Bush and His Aides Accuse Democrats of Second-Guessing
Nonetheless, the White House still found itself on the defensive once again today, this time over a 1999 report commissioned by a federal intelligence agency that eerily foreshadowed the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to Al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency or the White House," the report said.

The report, titled "The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism," was prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council, an interagency group that oversees intelligence analysis throughout the government. The report, which has long been public, based its analysis largely on the fact that in 1995, a similar plot by a group of Islamic militants based in the Philippines who were linked to Al Qaeda was foiled.

The White House marshaled a host of resources, including Laura Bush, in its political offensive. Mrs. Bush was in Budapest this morning but issued a two-paragraph statement, an unusual action for a first lady who has largely stayed out of politics. "I think it is very sad that people would play upon the victims' families' emotions, or all Americans' emotions," Mrs. Bush said, adding that "I know my husband, and all Americans know how he has acted in Afghanistan and in the war with terror."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/18/politics/18BUSH.html?todaysheadlines