u.s. eichenwald writes that officials at the counterterrorism center of the cia were so frustrated and so convinced an attack was coming, they suggested transferring so as not to be blamed when the attack took place. all told, it s a devastating portrait. roger cressey is an nbc news terrorism analyst and was deputy for counterterrorism at the national security council on september 11, shgs , 2001. michael tomasky is special correspondent for newsweek and the daily beast. let me start with roger. let at the start with roger. you have been on this show so often about this question, about what we knew, what we could have known. where do you think you are right now after reading this article? well, so, chris, the thing that was the most interesting was the reference to the may 1st presidential daily brief and i called a couple friends on the 9/11 commission and i said, wait a minute, this is the first i have heard of this. i can t believe people didn t pay attention to it. and the an
in the may 1 situation? i was aware that there were potential terrorist operatives. the fbi tracks people on a regular basis. what they are implying is that the al qaeda cell that committed the 9/11 attacks was identified in the united states and that was a reference in the may 1st pdb. that s why i want to see e that declassified. here s the point with the administration leading up to 9/11 9/11. the administration identified al qaeda as a threat. they didn t understand the urgency. in multiple meetings we had in the spring and summer, they accepted we have a to deal with al qaeda, but they did not appreciate how urgent a threat it was. we see the president s conversation. you had a little bit of that sense. so that was the issue. we were arguing in the counterterrorism shop. and as michael said, they came into office with a view of terrorism as a primpl through state sponsorship and the days and weeks after 9/11, there were plenty of conversations saying you sure iraq wasn t involve
transferring so as not to be blamed when the attack took place. all told, it s a devastating portrait. roger cressey is an nbc news terrorism analyst and was deputy for counterterrorism at the national security council on september 11 shg, 2001. michael tomasky is special correspondent for newsweek and the daily beast. let me start with roger. let at the start with roger. you have been on this show so often about this question, about what we knew, what we could have known. where do you think you are right now after reading this article? well, so, chris, the thing that was the most interesting was the reference to the may 1st presidential daily brief and i called a couple friends on the 9/11 commission and i said, wait a minute, this is the first i have heard of this. i can t believe people didn t pay attention to it. and the answer i got back was, yes, they did, they did look at it. they did analyze it. there is something missing in eichenwald s account. so, what i d like to see is
the fbi tracks people on a regular basis. what they are implying is that the al qaeda cell that committed the 9/11 attacks was identified in the united states and that was a reference in the may 1st pdb. that s why i want to see e that declassified. here s the point with the administration leading up to 9/ 9/11. the administration identified al qaeda as a threat. they didn t understand the urgency. in multiple meetings we had in the spring and summer, they accepted we have a to deal with al qaeda, but they did not appreciate how urgent a threat it was. we see the president s conversation. you had a little bit of that sense. so that was the issue. we were arguing in the counterterrorism shop. and as michael said, they came into office with a view of terrorism as a primpl through state sponsorship and the days and weeks after 9/11, there were plenty of conversations saying you sure iraq wasn t involved in it? we wrote a memo saying we