Search the Internet          Tips  Links: Terror in America

Egypt warned US prior to Sept 11 attacks: Mubarak

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said Cairo had warned Washington about a week before September 11 attacks by Al Qaeda terrorists.

Egyptian intelligence officials had no indication what the target would be and had no idea of the magnitude of the coming attack, Mubarak said.

"We didn't know that such a thing could take place," he said, referring to the September 11 attacks.

"We thought it was an embassy, an airplane, something, the usual thing. But to discover after the event that the terrorists were going to take airplanes and destroy buildings, that is unbelievable," Mubarak told New York Times in an interview.

Mubarak's disclosure, the paper said, represents for the first time a foreign leader saying that an intelligence service had penetrated bin Laden's network to the extent that discussions about specific operations -- and whether they could be halted or postponed -- were underway.

Mubarak did not say whether he knew how counter-terrorism officials in Washington had reacted to the warning, which a senior US official denied was received.

But, Mubarak said, security at the US Embassy in Cairo was tightened.

Mubarak, the Times said, cited the warning as evidence that Egypt has become an increasingly valuable intelligence partner to the US in the war against terrorism.

It seemed possible he was seeking to burnish Egypt's credentials, which have been questioned in Congress, in advance of his visit to Washington this week, the daily added.

America's War on Terror: The Complete Coverage
The Attack on US Cities: The Complete Coverage

The Terrorism Weblog: Latest Stories from Around the World

External Link:
For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report