Threat to Library Tower redux

President Bush said yesterday said that a serious terrorist threat to the tallest skyscraper in Los Angeles (now called US Bank tower) was thwarted sometime since 9/11. Just how serious a threat has long been in question, but bloggers Brendan Loy and Mickey Kaus find it unacceptable that today's L.A. Times story on Bush's statement didn't specify the local angle, while even the Washington Post mentioned Library Tower. For what it's worth, the Bush list was a clip job. The threat to Library Tower has been well-known. Here's the LAT on March 31, 2004:

Al Qaeda had planned to attack Los Angeles' tallest building in the months after Sept. 11 as part of a second wave of strikes that was never carried out, according to a statement by an alleged terrorist that was passed on to the Los Angeles Police Department. "We were made aware of that information last spring," said John Miller, the LAPD's top anti-terrorism official. "From a public safety standpoint, we took a number of immediate steps to tighten our procedures on notifications of any hijackings in the area."...

Two law enforcement sources said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the former operations chief for Al Qaeda captured last March, reportedly told his interrogators that the Library Tower -- now known as the U.S. Bank Tower -- was targeted along with Chicago's Sears Tower. Law enforcement officials, however, caution that Mohammed's statements since his capture have been viewed with a degree of skepticism by U.S. intelligence.