One of the counter spins to developing revelations regarding the July briefings by the CIA to Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Rice, is that the warnings were too non-specific to be acted upon. Yet shortly thereafter, supposedly based on FBI briefings, Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial flights.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
We know the FBI had been concerned with terrorists taking flight school training. We know the CIA knew specific Al Queda operatives were in the U.S. We know that connecting the dots and cooperating on what each already knew was supposedly a problem. We know that they were not taking terrorism or Al Queda seriously before 9-11. Yet at just that time, Ashcroft stopped flying commericial flights.
http://www.mahablog.com/...
My charitable interpretation is that they sorta knew... the dots were pencilled in by NSC/CIA/FBI/NSA... but at the policy/actionable level the Bushies has decided terrorism was not real or important (stop shouting at us Richard Clarke). For national security and defence, only missile defence and China. Nor was counter-terrorism a domestic priority for Ashcroft, only violent crime and drugs.
http://www.americanprogress.org/...
And so, even with the dots sorta connected, nobody "got it."