Bush Vacationed in Summer of 2001, While Americans Were Threatened Before Massive 9/11 Attacks

by Eric Jaffa

April 17, 2004

Bush has spent 40% of his Presidency on vacation. He was vacationing when he was sent a document titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." on August 6, 2001. He relaxed at golf the next day and stayed on vacation for weeks. His 2001 summer vacation went from August 4 to August 31.

Recently, during his April 13, 2004 press conference, Bush said he didn't do more because the warning was "mainly history."

What if Bush were a sheriff, and he were faxed that an escaped mass murderer was believed to be in his county, and the fax included a long list of violent crimes the murderer had committed over the years?

Sheriff Bush would say, "No need to shorten my vacation. The golf courses are green and the fish are biting. Besides, this is mainly history."

Of course, we don't know if when Bush received that Presidential Daily Briefing, he considered it "mainly history," or if at the time he considered it a warning for others to deal with, but not significant enough for him to return to Washington to lead the way on.

Bush may just be giving us "revisionist history" (a phrase he tosses at anyone who criticizes him for starting the Iraq War) in how he characterizes that Presidentail Daily Briefing. The Bush Administration has done plenty of "revisionist history." First CIA Director George Tenet said a CIA analyst had initiated the study which went into the "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" report. Then Tenet changed his story to say Bush had asked for it, in an attempt to make Bush look engaged.

As Bush continued his vacation, he didn't tell the people who needed to know about the threat of hijackings in that report.

"Secretary [Norman] Mineta, the secretary of transportation, had no idea of the threat. The administrator of the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], responsible for security on our airlines, had no idea. Yes, the attorney general was briefed, but there was no evidence of any activity by him about this," Jamie Gorelick, a Democratic commissioner, told Ms Rice.

"You indicate in your statement that the FBI tasked its field offices to find out what was going on out there. We have no record of that. The Washington field office international terrorism people say they never heard about the threat, they never heard about the warnings, they were not asked to come to the table and shake those trees. SACs, special agents in charge, around the country - Miami in particular - had no knowledge of this."

There are other things Bush could have done about warnings about hijackings by people determined to kill as many Americans as possible.

Bush could have ordered the arrest of Al Quada members being watched by the FBI. Bush also could have given the FAA the names of Al Quaeda members and told the FAA not to let them fly.

The FBI only had five officers whose fulltime job it was to address Al Quaeda as of the morning of September 11, 2001. If Bush had heeded warnings given to him during the Presidentail transition and thereafter, from Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke, he would have put a lot more FBI officers on Al Quaeda's trail.

No one knows if Al Gore would have prevented the Septermber 11 attacks, had Gore been allowed to take the office of President.

(The 2000 election was rigged in favor of George W. Bush by the Florida administration of Governor Jeb Bush, which purged thousands of legal voters from the rolls before the 2000 election).

But at least Al Gore would have tried. Gore wouldn't have been on vacation 40% of the time.