A point-by-point analysis of how one of America's top national security officials has a severe problem with the truth
March 26, 2004
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Pre-9/11 Intelligence
CLAIM: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try
to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." –
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 5/16/02
FACT: On August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half
page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike
against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American
airplane." In July 2001, the Administration was also told that terrorists
had explored using airplanes as missiles. [Source: NBC, 9/10/02; LA Times, 9/27/01]
CLAIM: In May 2002, Rice held a press conference to defend the Administration
from new revelations that the President had been explicitly warned about an
al Qaeda threat to airlines in August 2001. She "suggested that Bush had
requested the briefing because of his keen concern about elevated terrorist
threat levels that summer." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]
FACT: According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President
Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed
the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from
Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA."
[Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]
CLAIM: "In June and July when the threat spikes were so high…we were
at battle stations." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,
3/22/04
FACT: "Documents indicate that before Sept. 11, Ashcroft did not give terrorism
top billing in his strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes
the FBI. A draft of Ashcroft's 'Strategic Plan' from Aug. 9, 2001, does not
put fighting terrorism as one of the department's seven goals, ranking it as
a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. By contrast, in April 2000, Ashcroft's
predecessor, Janet Reno, called terrorism 'the most challenging threat in the
criminal justice area.'" Meanwhile, the Bush Administration decided to
terminate "a highly classified program to monitor Al Qaeda suspects in
the United States." [Source: Washington Post, 3/22/04; Newsweek, 3/21/04]
CLAIM: "The fact of the matter is [that] the administration focused on
this before 9/11." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: President Bush and Vice President Cheney's counterterrorism task force,
which was created in May, never convened one single meeting. The President himself
admitted that "I didn't feel the sense of urgency" about terrorism
before 9/11. [Source: Washington Post, 1/20/02; Bob Woodward's "Bush at
War"]
CLAIM: "Our [pre-9/11 NSPD] plan called for military options to attack
al Qaeda and Taliban leadership, ground forces and other targets -- taking the
fight to the enemy where he lived." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: 9/11 Commissioner Gorelick: "There is nothing in the NSPD that came
out that we could find that had an invasion plan, a military plan." Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage: "Right." Gorelick: "Is it
true, as Dr. Rice said, 'Our plan called for military options to attack Al Qaida
and Taliban leadership'?" Armitage: "No, I think that was amended
after the horror of 9/11." [Source: 9/11 Commission testimony, 3/24/04]
Condi Rice on Pre-9/11 Counterterrorism Funding
CLAIM: "The president increased counterterrorism funding several-fold"
before 9/11. – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/24/04
FACT: According to internal government documents, the first full Bush budget
for FY2003 "did not endorse F.B.I. requests for $58 million for 149 new
counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators"
and "proposed a $65 million cut for the program that gives state and local
counterterrorism grants." Newsweek noted the Administration "vetoed
a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism."
[Source: New York Times, 2/28/04; Newsweek, 5/27/02]
Richard Clarke's Concerns
CLAIM: "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration
that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he
chose not to." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: Clarke sent a memo to Rice principals on 1/24/01 marked "urgent"
asking for a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with an impending al Qaeda attack.
The White House acknowledges this, but says "principals did not need to
have a formal meeting to discuss the threat." No meeting occurred until
one week before 9/11. [Source: CBS 60 Minutes, 3/24/04; White House Press Release,
3/21/04
CLAIM: "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration."
– National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: "On January 25th, 2001, Clarke forwarded his December 2000 strategy
paper and a copy of his 1998 Delenda plan to the new national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice." – 9/11 Commission staff report, 3/24/04
Response to 9/11
CLAIM: "The president launched an aggressive response after 9/11."
– National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: "In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White
House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds
by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows. The papers show
that Ashcroft ranked counterterrorism efforts as a lower priority than his predecessor
did, and that he resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding before
and immediately after the attacks." [Source: Washington Post, 3/22/04]
9/11 and Iraq Invasion Plans
CLAIM: "Not a single National Security Council principal at that meeting
recommended to the president going after Iraq. The president thought about it.
The next day he told me Iraq is to the side." – National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: According to the Washington Post, "six days after the attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush signed a 2-and-a-half-page
document marked 'TOP SECRET'" that "directed the Pentagon to begin
planning military options for an invasion of Iraq." This is corroborated
by a CBS News, which reported on 9/4/02 that five hours after the 9/11 attacks,
"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with
plans for striking Iraq." [Source: Washington Post, 1/12/03. CBS News,
9/4/02]
Iraq and WMD
CLAIM: "It's not as if anybody believes that Saddam Hussein was without
weapons of mass destruction." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, 3/18/04
FACT: The Bush Administration's top weapons inspector David Kay "resigned
his post in January, saying he did not believe banned stockpiles existed before
the invasion" and has urged the Bush Administration to "come clean"
about misleading America about the WMD threat. [Source: Chicago Tribune, 3/24/04;
UK Guardian, 3/3/04]
9/11-al Qaeda-Iraq Link
CLAIM: "The president returned to the White House and called me in and
said, I've learned from George Tenet that there is no evidence of a link between
Saddam Hussein and 9/11." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: If this is true, then why did the President and Vice President repeatedly
claim Saddam Hussein was directly connected to 9/11? President Bush sent a letter
to Congress on 3/19/03 saying that the Iraq war was permitted specifically under
legislation that authorized force against "nations, organizations, or persons
who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred
on September 11." Similarly, Vice President Cheney said on 9/14/03 that
"It is not surprising that people make that connection" between Iraq
and the 9/11 attacks, and said "we don't know" if there is a connection.
[Source: BBC, 9/14/03]
