PDB PDF
Sometimes I'll watch the Fox News Network - because they're fun in a goofy, gung-ho way - and today they had a panel awaiting the White House's PDF file of the August 6th, 2001 President's Daily Briefing which came up in the 911 Commission hearings.

The panel included a woman who reminded me of a go-go, chubby sorority gal, a charming, nerdy, young Republican/national security expert guy, and, alas, Geraldo Rivera. The fake-looking-in-a-TV-news-anchor-way moderator let the audience know that he'd read the page and half PDB as soon as the PDF hit his monitor, which would be any minute. So everyone was speculating on its contents, except for Geraldo who was pontificating in dramatic fashion. All the while old glory flies up in the corner of tube.

Mr. young Republican made an interesting point which I had heard before. The "muscle" of the group that hijacked the planes weren't aware they were on a suicide mission according to a captured al-Qaida heavy. There may be other sources for that, I don't know. So, obviously only a very few people knew what was coming.

Still, as Ms. chubby, sorority gal pointed out, mistakes were made which is why the 911 Commission was a good idea however partisan it becomes. The moderator receives the PDF and reads it out loud. Apparently, Bush, who was aware of al-Qaida's numerous attacks overseas, wanted a briefing on a possible attack on the "homeland." The PDB said "Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US.'' Bin Laden implied in U.S. 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.'' Al-Qaida members, some of them American citizens, had lived in or traveled to the United States for years, the memo said. Also, bin Laden wanted to retaliate for Clinton's attempt to assassinate him with cruise missiles in 1998.

So, something was coming and National Security Advisor Rice told the 911 Commission that protecting "the homeland" from al-Qaida was delegated to the FBI. (They were "tasked" with it. The Democratic Commissioners argued there are no records of the FBI being "tasked.") The CIA was following foreign leads. She was working on a plan to get Pakistan to crack down on Afghanistan, al-Qaida's base. It seems to me the fault lies with both the Clinton and Bush administrations, specifically and obviously the National Security Apparatus in both, for not gauging the severity of the coming threat.

Later, I caught The McGlaughlin Group on PBS. The wonderful James Warren of the Chicago Tribune happened to be on and said he didn't think the PDB/Condi vs. Richard Clarke drama would register with people outside the Beltway. Who they'll vote for will depend on the state of the economy and Iraq.

Perhaps Attorney General John Aschroft, who testifies next week, will get the axe over this. That would be great if they dumped the Christian Right's guy because of some right-wing Islamic nutjobs.