WP (Mon): Memo Not Specific Enough, Bush Says

Monday, April 12, 2004; Page A01

President Bush said yesterday that a memo he received a month before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks did not contain enough specific threat information to prevent the hijackings and "said nothing about an attack on America."

In his most extensive public remarks about a briefing he received Aug. 6, 2001, titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," Bush also said that he "was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into" by the FBI and the CIA that summer and that they would have reported any "actionable intelligence" to him.

(snip)

Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, a Republican former governor of New Jersey, said in an interview this weekend that he will push for declassification of another specific PDB related to al Qaeda that was delivered to former president Bill Clinton, raising the possibility of heightened public scrutiny of the previous administration's response as well.

One Democratic commission member also said yesterday that the release of the August 2001 document will renew a push by some members to gain access to scores of other similar intelligence memos provided to Bush and Clinton over the past six years, including about 40 others from the Bush administration that mention al Qaeda or bin Laden. Because of restrictions set by the White House, only three of the panel's members were able to read any PDBs directly, while the rest of the members have had to rely on a 17-page summary screened by the White House.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4275-2004Apr11?language=printer

I quote *: "said nothing about an attack on America."

The FRELLING TITLE OF THE PDB: "Bin Laden DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN US"
(emphasis mine)

There has to be ONE reporter somewhere that's saying to themselves right now, "Wait a minute. Something doesn't add up here."

Just one???

Where is the press? Laying on its back, growling playfully as Rove scratches its belly. Good doggy, have some kibble.

So, if I'm reading this right: because the briefing notes did not contain exact times, places, names, DNA samples, GPS tracking data in live stream, and the Riddler's trademark riddle-clues, there was NOTHING BushCo could do...and it's ACF (All Clinton's Fault).

Every day in every way, things are getting a little more LIHOP.

And also due to those missing details, they were unable to scramble fighters once they knew where planes were heading. I mean really, what do you people want from the poor lamb, he's not freakin' Miss Cleo...:eyes: </extreme sarcasm>

Wasn't all that in the memo?

and the seating charts to respond.

snip from reporter: "the memo was not strictly historical, it contained current information"

smiling shrub: "RIGHT, and if they had found anything, they would have reported to me."

WHAT? DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL?

because why on earth would he have taken a job as head of security at the World Trade Center? It can't be a coincidence that he just happened to get a job there as he must have know something was about to happen.

Or is he still alive and masterminding plots, lot of plots, from a secure location? Yeah, that's the ticket.

Disinformation not appreciated.

but when I first heard about John ONeill, I thought precisely that.
Knowing that nothing was being done to stop the tragedy, John signed up as captain of the doomed ship.

Perhaps he felt responsible, perhaps he thought that his death would point journalists to an important aspect of the tragedy. Perhaps he was wrong, or maybe not.

That only increases the pathos of the whole story of 911, IMO.

but I caught a moment of Bush "explaining" the memo while looking for news about the Masters. Bush's demeanor made me think of Mark Crispin Miller's views about how Bush is more articulate when talking about things like the death penalty -- things he's comfortable with (yeah, sick). To me he seemed to be talking in a more fluid manner than usual, and a little faster, too. It occurred to me that he's more articulate, perhaps, when he's selling something, trying to save his ass, being the used car salesman. Anybody else notice that?

Uh, George, are you as clueless as you act?

Uh George, would you like to read some spy novels?

Uh George, sorry, forgot you don't read.

Uh George, tell me again how you got to be president?

That's really leadership!

Why would they have kept this PDB memo under wraps for 2.5 years otherwise? Bush hid evidence of his knowledge about Al Qaeda. He covered it up.

that is enough.

Unlike the instructions on how to care for an M-16, it wasn't written up in the form of a comic book.

There seems to be no proof that he actually read the memo.

If there was ever a more useless sack of shit, I've not seen it. He's a waste of protoplasm.

and he was lying when he said the FBI had no info. Colleen Rowley in MN and the other agent in Phoenix had information that they were desperate to share. In fact, Rowley went over her bosses' heads and took the matter up with Langley, so desperate was she to get the info into the right hands. As the DC feds kept turning down her office's applications for a FISA warrant, the MN agents joked there was a mole in the DC HQ.
The info was there but the people who wanted to share it couldn't get the attention of the people whose job it was to protect the country.

...here is the comeback to Bush's statement:

Bush and Rice say they couldn't move against Al Queda without "actionable intelligence" and say there was none in the PDB.

They then brought the full force of the world's greatest military power against a non-threatening sovereign nation merely on contrived and falsified intelligence.

Does the WH want Americans to consider high crimes and misdemeanors using the PDB standard for action? Or the standard they applied to Iraq?

I Don't post much anymore but drop by to read....

I was wondering when someone (hoping it would be Dem leadership)would start comparing evidence contained in submitted intelligence pre 911 attacks with evidence submitted during the lead up war.

what my husband said when he read bush's statement. Of course, the title of the memo should have been a hint. (Where is Howard Dean?? He'd point out the obvious) One comment about the media: why do we expect them to cover anything unfavorable to bush? A REAL press would have exposed bush before the election and Gore would have won by a landslide. They have been compliance in his entire "presidency." I think we need to be asking them loud and often why they didn't tell the truth about this buffoon during the 2000 campaign.

