Al Qaeda

Administration members have repeatedly said things along the lines of We had no idea terrorists were considering using aircraft as missiles.

If you morons had been paying attention, you would have seen the F.A.A.’s 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned Mr. bin Laden or Al Qaeda from April to Sept. 10, 2001.

NYT: 9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings

Did they forget to tell Dear Fearless Leader?

Also, if you didn’t know already, then National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, now Secretary of State, lied about receiving a plan from Richard A. Clarke:

The 13-page proposal presented to Dr. Rice by her top counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, laid out ways to step up the fight against Al Qaeda, focusing on Osama bin Laden’s headquarters in Afghanistan. The ideas included giving “massive support” to anti-Taliban groups “to keep Islamic extremist fighters tied down”; destroying terrorist training camps “while classes are in session” and then sending in teams to gather intelligence on terrorist cells; deploying armed drone aircraft against known terrorists; more aggressively tracking Qaeda money; and accelerating the F.B.I.’s translation and analysis of material from surveillance of terrorism suspects in American cities.

NYT: ’01 Memo to Rice Warned of Qaeda and Offered Plan

The title of this plan: “Strategy for Eliminating the Threat From the Jihadist Networks of al Qida: Status and Prospects.”

The Prescription Drug Bill

As recently as September, Medicare chief Mark B. McClellan said the new drug package would cost $534 billion over 10 years. Last night, he acknowledged that the cumulative cost of the program between 2006 and 2015 will reach $1.2 trillion, but he cited several major savings and offsets that he said will reduce the federal government’s bottom-line cost to $720 billion.

WaPo: Medicare Drug Benefit May Cost $1.2 Trillion

It will only cost $186 billion more than we said it would! Our bad!!

Missile Defense

The United States’ fledgling missile-defense system suffered its third straight test failure Sunday night when an interceptor rocket failed to launch from its island base, leaving a target rocket to splash uselessly into the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said today.

NYT: For 3rd Time in a Row, U.S. Antimissile System Fails a Test