I want to see the JULY memo

[Stephanie]

I want to see the JULY briefing that inspired the long vacations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the spring as initial policy debtes in the Administration begain, I e-mailed Condi Rice and NSDC STaff colleagues that al Queda was trying to kill Americans, to have hundreds of dead in the streets of America. During the first week in July I convened the CSG and asked each agency to consider itself on full alert. I asked the CSG agencies to cancel summer vacations and official travel for the counterterrorism response staffs. Each agency should report anything unusual, even if a sparrow should fall from a tree. I asked FBI to send another warning to the 18,000 police departments, State to alert the embassies, and the Defense Department to go to Threat Condition Delta. The Navy moved ships out of Bahrain.

- Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, p. 236

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Secrets of September 11

April 30 (2003) — Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks, administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks.

<snip>

Some sources who have read the still-secret congressional report say some sections would not play quite so neatly into White House plans. One portion deals extensively with the stream of U.S. intelligence-agency reports in the summer of 2001 suggesting that Al Qaeda was planning an upcoming attack against the United States—and implicitly raises questions about how Bush and his top aides responded. One such CIA briefing, in July 2001, was particularly chilling and prophetic. It predicted that Osama bin Laden was about to launch a terrorist strike “in the coming weeks,” the congressional investigators found. The intelligence briefing went on to say: “The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning.”

The substance of that intelligence report was first disclosed at a public hearing last September by staff director Hill. But at the last minute, Hill was blocked from saying precisely who within the Bush White House got the briefing when CIA director Tenet classified the names of the recipients. (One source says the recipients of the briefing included Bush himself.) As a result, Hill was only able to say the briefing was given to “senior government officials.”

www.msnbc.com/news/907379.asp?0cv=KA01

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer Spinning
Aug 29, 2001

<snip>

The White House had announced that Bush would stay at his 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford from Aug. 4 through Labor Day on Sept. 3, a 31-day stretch that would have broken a modern record for a presidential vacation, held by Richard M. Nixon for a 30-day trip to San Clemente, Calif., in 1969. News reports played up the record, and a Gallup Poll found that 55 percent of respondents thought Bush's vacation was too long.

www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A15957-2001

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Working Vacation
Aug. 15, 2001

Vice President Dick Cheney took time off from his month-long working vacation Monday to outline his plans for August in Jackson Hole and to reflect on "an amazing year."

Cheney, who will live at his Teton Pines home about six miles west of Jackson until Labor Day, defended his energy policy, supported a local decision to limit drilling around the Gros Ventre Wilderness, recalled a life of service in Washington and said his health problems are not affecting his ability to fish for trout on his favorite Western waters.

www.jacksonholenews.com/Archives/NewsArchive/2001/010815-News.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashcroft Flying High
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001

(CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Karenina]

1. Scrutiny?

Accountability?

[grasswire]

2. send it to Air America, Steph

Good stuff.

[Stephanie]

3. Okay, thanks

Do you know the address?

[Vickers]

4. I keep forgetting that Cheney was also on vacation

Is that normal? It seems like one or the other would be in DC.

Has this ever happened before, where the Prez AND the Vice Prez are on month-long vacations?

[Stephanie]

5. Seems unusual to me.

Remember Clinton's summer vacations? They were always highly public. He was always criticized for going to the Hamptons or for NOT going to the Hamptons. I don't recall any talk about how LONG his vacations were - seems to me they were about average.

The fact that Cheney left town too is very telling, I think. Very obvious.

[KayLaw]

6. Vacation?

Or evacuation?

[Stephanie]

9. That's what I'm saying. They split town.

They knew attacks were coming, and they got out.

[robbedvoter]

7. here's Condi on it

>>>>>>>>>>>>Campbell, you have got the last question.
Q I just want to go back to the issue of hijacking. You said the FAA in July
did issue a kind of warning or an alert of sorts to the
airlines, saying that terror groups were planning or training for hijacking,
did you not -- at the end of July? You were taking us through the time line.
I just want to be clear that, isn't it unusual that you would make the
decision to bring the FAA into this? That there was enough concern that
hijackings would be a problem that you would say, you need to let the
airlines know and --
DR. RICE: The FAA was one of only -- only one of the domestic agencies
brought in. Customs was brought in; INS was brought in. So this was an
effort to bring in domestic agencies that might have potential
vulnerabilities. But, again, let me read it, because it's extremely
important, because, again, they were acting on general information, and
therefore, the IC is very general.
And it says, "The target is not clear" -- this is July 31 -- "The target is
not clear. The FAA has no credible info to attack U.S. civil aviation
interests. Nevertheless, some of the current active groups are known to plan
and train for hijackings. FAA encourages all U.S. carriers to exercise
prudence and demonstrate a high degree of alertness."
So, again, the operative words here, that "some of the current active groups
are known to plan and train for," not, they're planning a particular
hijacking.
Q But you went through a list of these. I mean, is it possible -- how do you
get the airlines to pay attention to them, if you're putting them out
periodically, and if it is something general like this, what do you really
expect them to do?
DR. RICE: Well, the problem, as I was explaining when somebody asked me, why
didn't we go public with some of these alerts -- or some of this information
-- is that when you're dealing with very general information, all you can do
is tell people it's very general. And I -- you would have to refer to the
Transportation Department and the FAA to get a better sense for what
protocols are followed, or how this is all done. But the FAA issued these
ICs that, again, were based on very general information and were intended
just to alert people that these were organizations that were angry, there
was a lot of threat reporting about them, and hijacking was considered to be
one of their methods. And that was the extent of it.
Q What was the date of that IC you just read?
DR. RICE: 31 July. <2001>
Thank you.
END 4:47 P.M. EDT <<<<<<<<
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020516-13.html <

[Stephanie]

8. I'd like to know exactly when the month-long vacations were planned

relative to this information.

I'd also like to know how it's possible that the FAA and the DOT were alerted, according to Rice, and yet the heads of both, according to Gorelick, knew nothing about it.

Thanks for the transcript - very interesting - that's a Condi press conference from May 16, 2002. When I have more time later I want to compare what she says then to what we know now.

[robbedvoter]

10. I remember the circumstances: W was getting testy, lost Senate

Dems were getting uppity - I read an article in the beginning of summer where he threw a tantrum and yelled: "I am going to Crawford" (as in "I am taking the ball and going home"). So, they sent him soon after.

[Stephanie]

11. I don't recall the tantrum. I do recall that it was surprising

it was surprising he would take the political risk of spending a month on vacation when nobody thought he was doing very well. The big news during that vacation was the stem cell speech. And didn't he do the phony economy seminar on that trip? It was a series of fake make-work projects designed so he'd look busy. Finally they couldn't stretch it out any longer and they had to come back to DC for Labor Day. Chimpy must have been shaking in his boots when he set foot in Washington again, knowing what he knew and being the chickenhawk coward that he is.

[bain_sidhe]

12. I remember that too

They didn't spend weeks "preparing" for the vacation, it seemed to come out suddenly at the time.

Hmmm. Interesting. I want to see the July memo too. I also wonder if we haven't been victim of a classic bit of misdirection... All we've heard about for months is the Aug 6 PDB - I wonder if they figured that would be less damning than the July briefing, so they sent everybody chasing after that?

Just a thought, and maybe my tinfoil needs adjustment, but it seems like the kind of thing they might do.