SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY PRE 9/11 INTELLIGENCE

APRIL 12, 2004

SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
PRE 9/11 INTELLIGENCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued today's "Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day" on pre 9/11 intelligence.

Yesterday, President Bush spoke publicly about the recently declassified August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

President Bush "defended the adequacy of his response to the warnings that terrorists in the United States might be planning hijackings." (New York Times, 4/12/04)

However, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said yesterday during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press:

"Should it [PDB] have raised more of an alarm bell? I think in hindsight, that's probably true."

However, the PDB".cited evidence of active Qaeda cells in the United States, as well as reports that members of the terrorist organization had conducted recent surveillance of a federal building in Manhattan and could be preparing to stage hijackings. The briefing cited threats logged as recently as May 2001." (New York Times, 4/12/04)

In response to President Bush's public comments following the release of the 8/6/01 PDB, The New York Times published an editorial titled "The Silent President." It reads in part:

The most striking thing about the president's comment, however, was his bottom line: that he did everything he could. Over the last few weeks we have heard lawmakers and officials from two administrations talk about their feelings of responsibility, about how they compulsively re-examine the events leading up to 9/ll, asking themselves whether they could have done anything to avert the terrible disaster that day. It is beginning to seem that the only person free of that kind of self-examination is the man who was chief executive when the attacks occurred.