Did she, now? Well, lets just look at the actual text of the memo and see who is mischaracterizing, she or thee:
Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”
First paragraph, all HISTORICAL, and citing open source information (i.e. press reports, television interviews given by Bin Laden). Let's try the next parapraph:
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.
Historical. Next...
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
"At the same time" being in 1998, after the cruise missle strikes. Also historical.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.
Still historical. Still also nothing that hadn't been also reported in open sources...
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
African embassy bombings: historical.
Al-Qa’ida members -- including some who are US citizens --have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa’ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
Again historical. Again reported in open sources, e.g. Steve Emerson's American Jihad.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
Back to 1998.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ’Umar ’Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
First reference which might not be historical, depending on how recently or ongoing efforts had been to corroborate the 1998 threat report. Again the airline hijacking threat had been discussed in open sources well prior to the August PDB, so still nothing new, and the only reference so far to (possible) recent or ongoing intelligence investigations reports the LACK of a result or conclusion.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.
FINALLY, in the last two paragraphs, we have discussion or clearly contemporary material not then available in open sources. But still it's only a very general update. The latest specific threat mentioned here (and in the whole memo!) is three months old.
Looks like Condi was absolutely correct in saying the document contained "historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information."
You throw pearls before swine (though at least you got it on the record) Good post, BTW