News & Politics - Bush's Pre-9/11 Terrorist Memo

last beautiful girl · 04-10-2004, 08:02 PM

Bush memo included possible plot warning

This? Baffles me. He was aware that something could've happened, he didn't do anything about it, and he has the nerve to call the WTC attacks 'sudden and deliberate'? Granted, it's not a Nostradamus propechy or anything, but I don't think they would've been sudden and deliberate if you had, oh, I don't know, tightened security on airports or something.

Just kind of makes me sick.

[ 04-11-2004: Message edited Katis ]

Katis · 04-10-2004, 08:17 PM

Although I wish the administration had been more forthcoming with this information, I can't fault them for their actions or lack thereof after receiving the memo. What could they have done? Shut down every airport in the country? No way anyone would have stood for that. Started increasing background checks and upping security to the level it is now? Profiling people? The ACLU would have been on them in a second and their would have been an outcry that a simple threat wasn't enough to warrant that kind of activity.

Plus, I would be curious to know how many perceived threats, memos, etc the administration and intelligence agencies receive and send out.

lizzie2000 · 04-10-2004, 09:15 PM

i think that if they knew about the memo they could have done something to try and prevent it, but yet they have not done anything to stop the attacks, and now they are using the whole terrorism and attack thing to run for reelection. I find that wrong that they are using people's tragedy to run for reelection, but i guess that is a whole another topic.

Katis · 04-10-2004, 09:23 PM

How have they done nothing to stop more attacks?

migamoo · 04-10-2004, 11:05 PM

They could have done something about this though. I'm not saying that they should have been paranoid about even a baby being a potential terrorist, but they could have at least increased security. and i'm not saying that this could have prevented what happened that day, but it might have helped if say a security guard thought they spotted someone doing something suspicious.

ashley

sum1 · 04-10-2004, 11:08 PM

Easy to say now, in retrospect.

Katis · 04-10-2004, 11:24 PM

To look for what? Middle-Eastern men looking a little shifty?

migamoo · 04-11-2004, 12:05 AM

well even in the memo it said that members of Bin Ladin's group were also US citizens. I am not implying that everyone who is of Arab decent or looks to be of Arab decent has to be looked at in a incriminating sense. i'm just saying, ANYONE can look suspicious, not just middle eastern men.

mh67511 · 04-11-2004, 12:10 AM

Maybe my reading comprehension skills no longer exist, but could someone point out to me where in the memo Bush was "informed of the Sept 11th plot."

BTW - It might be nice if people on Fan Forum would stop using titles that simply aren't true.

migamoo · 04-11-2004, 12:29 AM

there is no mention of the 9/11 plot in the memo.

from the memo

Quote:

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Even though this never happened, it still should have sent off warnings in peoples heads that airports might not be as safe as some would like to believe.

Ashley

*Ledi* · 04-11-2004, 01:07 AM

My friend's mom who lives in the states, said that a lot of people hadn't gone to work the day of the attacks because they sort of knew something was going to happen, so... Bush knowing about this doesn't surprise me really.

elisheva · 04-11-2004, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by *Ledi*:
<STRONG>My friend's mom who lives in the states, said that a lot of people hadn't gone to work the day of the attacks because they sort of knew something was going to happen, so... Bush knowing about this doesn't surprise me really.</STRONG>

Huh? The only thing I've heard at all like that, is when people were claiming that Jews knew it was going to happen and so a lot of them didn't go to work on 9/11. (Which is absolute anti-Semitic bull [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] )
Not that I'm saying you're claiming the same thing...I'm really just curious as to what you mean by that and where that kind of idea comes from.

And I agree with Matt (mh67511), if it doesn't actually SAY "Bush informed of Sept 11th plot" anywhere in the memo, can we drop the misleading title?

Quote:

Bush memo included possible plot warning
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) � President Bush was told more than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks that al-Qaeda had reached America's shores, had a support system in place for its operatives and that the FBI had detected suspicious activity that might involve a hijacking plot.
Since 1998, the FBI had observed "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks," according to a memo prepared for Bush and declassified Saturday. They included evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists. (Related link: Read the memo)

The document also said the CIA and FBI were investigating a call to the U.S. embassy in the United Arab Emirates in May "saying that a group of (Osama) bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives."

Senior administration officials said Bush had requested the memo after seeing more than 40 mentions of al-Qaeda in his daily intelligence updates during the first eight months of his presidency.

