I just talked to a lady on Facebook who had posted this:
On which I commented:
To which (or rather to a reply of a reply) she replied by uploading a facsimile of a security memo, dated 4 December 1998, declassified 12 July 2004, with the following content:
To which she added the following commentary:
Ok - I never thought I'd see the day that I'd run into a Truther who doesn't even know the
decade in which 9/11 occurred!!
You wrote:
"On which I commented:
Originally Posted by me
Such was the situation for the Bush White House: No actionable information.
What, specifically should Bush have done?"
Are you really serious?
First, Bush was told on August 6, 2001, that there was surveillance of buildings in Manhattan consistent with (using hijacked aircraft to target these buildings) aircraft hijacking. Anyone with a brain would immediately have known from this information, that the buildings in Manhattan that were to be attacked, would have been the WTC Towers.
After this briefing Bush said "OK you have covered your ass, now!"
Why would Bush have said this? What was Bush thinking, that the CIA was covering their ass from? Did the CIA know that the President was going to do absolutely nothing to stop this huge al Qaeda attack just about to take place inside of the US, and Bush knew they were providing him with enough information on this attack, that he would be forced to defend the CIA after this attack took place. Does this explain why the President said; "OK you have covered your ass, now!"
John Ashcroft, his AG, was so terrified a being on an aircraft that might be hijacked, that he no longer flew on US commercial aircraft in the US after July 26, 2001, for AG business. This was just after Tenet briefed him on the information he gave Condoleezza Rice the week before.
The statement "Such was the situation for the Bush White House: No actionable information.What, specifically should Bush have done?" is that old chestnut that makes no sense.
Bush could have asked what the CIA knew about any attack aimed at the US, or any al Qaeda terrorists inside of the US. He could have had the FBI send a cable to all FBI agents who were part of the 56 Joint TTFs and the New York criminal agents on the Cole bombing, asking them what information they had on any al terrorists they were aware of, that were inside of the US. Bush could have had the NSA translate all al Qaeda telephone conversations, in real time, instead of taking several days to translate these conversations.
Instead, President Bush did what? President Bush did absolutely nothing! President Bush did nothing to stop this attack, when he was aware that this inaction by his administration would allow the al Qaeda terrorists to murder thousands of Americans in a huge al Qaeda terrorist attack. I repeat, he did absolutely nothing to stop this attack.
But what is even more horrific is that we now know that Bush and the CIA knew mush more than was revealed by the 9/11 Commission. Tenet and the CIA were told on August 22, 2001, that two al Qaeda terrorists Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were inside of the US, in order to take part in an al Qaeda terrorist attack that would kill massive numbers of Americans. On August 23, 2001, Tenet was told, that Minneapolis FBI had the INS arrest a person, who they thought was a terrorist, trying to learn how to fly a B747 without even having a private pilot's license. In spite of knowing about this attack and knowing two al Qaeda terrorists were already in the US, to take part in this attack, Tenet and the CIA completely refused to help the Minneapolis FBI get enough information to get a FISA search warrant for Moussaoui's possessions. This act that prevented the Minneapolis FBI Agents from finding Ramzi bin al-Shibh's Western Union money wire transfer until after the attacks on 9/11 had already taken place.
It is clear that just this action by the CIA plus the fact that the CIA had warned absolutely no one who could have stopped these attacks, allowed the attacks on 9/11 to take place. Even though Tenet claimed he had not talked to the President in all of August 2001, he flew down to Crawford for a 6 hour meeting with the President on August 24, 2001, just after he had become aware of Mihdhar and Hazmi and of Moussaoui, had another meeting with him on August 30, 2001 and 6 more times, met with the President, before the the attacks on 9/11. It is impossible to believe that Tenet had not given Bush the information he had, that the al Qaeda terrorists were just about to carry out a huge attack that would use commercial aircraft to attack the WTC Towers, the Pentagon and the US Capital building.
Again, people who claim that "Such was the situation for the Bush White House: No actionable information." is a statement that from what we now know, is beyond stupid!
