Originally Posted By: Will S.
Larry --
One thing I appreciate about your posts is that you can disagree without being disagreeable. Here is something that isn't hyperbole: the PDM that stated "Bin Laden determined to strike the U.S." I suppose, though, I should be mollified since Condaleeza Rice determined that this was an "historical" document.


Thanks, Will. I made a New Years resolution to try my best not to be disagreeable. Need to go to confession (or I would if I were Catholic), because here it is mid-February and I've already transgressed a few times!

I think you mean PDB, as in President's Daily Brief. However, if you read that particular PDB, you will find that there are no specifics as to when, where, or how AQ is planning to strike. Back when I was a brigade intelligence officer, the Old Man might have made some use of such non-specific information by putting the troops on alert, but he would've also kicked me in the ass and told me to come back with more specific information. What they call "priority intelligence requirements" in the military do indeed include whether the enemy will attack . . . but they also include when, where, and in what strength. And that PDB was dated August 6. To put the entire nation on red alert for over a month, based on a non-specific threat--especially prior to 9/11--would have been pretty unusual. And given the nature of the attack, I doubt such an alert would have succeeded in stopping it.

And those who point to that particular PDB always seem to overlook another one. See the 9/11 Commission Report, pp 128-129: "SUBJECT: Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks". Even more specific, wouldn't you say, than the Aug 01 PDB item? And the date on this one: Dec 4, 1998. The text refers specifically to an attempt to bargain for the release of "the blind sheikh" who planned the first WTC attack in 1993, but it also talks specifically about AQ and aircraft hijack training. Based on that very specific warning, Will, you might want to look at the measures put into place by the Clinton Administration, in their final two years in office, to prevent aircraft hijacking. I think you'll find they did . . . pretty much nothing.