US warned Saudis about plane attacks

US warned Saudis of plane attacks in '98

From correspondents in Washington
10dec05

A DECLASSIFIED US cable made public overnight shows that US officials warned Saudi counterparts more than three years before the September 11, 2001 attacks that Osama bin Laden might target civilian aircraft.

The State Department cable was not mentioned by the special commission that investigated the attacks on New York and Washington, according to National Security Archives, the non-profit research group that made the cable public.
The cable reports on a meeting between two US embassy officials in Riyadh with Saudi officials on June 16, 1998 to press for increased vigilance at the King Khalid International Airport.

"We noted that while we have no specific information that indicates Bin Laden is targeting civilian aircraft, he made a threat during the June 11 ABC News interview against 'military passenger aircraft' in the next 'few weeks,"' the cable said.

"Bin Laden also spoke of SAM missiles," the cable said, using the acronym for surface-to-air missiles.

It added that since attacks on US military facilities in the kingdom in 1995 and 1996, Saudi force protection measures had improved.

"Consequently, we could not rule out that a terrorist might take the course of least resistance and turn to a civilian target," it said.

After September 11, senior administration officials explained the unprecedented security failure by saying suicide attacks with civilian airliners could not have been imagined.

But the cable is the latest piece of evidence that US officials had been aware of the threat to civilian airliners well before then.

National Security Archives also released a newly declassified memo from then CIA director George Tenet to his top aides after the attacks calling for a "worldwide war against al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations."

"Our unrelenting focus must be on bringing all of our operational, analytical, and technical capabilities to bear, not only to protect the US both here and abroad from additional terrorist acts, but also, more importantly, to neutralize and destroy al-Qaeda and its partners."

The confidential memo, dated September 16, 2001, first surfaced in Bob Woodward's best-selling book "Bush at War," the National Security Archives said.

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