So When Will President Bush `Cut and Run'?

So When Will President Bush `Cut and Run'?
Margaret Carlson
Bloomberg
June 22, 2006

...Before the congressional Republicans insult those looking for a course correction in Iraq, they should read the latest book in the growing body of literature on the Iraqi war, ``The One Percent Doctrine,'' by Ron Suskind, author of an earlier book in which Bush's first Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, said the administration was set on invading Iraq long before it stumbled onto the idea of yoking Saddam Hussein to 9/11.

Suskind starts by rewinding to that moment, when if attention had been paid, 9/11 might have been stopped. The opening anecdote puts a lie -- yet again -- to the oft-repeated claim that no one could have imagined al-Qaeda launching an attack domestically.

Bush Is Briefed

A CIA analyst told Suskind of flying to Crawford, Texas, during Bush's month-long vacation to brief him personally on the Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled ``Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S,'' a memo prepared when there had been increasing intelligence traffic about an impending terrorist attack. After listening, Bush dismissed the staffer, saying, ``All right. You've covered your ass, now.''

When you hate government, everyone in it is an ass-covering, dreck-producing bureaucrat. Bush returned to his mountain bike. No one pushed the urgency of tracking al-Qaeda traffic. Tapes of operatives discussing a possible 9/11 attack sat in the in-box of the National Security Agency, untranslated until after the attack.....