a CHALLENGE from the Center for American Progress!

[nostamj]

Beat the Progress Report

Yesterday, on Hannity and Colmes, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said "the assertion that somehow the Bush administration wasn't paying attention when we came into office is just false." But, despite Rice's comments, we were unable to find a single instance where Rice, Vice President Cheney or President Bush said "al Qaeda" or "bin Laden" in public between Bush Inauguration and 9/11. (The closest thing we could dig up – despite extensive searches on Nexis and the White House website – was a routine written extension of an executive order dealing with the Taliban.) During the same period, however, we were able to identify roughly 400 times that Rice, Cheney and Bush publicly mentioned "tax relief" or "tax cut." Prove you're better than the Progress Report! Send any instance of Rice, Cheney or Bush uttering the words "al Qaeda" or "bin Laden" in public between 1/20/01 and 9/10/01 to [e-mail]. The first person to submit a successful entry (which we can verify) will receive a free copy of "Deliver Us From Evil" by Fox News Anchor Sean Hannity signed by the members of the Progress Report team.

http://www.americanprogress.org

[wtmusic]

1. very funny

they were 100% asleep at the wheel (not so funny)

[RobertSeattle]

2. As a bartcop cartoon said...

Prior to 9/11, Geroge Bush thought "Al Queda" was the shortstop for the Atlanta Braves.

[BootinUp]

3. That is pretty f'in revealing

Maybe R. Clarke isn't lying? ya think?

[nostamj]

4. more from today's email "Progress Report

I highly recommend signing up for this daily report. these people are the new "war room"....

SUBSTANTIATED – CLARKE'S ASSESSMENT OF BUSH PRIORITIES: Clarke told the commission that terrorism was an "extraordinarily high priority - certainly no higher priority" in the Clinton administration but that the Bush Administration considered it "not an urgent issue" before Sept. 11. This is consistent with internal government documents obtained by the Center for American Progress which show that the Administration actually moved to downgrade counterterrorism as a strategic priority before 9/11 in favor of traditional law enforcement. As Newsweek noted, the Bush Administration moved to "de-emphasize" counterterrorism despite increasing signs of an imminent al Qaeda attack. When "FBI officials sought to add hundreds more counterintelligence agents" to deal with the problem "they got shot down" by the Bush Administration.

SUBSTANTIATED – BUSH DID NOT CONSIDER AL QAEDA URGENT: Clarke said that "George Tenet and I tried very hard to create a sense of urgency by seeing to it that intelligence reports on the al Qaeda threat were frequently given to the president and other high-level officials." He said the CIA "continually informed about the threat" throughout the summer. But unfortunately, Clarke said, "I don't think it was ever treated that way" by the President. This claim is substantiated also by the public record: Clarke's January memo marked "urgent" to Condoleezza Rice asking for a top level meeting to prepare for an imminent Al Qaeda attack was ignored for eight months. When one of the commissioners asked Clarke "is that eight-month period unusual?" he noted "It is unusual when you are being told every day that there is an urgent threat." Clarke's assertion is also substantiated by President Bush himself, who told Bob Woodward "I was not on point" in fighting terrorism before 9/11, and that "I didn't feel the sense of urgency" about terrorism before 9/11.

SUBSTANTIATED – ANOTHER OFFICIAL COMES FORWARD: Salon.com editor Sidney Blumenthal reports that Clarke's assertions about the Bush Administration's complacency are now being corroborated by another former Bush national security official. "Gen. Donald Kerrick, who served as deputy national security advisor under Clinton and remained on the NSC for several months into the new Bush administration, wrote his replacement, Stephen Hadley, a two-page memo." Kerrick noted he said in the memo "they needed to pay attention to al-Qaeda and counterterrorism. I said we were going to be struck again. We didn't know where or when. They never once asked me a question nor did I see them having a serious discussion about it. They didn't feel it was an imminent threat the way the Clinton administration did. Hadley did not respond to my memo. I know he had it. I agree with Dick that they saw those problems through an Iraqi prism. But the evidence wasn't there."

[Octafish]

11. Gen. Kerrick is a good man.

So's that organization. They're going to be better than the GOP-houses of disinformation because Democrats actually do the whole think-tank thing because DEMs know what it's like to think.

EDIT: Tiipo.

[nostamj]

5. kick n/t

[nostamj]

6. another kick

for whatever reason :shrug:

[skeptic9]

7. kick

[KittyWampus]

8. Nostamj, I Don't Think DU'ers May Realise What CAP IS!

But this website is an asset we should utilize.

Thanks for posting the link!

They have talking points on various subjects as well as daily talking points.

List of 'experts' including Eric Alterman.

Really hope that this gets more widely read.

[Kimber Scott]

9. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...

:kick:

[skeptic9]

10. kick