What should have been done in response to the briefing that Bin Laden planned to attack the US?

[jberryhill]

9. The memo says...

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

So, let's say you are president. Do you say, "make it 80 investigations"?

Again, the focus on this memo, as opposed to the systemic inattention caused by chasing pet projects, is beside the point. The memo is only a very small piece of that. Overemphasis on that one daily briefing - out of 365 a year - invites the type of question by the OP, which is really just a dodge for the overall systemic problem in the W administration.

But, seriously, in relation to just this memo:

"We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists."

Is that what happened, no? If you've been warned someone wants to hijack an aircraft to gain release of a prisoner, then how does that in any way suggest someone is going to fly an aircraft into a building. That's not what anyone does in order to use an aircraft as a bargaining chip in a hostage negotiation.

Oh, and in relation to any highjacking at all, the memo prefaces it with "We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting..."

Okay, you are president. You say, "corroborate it"? "Act on the most sensational uncorroborated reports"?

"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."

Now it is "hijackings or other types of attacks"... Okay, is the order "prepare for all types of attacks!"

And what did "recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York" have to do with anything carried out on 9/11?


"The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives."

Aha! Okay, well, be on the lookout for anyone transporting explosives! Were any explosives used by the 9/11 attackers?

In broad outline, because the specific details are all over the map in relation to anything that happened on 9/11, the memo says "shit's going on and we have dozens of investigations looking into it."

But, again, the point that gets lost over this particular memo was its relation to a much larger mosaic of information that was, as put in the 9/11 Commission report, "flashing red".