| Subject: Thanks for the post. |
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Rubber Ducky
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Date Posted: 11:55:23 06/29/02 Sat
Author Host/IP: 168.143.113.136
In reply to:
Clinton Admin however discussed terrorism frequently! !!!
's message, "Bush Administration made Terror a LOW PRIORITY before 9/11" on 10:47:38 06/29/02 Sat
Wow, serious stuff.
>Totally irresponsible.Another failure of leadership by
>Shrub.
>
>
>
>Terror was low priority before Sept. 11
>
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - -
>By Ted Bridis
>
>
>
>June 28, 2002 | WASHINGTON (AP) --
>
>President Bush's national security leadership met
>formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the
>Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during
>only two of those sessions, officials say.
>
>The White House acknowledged the dearth of top-level
>meetings devoted to the subject of terrorism by the
>"principals committee" of the National Security
>Council. Yet it has aggressively defended the level of
>attention, given only scattered hints of al-Qaida
>activity.
>
>One current security council official, speaking on
>condition of anonymity, said that intensive planning
>of anti-terrorism strategies was largely the role of
>midlevel committees at the NSC -- not the
>Cabinet-level players.
>
>"The president was being briefed. The principals were
>being briefed, perhaps not together," this official
>said.
>
>The description of the 90 to 100 meetings was
>confirmed by three White House officials.
>
>Critics said the low number of terrorism meetings by
>the most senior members of the security council
>indicated the administration's priorities were
>elsewhere.
>
>"What were the principals doing to bring this to the
>attention of the president?" asked P.J. Crowley,
>council spokesman for the Clinton administration.
>"Given our growing understanding of this threat that
>we built in '90s about the emerging threat of
>terrorism, they just didn't seem to get it."
>
>Clinton officials said their council principals met
>every two to three weeks to discuss terrorist threats
>after mid-1998. Those meetings increased during times
>of heightened terrorist concerns, such as immediately
>prior to the millennium celebrations, when the
>principals met nearly every day to discuss threat
>levels.
>
>Bush's principals committee was focused on missile
>defense, Iraq, China, international economic policy,
>global warming and the U.S. stance toward Russia, a
>subject of particular interest to National Security
>Adviser Condoleezza Rice, a Russian expert who has now
>worked for both Bush presidents.
>
>In addition to Rice, the principals usually included
>CIA Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald H.
>Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Gen.
>Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
>Staff.
>
>One discussion on terrorism occurred July 3, amid
>escalating concerns about a likely attack by al-Qaida,
>one official said. But experts believed al-Qaida would
>attack American targets overseas, not inside the
>United States.
>
>The other terrorism meeting occurred Sept. 4 as the
>security council put finishing touches on a proposed
>national security policy review for the president.
>
>White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has described the
>council's review as a "comprehensive, multi-front plan
>to dismantle the al-Qaida." It included instructions
>for the Pentagon to develop military strikes, plans to
>work closely with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance
>against al-Qaida and proposals to freeze bank accounts
>linked to Osama bin Laden's group.
>
>That review was finished Sept. 10 and was awaiting
>Bush's approval when the first plane struck the World
>Trade Center.
>
>Bush himself said in February 2001 that the nation
>hadn't done enough to prepare for possible terrorist
>attacks, and he pledged: "I will put a high priority
>on detecting and responding to terrorism on our soil."
>
>A few weeks earlier, Tenet had told Congress, "The
>threat from terrorism is real, it is immediate, and it
>is evolving." He described bin Laden and his global
>network as a serious and immediate threat.
>
>In the last months of the Clinton administration, as
>early as November 2000, the security council had
>determined that al-Qaida was responsible for the Oct.
>12 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole, which killed 17
>sailors. Bush first linked al-Qaida to the Cole
>bombing publicly in his speech to Congress after the
>Sept. 11 attacks.
>
>"This was a failure in the Bush administration to
>recognize the nature of terrorism and its impact on
>the United States," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former
>CIA chief of counterterrorism operations and analysis.
>"Everybody felt that it was a chronic phenomenon, it
>would continue and the best we could hope was to
>contain it."
>
>One official argued that the lack of regular meetings
>devoted to terrorism among Bush's upper-echelon
>advisers did not mean inadequate attention was paid to
>the subject. More work was done by lower-level council
>staffers, who regularly briefed the principals
>individually, even if the principals didn't meet
>frequently on the issue, this official said.
>
>Crowley, who worked under Clinton, argued that
>senior-level meetings are necessary for important work
>to be done.
>
>"You really get the pull of the best information that
>each agency has when you bring together the principals
>with the purpose of making decisions and teeing up
>recommendations to the president," Crowley said. "It's
>the only way that you overcome those bureaucratic
>barriers."
>
>Rice has described the work of the council's
>Counterterrorism Security Group, directed by Special
>Assistant Richard Clarke, which met several times each
>week during July and August. By Aug. 6, Bush received
>a briefing report with the heading, "Bin Laden
>Determined to Strike the United States." The report
>discussed the possibility of traditional airline
>hijackings.
>
>"To say that the principals never talked about it
>before Sept. 4 is wrong," another official said.
>"There were lots of conversations on the margins at
>meetings or informal meetings. But the first formal
>meeting was to review the draft policy."
>
>
>Associated Press
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