Hours after a hijacked airliner struck the Pentagon last September 11, United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld started telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq, CBS television reported Wednesday.
According to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on September 11, Rumsfeld was outside helping the injured 15 minutes after the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon, the report added.
At that time, the National Security Agency intercepted a phone call from one of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, CBS News said.
The caller said that he had "heard good news" and that another target was still to come, an indication he knew about the airliner that eventually crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. At 12:05 pm (local time) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation. However, according to the report, Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," that it "might not mean something" and that there was "no good basis for hanging hat."
Later that afternoon, the CIA reported that the passenger manifests for the hijacked airliners showed that three of the hijackers were suspected al-Qaeda operatives, according to CBS News.
With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. In addition, at 2:40 pm (local time), the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough (to) hit SH at same time. Not only UBL," CBS News quoted the notes as saying.
It is noteworthy to say that nearly one year after the September 11 attacks on US cities, there is still very little evidence that Baghdad was involved in the strikes, CBS News added. However, if these notes are indeed accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.
"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up -- things related and not." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
