The Deafness Before the Storm

[Ahso!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opini ... .html?_r=1

But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.



In response, the C.I.A. prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real.

[koan]

Do they have Dan Brown writing their press leaks now?

[koan]

Democracy Now interviewed the author of that book. I'm still not quite sure where he's going with it but it explains a bit better what he's presenting as "new" info. While he seems to clarify that the government had lots of warning that they ignored, the story got convoluted for me at the point where they start talking about Bin Laden trying to fool them with disinformation.

From your link:

An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat.

The author describes the Saddam obsession at bit better in the interview.

"500 Days": Author Kurt Eichenwald’s New Account of How Bush Admin Ignored Warnings Before 9/11