A few forgotten news nuggets from the past. re: 9/11, Bush, etc.

[wyldwolf]

Ashcroft denied FBI Requests For Counter Terrorism Funding

Attorney General John Ashcroft developed sharply different spending priorities after the Sept. 11 attacks. In a Sept. 10 budget request, he had proposed cutting aid to state and local counterterrorism efforts.

He denied FBI Requests For Counter Terrorism Funding.

Story

US Combat Commander In Afghanistan: Capturing bin Laden is not part of mission

The U.S. combat commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that apprehending Osama bin Laden isn't one of the missions of Operation Enduring Storm. But Gen. Tommy Franks' remarks may come back to haunt him Friday morning when he meets with President Bush to brief him on the war's progress. Bush has said from the beginning of the operation that he wants bin Laden "dead or alive."

Story

Before Sept. 11, the Bush Anti-Terror Effort Was Mostly Ambition

Must read article... Story

[Jacobin]

1. Thankfully, we'll never hear about that from the commission

/sarcasm

Another tidbit, the FBI whistleblower agent who screamed and hollered and tried to get Justice to pay attention to the hijackers and was ignored.

They won't talk about that either.

All happened on King George The Idiot's watch.

[RobertSeattle]

2. Someone pointed out this old gem from 1996

http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/30/clinton.terrorism/

President wants Senate to hurry with new anti-terrorism laws
July 30, 1996
Web posted at: 8:40 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess.

[Ksec]

3. good post - I had forgotten those jewels nt

[wyldwolf]

4. Here's another...

Bush Was Warned of Hijackings Before 9/11; Lawmakers Want Public Inquiry

White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes, and that information prompted administration officials to issue a private warning to transportation officials and national security agencies.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/warningmemo020516.html

[wyldwolf]

5. ...and a few excerpts from MSNBC articles that "vanished" from the web

"On Sept. 10.... a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns."
Newsweek 24 September 2001
http://www.msnbc.com/news/629606.asp

"Dick Cheney was on the line, and it wasn’t to chitchat. The vice president rarely calls the Senate leader—a Democrat he dismisses as an 'obstructionist'—so Tom Daschle knew the topic was important when he hurried into his Capitol office. What he heard was a plea, and a warning. The Senate will soon launch hearings on why we weren’t prepared for, and warned about, September 11. The intelligence committee will study the matter, but mostly behind closed doors. Cheney was calling to pre-emptively protest public hearings by other committees. If the Democrats insisted, Bush administration officials might say they’re too busy running the war on terrorism to show up. Press the issue, Cheney implied, and you risk being accused of interfering with the mission. Daschle was noncommittal and, after the call, unmoved. 'Intelligence is just a piece of it,' he said. 'People need to know what happened......"
Newsweek magazine, 4 February 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/694812.asp

[robbedvoter]

6. In October 2001 - Rummy: We may not get OBL

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the
United States
may not be able to catch terrorist Osama bin Laden even though
he predicts the
Taliban regime harboring him in Afghanistan will be toppled.
``Yes, I think there will be a post-Taliban Afghanistan,''
Rumsfeld told USA Today.
``That is easier than finding a single person.''
Rumsfeld told the paper it will be ``very difficult'' to
capture or kill bin Laden.
``It's a big world,'' he said. ``There are lots of countries.
He's got a lot of money,
he's got a lot of people who support him and I just don't know
whether we'll be
successful. Clearly, it would be highly desirable to find
him.''
But he said in any event bin Laden's terrorist network would
carry on without him.
``If he were gone tomorrow, the same problem would exist.''
Rumsfeld has said repeatedly that rooting out terrorism is a
long-term project that
will last for years and has compared it to the Cold War, which
lasted half a century.
His interview with USA Today appeared in Thurday's editions.
more.....
http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=269276

[robbedvoter]

7. They were after me!

September 13, 2001

THE PRESIDENT

Aides Say Bush Was One Target of Hijacked Jet

By R. W. APPLE Jr.


 
The President: Bush Labels Aerial Terrorist Attacks 'Acts of War' (September 13, 2001)

Bush's Remarks to Cabinet and Advisers (September 13, 2001)

Video: An Audacious Attack (September 11, 2001)
 

ASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — Stung by suggestions that President Bush had hurt himself politically by delaying his return to Washington on Tuesday, the White House asserted today that Mr. Bush had done so because of hard evidence that he was a target of the terrorists who hijacked airliners and slammed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said this afternoon that officials had "real and credible information" that the White House, not the Pentagon, had been the original target of American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked about 45 minutes after leaving Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Another senior official said that after that plane hit the Pentagon, a chilling threat was phoned to the Secret Service.

"Air Force One is next," the official quoted the caller as saying. The threat was accompanied by code words that indicated knowledge of White House procedures, the official said.

Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's adviser, said in an interview this morning that Mr. Bush had twice on Tuesday — in the morning and in the early afternoon — argued strenuously that he should return immediately to the capital. Mr. Rove reported that the Secret Service insisted that the situation here was "too dangerous, too unstable" for the president to come to Washington.

"We are talking about specific and credible intelligence," Mr. Rove said, "not vague suspicions."
snip

Only a Republican senator from a Western state, unwilling to speak for the record because, he explained, he wanted to "maintain a united front," offered any criticism.

"The president could have overruled the security people and come back earlier, and maybe he should have," the senator said. "The Secret Service works for him, after all, and not the other way around."




Clark and Kerry have more medals between them than W and Dick have DUIs

[robbedvoter]

8. And that hit: "getting out of harm's way"

-----
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000036064may22.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation
THE NATION
By EDWIN CHEN
TIMES STAFF WRITER
May 22 2002
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON -- President Bush spoke publicly for the first
time Tuesday
about his fears for himself and his family in the hours after the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks,
telling a German television reporter he was "trying to get out of harm's
way" before
returning to the White House.
In an interview with ARD German Television, Bush said that in the
immediate aftermath of
the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, "I was concerned
about things
like, is my wife safe? You know, I was worried about that. I was worried
about things such as
my parents. I was worried about my girls."
Among the flying public grounded that day were the president's parents,
who found
themselves stranded in Wisconsin. Bush was able to reach his father, as
well as First Lady
Laura Bush, who was in Washington. But as he discussed his personal
reactions, Bush also
wanted there to be no doubt about his focus on the task at hand.
"At the same time, you need to know about me that I was also thinking
clearly about how to
respond," he said.
Bush granted the interview as a prelude to his weeklong trip to Europe,
which begins today......