"The Deafness Before the Storm"

Given the fact that Donald Trump has recently been chastised for the cardinal sin of blaming George W. Bush for the events of 9/11, I thought it was about time to slip into our Wayback Machine and revisit the following two articles.  The first, dated 9-10-12, is entitled "The Deafness Before the Storm" by Kurt Eichenwald and first appeared in the Op-Ed section of the New York Times.  Here are the first few paragraphs of the article:

"It was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history.

"On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s 'presidential daily brief' — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

"On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.

"That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it."

To read Eichenwald's entire article, click HERE.

The second article, dated 9-11-12, is entitled "Bush Received More Warnings About 9/11 Than We Realized" by Gus Lubin and first appeared in the Military & Defense section of the Business Insider.  Needless to say, if one replaced the word "Warnings" with the phrase "Hot Tips," Lubin's title would better reflect the reality of the situation.  Here are the first few paragraphs of Lubin's article:

"The Bush White House ignored even more warnings about September 11 than we thought, according to journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who has a column in the NYT and a new book out today.

"We already knew about the presidential brief from Aug. 6, 2001 that was titled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' The White House has shown that this declassified document was primarily a history of Al Qaeda, not a warning of imminent attack.

"But there were other briefings, some seen by Eichenwald, that did warn of an imminent attack."

To read Lubin's entire article, click HERE.

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