New York Post
With Dick Cheney and Republican senator Jim DeMint and
Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra accusing the Obama Administration of downplaying the terrorist threat its a good time to go back to the worst terrorist attack on American soil in history -- 911 -- and recall that the evidence collected by the 911 Commision Hearings proved that the 911 attacks succeeded because of the gross, even criminal negligence of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republicans, primarily because they ignored 8 months of terrorist warnings leading up to 911, dismissing it as a legitimate threat.
George W. Bush was never held accountable by the press, congress, or anyone else for the gross negligence, incompetence and criminal recklessness of both he, Rice and Cheney, that resulted in 3000 people losing their lives on 911 and all the upheaval it subsequently created which we are dealing with to this day.
The evidence, all of it irrefutable and documented, is that Bush, Rice and Cheney were grossly negligent, recklessly irresponsible,and completely accountable for the 3000 people killed on Sept. 11 and all because they turned a blind eye to terrorism until it was too late.
The evidence is also that 911 could have and should have been prevented and would have had Bush acted on the information that he had. But that fact, which would have destroyed his presidency as well as the credibility of Republicans as guardians of our national security, was white washed by the Bush Administration and swallowed whole by a compliant press.
The evidence that 911 could have been prevented and that the attacks succeeded because of Bush's negligence, is so overwhelming that had the press spent 1/10th the time on Bush and 911 as they did on Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Bush would have been impeached, or at the very least, politically crippled, and everything that happened since -- Iraq, dropping the ball in Afghanistan, the economic crisis, the exploding deficit, even the incompetent response to Katrina, all of it -- never would have happened. Which makes the press and their spinelessness complicit in the problems the country has now. Because the press, at the time, just didn't have the backbone to deal with it. As a professor of journalism once pointed out, a scandal is only a scandal if the press decides it is.
Instead of holding Bush accountable, the press, mostly out of cowardice, just didn't want to touch it. And along with a hypocritical Republican party who didn't want to be held accountable for the attacks, and a fearful Democratic party afraid of being labeled unpatriotic, they all let Bush get away with it.
Republicans are now worried that the public 911 trials of Khalid Sheik Mohammad and four other 911 conspirators could change that and give the press a second chance at the failings of Bush, Cheney, and Rice putting them and their lack of action on trial along with Khalid Shiek Mohammad.
The 911 Commission hearings uncovered gross, even criminal negligence on the part of Bush, Rice and Cheney that could have left Bush so damaged, that even if he wasnt impeached he would never have had the political capitol to invade Iraq.
Instead the press decided to play down the facts and promote the falsehood given by Bush, Cheney and Rice that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the attacks when the evidence showed the opposite was true had Bush and Cheney taken terrorism seriously which they didn't.
In fact, one of the most telling moments of 911, one that continues to this day, was the press adopting Rice's phrase of not being able to "connect the dots" as her defense as to why they didn't prevent 911.
And, typically, the press, who now routinely parrots that expression, completely missed the significance of Rice's remark which was really her subconscious confessing their negligence and incompetence.
Rice is a highly educated woman,a former ivory tower professor at Stanford. She has a highly educated vocabulary. Yet she used the words " we couldn't connect the dots" to explain their failure in preventing 911.
And what is "connecting the dots"? What is the real significance of the analogy she used to explain the Bush Administration's failure to prevent 911? Connecting the dots is a children's game where there are a series of dots right in front of you, numbered consecutively, and all you have to do is draw a line from one to the other in consecutive order and you get to see the whole picture. Anyone can do it.
Rice admitted they couldn't..
Bush was warned repeatedly of an impending "spectacular" terrorist attack against the United States by the CIA, and there were dire warnings intercepted by the intelligence agencies for eight months, from January 2001 till the end of August 2001. And in August of 2001, the intercepts of Al-Qaeda chatter indicated that an attack against the United States was, according to CIA memos, " imminent:".
The big lie Bush, Cheney and Rice told was that 911 was the result of intelligence failures. It was. But the intelligence failures took place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue not at CIA or FBI.
In July of 2001 George Tenant was so alarmed by the intercepts of Al-Qeada chatter he asked for an emergency meeting with Rice who was so dismissive of the event, she didnt remember the meeting taking place but White House logs prove it did.
In August of 2001 the intercepts of Al-Qaeda chatter were the highest Richard Clarke had seen in 20 years of serving as the anti-terrorism czar under three presidents.All of it pointed to an imminent terrorist attack against the United States.
