So the White House has finally released the text of the August 6, 2001 briefing that President Bush received before going on vacation for a month. Condi Rice said that it was "history," and I suppose that, if you skipped the title and didn't read all of it, you might come away with that impression.
Still, you'd think that "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US" might imply some threat, no?
Not to mention "Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his 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."
and
"Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks."
OK, so "We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists. " is somewhat reassuring.
But then it's followed by "Nevertheless, FBI information since that time 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."
What would it have taken to get Bush and his administration to sit up and pay attention? A really simple PowerPoint presentation with a big bulls-eye in the middle of the White House?
I know, I know. Nobody was taking this kind of stuff seriously before September 11. Clinton's administration could have done more. Had Gore gotten to take office, the attacks could have happened on his watch. So we should talk about what Bush has does since September 11. Oops, that's been a colossal cockup too. I bet Gore wouldn't have responded to an attack from Al Qaeda with an attack on Iraq.
Terrorism: April 2004 Archives
SouthKnoxBubba.net has a great post documenting Clinton's words and actions about fighting terrorism, and Bush's lack thereof. A sample:
Clinton's letter to Congress on the 4th of July, 1999, warning that "the actions and policies of the Afghan Taliban pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" because they were hosting bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
Clinton's appearance on PBS's Newshour in January 2000, when he said that even though everyone kept talking about missile defense, the real threat was from "the likelihood that you'll have terrorists and narcotraffickers and organized criminals cooperating with each other, with smaller and smaller and more difficult to detect weapons of mass destruction..."
Clinton's letter to Congress in January 2001 as he was leaving, when he mentioned — yes! — that Osama dude again.
Bush, on the other hand, did some significant faffing when he got into office.
Could Clinton have done more? Yep. But at least he didn't waste time getting into a war that seems to be serving little purpose as far as international stability or national security are concerned and trying to pass it off as part of a "War on Terror."
(And for some reason, the Bush administration is suddenly awfully concerned about producing Clinton's records...)
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