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Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Memo

by Last Night in Little Rock

Editor and Publisher reports today that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is in the photograph of the infamous August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, and it was on the front page of yesterday's NY Times without a specific date.

E&P also reports the conflicting nature of how news outlets played the picture. AP sent it out with the correct date, and many papers apparently did not appreciate the date or the photograph. The Times downplayed the omission of the date as lacking significance. HA!

On its front page Tuesday, The New York Times published a photo of new U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers going over a briefing paper with President George W. Bush at his Crawford ranch “in August 2001,” the caption reads.

USA Today and the Boston Globe carried the photo labeled simply “2001,” but many other newspapers ran the picture in print or on the Web with a more precise date: Aug. 6, 2001.

Does that date sound familiar? Indeed, that was the date, a little over a month before 9/11, that President Bush was briefed on the now-famous “PDB” that declared that Osama Bin Laden was “determined” to attack the U.S. homeland, perhaps with hijacked planes. But does that mean that Miers had anything to do with that briefing?

As it turns out, yes, according to Tuesday's Los Angeles Times. An article by Richard A. Serrano and Scott Gold observes that early in the Bush presidency “Miers assumed such an insider role that in 2001 it was she who handed Bush the crucial 'presidential daily briefing' hinting at terrorist plots against America just a month before the Sept. 11 attacks.”

So the Aug. 6 photo may show this historic moment, though quite possibly not. In any case, some newspapers failed to include the exact date with the widely used Miers photo today. A New York Times spokesman told E&P: "The wording of the caption occurred in the course of routine editing and has no broader significance."

Today, Bush is defending this nominee as the "most qualified he could find," or words to that effect. All that tell us is that he did not look very hard.

What is unfathomable to me is that yet another insider with foreknowledge of the September 11th terrorist attack, who did nothing to protect the country, is promoted or rewarded. Yet, anybody who points out any foreknowledge in the Administration is "swift-boated" by the Right.

Can we be so lucky that her comfirmation hearing turns into a mini-9/11 Commission and, to take a phrase Senator Baker from the 1973 Watergate hearings, "what did the President know and when did he know it?" about Bin Laden's plans for New York City? Perhaps better phrased would be "what did the President know and why did he act so unconcerned?" Or, "What did the President not know and why if it was in his hand? Can he not read?" "What did you know and what did you tell the President?" "Why was the decision made (or not made) to do nothing with this important information?"

Tenet gets a medal, but Miers gets a lifetime appointment. I think I want to gag.

Executive Privilege appears to me to have been waived merely by her nomination. Now, get in there, Senate Judiciary Committee, and find out what she was doing to protect the country as "the best he could find." Remember that so was Michael Brown. A lifetime appointment to one of the most powerful positions in government for a Presidential cover-up artist?

If that qualifies one for the Supreme Court, then the entire Watergate gang could have been appointed. If they were, then United States v. Nixon could have been fixed. (Rehnquist did not participate in Nixon's case, to his credit. Too bad Scalia and Thomas lack Rehnquist's scruples.)

< Resisting Charges Against Cornell Protestors Dismissed | Miers: The Ultimate Faith-Based Nomination >
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    i wish someone would consider the possibility of bush and cheny's involvement in the plamegate affair.Bush is setting up the supreme court in his favor with his deciding judges ,roberts and Meirs to vote in his favor and keep him from being kicked out of office.I have seen this posted many times on the web.Any possibility of this?

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    slick-Fitzgerald may be your man. We'll see.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    Last Night - Please. So she handed the President a copy of the 8/6 PDB... and that is of interest as to her qualifications???? I am LOL.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#4)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    Sept. 11 was not the first time al qaeda hit the wtc. anyone remember 1993? there was intel before 2001 that indicated their involvement. They probably should have had an idea that b-l would be trying to take them down.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#5)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    Jim, Are you saying that if you handed Bush that fateful memo and then said nothing while he shrugged it off and played video games, you wouldn't feel guilty five days later? Explain.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#6)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    scar - Explain? Explain what? Guilty? About what? Details, scar, details. Like, OBL is going to attack? We knew that for years. The only problem was, when, where and what would they use? You know, when I read a comment like your comment to me I just fall down laughing. You've got to be trying to confuse us. You have to be smarter than that.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#7)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    PPJ, as you know, the problem is that Bush may well have known more specifically what the threat was. It appears the Pentagon knew more than it wants the public to know.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#8)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    Al - If and buts and candy and nuts. And as long as we are speculating, why did the Clinton Pentagon lwayers keep AbleDanger from talking to the FBI? What did Clinton know, and when did he know it? It looks mighty fishy to me.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    Al - Just read your link. Evidently KOS doesn't know that Clinton was Pres a year before 9/11...

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#10)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:40 PM EST
    The only problem was, when, where and what would they use?
    Considering past history, they would hit the WTC. Considering Richard Clarke's info (ya'll remember, the guy who was demoted for being right) it would be soon. According to other briefing memos it would be by hijacked aircraft. Clinton and transition crew did everything they could to alert bush and bushco to this possibility. Bush's reaction? He went on one of his many long vacations. It was miers job, along with rice's, to ensure that the pResident read, understood and took action on these memos. Of course in bushco the messenger of bad news is shot, the bushlickers are promoted and rewarded. BTW, if terrorists had blown up the levees, would fema have acted any quicker or better? Would the rnc remoras had a different POV?

