Incidentally, a June 15, 2003 broadcast of the BBC's news magazine Correspondent interviewed a Fillepino intelligence officer who had delivered intelligence to his US counterpart that suggested al Qaeda planned to crash an airplane into a building. The intelligence was so detailed that it even suggested that they had gotten the idea from this bar in the Philippines that al Qeada members frequented that had a small plane crashing into it's facade.
BBC News
The reasonable person wonders if the Congressional report will also dish on George W. Bush's business ties with the powerful Saudi bin Laden family. Yes, those bin Ladens.
The report is due out on or around the last week in July.
Read more about this reportedly exlposive report at the Miami Herald web site.
Read more about the episode of the episode of the BBC's Correspondent news magazine.
From the Miami Herald website:
From BBC News:U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
BY FRANK DAVIES
fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
The staff director for the congressional investigation that produced the 800-page report, Eleanor Hill, said Wednesday that several lengthy battles with the Bush administration over how much secret data to declassify have been resolved.
She expects the document to go to the Government Printing Office late this week and then be made public about a week later.
''It's compelling and galvanizing and will refocus the public's attention on Sept. 11,'' predicted Roemer, an Indiana Democrat. ``Certain mistakes, errors and gaps in the system will be made clear.''
Roemer, who is also a member of the independent commission on Sept. 11, would not discuss details of the report. He said he expects the public report to be a compromise between intelligence officials who wanted to hold back data and congressional leaders and staffers who pressed for more disclosure.
A source familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, cited two ''sensitive areas'' of the report that will command public attention:
• More information on ties between the Saudi royal family, government officials and terrorists. The FBI may have mishandled an investigation into how two of the Sept. 11 hijackers received aid from Saudi groups and individuals.
John Lehman, a member of the independent commission, said at a hearing Wednesday: ``There's little doubt that much of the funding of terrorist groups -- whether intentional or unintentional -- is coming from Saudi sources.''
• A coherent narrative of intelligence warnings, some of them ignored or not shared with other agencies, before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
WARNING IN 2001
The report will show that top Bush administration officials were warned in the summer of 2001 that the al Qaeda terrorist network had plans to hijack aircraft and launch a ``spectacular attack.''
Hill would not discuss details of the report, but said it will contain ''new information'' about revelations made last year, when the joint House-Senate investigation held nine public hearings and 13 closed sessions.
The final report was completed in December. Since then a working group of Bush administration intelligence officials has ''scrubbed'' the report, objecting to additional public disclosures.
PUSH FOR DISCLOSURE
The two chairmen from Florida who oversaw the investigation, Sen. Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss of Sanibel, have pushed for months for more disclosure.
Graham, a Democrat running for president, has said the administration was using the excuse of national security to block ''embarrassments'' by the government.
Goss blamed the declassification battle on traditional resistance from intelligence officials.
The report will contain chunks of missing type or ''redactions'' to show where information was withheld, Hill said.
Roemer called the report a ``well-written narrative that will be summer reading for adults the way Harry Potter is for kids.''
WIDER PROBE
The 10 members of the independent National Commission on Terrorist Attacks and its staff have had the report for several months and are using it in their more wide-ranging investigation.
The congressional investigation focused on intelligence before and after Sept. 11, while the independent commission's broad mandate includes immigration, airline safety and congressional oversight of counterterrorism.
The commission's two leaders, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, complained this week that federal departments were slow in turning over documents needed for their investigation.
Terror in the Philippines
Did this bar in Manila inspire the 11 September attacks?
Terror in the Philippines was broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday, 15 June, 2003 at 1915 BST.
The Philippines are home to a new front in the war on terror.
They were also home to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the so-called brains behind al-Qaeda.
It was in Manila that Mohammed first discussed the idea that would eventually lead to the attacks of 11 September.
The Philippines were once a US colony, and the American troops didn't leave their bases there until 1991.
They had taken their eye off the region and, as a result, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was allowed to operate freely.
The Americans don't want to make the same mistake again.
Legacy of suffering
Local politicians and people are distrustful, and believe that the US want to do more than just fight terrorism.
None are more distrustful than those who live in the Southern Philippines, an area of autonomy for the country's Muslims, who make up 5% of the Philippines' population.
They suffered more than anyone in the Philippines during US colonial times.
New terror target
The south is also home to Abu Sayyaf, a former Islamic separatist group whose ideology has degenerated into kidnap and ransom - beheading its hostages when ransom demands are not met.
It is not the country's biggest terrorist group, but has become America's target, and the US has promised soldiers to help destroy Abu Sayyaf.
What are the Americans really doing in South East Asia? And are the Filippinos right to be so distrustful?
Correspondent travels throughout the Philippines to find out.
Reporter: Ben Anderson
Producer/Director: Leo Telling
Editor: Karen O'Connor
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