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Bush: Spy work helped stop 2002 attack
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-10 21:34
Under fire for eavesdropping on Americans, President
Bush said Thursday that spy work stretching from the U.S. to Asia helped thwart
terrorists plotting to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into
the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast.
President Bush makes remarks,Thursday, Feb. 9,
2006, on the Global War on Terror at the National Guard Memorial Building
in Washington. Bush gave new details about the multinational cooperation
that foiled purported terrorist plans to fly a commercial airplane into
the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast. [AP] |
"It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot,"
Bush said. "By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our
homeland."
Some information about the foiled attack was disclosed last year, but Bush
offered more details to highlight international cooperation in fighting
terrorists. He did not say whether information about the West Coast plot was
collected by his administration's program to monitor — without court warrants —
some calls and e-mails between people overseas and in the U.S. when links to
terrorism are suspected.
The White House said that issue was not the point of the speech, but the
president and his advisers have been vigorously defending the legality of the
program, which has been questioned by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
After weeks of insisting that divulging details of the monitoring program
would hinder intelligence gathering, the White House relented Wednesday and
began briefing some additional lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the president's monthlong campaign to convince Americans the
government's eavesdropping program is essential to the war on terrorism appears
to be making an impact.
In a new AP-Ipsos poll, 48 percent now support wiretapping without a warrant
in cases of suspected communications with terrorists, up from 42 percent last
month. Half say the administration should have to get a warrant, down from 56
percent. Men in particular have come around to Bush's view over the last month,
the poll suggested.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, four Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement
with the White House on minor changes in the Patriot Act, hoping to clear the
way for renewal of anti-terror legislation that Bush says is essential in the
fight against terrorists.
In his speech, at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, began planning
the West Coast operation in October 2001. One of Mohammed's key planners was a
man known as Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the terrorist group Jemaah
Islamiyah, which is affiliated with al-Qaida.
"Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on Sept. 11, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
sought out young men from Southeast Asia — whom he believed would not arouse as
much suspicion," Bush said.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa complained he first learned of
Bush's remarks while watching TV.
"I'm amazed that the president would make this on national TV and not inform
us of these details through the appropriate channels," said the mayor, a
Democrat.
Bush press secretary Scott McClellan said that the White House did reach out
before the speech to officials in California and that there was appreciation for
the notification.
As the plot was described, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open
the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash
it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, a 73-story building since renamed the
US Bank Tower. In his remarks, Bush inadvertently referred to the site as
"Liberty Tower."
The president said the plot was derailed when a
Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaida operative. Bush did not name the
country or the operative.
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