Jan. 2001 memo warned of Al-Qaida attack... idiots in the White House ignored it

[*Jamal*]

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.

"The strength of the network of organizations limits the scope of support friendly Arab regimes can give to a range of U.S. policies, including Iraq (news - web sites) policy and the (Israeli-Palestinian) Peace Process. We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge al Qaeda poses."

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.

The meeting on al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until Sept. 4, 2001.

[Sikotic™]

It's nice to know our prez was taking multiple vacations during that time period instead of heeding those warnings. Makes me feel oh so safe.

[Machiavelli]

yeah, bush and his administration fucked up.

But Clinton had chances to stop Bin Laden and an Al Qaeda attack, so you just cant blame bush. Clinton deserves  blame.

[Ant]

yeah, bush and his administration fucked up.

But Clinton had chances to stop Bin Laden and an Al Qaeda attack, so you just cant blame bush. Clinton deserves  blame.

by all means state some facts to prove that Clinton had chances to stop Bin Laden and Al-Queda and deserves blame for sept. 11?

[Machiavelli]

yeah, bush and his administration fucked up.

But Clinton had chances to stop Bin Laden and an Al Qaeda attack, so you just cant blame bush. Clinton deserves  blame.

by all means state some facts to prove that Clinton had chances to stop Bin Laden and Al-Queda and deserves blame for sept. 11?

read the 9/11 report....

even your canadiate Wesley Clark agrees clinton failed to stop 9/11

After I gave my former commander-in-chief credit for squeezing Libya," said Mr. Clark, "I realized that I would also have to blame him for not stopping the 9/11 attacks. After all, there was a three-year hiatus between the Clinton White House and the Libyan decision, but only nine months between Bill's departure and the day the planes hit."

http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/001451.html

[Machiavelli]

The Clinton administration had as many as four chances to kill or capture bin Laden between December 1998 and July 1999, but all the operations were scuttled because of uncertain intelligence and fears that civilians or dignitaries might be killed. In one example, in May 1999, sources provided detailed reports about bin Laden's whereabouts in the Kandahar area over a period of five nights, but strikes were not ordered because the military was concerned about the accuracy of the reports and the risk of collateral damage, investigators found.

 A month after the Clinton administration launched missile strikes on al Qaeda targets in retaliation for the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa, counterterrorism officials within the Pentagon prepared a paper proposing "a more aggressive counterterrorism posture" to "take up the gauntlet that international terrorists have thrown at our feet." The authors also warned that in case of more "horrific attacks . . . we will have no choice nor, unfortunately, will we have a plan."

 The eight-point proposal went nowhere, in part because senior officials thought the plan was too aggressive, investigators found.

• In the spring of 1998, the Saudi government broke up a plot organized by bin Laden to launch attacks on U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia using portable missiles. Scores were arrested, but the Saudis did not publicize the case at the time, the commission report said.

• U.S. officials learned that Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistani intelligence, had assured Taliban leaders in July 1999 that he would provide three or four hours of warning before any U.S. missile launch as he had the "last time" -- an apparent reference to the failed 1998 missile strike.

[*Jamal*]

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue.... our government fucked up... both sides of the aisle...

[Ant]

even your canadiate Wesley Clark agrees clinton failed to stop 9/11

After I gave my former commander-in-chief credit for squeezing Libya," said Mr. Clark, "I realized that I would also have to blame him for not stopping the 9/11 attacks. After all, there was a three-year hiatus between the Clinton White House and the Libyan decision, but only nine months between Bill's departure and the day the planes hit."

http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/001451.html

LOL.  This is a satirical news site.  The story you quoted is completely ficticious.

Look at the name of the newspaper first:  Scrappleface: News Fairly Unbalanced. We Report. You Decipher.  This is a fake news site.  Here is another story from Scappleface "DNC To Consider Republican Chairman." 

"ScrappleFace, the daily news satire site, features new stories virtually every day. Scott Ott, editor-in-chief, leads the vast editorial staff of ScrappleFace to cover the globe like a patina of dental plaque."

I'd give you a little respect if you admitted you were wrong.  Now please try to find a site that gives actual, reliable news that supports your main point.  Be sure to include a link.

[M Dogg™]

Clinton had 2 years, and still, it's been 4 years for Bush and he still ain't caught him. So your whole deal on blaming Clinton is unfound to me. I've read all that shit, and if Bin Laden can get away from the "stronger on terrorist" Republicans, then I think they can get away from Bill Clinton too. It's like this, Bin Laden is like the fucken Road Runner, our Coyote ass presidents ain't going to catch him with their Acne traps, what we need is a president that tries something else. I was saying Wesley Clark needs to be president, or Kerry needed to have him as his VP, all that military experience would have done wonders. Oh well, back to Will'ie Coyote number 2 trying to catch Bin Laden.

[Don Jacob]

you can say that bush fucked up and you can say clinton fucked up and on the same note you can say the government as a whole fucked up. you can say all of these things and be right .....but at the end of the day who HONESTLY thought something like 9-11 would happen to the US?

[*Jamal*]

you can say that bush fucked up and you can say clinton fucked up and on the same note you can say the government as a whole fucked up. you can say all of these things and be right .....but at the end of the day who HONESTLY thought something like 9-11 would happen to the US?

After the 1st bombing at the WTC, and the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, it wasn't too far-fetched...

[Rampant]

Of course nobody would have thought that our airliners would crash into the WTC, but as jamal said al-qaida had attacked before, which made it clear that they were a threat and needed to be dealth with.

[*Jamal*]

Yeah, I would've never expected the use of planes like that....  pretty creative.... well thought-out...

[Machiavelli]

you can say that bush fucked up and you can say clinton fucked up and on the same note you can say the government as a whole fucked up. you can say all of these things and be right .....but at the end of the day who HONESTLY thought something like 9-11 would happen to the US?

After the 1st bombing at the WTC, and the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, it wasn't too far-fetched...

Know one would of ever thought that Terrorists would hijack planes and use it as missles in American soil. Maybe an attack, but not anything inclusive to the 9/11 attacks.

[*Jamal*]

you can say that bush fucked up and you can say clinton fucked up and on the same note you can say the government as a whole fucked up. you can say all of these things and be right .....but at the end of the day who HONESTLY thought something like 9-11 would happen to the US?

After the 1st bombing at the WTC, and the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, it wasn't too far-fetched...

Know one would of ever thought that Terrorists would hijack planes and use it as missles in American soil. Maybe an attack, but not anything inclusive to the 9/11 attacks.

Idiot