'War president' Bush has always been soft on terror

Where's George Orwell when we need him? Because we Americans need him. We desperately need him. Consider: in August 2001, immediately after reading a memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US", President George Bush went bass fishing - and never called a meeting to discuss the issue. A month later, on September 11, when he was told that the terrorists had attacked, Bush spent the next seven minutes reading a children's book, The Pet Goat, with a group of schoolchildren.

And when it comes to his own military service, recent revelations show that Bush got out of fighting in Vietnam thanks to his dad's political clout. Even then, Bush didn't fulfil his obligations to the National Guard.

Yet somehow the Bush-Cheney ticket is convincing Americans that only a Republican administration can handle national security. If John Kerry wins, Dick Cheney warned: "The danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating." The choice is simple: Vote Republican, or die. And voters are buying it.

A poll just after the Republican convention showed that 27% of the voters preferred Bush to Kerry when it came to national security. Increasingly, it is becoming clear that if Bush wins in November it will be because of the fear factor.

Yet the truth is that Bush is actually soft on terror. When it comes to going after the men who were behind 9/11 and who continue to wage a jihad against the US, Bush has repeatedly turned a blind eye to the forces behind terrorism, shielded the people who funded al-Qaida, obstructed investigations and diverted resources from the battle against it.

One key reason is the Bush-Saudi relationship, the like of which is unprecedented in US politics. Even after the success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the subject is largely taboo in the American media. Never before has a president of the US - much less two from the same family - had such close ties with another foreign power.

Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US and a powerful member of the royal family, has been a close friend of George Bush Snr for more than 20 years. Nicknamed Bandar Bush, he drops by the Bush residences in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Crawford, Texas, not to mention the White House. He and Bush senior go on hunting trips together.

Then there's the money. More than $1.4bn of financial transactions have gone from the House of Saud to corporations and institutions tied to the Bushes and their allies - largely to companies such as the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, and HarkenEnergy. So what does all that influence buy the Saudis?

Let's go to the White House on September 13 2001. Just 48 hours after 9/11, the toxic rubble at the World Trade Centre site was still ablaze. The estimated death count, later lowered significantly, was thought to be as high as 40,000.

On that afternoon, Bandar met on the Truman balcony with President Bush and the two men lit up Cohiba cigars. At the time, the White House knew that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. It knew that Osama bin Laden was Saudi. And, as the 9/11 commission concluded, it knew that Saudi Arabia was "the primary source of money for al-Qaida", which was largely funded by wealthy Saudis via Islamist charities.

President Bush was in the presence of the ambassador from the country that is the guardian of Wahhabi Islam, the fundamentalist sect which helped produce al-Qaida. This is where the war on terror and a massive investigation into the greatest crime in US history should have begun.

But, given the intimate relationship between the two families - and, of course, the fact that the Saudis help fuel America's 165m automobiles - this was not just a meeting between the president of the US and the ambassador of a country that harboured and financed terrorists. The Saudis were special.

Because Bush and Bandar were the only two people present, we do not know exactly what was said. But we do know that the president failed to join the issue of the Saudi role in terror or how to stop the funding of terrorism through Islamist charities and financial institutions.

That same afternoon, the first of 11 chartered planes began to pick up more than 140 Saudis scattered throughout the US. Saudi Arabia and the president's defenders have mounted a massive PR campaign to minimise the damage of the Saudi evacuation. But the facts in the 9/11 commission report remain unchanged. The Saudi evacuation flights were not the fantasies of conspiratorialists. They actually took place. The departures were approved by the White House and the vast majority of Saudi passengers were not interviewed by the FBI.

This was the biggest crime in US history. But, in the midst of a grave national security crisis, rather than investigating it the White House and the FBI spent their limited resources helping evacuate the Saudis.

Over the next two years, the 9/11 commission found, the Bush administration failed "to develop a strategy to counter Saudi terrorist financing". As a result, our Saudi allies were half-hearted in cooperating on terrorist financing and, the commission concluded: "the US government still has not determined with any precision how much al-Qaida raises or from whom, or how it spends its money."

Now, thanks to Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia and the Failure of America's War on Terror, a new book by Senator Bob Graham, we know that the Saudis may have played an even bigger role in 9/11 than previously reported. As a member of the Senate intelligence committee, Graham said he learned that "evidence of official Saudi support" for at least two of the 19 hijackers was "incontrovertible".

