Washington Post: Bush Warned of attack

[newsguyatl]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43291-2003Jul24.html?nav=hptop_tb

of course, none of this mentioned in the "official report"


<snip>

President Bush was warned in a more specific way than previously known about intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda terrorists were seeking to attack the United States, a report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks indicated yesterday. Separately, the report cited one CIA memo that concluded there was "incontrovertible evidence" that Saudi individuals provided financial assistance to al Qaeda operatives in the United States.

These revelations are not the subject of the congressional report's narratives or findings, but are among the nuggets embedded in a story focused largely on the mid-level workings of the CIA, FBI and U.S. military.

Two intriguing -- and politically volatile -- questions surrounding the Sept. 11 plot have been how personally engaged Bush and his predecessor were in counterterrorism before the attacks, and what role some Saudi officials may have played in sustaining the 19 terrorists who commandeered four airplanes and flew three of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

To varying degrees, the answers remain a mystery, despite an unprecedented seven-month effort by a joint House and Senate panel to fully understand how a group of Arab terrorists could have pulled off such a scheme. The CIA refused to permit publication of information potentially implicating Saudi officials on national security grounds, arguing that disclosure could upset relations with a key U.S. ally. Lawmakers complained it was merely to avoid embarrassment.

The White House, meanwhile, resisted efforts to pin down Bush's knowledge of al Qaeda threats and to catalogue the executive's pre-Sept. 11 strategy to fight terrorists. It was justified largely on legal grounds, but Democrats said the secrecy was meant to protect Bush from criticism.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

1. Any chance this is THE issue to bring him down?

If he was warned about terroists flying planes into buildings, he should resign this afternoon.

[Beetwasher]

4. Does being warned that terrorists were going to attack our

country and hijack planes count?

No one told him the specificity of the attack, they told him they were going to attack.

If someone warns a police officer that they know someone is going to murder someone else and the police officer does nothing, should the police officer be held accountable for that? What if his defense was "well, I was told that a murder was going to be committed, but they didn't say they were going to kill him by shooting him, so I didn't do anything". Does that let him off the hook?

[revcarol]

8. Quite a few "planes" and "hijacking" warnings.

And remember Genoa, when * had to sleep aboard a warship because they were afraid that terrorists would fly a plane into the Embassy?

No free pass on this one.

[Spoon]

13. Can't really tell where you're going with this, but

hijacking vehicles and suicide operations are nothing new. Combine the two and you get 9/11. Who here DIDN'T think some sort of major terrorist attack would occur on our soil eventually? Perhaps we should hold accountable the rap group who put out that CD with the twin towers burning a few months before 9/11, because they HAD to know something, or that X-Files spin off episode where a jumbo jet is diverted right before slamming into one of the towers, because they HAD to know something. Maybe even Tom Clancy, for Debt of Honor.

We will see a major city hit by WMDs soon - who to blame, who to blame... maybe me?

[Beetwasher]

16. Where I'm going?

How about the president received lot's of warnings from every major intelligence agency around the world that an attack was imminent and included hijacked airplanes. He ignored them, warned nobody, including airports and went on vacation. This isn't about "thinking' something might happen at some point sometime somewhere. This was a deluge of heated frantic warnings, even from some of our own intel people that something was coming, involving airplanes, and coming soon. What's so difficult to understand about that? See where I'm going now?

[Spoon]

18. Imminent, you say?

Every day, guess how threats pass through the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc? Tons. Unfortunately, it takes (at least back then) specific intel to do anything drastic, for the fear of scaring the public and destroying the economy is very real, especially in a climate where "the public" thought we were invincible, like pre-2001. Are you saying we should have closed airports and evacuated all tall buildings until the chatter died down?

[KAZ]

21. It was a bit more than just "chatter" in the summer of '01

Mubarac was screaming his head off all summer while Shrub hacked shrubs, right up through September.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/05/1022982701899.html As were many foreign intel services.

There was a lot more than just typical "chatter" that summer, as evidenced by Asscroft's behaviour, and *'s accomodations during the G8.

[Beetwasher]

23. It was imminent enough for Ashcroft to stop flying

Nice bullshit dichotomy you set up. From doing nothing to closing airports and evacuating everyone. Is the world black and white to you? There are measures in between that could have been taken that would have been better than absolutely nothing, which is what the admin. did. The intel they had WAS pretty specific as far as intel goes and backed up from several sources. What do you expect, a telegram from the terrorists to Bush saying "we're attacking the WTC at 8:45am on 9/11 w/ hijacked airplanes, be ready!". How silly.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

28. it's the lie, stupid Condi said they had nothing specific and could never

imagine planes being used. sounds like another lie to me

[alfredo]

22. Didn't they warn Ashcroft not

to fly commercial? They knew something was up.

[leesa]

19. Bush received lots of warnings from many different countries

At least one had given a date within days of 9-11. They knew because they were part of the planning team. Got to get PNAC moving...

[Brian Sweat]

7. Dude,

if the Bush administration had been supplied the flight numbers or the planes as well as the exact identity of the highjackers with full glossy photos, it still would not be enough to bring him down.


Do you want to know why?

Cause Clinton got a blowjob.

[The_Gopher]

2. not a single question in WH press conference about any of the 9/11 report

WTF?!?!

[newsguyatl]

3. they're too busy

asking about saddam's sons...

media was played for a FOOL this week...

hook, line, and sinker

[The_Gopher]

6. there weren't any uday/qusay questions either...

they were either about liberia or the mideast "roadmap."

no 9/11 questions. no weaponsgate questions. no smear campaign questions. nada. nothing.

maybe they thought they'd give little scotty a break since it's friday.

