Bush Excuse for Failing to Follow Up On Threats Against Taliban for Giving Refuge to Bin Laden

"He said that no one had told him that we had made that threat." Richard Ben Veniste, member of the 9/11 Commission, spoke to Wolf Blitzer. Ben Veniste: The United States had warned the Taliban, indeed threatened the Taliban, on at least three occasions - all of which are set out in our 9/11 Commission Final Report - that if Bin Laden, who had refuge in Afghanistan, were to strike against US interests, then we would respond against the Taliban. Blitzer: Now that was warnings during the Clinton administration, the final year of the Clinton administration. Ben Veniste: That's correct. Blitzer: So you asked the President, in the Oval Office, and the Vice President, "Why didn't you go after the Taliban in those eight months before 9/11," after he was President, what did he say? Ben Veniste: Well now that it was established that Al Qaida was responsible for the Cole bombing, and the President was briefed in January of 2001, soon after he took office, by George Tenet, head of the CIA, telling him of the finding that Al Qaida was responsible. And I said, "Well, why wouldn't you go after the Taliban, in order to get them to kick Bin Laden out of Afghanistan? Maybe, just maybe, who knows, we don't know the answer to that question. But maybe that could have affected the 9/11 plot. Blitzer: What did he say? Ben Veniste: He said that no one had told him that we had made that threat. Norm at onegoodmove has the video.