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Show OAILY A2 Documents show terrorist hiiackings a concern in months before 9-- 11 Established in 1873 A Pulitzer Newspaper Customer Service Newsroom 375-510-3 . THE ' FAX80k37&5489 Street address: 1555 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo, UT Send mail to: P.O. Box 717, Provo, UT 846030717 Contact us ... SENIOR MANAGERS HOME DEI JVERY President 375-510- t 344-250- 2 SUBSCRIPTION RATES kparkinsonheraldextra.com Executive Editor Randy Wright 3 Delivery by 6 a.m. Mort-Sa- t 7 a.m. Sunday For missing papers, call by 9 a.m. Mon-F- ri or 10 a.m. on weekends. amanzipuiitzei.net Vke President Weekly Newspaper Publisher Kirk Parkinson period 344-291- 3 rwrightheraldextra.com Daily & Sunday Weekends & Holidays Advertising Director Cindy Richards One year 344-295- 7 Karl Wurzbach 344-250- 4 kreepmeyerpulitzer.net 344-292- 9 lhatchheraldextra.com LT. 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Any reproduction other use is strictly prohibited out prior written permission. 344-256- ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON U.S. agencies issued repeated warnings in the summer of ' 2001 about potential terrorist plots against the United States masterminded by Osama bin Laden, including a possible plan to hijack commercial aircraft, documents show. While there were no specific targets mentioned in the United States, there was intelligence indicating might attempt to crash a plane into the US. embassy in Nairobi. And other reports said Islamic extremists might try to hijack a plane to gain release of comrades. The escalating seriousness was reflected in a series of warnings issued by the State Department, Federal Aviation Administration, Defense Department and others detailing a heightened risk of terror attacks targeting Americans. Whether the Bush administration had enough information to take more strident action is at the heart of the dispute over the contents of an Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence brief ing the White House was working to declassi fy at the urging of the commis-sio- n investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. White House officials said the document would not come out Friday and probably would not be ready for release until early next week. Several Democrats on the commission claim the memo, called a presidential daily brief, or PDB, included current intelligence indicating a high threat of hijackings. It was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." "Something was going to happen very soon and be potentially catastrophic," said one of the Democrats, former Indiana Rep. Timothy Roemer. "I dont understand, given the big threat, why the big principals don't get together." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice repeatedly told the panel Thursday that the document was a history of threats and contained no new imminent threat information requiring different government action. The possibility of hijackings was being investigat- nt www.harktheherald.com 342935 risk of an attack was overseas "although the possibility could ' not be discounted" of an attack insiae ine unnea aies. I Intelligence received by US. Curt Anderson 801344-254-0 ToD free t Publisher Albert J. Manzi Saturday, April 10, 2004 HERALD with- J. SCOTT APPLEWHITEAP National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice greets an unidentified family member of a victim from Sept. 1 1 after finishing testimony to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks Thursday in Washington. agencies in August about the plot to either bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi from an air- plane or crash an aircraft into the building. The report cited two unidentified people who met in October 2000 to discuss this plot on instructions from bin Laden, A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI issued at least two other bulletins in 2001 about the terror threat intelligence but did not include directives for field offices to take speoiic actions Because mere was no imminent threat to the homeland. There had been numerous earlier reports of bin Laden's in- -. terest in using aircraft for terror attacks, including a 1998 nlot to flv an exolosives-ladeplane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center and an April 2000 plot to hijack a Boeing 747 and either fly it to Afghanistan or blow .up. But in December 2000, the FBI and FAA issnpd a classified threat assessment that played down the possibility of a threat to domestic aviation from terror operatives known to be in the United States. "Terrorist activity within the U.S. has focused primarily on recruiting new members and disseminating propaganda," that report says. "While international terrorists have conducted attacks on U.S. soil, these acts represent anomalies in their traditional targeting which focuses on U.S. interests overseas." The congressional intelligence inquiry's report suggests less than a that this mind-set- , year before the Sept. 11 attacks, may have contributed to an overall U.S. view that there was a low probability of attacks on American soil particularly using aircraft as weapons. n ed by the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, she said, adding that most of the summer 2001 threats concerned U.S. interests abroad "The country had taken the steps that it could given that there was no threat reporting about what might happen within the United States," Rice said. Congress already has conducted an investigation into the attacks and its final report includes a detailed timeline of the increasing threats U.S. officials picked up during the summer of 2001. It also includes some of the material from the PDB. The memo mentioned intelligence that bin Laden wanted to hijack aircraft to gain release pf prisoners in the United States. The PDB also contains FBI information about "patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other attacks," according to congres- - ' sional investigators. A key event occurred on June 21, 2001, when a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indictment returned a charging 13 Saudis and one Lebanese with the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service