The Memo From Heck

Let's look at the infamous August 6th 2001 PDB (bolded bits by me):

Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

This is a "historical document"?!? Is Condi Rice really that stupid? Is Bush really that stupid? This thing all but spells it out. It doesn't take a genius to understand that this document is saying that the terrorists want to strike INSIDE the US soon. They can say all they want that 9/11 wasn't preventable, but they cannot claim that they didn't have any clues. And what's even more scary? This is only one of many warnings Rice and Bush are reported to have gotten. Short of an actual attack, would anything have gotten them to do their jobs?

NOTE: It's kind of amazing how little some people claim to see in this memo. Look, it says that Bin Laden wants to retaliate in Washington DC. It says that Bin Laden is patient and has operatives within the US. It says that there are plans to hijack planes. It says that there is recent surveillance of buildings in New York. It has, in fact, everything but the date of the attacks. Now, hindsight has made it incredibly obvious, but even back then it would have taken a complete idiot to claim that this wasn't a warning, and an even more complete idiot to claim now that this was "mostly historical" as if that means you shouldn't act on it.

Update: There are reports that the original PDB was eleven and a half pages long. What is in this short one is enough to prove Rice a liar, but is this only part of the actual document? Were ten pages really left out, or was the 2002 mention of the memo incorrect? Are there any actual investigative reporters left covering politics anymore?