SUBSTANTIATED -- BUSH DID NOT CONSIDER AL QAEDA URGENT: Clarke said that
"George Tenet and I tried very hard to create a sense of urgency by
seeing to it that intelligence reports on the al Qaeda threat were
frequently given to the president and other high-level officials." He
said the CIA "continually informed [the President] about the threat"
throughout the summer. But unfortunately, Clarke said, "I don't think it
was ever treated that way" by the President. This claim is substantiated
also by the public record: Clarke's January memo marked "urgent" to
Condoleezza Rice
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in607356.shtml)
asking for a top level meeting to prepare for an imminent Al Qaeda
attack was ignored for eight months. When one of the commissioners asked
Clarke "is that eight-month period unusual?" he noted "It is unusual
when you are being told every day that there is an urgent threat."
Clarke's assertion is also substantiated by

*****President Bush himself, who told Bob Woodward "I was not on
point" in fighting terrorism before 9/11, and that " I didn't feel the
sense of urgency*****


(http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0801...I=#reader-page)
" about terrorism before 9/11.