Trump is Right About 9/11

The George W. Bush administration was not nearly as focused as it should have been on al-Qaida in the first months of Bush’s presidency, despite repeated warnings from the intelligence community that Osama bin Laden’s organization was a very real threat.

Donald Trump ignited controversy recently after suggesting Bush knew a terrorist attack on American soil was imminent in the months leading up to 9/11 and failed to act. Trump made these comments in response to Jeb Bush’s repeated claims that his brother “kept America safe” during his presidency.

While Trump’s initial words may have put a bit too much blame on George W. Bush personally, they have merit. Bush failed to take significant action to roll back al-Qaida before the attack.

[lz_ndn video=29846618]

In April 2001, National Security Council counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke met with administration officials, stressing the urgency of the al-Qaida threat and pleading for serious action against the terrorist network. By the summer of 2001, the intelligence community was all but certain an al-Qaida attack was coming.

Former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald wrote that the CIA sent its first warning of a potential terror attack on American soil to the White House on May 1, 2001, followed by a President’s Daily Brief (PDB) on June 22, 2001, warning of an impending attack from al-Qaida specifically.

Subsequent briefs throughout the summer repeated the warning, including a June 29, 2001, PDB referring to comments bin Laden made to a journalist about an upcoming attack, and a July 1 PDB stating an attack “will occur soon.” These warnings culminated in the now-infamous Aug. 6 PDB entitled, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.”

Even before the Aug. 6 PDB, on July 10, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet and CIA counter-terrorism chief J. Cofer Black briefed then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice personally on al-Qaida and the ample evidence the CIA had gathered over the previous weeks and months, which suggested a major attack was likely, and he urged the administration to take steps to combat the terrorist group.

Despite warnings, administration officials were reluctant or unwilling to believe Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida posed such a threat to the U.S. 

Despite all these warnings, administration officials were reluctant — or unwilling — to believe Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida really posed such a threat to the U.S. In light of these facts, it’s more than a little difficult to argue with Trump’s comments regarding the Bush administration’s failure to protect the country.

One cannot know with any certainty if intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have prevented 9/11, even if the government had focused its attention and resources on al-Qaida in the months leading up to the attack. And, as Trump pointed out while defending his initial comments about Bush, the Clinton administration is surely at least as guilty when it comes to failing to deal with bin Laden’s organization, which had been on the CIA’s radar since the early 1990s.

Related: Will Refugees Bring Terror?

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, will need to be careful before uttering something like, “He kept America safe” when it comes to her husband.

While the Bush administration failed to properly act before an attack, the Clinton administration failed to properly act after an attack. Following the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, Clinton responded with Operation Infinite Reach, missile strikes on al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.

The strikes in Afghanistan were meant to take out al-Qaida leadership, including bin Laden, but while this flex of American military muscle was surely comforting to viewers at home, the attacks failed in their objective and did nothing to hinder al-Qaida’s operations.

The Clinton administration quickly lost any real interest in destroying the organization, caring more about the peaceful image it wished to project than protecting the American people. Clinton refused to give the CIA the green light to capture or kill he terrorist leader, despite more than one opportunity to do so from 1998 to 1999.

To his credit, George W. Bush did much to keep Americans safe in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. But the Clinton years, and the months under Bush preceding 9/11, were a glaring failure when it came to understanding and responding to the threat posed by bin Laden and al-Qaida.