[leesa]

20. They weren't played for fools, they are Bush's cover

They work for the Bush Crime Family

[NicoleM]

5. Why?

Why is this not the headline on every newspaper, the lead story on every TV news show? I would think it would be too much for even the * ass-kissing media to resist.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Hang on, folks, it takes time

There will be murmurings and false starts and hush-ups and deflections of attention, but this is just too good a story. The Max Cleland statements confirming that there was no Iraqi connection and that reports were delayed partially to keep the lie alive in the run up to war will work in tandem with this to push both stories forward.

When many of us were watching the SOTU, we were shocked to hear the Nigeranium horseshit come up, knowing that it was thoroughly discredited. Many others did too, but look how long it took for the story to hit.

You have to let the dough rise before you can bake it.

This is not going away. Too many people hate this administration, and too many people are being hurt. There's that other pesky 96% of the world's population too who like to talk about this kind of stuff.

This cannot be held back. Over 10,000 Iraqis have probably been killed on some vengeful oilgrab, and they were done so under extremely false pretenses.

It's sad to think that if things had gone swimmingly with our little Imperial Thievery, none of this would have amounted to much, but people are a truly mixed bag.

Every day, more and more people use the word "lie". Every day, more and more snide comments are made. Every day, more and more old stories resurface. With each one, these gangsters lose a little support. They will gain no new converts; nobody who doesn't already like them will be swayed by anything they do. (I hate absolutes, but this one's pretty damn solid...) They are on the wane and the ebb of their evil is at hand. Will it be enough? Hard to tell. Rest assured that they will be found out and villified by history.

I just hope Cheney lives long enough to know how hated and ridiculed he is for eternity. I want Junior to live for another 40 years, with the phone never ringing and endless derision from his fellow monarchists whom he has let down. Please let his health hold out.

[gratuitous]

10. Strange, isn't it?

When Lil George and his bloodthirsty buddies want to go to war, dubious reports and secondhand accounts are plenty good enough to justify an invasion. Especially if that invasion puts control of large oil reserves into their grubby hands.

But specific intelligence about an imminent attack on American soil? Hey, I'm taking a month off, don't bother me with those details.

Why are they so attuned to detail in one instance, and so oblivious to it in another? I hope the reason isn't anything as uninteresting as naked greed.

[TahitiNut]

26. This is, of course, the key to understanding how corrupt they are.

Take an avalanche of scientific data warning about Global Warming, and it's "not enough". Take the most specious and thinnest of economic opinion and it's enough to push three enormous tax cuts for the wealthiest and least taxed. They maintain secrecy about Cheney's Energy Task Farce and leak the name of a political annooyance's wife as an operative for the CIA. They're devoid of principle and morality.

[Richardo]

11. Rep Porter Goss (R): THIS, Alanis, is ironic...don'tcha think?

Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he doubted Bush was complacent about warnings he received. "The intelligence community was providing him information. He wasn't AWOL," Goss said. "In hindsight, it might take on a little more significance . . . but it's a huge stretch to say the president had information he should have acted on."

Interesting choice of words, no? :D

[Aaron]

25. Haha! Good catch! (n/t)

[Abe Linkman]

12. Media knows they're losing lots of former newspaper readers

The WP, NYT, LAT etc. are all beginning to wake up to the fact that fewer and fewer people believe them anymore, and one hopes that the potential loss of even more of the very target audience they want most, will help spur them back to more truthful reporting of news that's important to all of us, not just the largest corporations in the country.

[beanball]

14. The president was warned of an attack

well lets see,you can't say mr.bush was warned mr tenant told Barney the #1 dog about the possibility of an attack and Barney forget to inform his master so sez Barney,another whitehouse insider taking the blame(falling on the rubber sword) for our fearless leader.

[beanball]

15. no caps for bush and tenant

maybe just maybe I have more respect for Barney than I do for those other two clowns.

[Richardo]

17. from the nostamj cartoon page - your exact point...

:D

[BeachBuckeye]

24. Maybe he didn't know.

Maybe Dick Cheney told everyone not to "bother him, I'll handle it."

[Noli Mitangere]

27. .

I tend to believe he didn't know as well; him being a clueless dolt that he is, oblivious as to what goes on around him.

Most assuredly, it is Cheny and Rumsfeld who make all the real decisions in government. A deeply-rooted shadow government hiding behind the facade of an administration which we see on TV.

[TahitiNut]

29. Exactly.

At most, Smirky McNarcissist is a willing front man. A puppet.

[chookie]

30. Sanitized and politicized report

You'll get more info on Google, or re-reading the newspapers -- even the American ones -- than you will in this report. It's the Warren Commission of our day.

It not only misses the biggies -- i.e. the major and quite specific briefings given to smirky the chimp and InCompetent Rice telling them exactly what to look out for, but other stuff, like their condescending dismissal of the Hart/Rudman report, and Cheney's 2001 order for the intelligence community to lay off surveillance of Saudis in the US.

Boy -- imagine if we got the kind of detail regarding the horrific destruction of the WTC and attack of the Pentagon as we got from Ken Starr regarding sexual acts between Clinton and Lewinsky! But OOOoops! -- if *that* would happen -- it would be obvious that the chimp and his babysitters be impeached -- so we can't have that!!!

70 million to investigate a blowjob, and 7 million to investigate the leveling of the WTC? And we're supposed to be okay with that?

Nothing to see here, move on.....