Until this evening when I stumbled upon
this thread, I thought the following:
Osama Bin Laden and his men planned and
carried out the attacks.
Our government knew about it but it happen
anyway.
I formed the latter opinion after watching
the hearings and Condi Rice's testimony
about intelligence reports the gov't rec'd
right before 9/11.:
Testimony
RICE: Thank you very much. And now I'm
happy to take your questions.
KEAN:
And yet, you walk in (during the
transition from the Clinton presidency to
Bush) and Dick Clarke is talking about al
Qaeda should be our number-one priority.
Sandy Berger tells you you'll be spending
more time on that than anything else.
What did you think, and what did you tell
the president, as you get that kind of, I
suppose, new information for you?
RICE: Well, in fact, Mr. Chairman, it was
not new information. I think we all knew
about the 1998 bombings. We knew that
there was speculation that the 2000 Cole
attack was al Qaeda. There had been, I
think, documentaries about Osama bin
Laden.
I, myself, had written for an introduction
to a volume on bioterrorism done at
Sanford that I thought that we wanted not
to wake up one day and find that Osama bin
Laden had succeeded
on our soil.
It was on the radar screen of any person
who studied or worked in the international
security field.
KEAN: I've got a question now I'd like to
ask you. It was given to me by a number of
members of the families.
Did you ever see or hear from the FBI,
from the CIA, from any other intelligence
agency, any memos or discussions or
anything else between the time you got
into office and 9/11 that talked about
using planes as bombs?
RICE: Let me address this question because
it has been on the table.
I think that concern about what I might
have known or we might have known was
provoked by some statements that I made in
a press conference. I was in a press
conference to try and describe the August
6 memo, which I've talked about here in my
opening remarks and which I talked about
with you in the private session.
And I said, at one point, that this was a
historical memo, that it was -- it was not
based on new threat information. And I
said,
"No
one could have imagined them taking a
plane, slamming it into the Pentagon" --
I'm paraphrasing now -- "into the World
Trade Center, using planes as a
missile."
As I said to you in the private session, I
probably should have said, "I could not
have imagined," because
within two
days, people started to come to me and
say, "Oh, but there were these reports in
1998 and 1999. The intelligence community
did look at information about
this."
BEN-VENISTE: You acknowledged to us in
your interview of February 7, 2004, that
Richard Clarke told you that al Qaeda
cells were in the United States.
BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president,
at any time prior to August 6, of the
existence of al Qaeda cells in the United
States?
RICE: First, let me just make certain...
BEN-VENISTE: If you could just answer that
question, because I only have a very
limited...
RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but it's
important...
BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the
president...
RICE: ... that I also address...
It's also important that, Commissioner,
that I address the other issues that you
have raised. So I will do it quickly, but
if you'll just give me a moment.
BEN-VENISTE: Well, my only question to you
is whether you...
RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but I
will...
BEN-VENISTE: ... told the president.
RICE: If you'll just give me a moment, I
will address fully the questions that
you've asked.
First of all, yes, the August 6 PDB was in
response to questions of the president --
and that since he asked that this be done.
It was not a particular threat report. And
there was historical information in there
about various aspects of al Qaeda's
operations.
Dick Clarke had told me, I think in a
memorandum -- I remember it as being only
a line or two -- that there were al Qaeda
cells in the United States.
Now, the question is, what did we need to
do about that?
And I also understood that that was what
the FBI was doing, that the FBI was
pursuing these al Qaeda cells. I believe
in the August 6 memorandum it says that
there were 70 full field investigations
under way of these cells. And so there was
no recommendation that we do something
about this; the FBI was pursuing it. I
really don't remember, Commissioner,
whether I discussed this with the
president.
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
RICE: I remember very well that the
president was aware that there were issues
inside the United States. He talked to
people about this. But I don't remember
the al Qaeda cells as being something that
we were told we needed to do something
about.
BEN-VENISTE:
Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the
August 6 PDB warned against possible
attacks in this country? And I ask you
whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden
Determined to Attack Inside the United
States."
Now, the...
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
This evening I watched the video called In
Plane Sight )or site?). Now I am not sure
about much of it.
