The president hosted a quick Q&A with reporters yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas, just a half-day after his August 6, 2001, PDB was released to the public. I know he was just wrapping up yet another vacation, and sometimes it can be difficult to get back into “work mode” after some time off, but Bush’s remarks yesterday varied from factually incorrect to completely nonsensical.
Question: Mr. President, could you tell us, did you see the presidential — the President’s Daily Brief from August of ’01 as a warning —
Bush: Did I see it? Of course I saw it; I asked for it.
No, actually he didn’t ask for it. As CAP’s David Sirota noted from a Washington Post report last month:
According to the CIA, the briefing “was not requested by President Bush.” As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, “the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA.”
But that’s just a casual, run-of-the-mill lie from Bush. About a minute later, Bush offered this gem, which was far worse:
As you might recall, there was some specific threats for overseas that we reacted to. And as the president, I wanted to know whether there was anything, any actionable intelligence. And I looked at the August 6th briefing, I was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into. But that PDB said nothing about an attack on America.
This has to be the dumbest thing he’s said since “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.”
For the life of me, I can’t understand why Bush would say that the PDB “said nothing about an attack on America.” The entire document was about an attack on America. The damn headline said, “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.” There were updates about Osama bin Laden wanting to “retaliate in Washington,” making “preparations for hijackings,” and looking at “buildings in New York.”
What, prey tell, would Bush consider a memo about “an attack on America” if this doesn’t qualify?