"Presented With Even More Frightening Information..." (Clarke on Bush)

[journalist3072]

I bet this won't be in ABC's propagandist movie.

This is part of the TRUE path to 9/11: another goodie from Richard Clarke's interview with Joody Woodruff on March 28, 2004:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: George Tenet briefed me on a regular basis about the terrorist threats to the United States of America. And had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on September 11th, we would have acted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: He's saying he didn't have the information.

CLARKE: Well, let's contrast the performance of that administration when they had word from George Tenet that some attack was going to take place somewhere, with the performance of the Clinton administration in December of 1999 when they had similar information.

In December 1999, the president ordered daily meetings of the FBI director, the attorney general and the head of the CIA and the secretary of defense in the White House, with the national security team, to shake out any information and prevent the attacks. And they were successful in doing that.

Presented with even more frightening information, President Bush did not choose to do that, did not choose to get personally involved, except getting those morning intelligence briefings.

The principals committee, the top secretaries of the departments, met according to the Associated Press, over 100 times from the beginning of the administration to September 11th. One of those meetings, one of those meetings, was on terrorism.

All I'm saying is that this wasn't a priority for them.

[wtmusic]

1. Do not mention Richard Clarke or his book "Against All Enemies"

lest the truth escape about at whose feet the blame for 9/11 lies.

[BootinUp]

2. Nice grab.

not only won't it be in ABC's movie, it has been banished from MSM completely.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Since Clarke is an ABC analyst, do you think they have him stuffed

in a broom closet with a dirty handkerchief in his mouth to keep him quiet?

I know he made a statement earlier about how some of the movie is factually inaccurate/fiction but I haven't seen any new comments from him in days. Since he is actually one of the main characters of the show, it would sure be nice to hear more from him.

I've always wished he had signed with NBC or CNN so we would get to hear his views more often.

[wtmusic]

8. Hmm

I wonder if ABC signed an exclusive with him just to NOT use him?

:tinfoilhat:

[Pirate Smile]

9. He was a good get for any of the networks but he doesn't get much

air time on ABC. GMA, Evening News and Nightline are it.

I remember in 2004 when Nightline did a great piece that destroyed the SwiftLiars claims but it showed late at night on ABC with no news channel (MSNBC, CNN or even FAUX) to replay the story throughout the day.

Brian Ross has actually had quite a few excellent investigative reports, such as on the Marinaras Islands/Tom Delay/forced abortions/etc. but after they are reported, they just seem lay there until they die.

[Eurobabe]

4. And on Aug. 6th, Bu$h wasn't all there

ya know, Bin Laden determined to use planes as weapons, and crash them into buildings?

[Mabus]

5. Clinton's PDB: Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks

From the 9/11 Commission Report (http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.htm):

The following is the text of an item from the Presidential Daily Brief received by President William J. Clinton on December 4, 1998. Redacted material is indicated in brackets (replaced in this post with parenthesis) .

SUBJECT: Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks

1. Reporting (-) suggests Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release of Shaykh 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Muhammad Sadiq 'Awda. One source quoted a senior member of the Gama'at al-Islamiyya (IG) saying that, as of late October, the IG had completed planning for an operation in the US on behalf of Bin Ladin, but that the operation was on hold.A senior Bin Ladin operative from Saudi Arabia was to visit IG counterparts in the US soon thereafter to discuss options-perhaps including an aircraft hijacking.

* IG leader Islambuli in late September was planning to hijack a US airliner during the "next couple of weeks" to free 'Abd al-Rahman and the other prisoners, according to what may be a different source.
* The same source late last month said that Bin Ladin might implement plans to hijack US aircraft before the beginning of Ramadan on 20 December and that two members of the operational team had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport. (-)

2. Some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training, according to various sources, but no group directly tied to Bin Ladin's al-Qa'ida organization has ever carried out an aircraft hijacking.Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations against US aircraft.Accord-ing to (-) the IG in October obtained SA-7 missiles and intended to move them from Yemen into Saudi Arabia to shoot down an Egyptian plane or, if unsuccessful, a US military or civilian aircraft.

* A (-) in October told us that unspecified "extremist elements" in Yemen had acquired SA-7s. (-)

3. <-> indicate the Bin Ladin organization or its allies are moving closer to implementing anti-US attacks at unspecified locations, but we do not know whether they are related to attacks on aircraft. A Bin Ladin associate in Sudan late last month told a colleague in Kandahar that he had shipped a group of containers to Afghanistan. Bin Ladin associates also talked about the movement of containers to Afghanistan before the East Africa bombings.

* In other (-) Bin Ladin associates last month discussed picking up a package in Malaysia. One told his colleague in Malaysia that "they" were in the "ninth month ."
* An alleged Bin Ladin supporter in Yemen late last month remarked to his mother that he planned to work in "commerce" from abroad and said his impending "marriage," which would take place soon, would be a "surprise.""Commerce" and "marriage" often are codewords for terrorist attacks. (-)

What was the Clinton Administration's reaction? Instead of golfing or vacationing they went to work!

On Friday, December 4, 1998, the CIA included an article in the Presidential Daily Brief describing intelligence, received from a friendly government, about a threatened hijacking in the United States. This article was declassified at our request.

The same day, Clarke convened a meeting of his CSG to discuss both the hijacking concern and the antiaircraft missile threat. To address the hijacking warning, the group agreed that New York airports should go to maximum security starting that weekend. They agreed to boost security at other East coast airports. The CIA agreed to distribute versions of the report to the FBI and FAA to pass to the New York Police Department and the airlines. The FAA issued a security directive on December 8, with specific requirements for more intensive air carrier screening of passengers and more oversight of the screening process, at all three New York City area airports.112

The intelligence community could learn little about the source of the information. Later in December and again in early January 1999, more information arrived from the same source, reporting that the planned hijacking had been stalled because two of the operatives, who were sketchily described, had been arrested near Washington, D.C. or New York. After investigation, the FBI could find no information to support the hijack threat; nor could it verify any arrests like those described in the report. The FAA alert at the New York area airports ended on January 31, 1999.113

On December 17, the day after the United States and Britain began their Desert Fox bombing campaign against Iraq, the Small Group convened to discuss intelligence suggesting imminent Bin Ladin attacks on the U.S. embassies in Qatar and Ethiopia. The next day, Director Tenet sent a memo to the President, the cabinet, and senior officials throughout the government describing reports that Bin Ladin planned to attack U.S. targets very soon, possibly over the next few days, before Ramadan celebrations began. Tenet said he was "greatly concerned."114

With alarms sounding, members of the Small Group considered ideas about how to respond to or prevent such attacks. Generals Shelton and Zinni came up with military options. Special Operations Forces were later told that they might be ordered to attempt very high-risk in-and-out raids either in Khartoum, to capture a senior Bin Ladin operative known as Abu Hafs the Mauritanian-who appeared to be engineering some of the plots-or in Kandahar, to capture Bin Ladin himself. Shelton told us that such operations are not risk free, invoking the memory of the 1993 "Black Hawk down" fiasco in Mogadishu.115

[journalist3072]

6. It just blows the mind, doesn't it?

When Clinton received an ominous PDB on bin Laden, he went to work. He geared into action, and made sure that those around him did as well.

When Bush received his August 6 PDB, he told his briefer "all right, you've covered your ass now."

http://progressiveminds.bloghi.com/2006/06/21/bush-to-cia-briefer-all-right-you-ve-covered-your-ass-now.html

[Mabus]

7. Yes, it blows the mind and not in a good way!

It's just too bad that Dems aren't concerned with national security like the Rethugs. :sarcasm: