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.

[Kaslin]

Excellent observation by NewsMax

[WhiskeyPapa]

I dismiss statements that the 9/11 attacks were in any inevitable.

Just a few more pieces being put in their proper place might have foiled the whole thing. The difference in emphasis that the Clinton administration and the Bush administration put on international terrorism might have been decisive.

Walt

[arjay]

Outstanding article. Thanks for posting it.

[conservative cat]

Oh, how true. And he would have had just over a month to get all of that done!

[TomGuy]

"Calling channel 7, calling channel 7.
How do you tune in this dang thang?"

[america-rules]

Wrong!

Bush's only huge mistake was holding over all the Clinton failures. All this crap happened under the Clinton teams watch and Bush should have cleaned house because they knew they were not doing their job swatting flies !

[redrock]

Hindsight is always perfect.

redrock

[reluctantwarrior]

The only way to prevent an attack is to have an inside source that feeds you pre-operational intel so you can act before hand. We did not have that and it is fantasy and hindsight angst to say otherwise. We will not prevent the next attack and when it happens we will blame the same people that work hard every day to track the bad guys. The blame rests with the late Frank Church and the present day Teddy Kennedy together they have emasculated the human intel gatherers, oh and add Bobby toricelli to the list.

[Caipirabob]

Given the sabotage the rats committed on Federal property before they surrendered the White House and other agencies to the new administration, it was a long time before Bush's team even had the proper equipement in place. Imagine Bush distributing a document to round up Terrorists in the name of the " ar on Terror".

The rats did everything to disable the incomming administration. If there was anything that could be done, they are directly responsible for any delays Bush faced in getting started.

[MACVSOG68]

Wrong! Bush's only huge mistake was holding over all the Clinton failures. All this crap happened under the Clinton teams watch and Bush should have cleaned house because they knew they were not doing their job swatting flies !

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

[Smartass]

Hypocritical, Monday morning quarterbacking. I read
the memo as well as the world and could not find the
WHAT, WHO, WHEN OR WHERE. However, we now know WHY!!!

[Kaslin]

You're quite welcome

[Kaslin]

Exactly

[A CA Guy]

Clinton allowed Bin Laden the freedom to grow a massive terror structure that may cost us a trillion to defeat.
Laden declared war on us and when Clinton had him in hand, yet he let him go to kill Lord knows how many tens or hundreds of thousands of innocents around the whole world.

Carter then has the nerve to come out and open up his pathetic stupid pie hole. For heaven's sake, he had no gonads to handle terrorists in Iran and he had hostages held all his administration. This is the last F'ing loser that should ever open his mouth about anything. Carter is an idiot and Clinton was the worst President ever.

The Democrats attempts to make it harder to prosecute this war and to try and make hay at President Bush really makes a case for them being a pretty anti-American crowd that acts in the interest of their own power and NOT the American people IMO.

This is 100% Clinton's fault.

[Kaslin]

Wrong!

Bush's only huge mistake was holding over all the Clinton failures. All this crap happened under the Clinton teams watch and Bush should have cleaned house because they knew they were not doing their job swatting flies !

You are forgetting that the president had been forced due to teh Rat's trying to steal the 2000 election to delay getting his team together. He was forced to keep many of Billy Jeffs people on staff

[Tacis]

I sincerely regret the loss of each person murdered by religious fanatic Muslims on Sept.11 and wish there was something that could have prevented just as I sincerely regret the deaths of each person killed this weekend on the Washington Beltway by drunk drivers.

Beyound that, who gave these wealthy widows the right to assuage their guilt that they should have treated their loved one better and that they have profited mightely by that act and the grave, grave concern that some one else might have gotten something more, by criticing the governments actions and pretending they know something about national security? I guarantee that, no matter how much information some of these people have, they will never be satisfied. That is, despite the fact that they claim to want information, they want to be releived of their guilt or they want the act undone. There will ALWAYS be the next question; there will ALWAYS be "We'd have closure if we knew [what] [when] [who] [how]....."

Let's try to understand their grief. But, let's not let them think they've become spokesmen for all of us.

[Kaslin]

Well if the president had worn his Carnac The Magnificent hat, perhaps he could have seen and prevented it.

[Kaslin]

If you really want to know the truth, it is that we can thank Jimmy Peanut Carter for the situation we are in when he supported the ouster of the Shaw of Iran, who was a great supporter and friend of the US

[MizSterious]

Wasn't "Miss Cleo" out of work at that time? He could have hired her. Of course, like the political hacks on that "committee," she's a fraud...

[A CA Guy]

Jimmy was a punk for sure and he most certainly made it tough for the hostages and America under his presence in the White house, but I will stick with Clinton being responsible for the billions we pay for now in war, the growth of terror with billions of Laden monies when instead the creep should have been taken into custody in 96.

Doug from Upland should be typing his fingernails off on these threads about how Clinton is ultimately responsible. He knows so much more about Clinton than I would EVER care to know.