Retain the House
Posted on 09/08/2002 11:01:38 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
WASHINGTON, Sep 08, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- AP White House correspondent
President Bush glowered at Robert Mueller as the FBI director rattled off details of the terrorism investigation for several minutes. Finally, Bush interrupted the Sept. 14 Oval Office briefing and snapped, "This is not about building a case for prosecution."
He did not want to hear another word about where the terrorists had lived, when they had bought their plane tickets or how they had spent their last hours. "This should be about preventing the next attack," he told Mueller. "What's the intelligence on the next attack?"
With those words, Bush swept away years of FBI doctrine followed since J. Edgar Hoover's war against bank robbers, communists and spies. Investigating past crimes is no longer the main priority, Bush was saying: Public Enemy No. 1 is the next terrorist attack.
In the year since, terrorism has transformed Bush's presidency.
He tabled much of his domestic agenda to secure a bigger Pentagon budget and broader powers for federal police. He is pursuing a catchall Department of Homeland Security and forged new alliances with foreign countries. And he has imposed an unprecedented policy allowing the U.S. military to wage war without provocation.
"The attacks have given the president and our entire country an overriding mission, and that's to defend freedom wherever that battle might take him," said Karen Hughes, one of Bush's closest advisers.
"We'll be defending freedom for the remainder of his presidency, and for most of our lives," she said.
Another Bush confidant, Karl Rove, looks to the past to put Bush's challenge into context.
"This is an unimaginable situation that nobody could have forecast or prepared for," the history buff said in his West Wing office, one wall decorated by framed memos written by Teddy Roosevelt.
"Lincoln had his Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt had World War II. Kennedy and Johnson - their wars," he said. Times place demands on every president, Rove said, "and this is what history's given him."
History gave Bush a new direction for his presidency and a popularity that made voters forgiving of his domestic policy lapses.
As U.S. troops fought in Afghanistan, Bush's plans to privatize parts of Social Security, improve prescription drug coverage, reform election laws and expand the role of religion in government services faltered. Government deficits exploded, compared with surpluses during the Clinton years.
Eleven months after the first bombs fell in Afghanistan, the United States is spending $2 billion a month on the war. Some 8,000 U.S. troops are in duty in Afghanistan and an additional 55,000 U.S. forces are in the region supporting the war.
As the United States fought overseas, Bush raised the nation's defenses.
He signed the USA Patriot Act, allowing federal police to detain thousands of aliens deemed threats to national security. The FBI was given new powers to tap telephone calls, demand records from bookstores and libraries, and enter places of worship.
With little precedent, Bush created military tribunals for terrorism suspects.
Bowing to pressure, he proposed a Department of Homeland Security to consolidate scores of agencies and 170,000 employees under one Cabinet secretary. Bush insists the department will not increase the size of government, but some lawmakers - many in his own party - are dubious.
He has developed two new foreign policy doctrines. The first, previewed in his national address hours after the attacks, assumes that any country harboring terrorists is an enemy of the United States.
"You're either with us or against us" has become Bush's battle cry, though critics say he has bent the new doctrine for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The second doctrine reserves the right of the United States to launch pre-emptive attacks against nations that possess weapons of mass destruction and are linked to terrorists. He issued a warning to the "axis of evil" - Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
"I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer," Bush said.
He has recalibrated his foreign policy since Sept. 11.
A vocal opponent of "nation-building," he now promises to get the new Afghanistan government on its feet.
Never a big advocate of foreign aid, Bush has proposed major increases in programs intended to eliminate breeding grounds for terrorism.
Relations with Russia were rocky until President Vladimir Putin backed Bush's war efforts. Bush, in turn, gave Putin a boost of credibility by saying there are terrorist elements in Chechnya.
In the 2000 campaign, the foreign policy novice, could not name the president of Pakistan. Now Gen. Pervez Musharraf is Bush's ally.
In the time since Sept. 11, Bush's popularity slipped - though his sky-high poll numbers remain above where they were before the attacks.
The stalled economy, falling markets and rash of corporate abuses gave Democrats an opening for attack before November's midterm elections.
Bush's foreign policy is under attack, too. Republicans and Democrats alike are openly questioning whether he is too eager for war with Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
Twelve months after he interrupted Mueller's briefing - "This should be about preventing the next attack" - Bush has decided where the next threat lies.
Ousting the Iraqi president, he says, "is in the interest of the world."
Mueller has got to go. The FBI is beyond a joke.
Mueller only took over the FBI a few days before 9/11. You can hardly blame him for 30 years of bureaucratic inertia. It's also worth noting that there has not been a single Al Qaeda attack on America since 9/11, partly at least due to FBI actions. Like Bush said, a lot of our victories in this war will never be seen by the public.
Al-Qaeda attacks have always been spaced out 18-24 months apart, so I wouldn't get too excited about the fact that there hasn't been another one just yet.
Not for lack of trying. One instance we all know about is the shoe bomber. Al Qaeda, no? Prevention provided by alert flight attendants and passengers.
I tend to think there have been other attempts that have been foiled that we don't know about.
I tend to think there haven't.
The FBI captured an Al Qaeda cell in NY and fingered Bin al-Shibh to the Pakistani police this last weekend. Not bad work for a "joke".
Of course it's pretty hard to point to an attack that was thwarted if the terrorists are aprehended before hand. But having arrested over 1,000 AQ suspects it's pretty certain some attacks were thwarted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.