Is that a shrub in your pocket...
or are you just a corporate profiteer?
Monday, April 12, 2004
Bush Responds
Dubya defended his, um, actions, after receiving the PDB on 6-Aug-2001.
"I was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into" and had any specific intelligence pointed to threats of attacks on New York and Washington, "I would have moved mountains" to prevent it, Bush said Sunday during a visit to Fort Hood, Texas, 50 miles from his ranch here.
The document has "nothing about an attack on America. It talked about intentions, about somebody who hated America - well, we knew that," he said. "The (August 6, 2001, memo) was no indication of a terrorist threat. There was not a time and place of an attack. It said Osama bin Laden had designs on America."
Here are a few lines from the memo, with the non-threatening title, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US."
* Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US.
* Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."
*...in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.
* An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
* The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US.
* ...Bin Ladin['s] attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks.
* Al-Qa'ida members...have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks.
* ...a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
* ...FBI information...indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
* ...CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks....
So, I can see why nobody was concerned. The memo also tells the prez that "the FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related."
Now, wouldn't you think that a president who was on the ball would say, "shit, 70 investigations? I want you to bring me the details on all of these investigations, what they've learned and where they're going. And I want it, like, NOW!"
You think maybe then if he learned that people were taking flight training and skipping the classes on landing, that maybe something - maybe - might have come of it?
True, nobody mentions a specific place and date and time and flight itinerary. But, like what are the odds that they're gonna tell you ahead of time? Isn't it their job to try and find that out?
Here are a few other things that aren't included in that memo:
* Saddam Hussein is determined to attack inside the US
* Iraq's WMD's are a threat to the US
* The Iraqi's are working with Osama Bin Laden
* The guy with the most votes wins.
posted by pjs 8:40 AM
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