American Progress
9/11 - FYI, The PDB Doesn't CYA
Mon Apr 12, 2004 18:46
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9/11 - FYI, The PDB Doesn't CYA
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http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228#1

911 MEDIA LIES:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6262

The White House this weekend released a section of the classified August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB), which explicitly warned President Bush of an imminent al Qaeda attack inside the United States. The document contradicts President Bush's own denials, and raises the question of whether National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice lied under oath last week in describing the memo's contents before the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. The President "said yesterday that a memo did not contain enough specific threat information" with Bush claiming "the PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat" because it supposedly "said nothing about an attack on America...was not a time and place of an attack" specified. But as the NYT notes, the PDB "spells out the who, hints at the what and points toward the where of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that followed 36 days later." CNN Political Analyst (and AEI scholar) Bill Schneider said the PDB revelations "could be seriously damaging. What this says is, the White House knew what bin Laden was capable of planning, where he intended to do it, which was New York or Washington, D.C., and how he was going to do it."

LYING UNDER OATH – PDB REFUTES RICE'S SWORN TESTIMONY: In her testimony under oath before the 9/11 Commission last week, Rice said the August 6th PDB "was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States." But the PDB contained very current and specific information about ongoing investigations and threats – a direct contradiction of Rice's testimony. The PDB said there were "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...The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related" including one following leads about "Bin Ladin supporters in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives." American Progress reports the truth behind Rice's testimony.

DISHONESTY – STILL SAYING HE REQUESTED THE BRIEFING: The President yesterday insisted that he personally requested the August 6 intelligence briefing because he was so concerned about terrorism, saying "I asked the intelligence agency to analyze the data to tell me whether or not we faced a threat internally...That's what the PDB request was." But according to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA."

NEGLIGENCE – LOAFING WHILE SUPPOSEDLY "AT BATTLE STATIONS": The WP explored the Bush Administration's claims that "The President of the United States had us at battle stations" during the summer of 2001. But "if top officials were at battle stations, there was no sign of it on the surface. Bush spent most of August 2001 on his ranch" – taking one of the longest Presidential vacations in White House history. One former Bush aide "who remains close to the White House said the use of the term 'battle stations' by Rice was an overstatement." And as an American Progress backgrounder shows, the President did not appear to change his schedule at all from the month-long regimen of golf, running, and cookouts. The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board said the President's pre-9/11 conduct displayed "a criminal lack of interest in trying to prevent an attack on the United States that the administration had strong reason to expect" adding that "almost nothing of a defensive nature was done to guard against -- to prevent -- the horrific spectacle that unfolded on Sept. 11."

PUBLIC OPINION – MOST BELIEVE WH IS HIDING INFO OR LYING: A CBS News poll taken after Rice's testimony shows that more than three out of four Americans believe the Bush Administration is either hiding something or lying about September 11. Similarly, a Newsweek poll found that 60% of Americans say the Bush Administration "underestimated the terrorist threat and focused too much on other security issues like missile defense and Iraq prior to September 11." Just 23% say the Bush Administration took the threat seriously.

Claim vs. Fact: Rice's Q&A Testimony Before the 9/11 Commission, April 8, 2004
CLAIM: "I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons." FACT: Condoleezza Rice was the top National Security official with President Bush at the July 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa. There, "U.S. officials were warned that Islamic terrorists might attempt to crash an airliner" into the summit, prompting officials to "close the airspace over Genoa and station antiaircraft guns at the city's airport."

Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice's Opening Statement, April 8, 2004
CLAIM: "We decided immediately to continue pursuing the Clinton Administration's covert action authorities and other efforts to fight the network." FACT: Newsweek reported that "In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor al-Qaida suspects in the United States."

9/11 Commission: Opposition and Obfuscation, April 7, 2004
As National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice prepares to testify before the 9/11 Commission, the Center for American Progress presents the facts about the Bush administration's record on the commission.

Statement of Carmel Martin, April 6, 2004
The data released today by the Center for American Progress vividly illustrates that President Bush is not fulfilling his promise to Leave No Child Behind.

Truth & Consequences: The Bush Administration and September 11, April 2, 2004
After September 11, both President Bush and his top national security adviser denied having any prior knowledge that al Qaeda was planning an attack involving airplanes.

The White House and West Virginia, April 2, 2004
On 10/31/02, President Bush visited West Virginia and said his "tax relief plan was good for small businesses and job creation, and it is good for West Virginia citizens as well." But an analysis of how the Administration's policies have affected the state paints a very different picture.

President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief, March 31, 2004
From the beginning, George W. Bush has made his own credibility a central issue.

Fact Check: Condi Rice's 60 Minutes Interview, March 28, 2004
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes in an effort to quell growing questions surrounding the Administration's inconsistent claims about its pre-9/11 actions.

Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice's Credibility Gap, March 26, 2004
A point-by-point analysis of how one of America's top national security officials has a severe problem with the truth.

Claim vs. Fact: Administration Officials Respond to Richard Clarke Interview, March 22, 2004
In the wake of Richard Clarke's well-supported assertions that the Bush Administration neglected counterterrorism in the face of repeated terror warnings before 9/11, the Bush Administration has launched a frantic misinformation campaign – often contradicting itself in the process.

9/11: Internal Government Documents Show How the Bush Administration Reduced Counterterrorism, March 22, 2004
Since September 11, President Bush and his supporters have repeatedly intimated that many of the President's political opponents are soft on terrorism.

Robert O. Boorstin Responds to President Bush's Speech, March 19, 2004
President Bush's speech today was nine parts rhetoric to one part reality – the same recipe that has left the American people more at risk from terrorists today than when the U.S. invaded Iraq one year ago.