The Aug. 6, 2001, memo made plain that bin Laden had been scheming to strike the United States for at least six years. It warned of indications from a broad array of sources, spanning several years.

"Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US," the memo to Bush stated. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

The "presidential daily brief" said that after President Clinton launched missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, "bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington."

The memo cited intelligence from another country, but the White House blacked out the name of the nation. It was the first time a presidential daily brief has ever been released publicly.

Efforts to launch an attack from Canada around the time of "Y2K" "may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S.," the document states.

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam, who was caught trying to cross the Canadian border with explosives about 60 miles north of Seattle in late 1999, told the FBI that he alone conceived a planned attack on Los Angeles International Airport, but that bin Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah "encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation," the document said.

al-Qaeda members, some of them American citizens, had lived in or traveled to the United States for years, the memo said.

"The group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks," it warned.

The document said that "some of the more sensational threat reporting" � such as warnings that bin Laden wanted to hijack aircraft to win the release of fellow extremists" � could not be corroborated.

One item in the memo referred to "recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity that that was a reference to two Yemeni men the FBI interviewed and concluded were simply tourists taking photographs.

On May 15, 2001, a caller to the U.S. embassy in the United Arab Emirates warned of planned bin Laden attacks with explosives in the United States, but did not say where or when.

The CIA reported the incident to other government officials the next day, and a dozen or more steps were taken by the CIA and other agencies "to run down" the information from the phone call, senior administration officials said Saturday evening.

One official said references to al-Qaeda in prior presidential briefings "would indicate 'they are here, they are there' in other countries and the CIA director would tell the president what was being done to address "these different operations."

The official said those types of references prompted the president to ask for a report on domestic activity.

The senior administration officials refused to say what Bush's response to the memo was, or precisely what government action it had triggered.

That's the linked article...I actually rather pride myself on my reading comprehension skills [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img], and I don't get "Bush informed of Sept. 11th plot" anywhere in that.

AlexEvans · 04-11-2004, 08:44 AM

Bush was not informed.

Nobody was.

Nobody stayed home.

These, along with other stories such as the Jenin fabrication and the Big Oil Lie, are the modern Western versions of the Blood Libel or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

These are stories told to incite hatred of Americans and Jews. To transfer blame from the murderers, to those who fight murder. To incite violence. To incite more murder.

Repeating them is vile. Believing them incomprehensible.

After seeing this thread, I trust nobody on this board will make any further attempts to link hatred of the US and/or Israel to their policies or histories, given the conclusive evidence to the contrary displayed here.

What the memo actually said is nothing. It said there might be attacks. There were already a number of Al Quaeda attacks on the US, some of them within the US. Clinton retaliated ineffectively for them.

*Ledi* · 04-11-2004, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elisheva:
<STRONG>
Huh? The only thing I've heard at all like that, is when people were claiming that Jews knew it was going to happen and so a lot of them didn't go to work on 9/11. (Which is absolute anti-Semitic bull [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] )
Not that I'm saying you're claiming the same thing...I'm really just curious as to what you mean by that and where that kind of idea comes from.

</STRONG>

I don't know... that's all her mom said... that a lot of people didn't show up at work that day which was sort of weird & suspicious and well she said they probably knew something was going to happen since they all didn't show up on that day. and no...she didn't say "Jews"... or anything.

I really don't know anything else - I'm just saying what I've been told.

ceilirose · 04-11-2004, 09:05 AM

I don't blame Bush per se for 9/11 nor do I blame Clinton. The problem as many in Washington have said is that evidence was out there but our system wasn't set up to bring it to the appropriate people and for someone to tie it all together. What is troubling is that the Government knew that Al Queda cells were in the country..that's what hit me most from this memo.

This will mainly be a political issue from now on and both parties - Democrats and Republicans - have and will be using the commision hearings and findings plus this memo and others to further their political leanings. It's too important a subject.

Abducted Bookworm - with all due respect you're overreacting to a benign comment made about Jews in relation to 9/11. The only rules we have to follow here are FF rules. People shouldn't be intimidated about what subjects they can or can't talk about because they fear being called names by those who disagree. If someone is critical of the US policies, or Israeli polices or the policies of The Bahamas then they should feel free to express those within the rules of FF.

[ 04-11-2004: Message edited ceilirose ]