Hindsight is 20/20 in New Disclosures of 9/11 Hijack Warnings
CBS News was the first to report that President Bush was briefed in August about the possibility that terrorists might attempt to hijack U.S. passenger planes. A few media outlets, like CBS, are focusing their coverage on the shock expressed by some members of Congress (who all happen to be Democrats) that the government did not react more aggressively to these warnings. The Associated Press seems to have issued two different stories by the same correspondent: one simply reporting that a briefing had taken place, another reporting that a briefing had taken place and relating the critical aspects of the Congressional reaction.
Some have already rushed to ask the standard, post-Watergate question: "What did the President know and when did he know it?" This implies that a cover-up has taken place, and that the President was told that there was a possibility that multiple groups of terrorists would coordinate hijack attempts, and crash any planes that they successfully hijacked into major U.S. landmarks.
In the next few days, many people who are seeking to do political damage will be severely critical of the U.S. Government. But we wonder how anyone can step back in time, look objectively at what was known prior to September 11, and come to the conclusion that administration should have put out an unprecedented public warning? Although we have become used to this type of warning in the aftermath of September 11, they didn't happen too often before the attack.
We remind our readers of the last words of an article that we posted on CTDATA.com on September 12:
No one could have assumed that both strikes on the World Trade Center would be successful, considering the complexity of the events. This is undoubtedly the most daring kamakaze attack in world history, and possibly the biggest tragedy in American history.