Bush and Clinton Aides Grilled by Panel

[gristy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/politics/24PANE.html

By PHILIP SHENON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: March 24, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 23 - Members of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said on Tuesday that a series of intelligence reports sent to President Bush in 2001 warned of an imminent, possibly catastrophic attack by Al Qaeda, a disclosure that prompted harsh questioning of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other administration officials about why they had not done more to pre-empt a possible terrorist strike.

The Clinton administration's counterterrorism policies were also the subject of sharp questioning by the panel, with former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and former Defense Secretary William Cohen asked to explain why their colleagues had failed to eliminate the Al Qaeda network and take Osama bin Laden into custody.

But the harsher questioning, from Democrats and Republicans alike was reserved for Mr. Rumsfeld, especially after he and former Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged in testimony that they had been aware of intelligence reports in 2001 warning of the especially dire terrorist threat against the United States.

MORE

[bvar22]

1. bush* admn did NOT IGNORE these warnings.

They took these warnings VERY seriously.

Crisco John stopped flying on commercial airlines

bush* split Washington DC (high priority target) in late July and ,except for one very short visit, didn't return until after 9-11.

Anyone have timelines for these two events. I'm going on memory only, but recall Asscroft switching to private charters in July. Who told him to do this?
I only recall one short visit to DC by bush* between vacation at the pig farm and his trip to Florida.

[JPZenger]

2. Daily Show Responds to Attacks on Clark

The Daily Show tonight was a work of art in dissecting the Bush Administration's attacks on Clark. It will be re-broadcast a couple times tomorrow (Wednesday).

First, they noted that Condalessa Rice had time to appear on 5 different morning news shows today, but couldn't find the time to testify before the 9-11 Commission. In fact, she has refused to testify before them at any time.

They played a quote from Cheney saying that Clark was "not in the loop." Stewart responded "That raises the question, why wasn't the nation's chief anti-terrorism coordinator kept in the loop."

The White House Press Secretary tried to dispute Clark's story by saying that Bush was not in the White House Situation Room on September 12th. Stewart responded: "What kind of a situation was he waiting for, before he would use the situation room. After September 11th, wasn't it time to remove the plastic covers from the chairs?"

[loudmouth_liberal]

3. Bush aids sidestep questions.

I was watching Powells testimony today, i noticed he never directly answered several questions, he skirted around the issue.
Did you notice that Rumsfeld managed to blame everything on Clinton? I swear there was more re-election rhetoric in his testimony than anything else.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I wrote this under another post:

There is blame to be made:

This powerpoint presentation was given to Powell:

"It was Dec. 20, 2000, and one of the PowerPoint slides prepared by Clarke reportedly said of the terrorists, "They're here" in the United States. "

This is was Powell said:

"At the time that he gave me the briefing, I was not the secretary of state, this administration was not in office," Powell answered. "If they were aware that al Qaeda representatives were already in the country running around . . . why hadn't they done something while they were preparing the PowerPoint presentation?"

Er...Powell, does the concept of transition team meeting mean anything to you? He was being briefed in preparation of the new assignment and he's saying that it doesn't count? Is he nuts!!!

What was Powell expecting the Clinton Administration to do? Was he expecting Clinton to do to Bush II what Bush I did to Clinton with Black Hawk down? Isn't that what happened in Somalia? Bush I imposed a military action which the Clinton Administration had to honor with deadly results.

Powell can't have it both way. The Bush Administration WERE given a process which they chosed to ignore. The Clinton Administration, since it was the outgoing administration, was in no position to do anything more forceful, otherwise things could have turned out for Bush II as they did in the case of Somalia.

[newyawker99]

8. Hi loudmouth_liberal!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DeepModem Mom]

4. kick

[4dsc]

5. Blame Clinton, bush is not responsible

is the mantra I have been hearing from the right since 9/11.. The right continues to blame Clinton for everything and I don't expect it to change anytime soon..

[RedSock]

7. grilling?

i've seen more grilling in a george foreman commercial ...

sure there were some pointed questions, but the dance between officials and commission -- when they weren't doing CYA moves -- went mostly like this all day:

Kerrey: pointed question to rumsfeld

Rumsfeld: non answer blabbing

Kerrey: re-asked pointed question

Rumsfeld: another non-answer

Kerrey: (gives up moves on to another question rumsfeld can dodge)

****

I'm watching at home and *I* have tougher questions in my head than these guys (without preparing or having notes in front of me) and more natural follow-ups ............ sigh .