The first page of the memo, released following pressure from the 9/11 commission

CRAWFORD, Texas, April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The White House revealed a security memo that warned of possible terrorist acts in the U.S. one month before the 9/11 attacks, putting the Bush administration in a delicate position ahead of the Presidential election.

The memo – revealed Saturday, April 10 – was received by U.S. President George W. Bush August 6, 2001, and warned that al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden had penetrated the United States and could resort to plane hijackings.

The White House said the memo had been prepared “in response to questions the President had asked on the possibility of al-Qaeda attacks in the United States”, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It released the memorandum under pressure from the official inquiry into the 2001 strikes as the President's counter-terrorism strategy before September 11 faces growing scrutiny.

The memo, entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S.”, said that in mid-2001 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents suspected al-Qaeda was preparing air hijackings and had been studying federal buildings in New York.

Washington says al-Qaeda members had hijacked planes and slammed them into the New York World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

“We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a (-censored-) service in 1998 saying that bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of 'Blind Shaykh,' 'Umar' Abd al-Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists,” said the memo.

“Nevertheless,” it went on, “FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”

 The memo also said the FBI was investigating a telephone call “received by our embassy in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) in May saying that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives”.

A White House official, who declined to be named, noted the memo referred to “possible hijackings but not to the use of planes as weapons”.

The memo has been widely debated at the public hearings of the independent September 11 commission but details had not been given as it was a classified Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB).

The commission had strenuously called for the White House to release the memo, featured strongly in questioning on Thursday, April 8, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

Rice did give the commission the title of the memo, which the commission asked the White House to declassify and make public.

Bush already stands accused by former antiterrorism czar Richard Clarke of failing to take al-Qaeda threats seriously enough after taking office in January 2001.

Inaction

60% of the Americans said Bush underestimated the threat of terrorism (AFP)

The memo showed the inaction of the Bush administration in counter terrorism before September 11.

Six out of 10 Americans (60 percent) say the Bush administration underestimated the threat of terrorism prior to the terrorist attacks, according to a Newsweek poll released Saturday.

Half (52 percent) of all Americans put the blame with the FBI and CIA for intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 and only a quarter (25 percent) of those polled think lack of focus by the administration played a more important role than those failures, according to the poll.

The poll also showed that 42 percent of those polled were concerned that the occupation of Iraq will lead to future terrorist attacks on their country.

Forty percent are also very concerned that Iraq will become “another Vietnam” for U.S. troops.

Nearly half (46 percent, up from 39 percent in January) of Americans say they are either “not too” or “not at all” confident that the United States will ever be able to bring democracy to Iraq, said the poll conducted April 9-10 on 1,500 adults.

On the White House race, the poll showed that Democratic candidate John Kerry now led Busy by seven points (50 percent to 43 percent) even after adding independent candidate Ralph Nader.

The upsurge in resistance attacks against U.S. occupation forces in Iraq and growing casualty toll has intensified the Democrats' criticism of Bush with Kerry describing the Iraq occupation a “mess”.

The U.S. Defense Department has now confirmed more than 630 military deaths in Iraq since the start of the war to occupy the oil-rich country.

Experts say this could strengthen discontent with Bush and help Kerry's election hopes.

Las month, a Newsweek poll showed that voter approval for Bush's handling of national security has slumped to 57 percent down from a high of 70 percent since Clarke has dropped his bombshell.