One day after National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony, the country awaits the release of the still-classified pre-9/11 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) entitled, "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States." The PDB is at the center of a controversy reflected in conflicting headlines all over the country: AP blared, "Rice: Bush got no warning of 9/11," reporting on Rice's claim that "no intelligence foretold the deadliest attack ever on American soil." Knight-Ridder, on the other hand, headlined, "President Learned of a Plot, Aide Says" and reported Rice acknowledged that in the August 6the PDB, "President Bush was told that al Qaeda terrorists seemed to be plotting to hijack airplanes." This discrepancy between Rice denying she or the President were warned of an imminent attack on American soil and her claims that the Bush Administration was at battle stations because of explicit warnings leaves a major credibility gap that is aptly reflected throughout the media: the Chicago Sun-Times headline says, "Rice's Answers Don't Resolve Questions," while the Dallas Morning News notes the puzzling testimony in its headline, "Rice: Terrorism Neither Ignored Nor At Top of Agenda." And while the policy debate continues, few can argue with the LA Times headline: "Rice Leaves Image of Detached Leaders." For a full analysis of Rice's testimony, see American Progress's special site.
NEGLIGENCE – RICE SAYS SLEEPING AT WHEEL ABSOLVES HER: Rice tried to absolve herself from responsibility by claiming she could not remember things or that she was never ordered to "do" anything about imminent threats to America. For instance, she admitted that former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke submitted a memo to her outlining threats, but then told the commission "I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about." She said, "I do not remember any reports to us...that planes might be used as a weapon," despite having accompanied President Bush in July of 2001 to the G-8 Summit in Genoa, where she was explicitly notified Islamic terrorists might try to use planes as missiles in an assassination attempt.
NEGLIGENCE – RICE SAYS BEING OBLIVIOUS ABSOLVES HER: As America's top national security official, Rice is supposed to oversee major budgetary and international efforts to secure the country. But in one of the most telling exchanges of the day, Rice told Republican commissioner John Lehman that she had no idea what her own Administration was doing in critical national security areas. Lehman asked Rice: "Were you aware that I.N.S. had quietly internally halved its internal security enforcement budget?" She replied, "I was not made aware of that." Lehman asked whether before 9/11 she was aware that the Saudis – with whom the Bush Administration continues a close relationship – were barring U.S. access to al Qaeda suspects. Again, Rice replied, "I don't remember anything of that kind." Finally, Lehman asked whether Rice was aware that the Air Marshals program had been curtailed on her watch. She replied, "I was not told that."
DISCREPANCY – "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE U.S.": Rice claimed the President received no warnings before 9/11 of an imminent attack, yet then said the pre-9/11 warnings were so great that the President alerted federal agencies to a potential attack by Osama bin Laden. Strangely, this critical alert "was never sent to local and state FBI offices."
DISCREPANCY – HOW COULD BUSH NOT KNOW OF IMMINENT THREAT?: Rice and other officials have said that because the President received "more than 40 briefing items on Al Qaeda" from daily meetings with CIA Director George Tenet, he "understood the threat" of terrorism. But these same officials say the President was never warned before 9/11 of an imminent attack – a discrepancy considering the fact that, in the summer of 2001, Tenet was "running around the town with his hair on fire" in an effort to get top Administration officials to act on the imminent threat of attack. According to NPR, Tenet evenwarned congressional leaders of the imminent threat.