personnel. Rumors of the coming indict nt ment had been circulating for weeks before that, according to officials familiar with the intelligence, leading to increased worries that terrorists might take some action in connection with the case. The next day, June 22, the FAA issued a nationwide circular "referring to a possible hijacking plot by Islamic terrorists to secure release of 14 persons incarcerated in the United States" in the Khobar Towers case. In fact, the 14 were still at large, although the circular did not mention that. They remain fugitives to this day. More terrorism warnings quickly followed, including: I A worldwide caution issued June 22 by the State Department warning Americans abroad of increased risk of terror attacks. I Four Defense Department alerts between June 22 and July 20 alerting U.S. military personnel that "bin Laden's network anti-Uwas planning a near-terterrorist operatioa" A July 2 bulletin from the FBI to fedef al, state and local law enforcement agencies describing "increased threat reporting" about bin Laden or The groups allied with bulletin suggested the greatest fund-raisin- On the Net Joint intelligence report: httpJmews.findlaw.comwpdo cs911rpt 911 Commission: httpJwww.9-llcommission.go- v Cheney to promote American-msad- e nuclear reactors during visit to China H. THE Josef Hebert ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Jt I X. ' ;: :!!) it" ""sL PANASONIC 1i sr 1 ptia upou 117.34 PANASONIC! MMDV Camcorder with USB connectivity iavmos MiniDV Digital Palmcorder pvgs9 " " voi pvgsu tin tt!:- r if s about world issues like terrorism and nuclear tensions, Vice President Dick Cheney will have another task making a pitch for Westing-house- 's U.S. reactor technology. At stake could be billions of dollars in business in coming years and thousands of American jobs. The initial installment of four reactors, costing $1.5 billion apiece, would also help narrow the huge U.S. trade deficit with China. China's latest economic plan anticipates more than doublings its electricity output by 2020 and the Chinese government, facing enormous air pollution problems, is looking to shift some of that away from plants. Its plan calls for building as many as 32 large reactors over the next 16 years. No one has ordered a new reactor in the United States in three decades and the next one, if it comes, is still years away. So, China is being viewed by the U.S. industry as a potential bonanza. visit to Cheney's three-da- y Beijing and Shanghai next week is part of a weeklong trip to Asia. He will focus on terrorism . and nuclear tensions over North Korea, but he also is expected to talk up U.S. reactor technology, high-stake- 95 & ;: CHwV' f LM Super compact , maj mnveruem .r " On a trip to China next week to talk coal-burni- 3 1,000-megaw- 24X ZOOM M MfOff S23 SAVMOS 3ca loaded Digital Palmcorder Murrkam including an incredible 24x Optical zoom pvgsis PANASONIC, value all camcorders oh SALE and tu savmm ma mpom MMDV Camcorder 3 CCD technology pvcsim PANASONIC featuring months' fno interest EX ror jm 1 1 I 1 SAVE 25 INSTANTLY with - the purchase of a according to industry and government sources. A senior administration of briefing reporters about the trip, said Cheney will not "pitch individual commercial transactions." But he intends to make clear "we support the efforts of our American companies'' and general access to China's markets, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some critics are concerned about such technology transfers. "This pitch could not be more poorly timed," Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Policy Education Center, told a hearing of the House International Relations Committee recently. Citing recent Chinese plans to help Pakistan build two large reactors that are capable of producing plutonium, he said it is not the time for China to be rewarded with new reactor technology. U.S. officials said the Chinese have given adequate assurances that such sales will not pose a proliferation risk. Bid solicitations for four new reactors are expected to be issued by the Chinese within months. The leading competitors are Westinghouse Electric Co. and a French rival, Are-vwhich is peddling its reactor built by its Framatome subsidiary. Westinghouse is putting its . U.S.-base- d a, Digital Cam Expo '04 Accessory Package5 WfKal CmEipo Kcmury pdut ndufet bt, tripod, rapucnmit bttttry hopes on its 1,100 megawatt AP1000 reactor, an advanced design that is still waiting approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before it can be built in the United States. Westinghouse, owned by the British nuclear firm BNFL, is d the only manufacturer of a pressurized water reactor, the type of design China has said it wants to Dursue. "Clearly tire China market is very important to the industry and a supplier like Westinghouse," said Vaughn Gilbert, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-base-d reactor vendor. "The Chinese market is one that we're pursuing." Each of the AP1000 reactors are expected to cost about $1.5 billion. "We would assume there would be more than one order," Gilbert said, since China has indicated it wants a standardized design across its reactor program A successful bid could mean 5,000 American jobs, Gilbert said in an interview. For the nuclear industry, the potential windfall goes beyond building the power plants. "The opportunity is not just in selling the Chinese a number of reactors, but engaging them for a longer term in a strategic partnership," says Ron Simard, who deals with future plant development at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group. That could mean future construction contracts as well as plant service business. U.S.-base- EstAftLKHfcrTi6 and rccordle nwdi. The diamond 1 , lfe OREM 1375S. State It A St. v sTr- I ini OELECTRON.es I ill. Ill III i llWI.MbtiWte...!lllfc-M.I.- 111 ieiefc"''i SSTsiHlfcti He nit e.iwiil UfceMMPiiiii I ll idali.rtd.,ldfc .)..nfcil.i.lMfcl.rtii UtmUkd i tilllk Mltl mmmikHik'V)rt,MimlmkSt iMl ,mlm0llkkmmmmmtmmAfmtmt4mMm lilii mHhfcSleee 11 nn li i i LeeiieielMfeeMteieehet MleW in nil Hmmi 111 MXtoimW.-- J. III! 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