9/11 Commission saw the 'scary' briefing of 2001 (left out of report)

[ProSense]

Posted on Mon, Oct. 02, 2006

9/11 Commission saw the 'scary' briefing of 2001

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY, WARREN P. STROBEL and JOHN WALCOTT
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission was given the same “scary” briefing about an imminent al Qaida attack on a U.S. target that was presented to the White House two months before the attacks, but failed to disclose the warning in its 428-page report.

Former CIA Director George Tenet presented the briefing to commission member Richard Ben Veniste and executive director Philip Zelikow in secret testimony at CIA headquarters on Jan. 28, 2004, said three former senior agency officials.

Tenet raised the matter himself, displayed slides from a Power Point presentation that he and other officials had given to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on July 10, 2001, and offered to testify on the matter in public if the commission asked him to, they said.

In the briefing, Tenet warned "in very strong terms" that intelligence from a variety of sources indicated that Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization was planning an attack on a U.S. target in the near future, but didn't provide specifics about the exact timing or nature of a possible attack, or about whether it would take place in the United States or overseas, said the former senior intelligence officials, all of whom requested anonymity because Tenet’s presentation was classified.

Snip...

The 9/11 panel, however, never asked for additional information or mentioned the briefing in their report.

more...

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/15662785.htm

[C_U_L8R]

1. The whole report is discredited now

now it's nothing but a stupid waste of money

[Old and In the Way]

2. Richard Ben Veniste has some explaining to do.

I know Zelikow's motivations for keeping this out, but where was our watchdog? He can't feign ignorance, why didn't he set the reord straight when he realized the omission?