively unskilled amateurs to a seasoned group of skilled operators. This span of time allows the Joint Inquiry Staff to determine how the Intelligence Community adapted to meet this danger. Second, the attacks represent the major instances of international terrorism against the United States in the decade preceding September 11, 2001. Third, they represent a mix of attacks on U.S. interests at home and abroad. Finally, we included the attack on Khobar Towers to avoid drawing too many lessons from Sunni Islamic extremists linked to al-Qa'ida: as the 19 American dead at Khobar demonstrates, the Lebanese Hezbollah and other groups also threaten American interests today. A brief review of each incident is provided below. 1993 Attack on the World Trade Center On February 26, 1993, a truck bomb exploded in the B-2 level garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and wounding another 1,000. The vehicle was traced to Mohammed Salameh, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship. Salameh's arrest led investigators to his accomplices - Arabs of different nationalities who were followers of blind radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abd al-Rahman. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the attack, had already fled the United States and was not apprehended until 1995. Yousef's collaborators, who were far less skilled and professional, were arrested shortly after the bombing. Several of the radical Islamists responsible for the bombing had conducted terrorist attacks before. Members of New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) traced Salemeh to the home of Ibrahim el-Gabrowny, a cousin of El Sayyid Nosair. Nosair was the shooter in the 1990 assassination in New York City of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the controversial founder of the Jewish Defense League. Nosair also had assistance from Mahmud Abouhamila, who was arrested in connection with the first World Trade Center bombing. According to FBI officials who were interviewed, the NYPD and the District Attorney's office resisted attempts to label the Kahane assassination a “conspiracy” despite the apparent links to a broader network of radicals. Instead, these organizations reportedly wanted the appearance of speedy justice and a quick resolution to a volatile situation. By arresting Nosair, they felt they had accomplished both. Nosair was shot and then arrested after the Kahane shooting, and a search of his residence uncovered a trove of information regarding his cell's members and activities. Forty-seven boxes of notes and paramilitary manuals were carted away. It would be at least two years before much of the information was actually translated. The FBI case agent says that a relative of Nosair's traveled to Saudi Arabia to obtain money to pay for Nosair's defense. He received funds from a wealthy Saudi, Usama bin Ladin. The agent told the Joint Inquiry Staff that this was the first time the FBI's New York office heard bin Ladin's name. According to FBI agents interviewed by the Joint Inquiry Staff, intelligence on individual members of the cell who committed the attack was considerable before the World Trade Center attack. In 1989, the FBI had become aware that a number of Americans were being recruited to fight in Afghanistan in the war against the Soviets, a possible violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act. The FBI also learned that these individuals were receiving firearms and martial arts training in the New York area, and the FBI began to surveil these firearms training sessions. The FBI had an informant with access to the cell but, in essence, deactivated him shortly before the bombing. However, there was no indication of the magnitude of the attack they were planning or that they intended to kill thousands of Americans. After the World Trade Center attack, the FBI reactivated the source who reported on the cell's plans. Drawing on this source, several weeks after the World Trade Center attack, the FBI arrested additional Islamist radicals planning a "day of terror" against several U.S. landmarks. The source enabled the eventual arrest and conviction of Shaykh Abd al-Rahman and his associates for planning the "day of terror." A senior FBI terrorism analyst told the Joint Inquiry Staff that the lack of a state sponsor of these terrorist activities and the mixture of nationalities involved in the various plots initially confused U.S. investigators. One FBI investigator recalls that he initially suspected Serbian involvement, and later the prevailing opinion was that Libyans were behind the activity. Others thought that perhaps the Iraqis were seeking revenge for Operation Desert Storm. This theory gained support when it was discovered that Ramzi Yousef traveled with a valid Iraqi passport. Over time, however, the Intelligence Community realized that a new phenomenon was emerging: radical Islamic cells, not linked to any country, but united in anti-American zeal. 1996 Attack on Khobar Towers On June 26, 1996, Saudi Shi'a Muslim terrorists detonated a truck bomb containing 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of explosives on the perimeter of the U.S. apartment complex called Khobar Towers at a military facility in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Although the truck did not pass through the base's perimeter security, the bomb's large size, which surprised U.S. officials, led to a massive explosion that destroyed much of the complex. Nineteen Americans died and 500 others were wounded. Following the attack, the United States redeployed its forces to more remote parts of the Kingdom. A U.S. indictment brought in June 2001 charged that the Saudi Hezbollah, with support from Iran, carried out the attack. According to the indictment, Iran and its surrogate, the Lebanese Hezbollah, recruited and trained the bombers, helped direct their surveillance, and assisted in planning the attack. Warning that U.S. forces were at risk of a terrorist attack was considerable, though detailed information on exactly where or when the attack would occur was lacking. The Intelligence Community warned in a series of briefings and written products that terrorists would seek to strike U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and that the Khobar Towers complex had been surveilled. As the Task Force led by General Downing that reviewed the attack after the fact noted: Overall, the intelligence provided commanders warning that the terrorist threat to A review of the classified version of the Downing report, CIA documents, and interviews with U.S. officials supports this assessment. 1998 Embassy Attacks On August 7, 1998, al-Qa'ida terrorists bombed the US. