White House Chose Missile Defense Over Al Qaeda

The emerging historical record now shows White House officials downgraded threats from al Qaeda prior to 9/11 to focus on other priorities. As the Washington Post reports today, Condoleezza Rice was set to give a major national security speech on 9/11 that promoted missile defense as the foundation of the administration's "new" national security strategy. The speech contained no mention of al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.

• The White House failed to act on the domestic threat from al Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001. Examination of public statements, speeches and releases by the Bush administration from January 20, 2001 to September 10, 2001 reveals only cursory mentions of al Qaeda and bin Laden and very little focus on terrorism outside of the context of rogue nations that might use weapons of mass destruction.
• The Bush administration focused instead on national missile defense and Saddam Hussein. Countering threats from ballistic missiles and rogue nations like Iraq consumed the Bush administration's thinking in its first eight months. As the Post reports, the text of Condoleezza Rice's speech for 9/11 "implicitly challenged the Clinton administration's policy, saying it did not do enough about the real threat – long-range missiles."
• As al Qaeda terrorists were finalizing plans to attack America, the Bush administration worked on other priorities. In June 2001, President Bush outlined his administration's top security priorities at a NATO meeting in Brussels. Missile defense was the top priority and al Qaeda was not mentioned at all. Two days before 9/11 – during the time when the White House now claims to have been in the final stages of its plan to eradicate al Qaeda – Condoleezza Rice made no mention of al Qaeda on Meet the Press, yet talked extensively about the administration's missile defense plan.

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