CAP's "Viewer's Guide" for Condi's Testimony

[swag]

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44768

Well worth sharing and enjoying:

Excerpts:

Did she offer convincing evidence that the White House took the threat of terrorism seriously enough prior to 9/11?

- The president told Bob Woodward that, when it came to terrorism: "I was not on point... I didn't feel that sense of urgency." Up until the day of the attacks – as the speech she was scheduled to deliver on 9/11 reveals – Rice and the president made missile defense their number one priority. In a database search of all of her public statements and writings made before the 9/11 attacks, she never once mentioned al-Qaida and made only one mention of Osama bin Laden in a radio interview.

. . .

Did she explain misleading public statements made regarding 9/11?

- In 2002, Rice said, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." But when presented with overwhelming evidence that the administration had been warned about such a plot, she admitted privately to the 9/11 Commission that she "misspoke." Yet, even after this admission, she proceeded to repeat the same claim, writing in a recent Washington Post op-ed, "we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles."

. . .

[grannylib]

1. Ohm "misspoke...." I see. They are trotting out the tired old Raygun

defense. Gotcha.
And she continues to repeat the lie, in public, every chance she gets. Be interesting to see how she answers this under oath. If she 'fesses up under oath about the truth of the intel BushCo had received about just such a threat, I want someone to ask her about that: "So, were you lying then every time you said in public to the American people that there was no way you could have known?"
Call these people on their lies while the opportunity is there; this is a great chance to show the American people the reality of this sorry misadministration.

[markdd]

2. Airplanes as missiles

>>I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile,<<

One of my most unforgettable moments of 9/11 is Judy Woodriff blaming Tom Clancy for giving terrorists the idea about using airplanes as missiles. You may recall that he used it as a plot device in "Debt of Honor" to wipe out the entire US government during a joint session of Congress and make Jack Ryan Preident of the United States.

Doctor Rice may have also missed out on that shindig they held in the Pacific back in the '40's. Apparently a group of poorly trained (no need to know how to land a plane) Japaneese pilots were sent in airplanes loaded with explosives to crash into US warships attacking Japaneese held islands in the Pacific.