Bush inherited the Clinton 8 year Administration’s security system/program/personnel.
Field FBI agents warned of suspicious activities by foreign students at two flight training schools in Arizona and Minnesota, but these warning were ignored by Mid-Level FBI administrators (under Louis Freh’s command). If these individuals had been picked up and questioned in the months before 9/11, 9/11 would not have happened.
Also, Clinton did a general “stand-down” of US continental defense forces in 1994-95, as a result of believing that the Cold War dangers of a surprise air attack/missile attack were almost nil.
NO ARMED FIGHTERS WERE STATIONED AT ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE RIGHT ACROSS THE RIVER FROM DC. NONE WERE ON DUTY AT BOLLING AFB IN DC. The nearest planes that could be armed were at Langley AFB in southern Virginia, over 90 miles away. They arrived too late to shoot down the plane that hit the Pentagon (and which flew literally right by my house).
My source: One of the participants in the “stand down” program who explained its nuances to an audience at the National Archives a year or two after 9/11.
Note that no Shoulder-Fired AA missiles were used at the Pentagon, nor was it known if any even were stationed at the Capitol or White House. This was Clinton’s (and Secret Service, etc) most aggregious mistake. You never leave your main C&C centers unguarded, ever.
Also remember, a new administration has to have at least 6 months to adjust to taking over from any predecessor administration, esp. one like the Clinton administration that was firmly entrenched for 8 years.
Bush took over on Jan. 20, 2011, so 6 months later would be in July. Not much time left before 9/11.
I fault the military and Secret Service and FBI for extremely poor planning, arming, and mindsets.
However, a footnote here. In Former FBI director Louis Freeh’s autobiographical book, he says that the most influential law professor he had at Rutgers Un. was ARTHUR KINOY. KINOY was one of the Communist Party USA’s top support attorneys for about 50 years. While his CP membership has never been documented, he was an avowed marxist and tried to set up his own party known originally as NCIPA (National Committee for Independent Political Action). I attended its founding conference and it was loaded with CPUSA and ex CPUSA reds, Democratic Socialists of America people, and assorted marxists, socialists, etc.
A three part series on Kinoy Marxist Thought can be found in the Congressional Record about 1975, put in by the late Rep. Larry MacDonald (D-Ga), in the “Extension of Remarks”.
I wonder how much influence Kinoy had on Freeh’s mindset regarding internal security versus the so-called “constitutional rights” fraudulent debate that the Party had been waging against the US internal security program since the 1930’s, but esp. since the 1950’s.
9/11 should never have happened but our post-USSR/Cold War mindset was one of weakness and pipe-dreams, instead of a hard, cold, fact-based review of the new world of the rising Red Chinese worldwide ideological offensive coupled with the rise of Al Qaeda (which Clinton ignored).
We all know the results of this stupidity and incompetence.
I do not believe for a moment that Bill Clinton set up this murder of our citizens up.
He made HUGE mistakes, that is undeniable and in retrospect it is obvious.