Remember how W. Bush blew off the August 6, 2001 CIA memo -- "Osama determined to strike in the

[gratuitous]

8. Also, President Gore wouldn't have been so hapless months earlier

Remember when the Chinese brought down one of our spy planes early in the Bush administration? After a few days of impotent bluster, the Bushies settled for Chinese assurances that the flight crew was being safely held and that they'd get Bibles during their incarceration. After the Chinese took their sweet time going over the captured plane piece by piece, they turned it over to our good friends the Russians to carry it back to the States on a slow boat from China.

I'd bet some hostile eyes took a good look at the Bush administration flailing, and figured they could bring off their scheme, as disinterested as the Bushies were in security.