How Bush Could Have Prevented the 9/11 Attacks

News Max ^ | Sunday, Apr. 11, 2004 | Carl Limbacher

[Kaslin]

A handful of Sept. 11 widows are outraged that President Bush didn't act on the August 6, 2001 briefing he got from the CIA.

"Everything is in [the briefing memo] but the date 9/11," complained Lori Van Auken whose husband died in the Twin Towers, in comments to the New York Daily News. "You have the who, what, where, why and how. The only thing you don't have is the when."

Actually, as far as the "who" goes, none of the hijackers' names appear in the Bush CIA briefing memo.

And the "what"? Nowhere does the memo warn that hijackers would use airplanes as kamikaze missiles.

"Where?" The memo mentions "federal buildings in New York." But Bush could have closed every one of them and the World Trade Center, which is not a federal building, would have still been packed with 50,000 workers on the morning of 9/11.

How about the "why" cited by Mrs. Van Auken? The CIA briefing says that "after US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington." But those attacks were launched by President Clinton, not Bush.

And the "how?" The memo makes no mention of hijackers overtaking U.S. flight crews with small knives.

Of course, if President Bush had treated the Aug. 6 PDB as actionable intelligence, there are indeed several measures he could have taken that would have guaranteed that a Sept. 11-style attack on America would have never happened.

* Because the CIA memo mentions only bin Laden by name, Bush would have had to round-up any and all of his potential followers inside the U.S., i.e., every Muslim in America, and throw them into internment camps - just like FDR did with Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor.

* Since reporters have been able to sneak any number of weapons past airport screeners even with post-9/11 security measures in place, President Bush would have had to close all America's airports to completely eliminate the possibility of hijackings.

* In order to protect against another Millennium plot bombing attack - which the memo explicitly refers to - Bush would have had to order that all shopping malls, schools, museums, movie theaters, train stations, large office buildings and other potential high value targets be closed till further notice.

* Because Millennium-plot bomber Ahmed Ressam tried to sneak across the Canadian border, Bush would have had to seal both the Canadian and Mexican border until the war on terrorism was won.

* In order to assure the elimination of the bin Laden threat, Bush would have had to launch a pre-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan. If the master terrorist ran to Pakistan, the U.S. would need to invade that country as well.

Had Bush taken the above steps, the economy would have been in shambles, the airline industry destroyed, most of the nation unemployed, the U.S. at war and six million Muslims - almost all of them innocent - would be behind bars.

But the Sept. 11 attacks would have been prevented - at least for the few months that it would have taken for the Congress to impeach and remove Bush from office for massive abuses of power.

[Sabatier]

Exactly right. Imagine the howls of outrage if Bush had taken the necessary steps to prevent 9/11. If he had done so Congress would have been in an uproar.

The media would have accused him of conducting a witch hunt against Muslims. Politicians would have accused him of conducting an imperial presidency.

What I suspect? If Kerry gets elected a whole lot more Americans will die because a la Johnson he will get us bogged down in Iraq, not Bush.

[Chewbacca]

Bush could have prevented the 9/11 attack by running for president and winning back in 1996.

[Montaignes Cat]

Let's look at what Bush should have done: September 11, 2001 was plotted during the 1990s. The Al-Qaeda bombings during the 1990s were plotted by men raised in Muslim Brotherhood families, and the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920s. So, Bush should have stopped the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood, and their indoctrination of their followers. It doesn't matter that he wasn't born yet. He shouldn't have done things to fuel Arab resentment. He should have prevented the Pakistan and Bangladesh wars of independence, he should have forbidden Jews from living in Palestine in the 1880s. He should have supported the Arabs against the Ottoman Turks. He should have worked for the return of the Mahdi in the 1800s. He shouldn't have supported the Spanish crown from retaking Andalusia and expelling the Moslems in 1492. It is all Bush's fault.

[marajade]

Are any of the widows claiming they saw the Aug 6 briefing before we did yesterday?

I read it today and agree with Dr. Rice; its mostly historical in nature.

How could anyone marry the desire by bin Laden to hijack planes in exchange for political prisoners and using them as missiles by flying them in the WTC. Those two go to two totally different outcomes.

You can't blame Bush for wanting to keep Clinton admin staff in place... it was prudent considering the Dem controlled Senate was slow in confirming Bush nominees and the 36 day recount fiasco really hurt the transition between administrations. I remember articles saying that Gore was getting more of the confidential military briefings and that Bush was being ignored by Clinton.

