----- Original Message ----- From: "JDG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 8:01 PM Subject: High-Level Meetings Re: Bush wanted more specifics
> So Clarke couldn't call a meeting of the principals to consider his >ideas, as he desperately wanted. But the deputies met seven times between >April and September 10 on the issue of terrorism. As Clarke himself admits, >when the principals took up the proposed anti-al-Qaeda strategy on >September 4, they quickly approved the plan. This was partly because the >issues had already been worked thoroughly by the deputies - exactly the >process that so outrages Clarke. There is no arguement that there was little difference between policy meetings on what to do on a worldwide strategy level between the Clinton White House and the Bush White House. I have no problem with that. The real difference was in how they handled times of high security alert. Reno gave a passionate description of the regular meetings of the principals trying to ferret out enough information to stop the millenium plot. The top people pushed hard to get the information needed to stop the plot. In contrast, we have the interum head of the FBI at the time saying <quote> A second report said Pickard had briefed Ashcroft on terrorist threats in late June and July 2001. ASHCROFT 'DID NOT WANT TO HEAR' "After two such briefings, the attorney general told him he did not want to hear this information anymore," the report quoted Pickard as saying. <end quote> Now Ashcroft and his aids deny this. But, either the FBI director is committing perjury, or Ashcroft gave him the impression that he was not interested in the details on terrorism. Now, I'll allow a situation where Ashcroft said something that he intended as a weaker denial of interest than this, and that Pickard gave a bit of an overread, but I have a very hard time accepting the idea that Ashcroft believed that the US was at high risk and was intent on stopping an expected terrorism attack. This is the contrast that is critical. Its not the willingness to invade Afghanistan to get AQ. It is the interest in expending effort to defend the US. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
