This keeps nagging at me.
I read today about how FBI Director George Tenet did not meet with Bush at all during the month, yet this comment from 9/11 is remarkable:
Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet was told of the crash a few minutes after it happened. A messenger gave him the news as he was eating breakfast with former Senator David Boren in a Washington restaurant three blocks from the White House. Boren says Tenet was told that the World Trade Center had been attacked by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact that used the word attacked." An aide then handed a cell phone to Tenet, and Tenet made some calls, showing that at least some at the highest levels of the Bush administration were talking about an attack at this time. Tenet then said to Boren, "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it." http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.htmlSo what are we to deduce from this? How did Tenet know right away that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, if he hadn’t seen intelligence reports that warned of such an attack? We have been told until today that Tenet and Bush did not meet during the month of August. Now we are told that Tenet and Bush did meet:
Under questioning by commissioner Tim Roemer, Tenet said he never spoke with Bush during the month before the attacks, a period marked by concern over possible terrorist strike.
"He was on vacation and I was here," Tenet said, although he added that he could have picked up the phone and called the president at any time if he had felt the need to communicate with him.
In fact, Tenet flew to Texas to brief Bush on Aug. 17, 2001, and briefed the president again on Aug. 31 when Bush returned to Washington, a spokesman for Tenet said later in the day.
During the first eight days of September, Tenet briefed Bush at least six times, the spokesman said.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/sept_11_tenetSo the two DID meet. Could Tenet have told Bush about the intelligence he was privy to regarding bin Laden? And if so, why didn’t Bush act accordingly? Did Bush ignore him?
Tenet said when told of the attacks on 9/11 “This has bin Laden’s fingerprints all over it.” Could he really have been thinking, “Damn that Bush. I TOLD him this would happen!!!”