“No Evidence” that Hussein Was Involved in 9/11 Attacks, Bush Says

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday said that there was no evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, but reiterated allegations Hussein and al-Qaeda had been connected (see GSN, Sept. 17).

“We’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th,” Bush said during a brief White House press conference.

A recent Washington Post poll found that almost 70 percent of Americans believe that Hussein probably had some connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bush yesterday also alleged that Hussein’s regime had ties with al-Qaeda prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.  He noted that a suspected al-Qaeda operative, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had previously spent time in Baghdad.  Al-Zarqawi was also involved with the militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, which is suspected of being connected with al-Qaeda, according to Bush.  U.S. forces reportedly found evidence of Ansar al-Islam’s efforts to develop biological and chemical weapons during raids earlier this year on the group’s bases in northern Iraq.

“There’s no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaeda ties,” Bush said.

Bush’s remarks follow a number of similar allegations about prewar links between Iraq and al-Qaeda made recently by senior Bush administration officials.  During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Vice President Dick Cheney said that Hussein’s regime had provided al-Qaeda operatives with training in biological and chemical weapons (see GSN, Sept. 15).  Earlier this month, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said she “absolutely believed” that Iraq and al-Qaeda had been connected, noting both the presence of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq and the biological and chemical weapons training provided to al-Qaeda operatives (see GSN, Sept. 8).

Back to top

IAEA Raises More Than $20 Million for Nuclear Terrorism Prevention

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced yesterday that it has raised more than $20 million for efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism (see GSN, Sept. 16).

About $23 million has been pledged to the IAEA Nuclear Security Fund in donations from 21 countries and one organization, the agency said.  Of the $23 million, more than $13 million has actually been received, which will go toward strengthening “countries’ nuclear security arrangements against malicious acts,” the IAEA said.

To help prevent nuclear terrorism, the agency is aiding members in identifying and protecting vulnerabilities at nuclear installations and in use, storage and transit of nuclear material, according to an agency press release.  Since September 2001, the IAEA has conducted about 40 advisory missions and has held 60 training sessions.  As part of its efforts against nuclear material smuggling, the IAEA is helping members to improve their ability to detect radioactive material at their borders and to respond to illicit trafficking.

While progress has been made in countering nuclear terrorism, more remains to be done, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said.

“On the safety and security front, we can take satisfaction in the degree of progress,” ElBaradei said Monday in his opening remarks to the IAEA General Conference being held this week in Vienna.  “But we must remain vigilant, and clearly much work is still urgently needed,” he said (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Sept. 17).

Back to top

U.S. Cities Complain They Receive Federal Funding Too Slowly

The U.S. Conference of Mayors yesterday released the results of a survey finding that 90 percent of cities have not received any of $1.5 billion in U.S. funding approved this year to help first responders prepare for a terrorist attack, according to the New York Times (see GSN, Jan. 24).

The survey, conducted last month among almost 170 cities, also found that more than half of local governments had not been consulted by state officials over how U.S. counterterrorism funding would be spent, the Times reported.  During a press conference yesterday in New York, mayors criticized state governments, not Washington, for the delays in receiving funding.

“Nine-one-one does not ring at the statehouse; it rings at city hall,” said Mayor James Garner of Hempstead, N.Y.  “Cities are the first to respond in a crisis, but last in line for funds.  We need direct funds,” Garner said.

Christine LaPaille, spokeswoman for the National Governors Associated, denied that state governments were needlessly delaying providing counterterrorism funding to cities.  She also said that the Bush administration and Congress had been correct to distribute federal funds through state governments.

“States are the only players sitting at the homeland security table that are in a position to take the lead in formulating regional strategic plans that protect our communities,” LaPaille said (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Sept. 18).

Back to top

Congress Advances Defense, Homeland Security Funding Bills

Congressional negotiators reached agreement yesterday on bills to fund the U.S. Defense Department and Homeland Security Department.  The bills will now be sent back to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives for final approval.

