“In the immediate aftermath of the Democratic Convention, on August 1 [2004], Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge raised the threat level to Code Orange–high–asserting that the government had ‘new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack. And as a result, today, the United States Government is raising the threat level […]
Category: quotes
8/1/2004
Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge spoke on August 1, 2004. “The government possessed, he said, ‘new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack. And as a result, today, the United States Government is raising the threat level to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, […]
7/29/2004
“In a major report on terrorism [on July 29, 2004], the foreign affairs committee of the British House of Commons said that ‘Iraq has become a *battleground* for Al-Qaeda, with appalling consequences for the Iraqi people.’ It added, ‘However, we also conclude that the coalition’s failure to bring law and order to parts of Iraq […]
7/25/2004
“A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in late July [2004] spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said Wednesday [September 15, 2004]. The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials […]
7/22/2004
“In July [22] 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report, along with twenty-four recommendations. …The White House adopted twenty-two of the twenty-four recommendations. The call for ‘humane treatment’ [of detainees] was one of the two that the Bush Administration explicitly rejected.” – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Pages 280-281 […]
7/22/2004
The 9/11 Commission Report was released on July 22, 2004. For the 604-page book, the Commission’s “staff had reportedly interviewed more than 1,200 people in ten countries, and reviewed more than two and one half million pages of documents. Yet the final report had some glaring omissions–among them its utter failure to tell the story […]
7/22/2004
According to author Peter Lance: “The 9/11 Commission Report published in July [22] 2004 and later nominated for a National Book Award, concluded that the original World Trade Center bombing cell was made up of a ‘loosely based group of Sunni Islamists;’ further, that the 9/11 plot had originated not with [World Trade Center bomber] […]
7/22/2004
The 9/11 Commission’s report on July 22, 2004, gave insights into assigning blame for 9/11: “The story of 9/11 is not a story of how a handful of government employees made mistakes; it is the story of how an entire government–across two administrations [Clinton and Bush] and many bureaucracies–failed to understand and adjust to the […]
7/22/2004
The 9/11 Commission report of July 22, 2004, said, regarding the potential to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001: “We identified ten ‘operational opportunities’ when we missed a chance to disrupt the 9/11 plot. Among those opportunities were: the failure to share information about the two hijackers [Nawaf al-] Hazmi and [Khalid al-] Midhar, […]
7/22/2004
In their July 22, 2004, report, the 9/11 Commission agreed upon four overarching failures regarding the prevention of 9/11: “A ‘failure of imagination’ characterized our inability, at all levels of government and society, to appreciate the magnitude of the threat from al Qaeda and Islamist terrorism. A ‘failure of capabilities’ was a failure that limited […]