"The Clinton administration made a mistake last year by focusing too tightly on bin Laden and ‘personalizing terrorism'..."
Senior State Department official to CNN, early 2001

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile,"
Condoleeza Rice, 5.16.02

"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."
George W. Bush, 5.17.02

"“I just don’t understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden... who cares about a little terrorist in Afghanistan?"
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, objecting to counterterrorism czar Richard Clark, early 2001

"What we did in the eight months [before 9/11] was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years."
Condoleeza Rice, 2006

The Accountability Party blamed Clinton for 9/11 and spun George W as an innocent bystander caught in a web of evildoer intrigue. The record, however, shows quite differently. Despite the mumbo jumbo quoted above, there were so many warnings about the coming attacks that even a deranged chimpanzee could have properly interpreted them and taken effective action. Well... maybe not.

At any rate, this page sets aside the blame-Clinton game for a minute and looks squarely at where the Republicans screwed up on 9/11 (and these items are cherry-picked; a comprehensive listing of unheeded warnings and warning signs, scrapped investigations, and buried and discarded leads requires literally thousands of pages to document):

• In January 2001, Senators Hart and Rudman present Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell with the final report of the US Commission on 21st Century National Security. The bipartisan report contains 50 recommendations on combatting terrorism. Bush stonewalls for months and blocks any Congressional implementation of the Commission's more urgent suggestions. The White House then announces, in May, that Cheney will commission his own study of domestic and international terrorism. This group does not meet until the 4th of September, one week before 9/11.

• Outgoing counterterrorism tsar, Richard Clarke (considered by most the government's foremost expert on al Qaeda and other terror groups), briefs Condi Rice and other incoming National Security officials and advisors. He urgently recommends prioritizing al Qaeda "number one national security threat" and warns that bin Laden is preparing large-scale attacks against US interests, and probably inside the U.S. Rice demotes Clark, but he keeps sounding the alarm until 9/11.
• Bush's first National Security Council meeting focuses almost entirely on 'Iraqi terrorism' and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; domestic terrorism is not discussed.

• Immediately after taking offince, Bush begins planning the 2002 budget. More than half a billion dollars is slashed from the Justice Department's counterterrorism funding; FBI requests for more field agents, translators and intelligence analysts is ignored; and programs that provide state and local counterterrorism grants are cut. The Administration also vetoes a proposed $800 million transfer of funds from missile defense into counterterrorism.

• Bush abandons a global crackdown on offshore financial centers like Liechtenstein and Antigua, whose banks help launder billions of dollars for terrorist groups like al-Qaeda (most of these banks provide tax shelters for the world's richest, as well). Clinton had initiated an international plan to permanently disrupt terrorist revenue streams.
  The Treasury Department first halts US cooperation with the thirty nation effort. The Republican House then cuts off funding for the National Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center.

• The clandestine Able Danger data mining unit, charged with tracking al Qaeda overseas and in America, is shut down despite protests from the intelligence community.

• The FBI counterterrorism probe into the bombing of the U.S. Cole is stymied by the Bush State Department, and makes little additional progress after January, 2001. The probe had uncovered much of the al Qaeda network based in Yemen, and identified two Cole bombing co-conspirators (who later enter the U.S. and then pilot Flight 77 into the Pentagon).

• Bush makes the development of an anti-ballistic missile shield his top security priority, after first backing out of the US-Russia ABM Treaty which prohibits such a shield. In speeches and in meetings between US and European, Russia and Chinese officials, Bush calls the acquistion of missiles by rogue states “today’s most urgent threat.” He almost never mentions al Qaeda or domestic terrorism.

• U.S. intelligence agencies are ordered to curtail or halt investigations of terror-funding by the bin Laden family and Saudi royals. CIA operatives complain of a major NSA policy shift at this time, one which results in restrictions placed on many ongoing investigations- such as that of Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan, who receives extensive Saudi financing and sells nuclear technology to the Iranians and others.

• Bush scraps the Inter-agency Working Groups, which facilitate inter-agency communication and 'connecting of the intelligence dots'. He appoints Condi Rice the executive secretary of eleven new replacement committees. Rice, who later claims ignorance while blaming the intelligence community for its failure vis-a-vis 9/11, chairs six of the committees herself, including Counter-Terrorism and National Preparedness, Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, and Records Access and Information Security.

• At Bush’s first meeting with NATO heads of state, he outlines his top five defense issues. Missile defense is #1; terrorism is not on the list.
  

• FBI agent Robert Wright complains: “Until the investigative responsibilities for terrorism are removed from the FBI, I will not feel safe... There is virtually no effort on the part of the FBI’s International Terrorism Unit to neutralize known and suspected terrorists residing within the US." The FBI violates its own policy and sits on this complaint until six months after 9/11.

• At Bush's second National Security Council meeting, the issue of regime change in Iraq is a central topic, domestic terrorism is not discussed.

• The Bush White House ignores “an unprecedentedly detailed report” said to contain an “astonishing degree of information” compiled by Russia's UN mission. The report provides a list of "all bin Laden’s bases, details of his al Qaeda network, his government contacts and foreign advisers,” and enough information to potentially locate and kill him.