In resolving differences between versions of the fiscal 2004 defense appropriations bill, House and Senate negotiators settled on a $368 billion measure that does not include projected spending for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Those costs would be covered by the $87 billion supplemental request formally submitted this week by the Bush administration (Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press/WTOP Radio, Sept. 18).

The bill would block the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from implementing its Total Information Awareness project, a controversial antiterrorism program that drew criticism from privacy and civil rights advocates (David Rogers, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18).

To fund Homeland Security Department activities, House and Senate conferees approved $29.4 billion but dropped contentious plans to set a firm deadline for U.S. airlines to screen passenger airline cargo shipments more rigorously (Carl Hulse, New York Times, Sept. 18).

Back to top

Bush Administration Announces Plan for Terrorists “Watch List”

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration yesterday announced plans to create a new center to provide officials with a consolidated “watch list” of suspected terrorists (see GSN, Aug. 21).

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), established in a homeland security presidential directive signed yesterday by U.S. President George W. Bush, is scheduled to become operational Dec. 1.  The new center will provide “‘one-stop shopping’ so that every federal antiterrorist screener is working off the same page,” U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.

The U.S. State Department’s TIPOFF program, which contains the names of over 100,000 potential terrorists, will form the basis for the new center’s database, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell.  The center is also set to receive information from the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which was created earlier this year to help improve information sharing among U.S. counterterrorism agencies, according to a Homeland Security Department fact sheet.  In addition, the FBI will also provide the TSC with information on purely domestic terrorism. 

After receiving information from U.S. agencies, the TSC will then prepare a single, unclassified database that will be accessible to U.S., state and local agencies for screening purposes, the Homeland Security fact sheet said.

“The job of the new Terrorist Screening Center is to make sure we get this information out to our agents on the borders and all those who can put it to use on the front lines — and to get it there fast,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said.

The new center will be operated by the FBI  “because of the bureau’s technical experience in watch list integration,” the Homeland Security fact sheet said.  A Homeland Security official is set to become the principal deputy director of the center.  In addition to the FBI and Homeland Security and State, the Justice Department and the U.S. intelligence community are also expected to participate in the center.

Currently, at least nine separate U.S. agencies maintain their own lists of potential terrorists.  The Bush administration has come under criticism by congressional Democrats for delays in establishing a unified list, which Homeland Security officials have previously blamed on technical problems (see GSN, Aug. 14). 

Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.) yesterday praised the administration’s plans to move forward on the creation of a unified database.

“Since 9/11, I and other Democrats have repeatedly recommended the administration develop a comprehensive watch list to help all relevant agencies keep terrorists out of our country,” Harman, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a press statement.  “Today’s announcement finally begins to implement this critical recommendation to enhance our homeland security,” she said.

Homeland Security yesterday sought to reduce concerns that the new center might infringe on civil liberties by saying that center will only consolidate information provided by other agencies.  In addition, the use of information compiled by the center will be subject to the same legal limitations as if it had not been included in the center’s database, according to the department.

“The creation of the TSC does not provide any new law enforcement or collection powers to any government official; it simply consolidates information that law enforcement, the intelligence community, the State Department, and others already possess and makes it accessible for query to those who need it — federal security screeners, state and local law enforcement officers and others,” the Homeland Security fact sheet said.

The New York Times reported today, however, that some civil rights groups believe the creation of an integrated terrorist watch list should have been handled by Congress and not by law enforcement and intelligence officials.

“There needs to be some public discussion about what criteria are going to be used to determine who is really considered a terrorism suspect,” said Kate Martin, director of George Washington University’s Center for National Security Studies, told the Times.  “This proposal has no safeguards built into it,” she said.

Back to top

Cheney Criticized for Hints of Iraqi Role in Sept. 11, 2001 Attacks

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has come under criticism for suggesting that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein may have been connected to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Boston Globe reported today (see GSN, Sept. 15).