I am not saying you are not right, just pointing out the inevitable mantra that would be chanted back at you.

Someone should ask Bush how he could have possibly thought "that's one bad pilot", after the PDB included the words "hijack", "New York", and "World Trade Center". Talk about not connecting the dots. It proves he either lied about that, or he is too clueless to be president.

Was the Iraq intelligence any more specific? Personally, I haven't heard of any "Saddam Hussain is Determined to Strike Within the US" memos, yet...

It's all just further proof of their imagining and puffing up the Iraqi threat while downplaying and ignoring Al Qaeda.

edit: I see post-submit that grasswire(14) and Roy(15) already hit on this point. I'd *love* to hear Air America take this up, and then get it out to the mw's.

Does anyone know of any funding or resource shifts related to counter-terrorism during the pre-9/11 period of His reign?

I've heard/I believe:
- they loosened the VISA application process for Saudis sometime around June of 2001
- Ashcroft downshifted the priority of counter-terrorism (but to what degree, and behind what other issues?)

I'm thinking that His administration, at a minimum, should have upped funding and focus on the 70-odd ongoing investigations. But is there any paper or budget trail indicating that He tried spurring on any of the investigations?

Idiot.

This latest reveals the true picture, he really is a dumb guy.

Much Dumber than Dumb.

Its worse than we thought guys, much worse.

He didn't get it, blew it, fumbled, and all that time, didn't say a friggen word. He set us up for a fall.

He's the one who hates to read anything longer than 2 pages.

in order for these idiots to take action - some action - any action. At the very least law enforcement throughout the country should have been put on alert - and the public should have been told that Ashcroft was no longer flying commercially because of terror threats. The hijackers known to be in the country should have been identified and their faces broadcast on every station and in every newspaper. Look how quickly the guy accused of the Ohio shootings was recognized in Vegas.

It seems to me thwarting the attacks - or at least making them a lot harder to carry off - would certainly have been possible for an administration dedicated to protecting the American people. Unfortunately, we were stuck with a cabal looking for "another Pearl Harbor" in order to justify an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. Bushco = pure evil.

I got golf to play.

even the first plane hitting the WTC was not specific enough. That is why the CIA should have lied and said SADDAM HUSSEIN was planning an attack with planes as missiles.

That would have gotten his full attention, specific or not.

No wouldn't it just?

If he'd read the memo, why did he enter that school knowing that a hijacked plane had been deliberately flown into a building?

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/true911.html

:headbang:
rocknation

This is really getting to be the Dog Ate My Homework Presidency. Nothing's ever the administration's fault.

Why the (very bad word) aren't the American people calling on Bush and Cheney to resign? I'll admit that even I cringed at the MoveOn.org "Bush knew" ads, but the fact that Bush can get in front of the press and say, "And the PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat" without catcalls, hisses, groans, and boos from the entire assembled group -- staff included -- is beyond me.

"No indication of a terrorist threat." What did he want? Osama bin Laden dancing the can-can in the Oval Office and singing, "We're going to kill you"?

Unbelievable. Why the hell isn't this moron on a one-way trip to Crawford right now?

I supposed Dumbya wanted an exact time and date. GEEZ! But of course he doesn't ask questions or appear to be interested when it comes to meetings...according to Paul O'neal.

On October 1, 2002 in the German newsweekly Die Zeit, Oliver Schröm wrote an article titled "Deadly Mistakes: U.S. Investigators Knew About Planned Terror Attacks, Let the Suspects Get Away. More Clues That CIA and FBI Could Have Prevented the Attack on America." The article states:

Crawford, Aug. 6, 2001. U.S. president George W. Bush is on vacation. He wants to spend the whole month at his ranch in Texas. Every morning, however, he still receives his Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB, wherein the CIA informs the president about the country's security situation. On this morning, the report is straight from the CIA director. His PDB runs 11 and one-half printed pages, instead of the usual two to three, and carries the title, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Therein the CIA chief explains that al Qaeda has decided to carry out attacks within the United States, and that presumably members of the terrorist organization have been in the country for some time. It is unclear whether the CIA director informed the president about the statements of arrested al Qaeda members. According to their confessions, the terrorist organization for some time has been thinking about hijacking planes and using them as missiles....

From this, it appears the White House released the preamble of the August 6, 2001 PDB and redacted 10+ pages. What are they hiding?

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

By Curt Anderson

Washington - A more nimble FBI and CIA working together might have uncovered the September 11, 2001 terrorist plot, the commission investigating the attacks said on Tuesday, laying out an agonising series of missed opportunities, half measures and bureaucratic inertia.

In a written report, the panel also quoted former Acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard as saying Attorney General John Ashcroft told him in the summer of 2001 that "he did not want to hear" additional information about possible attacks.

Ashcroft denies making the statement, the commission said.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1081900081140B224&set_id=1