• The UN Security Council passes a US-Russian resolution requiring member states to “freeze without delay” funds of those listed as designated terrorists. At least five reported al Qaeda leaders are on the list, including bin Laden’s security coordinator and finance manager. Despite urgent pleas by the UN and EU, the Republicans refuse to act until after 9/11.

• Bush's State Department issues its 2001 report on terrorism. While the report cites the Taliban's support for international terrorism, there are no photographs or detailed descriptions of bin Laden or al Qaeda. A senior State Department official tells CNN that the Clinton administration "made a mistake last year by focusing too tightly on bin Laden and ‘personalizing terrorism' ... describing parts of the elephant and not the whole beast.”

• Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz repeatedly discounts counterterrorism advisors like Richard Clarke during NSC meetings, with on-the-record comments like “I just don’t understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden,” and “Who cares about a little terrorist in Afghanistan?”
  Wolfowitz insists the US should focus on Iraqi-sponsored terrorism, and rejects the CIA's assertions that Iraqi isn't engaged in anti-US terrorism.

• The Justice Department shuts down a highly classified program called Catcher’s Mitt that monitors al-Qaeda suspects in the U.S.

• Attorny General John Ashcroft announces the Justice Department’s new crime-fighting agenda, which cites seven major action goals. Counterterrorism is not on the list. When FBI Director Louis Freeh objects to Ashcroft's priorities, which include pornography, crime and drugs, and insists that domestic terrorism at least be listed, Aschcrofts upbrades him, stating he "doesn't want to hear about terrorism." Ashcroft then earmarks budget slashes to the existing counterterrorism budget.

• Though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden three times in late 2000, the Bush White House refuses to fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan and terminates the reconnaissance missions.

• Intercepts from Afghanistan warn that al Qaeda could attack an American target in late June or on the July 4 holiday. The White House’s Counterterrorism and Security Group does not meet to discuss this threat. This group also fails to meet after intelligence analysts overhear conversations from an al-Qaeda cell in Milan suggesting that bin Laden’s agents might be plotting to kill Bush at the European summit in Genoa.

• On July 10, 2001, CIA director George Tenet and CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black warn Condaleeza Rice that an al Qaeda attack within the U.S. is imminent and likely to occur. They tell Rice that signs indicate an al-Qaeda attack within weeks, perhaps months; that there will be multiple, simultaneous events causing major human casualties; and that the focus will be U.S. targets, facilities or interests. Tenet and Black later report leaving the meeting frustrated, feeling like they "got the brush-off."

• Tenet and Black present the same briefing to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and AG John Ashcroft on July 17. No apparent action is taken on this information until the first-ever principals meeting one week before 9/11- although AG Ashcroft stops flying commercially after this briefing. [NOTE: When news of these Tenet-Black briefings finally reach the public, in 2006, Rice first "doesn't recall" any such meeting, then denies categorically that the meeting took place, and then- when the briefings are verified by the State Dept, declares them "mis-represented". John Ashcroft sticks to his across-the-board denial of a such a briefing, and explains his sudden use of expensive private flight charters as a result of a vague FBI warning.]

• Condi Rice will later testify to the 9/11 Commission that, in the summer of 2001, "The FBI tasked all 56 of its US field offices to increase surveillance of known suspected terrorists and to reach out to known informants who might have information on terrorist activities.” But the FBI could not find any record of having received such a directive, and the Commission uncovered nobody at the FBI who could corroborate such a tasking of FBI field offices.

• Although there are officially only 14 fighter jets on active alert to defend the continental US (jets which were scrambled 120 times over pilot and control tower error in the eight months before 9/11) , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld proposes cuts in the Pentagon Budget which will reduce the number still further.

• Attorney General John Ashcroft and the FBI issue a joint national broadside to local law enforcement agencies, declaring NO CREDIBLE THREAT of terrorism on US soil.

• In August, another Justice Dept strategy plan is released. Listed on it are the same seven Aschroft goals previously presented, as well as 36 specific objectives. The single objective relating to counterterrorism is not among the thirteen highlighted for special focus.

• In his first nine months in office, George W. Bush spends nearly a third of his time on vacation; his August 2001 break will tie Richard Nixon's record for longest vacation- 30 consecutive days.

• After being presented with Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US on Monday, August 6, 2001, George W. Bush does not cut his vacation short, convene any special meetings, shake any 'organizational trees', consult with leaders in the intelligence community, or any thing else. He tells the intelligence gofer who briefed him, "Ok, you've covered your ass now" and spends the day cutting some brush/doing a little fishing on his boutique ranch in Crawford, TX. In fact, W will remain on vacation for another 3 weeks, taking short PR trips to America's Heartland and "studying up" on stem cell research.

• In a speech scheduled for 9/11, National Security Advisor Condaleeza Rice promotes missile defense as the key to a new national security strategy, and includes no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, or Islamic extremist groups.

Here's some more of 9/11 not being Clinton's fault: CONNECT THE DOTS?