Insider Finance - Business - Secret 9/11 memo

Nicholas Carlson, November 30, 2022

Hello, Insiders. I’m just going to say it: Go USA! Yes, I’m referring to World Cup soccer. The US men’s team advanced to the knockout stage yesterday — but not without a number of injuries to our star players. So, well, that was a fun game … but I felt like throwing up for 90 minutes straight. I can’t wait for the next match. 

And while I’m at it, let me give a big shout out to our awesome sports team. They’ve been covering all the highlights, controversies, and jaw-dropping and record-breaking moments from the tournament. 

But now, we have some fascinating stories to get to.

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The big story

Brooks Kraft/Getty Images; Reuters; Federation of American Scientists; Rachel Mendelson/Insider

Secret memo reveals Bush rewriting the history of the 9/11 attacks — and the warnings he'd tuned out.

On April 29, 2004, President George W. Bush hosted an extremely unusual meeting at the White House: Members of the 9/11 Commission got to ask him and Vice President Dick Cheney anything they wanted about the September 11th attacks. 

The words spoken in that room remained secret for nearly two decades. Now, with a newly declassified memo, we can finally read what Bush said. His own account of what he knew, and when, differs substantially from the one presented by the 9/11 Commission’s report.

The record shows that CIA director George Tenet did everything he could to get Bush to focus on imminent threats from Al Qaeda, senior correspondent Mattathias Schwartz reports. Bush just wasn't interested.

To understand how Bush escaped blame for 9/11 — winning a second term despite having presided over one of the gravest and most costly failures in presidential history — you need to understand exactly what happened that day in the Oval Office almost 20 years ago.

Read the full report here.

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Today’s sound bite

"For the first time, a drug has been shown to slow early-stage Alzheimer’s. The 18-month clinical trial of Lecanemab saw it slow the impact of the disease in about a quarter of people."

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Today's team

This edition was curated by Nicholas Carlson, and edited by Hallam Bullock, Lisa Ryan, and Jordan Parker Erb. Get in touch: insidertoday@insider.com.

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