Senate Ethics Committee Clears Shelby (11/13/2005)

Can't understand why everyone is so upset about these two messages; BushCo had been being warned all summer long and did nothing.

What in hell makes anyone think they would have done anything about this?

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Senate Ethics Committee Clears Shelby (11/13/2005):

"What had attracted the interest of the FBI were news reports in 2002 revealing that on the eve of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the National Security Agency had intercepted two Arabic-language messages suggesting that such attacks might soon commence. The messages that were overheard said: 'The match is about to begin,' and 'Tomorrow is zero hour.' But they were not translated until the day after the attacks, on September 12, 2001.

The messages were discussed at length during a closed door session of the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 19, 2002, by Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the then-director of the National Security Agency. Shortly after the hearing concluded, CNN aired a report disclosing the two messages. The next day, both The Washington Post and USA Today published much more detailed news reports regarding the intercepts. Shelby was at the time the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senior intelligence officials have insisted that even if the messages had been translated immediately, the 9/11 attacks almost certainly could not have been prevented. But they said that the leak revealed possible sources and methods of intelligence gathering, and was considered a major security breach. "