The mystery of the July 10th 2001 meeting
This morning's Post has a story that deepens the mystery of how everyone in Washington forgot that the CIA director warned the National Security Advisor on July 10th, 2001 that an attack by Bin Laden was imminent.
You see this meeting, a critical and important one, was somehow left out of the 9/11 Commission Report and had never been mentioned prior to the publication of the new Woodward book. Condi Rice first said the meeting never happened; she then reversed herself and said it did, but that she forgot about it. We all then wondered how it was possible that the record of this meeting never made it into the 9/11 Commission Report. This new story makes it clear that Tenet did brief the 9/11 Commission on the meeting, that in fact he provided them slides and other papers from the briefing he gave to Condi on that July day.
Questions then:
1) How did the fact of this meeting fall out of the 9/11 Commission Report? Did the Commission's Executive Director, Phillip Zelikow, now a Rice staffer, fight to keep it out?
2) Rice has consistently said she was never told that summer that Bin Laden my strike inside the US. Did this briefing have such information? According to this story it did. And why does she keep saying this when the Aug 6th memo to the President clearly indicates that Bin Laden was attempting to strike in the US?
3) Did Rumsfeld and Ashcroft get the same briefing, as Sec. Rice says?
4) What specific actions did the President and National Security Advisor take upon receiving this urgent briefing on July 10th, a full two months before 9/11?
5) Isn't it now clear that Bush and his team were amply warned about the impending attacks throughout the summer and did nothing? And that the Secretary of State is simply lying about a grave and serious security matter to cover her ass?
My own belief is that the Sec. Rice's response to these matters is so insulting, full of lies and ass-covering that she must resign. Her credibility is now completely shot, as it is clear that she has been leading a cover up of information critical to our understanding of how this nation suffered a major attack, and the role she and the President played in ignoring important warnings that it was coming. She can no longer be trusted to do what is right, only what is expedient for her and the President. And in a time as challenging as these times, that is not acceptable.
- Simon Rosenberg's blog
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