9/11 Files Show Warnings Were Urgent and Persistent: "the lengthy documentary record makes clear that predictions of an attack by al Qaeda had been communicated directly to the highest levels of the government.
The threat reports were more clear, urgent and persistent than was previously known. Some focused on al Qaeda's plans to use commercial aircraft as weapons. Others stated that Osama bin Laden was intent on striking on United States soil. Many were passed to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While some of the intelligence went back years, other warnings - including one that Al Qaeda seemed interested in hijacking a plane inside this country - had been delivered to the president on Aug. 6, 2001, just a month earlier.
The new information produced by the commission so far has led 6 of its 10 members to say or suggest that the attacks could have been prevented, though there is no consensus on when, how, or by whom. The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, has described failures at every level of government, any of which, if avoided, could have altered the outcome. Mr. Kerrey, a Democrat, said, 'My conclusion is that it could have been prevented. That was not my conclusion when I went on the commission.'
... Mr. Bush, who is in the midst of a campaign for re-election, said last week that none of the warnings gave any hint of the time, place or date of an assault. "Had I known there was going to be an attack on America I would have moved mountains to stop the attack," he said."
- posted by geoff @ #