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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mph who wrote (13488)	4/8/2004 11:00:49 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 81568

This proves Bush is guilty. Been posting this for a year, finally front page news: Bush was warned on 8-6-01 and did nothing. Neither did Rice. Dianne Feinstein also confirmed tonight that Bush allowed top Saudis and Bin Laudesn out of the country on 9-11 without questioning. Details she said on Larry King were classified. "Among Democrats, many felt that Rice's testimony pushed the trail of blame directly to Bush. "Just one month before terrorists claimed the lives of 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites), President Bush was on a 30-day vacation in Crawford, Texas," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites). "He was informed by his national security team that al Qaeda operatives in the United States had the ability to hijack passenger airplanes." Cummings was referring to one of the hot spots of Rice's testimony: She tangled with commission Democrats over the nature of a highly classified briefing Bush received on Aug. 6, 2001. Ben-Veniste characterized the briefing as a dire warning of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s desire to strike the United States. He underscored his point in one of the day's most dramatic -- and tense -- exchanges. "And I ask you whether you recall the title of that [briefing]," Ben-Veniste said. "I believe the title was 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States,' " Rice answered. Ben-Veniste tried to stop her at that, but Rice kept talking over his objections, insisting that there was nothing new and nothing solid in the "PDB," or President's Daily Brief. "It did not warn of attacks inside the United States," Rice insisted. "It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States." After some more sparring, Ben-Veniste challenged Rice to have the briefing made public. "If you are willing to declassify that document, then others can make up their minds about it," he said. It was a dare that left some Washington Republicans nervous. They had watched as the White House resisted calls from survivors of Sept. 11 victims and from the commission for Rice's testimony -- only to give in after suffering political damage. Now they wondered whether the administration would once again dig in its heels in a losing cause. But the administration is moving to release the disputed briefing, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "We hope to be able to make it available." The briefing tantalizes many Democrats because it cuts directly to Bush's own understanding of the al Qaeda threat before the attacks. Judging from news accounts at the time, terrorism was hardly a cloud on the national radar. Reporters covering Bush worried over the heat, the length of the president's vacation, the controversy over stem cell research, and the differences between Crawford and Kennebunkport. Bush took questions the following day. "I'm working a lot of issues -- national security matters," he told them. But the one he discussed in detail was not terrorism. Iraqi gunners in the no-fly zone had once again tried to shoot down U.S. jets. "Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) is a menace," Bush told reporters after a round of golf. "He's still a menace, and we need to keep him in check, and will. He's been a menace forever, and . . . he needs to open his country up for inspection so we can see whether or not he's developing weapons of mass destruction."