So he DID know beforehand......
It seems that GWB got a memo 8/6/01 that informed him that Al-Quaida had a support system in place, operatives in the country and was planning an attack or a hijacking. Admittedly, 30 days is not much warning, but it was STILL time enough to tighten the security and potentially save a lot of lives. I think the old boy blundered big-time on this one.
Read it here.
Think about it....you know they're here because you know who some of them are. Airports should have had a photo of every known terrorist with orders to put security check points in place. I don't really want to start a war on racial profiling here, but in this case it may well have stopped a tragedy. An exam of that particular flavor of humans in the 18 to 35 age group might have made a difference.