Terrorist Organization Quotes



Hamas had, in a bloody armed coup, seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority, and refusing to negotiate with the Israelis undermined the Palestinian hopes of peace talks with Israel. The PA could no longer speak for the Palestinians. Hamas a particularly aggressive terrorist organization whose charter called for the death of all Jews in the world, wanted to force the Palestinian Authority to join them in terrorist attacks on Israel. The Palestinians had renounced terrorism and violence. The Hamas fighters were planning to fire rockets at Israel from the West Bank and launching other terrorist attacks against Israel, hoping that Israel would retaliate against the Palestinian Authority by attacking the West Bank which had not been destroyed at all while Gaza had lost much of its infrastructure and 2,000 lives. The Palestinian Authority was not about to let themselves get sucked into a war that they could not possible win and was contrary to the policies of Prime Minister Abbas and his elected government.


Two months later the attack of September 11 took place. CIA Director Tenant had been do alarmed by the information that the CIA had obtained that he immediately called the National Security Advisor to arrange a briefing at the White House. This was attended by Rich B, Tenant, and his deputy for counter-terrorism, Cofer Black. Black recommended that the United States immediately go on a “war footing.” It is not known what Rice discussed with President Bush but the nation did not go on a war footing and there was no alert even of the airports where the terrorists started their attack taking over planes. Tenant would later say that one of his biggest regrets was that he did not take the matter to the President personally when his meeting with Rice produced no action.