“In the spirit of further declassification, this is what the August 6th memo said to the President: “The F.B.I. indicates patterns of suspicious activities in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking.” -Bob Kerrey, 9.11 Commission
The Sovietologist showed up to give a speech.
The Commission expected answers.
What emerged wasn’t what the Bush administration had hoped for.
Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB (Presidential Daily
Briefing) warned against possible attacks in this country. And I ask
you if you recall the title of that PDB?” – Richard Ben-Veniste, 9.11 Commission
The title: “BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE UNITED STATES.”
Yet, the Sovietologist is sticking to her story, that she doesn’t recall being briefed on airplanes being used as missiles.
“A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she hasprovided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa’ida’s plans to
attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened. She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was ‘an outrageous lie.” – Independent.co.uk
Meanwhile, on the rogue state front…
“Iraqi insurgents kidnapped eight South Koreans, three Japanese and two Arab Israelis, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened in a video released Thursday to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo does not withdraw from the U.S.-led coalition within three days. – USA Today
The poise of the Sovietologist was punctuated by her seminar like
answers, as if she were talking to students.
It was the War and Peace of a tale of terrorism threats, proffered by
one of the people closest to the President.
As the Sovietologist wound her rhetorical web, watching and listening,
the viewer kept waiting for the good professor to at least pose a
minute on a point.
Instead she filibustered.
While in that rogue state a world away…
forces are confronting a broad-based Shiite uprising that goes well
beyond supporters of one militant Islamic cleric who has been the focus
of American counterinsurgency efforts, United States intelligence
officials said Wednesday. That assertion contradicts repeated
statements by the Bush administration and American officials in Iraq.”
The New York Times
The former senator, Bob Kerrey, called the Sovietologist on her
unending soliloquies…
And on the swatting of flies.
“You’ve used the phrase a number of times. I’m hoping my question will disabuse you of using it in the future. You said the President was tired of swatting flies. Can you tell me one example when the President swatted a fly when it came to al Qaeda, prior to 9.11? – Bob Kerrey, 9.11 Commission
The Sovietologist’s soliloquy resumed…
Cut off by an impatient interrogator… “No. No. What fly had he
swatted?”
Condi’s comment didn’t quite come…
Back to the senator… “No. He hadn’t swatted – Dr. Rice, we only
swatted a fly once on the 20th of August 1998. We didn’t swat any
flies afterwards. How the hell could he be tired?”
“It was a figure of speech,” smiled the Sovietologist.
Killing the fly, finally…
“Well, I think it’s an unfortunate figure of speech, especially after the attack of the Cole on the 12th of October 2000. It would not have been a swatting of fly. It would not have been – We did not need to wait to get a strategic plan. Dick Clarke had in his memo, on the 25th of January, overt military operations. He turned that memo around in 24 hours… There were a lot of plans in the Clinton administration, military plans in the Clinton administration..” – Bob Kerrey
Then, on the spot, Bob Kerrey declassified two appendixes from Richard
Clarke’s January 25th memo:> APPENDIX A:Â “Strategy for the elimination of the Jihadist Threat of al Qaeda.”; APPENDIX B: “Military Plan for al Qaeda.”
The Sovietologist insisted:Â “We were not presented with a plan.”
The senator dissented: “That’s not true… I’ve heard you say that…
If that January 25th memo was declassified…”
And this just in…
investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks announced yesterday that it
has identified 69 documents from the Clinton era that the Bush White
House withheld from investigators and which include references to al
Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and other issues relevant to the panel’s work.”
“9/11 Panel: Bush White House Withheld Papers,” by Dan Eggen
WashingtonPost.com
And here are just nine things (out of the innumerable) that we knew
before 9.11:
On January 25, 2001, Richard Clarke offered a memo that included two appendixes entitled: APPENDIX “Strategy for the Elimination of the Jihadist Threat of al Qaeda”; APPENDIX B: “Military Plan for alQaeda.”
In January 2001, Hart-Rudman Commission on national security,
established by President Clinton and former Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich, delivered a heart sinking warning that the United States was
going to be hit and hit hard domestically.On July 5, 2001, the “chatter” and threats coming in through U.S.
intelligence was so intense that a high level meeting was held to
discern what damage was coming our way. There was no follow-up
meeting.Five days after the July 5 meeting, F.B.I. agent Kenneth Williams
suggested that the F.B.I. should investigate whether al Qaeda
operatives are using U.S. flight schools for training and whether Osama bin Laden agents might be trying to infiltrate U.S. civil aviation systems as pilots; and suggested a national program to track suspicious flight schools. (This is known as the Phoenix memo.)Colleen Rowley of the F.B.I., who became a renowned whistleblower,
warned of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was attending flight school in order
to learn how to fly a plane once it was in the air, but not how to take off from the ground or land it.By August 2001, the Bush administration knew about al Qaeda’s
involvement in the first World Trade Center bombing.By August 2001, the Bush administration knew that the Cole
bombing was carried out by al Qaeda, but they thought that event was
“old.”By August 2001, the Bush administration knew the U.S., under the
Clinton administration, had thwarted an al Qaeda threat to blow up Los
Angeles International Airport (known as the Millennium Bombing).By August 2001, our intelligence agencies had thwarted terrorist
cells in Brooklyn, New York, and Boston; and the C.I.A. knew that two
Muslim men with jihadist connections were living in the United States.
During the entire nine months leading up to 9.11, the Sovietologist, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, did not mention al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden once, at any time, ever.
On August 6th, 2001, George W. Bush received the memo entitled, “BIN
LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE UNITED STATES.”
President Bush continued his vacation in Crawford, Texas, where you can find him vacationing today.
There was never a full principals meeting, at the cabinet level, prior
to September 4, 2001, which included the head of counterterrorism,
Richard Clarke.
On September 11, Dr. Rice was scheduled to give a major foreign policy
speech for the Bush administration outlining their priorities, which
were, among others, missile defense and the issue of dealing with rogue states.
Though asked for this speech, the Bush administration has refused to
present it to the 9.11 Commission.
Meanwhile, right now in the rogue state of the Bush administration’s
choosing…
suffered their bloodiest week in Iraq since just before the fall of
Baghdad a year ago, reporting 40 combat deaths in the seven days from
March 31 to April 6. Unlike earlier spikes in casualty figures, notably ones last autumn that resulted from a few helicopter crashes, the latest jump reflects a broad range of incidents, from fierce firefights to roadside bombs. U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the invasion now total 635, including 444 caused by hostile fire. The number of wounded has reached 2,988.”
WashingtonPost.com
George W. Bush assembled the best Cold War warriors.
People who look towards the stars, towards missile defense and
rogue states.
Then President Bush followed them blindly.
They are 20th century people unsuited for a 21st century purpose.
And now we’re stuck in a rogue state paying a painful price for the
President and his Cold War people.
To date, not one person has resigned, been forced to resign, been
convicted, or taken full responsibility for the attacks of 9.11… other than Richard Clarke.
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