politics again

[lagilman]

The following is a transcript of the August 6, 2001, presidential daily briefing entitled Bin Laden determined to strike in US. Parts of the original document were not made public by the White House for security reasons.

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/august6.memo/index.html


And I wonder if, had the government made a public move to ramp up security both via immigration and the airlines (in effect, letting the players know that they were being watched/monitored) if 9/11 could have been minimized, if not prevented?

I'm too heartsick to say more right now, except that I hope the people who called this 'too vague to act on' sleep well at night.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Now, you know how much I dislike the current admimistation and all its policies. And I do agree that we're getting concrete proof that not just Bush, but everyone he tasked to keep us safe, fumbled the ball bigtime. ("Someone would have told me if I needed to do something." 'Scuse, me, Ms. Rice? It's your damned job to determine that for yourself, and trying to weasel out of it only makes you sound like the Omarosa of the Admin.)

There is a lot more that the Administration could have done that it didn't, and I'm one of the folks who believes that most of what it has done has made the problem worse. We will pay, in blood and on our soil, for what Bush did to Iraq, and we will pay for generations because now we're sucked into the same mindless violence that has been passed down since writing began over there.

But I gotta chip in a word from the alphabet soup side of things. There are so many threats from so many countries - not to mention all our home-grown whackos - and so many come to naught for a thousand and one reasons that nobody understands. "So and so wants to hurt us really bad and is going to do so Real Soon Now"... really is vague. There are a LOT of so and sos out there (and in here) and they're all planning on doing something real bad real soon.

[lagilman]

Know all that. Respect all that. Do NOT respect the position of "don't look behind that curtain, look over here, don't you dare question us." Never have, never will.

Especially if W spiraled in on Least Favorite Son Issues (aka showing Daddy he could take care of Iraq) to the extent of ignoring real and dangerous intel. Which it seems to me that he did/is doing.

Amen to that

[neadods.livejournal.com]

<>Do NOT respect the position of "don't look behind that curtain, look over here, don't you dare question us."

There we're in perfect agreement. I will never understand why a "war President" is supposed to be above all criticism... particularly when it looks like he so blatently started a new war to hold onto that cachet!