Posted on 02/11/2005 8:42:28 AM PST by pissant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newly released memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush (news - web sites) until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The memo dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks on New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive Web site on Thursday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), had been described during the hearings but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
"Al Qaeda affects centrally our policies on Pakistan, Afghanistan (news - web sites), Central Asia, North Africa and the GCC (Gulf Arab states). Leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia see al Qaeda as a direct threat to them," Clarke wrote. (snip) The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
The document was declassified on April 7, 2004, one day before Rice's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive -- a private library of declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
Expect the Bush DUI story to resurface again too. They have nothing else to do sit on the lazy a$$ and recycle old material.
Good Point. Either that, or they are stupid.
Oh heck, the memo just says - Lets have a meeting. The liberals "solution" for everything.
It also does not discuss a potential attack on the US mainland.
You know this stuff amazes me...don't we remember the mess that Bush took office with? Now, up until this point who was in office? Let's see wasn't it Bill Clinton? Somewhere the Clinton Administration had some responsibility for this mess. But it always appears that slick Willy gets passed over.
This again??? I guess next will be the guard thing again. Oh well, gives those dunder heads something to do.
Well, Clarke did produce the after action report on Al Qaeda's "Millennium Plot," which included specific recommendations. Problem was the Clinton admin ignored it (until last year when Berger tried to sneak the copies out of the archives in his briefcase, underwear and socks) and never briefed the Bush admin about it.
First of all its not a newly released document. It was used as a basis for Condi's testimony before the 9/11 commission.
Second, here is Clark's own testimony about this memo:
SLADE GORTON, Commission member: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?
CLARKE: No.
GORTON: It just would have allowed our response, after 9/11, to be perhaps a little bit faster?
CLARKE: Well, the response would have begun before 9/11.
GORTON: Yes, but there was no recommendation, on your part or anyone else's part, that we declare war and attempt to invade Afghanistan prior to 9/11?
CLARKE: That's right.
Clarke was right about that, btw, that we needed to provide more support for the NA (which Clinton didn't do and Bush did do).
Clarke was right about a number of things. If it weren't for his outsized ego and unremitting self-absorption he might have made much more of a contribution.
nice post
Bingo!
I've just taken the trouble of examining Clarke's original memo-with attached tab.
It calls attention to AQ,but does NOT suggest it is an immediate threat to the US.
What Clarke seems to be sulking about is the fact his info-originally presented to the Clinton administration in 2000-and "passed on" (without action of any sort) to the Bush administration-did not merit an immediate meeting.Poor Clarke had to wait until SEVERAL OTHER pressing issues were addressed,and did not get his meeting until Sept. 4th.
The 9-11 Commission-after he wound up his flamboyant appearance-asked him if anything he had to report would have done anything to PREVENT 9-11. He admitted-reluctantly-it would NOT.
Not (quite) true. Clarke came very lose to recommending just that in his Millennium Plot after action report. Did Clarke not want to draw attention to that document? Did he know at the time of this testimony that Berger had attempted to filch and destroy copies of it?
Thank you. My first by the way I have been lurking for over a year, you guys are the best. The most intelligent forum I have read.
Here's another point that everyone seems to be missing:
Let's stipulate for the moment that this threat was specific to the United States. How many OTHER threats were there to the United States from various terror organizations in just the previous WEEK?
You mean Sandy "Chuckles" Berger - "A little song, a little dance, a bunch of secrets down my pants."
Most likely he knew what Berger was up to and avoided mentioning the document
I hear Michael Moore might do some kind of movie about this...
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