Debunked: Rove's claim that illegal spying could prevent attacks

[ProSense]

Rove said the government should be free to listen if al Qaeda is calling someone within the U.S.

"Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome," he said.

Posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2796022&mesg_id=2796022

Bush's 'Big Brother' Blunder

By Robert Parry
May 13, 2006

George W. Bush’s warrantless phone data collection may not only violate the U.S. Constitution but expend so much money and manpower that America is made less safe – by diverting resources away from more practical steps, like inspecting cargo and hiring translators.

Snip...

The 9/11 hijackers, for instance, made very few substantive calls about their plot, recognizing the risk of electronic surveillance and preferring face-to-face meetings as a way to avoid detection, according to the 9/11 Commission Report.

Most of the calls cited by the report relate to personal matters, such as contacting friends or searching for housing. For instance, Flight 93 hijacker Ziad “Jarrah made hundreds of phone calls to (his girlfriend) and communicated frequently by e-mail,” the report said.

On Jan. 20, 2001, Flight 173 hijacker Marwan al “Shehhi telephoned (his family in the United Arab Emirates) and said he was still living and studying in Hamburg,” Germany, the report said. The cell-phone records of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta showed him calling about lodging in Florida on April 6, 9, 10 and 11, 2001.

Meaningful communications about the 9/11 plot almost always occurred in direct meetings between participants, often in foreign countries. According to the 9/11 report, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden passed on his final instructions to Atta through intermediary Ramzi Banalshibh in Spain.

more...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/051206.html

Preventative action: competent response to the http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB116/pdb8-6-2001.pdf">President's Daily Brief from 6 August 2001, headlined "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"

[LSparkle]

1. "Hi, I'm Halle Berry and this is my husband, Al Qaeda"

Whenever I hear someone say, "If al-Qaeda is calling someone in America, we want to know it" I think of that joke ...

[gasperc]

2. like my earlier post, we need to keep neutering this bullshit

Great find, I never saw Parry's post

[BOSSHOG]

3. Its really hard to argue something could have prevented the attacks

that bush wanted. But rove knows his audience. The idiots all across the country who will blather about the need for someone else's death and destruction and despair and question the patriotism of those who stood the watch.

[LynneSin]

4. IF BUSH READ HIS DAMN DAILY PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS WHILE ON VACATION

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[argyl]

7. It's more essential to our country's safety that our president be rested

and relaxed than bothered with petty BS briefings of the sort that some thoughtless security analyst brought to his attention in an attempt to "cover his ass." Fortunately,His Deciderness saw through this flimsy ploy to curry favor with him.

[ProSense]

11. "If Bush read..." Agree! n/t

[liberalmuse]

5. Yeah, 'cause...

it's much easier to tap 260 million phone lines than to read a goddamn memo placed right in front of you that spells everything out.

[DemInDistress]

6. about that 8/6/01 PDB.. when it first aired in 2004 I saw the

entire 2 full pages later dissemination took out the last 2 paragraphs, this one part in particular was damaging it read," weeks many many dead, very very big uproar, possibly using hijacked commercial jets as suicide weapons to be crashed into skyscrapers in New York City, Chicago and Washington DC." that was followed with a closing paragraph which I didn't have time to read the camera was taken off the PDB. Unfortunately or fortunately I didn't have the VCR on to tape that (I usually do) I do not make this up. I had expected to see it again later on other newscasts but it never did, it was sanitized.

Secondly, since the release of that PDB wasn't voluntary what did the following days PDB's have as an update to the 8/6/01 PDB. If the BFEE wants me to believe that was the only briefing on Osama determined to strike inside the USA well, I wont..

Also, when Tenet testified that "he didn't meet with bush during August 01' because he was in Maryland and bush was in Texas" was later in the day amended by Tom Kean to include meeting with bush on Aug 18 2 days after Moussouari was arrested, then at the ranch in texas on Aug 25 and again on Aug 31 when bush came back to DC only to take a Labor Day vacation. What did they discuss? Osama? Moussoauri? 911? That brief appearance on camera also never aired on other cable news or local network news. The plans were in order, the attack was on schedule and not a word had leaked out except to those few close to the information
asscroft in July, top generals in Sept. and Willie Brown of San Francisco.

To say he (they) had no prior warnings is as blatant an lie as we'll ever hear.

[Supersedeas]

8. will CNN clarify the record -- don't count on it

[Canuckistanian]

9. Why are these big, brave he-men afraid of warrants?

They can "face down" Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and and the North Koreans but a FISA judge scares them half to death?

[Applan]

10. The more I hear things like this the more it scares me

It just seems like Rove is setting us up for another big terrorist attack before the elections. Just imagine, evidence will emerge in the days after the attack that it could have been prevented if they'd only been allowed to intercept the calls.
And then either they'll postpone the elections or the country will miraculously get behind their "president" once more and bingo the dems lose again.