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Bush took holiday after terror attack memo { August 6 2001 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14132682&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=august-6--2001-bush-warned-in-memo--osama-bin-laden-is-determined-to-attack-inside-america-august-7--2001-nahttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14132682&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=august-6--2001-bush-warned-in-memo--osama-bin-laden-is-determined-to-attack-inside-america-august-7--2001-name_page.html
BUSH HOLIDAYED AFTER TERROR ATTACK MEMO Apr 9 2004
By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
GEORGE Bush was warned a month before 9/11 that Osama bin Laden was "determined to strike inside the US" - but went on holiday the next day.
His national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was quizzed on the briefing when she appeared yesterday before the commission set up to examine the attacks.
It emerged that the president was given an intelligence report titled Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States, on August 6, 2001, five weeks before 3,000 died at the World Trade Center.
The next day, he went to Crawford, Texas, on a one-month holiday.
Amid demands for the report to be declassified, commissioner Bob Kerrey revealed some of its contents. "It said the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity, and I'd say it's consistent with preparations for hijacking," he said.
But Ms Rice, 49, claimed: "It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting."
She said threats were not specific and most indicated the attack would be overseas, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.
Bush had opposed the creation of the commission and resisted calls for Ms Rice to publicly testify until public and political pressure grew too strong.
But speaking under oath before a live national television audience, the woman Bush calls his "guru" gave a polished defence of his credibility in the war on terror.
She said: "Had we thought there was an attack coming in Washington or New York, we would have moved heaven and earth to stop it.
"For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat was growing and America's response across several administrations was insufficient.
"Tragically, for all the language of war spoken before September 11, this country was simply not on a war footing."
She said Bush was engaged against terrorism in summer 2001, but there was no "silver bullet that could have prevented the attacks".
"In hindsight, if anything might have helped stop 9/11, it would have been better information about threats inside the United States," she said.
"That was made difficult by structural and legal impediments preventing collection and sharing of information by our law enforcement and intelligence agencies."
Ms Rice also denied Bush had pressed her to find a connection with Iraq so he had a reason to invade.
He later phoned her from a pickup on his ranch to say she had done a "great job".
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