From this Slate article:

"This was not a 'threat report,' " [Condi Rice] said. It "did not warn of any coming attack inside the United States." Later in the hearing, she restated the point: "The PDB does not say the United States is going to be attacked. It says Bin Laden would like to attack the United States."
To call this distinction "academic" would be an insult to academia.

Now imagine the following news story:
“August 26, 2001: A White House spokesman announced today that the United States has invaded the nation of Afghanistan. Early this morning, aircraft from the 123rd Air Wing* stationed in Hamburg, Germany bombed several sites in Afghanistan that are believed to be strongholds of al Qaeda, a terrorist organization that has been under suspicion for several acts of terror in recent years including the African embassy bombings and the attack on the USS Cole. The bombings were followed by waves of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division, who moved quickly to secure the areas surrounding the camps. Several hundred alleged al Qaeda members are already in custody, including Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the group.
In addition, Special Forces troops have seized a dozen al Qaeda members in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, and an undisclosed number of foreign nationals in the United States have been arrested on suspicion of ties to the group.
While answering reporters’ questions, the spokesman quoted intelligence reports indicating that al Qaeda was planning to attack the United States. ‘We have no concrete proof that an attack is imminent or even in the preparation stage, but we do know that al Qaeda would really, really like to hit us on our own turf. We felt that waiting for more evidence was just too risky.’
The White House declined to comment on whether Yemen or the UAE was cooperating with the US, or if Pakistan had given permission for American military aircraft to cross its airspace.”

*Fictional unit

UPDATE: No sooner do I write this than I find somebody else doing it better. Two somebodies, in fact. Via Rantingprofs.
- posted by Dactyl @ 9:52 AM