The Difference Between The Millenium Plot and the 9/11 Attack

Orcinus

Orcinus has a flawless post on Condi Rice's downgrading of the Clinton Administration's foiling of the Millenium plots. Yes, it's true that the customs agent who nabbed the initial suspect was just doing her normal job under no kind of alert. But it's what happened next that's the difference. The Clinton Administration was already holding the high alert meetings when the customs arrest came up the pike. Clarke and others immediately focused on this arrest and quickly unearthed the rest of the plot in time to do something about it.

Whereas the agent in Phoenix just doing his job wrote a memo about suspicious parties taking flight lesson that sat around. And the information about al-Qaeda agents already in the United States sat around. And the information about Zacarias Moussaoui sat around. If the Bush Adminstration had held the same type of high alert meetings because of the chatter, the lucky breaks could have foiled the entire 9/11 attacks.

But worrying about al-Qaeda was just so Clinton.