Strick, don't be ridiculous. First, no one is reading "this and this alone". In my post, I just finished saying that one has to look at the PDB in the context of the testimony of many people, not just Rice and Clarke. When I said I was trying to put myself in the pre-9/11 context, when we were hearing story after story about FBI incompetence and worse, and the corroboration of that from the two FBI agents who had cracked the 9/11 case but who weren't being listened to, and finally, of the rather damning lack of evidence that the Bush White House successfully communicated the warnings to anyone who needed to receive them, but most notably, the FAA.

No, I do not expect that the government should act on rumors alone. I do however, expect them to be able to respond to the intelligence, to FBI investigations, and to the past history of AlQ, and piece it all together competently, as was done when the bombing plot in California was sussed out.

The piece of this you seem to be willfully ignoring Strick, is that the White House is claiming that the "heightened alert" you keep mentioning was communicated effectively to all the agencies and departments that needed to be notified. The investigative record shows that they weren't. And it was that question that was the most important one asked when Rice testified, that she failed to answer. She blamed it on the bureaucracy. That will be used against Bush in the upcoming election, because it should be.

And honestly Strick, based upon the intelligence, both Clinton and Bush should have done MUCH more about airport and airplane security. It still hasn't been done. We are no safer now than before 9/11 in that regard. Airport security remains a complete joke.