We all know about the August 5, 2001
Presidential Daily Briefing that was titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S." However there were 40 warnings about Bin Laden and Al Qaeda from January, 2001, when Bush became the President, to the 9/11 attacks seven months later, according the new book "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation". President Bush and National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice chose to ignore them all! They didn't hold one high-level meeting about this overwhelming threat!
The President is briefed (Presidential Daily Briefing - PDB) verbally and in writing each morning, Monday through Saturday, six days a week, by national security staffer called a "briefer" and also CIA Director George Tenet. This briefing was about 10 to 20 page long outlining major national security threats. The briefing usually took less than an hour. These are threats that are so urgent that the president and the intelligent community need to know about them and possibly act on them.
When the 9/l1 commission came across the Senior Executive Intelligent Briefings (SEIB) they started to look at each one. The SEIBs were viewed by about 300 top level security officials throughout the federal government. Thus, the Senior Intelligent officials also got the 40 Bin Laden warnings. The Presidential Daily Briefings were these SEIB briefings with an additional sentence or two of "highly classified" information.
These are a few of the titles of the PDB's that are from page 152 of the new book "The Commission".
April 20, 2001. Bin Laden plans multiple terrorist operations.
May 3, 2001. Bin Laden's public profile may presage attacks.
May 23, 2001. Terrorist group said cooperating on US Hostage plot.
May 26, 2001. Bin Laden's networks' plan advancing.
June 23, 2001. bin Laden attacks may be imminent.
June 25, 2001. Bin Laden & associates making near-term threats.
June 30, 2001. bin Laden planning high-profile attacks.
July 2, 2001. Planning for bin Laden attacks continue.
These 8 warnings and 32 other warnings were all ignored.
The infamous August 6, 2001 PDB "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S. was 12 paragraphs long. The final two paragraphs name New York City as a likely target!
On September 4, 2001 Richard Clarke, terrorism czar, wrote an infamous memo to Dr. Condoleezza Rice. It asked ‘when are we going to get serious about the al Qaeda threat. Decision makers need to imagine a future day when hundreds of Americans lying dead in several countries including the United States. That future day may happen anytime’. It happened seven days later.
When Dr. Rice rhetorically asked at a senate hearing ‘who could have imagined 9/11’ she is covering up her culpability. She was warned of the very thing one week earlier!
Dr. Rice was at the Genoa, Italy G-8 summit in July, 2001. President Bush and Dr. Rice and others reportedly slept on a US Aircraft Carrier docked in the Genoa harbor because there were reports of a terrorist group planning to attack the hotel where they were scheduled to stay using small airplanes full of explosives. The Italian military even deployed anti-aircraft batteries around the city to stop this.
The 9/11 commission should have titled their report "40 top-level attack warnings ignored by President Bush".