As co-chairman of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11, Graham found his efforts to get to the bottom of the Saudi role in 9/11 again and again were quashed by the Bush administration. When his committee tried to subpoena a key witness who happened to be an FBI informant, the FBI refused to cooperate. "It was the only time in my senatorial experience that the FBI has refused to deliver a congressional subpoena," Graham told Salon.com in a recent interview. "The FBI wasn't acting on its own," he added, "but had been directed by the White House not to cooperate."

In the end, 27 pages of the report on the role of the Saudis in 9/11 were classified by the White House and not released to the public. According to Graham, the Bush administration may have censored the material because it did not want the public to be aware of Saudi support for the 9/11 terrorists. "There has been a long-term special relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia," he said, "and that relationship has probably reached a new high under the George W Bush administration, in part because of the long and close family relationship that the Bushes have had with the Saudi royal family."

Graham writes: "It was as if the president's loyalty lay more with Saudi Arabia than with America's safety."

Here's a copy of the letter I just sent off to Mr. Unger. I had previously sent these points to The New York Post in response to some dummy's letter to the editor about Bush heading to Crawford after the 9/11 commission issued their report:

Dear Mr. Unger:

You want to talk about a President being soft on terror. Try this. In September of 1999, an Intelligence Report was issued to the Clinton White House which advised it was possible that terrorists were planning on hijacking airplanes and flying them into government buildings. What did the Clinton Administration do about the terrorist warnings in this memo? Let's take a walk down memory lane and see what President Clinton was up to from September 1st - December 31, 1999:

1. The end of August, first part of September - On vacation in New York State. Attended New York State Fair; also visited Fingerlakes area, including Skaneateles & Seneca Falls.

2. House hunting in New York so Hillary can pursue her Senatorial candidacy. Sweetheart loan deal with Terry McAuliffe, which later fell through. They ended up having to get a mortgage loan like everyone else.

3. Offers clemency to 16 Puerto Rican (FALN) terrorists if they refute their terrorist ways. Only 12 accept his offer. The President does this despite opposition by the Justice Department and FBI head Louis Freeh, who feared the move would strengthen the terrorists. President Clinton called the move "courageous." Republicans see it as an attempt to garner the Hispanic vote for a Hillary Senate run.

4. Visit to New Zealand for trade talks.

5. Lifts trade sanctions on North Korea for promise to halt long-range missile tests. On September 24th, North Korea states that the halt to testing would only be stopped during talk with the U.S.

6. On September 16th, President Clinton announced the U.S. would be sending 500 U.S. troops to East Timor for peacekeeping purposes.

7. On September 18th, President Clinton claims Executive Privilege on clemency papers relating to the 12 Puerto Rican terrorists.

8. GAO Report released. Shows 3 of the trips made by President Clinton in 1998 (Africa, China, and Chile), cost the government $72.1 million. The Department of Defense paid $60 million towards those trips. Critics claim that the military was short-changed due to these trips.

9. On September 23rd, President Clinton vetoes $792 Billion Tax Cut Bill.

10. On September 23rd, the President meets with known terrorist Yassar Arafat at the White House.

11. On October 4th, terrorist Hani el-Sayegh is deported to Saudi Arabia. He is suspected of having been involved in the murder of 19 American Airmen at the Khobar Towers in 1996. Sayegh had escaped to Canada after the bombing, and was arrested there. After violating a plea agreement with the Clinton Justice Department, his parole is terminated and he is placed in removal (deportation) proceedings. The Clinton Administration says they "did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute him in the American Court System." This is the same excuse the Administration used when they were offered Osama bin Laden by Sudan in 1996.

12. On October 7th, President Clinton attends a Teamster's Dinner in an obvious move to help Gore garner political support from the group. The President also attends a gathering of the Empire State Gay Pride Agenda.

13. On October 8th, President Clinton travels to Ottawa, Canada.

14. On October 15th, the Clinton's obtain a new loan for their house in Chappaqua, New York.

15. On October 30th, President Clinton attends a political rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

16. From October 31st through November 1st, President Clinton travels to Norway.

17. From November 3rd through November 5th, President Clinton is on his "New Markets Tour," traveling to Hartford, Newark, Chicago, and Hermitage, Arkansas. 18. From November 13th through November 23rd, President Clinton travels to Europe: Ankara, Istanbul, Florence, Greece, Sofia, Bulgaria and Kosovo.

