W.House Declassifies Pre - 9 / 11 Anti - Terror Plan

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-rice.html

By REUTERS
Published: April 1, 2004
Filed at 10:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House, feeling the heat over charges that President Bush failed to make terrorism an urgent priority before Sept. 11, on Thursday released documents showing that one week before the 2001 attacks he ordered plans for military action against al Qaeda.

Portions of a Sept. 4, 2001, national security presidential directive were released as plans were set for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly on April 8 before the Sept. 11, 2001, commission.

Responding to strong political pressure from both Republicans and Democrats, the White House made an abrupt about-face on Tuesday and agreed to allow Rice to testify publicly and under oath after previously insisting she only speak to the panel privately.

The Sept. 4 presidential directive called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to plan for military options ``against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics.'' It also called for plans against al Qaeda and ``associated terrorist facilities in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control-communications, training, and logistics facilities.''

Comment: Perhaps this means that BushCo spent 7 months trying to figure out something better than what the Clinton administration came up with; they couldn't figure out something better; they then started to PLAN (not DO)...PLAN to do the same thing.

[shockingelk]

1. and we're just hearing of this now because ...

I smell a fish.

[pinto]

3. as in Red Herring?

[papau]

18. Portions of a Sept. 4, 2001, national security presidential directive were

released


why just portions?

[Newsjock]

2. Easier to fake documents than plant WMDs

And CNN et al. will take this "report" at face value, without asking for any proof.

[kainah]

4. portions....were released

Indded! 'nuff said.

[stopbush]

13. Yep. They redacted the intro that said

"here's what we're NOT going to do for the simple reason that Clinton did all of these things..."

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. And these people claim Clinton wagged the dog?

Ha.

[pinto]

6. what a load of contradictions and innuendo. Mention of al Qaeda is not

cited in the release referenced. It is ascribed by the writer...and the WH statements are merely fluff...and this is a plan put forth on 9/4/01...what "forward thinking".

And, since they keep bringing up the Clinton admin: Bushco ignored the Clinton admin's info on political grounds, not national security grounds.

[F.Gordon]

8. Eggs Actly

The 9/4/01 "plan" had to do with dealing with Pakistan and Afghanistan.... the Taliban. Nothing to do with the woor on tar.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. Hmm, I wonder what Clarke has to say about this.

[aquart]

9. Is this Clarke's plan or the improved Clarke's plan?

Isn't it important to see them side by side?

[liveoaktx]

10. And the whole thing, not just selected parts possibly taken out of

context. This, too, corroborates Clarke's testimony

"It took months for the deputies (the No. 2 officials at State, Defense, etc.) to grind away at a new plan, and when it was finally presented to the principals—Sept. 4, 2001, a week before the 9/11 attacks—it looked pretty much like Clarke's old plan. White House officials protest that the new plan was more thoroughgoing; that it called, for instance, for a new strategy to transform Pakistan from protector of Al Qaeda to a platform for attacking the terrorists in their lairs in Afghanistan"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4616750/

In any event, if Condi's speech a week later didn't emphasize these items but rather missile defense, then the paper again shows that this brand of terrorism was simply not taken seriously, despite paying lip service in a many-months-later reworked plan.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Stolen 2000 election=10 month air bubble in national security=mass death.

The break in legitimate and coherant executive decisions regarding terror caused a huge delay in dealing with Al-queda.

Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris helped kill those people on 9/11.

All this exposure of the incompetence by Rice should lead directly to the story of the stolen election.

Electronic voting machines should be seen as killers of not just democracy, but people.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. SCOTUS should be seen as killers of not just democracy

but people. Ultimately Scalia has the blood on his hands.

[TahitiNut]

14. Pipeline: "Carpet of gold or carpet of bombs"

Negotiators for global oil were in talks with Taliban between February and August. Taliban wanted national ownership. Oil consortium wanted private ownership. Thus, a more "cooperative" government was required.

Remember, we're often reminded that al-Qaeda is all over the world, particularly in Muslim countries. This madministration claims they're hiding under very "convenient" beds -- whatever "convenient" means at any point in time.

[central scrutinizer]

19. don't forget the $43 million bribe to the Taliban

that was hand delivered by Colin Powell in the summer of 2001, ostensibly to reward the Taliban for stomping out the opium fields.

[Rex]

15. One week. Why not one month? Or three?

Sounds fishy to me.

[loudsue]

16. This is EXACTLY why it goes back to Cheney's secret energy task force

Like TahitiNut mentioned above: "A carpet of gold, or a carpet of bombs" was about the pipeline through Afghanistan. Bush might have been MORE than ready to draw up papers to set policy, getting ready to go into Afghanistan.

It had NOTHING to do with Al Qaida...it had to do with OIL. And that's why Cheney's secret task force papers need to be seen in their eentirety...by a Grand Jury, I hope.

These guys have been about oil since before the stolen election -- which is why Enron was using their corporate jets to fly the recount terrorists to Florida to stop the recount. George, Jeb, Cheney, Kenny Lay, James Baker....the whole lot of them were ready to get the oil thing on the road.

And THAT's why they let 3000 people die in the WTC, and that's why those four men were killed Wednesday and drug through the streets, and why almost 600 other American soldiers have died, 12,000 other soldiers have been maimed and wounded, and why 19,000 Iraqis have lost their lives in the past year.

I mean, when the bush family wants oil, they seriously want it, and they're going to get it if they have to blow up everybody in the world. "Collateral damage."

:kick::kick:

[Kucinich04]

17. Nothing New Here, Just proves LIHOP even more...

1) We've known for YEARS now that Bush had 'war plans' on his desk to go to war against afghanistan, waiting for his signature, as of 9/9/01. That is all this is. OLD NEWS.
2) Without 9/11, a war against Afghanistan was a political IMPOSSIBILITY. Remember how ballistic the GOP Congress went over Clinton simply bombing Tora Bora in 1998, even though our embassies had just been blown up? HOW in the F*** could the Bushies have thought that they would be able to just invade Afghanistan, unless they knew of 9/11? The timing is also way too strange - TWO DAYS before the attacks, he's signing WAR PLANS? Come ON, America!

THEY FUCKING KNEW...