A view from overseas:

A bad call?



Ed Vulliamy in Washington
Sunday May 19, 2002
The Observer


For eight months now, Bush and his presidency have ridden on the political crest of the wave of 11 September, legitimised by its professed defence of America from the global terrorist menace.

But now its bluff is called, as layer after layer of the warnings it received that al-Qaeda would strike at America's heart is unpeeled. Now Bush and his aides are having to explain to the people, the press and even to themselves why and how they either misread or failed to read the clear warning signs that al- Qaeda would strike in exactly the way it did.