Found this story:
http://216.239.39.99/search?q=cache:dw7-fy2oJI0J:www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00079.htm+staff+vacations+9-11+%22clarke+%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 "The heightened alert followed a July 5 high-level official meeting convened in the White House Situation Room by Richard Clarke, head of counter-terrorism at the NSC. In a May 2002 account, The Washington Post reported:
"Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon," the government's top counter-terrorism official, Richard Clarke, told the assembled group, according to two of those present. The group included the Federal Aviation Administration, along with the Coast Guard, FBI, Secret Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Clarke directed every counter-terrorist office to cancel vacations, defer non-vital travel, put off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid-response teams on much shorter alert. For six weeks last summer, at home and overseas, the U.S. government was at its highest possible state of readiness -- and anxiety -- against imminent terrorist attack.
That intensity -- defensive in nature -- did not last. By the time Bush received his briefing at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, the government had begun to stand down from the alert." [Id.]"
Thanks, backhoe. You are an incredible researcher. Just incredible.
Amazing...Clarke sets into motion the big defensive push - then it peaks too early....by design?