FLAIT

Originally Posted: Feb. 2003

Dear Mr. President:

On September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda terrorists, headed by Osama bin Laden, hijacked four American airliners and slammed two into the World Trade Center Towers and one into the Pentagon killing over 3,000 citizens. The fourth plane crashed in the a Pennsylvania countryside due to the heroics of those on board.

I wanted to tell you this because evidentially you didn't notice that 1) al-Qaeda has been committing terrorist attacks in Asia since then 2) al-Qaeda's leaders, including bin Laden, are still at large 3) al-Qaeda and the Taliban are reforming and have resumed training in Afghanistan 4) They're taking pot shots at are troops, even in Kuwait 5) Only Kabul is "secured," while the rest of Afghanistan is in chaos 6) the Karzi "Government" is a sham and 7) FBI Director Robert Mueller said this week that the al-Qaeda terrorist network REMAINS (caps mine) a "resourceful, merciless" foe dedicated to committing more attacks against the United States and its interests around the world.

Mr. President, I don't know about you, but I take the murder of 3,000 Americans so seriously, that I would have made sure al-Qaeda was eradicated a long time ago; or at least disrupted their organization to the point where they were on the run and couldn't plan further attacks.

Therefore, I'm wondering why you thought your job was finished once the Taliban was chased out of Afghanistan. I'm also wondering why Gen. Franks has repeatedly said that bin Laden isn't "the focus" of our war on terrorism. That's insulting!

Your performance on 9/11 and al-Qaeda can be graded very simply by imagining if Al Gore was President under these same circumstances.

The Republicans would be having a fit if bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban, were still such a threat, well over a year after 9/11. They would have been demanding -- no, they would have been screaming! -- that Gore "get them!" a long time ago (isn't it nice to have such passive Democrats?).

Imagine if Gore didn't make bin Laden the "focus" of his war on terrorism. Do you think he would have received the same pats on the back the GOP is giving you? Ha! What a bunch of phoney's!

And while you and your party, I'm sure, blame President Clinton for 9/11, there's enough blame to go around.

Clinton wanted to go after bin Laden's money, but your buddy Sen. Gramm blocked the legislation (the banking industry is a major campaign contributor).

And in 2000 CIA Director George Tenet completed a detailed plan to attack al-Qaeda. But there was no way Clinton could have gone through with it because he wouldn't have gotten enough support - politically or publicly - so close to the elections. So he left it on your desk.

But you didn't treat bin Laden seriously either because you weren't even briefed on the report until 9/10, a day before the attacks (ironically, when you took military action in Afghanistan, it pretty much followed Tenets plan).

So if Clinton deserves blame for underestimating bin Laden, then you deserve blame too -- heck, even more -- because you didn't do anything regarding al-Qaeda until 9/12.

In fact, when you did get intelligence of a serious threat to our ships in the Gulf that summer, all you did, was have them high tail it out of there (that could have been a setup by al-Qaeda to see if/how we were "listening" to them).

Mr. President, your lack of action against al-Qaeda, especially after 9/11, has been a disgrace.

Sincerely yours,

an American who is ticked off that you've not only let al-Qaeda get away with it, but that you've allowed them to regroup right under your nose.