April 14, 2004

Damning. Headline: "Panel Says Bush Saw Repeated Warnings":

"By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief headlined 'Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US,' the president had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national security team, according to newly declassified information ...

"In April and May 2001, for example, the intelligence community headlined some of those reports, 'Bin Laden planning multiple operations,' 'Bin Laden network's plans advancing' and 'Bin Laden threats are real.' ... It noted that operatives might choose to hijack an aircraft or storm a US embassy. Without knowing when, where or how the terrorists would strike, the CIA 'consistently described the upcoming attacks as occurring on a catastrophic level, indicating that they would cause the world to be in turmoil...'"

[During his press conference last night, Bush explained how he was kept appraised of the terrorist threat: "I was dealing with terrorism a lot as the president when George Tenet came in to brief me. I mean, that's where I got my information. ... I wanted Tenet in the Oval Office all the time. And we had briefings about terrorist threats. ... I met with Tenet all the time."]

Again from the 9/11 Commission: ''Reports similar to these were made available to President Bush in the morning meetings with Tenet."

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