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EchoVortex (hard) member Registered: 02/06/02 Posts: 859 Last seen: 15 years, 5 months |
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Both the Clinton and the Bush Administrations have a lot to answer for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/opinio...Ed%2fColumnists Why Didn't We Stop 9/11? By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: April 17, 2004 The 9/11 attacks could have been prevented. It wouldn't have been easy, and it's likely that a Gore administration would not have prevented the attacks either. But President Bush's assertion this week that "nobody in our government at least ? and I don't think the prior government ? could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale" was disingenuous. So was his refusal to accept responsibility for lapses before 9/11. Just suppose that after the Aug. 6, 2001, presidential briefing about Osama bin Laden's plans, the conversation had gone like this: Bush So the Evil One wants to attack inside the U.S.? Any idea where? C.I.A. briefer Sir, it could be almost anywhere, anytime. But pattern analysis suggests a target both huge and symbolic, perhaps another explosion to topple the World Trade Center, or the Sears Tower or the Capitol. And bin Laden has always looked for targets in aviation. Bush Gosh. Hijacking planes? Briefer Yes, Mr. President, there are reports of a hijacking plot to ransom the blind sheik. Or bin Laden could seek to shoot a bunch of planes down ? in 1998, we put out a classified report called "Bin Laden Threatening to Attack U.S. Aircraft." Or he could blow up planes and airports. Bush Whoa. How would he do that? Briefer Project Bojinka was a terror plot in 1995 to blow up as many as 12 United, Delta and Northwest jumbo jets over the Pacific Ocean at the same time, killing 4,000 people. The Philippine police apprehended a key figure, Abdul Hakim Murad, along with the detonators. We let the Filipinos "interrogate" Murad. After he'd been beaten with a chair, burned with cigarettes and half-drowned, he disclosed a plan for a suicide airplane attack on the C.I.A.'s headquarters. Bush You mean using a plane as a missile? Briefer Exactly, Mr. President. We judged this credible partly because Murad was a licensed pilot who had trained at four U.S. flight schools. For that matter, Al Qaeda has shown an intriguing desire to train operatives as pilots. A defector named L'Houssaine Kherchtou was scheduled to go to flight school in Nairobi. A third, Essam al-Ridi, learned flying in Texas. A fourth, Ihab Ali Nawawi, studied flying in Oklahoma. Bush What about the Tom Clancy novel where the pilot crashes a plane into the Capitol during a joint session of Congress? Could Big Beard be planning something like that? Briefer Sir, that wasn't just Clancy. In 1974, a man named Sam Byck hijacked a plane in hopes of crashing it into the White House and killing President Nixon. And in 1994, Algerians hijacked a plane so they could crash it into the Eiffel Tower. In 1996, Iranian terrorists reportedly planned to hijack a Japanese plane and crash it into Tel Aviv. The use of planes as weapons has been a growing concern, and that's why we took measures to protect the Atlanta Olympics from aerial attack. Bush O.K., tell Tenet to get himself down here in the next few days. I want to make sure that we're doing everything possible to prevent whatever the Evil One is planning. I want people at our borders looking out for bad guys. And if Big Beard is into aviation, let's watch flight schools and airports. We're America. Nobody pushes us around. Briefer Mr. President, the bureau already has 70 investigations open on bin Laden. They're on top of it. Bush I want to make sure. Word's got to get out that stopping an attack is top priority. If there's chatter about a major attack soon ? Oklahoma City or worse ? I don't want us sitting on our duffs. I want to light a fire under the bureaucracy. Let's kick butt. Such an imagined conversation is a bit unfair because it has the clarity of hindsight. But we need to learn from our mistakes, and three conclusions flow from the missed opportunities of the Bush and Clinton administrations. First, it's time to replace George Tenet. I've resisted that until now because he's been great for morale at the C.I.A. But after two major intelligence failures, 9/11 and the missing Iraqi W.M.D., it's time for a new director of central intelligence. Second, we need to restructure the intelligence community so one person really is in charge of all the pieces and budgets, as the Scowcroft commission recommended. Third, an apology or a hint of remorse would show leadership and salve our hurt. Mr. Bush should recognize that acceptance of accountability is not a sign of weakness. ******************* http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/politics/18SEPT.html?hp April 18, 2004 Pre-9/11 Files Show Warnings Were More Dire and Persistent By DAVID JOHNSTON and JIM DWYER WASHINGTON, April 17 ? Early this year, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks played four minutes of a call from Betty Ong, a crew member on American Airlines Flight 11. The power of her call could not have been plainer: in a calm voice, Ms. Ong told her supervisors about the hijacking, the weapons the attackers had used, the locations of their seats. At first, however, Ms. Ong's reports were greeted skeptically by some officials on the ground. "They did not believe her," said Bob Kerrey, a commission member. "They said, `Are you sure?' They asked her to confirm that it wasn't air-rage. Our people on the ground were not prepared for a hijacking." For most Americans, the disbelief was the same. The attacks of Sept. 11 seemed to come in a stunning burst from nowhere. But now, after three weeks of extraordinary public hearings and a dozen detailed reports, the lengthy documentary record makes clear that predictions of an attack by Al Qaeda had been communicated directly to the highest levels of the government. The threat reports were more clear, urgent and persistent than was previously known. Some focused on Al Qaeda's plans to use commercial aircraft as weapons. Others stated that Osama bin Laden was intent on striking on United States soil. Many were passed to the Federal Aviation Administration. While some of the intelligence went back years, other warnings ? including one that Al Qaeda seemed interested in hijacking a plane inside this country ? had been delivered to the president on Aug. 6, 2001, just a month before the attacks . . . (More at the link)
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Edame gone Registered: 01/14/03 Posts: 1,270 Loc: outta here |
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It seems that I'm not alone in thinking that the public arrest of a suspected hijacker might have prompted the others to abort their plans (emphasis mine).
Quote: -------------------- The above is an extract from my fictional novel, "The random postings of Edame". In the beginning was the word. And man could not handle the word, and the hearing of the word, and he asked God to take away his ears so that he might live in peace without having to hear words which might upset his equinamity or corrupt the unblemished purity of his conscience. And God, hearing this desperate plea from His creation, wrinkled His mighty brow for a moment and then leaned down toward man, beckoning that he should come close so as to hear all that was about to be revealed to him. "Fuck you," He whispered, and frowned upon the pathetic supplicant before retreating to His heavens.
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