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-Caveat Lector- April 8, 2004
Stephen Marshall, NYC
Release The Memo!: As Condoleezza Rice's testimony at the 9/11 hearings becomes fodder for media pundits and begins to slide down the cavernous memory-hole of American mass consciousness, the one significant development that will emerge is the commission's focus on the August 6 PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing). The memo is still classified, but information has gradually been leaking out to the public about its contents. To date, it stands as the single most damning particle of evidence that President Bush had intelligence on potential internal threats by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Rice tried to fend off the implication that they had forewarning by framing the briefing as being based on "historical" data. But the Democratic commissioners would not let that stand. It started with Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, who drew first blood. Then came Bob Kerrey, who unilaterally declassified part of that memo.
For those of you who missed the hearings, let's check out the transcripts. We'll start with Ben-Veniste who, it should be noted, is a seasoned prosecutor.
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.
Now, the ...
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste ...
BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the ...
RICE: I would like to finish my point here.
BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.
RICE: Given that - you asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.
BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.
RICE: You said, did it not warn of attacks. It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States.
BEN-VENISTE: Now, you knew by August 2001 of al-Qaida involvement in the first World Trade Center bombing, is that correct?
You knew that in 1999, late '99, in the millennium threat period, that we had thwarted an al-Qaida attempt to blow up Los Angeles International Airport and thwarted cells operating in Brooklyn, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts.
As of the August 6th briefing, you learned that al-Qaida members have resided or traveled to the United States for years and maintained a support system in the United States.
And you learned that FBI information since the 1998 blind sheik warning of hijackings to free the blind sheik indicated a pattern of suspicious activity in the country up until August 6th consistent with preparation for hijackings. Isn't that so?
RICE: Do you have other questions that you want me to answer as a part of the sequence?
BEN-VENISTE: Well, did you not - you have indicated here that this was some historical document. And I am asking you whether it is not the case that you learned in the PDB memo of August 6th that the FBI was saying that it had information suggesting that preparations - not historically, but ongoing, along with these numerous full field investigations against al-Qaida cells, that preparations were being made consistent with hijackings within the United States?
RICE: What the August 6th PDB said, and perhaps I should read it to you...
BEN-VENISTE: We would be happy to have it declassified in full at this time, including its title.
(APPLAUSE)
RICE: I believe, Mr. Ben-Veniste, that you've had access to this PDB. But let me just...
BEN-VENISTE: But we have not had it declassified so that it can be shown publicly, as you know.
RICE: I believe you've had access to this PDB - exceptional access. But let me address your question.
BEN-VENISTE: Nor could we, prior to today, reveal the title of that PDB.
RICE: May I address the question, sir?
The fact is that this August 6th PDB was in response to the president's questions about whether or not something might happen or something might be planned by al-Qaida inside the United States. He asked because all of the threat reporting or the threat reporting that was actionable was about the threats abroad, not about the United States.
This particular PDB had a long section on what bin Laden had wanted to do - speculative, much of it - in '97, '98; that he had, in fact, liked the results of the 1993 bombing.
RICE: It had a number of discussions of - it had a discussion of whether or not they might use hijacking to try and free a prisoner who was being held in the United States - Ressam. It reported that the FBI had full field investigations under way.
And we checked on the issue of whether or not there was something going on with surveillance of buildings, and we were told, I believe, that the issue was the courthouse in which this might take place.
Commissioner, this was not a warning. This was a historic memo -- historical memo prepared by the agency because the president was asking questions about what we knew about the inside.
BEN-VENISTE: Well, if you are willing ...
RICE: Now, we had already taken ...
BEN-VENISTE: If you are willing to declassify that document, then others can make up their minds about it.
Perhaps unsure if the administration would take that grave step, Commissioner Bob Kerrey went one step further and did it himself. The _expression_ on Rice's face was one of restrained astonishment. Here's that bit:
KERREY: In the spirit of further declassification, this is what the August 6th memo said to the president: "that the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking."
That's the language of the memo that was briefed to the president on the 6th of August.
RICE: And that was checked out and steps were taken through FAA circulars to warn of hijackings.
But when you cannot tell people where a hijacking might occur, under what circumstances _ I can tell you that I think the best antidote to what happened in that regard would have been many years before to think about what you could do for instance to harden cockpits.
That would have made a difference. We weren't going to harden cockpits in the three months that we had a threat spike.
The really difficult thing for all of us, and I'm sure for those who came before us as well as for those of us who are here, is that the structural and systematic changes that needed to be made _ not on July 5th or not on June 25th or not on January 1st _ those structures and those changes needed to be made a long time ago so that the country was in fact hardened against the kind of threat that we faced on September 11th.
The problem was that for a country that had not been attacked on its territory in a major way in almost 200 years, there were a lot of structural impediments to those kinds of attacks. Those changes should have been made over a long period of time.
I fully agree with you that, in hindsight, now looking back, there are many things structurally that were out of kilter. And one reason that we're here is to look at what was out of kilter structurally, to look at needed to be done, to look at what we already have done, and to see what more we need to do.
But I think it is really quite unfair to suggest that something that was a threat spike in June or July gave you the kind of opportunity to make the changes in air security that could have been - that needed to be made.
The August 6 memo now represents the public's sole opportunity to guage the level of prior warning the administration had before the 9/11 attacks. President Bush fought against Rice's testimony and caved after a public outcry. Let's see what happens as the 9/11 widows hit the circuit and present their case for full disclosure.
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org
OM
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
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