Bush Defends Pre-9/11 Actions Amid Questions from Lawmakers

US President Bush insisted Friday he didn't ignore warning signs about the Sept. 11 attacks and said "second guessing has become second nature" to Washington Democrats. New details emerged about terrorist threats last year, putting him on the defensive.

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people," Bush said in his first public comments on the controversy.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the president was missing the point. "I think the question is, why didn't he know? If the information was made available, why was he kept in the dark? If the president of the United States doesn't have access to this kind of information, there's something wrong with the system."

Democrats responded sharply as the White House sought to put criticism of the president out of bounds. "Our nation is not well served when the charges of `partisan politics' is leveled at those who simply seek information that the American people need and deserve to know," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.

"We have worked well together on this war on terrorism," Gephardt said. "Today is not the day for some to walk away from that."

The White House acknowledged publicly for the first time that before the attacks Bush's foreign policy team had devised a strategy to dismantle Osama bin Laden's network with US military and intelligence. The plan was finished Sept. 4, but it never got to the president's desk for approval.

The details suggested how seriously Bush's advisers had taken the threat of attacks.

White House officials say there were vague, uncorroborated threats of hijackings in the spring and summer of 2001, but they insist there was no reason to believe terrorists would slam hijacked planes into US buildings, as they did Sept. 11.

That contention was challenged on Friday.

A September 1999 federal report, surfacing amid the debate, said al-Qaida suicide bombers could crash-land an aircraft packed with explosives into the Central Intelligence Agency, the White House or the Pentagon.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed the report as a psychological study that was not written by US intelligence. "I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that terrorists think in evil ways, in unimaginable ways," he said.

A Republican senator, Charles Grassley of Iowa, urged the CIA inspector general to investigate how the agency handled the report. "The FBI and CIA need to be investigated for what they did or did not do so we can make sure we don't make mistakes in the future," he said.

Democrats noted that suicide hijackings were not unthinkable before Sept. 11: There has been evidence of plots to slam planes into the Eiffel Tower, US targets and even an economic summit in Genoa, Italy, attended by Bush last year.

The criticism upset the White House, creating divisions in a normally united staff.

Some political advisers privately complained that a desire for secrecy in the Bush administration prevented the release of documents last fall, when the public might have been more likely to accept bad news.

Bush himself rejected the recommendation of aides who wanted him to take questions from reporters Friday to clear the air. He decided instead to defend himself during a previously scheduled event with Air Force cadets.

"I want the troops here to know that I take my job as the commander in chief very seriously, that my most important job is to protect America," the president said.

He called Washington "the kind of place where second guessing has become second nature" - a line used in an attempt to put Democrats on the defensive, aides said.

Replied Daschle: "I don't think that anyone is second guessing. We're simply trying to ensure that this never happens again."

Normally hesitant to engage in political debate, first lady Laura Bush accused her husband's critics of trying to "play upon the emotions" of victims' families.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "I think that any time anybody suggests or implies to the American people that this president had specific information that could have prevented the attacks on our country on September 11, that crosses the lines."

He criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for second guessing Bush on the floor of the Senate, and he noted that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told a TV interviewer in July that panel staff members had informed her of a "major probability" of a terrorist attack.

"What did the Democrats in Congress know? And why weren't they talking to each other?" he asked.

Firing back, Feinstein said that on Sept. 10 she had talked to Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, to convey her concerns and that the response was, "We'll get back to you in six months."

Bush's team was bolstered by a new poll showing that while most Americans wish the administration had discussed the threats earlier, only a third say the revelations this week have made them feel less favorably toward the president.

As for the plan against bin Laden, a proposed presidential directive outlined an extensive CIA program to arm anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The plan, which later became the cornerstone of Bush's response to the attacks, was approved by Bush's team Sept. 4 and was awaiting his review after a trip to Florida that began Sept. 10.

It was sitting on National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's desk when the attacks occurred.

(China Daily May 18, 2002)