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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion April 14, 2004
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Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference



During last night's prime time press conference, President Bush once again claimed that "there was nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings"1. But just minutes later at the same press conference the president proved he was not telling the truth.

Specifically, Bush said the reason he supposedly requested intelligence briefings before 9/11 "had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference I was going to attend" in 2001. Bush was referring to the fact that, prior to that conference, he was warned that "Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill him and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the summit" meetings2.

His statement that "the prior government" had not taken precautions against terrorists using planes as weapons is also contradicted by the facts. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that under President Clinton, "the federal government had on several earlier occasions taken elaborate, secret measures to protect special events from just such an attack"3 after receiving intelligence warnings4.

At the press conference, Bush also claimed to have no "inkling whatsoever"5 about an attack before 9/11. But the Washington Post today reports that newly-declassified information shows that the president did not just receive one intelligence briefing about an imminent Al Qaeda attack, but "a stream" of repeated warnings6. In April and May 2001, for example, the intelligence community titled some of those reports "Bin Laden planning multiple operations," "Bin Laden network's plans advancing" and "Bin Laden threats are real." The CIA explicitly told the Administration that upcoming attacks would "occur on a catastrophic level, indicating that they would cause the world to be in turmoil."

Sources:
  1. President Addresses the Nation in Prime Time Press Conference, 04/13/2004.
  2. "Italy Tells of Threat at Genoa Summit", Los Angeles Times, 09/27/2001.
  3. Wall Street Journal, 04/01/2004.
  4. "Report Warned Of Suicide Hijackings", CBS News, 05/10/2002.
  5. President Addresses the Nation in Prime Time Press Conference, 04/13/2004.
  6. "Panel Says Bush Saw Repeated Warnings", Washington Post, 04/14/2004.



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