Bob Graham: The truth behind the San Diego two

[seafan]

The truth behind the San Diego two

By Bob Graham
February 5, 2006

IN TUESDAY evening's State of the Union speech, President Bush defended his warrantless wiretap program by giving one example of where it might have saved American lives: ''It is said that prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to Al Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late."

Vice President Dick Cheney made a similar assertion three weeks ago. Both refer to two of the 19 hijackers who lived in San Diego in 2000: Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar. In these two sentences the president has committed two sins. He has stretched the truth, and he has distracted the American people from the steps we need to take to truly make us more secure from terrorist attacks.

During the Joint Inquiry of the Congressional Intelligence Committees, which I cochaired, we determined the following to be some of the major failures involving the San Diego two: In December 1999, the CIA was alerted that a summit of terrorists would be held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and that two Saudis, Hazmi and Midhar, would participate.

snip

It is wrong to suggest that the events of 2000 justify warrantless eavesdropping. Just the opposite. It is by correcting institutional and personal incompetence, rather than sacrificing the rights of Americans, that our safety can be best secured.

Through the Patriot Act, passed in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, Congress modified or repealed laws that had constrained the sharing of information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Other critical changes remain -- neither of which was mentioned in the president's speech.

snip

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/05/the_truth_behind_the_san_diego_two/

[Liberty Belle]

1. So true! Incompetence, not lack of wiretaps, was the problem. Read:

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the director of the FBI office in San Diego stated that the fundamental mistakes were a failure of his agency and the CIA to communicate. ''If we knew what the CIA knew, we'd have been in an ideal situation to locate these people." He made no suggestion that by following the law, securing a search warrant before wiretapping, was a detriment.




:kick: :Kick:

[farmbo]

2. Had Bush showed one iota of leadership, 9/11 would have been avoided

Had he simply called ONE MEETING to review Richard Clarke's al Queda recommendations, the CIA's dossier on the San Diego Two would have been shared with the FBI...and the FBI's internal memos on Arabs in flight schools would have percolated to the top.

Other quotes from the article:

Because the FBI did not know of the CIA's information on Midhar and Hazmi, Shaikh was not tasked to keep an eye on the two. Shaikh's handling agent testified that, had he known that the CIA had identified the two as Al Qaeda operatives, he would have done a ''full court press" in terms of surveillance, informant tasking, and investigation -- and believes he could have uncovered the plot and potentially foiled the 9/11 attacks.
<snip>

It is wrong to suggest that the events of 2000 justify warrantless eavesdropping. Just the opposite. It is by correcting institutional and personal incompetence, rather than sacrificing the rights of Americans, that our safety can be best secured.

Through the Patriot Act, passed in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, Congress modified or repealed laws that had constrained the sharing of information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Other critical changes remain -- neither of which was mentioned in the president's speech.
<snip>

If Gore were in the Whitehouse... and the grownups were in charge... the Towers would still be standing today.
:grr:

[salin]

3. I had forgotten til I read this... that bush put Cheney

in charge of terrorism in his new administration. CHeney was to head an energy taskforce, and a terrorism task force - the first met plenty (and secretively) the second met exactly how many times before 911? I believe there was exactly 0 face to face meetings prior to the attack. Remember that when Cheney makes specious claims as are cited in this article.