John Yoo Neglects to Mention That August President’s Daily Brief

Following up on Spencer’s post, I must point out the absurdity of the opening of John Yoo’s op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal.

It was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda’s inner workings, could not detect its operatives’ entry into the country, nor predict where it might strike next.

Uh, except for the daily brief that President George W. Bush received a month before titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US” and specifically warning that “a group of (Osama) bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.”

And then there was the acknowledgment from the government’s own 9/11 Commission that important relevant information about the attacks “was available to the Intelligence Community prior to September 11, 2001″ but it “too often failed to focus on that information and consider and appreciate its collective significance in terms of a probable terrorist attack.” And the commission’s conclusion that “the Intelligence Community failed to fully capitalize on available, and potentially important, information.”

Is is really “the inspectors general report” that “ignores history and plays politics with the law,” as The Journal’s headline puts it?

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