. Both Clarke and Tenant testified that in August 2001 they were both " running around the White House like men with their hair on fire" . trying to get Bush and Rice's attention of an impending attack. They were ignored. Rice wouldnt even let them schedule a meeting with Bush.
And if that's not enough, there was the August 6th PDB ( Presidential Daily Briefing) entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the US" .
Bush was clearly told by all the intelligence agencies represented in the PDB that Al-Qaeda was planning a major attack against the United States and WITHIN the United States. The August 6 PDB told Bush there were 70 Al-Qaeda cells operating within the United States and on page 2 of the PDB Bush was specifically told there was information that Al-Qaeda was planning on hijacking US airliners as part of their plan of attack and were "conducting surveillience of Federal buildings in New York City".
Bush did nothing. Absolutely nothing.( the entire August 6th PDB and its damning evidence on p.2 can be seen here)
Rice's defense at the time was they knew Al-Qaeda wanted to hijack US airliners but had no idea they would use the planes as weapons. What was her point? That hijacking airliners and holding perhaps 1000 people hostage was not important enough to act on? Did they have to know they were going to use the planes as weapons in order for them to consider this a serious threat and take some action?
We now know that had Bush simply put out an alert to all major airlines and airports through the FAA to be aware of a threat of potential hijackings by middle eastern men, the evidence is overwhelming that t would have prevented 911 ( though there is even more evidence than this). How? All the hijackers were Middle Eastern men. All of them bought transcontinental tickets one way. All paid cash. None of them had luggage. And Mohammad Atta bought his ticket, one way, in Maine to connect in Boston. The ticket taker said it was very unusual for the Maine airport-- to sell a transcontinental ticket, much less to someone paying cash. Think that might have sent up some red flags if airlines and airline ticket takers had been on alert?
But the press let Rice get away with that answer too.
The truth is Bush and Cheney dismissed terrorism and thought Clinton had overblown the threat, and never took it seriously. Until it was too late. That's why you see that deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression on Bush's face in the video when he is told about the attack. He knew at that moment that everything he was being warned against and had ignored was right and that he had been wrong.
What Bush, Cheney and Rice were most concerned about at the time was getting the Star Wars program restarted and getting out of the ABM treaty with Russia. Bush's demotion of Richard Clarke and his abolishing the Principles Meeting on terrorism that occurred every day under Clinton, underscores Bush's belief that terrorism was not that important.
Proving the adage that the first casualty of war is truth, the mainstream press as they did throughout the Bush administration ignored Bush's culpability in the attacks, afraid of alienating conservatives and Republicans who usually give lip service to national security but when it came to holding one of their own accountable for the worst attack on American soil by a foreign enemy in history, and the worst loss of life, stayed silent. And then tried to cover it up.
Which is why most of the criticism over the decision to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed on trial for the 911 attacks have come from Republicans and conservatives, more interested in defending their own political positions than exposing the gross negligence of Bush and their own in covering it up for political reasons.
Though its true some 911 families have also opposed the trial that has been based on their own speculation of what they think the trial will be like.
The evidence against Bush, all of it documented and based on testimony taken under oath, testimony never refuted by anyone, will be presented here in another article. There is much more. But as the New York Post headline illustrating this article shows, enough information had been available for a long time to either impeach Bush or cripple him for his gross negligence in the 911 attacks. And the fact that 911 could have and should been prevented is beyond question.
That the news media ran from it, and the Republicans tried to cover it up, when you consider all the damage done to the United States since because of it, the information gathered in the post 911 investigation and the lack of action taken by the news media, is theirs, and the Republicans, most scandalous and disgraceful moment.
The press can redeem themselves from their failure to call Bush's negligence for 911 exactly what it was -- the greatest scandal in American history. And they can do it by simply reporting the truth.
With Republicans now making accusations against the Obama Administration over the flight 253 plot, accusations that Obama has played down terrorism, and that he doesn't take the threat seriously, it's time for the press to do their jobs and show that was exactly the attitude of Bush, Cheney and Rice and th negligent attitude that allowed 911 to happen when it could have been prevented.
Comments
This is one of the most poorly written articles I've ever read from a grammatical perspective. Who is the editor of this website?
Always Bush's fault. I'm noticing quite an obvious pattern here. Jared is right too - terrible grammar.
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574
Lets see if the US has balls to carry this out...
Mean old Cheney is ripping Obama a new one - somebody call a wambulance.
