[revised] The National Security Archive has put Richard Clarke's prophetic memo about Al Qaeda and terrorism (January 25, 2001) (pdf) online. Also note the very important attachments.
The significance of these memos is that they contradict the claim made by Dr. Condoleezza Rice and others, that the Clinton administration did not leave a plan behind to confront Al Qaeda…although you do have to wonder why they waited so long themselves.
Note that the memo itself is addressed to….Condoleezza Rice.
Dozens of warnings preceded 9/11.
Kinda would have been nice if this had leaked before the election.
I think this is what passes for reality-based thinking in the White House:
“The Post: Why do you think [Osama] bin Laden has not been caught?
“THE PRESIDENT: Because he's hiding.”
This would be the new CIA Director's version of high-quality intelligence briefing?
There is NO connection at all between the following two stories:
#1
TalkLeft: Nat'l Guard May Return to FL Airports
Florida's National Guard patrolled Florida's airport terminals for a few months after 9/11. Now the National Guard troops have received “warning orders” advising them that they may return to that duty later this month.
“Several law-enforcement officials said there is no specific threat to Florida.” So why return the troops to the airports after nearly a three year absence? A cynic might suspect that the administration is trying to scare voters, or that it wants to create the illusion that the government is working to protect voters from a specific threat.
and, #2,
First Draft, Manipulating the Public through Terror Warnings: Empirical Evidence,
Noting that a study shows that, “When the federal government issues a terrorist warning, presidential approval ratings jump, a Cornell University sociologist finds. Interestingly, terrorist warnings also boost support for the president on issues that are largely irrelevant to terrorism, such as his handling of the economy.”
Matthew Yglesias: 75 Percent Of What catches Condi Rice floundering when asked how many al-Qaeda people are being counted as “leaders” when Bush et. al say they have captured or killed '75 percent of the al-Qaeda known leadership' . Given the vagueness of her answer, which appears due to total ignorance as to either the real facts or how this factoid was concocted, Matt Yglesias concludes “they could mean as few as eight people.”
For the families, friends and neighbors of the victims, 9/11 has one special evil aftermath that can never be erased and redeemed, one that the rest of us fortunately can share only at a remove. The 9/11 plane hijacks and crashings were acts of terror, the modern piracy. They were an offense against humanity and the law of nations, and it was right to seek out the guilty in Afghanistan and elsewhere where we had reason to believe they lurked—a category to which Iraq had never at any relevant time belonged prior to the US-led invasion; whether our invasion has turned Iraq into a international terrorist haven is less clear.
For all of us, 9/11 has a second subtler and yet also evil aftermath—one that was and is avoidable: the making of scapegoats, the punishment and torture of the innocent, the national turn towards fear, suspicion, paranoia, encouraged by politicians with a firmer grasp of self-interest than of the national interest. Where are the leaders who understand that the corrupting effect of fear is more to be feared than those relatively puny forces who try to make us fear them?
9/11 fostered a policy climate, or became an excuse to create a policy climate, that lost any interest in compliance with international law when inconvenient. It remains an excuse invoked to justify domestic policing characterized by increased elements of 'security theater', and unleashed police brutality. This involves disdain for niceties of human rights and even human decency both abroad (Abu Ghraib) and at home (Padilla, Hamdi and many other illegal detentions). Some of the hardest hit at home are immigrants, not all of them in full compliance with visa requirements and thus in some cases not total innocents or totally blameless, but none deserving to become unpersons, or to be shackled for months in solitary confinement without access to counsel.
By scaring the gutless — including notably our leaders — into the abandonment of some of our core ideals, the 9/11 terrorists scored an infinitely more damaging and potentially lasting victory than just one day of mass murder.
Think I am overdoing it? Read the news. Or if you can't read the news, watch the pictures.
Jotwell Blenderlaw