There were a few interesting angles to yesterday’s news that the Bush administration was warned, despite remarks to the contrary, about al Queda hijacking airplanes before 9/11.
The first and obvious one, of course, is how this…
In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.
But aviation officials were “lulled into a false sense of security,” and “intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to 9/11 did not stimulate significant increases in security procedures,” the commission report concluded.
…contradicts this.
“I don’t think anybody could have predicted … that [the terrorists] would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.” — Condoleezza Rice on May 16, 2002.
This is not altogether new information. Similar reports have surfaced bolstering the evidence that Rice and the White House were warned but never took the threat seriously. The fact that the 9/11 Commission reported this, however, offers the story added weight.
But as my friend Eugene Oregon noted, the even more salient point is about the timing of this revelation.
The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system.
Hmm, a five-month delay. You don’t suppose this had something to do with the election, do you?
Maybe there’s a good reason the Bush gang intentionally blocked the release of this information, delaying it from October 2004 (shortly before the election) to February 2005 (shortly after). If there is a good explanation, however, the White House hasn’t thought of it yet.
Reporter: The FAA report on the 52 pieces of information that they had, the administration, apparently, just filed the report a couple of weeks ago to the Archives. Why did it wait so long to come out?
Scott McClellan: Well, I think you’d have to talk to the Justice Department. The Justice Department was the liaison for working with the 9/11 Commission on classification issues related to reporting. My understanding was this was a report that was given to the Justice Department at the last minute of when they completed their work. And we provided unprecedented cooperation to the 9/11 Commission —
Reporter: For —
McClellan: Hang on — unprecedented cooperation to the 9/11 Commission, and we were pleased to do that because their work was very important.
First of all, the White House hardly provided “unprecedented cooperation” — Bush opposed the commission’s very existence, dragged its heels on document production, and when the president did finally sit down with the panel, he set a 2-hour time limit, refused to allow any kind of transcription, and wouldn’t participate at all unless Dick Cheney was there next to him.
Second, the information about the dozens of intelligence reports was declassified just “two weeks ago,” which just so happens to be the day after Condi Rice was confirmed as Secretary of State. What a remarkable coincidence.
And, finally, isn’t it amusing to hear McClellan try and pass the buck to John Ashcroft for this? The era of responsibility, indeed.