Sally Quinn Quotes
How unprepared we are for a terrorist attack.
Quinn, Sally. "Live Online." The Washington Post, 2005.
Bush claimed he did not remember the conversation. His incoming National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was also briefed about bin Laden by the Clinton anti-terrorism director, Richard Clarke. The Bush Administration ignored the warnings until bin Laden struck on 9-11
The bipartisan Presidential Commission had unanimously made 41 recommendations to prevent future terrorist attacks. While the Bush Administration and Congress implemented a few many of the more critical ones were left unaddressed. The commission on its final day issued a report card giving failing grades to both the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress.
36 days later, September 11, he did strike. See {617467} for some of the specific contents. The memo was kept secret by the Bush administration until public pressure as a result of the 9-11 Commission hearings forced the declassification and release. At that point it became clear that there was no reason that the memo could not have been released much earlier except that it was embarrassing. See {637530} and {637533} for two other Bin Laden Warnings that Bush and his team ignored.
He and saome others were concerned that if most American citizens knew most of the details about terrorists and U. S. potential vulnerability to terrorism, many would be totally inhibited and American Society would become very insular and restrictive to the detriment of the nation and the economy. Critics argue that American's imagination stimulated by entertainment, journalism and literature was extreely robust and Americans nnetheless could handle the risks. And the secrecy even exacerbates the problem becasue there was no way to refute or curtain those who exaggerated the problem and the risks.
Sally Sterling Quinn is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at The Washington Post.
