9/11 Conspiracy Friday

Will Bunch writes that recent revelations put the pre-9/11 actions of several Administration officials into an even more suspicious light:

On July 26, 2001 - 47 days before the Sept. 11 attacks - CBS News reported that Ashcroft was flying expensive charters rather than commercial flights because of a "threat assessment" by the FBI. CBS said, "Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term." Newsweek later reported that on Sept. 10, 2001, "a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns."

Did either Ashcroft or the Pentagon have advance information about a 9/11-style attack and, if so, why wasn't this shared with the American public?

Well, recent revelations from the Woodward book -- namely that Rice was briefed on the high probability of a threat on 7/10 [VIDEO], weeks before the infamous August 6, Presidential Daily Briefing (Al Qaeda Determined to Attack In U.S.) -- make the above question shine like a new dime.

Bunch then points to this report from McClatchey (formerly Knight-Ridder):

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former Attorney General John Ashcroft received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike on an American target that was given to the White House two months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The State Department's disclosure Monday that the pair was briefed within a week after then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was told about the threat on July 10, 2001, raised new questions about what the Bush administration did in response, and about why so many officials have claimed they never received or don't remember the warning.

One official who helped to prepare the briefing, which included a PowerPoint presentation, described it as a "10 on a scale of 1 to 10" that "connected the dots" in earlier intelligence reports to present a stark warning that al-Qaida, which had already killed Americans in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and East Africa, was poised to strike again.

Powerpoint presentation on Al Qaeda threat --> Sudden change in flying habits of those briefed --> 9/11 --> Ugh. (Attytood)