Dan Rather: Bush Issued Bogus Terror Alert to Cover Up 9-11 Bungle

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:51 a.m. EDT

"CBS Evening News" anchorman Dan Rather accused the Bush administration Wednesday morning of issuing an unwarranted FBI terrorist alert to New York City yesterday primarily to distract from questions about its handling of pre-Sept. 11 intelligence information.

Appearing on the "Imus in the Morning" radio show, Rather said he "believed" his network's report a week ago that the White House received a CIA briefing before 9-11 on possible al-Qaeda hijackings prompted the administration to issue the alert for political damage control.

"I can believe that the president and the people around him were surprised and peeved, to say the least," Rather contended, "that the information got out last week with [CBS's] report that President Bush had been briefed about some things that, in retrospect after Sept. 11, would indicate that, well, maybe somebody should have done something."

The CBS newsman continued:

"And I can also believe that, as with every president, somebody's in the White House scratching their heads saying, 'How can we change the subject.' Now, the subject has been changed, suddenly and very effectively, from 'How is it that the FBI and the CIA didn't move on the information they had? Where was the president briefed about what, when?'

"The subject's been changed," Rather explained, "from that, to suddenly one administration official after another, and each escalating it, [issuing] a new set of warnings."

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