A couple hours after my post on Condi Rice, the White House released the Aug. 6, 2001, PDB. Here’s a copy in Adobe format.
No doubt the vast majority of it is historical in nature. But how Rice can consider “historical” this statement: FBI information “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.” Or this one: “CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.”
Some minor points. First, am I the only one struck by the amateurish appearance of a presidential briefing document? (Or that page 2 looks like a cut-and-paste job?) Second, is it coincidence it was released just in time for the newscasts on the Saturday night before Easter? I know Friday releases for the Saturday a.m. news cycles have been a “tradition” of this administration but certainly this timing doesn’t hurt.
Frankly, I don’t think 9-11 was preventable. But at least the media focus on this PDB shines a small light on the administration’s never-ending pattern of deception.
