AN EASTER BUSHISM….President Bush this morning: the August 6 PDB said “nothing about an attack on America.”
Huh? How about the title, “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US”?
How about “After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington”?
How about “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”?
How about “The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related”?
Look, I know there’s a perfectly good case to be made that the PDB merely states generalities and doesn’t warn of a specific, impending attack. That’s fine as far as it goes, and it’s the spin I’d expect the White House to put on it.
But “nothing about an attack on America”? The whole document was about al-Qaeda’s desire to attack America. How does he get away with saying stuff like this?
UPDATE: By the way, my guess is that the entire reason the White House has been so reluctant to release the PDB can be summed up in two words: “New York.” The fact that the document specifically talks about al-Qaeda interest in “buildings in New York” probably hit a little too close to home for comfort.
