Worst Bush Moments: #2, "You've Covered Your Ass"

I don’t blame George W. Bush for 9/11. Well, not directly. That day was the result of a plot by evil men, bent on sowing destruction and chaos and murder. Our reaction to 9/11 — that I have plenty of problems with, given that we decided to give in to fear, just like the murderous thugs wanted us to.  But 9/11 itself? That’s the fault of the terrorists.

Could 9/11 have been prevented? Maybe, maybe not. Hindsight is 20/20, and it’s easy to see, in retrospect, the many things we missed in the run-up to the attacks. But if there was one thing, one moment, when the United States might have gone to a higher level of alert, it came on August 6, 2001, when a briefer gave the President of the United States a briefing entitled, “Bin Ladin determined to strike in U.S.”

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [redacted] service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an [redacted] service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

[…]

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [–] service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The President received this sobering information at his Crawford ranch, while on vacation. Did he spring into action? Make a phone call? Ask a question? Nope. Instead, he told the briefer, “Well, you’ve covered your ass,” and moved on.

Had Bush displayed more curiosity, it may not have mattered; the terrorists may well have succeeded anyhow. Tragically, we’ll never know. But we do know this: any time Bush tells us that he’s kept us safe “since 9/11” (which is, itself, a lie), remember that Bush had the chance to keep us safe before 9/11, and chose not to. He may not have succeeded. But he didn’t even try. And that is, quite simply, unforgivable.