Steve Chapman: Big mistakes in the war on terror

Big mistakes in the war on terror
Steve Chapman
March 25, 2004

In President Bush's handling of the war on terror, two facts stand out: Before Sept. 11, he failed to take military action against an enemy that had attacked us, and later, he took military action against an enemy that had not attacked us.

He has a rejoinder for anyone who accuses him of failing to move against Al Qaeda early in his term. He said Tuesday, "George Tenet briefed me on a regular basis about the terrorist threat to the United States of America, and had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on Sept. 11, we would have acted."

We would have acted? What a relief. Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden was not kind enough to phone the Oval Office with a schedule of events planned for New York and Washington that day.

The president's response couldn't have reassured anyone hearing former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke accuse him of paying too little attention to Al Qaeda before Sept. 11. Everything unearthed in the investigation by the 9/11 commission confirms the charge. Former U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie Gorelick, the only commission member allowed to see all the president's daily intelligence briefings from before the attacks, said they showed an "extraordinary spike" of warnings about Al Qaeda in 2001, with information that "would set your hair on fire."
<<snip>>

Read more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0403250100mar25,1,2161454.column?coll=chi-news-col

This statement made me cringe:

"George Tenet briefed me on a regular basis about the terrorist threat to the United States of America, and had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on Sept. 11, we would have acted."

This fool should never open his mouth; he indicts himself when he does. I want to see that August 6 PDB bad, real bad.

Had any remotely competent members of my crony-laden, Cold War-frozen-in-time administration had any actionable intelligence spelled out in small words but typed up in large print that really, really bad evildoers were going to smash to smithereens the World Trade Towers using two hijacked, fully fueled American jetliners before 10 am on the morning of Sept. 11, we would have acted (weather permitting).