‘Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.’ Pt. 2
Everyone remembers that on Aug. 6, 2001, while President George W. Bush was clearing brush in Texas, he received an intelligence brief warning about Al Qaeda’s strategic intent to attack the U.S. homeland. After three years of denying this occurred, the 9/11 Commission’s Richard Ben Veniste treated us to this dramatic moment with Condoleezza Rice:
“„BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB [President's Daily Brief]?
“„RICE: I believe the title was, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.”
Today we have a second round of the PDB. It’s a General Accountability Office report titled “The United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.” (pdf) Via Max Bergmann at Democracy Arsenal, take a look at this system-blinking-red passage, drawing off an assessment from the director of national intelligence:
“„al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place, including the identification, training, and positioning of Western operatives for an attack. It stated that al Qaeda is most likely using the FATA to plot terrorist attacks against political, economic, and infrastructure targets in America “designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the population.”
This is what Iraq stops us from dealing with. If, God forbid, something happens, the blood will be bin Laden’s fault, but it will be on the Bush administration’s hands.
