WASHINGTON, Sept 5: Hours after a hijacked airliner struck the Pentagon last Sept 11, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq, CBS television reported on Wednesday.

According to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on September 11, Rumsfeld was outside helping the injured 15 minutes after the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon, the report said.

At that time, the National Security Agency intercepted a phone call from one of Osama bin Laden’s operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, CBS News said.

The caller said that he had “heard good news” and that another target was still to come, an indication he knew about the airliner that eventually crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

At 12:05 pm, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation. But according to the report, Rumsfeld felt it was “vague,” that it “might not mean something” and that there was “no good basis for hanging hat.”

With the intelligence all pointing toward Osama bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans.

And at 2:40 pm, the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted “best info fast. Judge whether good enough (to) hit SH at same time. Not only UBL,” CBS News quoted the notes as saying.

SH, in Pentagon parlance (language), stands for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and UBL for Osama bin Laden.

Nearly one year after the September 11 attacks, there is still very little evidence that Iraq was involved in the strikes, CBS News said. But if these notes are accurate, that didn’t matter to Rumsfeld.

“Go massive,” the notes quote him as saying. “Sweep it all up — things related and not.”—AFP