9/11 - Warned and Wanting!

[Thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald for much of this information. It derives from a new book, The Commission - The Uncensored History Of The 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon. It will be published on Monday, March 10, by Little, Brown. $35]

Some of us have known some of this for a long time and have written about it on previous occasions.

The Bushites were warned on numerous occasions before 9/11/2001, by the CIA and other agencies, that a terrorist attack was likely, but they failed to take any action whatsoever.

The 9/11 commission revealed that George Tenet, director of the CIA, warned Bush in his briefings on a daily basis that a terrorist attack was imminent. Bush was also provided this information in the presidential daily briefings. The 9/11 commission said that in over 40 of these briefings there were references to Osama bin Laden.

The CIA prepared a newsletter on intelligence matters that was almost the same as what the president received and this was given to "about 300 senior national security officials and members of Congress."

In August of 2001, a briefing warned that al-Qaeda attacks involving hijackings were possible.

This from the 9/11 commission investigators: "It was especially troubling ... to realise how many of the warnings were directed to the desk of one person: Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser. Emails from the National Security Council's counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, show that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats. He was trying to get her to focus on the intelligence she should have been reading each morning in the presidential and senior briefings."

Here are some headlines and timelines of information in the senior briefings.

* Bin Ladin Planning Multiple Operations (April 20)

* Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack (May 3)

* Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot (May 23)

* Bin Ladin's Networks' Plans Advancing (May 26)

* Bin Ladin Attacks May be Imminent (June 23)

* Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats (June 25)

* Bin Ladin Planning High Profile Attacks (June 30)

* Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays (July 2)

While the Pentagon and the State Department took action to meet the possibility of terrorist attacks, the White House was inert. Rice did nothing of consequence other than request more meetings.

"There is no record to show that Rice made any special effort to discuss terrorist threats with Bush." The record suggested, instead, that it was not a matter of special interest to either of them that summer."

Our prezident, never the brightest bulb, in an interview with Bob Woodward of WaPo, basically admitted that he was not as prepared. "I was not on point," said Bush, "but I knew he [bin Laden] was a menace, and I knew he was a problem ... I was prepared to look at a plan that would be a thoughtful plan that would bring him to justice ... But I didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling."

Obviously.

Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others in the Administration's cabal were too busy plotting the overthrow of Saddam and swooping up the Iraqi oil fields to worry about bin Laden.

That's the reason that Rice consistently tried to mislead the White House Press Corps as to the contents of the briefings the Administration received prior to 9/11.

Suffice it to say that if the White House had read, digested and taken the intelligence warnings seriously, it is very likely that 9/11 would never have happened.

But they were too busy planning an illegal and disastrous war against a country that held absolutely no threat to the United States.

How does one describe such incompetence?