January 2001 Memo Warned Bush of Al Qaeda Threat

Reuters ^ | 2/11/05 | JoAnne Allen

[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.

[pissant]

The MSM is going to recycle the "Bush Knew" crap again and again. WE MUST CRUSH THE TRAITOROUS MSM AND EXPOSE THEIR F***ING DISTORTIONS. Richard Clarke is a charlatan of the 1st order and Reuters is a pathetic collection of self-hating communists.

[day10]

Where is the "Oh No Not this s*&t again" pic?

[WildTurkey]

This begs the question: Why didn't Clarke call for an immediate meeting with Clinton and Gore?

[Huck]

Recycle is right. There's nothing new here.

[HarleyLady27]

I don't believe this for a minute....more of the loony libs proganda....stupid idiots can't win, why don't they leave this country and let us live in peace.....

[happyathome]

Even if the White House had full knowledge of the attacks, only targeted "profiling" of passengers would have stopped the hijackers at the airport gates. Guess who is against "profiling"? Course the media will never point this out.

[Holicheese]

Didn't Bush not get into the white house till Feb.? Also, he was in the middle of the Dems. obstructing all of his cabinet picks.

[WildTurkey]

Let's see. AQ affects policies .... Other leaders see AQ as a threat ...

I missed the part where he said AQ was a threat to the US?

[americanbychoice2]

Is this like saying : "We will attack somewhere in the world" and now it's Bush's fault?
Move along, nothing to see here.

[COBOL2Java]

January 2001 Memo Warned Bush of Al Qaeda Threat

Was this memo by any chance found near a Texas Kinko's?

[March I up]

Good point...

[KJC1]

This article mentions twice that the threats were for overseas, not on U.S. soil.

[kevao]

al Qaeda represented a threat

Didn't everyone know this after the first WTC bombing in 1993?

[slowhand520]

This article is totaly misleading. The only thing it sates is that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world. We already knew that. Where does it mention anything about airlines being used as missles? What a load of recycled crap

[Recovering Hermit]

[Paleo Conservative]

The memo dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office --

And what was in that memo that couln't have been in any memo Clarke wrote after the US Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998? The Clinton administration had its whole administration to deal with terrorism and it didn't. The first WTC bombing occurred just six weeks after Clinton took office. The Embassy bombings happened about 2 1/2 years before he left office.

[SF Republican]

This will be hugh; Richard Clark has all the qualities of a dog except loyalty.

[Piquaboy]

Here we go again. SOS! The MSM is the laziest bunch of a-holes taking space up on the planet known to man.

[MadIvan]

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,

I didn't know the Twin Towers were part of the Islamic world.

The media is despicable in its attempts to smear the President.

Regards, Ivan

[Coop]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz