How can anyone possibly blame 9/11 on Bush when he clearly inherited the problem from a lazy Clinton administration?
Both are to blame in my opinion. You want to blame it all on Clinton and Give Bush a pass, when that is just an ideologue protecting his messiah. They both screwed up.
I just watched a clip on MSNBC Hardball that had a 10 year veteran (retired now) of the CIA. He definitely did say that Clinton had more chances than Bush to get bin Laden.
But he ended the show with a bombshell. The lady hostess, I forget her name, was all smiles when she got him to admit that Cllinton had more chances (apparently she seems to be a Bush supporter). But, when she ended the segment she asked him if the Iraq War was good for the “War on Terror”. He said it was absolutley horrible for the war on terror. He said the Iraq War turned Osama bin Laden from an organization that could have been contained and perhaps defeated into a movement. He said the Iraq broke the back of the War on Terror, and that the Iraq War changed the length of the War on Terror from what could have been a short war into a war that is now been extended by twenty years because of Bush’s ineptitude to take into acount the bigger picture. I am sorry, but I trust a ten year veteran of the CIA who followed Osama bin Laden for ten years before I believe some Internet hack typing in a forum.
So don’t go rushing to pat your Bushie on the back just yet...Osama is still loose, and our ability to fight the war on terror has been worsened by Bush in many people’s opinion. Bush has made the situation worse.
I don’t think either are to blame because intelligence brings reports like those that are cited as being proof that nothing was done all the time. The president and other advisors have to sift through report after report about what may or may happen which generally does not happen. The president may have recieved thousands of reports detailing supposed plans of terrorist organizations around the world. They have been receiving reports about an Al-Qaida attack for many years but with no real detail about when, where, how, etc and people blame our leaders. Its easy to blaim the leader no matter who he may be for a multitude of reasons on anything when indefinately its not his/her fault. I believe the people who are at fault are the ones who planned and carried out the attack.
What good reason could Gorelick have for preventing agencies from sharing information? I have been wondering about that for awhile.
The reason was mainly because they didn’t want the public to perceive that the agency was over stepping its bounds and going after people who were here legally, i.e. racial profiling. They were more concerned about the agencies reputation then they were about the safety of our country - pure and simple.
Did you miss this part of the memo?
“We believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will more clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations. These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation.”
He said the Iraq War turned Osama bin Laden from an organization that could have been contained and perhaps defeated into a movement.
all nice and dandy but he never said exactly how that was to happen. covert ops? the minute they hear about them the Dingleberry Demo meets in front of the white house screeching “hitler”. sanctions? make babies starve. crusade? yeah, right. our former president hosed interns on the job and lied about it; no islami is gonna take someone like that seriously.
He said the Iraq War turned Osama bin Laden from an organization that could have been contained and perhaps defeated into a movement.
all nice and dandy but he never said exactly how that was to happen. covert ops? the minute they hear about them the Dingleberry Demo meets in front of the white house screeching “hitler”. sanctions? make babies starve. crusade? yeah, right. our former president hosed interns on the job and lied about it; no islami is gonna take someone like that seriously.
The most interesting and freightening thing I’ve heard today on a local station here. The guy they were talking too wrote some book about 9/11 but had this incredible insight:
(I’m paraphrasing so forgive me)
“Bin Laden is an incredibley intelligent man. Instead of trying to attack the Arab countries that he dispises, he went after their support i.e. America, knowing when this support failed, those regimes (Suadi Arabia) would fail as well. This is not about how Bin Laden hates our freedoms, hates women voting, it’s all about toppling the support that he sees props up these regimes that he hates so much. This is where he swells his ranks, by showing these people that is the evil USA proping up the Saudi family, it’s the USA protecting these countries. That’s where the power in the message lies.”
Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.. . . . .
The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. “My story is consistent,” said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command. “Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. “My story is consistent,” said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command. “Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000.” ...
The statement from Captain Phillpott , a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, who has served in the Navy for 22 years, was provided to The New York Times and Fox News through the office of Representative Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a longtime proponent of so-called data-mining programs like Able Danger.
The private contractors working for the counter-terrorism unit Able Danger lost their jobs in May 2000. The firings following a series of analyses that Pentagon lawyers feared were dangerously close to violating laws banning the military from spying on Americans, sources said.
The Pentagon canceled its contract with the private firm shortly after the analysts — who were working on identifying al Qaeda operatives — produced a particularly controversial chart on proliferation of sensitive technology to China, the sources said.
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the veteran Army officer who was the Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to Able Danger, told The Post China “had something to do” with the decision to restructure Able Danger.
Sources said the private contractors, using sophisticated computer software that sifts through massive amounts of raw data to establish patterns, came up with a chart of Chinese strategic and business connections in the U.S.
A Pentagon official said last night that, while the canned contractors worked for Able Danger, the China project was separate from the counter-terrorism assignment.
The China chart was put together by James Smith, who confirmed yesterday that his contract with the military was canceled and he was fired from his company because the military brass became concerned about the focus on U.S. citizens.
“It was shut down in a matter of hours. The colonel said our service was no longer needed and told me: ‘You just ended my career.’ ”
Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda “activity” in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.
In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S. warship that killed 17 sailors.
Kie Fallis arrived at work determined to keep arguing his view that terrorists were about to attack a U.S. target.
For Mr. Fallis, “work” was the headquarters of the Pentagon´s intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency. He encountered Jay Saunders, chief of the DIA´s Persian Gulf Division, on his way into the agency´s offices at Bolling Air Force Base in suburban Washington. Insiders call the place the Death Star in homage to the Empire´s space station in “Star Wars.”
“I´m going to keep pushing this issue today,” Mr. Fallis told Mr. Saunders, “until something is done or until I get my ass kicked.”
Mr. Fallis, a former Army interrogator turned intelligence analyst in the Terrorism Analysis Division, was one of the agency´s top specialists on Iran and fluent in its Farsi tongue.
It was Oct. 12, 2000; the clock was ticking toward a date just under a year away. He already had pieced together the methodology and connections of Osama bin Laden´s al Qaeda terrorist network, using commercial software known as Analyst´s Notebook. The results were alarming: Many of those involved in previous attacks against U.S. interests appeared to be planning new strikes.
Perhaps the relevant “Able Danger” information was in the papers that accidentally tumbled from classified files, into Sandy Berger’s pants, and from there into the paper shredder. I bet he feels awful about it too. He really shouldn’t though. Accidents happen.
September 20, 2005 Pentagon Blocks Testimony at Senate Hearing on Terrorist By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The Pentagon said today that it had blocked a group of military officers and intelligence analysts from testifying at an open Congressional hearing about a highly classified military intelligence program that, the officers have said, identified a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a potential terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The announcement came a day before the officers and intelligence analysts had been scheduled to testify about the program, known as Able Danger, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement that open testimony about the program “would not be appropriate - we have expressed our security concerns and believe it is simply not possible to discuss Able Danger in any great detail in an open public forum.” He offered no other detail on the Pentagon’s reasoning in blocking the testimony.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the committee, said he was surprised by the Pentagon’s decision because “so much of this has already been in the public domain, and I think that the American people need to know what happened here.”
At least one of them is going public no matter what. He wants to testify but if he can’t he’ll just go straight to the press. Good for him. All this political shit is really unnecessary when it comes to ensuring the safety of all Americans.
CYA time. While most of the damage occurred under Clinton’s watch I bet there are enough Republicans and career bureaucrats involved too (even in the Pentagon) to be very unhappy about the depth of the fuck up being exposed.
One of the despicable things about politics is that for the really big stuff both parties suddenly become non-partisan ass coverers so as not to bring down the uber-class, the oligarchy, the political class. To paraphrase Juvenal, “they overlap like homosexuals.”
CYA time. While most of the damage occurred under Clinton’s watch I bet there are enough Republicans and career bureaucrats involved too (even in the Pentagon) to be very unhappy about the depth of the fuck up being exposed.
One of the despicable things about politics is that for the really big stuff both parties suddenly become non-partisan ass coverers so as not to bring down the uber-class, the oligarchy, the political class. To paraphrase Juvenal, “they overlap like homosexuals.”
But it isn’t just politics - why wouldn’t that uber-class cover some major players in business and the press as well ?
