Bush Administration's First Memo on al-Qaeda Declassified

1. Bush Administration's First Memo on al-Qaeda Declassified
2. 9/11 Commission Staff Report on FAA Failings Published on Web

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National Security Archive Update, February 10, 2005

BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FIRST MEMO ON AL-QAEDA DECLASSIFIED

January 25, 2001 Richard Clarke Memo:
"We urgently need ... a Principals level review on the al Qida network."

Document Central to Clarke-Rice Dispute on Bush Terrorism Policy Pre-9/11

For more information contact:
Barbara Elias - 202/994-7045

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington D.C., February 10, 2005 - The National Security Archive today posted the widely-debated, but previously unavailable, January 25, 2001, memo from counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke to national security advisor Condoleezza Rice - the first terrorism strategy paper of the Bush administration. The document was central to debates in the 9/11 hearings over the Bush administration's policies and actions on terrorism before September 11, 2001. Clarke's memo requests an immediate meeting of the National Security Council's Principals Committee to discuss broad strategies for combating al-Qaeda by giving counterterrorism aid to the Northern Alliance and Uzbekistan, expanding the counterterrorism budget and responding to the U.S.S. Cole attack. Despite Clarke's request, there was no Principals Committee meeting on al-Qaeda until September 4, 2001.

The January 25, 2001, memo, recently released to the National Security Archive by the National Security Council, bears a declassification stamp of April 7, 2004, one day prior to Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004. Responding to claims that she ignored the al-Qaeda threat before September 11, Rice stated in a March 22, 2004 Washington Post op-ed, "No al-Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration."

Two days after Rice's March 22 op-ed, Clarke told the 9/11 Commission, "there's a lot of debate about whether it's a plan or a strategy or a series of options -- but all of the things we recommended back in January were those things on the table in September. They were done. They were done after September 11th. They were all done. I didn't really understand why they couldn't have been done in February."

Also attached to the original Clarke memo are two Clinton-era documents relating to al-Qaeda. The first, "Tab A December 2000 Paper: Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects," was released to the National Security Archive along with the Clarke memo. "Tab B, September 1998 Paper: Pol-Mil Plan for al-Qida," also known as the Delenda Plan, was attached to the original memo, but was not released to the Archive and remains under request with the National Security Council.

http://www.nsarchive.org

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THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

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PRIVACY NOTICE The National Security Archive does not and will never share the names or e-mail addresses of its subscribers with any other organization. Once a year, we will write you and ask for your financial support. We may also ask you for your ideas for Freedom of Information requests, documentation projects, or other issues that the Archive should take on. We would welcome your input, and any information you care to share with us about your special interests. But we do not sell or rent any information about subscribers to any other party.

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Date:    Thu, 10 Feb 2005 23:31:55 -0500
From:    NSARCHIVE 
Subject: 9/11 Commission Staff Report on FAA Failings Published on Web

National Security Archive Update, February 10, 2005

9/11 COMMISSION STAFF REPORT ON FAA FAILINGS PUBLISHED ON WEB

Document Updates Previous Archive Posting on
Censorship of Aviation Warnings Leading up to 9/11

For more information contact:
Barbara Elias - 202/994-7045

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington D.C., February 10, 2005 - As a result of a Freedom of Information Act appeal filed by the National Security Archive, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) corrected its October 2004 blunder of withholding the names and numbers of aviation warnings known as Information Circulars that were widely cited and quoted in the best-selling 9/11 Commission Report. In spite of this additional material, the released TSA documents continue to withhold details that were declassified in the recently released 9/11 Commission Staff Report on the pre-9/11 failings of the FAA that was the subject of a front page New York Times article by Eric Lichtblau today.

The release of documents on appeal has resulted in the disclosure of only one sentence of substance, a comment in the June 22, 2001 Information Circular, that states, "such an airline hijacking to free terrorists incarcerated in the United States, remains a concern." The sentence was released by TSA on appeal because it can be found in Chapter 8 of the 9/11 Commission Report on page 256.

The TSA continues to affirm its decision to withhold all other material in the Information Circulars as Sensitive Security Information (SSI), despite additional citations of the requested documents in the 9/11 Commission Staff Report, which is highly critical of the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to establish better security practices in response to incoming terrorism warnings.

"These Information Circulars continue to qualify as dubious secrets," said Barbara Elias, the FOIA coordinator at the National Security Archive. "It seems clear that the Transportation Security Administration did not review these documents on the basis of the information they contain, they simply redacted everything they could legally redact."

"The government is still ducking the real question, which is whether the secrecy about these warnings actually makes us safer," said Thomas Blanton, the National Security Archive director.

The National Security Archive has posted these released TSA documents on its Web site together with the 9/11 Commission Staff Report.

http://www.nsarchive.org

_________________________________________________________

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

_________________________________________________________

PRIVACY NOTICE The National Security Archive does not and will never share the names or e-mail addresses of its subscribers with any other organization. Once a year, we will write you and ask for your financial support. We may also ask you for your ideas for Freedom of Information requests, documentation projects, or other issues that the Archive should take on. We would welcome your input, and any information you care to share with us about your special interests. But we do not sell or rent any information about subscribers to any other party.

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End of NSARCHIVE Digest - 4 Feb 2005 to 10 Feb 2005 (#2005-3)

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