Let’s briefly recap. According to Bob Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial,” then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had what appeared to be a pretty important meeting on July 10, 2001. Rice sat down with then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, and according to the CIA officials, Tenet and Black warned Rice that al Qaeda was planning an attack on American interests, possibly in the United States itself, and that immediate action was needed. Rice, according to reports, blew the concerns off. Bush, Rice reportedly said, would not swat at flies.
Rice initially questioned whether the meeting had even happened, but this week, we learned that the meeting definitely occurred. Now, we’ve learned a bit more. (thanks to my friend Sarabeth for the heads-up)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did receive a CIA briefing about terror threats about two months before the Sept. 11 attacks, but the information was not new, her chief spokesman said.
In doing so, Sean McCormack confirmed a meeting — on July 10, 2001 — that his boss had said repeatedly she could not specifically recall. She had said earlier that there were virtually daily meetings at the time. […]
“We can confirm that a meeting took place on or around July 10, 2001,” McCormack said. “The information presented in this meeting was not new, rather it was a good summary from the threat reporting from the previous several weeks,” he added.
“Not new.” This is a bit like the defense when the president was presented with a PDB from nearly panic-stricken intelligence officials, shortly before 9/11, about how determined Osama bin Laden was to attack inside the United States. It apparently wasn’t “new” enough to warrant the president’s attention.
But in Rice’s case, the terrorist threat warnings certainly seemed to be new.
From Woodward:
On July 10, 2001, two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, then-CIA Director George J. Tenet met with his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, at CIA headquarters to review the latest on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Black laid out the case, consisting of communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States. It was a mass of fragments and dots that nonetheless made a compelling case, so compelling to Tenet that he decided he and Black should go to the White House immediately.
Tenet called Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, from the car and said he needed to see her right away…. He and Black hoped to convey the depth of their anxiety and get Rice to kick-start the government into immediate action. […]
Tenet hoped his abrupt request for an immediate meeting would shake Rice. He and Black, a veteran covert operator, had two main points when they met with her. First, al-Qaeda was going to attack American interests, possibly in the United States itself. Black emphasized that this amounted to a strategic warning, meaning the problem was so serious that it required an overall plan and strategy. Second, this was a major foreign policy problem that needed to be addressed immediately. They needed to take action that moment — covert, military, whatever — to thwart bin Laden.
Black recalls, “The only thing we didn’t do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head.” Now the defense for Rice’s spectacularly poor judgment is that the hair-raising threat wasn’t “new” enough?
I still believe the best way to settle this is to see exactly what Tenet and Black showed Rice. It’s been five years; the briefing materials can be declassified and the public can see what Rice chose to ignore.
If Rice is right, the intelligence materials were routine and historical. If Woodward’s book is right, the materials pointed almost directly to 9/11.
If Rice is right, someone lied to Woodward. If the book is right, Rice should resign.