March 25, 2004

_________________________________________________
Commission on 9/11 paints picture of FAILURE
...on the part of the Bush misadministration

Two days of testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks have revealed that U.S. officials from President Bush down failed to respond adequately to growing signs that a terror strike was imminent in the summer of 2001.

This week's testimony has made it much clearer that there was a wealth of intelligence available in the summer of 2001 indicating that a major terrorist attack was coming.

Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton, said she read the intelligence briefings given to Bush before Sept. 11 and the information on the gathering threats "would set your hair on fire."

But Richard Clarke, the head of counterintelligence under both Bush and Clinton, said he could not get the incoming Bush administration in 2001 to convene a top level meeting to even discuss the threat.

Finally, Clarke wrote to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asking her to imagine how she and others would feel if an attack did happen and killed hundreds of Americans. The letter was sent on Sept. 4 -- one week before hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

- this was the link - it's not working now.


No comments: