(7/25/03) Foolish, I suppose, to hope that the "US mainstream
news media" had learned its lesson, after looking the
other way while the truth was distorted throughout the
ramp up to the war, and particularly after falling for
the "rescue of Jessica Lynch" boondoggle (a tall tale
now thoroughly discredited). Earlier this week, I
wondered aloud what "all the _resident's men" would
come up with this week. We knew something would get
whipped up. Why? Well, the _resident's poll numbers
are falling fast, and the Congressional report on what
didn't happen before 9/11 was due out. Something had
to been whipped up to suck all the air of those blow
dried TV anchors lungs...So lo and behold, Saddam's
sons were "discovered" in a mansion in occupied Iraq, and
yes, killed before they could talk. SeeNotNews, etc.
led with the story. USA TooLate devoted its entire
front page to the story. The corporate propaganda
machine formerly known as a free press (well, it is
still free to live in denial) gobbled up the grisly
photos, the debate about the grisly photos, etc.
Meanwhile, the Congressional report on what didn't
happen before 9/11 was released. There were a few
notable exceptions to the general falure to run with a
story of historic signifigance and profound
implictaions. SeeBS, to its credit, did a story on the
9/11 family members, quoting their ire and frustration
with White House stonewalling: "The report is
incomplete at best," said Kristin Breitweiser. "They
are blacking out info in the report. That is
withholding information," said Patti Casazza. The
WASHPs did a reputable job in covering the release of
the report. The lead to Dana Priests' story read:
"President Bush was warned in a more specific way than
previously known about intelligence suggesting that al
Qaeda terrorists were seeking to attack the United
States, a report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
indicated yesterday." Knight-Ridder's story bore the
headline: "9/11 stoppable."
BUT even in these *decent* stories the BIG, BIG facts
were assidously avoided.
Here are two examples:
1) On August 6th 2001, at his "ranch" in Waco, the
_resident received an intelligence briefing on the
imminent threat of a Bin Laden attack on the US (the
White House has refused to released the details,
notes, etc. of this meeting);
2) Clinton-Gore National Security team had identified
Al-Qaeda as a the no. 1 threat and drawn up a plan to
crush them, it was handed to the incoming Bush team
(i.e. the VICE _resident and the White House au pair)
who promptly shelved it. What follows is what should
be filling the air waves...
http://democrats.com/elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=911
To: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Congress, and the Media
Since 911, Americans have learned about numerous
warnings that were received by the Bush Administration
before 911.
These numerous warnings were ignored, with fatal
consequences for nearly 3,000 people.
If these warnings had not been ignored, the Bush
Administration could have protected America by taking
decisive action in the days leading up to 911, and on
911 itself.
Moreover, the Bush Administration concealed these
crucial facts from Congress and the American people,
and then lied about them when they were revealed, in a
deliberate effort to cover up its failure to protect
America.
We, the American people, call upon the Bush-Cheney
administration to take responsibility for failing to
protect America, and to resign. If George W. Bush and
Dick Cheney refuse to resign, we demand their
impeachment by Congress.
The following list contains the most serious warnings
that were ignored by the Bush administration.
Individually, each of these failures justifies
punishment of those directly responsible.
Collectively, these failures justify the resignation -
or impeachment - of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney,
who are ultimately responsible for the failure of
their Administration to protect the American people.
The Bush administration ignored the issue of terrorism
from the moment it assumed office:
They ignored the final report of the Hart-Rudman
commission, the Road Map for National Security:
Imperative for Change, that was issued on January 31,
2001
They blocked Senate hearings on the Hart-Rudman
commission's report, scheduled for the week of May 7,
2001, by announcing a brand new commission led by Vice
President Dick Cheney - which never met before 911
They ignored repeated requests from the Hart-Rudman
commission from January 2001 to September 6, 2001,
when National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice said
she would "pass on" their concerns
They ignored repeated requests from Senator Dianne
Feinstein to restructure US counter-terrorism and
homeland defense programs, starting in July 2001 and
continuing through September 10, 2001, when Dick
Cheney's Chief of Staff told Feinstein to wait 6
months
They ignored the report of the Gore Commission on
Aviation Safety and Security
The Bush administration changed Bill Clinton's policy
towards Afghanistant to appease Al Qaeda, the Taliban,
and their Saudi backers to promote the interests of
oil companies, putting profits for campaign
contributors ahead of fighting terrorism:
They prevented FBI terrorism experts from
investigating Saudi Arabian ties to Al Qaeda before
911, leading to the resignation of FBI Deputy Director
John O'Neill only two weeks before 911
They ordered the Naval Strike Force - which President
Clinton deployed near Afghanistan on 24-hour alert in
order to strike Osama Bin Laden - to "stand down"
before 911
They gave $43 million to the Taliban in April 2001
When appeasement failed, the Bush administration then
prepared for war against Afghanistan:
They issued an ultimatum to the Taliban in July 2001,
telling them to turn over Osama Bin Laden and permit
Unocal to build a pipeline across Afghanistan in
return for a "carpet of gold" - or face a "carpet of
bombs"
They prepared a National Security Presidential
Directive on September 9, 2001, a detailed "game plan
to remove al-Qaida from the face of the Earth"
The Bush administration ignored numerous warnings from
US and foreign agencies:
They ignored warnings as early as June from the
National Security Agency's Echelon electronic spy
network that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning
