Just as Mariane Pearl has been BETRAYED by the Wall
Street Journal, Kristin Breitweiser, Ellen Mariani and
the other widows and widowers of 9/11 have been
BETRAYED by the _resident and the VICE _resident, BUT
perhaps even more unforgivably they have been BETRAYED
by the "US mainstream news media" which docily reports
that the White House is concerned that the 9/11
commission's conclusions must be used for partisan
politics BUT refuses to connect the dots between the
stonewalling in the days and weeks immediately after
9/11 and the stonewalling in recent weeks for the US
public and then call it for what it is -- a brutal,
naked political cover-up to protect the incompetence
(at best) of the _resident and his national security
team prior to 9/11...
It's the Media, Stupid.
Mortin Mintz, AlertNet: By repeatedly specifying the
dates of attempts by the vice president and the
president to prevent an investigation, Daschle knocked
down the improbable if not ridiculous claim that he
had several times gotten "wrong" or misinterpreted
Cheney's calls and the president's face-to-face
request at a breakfast. Thus did Daschle implicitly
challenge the truthfulness of the vice president about
investigating the events culminating in the
catastrophic terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and
the Pentagon.
Repudiate the 9/11 Coverup and the Iraq War Lies, Show
Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat (Bush)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17816
Investigating the Investigation
By Morton Mintz, AlterNet
February 10, 2004
Editorial writers have rightly slammed the White House for stonewalling two key requests by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks. One was for essential information on the lead-up to 9-11. The other was for an extension of the May 27 deadline for completing its investigation.
It was the tough criticism that forced the
administration, on Feb. 4, to grant a face-saving but
insufficient two-month extension. Two related points
need to be made about the stonewalling. The first is
that it was entirely predictable, because the
administration had tried to prevent any investigation
by anybody. The second is that leading newspapers blew
the opportunity to report that the administration had
done this, thus leaving their readers and those of the
hundreds of papers that subscribe to their news
services in the dark about this important development.
Yet the story was literally staring out at them from
the tube.
On Meet the Press on Sept. 19, 2002, Moderator Tim
Russert asked Dick Cheney about a charge made by
then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle "that you
called him several times and urged him not to
investigate the events of Sept. 11."
"Tom's wrong," the vice president said. "I think in
this case – well, let's say a misinterpretation. What
I did do was work, at the direction of the president,
with the leadership of the Intelligence committees to
say, 'We prefer to work with the Intelligence
committees.'"
The following Sunday, the senator was Russert's guest.
After playing a tape of Cheney's statement, Russert
asked Daschle, "Did the vice president call you and
urge you not to investigate the events of Sept. 11?"
Daschle flatly contradicted Cheney: "Yes, he did, Tim,
on Jan. 24, and then on Jan. 28 the president himself
at one of our breakfast meetings repeated the
request."
Russert persisted: "It wasn't, 'Let's not have a
national commission, but let's have the Intelligence
committees look into this,' it was 'No investigation
by anyone, period'?"
"That's correct," Daschle said. "[T]hat request was
made" by Cheney not only on Jan. 24 and by Mr. Bush
four days later, but "on other dates following" as
well.
By repeatedly specifying the dates of attempts by the
vice president and the president to prevent an
investigation, Daschle knocked down the improbable if
not ridiculous claim that he had several times gotten
"wrong" or misinterpreted Cheney's calls and the
president's face-to-face request at a breakfast. Thus
did Daschle implicitly challenge the truthfulness of
the vice president about investigating the events
culminating in the catastrophic terrorist attack on
the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
This was highly newsworthy – how could it not be? The
next morning, however, leading national newspapers –
including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los
Angeles Times and USA Today – printed not a word about
it. It was another big press pass to George W. Bush
and Dick Cheney.
Morton Mintz was a long-time Washington Post reporter
and is a former chair of the Fund for Investigative
Journalism.