Relevant text
December 4, 1998: Clinton Warned ‘Bin Laden Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft’ Inside US
December 21, 1998: Bin Laden May Be Planning Attacks on New York and Washington
May 30, 2001: FBI Is Warned of Major Al-Qaeda Operation in the US Involving Hijackings, Explosives, and/or New York City
June 2001: Germans Warn of Plan to Use Aircraft as Missiles on US and Israeli Symbols
July 10, 2001: CIA Director Gives Urgent Warning to White House of Imminent, Multiple, Simultaneous Al-Qaeda Attacks, Possibly within US
Late July 2001: Egypt Warns CIA of 20 Al-Qaeda Operatives in US; Four Training to Fly; CIA Is Not Interested
Late Summer 2001: Jordan Warns US that Aircraft Will Be Used in Major Attack Inside the US
August 4-30, 2001: Bush Nearly Sets Record for Longest Presidential Vacation
August 6, 2001: President Bush Tells CIA Regarding Bin Laden Warning, ‘You’ve Covered Your Ass, Now’
According to journalist and author Ron Suskind, just after a CIA briefer presents President Bush with the later infamous PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing) item entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”, Bush tells the briefer, “You’ve covered your ass, now.” This account is from Suskind’s 2006 bookThe One Percent Doctrine, which is based largely on anonymous accounts from political insiders. In the book, after describing the presentation of the PDB, Suskind will write: “And, at an eyeball-to-eyeball intelligence briefing during this urgent summer, George W. Bush seems to have made the wrong choice. He looked hard at the panicked CIA briefer. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘You’ve covered your ass, now.’”
And the fishing bit
We’ve known for years now that George W. Bush received apresidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” We’ve known for almost as long that Bush went fishing afterward.What we didn’t know is what happened in between the briefing and the fishing, and now Suskind is here to tell us. Bush listened to the briefing, Suskind says, then told the CIA briefer: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”