Ahmad Shah Massoud Tried to Warn the West About a Terrorist Attack on America - 2003-11-07

A previously classified telegram from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency reveals that Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan opposition against the Taliban, attempted to warn the West that terrorists intended to attack America. This telegram was sent in November 2001 and has been obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the edited text of the telegram, Massoud had become somewhat aware that al-Qaeda planned a terrorist attack in America larger than the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Defense Intelligence Agency's telegram indicates that Massoud learned of this through the intelligence efforts of the Northern Alliance, which he led. The telegram states that in a speech to the European Parliament in April 2001, Massoud warned about the intentions of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Massoud was assassinated later that year, two days before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, by al-Qaeda agents disguised as journalists. The Defense Intelligence Agency's telegram mentions that Ahmad Shah Massoud was not considered a threat to al-Qaeda, even though his forces were fighting the Taliban for control of Afghanistan.