[GeneV]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9...ings.html?_r=1

Apparently, the August 6 memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." was only one of many memos warning of a large Al Qaeda strike in 2001. CIA staffers were so frustrated with the Neocons in the White House, that they considered resigning so that they would not be on the job and held responsible when the attack came.

[jeffkrol]

But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.

In response, the C.I.A. prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real.

“The U.S. is not the target of a disinformation campaign by Usama Bin Laden,” the daily brief of June 29 read, using the government’s transliteration of Bin Laden’s first name. Going on for more than a page, the document recited much of the evidence, including an interview that month with a Middle Eastern journalist in which Bin Laden aides warned of a coming attack, as well as competitive pressures that the terrorist leader was feeling, given the number of Islamists being recruited for the separatist Russian region of Chechnya.

And the C.I.A. repeated the warnings in the briefs that followed. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one reported on June 29, expected the planned near-term attacks to have “dramatic consequences,” including major casualties. On July 1, the brief stated that the operation had been delayed, but “will occur soon.” Some of the briefs again reminded Mr. Bush that the attack timing was flexible, and that, despite any perceived delay, the planned assault was on track.

I take it that probably contributed to Bush's look when he heard the news.................

[Parallax]

I take it that probably contributed to Bush's look when he heard the news.................

You mean the :Oh s___! Maybe I should have listened to them." look?

[jeffkrol]

You mean the :Oh s___! Maybe I should have listened to them." look?

YEP, that one.............

[gokenin]

Again just out of curiosity as President you get a series of warnings that a terrorist organization is going to attack against the United States what do you do? Where do you set up defenses? What do you restrict? Do you ban all air traffic? Stop all traffic? Declare martial law and establish curfews? Prevent travel to the US ? Show me a memo that says they plan on hijacking planes and kamikaze them into the Twin Towers and I will attack Bush show me a bunch of memos that say we are going to be attacked and I again repeat my questions above. Remember hindsight tends to 100% accurate but last time I check prophecy tends to be a heck of a lot less successful

[jeffkrol]

Again just out of curiosity as President you get a series of warnings that a terrorist organization is going to attack against the United States what do you do? Where do you set up defenses? What do you restrict? Do you ban all air traffic? Stop all traffic? Declare martial law and establish curfews? Prevent travel to the US ? Show me a memo that says they plan on hijacking planes and kamikaze them into the Twin Towers and I will attack Bush show me a bunch of memos that say we are going to be attacked and I again repeat my questions above. Remember hindsight tends to 100% accurate but last time I check prophecy tends to be a heck of a lot less successful

Actually few are implying he could have prevented it (that can be argued ad infinitum).. Only his myopic obsession w/ Irag (probably a little personal huh) blinded him to other possibilities..
It does look like, w/ a bit of better sense, there was more of a chance..

also using your logic it is foolish to even have done the "patriot act".. which many would agree.. at least in part.

[seacapt]

Lets not forget GWB's predecessor who took a pass on a clean shot to end Usama. Maybe he thought an invitation for Big Macs and fat chics would solve the problem.

[les3547]

I've wondered why people working for Democrats' election both in congress and for the Presidency haven't chosen the theme the incompetence of Republican leadership. Too polite? Considering the handling of Katrina, the financial crisis, the medicare drug plan that left 6.2 million low-income seniors stranded after shifting coverage to private insurers, a war to search for WMD in Iraq which weren't there, reconstruction efforts in Iraq in which the government's special inspector general depicted a policy beset, as Times reporter James Glanz put it, "by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting [and] secrecy," the failure to prepare for a Peak Oil crisis, the worst job creation record—less than a one percent increase over eight years—of any administration since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping records in 1939, these latest revelations about 9/11 . . .

I can see the theme: Want competence? Vote Democratic.

Michael Tomasky wrote in The American Prospect, August 27, 2003:

"No one -- no one -- can name a single front on which today's Republicans have shown even the simplest competence. They don't know how to manage an economy. They sure don't know how to balance a budget. They have no idea how to create jobs (though they do have a pretty strong sense of how to make them disappear). Their domestic-security measures have consisted of the usual emphasis on show over substance, first stealing a Democratic idea (the Department of Homeland Security) and then underfunding the result in some crucial respects -- a mistake for which I pray we never pay a price . . . And now, it turns out, they don't know how to do the one thing they've spent 50 years convincing Americans that they and only they know how to do: fight a war. . . . Of course, there are wealthy interests who keep the party alive financially and who must be rewarded on all possible fronts. This, actually, is the one service Republicans do perform competently. They make damn sure of that."

