What Did Bush Know, When Did He Know It?

Re “Bush Told of Likely Hijacks,” May 16: Now the cowboy who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wants us to believe that no one could have anticipated the events of Sept. 11. He claims those prior warnings lacked specific details sufficient to prevent the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. What more warnings were they looking for? Messages were sent and received when the World Trade Center parking center was bombed Feb. 26,1993; American troops were attacked in Somalia on Oct. 3 and 4, 1993; the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were bombed June 25, 1996; our embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania were bombed Aug. 7, 1998; the U.S. destroyer Cole was attacked Oct. 12, 2000. Those responsible for these acts were under surveillance before, during and after these dramatic signals of intent to kill U.S. service personnel and civilians.

Washington demonstrated its capabilities of tracking domestic “radicals” during the Cold War period following World War II. The FBI infiltrated and intercepted the internal communications of organizations that the super-patriots labeled subversive. It is hard to believe that our spy catchers have grown so inept since the 1950s. What is believable is that the present occupants of the White House are not up to protecting us.

Louis St. Martin

Pomona

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First Iran-Contragate, now Osamagate. It’s interesting that both President Bushes have found themselves on the receiving end of these questions: What did he know? And when did he know it?

It would be nice to get an answer this time.

Evelyn Jerome

Santa Monica