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#11)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:42 PM EST
    Jim, if someone presented you with a human ear you would snort and claim chimpanzee... for you, this comment is pure gold. No-one can make a silk purse out of a sows a$$ quite like you... (see: every comment neocon Jim has made about Bushco...)

    Posted by Jim: "If and buts and candy and nuts. And as long as we are speculating," Hey, let's not speculate, Jim. LET'S HOLD AN INVESTIGATION into the PDB and how the Bush admin used Nine-eleven and a series of lies to promote their Iraq invasion. The Nine-eleven Commission was barred from studying that issue. So for you to pretend that it's just speculation ignores the obvious motives of the Bushies, and the obvious refusal to be investigated for glaring irregularities. Clinton handed Bush a complete attack plan on Al Qaeda. Strange democratic-government-supporting guy that he was, he thought that it would be best not to hand the new incoming president a military crisis -- like Bush's father did to Clinton with Somalia. Clinton emphasized the crucial importance of attacking, and handed him a full-fledged plan on how. Bush ignored it; as he ignored several offers by the Pentagon and CIA to kill Zarkawi -- because it would interfere with the justification for attacking Iraq. The Congressional Terrorism Report was given to Bush when he came in, and it ended up in a drawer, unread. Bush took a five week vacation, failing to alert the airlines or beef us the fighter wing that protects our most vital and endangered regions. On that day, BushNORAD BushFEMA'd. Oops. Yeah, we'll send some fighters out there in a few days. We're having a nap! (What, you're drowning? Too bad...don't you have a car?)(A plane hit the building, the fire is coming -- JUMP!)(There is no one to answer your call. Please call 1-TOO-BAD-DUDE, and leave a message.)

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#13)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:42 PM EST
    Jim says:
    You've got to be trying to confuse us. You have to be smarter than that. And as long as we are speculating... What did Clinton know, and when did he know it?
    Jim, there is no "us" here that includes you. There is simply you trolling, and there is everyone else. There is also no "We" here that includes you. There is simply everyone else here questioning to shine light on this situation. And there is you, trolling. This topic of this thread is what did Bush know, and when, what did Miers know, and when, and did they both have foreknowledge of the September 11th terrorist attack, [and do] nothing to protect the country[?]. It couldn't be, by any chance, that "You've got to be trying to confuse us", would it? Have a nice day, Jim. Oh, and BTW, how's the foot, Jim?

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:42 PM EST
    Sailor, PIL, Johnny, et al: The problem with you claims is that they don't hold water.
    And here's the note that (Clarke) Dick wrote to me on September 15th:(2001) "When the era of national unity begins to crack in the near future, it is possible that some will start asking questions like, did the White House do a good job of making sure that intelligence about terrorist threats got to the FAA and other domestic law enforcement authorities, as the attached paper, which was sent to you in July, and the e-mail, also July, note, in late June the Interagency Counterterrorism Security Group,which I chair, warned of an upcoming, spectacular al Qaeda attack that would be qualitatively different. We convened on 5 July a special meeting of domestic federal law enforcement agencies because we could not rule out the possibility that the attack would be in the U.S." In fact, that was the meeting that we asked him to convene. "At the special meeting on July 5 (2001) were the FBI, Secret Service, FAA, Customs, Coast Guard, and Immigration. We told them that we thought a spectacular al Qaeda terrorist attack was coming in the near future." That had been had been George Tenet's language. "We asked that they take special measures to increase security and surveillance. Thus, the White House did ensure that domestic law enforcement including the FAA knew that the CSG believed that a major al Qaeda attack was coming, and it could be in the U.S., and did ask that special measures be taken."
    Link And then there is in Clarke's own words:
    JIM ANGLE: You're saying that the Bush administration did not stop anything that the Clinton administration was doing while it was making these decisions, and by the end of the summer had increased money for covert action five-fold. Is that correct? CLARKE: All of that's correct.
    Interview Isn't the Internet wonderful? PIL - No one but the 911 Commission staff itself didn't include AbleDanger. And that was because they figured out, unlike you, that AbleDanger was blocked from going to the FBI a year before by the Pentagon's lawyers in 2000. And that was during Clinton's admin. There was also the small matter of this action being laid at the feet of Jamie Gorelick's chinese firewall memo. Find another straw horse, PIL. This one is broken down.

    Re: Miers In On 8/6/01 "Briefing" on Bin Laden Mem (none / 0) (#15)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:42 PM EST
    edger - The topic clearly includes the PDB briefing, which is an attempt to open up and re-attack Bush, and include Miers in the attack. My inital comment merely pointed that out. The attacks then came from the Left. BTW - Unlike you, I have provide two links on the subject. One from (then) NSA Rice, who reads from a Clarke memo. One from an interview with Clarke. Got any facts, edger? Didn't think so. BTW - You aren't the editor. BTW - I'm the guy at the back of the room grinning at you. There is always one at every presentation, eh? Just waiting. Be careful edger, he'll trap you.