to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to
attack important symbols of American and Israeli
culture
They ignored warnings from an FBI agent in Phoenix on
July 10, 2001 about suspicious Arab pilots with ties
to Al Qaeda who were training in a local flight
school, urging a nationwide investigation of Arab
students in flight schools
Bush personally ignored warnings from the CIA on
August 6, 2001 that Al Qaeda planned to hijack US
planes
They ignored warnings from Jordanian intelligence in
the summer that a major attack was planned inside the
US using airplanes
They ignored warnings from Israeli intelligence in
August that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly
visible targets on the American mainland were
imminent, organized by a cell of as many of 200
terrorists said to be preparing a big operation
They ignored warnings from Russian intelligence in
August that at least 25 terrorist were trained in
Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack US targets, with
future plans to attack financial, nuclear, and space
facilities
They ignored warnings from Moroccan intelligence in
August that Bin Laden was "very disappointed" by the
failure of the 1993 WTC bombing, and planned
"large-scale operations in New York in the summer or
autumn of 2001"
They rejected a search warrant requests by FBI agents
in Minneapolis for Moussaoui's computer disk
They ignored warnings from Egyptian president Hosni
Mubarak on August 31 of an impending attack on the US
They ignored phone calls from Abu Zubaida, bin Laden's
chief of operations, to the United States that were
intercepted by the National Security Agency shortly
before 911
They ignored an extroardinary number of "puts" on the
stocks which were hardest hit by the 911 attacks,
including American and United airlines, in the days
leading up to 911
The Bush administration failed to take meaningful
precautions against a terrorist attack when so many
warnings were being issued:
Bush went on vacation for the month of August, after
only six months on the job
They allowed counterterrorism agencies to "stand down"
from the highest level of alert before August 6, 2001,
despite repeated warnings from CIA director George
Tenet
The FAA knew about concerns that Moussaiou would
hijack a 747 in August 2001, but failed to warn the
airlines
They failed to assign more sky marshalls or to make
cockpit doors more secure
They changed FAA policy to prohibit pilots from
carrying guns
They failed to increase the readiness levels of our
Air Defense
On 911, Bush failed to take decisive action:
George W. Bush said on two occasions that he saw the
first plane hit the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on
911, and was told by Andrew Card about the second
plane hitting the World Trade Center at 9:05 a.m. -
yet Bush did nothing but listen to a children's story
until 9:30 a.m. instead of ordering fighter jets to
intercept all hijacked planes immediately
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ordered the Pentagon to
shoot down Flight 93 over Pennsylvania at 9:55 a.m.,
but could have shot down the other three flights if
they had not waited so long to act
Following 911, Bush used the tragedy to promote the
agenda of his wealthy and powerful supporters:
Bush pushed through the USA Patriot Act, which
rewarded right-wing opponents of freedom and civil
liberties
Bush demanded additional tax cuts for the wealthy
using the pretense of "stimulating" the economy
Bush massively increased defense spending, to the
direct personal benefit of his father and his cronies
in the Carlyle Group
To cover up his failures, the Bush administration
resorted to stonewalling, fingerpointing, and lies
about 911:
They have continually lied about the extent of the
warnings about the 911 attack
Shortly after 911, Ari Fleischer declared flatly that
there were "no warnings"
When it was revealed in May 2002 that the CIA briefed
Bush personally on August 6, 2001, they claimed that
the briefing did not address terrorist attacks in the
US; then they claimed it was a "low-level" briefing
based on only one warning
Condoleezza Rice said, "I don't think anyone could
have predicted that these people... would try to use
an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a
missile." (5/16/02)
The Pentagon commissioned a study in 1993 called
"Terrorism 2000", which predicted multiple
simultaneous attacks, the use of airplanes as weapons,
targeting of large landmarks and financial centers,
etc.
A Fedex employee tried to crash a DC-10 into FedEx HQ
in Memphis in 1994, but was apprehended
An Islamic fundamentalist group hijacked an Air France
flight and loaded it with 27 tons of fuel to destroy
the Eiffel Tower, but special forces stormed the plane
on the ground
Abdul Hakim Murad and Ramsey Yousef conceived of
'Project Bojinka' in 1995, a plan to blow up 11 US
airline flights over the Pacific in 1995, and to crash
airplanes into the Pentagon and the CIA, which
definitely caught the attention of counter-terrorism
experts in the US
The Library of Congress Report on The Sociology And
Psychology Of Terrorism warned in 1999 about suicide
hijackers
The Pentagon conducted a drill in December 2000 to
respond to an airline crashing into the Pentagon
U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July 2001
that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill
President Bush and other leaders by crashing an
airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized
nations
They did everything possible to block an independent
commission investigation
Bush and Cheney personally called Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle urging him not to conduct an
investigation
When pressure for an independent commission became too
strong, they suddenly announced warnings of another
attack - although they did not raise the official
alert level above yellow, leading to widespread
speculation of a deliberately false alarm to stop the
momentum
When the Independent Commission finally began its
work, Bush used Nixon's dictatorial doctrine of
"Executive Privilege" to deny commissioners access to
crucial documents
George W. Bush himself has repeatedly JOKED about the
911 attack
"Lucky me. I hit the trifecta," George W. Bush,
shortly after 9/11 - quoted by Bush Budget Director
Mitch Daniels, 11/28/01