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks, which occurred less than ten minutes apart, destroyed the facilities and killed 12 Americans and over 200 Kenyans and Tanzanians. More than 4,000 were injured, many permanently blinded. Local security forces detained several lower-level perpetrators, and others were caught as they fled, leading to important confessions. Four perpetrators were prosecuted in the United States for their role in the bombings. However, several of those who authorized and helped orchestrate the bombings went to Afghanistan or otherwise did not face justice. Intelligence warning of the attack was limited. The Report of the Accountability Review Boards on the Embassy Bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam (known as the "Crowe Commission") found that: "[t]here was no credible intelligence that provided immediate or tactical warning of the August 7 bombings." Reporting was imprecise as to location and date, and in contrast to the steady stream of warnings before the Khobar Towers attack - the Crowe Commission noted that: “[i]indeed, for eight months prior to the August 7 bombings, no further intelligence was produced to wam the embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam." The Intelligence Community quickly determined that alQa'ida was responsible for the attacks after they occurred. Interviews of Intelligence Community personnel suggest that more than any other al-Qa'ida attack before September 11, the near-simultaneous bombing of the Embassies changed how the Intelligence Community perceived the threat of terrorism from that group. Almost all terrorism analysts at all agencies the Joint Inquiry Staff interviewed appear to have recognized that the attacks clearly demonstrated al-Qa'ida's reach, ability to conduct simultaneous attacks, and determination to kill many Americans. Moreover, the attacks indicated al-Qa'ida's patience: planning for the Kenya operation began in 1993. Before these attacks, only small pockets of the U.S. Government recognized the danger al-Qa'ida posed. After the attacks, the danger was far more clearly understood. On August 20, 1998, President Clinton authorized cruise missile strikes on the al-Shifa plant in Sudan and on a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan to retaliate for the bombings. Mr. Berger also testified that the President sought to kill Bin Ladin with the missile strikes, indicating the White House's understanding that Bin Ladin was an adversary who must be eliminated. Planned Attacks Around the Millennium Celebrations U.S. customs, law enforcement, and intelligence officers successfully disrupted a series of attacks planned around the Millennium celebrations. On December 13, 1999, an alert U.S. Customs Inspector, pulled over an automobile driven by a 33 year-old Algerian, Ahmed Ressam. Ressam panicked and attempted to flee; he was caught, and inspectors discovered explosives in his car along with a map on which two airports in California and one in Ontario were circled, according to Through Our Enemies' Eyes (Brasseys, 2002), a book by an anonymous senior intelligence official. As Ressam was being arrested and questioned, planned attacks on tourist sites in Jordan were disrupted, and 22 Islamists were eventually convicted on terrorism charges. Ressam was convicted in the United States on terrorism charges in April 2001. Following these discoveries, the Intelligence Community and the FBI coordinated a worldwide disruption effort to disrupt other possible attacks. The effort involved dozens of foreign intelligence services that detained suspected radicals in the hopes of gaining confessions or at least keeping them off the streets or intimidating them into aborting any planned attacks. Louis Freeh, the former FBI Director, also related that FBI agents also arrested suspected radicals in the United States for minor violations (often linked to visa problems) and tried to disrupt any planned attacks in the United States. Following the disruption, the Intelligence Community clearly warned senior policy makers that the disruptions only bought time: they did not end the threat of future attacks. Of interest is another attack planned for around the Millennium that went undiscovered - the planned January attack on another Navy warship. The plot failed because the terrorists' boat sank, not because the Intelligence Community disrupted it, and a similar attack was carried out on U.S.S. Cole in October of 2000. 2000 Attack on U.S.S. Cole On October 12, 2000 al-Qa'ida terrorists piloted a small boat filled with explosives next to the destroyer U.S.S. Cole in the harbor in Aden, Yemen, and detonated it, killing 17 sailors and wounding 39 more. The bombing was the first terrorist attack on a U.S. naval warship. As with the 1998 Embassy attack, the strike on the Cole involved persistence and planning. Preparations for the attack began in 1998. As noted above, in January 2000, a group of plotters tried to attack another Navy warship. As with other terrorist attacks, several of the leading figures fled Yemen in the days before the bombing. Only the bombers themselves and several relatively poorly trained and unskilled radicals remained. Peter Bergen, the author of Holy War, Inc. (Free Press, 2001) notes that Yemen had long been a hotbed of radical Islamist activity. Thousands of Yemenis volunteered to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Bin Ladin's first attack against the United States occurred against U.S. soldiers transiting Aden en route to Somalia in 1992. During the Yemeni civil war in 1994, the victorious northern regime employed Islamic radicals as shock troops in its attacks on the south. The State Department's 2000 Patterns of Global Terrorism indicates that Yemen was a safe haven for several terrorist groups, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad – parts of which, after 1998, essentially had become in essence part of al-Qa'ida. The Intelligence Community provided a steady stream of reporting indicating the danger of a terrorist attack in Yemen, but did not offer specific, actionable intelligence about the U.S.S. Cole attack itself. Other clues - while falling short of specific warning as to the time, place, and method of the attack - nevertheless offered considerable information regarding the need for force protection. A post-attack CIA review, however, found that most of the information provided was quick-turnaround reporting, commentary, and analysis, with little historical context or long-term analysis. A senior DIA terrorism analyst noted in an interview that, in general, there was little effort to question underlying assumptions, such as preconceptions that Bin Ladin would not attack in Yemen because it was an important alQa'ida logistics hub or that al-Qa’ida would not strike a Navy ship because of the difficulty of doing so. A separate inquiry by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) also noted that although intelligence agencies "aggressively collected and promptly disseminated raw intelligence pertaining to terrorist threats,” warning products lacked context and analytic depth. The Challenge of Terrorism after the Cold War The Joint Inquiry Staff review of the five incidents suggests several important characteristics of the emerging terrorist threat. Some were obvious to all at the time and others only became clear in retrospect, but all required changes in U.S. counterrorism efforts and the Intelligence Community more broadly. The characteristics include: • The emergence of a new breed of terrorists practicing a new form of terrorism, different from the state-sponsored, limited-casualty terrorism of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s; International terrorists who operated in America and were willing to conduct |