Condi Trots Out The "I Don't Remember" Defense Once Again

by Steve

The woman who said that no one could have imagined that Al Qaeda would use planes as missiles here in the United States, and who said that no one knew at upper levels the Niger uranium story was suspect when Bush spoke his “sixteen words” in 2003’s SOTU, now says that she doesn’t remember receiving a warning from George Tenet and Cofer Black two months before 9/11 about an imminent Al Qaeda threat inside the country.

Actually Condi, given your record of lies, lack of imagination, and ineptitude in carrying out your jobs in this administration it isn’t incomprehensible to the rest of us that you would say you don’t remember receiving such a warning. It’s easy for the rest of us to believe that you were told by the intelligence community of their alarm and did nothing. It is quite comprehensible to the rest of us that because Tenet and Black didn’t give you a crayon drawing showing exactly where and when the attacks would occur, you simply brushed them off and told them the threat was too nebulous to worry your well-coifed head about.

And because you likely told the president about this “I would remember if I was told” warning in July, he was all-too-ready to dismiss the CIA briefer on August 6, 2001 with an “All right; you’ve covered your ass now” retort, because the threat you received in July was now in writing directly to the president. Condi, Bush wouldn’t have made such a statement unless he was told by you about the warning given by Tenet and Black a month before. And efforts by you or anyone else in the Administration to undermine Woodward’s reporting here conflict with the glowing praise you and others showered on Woodward previously.

For his part, Woodward is sticking to his story on NBC’s “Today” show this morning, safe in the knowledge that George Tenet’s memoirs will be out soon confirming that the July 10th, 2001 meeting took place. And as damaging as the Mark Foley story is for the GOP’s chances of holding onto the House, it will be more lethal for the GOP if the public sees evidence that this administration was negligent in protecting this country in the months prior to 9/11, and that they have withheld this information from the 9/11 Commission. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will have a much easier time making the case for a new Congress that will no longer rubber stamp whatever this administration wants, or be so willing to abdicate its oversight responsibility to maintain political power while leaving the country unprotected in the process.

Critics often say that the Democrats need to offer voters an alternative in order to close the sale next month. But if this story and the Foley story get any worse for the GOP, which they will, all Democrats will have to say in the coming weeks is that they are not Republicans.