again, not really news, but good that it is admitted

CIA missed chances to thwart al-Qaida

WASHINGTON - The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available powers, never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to Sept. 11, the agency's own watchdog concluded in a bruising report released Tuesday.

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We have known for years that this administration ignored all of the warnings from Clinton's administration regarding al-Qaida. There is no way to know if the events of September 11th could have been avoided, but bush purposely ignored all the warnings that he was given, so we know that he didn't do all that he could have to prevent the disaster.