Bush Withheld Recent Al Qaeda Threat Info From His Senior Executives

by Steve

So now it turns out there were two intelligence briefs given at high levels in the Executive Branch during August 6-7, 2001. According to the AP last night, Bush got his on August 6, 2001 at the ranch, which had the recent information on what the FBI had going with Al Qaeda investigations and recent threats. Yet Bush went on with his vacation and didn't act.

But now it turns out that another briefing was given to senior executives in the Administration the day after, where the same information on recent threats could have been communicated to agency heads so that they could undertake activities on their own without waiting to hear a directive from an asleep-at-the-switch president, NSA, or Attorney General.

Except the information on recent Al Qaeda activities and threats was withheld from the senior executive briefing the next day, giving the agency heads an incomplete and misleading picture of the actual threat faced by the country in the weeks before 9/11. Therefore, the system set up by Condi Rice and the president relied upon the president deciding to release such information to his cabinet heads. If he chose not to, then his government would be flying blind until he returned from vacation and decided to tell them what he felt they needed to know.

Which makes the administration's lack of preparedness for 9/11 all the more Bush's responsibility.