Before the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Circus comes to town filling the midway with freak shows and illusionists, take this into consideration:
Todd Beamer's memorial service was held on 09/16/01 at the Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Todd Beamer's wife, Lisa Beamer, a grieving mother of two and four months pregnant with her third child, registers TODDBEAMER.ORG four days later on 09/20/01, incorporates The Todd M. Beamer Memorial Foundation eight days later on 9/24/01 and then applies for the trademark "Let's Roll" ten days later on 9/26/01. Instead of acting like a wife and mother who should be experiencing untold grief and loss her behavior turns a catastrophic personal tragedy into a cold and calculating cheap publicity stunt. But then, the U S Government's 9/11 propaganda machine needed heroes as well as villains paraded through the media to support endless wars that murder indigenous people for control of their natural resources.
9/11 WAS A SILENT MILITARY C
9/11 WAS A SILENT MILITARY COUP D'ETAT
www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=217&topic_id=189&mesg_id=189
9/11 EVIDENCE TAMPERING
www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=217&topic_id=231&mesg_id=231
CARMEN TAYLOR & MEDIA COMPLICITY
www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=217&topic_id=234
Shalom,
Rabbi Emmanuel Goldstein
The press always liked Bush better than Obama. Right on, man!
You want a war crimes trial? When we get Obambi and you ass wipe leftists who appease jihad on trial, you won't know what hit you. You want a freaking civil war? YOU GOING TO BRING YOUR MOUTH?
"When we get Obambi and you ass wipe leftists who appease jihad on trial, you won't know what hit you. You want a freaking civil war? YOU GOING TO BRING YOUR MOUTH?"
Bob, did you ever hear of anger management? It might be helpful for you...
Of course those complicit in the 9/11 atrocities would lie about them. They had so much to gain by allowing them to occur, if not actively facilitating them.
Let's see if any of the numerous anomalies of that day (such as why WTC Building 7, untouched by any planes, collapsed at free-fall speed into its own footprint), left unanswered and even unquestioned by the official conspiracy theory presented in the 9/11 Commissions Report and dutifully parroted by the corporate media, the U.S. Corportist-Militarist State's chief propaganda arm, are even brought up. I won't hold my breath.
Hijacks often lead to loss of life and therefore deserve serious consideration. More importantly, uou cannot fly a hijacked plane into a building if you cannot hijack the plane in the first place.
It is prima facie that the Bush maladministration was guilty of, at the very least, gross criminal negligence.
In hindsight you'd be correct if in America we had faced such a threat before and but only in the Negeb Desert was that event contemplated and so the Israeli's shot down a French passenger plane. It turned out to be a case of French arrogance on the part of the crew who disregard Israeli instructions to divert and land.
So the hijackings weren't the alarm, it was three hijackings at the same time. Also, the real alarms, foreigners taking flight lessons which were known, were not forwarded up line within agencies such as the FBI and were not shared with other agencies. This was a political problem under the first Bush, put on steroids by Clinton, and ignored by the second Bush. It hasn't been effectively addressed by Obama.
The only reason they "dismissed" the "warnings" is because we had no goddamned CIA because of what Clinton did to it.
"Always blame Bush, "always blame Clinton", "always blame Obama (or completely unsuitable manipulation of our President's name). Talk about needing a wambulance. If people can step away from attack politics and stick to empirical, corroborated and well-investigated-by-teams-of-experts facts, they will find that all Presidents have their faults and weaknesses.
It is my view that Bush took these fallabilities to unprecedented depths, but that is obviously a personal interpretation of recent events.
With that disclosure, let me also suggest that people try to muster a bit of respect for the office (like many of you did during the Bush years, until the end, that is), and try to cheer for our current administration, a la calls for "patriotism" espoused previously... or was that just a temporary idea that only occurs when we have a certain party in the Executive?
911 was an inside job. Just watch the buildings fall! Building #7 fell @ free fall speed into its own footprint. Nano termite was found in the dust of the WTC. Wake up people and stop falling for their games. Investigate and think for yourself – That is if you still remember how.
Bush & cheney should testify in a federal court. This way they can explain the Enron pipeline deals in Afghanistan with the Taliban that went bad leading up to 911, Cheney’s stand down orders, Bushes knowledge (seeing) of the first plane hitting the towers before it was televised, the 2.3 trillion dollars unaccounted for from the defense budget, Cheney & Halliburton, the fact that WTC-7 was pulled( Demolition ),The SEC records from WTC-7 that listed half a dozen investigations into corporate frauds ( including Enron )apart from the scientific reports that ask a lot of important questions.
How much more Motive can a court ignore ??
Remember last week Mr Blair ( Britains PM)admitted that his involvement was influenced by Mr Bush even though his own members claimed WMD’s were not found.
The world wants answers - There are troops from other countries also employed in this war.
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