[Nesster]

Meanwhile, we can't forget the terrible events of that day. I lost some friends. Lucky for me I was working in NJ that day, and I could see the whole thing happen out my office window. Some of my best friends were in 7 WTC - saw the plane fly over them, saw the people jumping, were evacuated and trudged up the streets... Some of the reports my friend had on his windowsill were found in Brooklyn, later.

Afterwards, work was difficult - on the one hand, what was the point? On the other, business and the markets had to go on. Many of my coworkers camped out in offices trying to get things restarted.

Here are some reminiscenses from people:
'The Problem Is In The Other Building, Please Return To Your Desks'
9 / 11 - A Witness To Destruction
'For All It's Flaws, God Bless America'
September 11th - Remembering the Day
R.I.P My Good Friend
'He Never Made It'

[jeffkrol]

Lets not forget GWB's predecessor who took a pass on a clean shot to end Usama. Maybe he thought an invitation for Big Macs and fat chics would solve the problem.

He did fire a Tomahawk at him and missed.......did you forget..?

some of the "sources" cited are questionable..

http://clintoncrimes.tripod.com/ClintonsBinLadenGateMotherofallScandals/id4.html

Going backwards continuously does lead us to funding Osama in Afganistan against Russia....

[jeffkrol]

Meanwhile, we can't forget the terrible events of that day. I lost some friends. Lucky for me I was working in NJ that day, and I could see the whole thing happen out my office window. Some of my best friends were in 7 WTC - saw the plane fly over them, saw the people jumping, were evacuated and trudged up the streets... Some of the reports my friend had on his windowsill were found in Brooklyn, later.

Afterwards, work was difficult - on the one hand, what was the point? On the other, business and the markets had to go on. Many of my coworkers camped out in offices trying to get things restarted.

Here are some reminiscenses from people:
'The Problem Is In The Other Building, Please Return To Your Desks'
9 / 11 - A Witness To Destruction
'For All It's Flaws, God Bless America'
September 11th - Remembering the Day
R.I.P My Good Friend
'He Never Made It'

Thanks.........

[les3547]

Again just out of curiosity as President you get a series of warnings that a terrorist organization is going to attack against the United States what do you do? . . . Remember hindsight tends to 100% accurate but last time I check prophecy tends to be a heck of a lot less successful

Hindsight is better (but often not 100% since we keep repeating the same mistakes). The thing that reeks of the incompetence that characterized Bush's tenure was not listening to intelligence experts who were freaking out. That should have been a huge red flag for any leader who wasn't asleep at the wheel.

[les3547]

Here are some reminiscenses from people:
'The Problem Is In The Other Building, Please Return To Your Desks'
9 / 11 - A Witness To Destruction
'For All It's Flaws, God Bless America'
September 11th - Remembering the Day
R.I.P My Good Friend
'He Never Made It'

Very nice.

[GeneV]

Again just out of curiosity as President you get a series of warnings that a terrorist organization is going to attack against the United States what do you do? Where do you set up defenses? What do you restrict? Do you ban all air traffic? Stop all traffic? Declare martial law and establish curfews? Prevent travel to the US ? Show me a memo that says they plan on hijacking planes and kamikaze them into the Twin Towers and I will attack Bush show me a bunch of memos that say we are going to be attacked and I again repeat my questions above. Remember hindsight tends to 100% accurate but last time I check prophecy tends to be a heck of a lot less successful

He did little of that after the attack either, so those are not really serious suggestions. However, celebrating him as "keeping us safe" as his brother did at the RNC was not justified.

One thing the article suggests is that increased intelligence activity, alerts and coordination might have helped. There were several involved with the plot who were in fact detained during that period.

[JohnInIndy]

NY Times? The paper that makes Pravda look like a bastion of conservativeness? No bias from them now is there?

What about Clinton and the first WTC bombing? And the Cole? Why didn't Clinton stop those attacks?