High-ranking officials say 9/11 might have been prevented

I think Senator Shelby's remarks say it plainly and make it plain.[/color]

But he was talking about the Clinton regime... :wink:

Actually, he was referring to a CIA report from Twenty months before the Sept. 11 attacks, in which the CIA tracked two of the would-be hijackers as possible al Qaeda terrorists, but delayed alerting other government agencies that could have blocked their entry to the United States or spied on them once they arrived.

I believe that 20 months before 9-11 would plant the ball firmly in the Clinton administration's watch...hmmmmmm?

Cheney the "deferment" and Specter the "spender" aren't worth listening to, Shelby is balanced and understands that the CIA needs a little fixing.

Yeah, all this 20/20 hindsight is great, as usual.

Only if Bush's people didn't bother to get briefings when they took office. Bush had it in his court for 9 months, what did he do? There's enough guilt to go around.

But they did take briefings. Go read Tarantulas' post about Powell's interview that Blatham believed to be too long. They had meetings every day. Just not with Clarke.

What I want to know is what happened to all their lofty excuses for Rice not to testify? Did they really not feel that way when they were explaining why she wouldn't testify? What has changed? She is still the Bush's security advisor isn't she?

As for the post that is mentioned up above, to me that is just Powell saying the same lines that they all been saying. Nevertheless, the President has already said that before 9/11 he didn't feel a sense of urgency about Al queda. To me that pretty well says it all.

Democrats Say Bush Did Nothing to Stop Dinosaur Extinction

3/29/2004 - William Grim

Washington, DC - Congressional Democrats today denounced the Bush Administration for having done nothing to avert the extinction of the dinosaurs. Senator Barbara Boxer of California, ranking member on the Senate Dinosaur Extinction Oversight Panel, says that the Bush Administration came into office with no clear plan for dealing with nuclear-winter-causing giant meteors.

"The lack of a clearly defined giant reptilian extinction policy is just scandalous," said Senator Boxer at a press conference this morning. "Even at this late date, there is still no unified and well thought out policy concerning dinosaur extinction emanating from the White House."

Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor under former President Clinton, says that the Clinton Administration handed over to the Bush Administration in 2001 not only the most ethical administration in the history of the country, but also a complete and fully functioning dinosaur extinction policy.

"The Bush Administration really dropped the ball on this one," said Mr. Berger yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation. "If President Bush had followed our plan there would be brontosauruses swimming in the Potomac today. But the Bush Administration seems obsessed with the so-called War Against Terror."

Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America earlier today, Vice President Richard Cheney defended the Bush Administration's record. "There are plenty of dinosaurs roaming the streets. All you have to do is take a peek in the Democrat Cloak Room in the Senate."

Broken Newz

Once again, if you read Clarke's book, or testimony, or Tenet's testimony, it becomes clear that the daily briefings were on many issues, and that the relevant issue - threat from al Qaida - were ignored. To say they had daily briefings is, in itself, quite irrelevant.

brand

That's too easy. The function of all those agencies involved, and the function of the administrations above, was to gather information, assess the information, and to make plausible and reasonable predictions of future terrorist threats. To just say that everything is easy in hindsight is a truism, but it relieves everyone of responsibility.

Clarke's charge is that the Bush administration's dismissal of advice and warnings from the various intel agencies WAS unreasonable in that the focus on Iraq was unsupported by evidence and was driven by ideology.

When will you start services to worship Clarkes book, Blatham?

blatham, not as easy as it seems, the timing of the book release and screed within is no coincidence, it has turned the 9/11 hearings from a fact finding mission to better future processes into the intent to oust Bush. What could have been and will yet hopefully be, good for the country has been politicized to a large degree. This is my opinion for now and until all of this is said and done. Neither side looks good to my estimation and I'm all for getting to the meat of the issue but Clarke has served us a side dish of soy burger.

VIACOM is apparently backing another book forthcoming by Bob Woodward.

brand

Please read the book. A screed it is not.

Blatham
Blatham, get real! They won't read the book. It might interfere with the basis on which they try to demonize Clarke, a Republican who is not a liberal. They appear not to be interested in learning what happened so it can be fixed. The book is not about who is to blame, it is about fixing the problem. My book arrived yesterday and I've just started reading it. One thing I have noticed so far is that while everyone was evacuating the White House (under orders), Richard Clarke was racing in his car to get there. He and some others stayed in the White House to issue orders just like the New York Fire fighters and police ran into the Twin Towers as everyone else was trying to escape. They, and Clarke, were trying to save lives. I salute Clarke!

BBB

In one of his television interviews--I'm sorry that I can't remember where I saw him say it--Richard Clarke was asked point blank that if his findings and warnings had been taken serious by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, could 9/11 have been foreseen and prevented? He said 'No'.

It might not have been prevented, but it would have been nice to know that they put America above their own private agendas.

Revel writes:


I understand and sympathise with this comment. But in defense of both Clinton and Bush, neither could have envisioned what happen on 9/11. Nobody did except the terrorists themselves.

Remember those alerts the media was putting out in the weeks following 9/11? Terrorist threats were everywhere and they were letting us know. Nothing happened. When nothing happened, they finally stopped putting them out there because it just looked like they were 'crying wolf'.

Presidents and governments have a whole lot to do. Had either Clinton or Bush thrown all their attention and resources on rounding up terrorists and neglected everything else, can you imagine the hue and cry of protest from Americans who have had little first hand experience with terrorism?

Now that we have the luxury of hindsight, should both have done more? Probably. But at the worst they made the wrong decision about what to concentrate on at the time and, given demands and expectations of the American public, it is hard to look at that as criminal negligence.