Well, we finally have had a look at the Presidential Daily Briefing for August 6. Is it a smoking gun? Yes, I would say, and no.
There's not a thing in there that would have told President Bush, or anyone else, that on September 11, 2001, agents of Al Qaeda would crash two civilian airliners into the World Trade Center, another one into the Pentagon, and ― potentially ― a fourth into the White House. Put your minds at rest.
On the other hand, there was plenty there that would have caused any thinking person to ask: "They're going to do something. What are they going to do?"
Apparently, President Bush is not a thinking person. He was on vacation in Crawford, Texas. He stayed on vacation in Crawford, Texas. He did nothing. Worse, the people around him did nothing.
Richard Clark talked about "shaking the trees". Shaking some trees in mid-August might well have brought forth the information (already known to the FBI, apparently) that certain unauthorized persons of Middle Eastern origin were swotting the avionics of large civilian aircraft. Somebody might have remembered that the whole 9/11 scenario was anticipated, during the Clinton administration, with respect to the Olympic Games in Atlanta (for that matter, does anybody remember the novel "Black Friday", which dates, I believes, from two or three decades ago?). But the Bush administration's philosophy has apparently been that, if the trees need shaking, the Almighty will send along a high wind to shake them. They apparently forget that other bit of religious philosophy: "God helps those who help themselves."
The contents of the PDB of August 6 seem to show an administration whose reaction was: "Well, that's interesting. Now let's see -- was I planning to stay in bed today or go out and rest on the porch swing today?" And in that sense, it qualifies as a smoking gun.
Posted by Don Harlow at April 11, 2004 09:22 AM