first off, even though he's making one bad decision after another, Bush definitely had nothing to do with 9/11. Whether or not our intelligence agencies had information regarding the attacks prior to the event, that's a different questions, and i'm betting to guess that there was some, but maybe it didn't reveal the whole picture, but i could be wrong. another thing is that even though they probably had some intelligence, it doesn't necessarily mean that they informed the president. remember, before 9/11, communication between agencies wasn't exactly top-notch.

In response to the original post: Al Qaeda and Bin Laden definitely were not doing this to rob American's of their "freedoms." they could care less about the american people, they did this much much different reasons. the only reason they even acknowledge the average-joe is because they use innocent deaths as a tool to attack our governmnet. if you read the fatwas issued by bin laden, he gives very specific reasons as to why they are attacking: soldiers (infidels) on sacred soil is unacceptable, he feels that America is cheating the middle east out of money by forcing lower oil prices (and we are), the fact that we back Israel, etc...

What you have to remember is that these extremist muslims truly believe they are acting on orders from their God to rid the world of infidels. you can equate it to the christians during the crusades. unfortunately, these extremists seem to refuse any type of negotiation whatsoever. the only way we will ever stop "terrorism" by this group is to totally eradicate them or if non-extremist muslim's put a stop to it from the inside.