The Gamut

CNN.com - Transcript of Rice's 9/11 commission statement - Apr 8, 2004:

RICE: I think it actually wasn't by chance, which was Washington's view of it. It was because a very alert customs agent named Diana Dean and her colleagues sniffed something about Ressam. They saw that something was wrong. They tried to apprehend him. He tried to run. They then apprehended him, found that there was bomb- making material and a map of Los Angeles.

Now, at that point, you have pretty clear indication that you've got a problem inside the United States.

I don't think it was shaking the trees that produced the breakthrough in the millennium plot. It was that you got a -- Dick Clarke would say a 'lucky break' -- I would say you got an alert customs agent who got it right.

And the interesting thing is that I've checked with Customs and according to their records, they weren't actually on alert at that point.

So I just don't buy the argument that we weren't shaking the trees enough and that something was going to fall out that gave us somehow that little piece of information that would have led to connecting all of those dots.

Of course, this was not the only successful thwarting of the millenium plots, but so many others have made that point. A point which I think has been overlooked is that Rice claims Diana Dean was not on alert because of the Clinton administration's hyping of the terror threat implicit in the millenium. I'm not so old that I have forgotten 1999. I don't think many of us are that old that we have forgotten four years ago. Y2K warnings were everywhere, but they were always coupled with warnings that al Qaeda-type terrorists might also take advantage of the significant calendar synchronicity and huge celebrations. In fact, Internationally speaking, several such plots were unearthed.

So to suggest that border guards were not on heightened alert is disingenuous to the point of mendacity.

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