Wednesday, April 14, 2004

By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the famous Aug. 6, 2001, presidential daily brief headlined "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," the president had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush's top national security team, according newly declassified information released Tuesday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.

In April and May, 2001, for example, the intelligence community headlined some of those reports, "Bin Laden planning multiple operations," "Bin Laden network's plans advancing" and "Bin Laden threats are real." ...


--Dana Priest in The Washington Post

I don't care if it's necessary to redact the bulk of these memos. Please, please, let them be declassified. That's the only way they'll have real impact. Facsimiles of memos with these dates and titles, even if the texts are heavily blacked out, would be devastating to the "We knew nothing!" crowd in the executive branch.

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