Tic-tac

Pronto empezarían a encenderse todas las alarmas en FBI y CIA, pero el muro de ladrillos era ya demasiado prieto y el tiempo corría en su contra...

1998: CIA agent Robert Baer, newly retired from the CIA and working as a terrorism consultant, meets a former police chief from Qatar. He learns how 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was sheltered from the FBI by the Qatari Interior Minister Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani. He passes this information to the CIA in early 1998, but the CIA takes no action against Qatar's al-Qaeda patrons. The ex-police chief also tells him that Mohammed is a key aide to bin Laden, and that based on Qatari intelligence, Mohammed "is going to hijack some planes." He passes this information to the CIA as well, but again the CIA doesn't seem interested, even when he tries again after 9/11. Baer also tries to interest reporter Daniel Pearl in a story about Mohammed before 9/11, but Pearl is still working on it when he gets kidnapped and murdered.
En efecto, a la CIA no da abasto echando tierra sobre todo lo que les llega de sus agentes de campo. Creo que acaban de hacer una peli sobre el caso Pearl, alrededor del cual sé mucho pero no viene realmente al caso.

Al-Qaeda terrorists bomb the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bomb in Nairobi, Kenya kills 213 people, including 12 US nationals, and injures more than 4,500. The bomb in Dar es Salaam kills 11 and injures 85
Cómo ya os adelanté, la bestia estaba fuera de control y además el desconcierto en CIA y FBI era ya mayúsculo, pues había múltiples agendas. Para muestra:

US intelligence finds information that bin Laden’s next operation could possibly involve crashing an aircraft loaded with explosives into a US airport and that al-Qaeda is trying to establish a terrorist cell within the US and are planning to strike a US domestic target. Dec. 98: A classified document signed by a senior US official states: "The intelligence community has strong indications that bin Laden intends to conduct or sponsor attacks inside the US."
Sin embargo, la agenda que prevalecería sería la de Brzezinsky y Kissinger, la de taparlo todo. Bin Laden era un agente CIA.

Northern Alliance capital Mazar-e-Sharif is conquered by the Taliban, giving them control of 90% of Afghanistan, including the entire pipeline route. The CentGas consortium, led by Unocal and the Saudi Arabian Delta Oil, is now "ready to proceed" with the gas pipeline that would run through Afghanistan. Unocal Vice President John J. Maresca - later to become a Special Ambassador to Afghanistan - testifies before the House of Representatives that until a single, unified, friendly government is in place in Afghanistan the trans-Afghani pipeline will not be built. He suggests that with a pipeline through Afghanistan, the Caspian basin could produce 20 percent of all the non-OPEC oil in the world by 2010.

Ya lo ven, la maquinaria estaba en marcha, salvo que...

USA Today, 6/18/02		AP, 9/8/02	AP, 7/17/02
UPI, 9/30/02	Vanity Fair 2/02		Washington Post, 10/3/01 (C)]
See No Evil, Robert Baer, 2/02, pp. 270-271			[AP, 9/26/01
PBS Frontline, 2001			New York Times, 12/8/01]
Senate Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02			[Telegraph, 8/13/98
New York Times, 9/18/02			House International Relations Committee testimony
Cato Institute Library	Chicago Tribune, 8/10/00