Bush Says Had No Advance Warning on 9/11

[hang a left]

Mar 26, 12:17 am ET

By Caren Bohan
NASHUA, N.H. (Reuters) - President Bush insisted on Thursday he had no advance warning of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and challenged the assertions of a former aide who accused him of not placing a high enough priority on pursuing al Qaeda prior to the tragedy.

Visiting a community college in the election swing state of New Hampshire, Bush tried to shore up his credibility on national security, which may be key to stopping Democrat John Kerry from taking the White House from him in November.

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of the government, to protect the American people," Bush said, appearing with Cheryl McGinnis, the wife of a pilot killed in the attacks.

Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who served the last four U.S. presidents, said Bush did not take the threat of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization seriously and downgraded its importance in comparison to the administration of former President Bill Clinton.
http://news.excite.com/politics/article/id/37060|politics|03-26-2004::00:25|reuters.html

[Bozita]

1. Too bad we don't have a "Pure Bullshit" forum here at DU

This article could be used as a model for what to throw in there.

Good post. Thanks.

[papau]

24. It would be Wall Street Journal Editorial thoughts - Like today's thought

that we can not insist that Mr. Bush "should have acted more pre-emptively before 9/11", else we are forbidden to fault "the President's aggressive antiterror policy ever since".

The WSJ sees compliants about Bush pre-911 actions (dropping the urgent view Clinton of terrorist, and Clinton's meeting of "principals" to shake out all knowledge) as being a case of the left saying "Bush didn't repudiate the failed strategy of the Clinton years fast enough."

So now because Bush F'd up pre 911, he gets a pass on civil liberty theft in the Patriot Act, and lies to put us into war with Iraq.

And these are the smart folks in the GOP - LOL

:-)

[TacticalPeek]

26. Lack of action followed by lack of thought.

Par for President Stupid.

[madrchsod]

2. most thinking people

realized this not long after 9-11. it`s been common knowledge and reported for the last two+ yrs. now we have the confirmation from someone who was in the same room with all the players in the the failure to protect the 3000+who died that day.
bush makes himself look childish by attacking someone who has the courage and the humility to say he was sorry for not doing enough to protect the citizens of the united states and our guests. sad day for us all.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. If that August 6, 2001 PDB contrdicts Bush and if it becomes public

then we need to save every article such as this in which Bush is caught in a lie.

[billybob537]

5. It's everywhere

all over the web At TPM, Drudge retort, and truthout. Will Pitt laid out chapter and verse in truthout recently. There's at least 5 cases of planes, in threats, and actual acts before 9/11 . Bush thinks no one sees he's naked.

[daleo]

4. Parse his words carefully

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America"

lots of wiggle room:
- nobody could "know" (unless they ordered it) but they could have reasonable suspicions and acted on them (although perhaps spending a month at the pig farm qualifies under that score)

[billybob537]

6. And people

wonder why he doesn't want to swat flies?

[Emillereid]

7. Didn't he and Condi admit that they thought they might only

hijack airplanes, not use them as missiles? I'm sure they did. Well then why doesn't someone ask them why they didn't put everybody on high alert to avert the hijackings -- everyone should have been on the ready to stop and/or thwart a hijacking. NORAD should have been in the air ready to intercept. This guy is so full of shit. God help me understand how the great US of A could produce the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, etc. and now we'll devolved to George W Asshole Bush*!

[Nordic65]

8. First Pres. stupid enough to arrange his own downfall

Just imagine, after all this, the republican convention coming to New York in september, trying to exploit the tragedy of 9.11. It will backfire like no other political ploy in history...

There is just no way out for *. It cannot be moved. And almost no matter what he does there, he will leave labeled as an con-man caught in the act. The shameless setup of the Convention in NY will be the biggest political blunder ever. But, who expects anything less from the worst Pres. ever?

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. This is going to make the Mission Accomplished stunt

look like a good idea.

Pass the popcorn, this is going to be fun.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi Nordic65!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Occulus]

9. He's only raising other questions by answering it that way.

1) Mr. President, why, after the first WTC tower was hit, were jets not scrambled in time to be in NYC airspace before the second airliner struck?

