No lack of good intelligence

The Washington Times ^ | February 16, 2005 | Michael F. Scheuer

[rightalien]

Last week's revelation of 50 pre-September11,al Qaeda-related warnings to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the publication of an early 2001 National Security Council memo warning of the Osama bin Laden threat, point to the utter failure of the Goss-Graham and Kean-Hamilton commissions. Unable to stand up and state the obvious negligence and failure of senior intelligence community officials helped get America to September 11. The oblivious commissioners forced a reorganization of the intelligence community that increases bureaucracy and locks in the mentality that Americans are expendable. The recent disclosures show, again, that there was no lack of good intelligence before September 11, no failure to "connect the dots." From late 1996 onward, for example, intelligence community leaders and senior NSC officials knew al Qaeda was seeking weapons of mass destruction in a professional manner; they also knew Soviet nuclear weapons were not secured. U.S. officials therefore knew bin Laden was seeking a nuclear capability that could be found in the Soviet arsenal. Common sense should have dictated immediate, vigorous and risk-taking efforts to destroy al Qaeda and secure Soviet weapons. None was attempted. After 1996, the quality and quantity of intelligence about al Qaeda grew geometrically, as last week's disclosures begin to show, and yet senior officials refused to act. Indeed, the most caustic critics of the Bush administration's failure to attack al Qaeda sat squarely amid an avalanche of excellent intelligence about bin Laden's capabilities and location, read the material, screwed up their courage and did nothing. Indeed, an objective review of chances to capture or kill bin Laden finds nearly all occurred under Bill Clinton's watch not under Mr. Bush's eight to10 occasions from May 1998 to July 1999 alone, per the Kean-Hamilton report.

[MisterRepublican]

Uh-Oh! The name that shall not be mentioned (Liberal Democrat Media Playbook-Rule 9.1.1) when speaking of terrorism: Clinton.

[Cicero]

Scheuer is a very mixed bag. In fact, to put it bluntly, he's a traitor.

Notice that he says that going into Iraq was a mistake, because it took attention away from al Qaeda. Nonsense.

Notice also that he blames Bush for not assassinating al Zarqawi before invading Iraq. Nonsense. Monday morning quarterbacking. Bush took things in order and quite rightly did not want to offend public opinion before going into Iraq. The job was hard enough as it was. And people like Scheuer, with their leaks from the CIA to the liberal media, didn't help one bit.

Yes, Scheuer admits that clinton was chiefly responsible for not stopping bin Ladin. But that is already widely known by anyone who reads the Washington Times. And he forgot to mention some of the most egregious instances, like when Sudan offered to hand bin Ladin over on a silver platter.

[Blzbba]

"Uh-Oh! The name that shall not be mentioned (Liberal Democrat Media Playbook-Rule 9.1.1) when speaking of terrorism: Clinton."


If Clinton had been president during 9-11, we would've impeached him again!