During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cheney said the Bush administration is learning “more and more” about pre-Sept. 11 connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda.  “We learn more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the ‘90s,” he said.

Some congressional Democrats and intelligence analysts, however, have criticized Cheney for his allegations, the Globe reported.

“There is no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11,” said Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.).  “There was no such relationship,” he said.

Cheney’s “willingness to use speculation and conjecture as facts in public presentations is appalling.  It’s astounding,” said former CIA counterterrorism specialist Vincent Cannistraro.

White House officials yesterday said they are learning more about various al-Qaeda ties to Iraq.  For example, there is evidence of a possible meeting between the head of Iraqi intelligence and terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the mid-1990s, they said.  During another purported meeting in Afghanistan, Iraqi officials offered to provide biological and chemical weapons training, according to officials familiar with transcripts of interrogations of captured al-Qaeda operatives.

A recent Washington Post poll found that about 70 percent of Americans believe that Hussein probably had some connection to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Globe reported (Kornblut/Bender, Boston Globe, Sept. 16).

Back to top

New York Nuclear Plant Received Inadequate Security Test, Group Charges

The Project on Government Oversight has charged that a mock terrorist attack conducted this summer at the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York state involved too few mock attackers who were not armed as terrorists could be, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 12).

In a letter to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils Diaz, the group complained that the security exercise used only a small number of mock terrorists and did not arm them with easily available weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, according to the Times.  Two of the exercises were conducted in “broad daylight,” making it easier for the plant’s security force to detect and observe the attackers, the letter said.

The commission defended the exercise, but refused to respond to the group’s specific allegations, saying it could not do so for security reasons.  The commission will not talk about “anything that would give a sense of what the security guards at the plant need to protect against,” Roy Zimmerman, director of the NRC Nuclear Safety and Incident Response Office, said (Matthew Wald, New York Times, Sept. 16).

Back to top

United States Sanctions Russian Entity for Conventional Transfers to Iran

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed sanctions against a Russian state-owned entity for selling conventional military equipment to Iran, which has been designated by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to a notice published in the Federal Register today (see GSN, July 22).

In August, the United States determined that the Tula Design Bureau of Instrument Building (Tula KBP) had provided “lethal military equipment” to Iran, according to the notice.  A U.S. State Department spokesman told Global Security Newswire today that the Russian company had transferred laser-guided artillery shells to Iran.  Under the sanctions, which go into effect today, Tula KBP will be prohibited from conducting business with the U.S. government and from receiving approval for defense-related imports and exports for one year.

Under U.S law, countries found to have sold lethal military equipment to designated state-sponsors of terrorism are to have U.S. assistance blocked.  The law contains a waiver of the assistance ban, however, for national interests, the State spokesman said.  He added that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had decided that there was a “national interest” in continuing U.S. assistance to Russia, enacting the waiver. 

The Washington Times reported today that today’s notice is the first time the recipient in such a transfer had been made public.  The decision was made to publicly name Iran because such a move would not reveal information sources and methods, the State spokesman said.

Back to top

U.S. Homeland Security Department Revises Terrorism Alert System

The U.S. Homeland Security Department has created new, tougher guidelines for raising the color-coded terrorism alert level, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Aug. 19).

The alert level, which currently stands at yellow or “elevated” risk, will now only be raised if there is credible and detailed intelligence of an imminent terrorist attack within the United States, officials said.  The new guidelines represent a belief that the United States is now better prepared to respond to terrorism threats, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Friday.

“The fact is that our level of security at yellow today is better than it was a year ago, and our level of security at yellow will be better a year from now.  So the threshold to go from yellow to orange will be higher.  That does make a difference,” Ridge said.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has often criticized the terrorism alert system, welcomed the new guidelines, according to the Times.

“Any changes DHS makes to its Crayola-colored threat system should be an improvement over the current one,” Lautenberg said.  “The system has caused financial hardships, fear, panic and confusion among Americans,” he said (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Sept. 13).

Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP