The DavidCyrus Blog of Wisdom

9/11's Real Cause? "No One Told Us What To Do!" say White House Officials

One of the topics that has risen from the Condoleezza Rice versus Richard Clarke terrorism prevention debate, is whether the Clinton administration had informed the incoming Bush administration of its counterterrorism plans and activities. Clarke says he himself gave Rice the plan she needed, but Rice first denied that he gave her any sort of plan, but later restated this, saying that she was given a "set of ideas" on the topic. Secretary of State Colin Powell attempted to help out by clarifying: "We were not given a counterterrorism action plan by the previous administration," but rather, "good briefings on what they had been doing."

Let's imagine that the outgoing Clinton administration had pulled together a detailed action plan for Bush, Rice and Powell to follow, step-by-step, which would guarantee the elimination of the al-Qaida threat. Not just good briefings on what they were doing; a real checklist of activities, timelines, resource assignments, contingency plans, etc., that systematically eliminated al-qaida, and averted the 9/11 tragedy. Is there any possibility that the Bush administration would have even considered following the plan?

Furthermore, isn't it the height of irresponsibility, the utmost refusal to accept personal accountability, for the Bush administration to suggest that their failure to detect and intervene in the 9/11 terror attacks is due to Clinton's lack of providing them with a counterterrorism action plan, which forced them to formulate their own plan, based on good briefings? Is Bin Laden still at large because Clinton never explained to them how he could be captured? Are they waiting for a Clinton action plan to start collecting Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? It makes you wonder whether Clinton has ever really finished his term as president, with all those high-ranking defense officials waiting around for his action plans before making any decisive moves.