in a thread of another article by  the very astute Sean Conners, a.k.a. SConn1  Link   there's been an ongoing sidebar discussion turning on the question of what constitutes a bonafide plan. 

i found an article that seems germane to that conversation located here: Link  rather than dump what's turned into a lotta text onto mr. conners excellent post, i'll overload my own blog. 

the article in question was published on 9/12/01 so what's meant by mentions of 'last april' or 'two months ago' would be april, 2001 or july 2001 respectively. . 

it's focus is a self-described 'road map for national security'*--a report/recommendation prepared by the very non-partison 14-member us commission on national security/21st century (also known as the hart-rudman commission after the two former senators co-chairs).    chartered by the department of defense, hart-rudman's roadmap--the culmination of 2.5 years of study--was presented to the incoming bush administration in january 31, 2001. 

here are some excerpts from Commission warned Bush by jake tapper:

"The bipartisan 14-member panel was put together in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to make sweeping strategic recommendations on how the United States could ensure its security in the 21st century.

"In its Jan. 31 report, seven Democrats and seven Republicans unanimously approved 50 recommendations. Many of them addressed the point that, in the words of the commission's executive summary, "the combination of unconventional weapons proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack."

" Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers -- that's a quote (from the commission's Phase One Report) from the fall of 1999."

"The commission recommended the formation of a Cabinet-level position to combat terrorism. The proposed National Homeland Security Agency** director would have "responsibility for planning, coordinating, and integrating various U.S. government activities involved in homeland security," according to the commission's executive summary.

"Other commission recommendations include having the proposed National Homeland Security Agency assume responsibilities now held by other agencies -- border patrol from the Justice Department, Coast Guard from the Transportation Department, customs from the Treasury Department, the National Domestic Preparedness Office from the FBI, cyber-security from the FBI and the Commerce Department. Additionally, the NHSA would take over FEMA, and let the "National Security Advisor and NSC staff return to their traditional role of coordinating national security activities and resist the temptation to become policymakers or operators."

"The commission was supposed to disband after issuing the report Jan. 31, but Hart and the other commission members got a six-month extension to lobby for their recommendations. Hart says he spent 90 minutes with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and an hour with Secretary of State Colin Powell lobbying for the White House to devote more attention to the imminent dangers of terrorism and their specific, detailed recommendations for a major change in the way the federal government approaches terrorism. He and Rudman briefed National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on the commission's findings.

"Bush administration officials told former Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H., that they preferred instead to put aside the recommendations issued in the January report by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. Instead, the White House announced in May that it would have Vice President Dick Cheney study the potential problem of domestic terrorism -- which the bipartisan group had already spent two and a half years studying -- while assigning responsibility for dealing with the issue to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, headed by former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh***.

"The Hart-Rudman Commission had specifically recommended that the issue of terrorism was such a threat it needed far more than FEMA's attention..

"Before the White House decided to go in its own direction, Congress seemed to be taking the commission's suggestions seriously, according to Hart and Rudman. "Frankly, the White House shut it down," Hart says. "The president said 'Please wait, we're going to turn this over to the vice president. We believe FEMA is competent to coordinate this effort.' And so Congress moved on to other things, like tax cuts and the issue of the day."

"Good intelligence is the key to preventing attacks on the homeland," Hart said, arguing that the commission "urges that homeland security become one of the intelligence community's most important missions." The nation needed to embrace "homeland security as a primary national security mission." The Defense Department, for instance, "has placed its highest priority on preparing for major theater war" where it "should pay far more attention to the homeland security mission." Homeland security would be the main purpose of beefed-up National Guard units throughout the country."

"But in May, Bush announced his plan almost as if the Hart-Rudman Commission never existed, as if it hadn't spent millions of dollars, "consulting with experts, visiting 25 countries worldwide, really deliberating long and hard," as Hart describes it. Bush said in a statement that "numerous federal departments and agencies have programs to deal with the consequences of a potential use of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapon in the United States. But to maximize their effectiveness, these efforts need to be seamlessly integrated, harmonious and comprehensive." That, according to the president, should be done through FEMA, headed by Allbaugh, formerly Bush's gubernatorial chief of staff.

"Bush also directed Cheney -- a man with a full plate, including supervision of the administration's energy plans and its dealings with Congress -- to supervise the development of a national counter-terrorism plan. Bush announced that Cheney and Allbaugh would review the issues and have recommendations for him by Oct. 1. The commission's report was seemingly put on the shelf."

"On Tuesday*****, Hart says he spent much of his time on the phone with the commission's executive director, Gen. Charles G. Boyd. "We agreed the thing we should not do is say, 'We told you so,'" Hart says. "And that's not what I'm trying to do here. Our focus needs to be: What do we do now?"

"Of course, as a former senator, Hart well knows what happens to the recommendations of blue-chip panels. But he says he thought that the gravity of the issue -- and the comprehensiveness of the commission's task -- would prevent its reports from being ignored. After all, when then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen signed the charter for the 21st Century National Security Strategy Study, he charged its members to engage in "the most comprehensive security analysis" since the groundbreaking National Security Act of 1947, which created the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of Secretary of Defense, among other organizations.

"Neither Hart nor Rudman claim that their recommendations, if enacted, would have necessarily prevented Tuesday's tragedy. "Had they adopted every recommendation we had put forward at that time I don't think it would have changed what happened," Rudman says. "There wasn't enough time to enact everything. But certainly I would hope they pay more attention now."

considering how traumatized we were during the days and weeks following 9/11, their decision then musta seemed very right and reasonable.  especially when compared with the way the commission's recommendations were so casualy and foolishly dismissed.

i'm not sure whether the commission's  final report is long enuff to officially qualify as a plan.  it appears to be comprised of 139 pages + 18 auxilliary sheets (toc, coversheets, preface, etc.) which seems pretty damn long to me.

(the final version of the report can be obtained here Link )

my conclusion?

 the president, vice-president and their national security advisor were sufficiently briefed by the previous administration regarding  the immediate threat posed by al-quaeda and provided  with a comprehensive strategic program--or plan--to protect us from that threat.  

it wasn't until 9/11/01 that anyone in the bush whitehouse  took it seriously enough to implement most of the commision's recommendations. 

had these three people (among others) failed so badly in a commercial enterprise, they'd never work anywhere else again (well...dubya might be able to get his daddy and brother neil to scam up enuff bread to start a new oil company he could then sell to dubai, but..).

finally, i was amazed to discover the following  terms seem to have been borrowed, rather than originated, by the bush administration:

* roadmap

**national homeland security administration

i was equally amazed to see brownie wasn't the first nor the only crony appointed to run  fema

***FEMA, headed by Allbaugh, formerly Bush's gubernatorial chief of staff.

****this would be thursday sept 6 2001

*****9/11/01