9/11 Hoax: Media Shock over PDB bin Laden Warning

Ever since Condoleezza Rice revealed Thursday that the title of an Aug. 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States," the press has been feigning cardiac arrest.

Typical was the reaction of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who complained Thursday night that the PDB headline should have set off smoke alarms at the White House.

"We're talking about five weeks before 9/11, before hell struck in this country," Matthews told his "Hardball" audience. He insisted that the memo should have been enough to send Bush's national security team into a frenzy of action.

But why? As Dr. Rice told 9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer, "I don't think you, frankly, had to have that report to know that bin Laden would like to attack the United States."

If Roemer wanted to confirm Rice's contention, all he needed to do was ask Bill Clinton, who was interviewed by the Commission in private after Dr. Rice's testimony.

According to Mr. Clinton's public comments two years ago, he knew bin Laden wanted to strike America as far back as 1996.

Explaining why he declined an offer from Sudan for bin Laden's extradition, Clinton revealed, "At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him – though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America." [our emphasis]

If President Clinton was so unconcerned about the prospect that bin Laden wanted to commit crimes against America that he couldn't be bothered to extradite him, how was a PDB briefing that merely restated that ancient fact supposed to set Bush's hair on fire?

Still, don't look for the press to come clean on the earlier Clinton warning. They've kept his tape-recorded confession on the topic bottled up for more than two years now. No point in spoiling a perfectly good election year hoax with the truth.

To hear President Clinton admit he knew Osama bin Laden wanted to attack America in 1996, Click Here.

Editor's note: