- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President
Bush on Friday denounced Democratic "second-guessing" of his
handling of intelligence ahead of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, dismissing
any suggestion he knew of them in advance but failed to act.
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- The president broke his silence as partisan bickering
accelerated two days after revelations he was told in August 2001 of the
possibility members of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network
could attempt a hijacking.
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- "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.
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- "You know what's interesting about Washington? It's
a town, unfortunately, it's the kind of place where second-guessing has
become second nature," Bush told U.S. Air Force Academy football team
members who were visiting the White House.
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- The White House said earlier this week there was no specific
threat of an attack using hijacked planes as weapons against U.S. targets.
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- But a lengthy 1999 report by the research arm of the
Library of Congress and commissioned by the CIA envisioned a similar attack
by al Qaeda against the U.S. capital.
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- It predicted al Qaeda would retaliate in a "spectacular
way" for a U.S. cruise missile attack against its training facilities
in Afghanistan in 1998, and said an al Qaeda suicide squad could slam an
explosives-packed plane into the Pentagon.
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- The report, long publicly available, prompted new questions
on Friday about government awareness of terror methods, but White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said the report was not based on specific intelligence
and was rather an attempt to describe the thinking of members of terror
groups.
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- The White House also acknowledged on Friday that security
officials had prepared a presidential order for a campaign to dismantle
al Qaeda. That order did not reach Bush's desk by Sept. 11., officials
say.
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- Disclosure of the August warning prompted calls by Democrats
and some Republicans for an investigation into intelligence failures ahead
of the hijacked-plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
which killed about 3,000 people. The attacks were blamed on al Qaeda.
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- First lady Laura Bush, traveling in Hungary, joined in
the Republican response. "I think it's sad to play upon the emotions
of people as if there were something we could have done to stop it, because
that's not the case," she said.
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- HILLARY CLINTON TARGETED
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- The White House named the Democratic leadership in Congress,
as well as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, as among those who
had implied Bush failed to act on information that could have prevented
the attacks.
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- Fleischer criticized Clinton, the former first lady,
for citing a New York newspaper headline he said suggested Bush knew in
advance of the September attacks.
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- "I have to say with disappointment that Mrs. Clinton
... followed that headline," he said. Clinton had cited the headline
in saying Americans deserved to know about any intelligence lapses, but
that she was not blaming Bush.
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- Clinton said on Friday in response to Fleischer's remarks,
"I am not looking to point fingers or place blame on anybody."
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- Fleischer said Bush "hopes there won't be any Democrats
in the Congress who play politics with this issue."
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- He defended a Republican fund-raising offer of a photograph
of Bush on Sept. 11 in exchange for political donations, an issue that
has energized Democratic critics. "It's a totally different measure,"
he said.
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- The White House has also encouraged Republican candidates
in this fall's congressional elections to take advantage of Bush's popularity
in conducting his "war on terrorism."
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- House of Representatives Democratic leader Richard Gephardt
of Missouri said in a written statement, "Our nation is not well-served
when the charge of 'partisan politics' is leveled at those who simply seek
information the American people need and deserve to know."
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- The proposed order to destroy al Qaeda, which contained
plans later used in the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan, was completed on
Sept. 10 but had not reached Bush's desk by the time of the attacks, Fleischer
said.
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- The plan was a "comprehensive, multi-front plan
to dismantle the al Qaeda," involving military options, actions to
cut off financing and working with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan
to topple al Qaeda, he said.
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- Planning against al Qaeda had begun shortly after Bush's
election and helped the United States act quickly against the network following
the attacks, he said.
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- Some key Democrats were also aware of the possibility
of a terrorist attack, Fleischer said. He pointed to remarks by California
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein last July in which she said intelligence
aides told her of the possibility of a terrorist strike within three months.
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- "I think that raises the question of what did the
Democrats in Congress know and why weren't they talking to each other?"
Fleischer said.
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- Feinstein responded she had no specific information on
an attack and believed that Bush did not either, and said she was "surprised"
by the White House tone. "The issue is too important to our nation
to engage in the kind of politics Mr. Fleischer is practicing," she
said.
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- Gephardt denied any political motivation to the call
for a probe and said inquiries into how much warning the government had
of the attacks should include members of Congress as well as the White
House.
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- "We do not want this to happen again. This is not
partisan bickering. We are with the president on the war," he said.
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