French Intelligence Warned of Sept. 11 Plot

Thursday, April 19, 2007

By Alex Chadwick, NPR's Day to Day

April 16, 2007

ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is DAY TO DAY from NPR News. I'm Alex Chadwick.

MADELEINE BRAND, host: I'm Madeleine Brand.

Now, news of more warnings before 9/11, about terrorism and hijacking. The French newspaper Le Monde, today, reports that the French intelligence agency warned the CIA in January of 2001 that al-Qaida was planning one or more hijackings.

CHADWICK: Tim Roemer was a member of the 9/11 commission that reported on what happened before and after the attacks. He's a former Democratic representative from Indiana, and currently president of the Center for National Policy in Washington.

Congressman, welcome to DAY TO DAY.

Mr. TIMOTHY ROEMER (President, Center for National Policy): Thank you, Alex.

CHADWICK: So this story in Le Monde says that French intelligence knew as early as January of 2001 that al-Qaida was planning a hijacking plot involving a U.S. airplane and that French intelligence told the CIA this. Any surprises here for you?

Mr. ROEMER: No, it's fairly consistent with what we uncovered and what we sought to explain in our report. As you remember, we had such phrases as a hair on fire for the summer and spring leading up to 9/11. There was a host of different threats indicating that al-Qaida wanted to possibly hijack airplanes. Not that they wanted to use them as weapons, but hijack them possibly for the release of prisoners.

And even in the now very famous presidential daily brief of August 6, 2001, such phrases as we have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a blank service in 1998 saying that bin Laden wanted to attack the U.S., use an aircraft to gain the release of the Blind Sheikh.

CHADWICK: So maybe this French report from January of 2001, maybe this is part of that report that came out in August saying, look, we have information that al-Qaida is plotting something.

Mr. ROEMER: It certainly is consistent with what we found on the 9/11 commission. That al-Qaida, since 1998 actually, was thinking about conducting terrorist attacks in the United States. That later reporting indicated that they might want to hijack a U.S. airline. And that both foreign intelligence services and the CIA were becoming more and more aware of this.

CHADWICK: Do you know if the French intelligence service was held in particular high regard or low regard, so that a report from them might be taken more or less seriously?

Mr. ROEMER: Well certainly the British and the French were held in high regard with good contacts across Europe and particularly in the Afghanistan region that some of these stories or leaks might be emanating from.

CHADWICK: So in the report released by the commission, of which you're a member, you were critical of both the Bush and Clinton administrations in failing to do more to prevent attacks, but most critical of the intelligence agencies. And I wonder if you wouldn't chalk this up as another one against them.

Mr. ROEMER: Well, it certainly is consistent with what we found, that there was a failure in many instances. We have a chart in our report that talks about eight or nine particular instances where our intelligence did not share it with each other. We indicate that the foreign services and the United States sometimes shared this information, but like a precious string of pearls, too precious to wear, sometimes highly sensitive intelligence was not shared quickly enough or adequately enough between our own intelligence services.

CHADWICK: Tim Roemer of the 9/11 commission on reports today from Le Monde in Paris that French intelligence warned of an al-Qaida hijacking in early 2001. Mr. Roemer, thank you.

Mr. ROEMER: Thank you, Alex.

###