19. On December 2nd, President Clinton is in Seattle, Washington at the World Trade Organization meeting.

20. On December 11th, President Clinton travels to Arkansas.

21. On December 19th, Clinton White House issues a warning to Americans traveling overseas. On Face the Nation, National Security Advisor Sandy R. Berger says: "We are not aware of any other specific threats against particular targets in the United States, and obviously if that changes, we'll alert the American people." No mention is made of the September 1999 Report's information of possible plane hijackings and/or flying those planes into buildings. 22. On December 31st, government officials report that The Armed Islamic Group (aka GTA) is in the United States. There is an arrest of one of its members in Brooklyn, New York and another in Washington State on 12/14/99. They are believed to have been involved in a bombing in France.

Besides the World Trade Center bombing on 2/26/93, this country suffered the loss of 18 U.S. Army Rangers in Somalia on October 3rd, 1993. On 4/19/95, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred. In November 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the National Guard Training Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 1 U.S. soldier, 4 American civilians, and wounding 34 others. On June 25, 1996, a truck bomb claimed the life of 19 U.S. servicemen. Another 372 were wounded.

In 1996, President Clinton refuses custody of Osama bin Laden from Sudan.

On 8/23/1998, Osama bin Laden's written declaration of attack against the United States is released. In 1997, CNN interviews Osama bin Laden.

On August 7, 1998, the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya are bombed. Scores are killed and wounded. In November of 1998, the Clinton Justice Department indicts Osama bin Laden for the Embassy bombings.

Also in 1998, ABC News interviews Osama bin Laden. Everyone else seems to be able to find bin Laden except the United States.

On January 1, 1999, the Clinton Justice Department once again indicts Osama bin Laden. This time he is placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

On October 12, 2000, the USS Cole is attacked. 17 sailors are killed and 39 others are injured.

You so readily attack President Bush's behavior from 9/11 on. Where were you when the perjurer Bill Clinton totally ignored terror for 8 full years?

"in August 2001, immediately after reading a memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US", President George Bush went bass fishing - and never called a meeting to discuss the issue."

The fact is that in the five years they estimate that it took bin Laden to plan and carry out his 9-11 attack, Clinton was the President for four years and five months of that time. And during that time Clinton knew nothing about it and did nothing about it. Bush having been in the White House only 7 months before the attack hardly had time to clean up the trash the Clinton pigs left for him in Oval Office let alone uncover the plot stop bin Laden.

As far as the 'Bush went fishing and did nothing' (about the memo); no President would have dropped everything and ran to the War Plan room based on some memo stating that bin Laden wanted to attack us. That was common knowledge anyway. And how do you know Bush didn't speak to some Cabinet members about this while fishing? How do you know that Bush didn't speak to Rumsfeld before or during that fishing trip, or had a conversation about it to somebody on the phone during his trip?

A month later, on September 11, when he was told that the terrorists had attacked, Bush spent the next seven minutes reading a children's book, The Pet Goat, with a group of schoolchildren."

Bush followed great advice and did the right thing by remainig calm and not creating unnecessary panic for the public. He was surely on top of all events and in the several minutes right after he was informed I feel very confident that Cheney, Rumsfeld and every General in the military, as well as every National Defense official were scurrying to do whatever was necessary. Bush performed magnificently by setting the tone of national CALM, and not fear and panic like some liberal wuss President would have done.

Consider: in August 2001, immediately after reading a memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US", President George Bush went bass fishing - and never called a meeting to discuss the issue.

Any actionable intelligence in this report or was it just a well known fact put into a memo?

A month later, on September 11, when he was told that the terrorists had attacked, Bush spent the next seven minutes reading a children's book, The Pet Goat, with a group of schoolchildren.

There is no book "The Pet Goat"! There is an exercise in a workbook called "Reading Mastery 2." The claim that "The Pet Goat" is a book was created by Lumpy Riefenstahl (Michael Moore). Quoting "Fahrenheit 9/11" on topics of world crises or presidential actions is like quoting "Birth of a Nation" on race relations.

Changing the President's schedule is not something you can do on a dime. It takes a while to set up the motorcade to get to the airport. Police have to be notified, roads have to be shut down and Air Force One has to be prepared. If President Bush had shut the book, leaped up and ran from the room he would have stood around in the hallway for seven minutes.

In the end, even if he could have acted immediately we would have been able to start the preinvasion bombing of Afghanistan at 12:23pm EDT October 7, 2001 instead of having to wait until 12:30.

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