2) Mr. President, why, after being informed of the 9/11 attacks while attending a bookreading at Booker Elementary, did you not immediately assume your duties as Commander in Chief?

Someone ought to grow some balls and put Chimpy on the spot. If he loses his temper on camera, all the better.

[amber dog democrat]

10. He meant to say he had no clue about 9/11

and still doesn't. Hell, I would say that too if I was caught in outright lies like that. This is not going away.

[Bozvotros]

11. Tell it Brother George....

Put your hand on your favorite book and tell the big bad old commission what a good boy you really were. But do it under oath you gutless SOS....

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Why should a president have to

testify under oath about what he did or didn't do on the day of the worst terrorist attack in American history? You know you can only force a president to testify publicly about extramarital affairs and the intimate details of their private lives.

Maybe we can get the secret service to testify instead? Why didn't they whisk W out of the room when the 2nd Tower was hit? Who said what to who and when? ...

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

12. Who to Believe?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25177-2004Mar25.html

Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed this week that Rice had asked, in her private meetings with the commission, to revise a
statement she made publicly that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could have taken an airplane and slam it into the World
Trade Center . . . that they would try to use an airplane as a missile." Rice told the commission that she misspoke; the commission has received
information that prior to Sept. 11, U.S. intelligence agencies and Clarke had talked about terrorists using airplanes as missiles.

or

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of the government, to protect the American people," Bush said, appearing with Cheryl McGinnis, the wife of a pilot killed in the attacks.

[UpInArms]

16. Welcome to DU AnybodyButBush!

:hi:

Glad to have you here!

[mouse7]

15. Dumbya says he has a brain.

We've shown that's a lie, too.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Bush's problem is that Republicans always accentuate the positive and

never look at data that might contradict their decisions.

For example: Republicans were the first to laugh off skin cancer due to ozone depletion and they don't take global warming seriously. Because they don't believe that these things are an issue, they can then proceed with their plans to level our forests. If ozone and global warming don't exist, then what stands in the way of destroying the forests that can improve the negative environmental trends?

[Ganja Ninja]

18. I'm so sick of this line of crap.

Even if you don't know specifically which plane is going to be hijacked, if you know that there is a threat to commercial aircraft and passengers then you can increase the security around airports and at check-in counters. This is an excuse that only the ignorant would buy.

These guys knew there was a threat in the summer of 2001. They decided that it was too dangerous to fly on commercial air liners for them. Their only response was to hire private jets for themselves so they could save their own candy asses.

[Oreegone]

19. Yeah George

You knew they were going to get the airliners you just didn't know which flights.

[Toucano]

20. He didn't know

the flight numbers of the hijacked planes. I'd give him that much.

[soup]

21. Gee, *George- jeb seemed to know something was coming.

Changing standing orders for the Florida National Guard to include the words terrorism in an executive order dated September 7th, would indicate Something, wouldn't it?

>snip<
Section 3.

The Florida National Guard may order selected members on to state active duty for service to the State of Florida pursuant to Section 250.06(4), Florida Statutes, to assist FDLE in performing port security training and inspections. Based on the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port, the necessity to protect life and property from such acts of terrorism, and inhibiting the smuggling of illegal drugs into the State of Florida, the use of the Florida National Guard to support FDLE in accomplishing port security training and inspections is "extraordinary support to law enforcement" as used in Section 250.06(4), Florida Statutes.
http://sun6.dms.state.fl.us/eog_new/eog/orders/2001/september/eo2001-261-09-07-01.html

Didn't he let you know?

[TacticalPeek]

22. "I am not a crook."

"I am not a murderer."

"I am not responsible."

"I am not accountable."

"I am not wrong."

"I am not sorry."

[rexcat]

23. This is probably true since they weren't looking for it anyway!

[Zerex71]

25. Hmm, that's funny...

Because I seem to recall, during my five-month layoff (yes, Virginia, things were pretty much lousy from Day One of the Bush Regime), that CNN was falling all over itself with reports of al Qaeda "chatter". It was almost at the Condit level by that time, and I clearly recall that aQ was practically writing the CNN crawl for them - "Al Qaeda: We are about to kick your ass". So don't tell me, Señor Flightsuit, that you didn't have any advance warning!

[newyawker99]

28. Hi Zerex71!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: