There's been a lot of discussion about whether the Bush administration is trying to deflect criticism over why they didn't tell the public about a vague heads-up last August that Usama bin Laden might be interested in hijacking an airliner.
Bush gets hammered by Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton... what did the president know?
(Just as an aside... Mrs. Clinton, did you know your husband never even met the head of his CIA? Refused to see him? I can think of at least a few instances where meeting with the head of the CIA would have been time better spent.)
Vice President Dick Cheney says that's it's not a question of if, but when terrorists strike American interests again. The FBI director also thinks that an attack is inevitable. The defense secretary says terrorists are trying to get weapons of mass destruction, and that we should be prepared for an attack. The FBI issues a warning for New York landmarks for Memorial Day. I'll bet before we go away for the weekend, there's a warning for the fleet on display in New York harbor.
And people are asking... is Bush playing politics by sending out his guys to warn, warn, warn? This is just me, but what do you expect him to do?
He gets flogged over not warning people on August 6th about a murky threat advisory for a hijacking, probably overseas.
So now he's got some information, like the fact that Al Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah met in Beirut two months ago to plan more terror attacks. Then he's got some additional info from the Gitmo detainees, and maybe even more from Abu Zubaydah.
What's he supposed to do? Sit on that information and take the chance of getting hammered again? Have Hillary Clinton, of all people, sitting on her pedestal demanding to know what the president knew?
Jeez... I'll tell you what I'd do if I were Bush. I'd spew it all out. I'd say: You want warnings, Mr. Daschle? Here are enough warnings to keep you busy right through the holiday weekend. Now let me go back to winning this war.
That's My Word.
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