Al-Qaeda Threat Included In Bush Memo!

[dissention]

al-Qaida Threat Included in Bush Memo

1 hour, 26 minutes ago

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s August 2001 briefing on terrorism threats, described largely as a historical document, included information from three months earlier that al-Qaida was trying to send operatives into the United States for an explosives attack, according to several people who have seen the memo.

The so-called presidential daily briefing, or PDB, delivered to Bush on Aug. 6, 2001 — a month before the Sept. 11 attacks — said there were various reports that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) had wanted to strike inside the United States as early as 1997 and continuing into the spring of 2001, the sources told The Associated Press.

The same month as that briefing of Bush, U.S. intelligence officials received two uncorroborated reports suggesting terrorists might use airplanes, including one that suggested al-Qaida operatives were considering flying a plane into a U.S. embassy, current and former government officials said.

[snip]

In her testimony Thursday to the Sept. 11 commission, Rice described Bush's Aug. 6 daily briefing as including mostly "historical information" and said most threat information in the summer of 2001 involved overseas targets.

Rice also testified that she did not recall seeing any warnings before Sept. 11 that a plane might be used a terrorist weapon, though it was possible others in the White House did.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...d=544&ncid=716

[strandinthewind]

This is not new information is it. CR testified the gov. knew Al_Q was looking at planes for a number of reasons and the FAA was acting on that

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
This is not new information is it. CR testified the gov. knew Al_Q was looking at planes for a number of reasons and the FAA was acting on that

She said the PDB had no new information about an attack. May of 2001 is pretty new to me, not historical. She said that she did not have any info that they were looking at planes.

[strandinthewind]

She went into a whole thing about the FAA didn't she?

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
She went into a whole thing about the FAA didn't she?

Not quite. She cryptically hinted that the FAA was warned, she didn't say it outright. I found it rather baffling. But if she did, she perjured herself becasue she said hse herself had no knowledge of planes being used.

[strandinthewind]

Yep!

that is why I cannot believe the WH will release it if it has that

[darklinensuit]

The bottom line is that Condoleeza's fate is tied to American support for or at least tolerance of this war. If people think we're making progress a few months from now, the public won't give a rat's ass about any lies she told.

- Jake

[gldstwmn]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Yep!

that is why I cannot believe the WH will release it if it has that

That part will be redacted. It's going to take someone on the inside to break this open. Then they'll be painted as crazy, disgruntled former employee or both or whatever else they can throw at them. They're already trying to discredit Kerrey for his grilling of Rice yesterday.

[gldstwmn]

Bush Was Warned of Possible Attack in U.S., Official Says

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and DAVID E. SANGER

THE NEW YORK TIMES April 10, 2004

WASHINGTON, April 9 — President Bush was told more than a month before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that supporters of Osama bin Laden planned an attack within the United States with explosives and wanted to hijack airplanes, a government official said Friday. The warning came in a secret briefing that Mr. Bush received at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, 2001. A report by a joint Congressional committee last year alluded to a "closely held intelligence report" that month about the threat of an attack by Al Qaeda, and the official confirmed an account by The Associated Press on Friday saying that the report was in fact part of the president's briefing in Crawford.

The disclosure appears to contradict the White House's repeated assertions that the briefing the president received about the Qaeda threat was "historical" in nature and that the White House had little reason to suspect a Qaeda attack within American borders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/10/po...10PANE.html?hp

[dissention]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
Bush Was Warned of Possible Attack in U.S., Official Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/10/po...10PANE.html?hp

Thanks for posting that. Very fascinating. They are never going to release the full memo, so this is what we're going to have to go by for now...until a "disgruntled" employee bursts the door open. And they will; many of Shrub's staff are running away from the WH in a mass exodus.