Bush was not told of FBI warning: White House acknowledgment
WASHINGTON, May 21: The White House acknowledged on Tuesday that President George W. Bush was probably told only recently of an FBI memo last July warning that extremists could be training at US flight schools, but said the president was pleased with the work of his FBI director.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was commenting on a New York Times report that Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were told of the July memo soon after the Sept 11 hijacked plane attacks but that neither had told the president.
“The president is very pleased with the job that director Mueller is doing, very pleased with the job (CIA Director George) Tenet is doing,” Fleischer said.
He played down the significance of the memo for Bush, saying the role of flight schools as a training ground for the Sept 11 hijackers was quickly learned after the attacks.
The White House was double-checking to make certain Bush was not told until recent weeks of the memo written by an FBI agent in Phoenix last July, Fleischer said.
The memo, which warned that followers of Osama bin Laden could be training at US flight schools, has been a focal point of growing questions over whether the Bush administration failed to recognize warning signs ahead of the Sept 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
Bush was also told in a briefing by Tenet in August that members of the Al Qaeda network could attempt a hijacking.
The president last week denied any suggestion he ignored warnings of an attack and said had he known of the possibility hijacked planes could have been used as weapons he would have done “everything in my power” to protect Americans.
Last week, the existence of the FBI memo was acknowledged publicly after lawmakers and congressional staff gained full access to it. The memo’s direct reference to Osama, identified as the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania, had not been revealed before by the US government.
A senior Justice Department official interviewed by the Times told the newspaper that Ashcroft was not briefed in any detail or with any specificity about the document, known now as the Phoenix memo, until about a month ago.
Fleischer said it was now primarily Congress’ job, working with the administration, to look at possible intelligence failures in advance of the attacks.
“The purpose of working with Congress is to take a look back at all the events that led up to Sept 11 and to see if there are any other things beyond what we’ve already done to strengthen and improve our system of prevention, that could have been done in addition to what we’re doing,” he said.
He said Bush would wait to assess any findings. “The president is going to give his considered judgment to the totality of information. He’ll of course take note of any snippets that come out on a daily basis, but he will take — make judgments based on the totality of the information.”—Reuters
