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Rice denies 9/11 warning

On her tour of the Middle East US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has denied claims from former CIA chief George Tenet that she was warned of an impending Al Qaeda attack in the United States before the September 11 attacks.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 00:00 October 2, 2006
  • Gulf News

  • Rice denied claims she was warned in advance about Al Qaeda's September 11 attacks.
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Cairo: On her tour of the Middle East US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has denied claims from former CIA chief George Tenet that she was warned of an impending Al Qaeda attack in the United States before the September 11 attacks.

"What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible," Rice said.

Rice is due to meet with foreign ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states on her tour, which is aimed at reviving the Middle East Peace Process.

Speaking to reporters en route to Saudi Arabia and other stops in the Middle East, Rice said she met with Tenet daily at that point, and has no memory of the wake-up call from Tenet described in the book.

On her first journey to the region since a July visit at height of the war in Lebanon, Rice said she plans to ask Saudi Arabia to do more to help stabilise Iraq, encouraging it to influence Iraqi Sunnis to become more involved in the political process.

Speaking as she flew to the Middle East, Rice said she planned during her trip to talk to US allies in the region about how they can assist the Iraqi and Lebanese governments as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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