"Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"

That was the headline of the President's Daily Briefing given to Bush on August 6, 2001 (see photo above). The declassified memo reads:

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 Youse! and "bring the fighting to America." [...]

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a (text blacked out) 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.

Keep in mind that in the months leading up to the September 11 attack the Washington Post had calculated that Bush had spent 42% of his first eight months as president ON VACATION. When Harriet Miers handed Bush the August 6th PDB, he was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

How different might our world be today if Bush had taken the time to have our national security team fully investigate this memo, instead of spending his time clearing away brush on the ranch.

How many people would still be alive -- the nearly 3,000 killed on September 11, the thousands of US soldiers killed in Iraq, the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed for no reason -- had Bush simply been on the job?

We must never forget.