One of the many interesting points raised in Bob Wodward's new book was that the CIA had given Sec. Rice a briefing in July 2001 that warned of a pending attack. When confronted by this last week she said:
"What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible,"
The State Department has now confirmed that this meeting, a meeting that Sec. Rice claims never occurred because she surely would remember and have reacted if it had occurred, did, infact take place.
The reality is, the Bush administration, prior to 9-11 didn't care about terrorism, or the conflict in the middle east. They were focused on Russia, China, and N. Korea. SDI was far more important than Bin Laden, and terrorism concerns were ignored.
The Bush administration was determined to be the Anti-Clinton administration. If the Clinton administration dismissed something, it was to be a priority, if the Clinton administration valued something, it was to be ignored. The Clinton warning that Bin Laden and terrorism would be the gravest danger the Bush White House would face, just assured that the issue would be left to rot.
The result was, despite sixty days of warning, our nation was blindsided by an act of mass murder. We are left to wonder what might have happened if, after either of the pre 9-11 warnings, the administration had actually done something. What if they had asked agents in the field about the activity of suspected terror cells in the US. What happens, if asking this simple question, had raised questions about pilots who were trying to learn to fly, but not real concerned with learning to land.
Instead, 5 years later, we learn that senior members of the Bush administration were so disinterested in terrorism, that they can not even remember high level meetings where they were told that we were likely to be attacked.
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Rice CIA
1 comment:
If I recall, she said at one point she was told by someone in the Clinton Administration that there was a warning of the "potential" for an attack but they looked into it and could find no evidence of where and how. Seems like this was during the 9-11 hearings that took place. Who knows. They change their story depending on the day and whos listening I think.
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