The paramount duty of a government is to protect its citizenry. There can be no higher priority than the "safety" of the people. This principle is self evident. Our founding fathers listed the right to life as the first inalienable right. Nothing is more cherished or important than life and no loss can be greater.
During the 9/11 hearings, Commissioners and witnesses, repeatedly referred to the period of threat before 9/11 as "the summer of threat." This pre-9/11 period was characterized as the "highest level of threats in American history." And one Democratic senator on the committee told reporters that that a July warning – the one noting a "spectacular" attack loomed – had indeed gone to senior White House officials and the president.
Based upon, the evidence produced at the 9/11 hearings, it was abundantly clear that the US was facing a serious, substantial, large and imminent attack from terrorists. According to Tenet and Clarke, the President received daily reports on the terror threat and the "urgency" of the threats was repeatedly stressed.
Although the argument is repeatedly made that hindsight is 20/20, this argument does not justify a failure to sufficiently react to what the Bush administration actually knew at a level commensurate to the potential threat of harm. The issue is not so much of one in not being able to connect the dots, it is one that centers around the neglect to react to the giant dots that were clearly before those responsible for our safety.
It is a giant dot that the CIA and the Administrations leading counterterrorism expert expressed "urgency" about the matter. After months of attempting to convey the "urgency," on September 4, 2001, Clarke sent Rice a written statement. Clarke said that when hundreds of American bodies are laying around you will question whether there was anything else that could have been done.
So, the general threat of terrorism to Americans in America, alone, required at least minimal reaction, if not the utmost care. Again, we are talking about an "urgent" matter involving "highest level of threats in American history." However, Bush was presented with much more specifics. There were Presidential Daily Briefings (PDB). According to 9/11 Commissioner Jamie S. Gorelick, the titles of the PDBs alone were alarming. One specifically, referred to bin Laden and the use of planes as missiles.
On August 6, 2001, over a month before 9/11, during the "summer of threat," President Bush received a PDB at his Crawford, Texas ranch indicating that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. The memo was entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US", and the entire 11 page memo focuses on the possibility of terrorist attacks inside the US.
The complete contents have never been made public and Bush has fought to keep the matter out of the public record. However, a Congressional report later describes it: it mentions "that members of al-Qaeda, including some US citizens, had resided in or traveled to the US for years and that the group apparently maintained a support structure here.
The report cited uncorroborated information obtained in 1998 that Osama bin Laden wanted to hijack airplanes to gain the release of US-held extremists; FBI judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks and the number of bin Laden-related investigations underway; as well as information acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of bin Laden supporters was planning attacks in the US with explosives."
On July 6th, there was a meeting between Rice and Andrew Card wherein concern was expressed the terrorists were taking flight training. There was a warning in a report to Rice by Clarke that terrorist cells were in the US.
These are great dots placed squarely before Bush. These warnings alone would require a "shaking of the trees" and "battle station" readiness.
According to a May 25, 2002 New York Times article, after receiving the August 6, 2002 PDB about bin Laden and attacks upon America, incredibly, Bush "broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing." Also, Bush took a one month vacation during the period of the "summer of threat." This may support Clarke accusations that the Bush administration did not consider the matter "urgent."
On May 16, 2002, Rice held a press briefing; she insisted that no one could have envisioned the events of September 11. “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people…would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile,”