No Measures to the Report on the Possibility of Terrorism

Washington Post reported on the 17th, “the aura of invincibility that President Bush has enjoyed since Sept. 11 received a sharp jolt. This matter will be a fatal bad news for both of Republicans and President Bush at the off-year election in November and the presidential election in 2004.”

▽ Flooding News = U.S. CBS Broadcasting reported on the 15th that President Bush received a briefing from CIA at his Crawford, Texas, ranch Aug. 6 one month before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden`s terrorist network al-Qaida might hijack planes.

And it added that FBI Director Robert Mueller had ignored a memo from an agent at the FBI’s Arizona office in Phoenix in July that followers of Bin Laden were being trained at U.S. flight schools.

Other news agencies like New York Times on the 16th raised a question whether Bush administration had act properly after getting the information on the terror.

In addition, Washington Post reported on the 17th that the White House had a meeting with officials from some 10 agencies of federal government including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on July 5th, one month before President Bush received a report on the hijacking plan, but failed in preparing measures.

Previously, spreading a stir, NBC reported that President Bush failed in signing on the plan titled `Presidential Operation Order for National Security`, which had been awaiting the approval from Sept. 9th, two days before the Sept. 11 attacks.

▽ Roaring Congress and Families remained = After it was reported that President Bush had received lots of information warning the possibility of terrorism, U.S. Congress and the families remained are in uproar.

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt demanded a fact-finding by the Congress, saying, “we need to find out what President Bush and the White House knew about something that led up to Sept. 11 attacks, and How they act on the intelligence. ”

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com