We've known for some time that Clarke gave Condoleeza Rice specific warnings about al Qaeda -- which she ignored (she thought China and Russia were our big threats). The interesting news here is the role of the CIA in releasing a document:
A strategy document outlining proposals for eliminating the threat from Al Qaeda, given to Condoleezza Rice as she assumed the post of national security adviser in January 2001, warned that the terror network had cells in the United States and 40 other countries and sought unconventional weapons, according to a declassified version of the document.This is old news, but it's interesting that the CIA surrendered the document. These days it's generally pretty easy to refuse such requests. I wonder if the director of the CIA (a Bush loyalist) knew of this release.
The 13-page proposal presented to Dr. Rice by her top counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, laid out ways to step up the fight against Al Qaeda, focusing on Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan...
... The proposal and an accompanying three-page memorandum given to Dr. Rice by Mr. Clarke on Jan. 25, 2001, were discussed and quoted in brief by the independent commission studying the Sept. 11 attacks and in news reports and books last year. They were obtained by the private National Security Archive, which published the full versions, with minor deletions at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency, on its Web site late Thursday.
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