Liar, Liar, Towers on Fire

Two separate stories are breaking that indicate the Bushies had ample and multiple warnings that if heeded could have prevented the 9-11 attacks. In one case, they have covered up the information for months (especially until after the election), and in the other, they lied.

This is from a Newsday report, widely reported elsewhere as well:

"On 52 occasions, from April 1, 2001, to Sept. 10, 2001, the FAA's own daily intelligence briefings contained references to the al-Qaida terror network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, mostly in regard to overseas threats...
FAA officials discussed the growing threat from bin Laden and a renewed interest in hijackings. In the briefings, security officials noted that a hijacking on U.S. soil would result in a greater number of American hostages but would be more difficult for terrorists to carry out. "We don't rule it out," the agency said of a domestic hijacking."""

Newsday.com - State/Region News

That;s the Federal Aviation Agency. This information was part of the 9-11 Commission Report but was withheld from the public for "security" reasons.

A separate story, reported so far only outside the U.S. in the Australian Herald Sun: The adviser it refers to is Richard Clarke.

"EIGHT months before the September 11 attacks the White House's then counterterrorism adviser urged then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to hold a high-level meeting on the al-Qaeda network, according to a memo made public today."We urgently need such a principals-level review on the al-Qaeda network," then White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke wrote in the January 25, 2001 memo.

However, Ms Rice wrote in a March 22, 2004 column in The Washington Post that "No al-Qaeda threat was turned over to the new administration". """"

Clarke has talked and written about this memo before, but the memo itself was only released now, by the National Security Archive, which also released the FAA information covered by the NY Times and others.

In other news...

A review of Scott Sandage's eye-opening new book, Born Losers: A History of Failure in America is up at Books In Heat.