[E=MC²]

"Everything is in [the briefing memo] but the date 9/11," complained Lori Van Auken whose husband died in the Twin Towers, in comments to the New York Daily News. "You have the who, what, where, why and how. The only thing you don't have is the when."

We will never know, but I wonder just how many OTHER equally probable memos the president received before 9/11 that fingered OTHER who, what, where, why and how groups??? demonrats and their eternal love affair with "smoking gun" memos always cherry pick the one out of thousands that hindsight validates and that promotes their agenda.

[CyberAnt]

I don't!

#1 - WTC was hit in 1993 - they didn't do the job right. They are known for going back to places they have partially hit before and finishing the job.

#2 - part of the WTC was built by one of Osama's brothers' construction company. I have always believed the WTC was chosen because it was a DUAL hit - at America and at Osama's family who had rejected him.

[america-rules]

"And that would have somehow permitted the experts he would have brought on board to connect all the dots.....before 9/11? "

I guess we'll never know will we !

[america-rules]

"We will never know, but I wonder just how many OTHER equally probable memos the president received before 9/11 that fingered OTHER who, what, where, why and how groups??? demonrats and their eternal love affair with "smoking gun" memos always cherry pick the one out of thousands that hindsight validates and that promotes their agenda. "

Woodwords first book said Bush gets briefed on over 100 threats per day, every day.

[Shery]

YES, AND REMEMBER HOW MUCH TROUBLE THE DEMS WERE GIVING BUSH TO GET HIS CABINET NOMINATIONS THROUGH...AND STILL ARE. SOMEWHERE IN THE PROCESS OF ALL THE STALLING AND NAME-CALLING BY THE DEMS SOME STUFF PROBABLY GOT OVERLOOKED IN FRUSTRATION WITH DEALING WITH THE DEMS. BUSH IS NOT SUPERMAN! IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN A CONCERTED EFFORT TO STOP 9/11 AND THE DEMS WERE MAKING A CONCERTED EFFORT TO GIVE BUSH A HARD TIME OVERALL!

[secretagent]

"Where?" The memo mentions "federal buildings in New York." But Bush could have closed every one of them ...

Hmmm....

[NordP]

How Bush Could Have Prevented the 9/11 Attacks = Crystal Ball

;-) sheesh

[Kaslin]

The WTC towers were not federal buildings

[Kaslin]

Or worn his Carnac The Magnificent hat

Re: How Bush Could Have Prevented the 9/11 Attacks = Crystal Ball

;-) sheesh

[secretagent]

Yes, but don't ignore the plus side.

[Kaslin]

Someone recently posted the question if these widows aren't the ones who refused to accept the offer of $2.5 million in damage because they were hoping to get more money. I thought that was a good point

[MACVSOG68]

I guess we'll never know will we !

Perhaps not, but given the lack of details in that memo at least, as well as the lack of communications among the various intelligence agencies, I doubt seriously if any political appointees could have made a difference.

But perhaps you could lay out a scenario in which after confirmation, say around July, this miracle could have been achieved...

[Kaslin]

That doesn't mean he would have been elected then

[KillBill]

I don't know about you, but in my high school World Civ class we came to a general consensus that the U.S. should invade Afghanistan to take out the Taliban (most recently having blown up Bamiyan Buddhas) and Bin Laden. Though that memo says absolutely nothing new, if Clinton had the resolve or Bush the time to invade Afghanistan pre-9/11, I think it would have been supported more than Bosnia would have been.

[F.J. Mitchell]

As a realist, I fully accept the fact that 911 couldn't have been prevented. As a realist, I accept the fact that the next 911 cannot be prevented, regardless of who is President or what steps are taken to prevent it. As insane as it may sound, our facing the fact that as long as Muslim (hopefully only radicals) terrorists exist upon this earth, occasional death and destruction will be the unavoidable lot of everyone else, will actually make us safer. Not safe just safer.

Until we come to terms with exactly who and what the enemy is and act instead of react, we are giving the enemy a huge advantage. Like a herd of sheep blaming only the hungry lobo's instead of recognizing that we are dying to satisfy the entire lobo pack's lust for inflicting pain and tasting blood, our naivety will be used against us, just as effectively as any sophisticated weapon of mass destruction.

Playing the stooge to stooges at the expence of our own existance, is not something we will want to brag to our enslaved grandchildren about.

[Kaslin]

Billy Jeff's invasion on Bosnia was greatly supported by the left and by some of the right too