Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

So know we know about the smoking gun: GW Bush got a memo entitled BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE UNITED STATES.

And they did nothing.

And that's why the administration made such a fight about releasing the PDB's to the 9/11 Commission.

When the 9/11 commission was created, I think no one who hadn't seen this memo could have imagined it would exist. I don't care how much Dr. Rice and the others spin the memo as “historical” or failing to spell out what should be done to the last detail. Short of capturing a memo stating the date, place and time of an attack, what more do you want? Do Presidents get memos like this every day? I rather doubt it.

In a normal world we might actually be having a serious conversation about impeachment at this point. Sleeping at the switch is serious. But we'll have to content ourselves with an election. Let's hope they count the votes this time. And remember that sometimes — sometimes — even the conspiracy theories are not damning enough.

Update: Billmon and others were struck by this also. Billmon, however, says that the title of the August 6, 2001 presidential briefing was mentioned in a news article by Bob Woodward published May, 2002. I missed it, and so it seems did he.

Which I suppose proves my point that no quanity of evidence of negligence matters here, except to the election. In that context having the telegenic Dr. Rice say this title on camera — and then beat around the bush to denigrate its significance — is much more important than having it on the Common Dreams web page. But it certainly disproves my point above that no one could have imagined such a damning memo. (New question, why didn't any of the articles over the legalistic fights over the PDB's mention this title?)

Meanwhile I've acquired the Clarke book…