Bush on defensive over counter-terrorismstartegydespite release of memo

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=14&u=/afp/us_attacks

Bush on the defensive over counter-terrorism strategy despite release of memo

CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush remained under pressure over his counter-terrorism strategy before the September 11 attacks, despite the release of a memorandum which highlighted al-Qaeda activity in the United States before the strikes.

A prominent member of the official commission looking into the 2001 attacks said they could have been prevented had US law enforcement and intelligence officials followed up on leads pointing to suspected terrorists at work in the United States.
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"Nevertheless," it went on, "FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."


US policies in Iraq "are creating the conditions for civil war there and giving al-Qaeda a powerful rationale to recruit young people to declare jihad on the United States," said Kerrey.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, interviewed on CNN's "Late Edition" show, said that he saw "nothing particularly remarkable" in the released document.

"It restated a lot of things that we already knew," he said. "And there was nothing in there about a specific attack on a specific target."

"They didn't know that 9/11 was going to happen," Richard Ben-Veniste, another Democratic member of the September 11 commission, said on the same show.

But it seemed the memo author "was alerting to the president to the possibility that the strike that we were all anticipating in the summer of 2001 might well occur within the United States," and not abroad as many expected.

Ben-Veniste also said that "sharp questioning or focused questioning" on the September 11 panel "is not an indication of partisanship. It is an indication of our determination to bring the truth forward."

Even in the face of the irrefutable truth. What a pathetic little man.

the headline was appealing.