September 11 attacks: What did Bush know?

[0rion]

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

27 March 2004

One of the most tumultuous weeks in recent Washington history ended yesterday with the same over-arching, monumental question with which it began. Could the Bush administration have prevented the attacks of 11 September 2001? Upon the answer hangs a Presidency.

Before that terrible Tuesday in New York and Washington, Mr Bush had faced the threat of al-Qa'ida for eight months, compared to the six years of the Clinton administration, who first formally acknowledged the existence of the organisation in 1995, and designated Osama bin Laden, as a terrorist financier. This President and his closest advisers are being held to account for their actions between January and September 2001. In the aftermath of the attacks, such questions were first swamped by collective grief, then overshadowed by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What did Bush know?

[cal04]

1. Backroom boy who had the President running scared

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Until this week, al-Qa'ida expert Richard Clarke was a backroom nobody. Not any more, he ain't. And what's worse, he now spells nothing but big, big trouble for George W. Bush and his presidency.
Because not only is Richard Clarke a political sensation, the man who alleges that Bush's national security team was asleep at the wheel in the months before September 11 2001 when intelligence specialists were warning of an impending terrorist strike; he is also a publishing sensation of the first magnitude.
In just four days his book 'Against All Enemies' sold out an initial print run of 300,000, and the 150,000 hurridly reprinted extra copies also look set to fly off the shelves. Which, for serious non-fiction dealing largely with arcane matters of policy process in Washington, is astonishing.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=505450

[Oddman]

2. This link will give you CHILLS

http://www.cooperativeresearch.net/timeline/main/timelineabridged.html

[Old and In the Way]

6. A DUer created that site....paulthompson

It is the most comprehensive analysis of the entire AQ/Bush/9-11 timeline.

Welcome aboard!

[leftchick]

10. contrast this with condiliar's....

this statement:
<national security team was asleep at the wheel in the months before September 11 2001>...from the article with condi's...
" We were at battle stations before Sept.11"

She lies so miserably... :eyes:

[ochazuke]

3. The big question now isn't "did they ignore the threat", it's WHY.

I know consipiracy theorists have been talking about LIHOP and MIHOP ever since 9/11, but now we have to seriously consider if shrubco didn't purposely ignore the briefings and warnings of Berger and Clarke so they could use it as an excuse to invade Iraq and identify themselves with American patriotism.

It feels a lot like the theory, which is still alive, that Roosevelt sort of wanted the Japanese to attack us (though he might have expected it in the Philippines) so we could get into the WW II.

Though I think the bushies are the closest thing we've seen to pure evil in my lifetime in America, I can't believe they would be that cold and calculating.

I think it's more like whenever a Clinton administration person said something, they instincitvely reacted to do the opposite, or discount the value of the advice as coming from libruls.

[UpInArms]

4. have you read any of the

Project for the New American Century site?

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

page 63 (this is pdf) upper left hand column.

Once you read there - you can pretty much want to read the rest of the document.

[Demonaut]

5. I truly think they are capable, remember Barbara Bush telling

Larry king when asked about the body bags of soldiers coming from Iraq she responded "Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that".......these people are EVIL

[Old and In the Way]

7. Operation Iraqi Liberation

OIL for short. See secret energy meetings, need for new ME military bases, and Pax Americana.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. New DUers are apparently unfamiliar with PNAC

(Project for a New American Century) and should follow the advice of the poster who gave a link.

PNAC activities are vastly under-reported, and it is useful to know what they propose and who they are. You'll find that Donald Rumsfield, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and many more now in the Bush administration (Doug Feith, John Bolton, Dick Armitage) signed a letter supporting PNAC. Jeb Bush was another signatory, along with Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, Bill Bennett -- it's a long list.

You should also know that PNAC is allied with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of those right-wing think tanks that is frequently represented on cable television political talk shows. When you see someone from AEI, remember that they're linked to PNAC.

By the way, you'll recall that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has been testifying before the 9/11 committee this week -- he's PNAC, too.

After that, you may want to check out some of these links:

"The Rest of the PNAC Iceberg" Lots of good links here, a site worth exploring.

http://buddhistpeacegroup.org/pnac/
************************************************************************************
An old DU thread with multiple links on "conspiracy theories."
(Yes, there are goofy conspiracy theories floating around, and they are used to discredit all suggestions that people have actually conspired for ignoble purposes. The one time that I know of when PNAC was discussed on national television, the reporter managed to get in a joking "Ha, ha, some people think PNAC is a conspiracy" disclaimer. Read their writings and decide for yourself if they seem a bit too much into world domination, American empire, wars, etc.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=783836
**********************************************************************************
Connecting the Dots: James A.Baker
(James Baker is a PNAC signatory/) This site is worth exploring, too.

http://www.hereinreality.com/baker.html
*********************************************************************************
A DU thread from early last December, when Howard Dean had brought up 9/11 and Charles Krauthammer seemed to want to take him down over that (Krauthammer is a PNAC signatory.) (Maybe this was what turned the press against Dean, more than his early December statement that he would break down media monopolies.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=831271
************************************************************************************
Another DU thread from Dec '03 discusses Putin's tactics foreshadowing 9/11 LIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose, as opposed to MIHOP, Made it Happen On Purpose)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=848538

[blackwalnut]

9. Another good link: Mary Schiavo

If you have Real Player, you can see Mary Schiavo {Former Inspector General, Dept. of Transportation('90-'96} speak on 9-11 (see below).

It is good to sometimes remember some of the older details regarding 9-11. Even the major media television news programs, such as 20/20 or 60 minutes, have had good programs. I remember one -- I think it was on NBC/Dateline actually -- that profiled a government investigator who predicted a terroist attack via the "airliner-crash-into-skyscraper scenario" several months prior to 9-11. But his warnings were not taken seriously enough to be acted upon in time. The same investigator had also exposed on several occasions the pathetic nature of the baggage checks, but no avail.

Along the same lines as that honest investigator (whose name I couldn't possibly remember -- though he was a man -- I remember that much) is Mary Schiavo, whom you can see at:

http://www.snowshoefilms.com/questions.html

Snowshoefilms.com also have a lot of other good online real player videos, such as Dr. Doug Rokke on depleted uranium, to name just one of many. Likewise, there is a link to SOA WATCH, from whose webpage I originally found out about snowshowfilms.com

From the synopsis on snowshowfilms.com:

What did they know? Mary Schiavo answers:
"The question is not what they should have known, the question is: What did they know?"
In just a few seconds, Mary Schiavo shows they "knew a lot." She also explains that every single aviation disaster in modern aviation history has been, pro forma, followed by a National Transportation Safety investigation, and a criminal investigation. Except for Septermber 11, the nation's worst disaster. She calls for a truly independent investigation, and says that "for the first time, families have been silenced through a special fund, which I believe is more about silence than money." Former Inspector General, Dept. of Transportation('90-'96), a former assistant US attorney, Schiavo represents 32 passengers' families from 9/11 hijacked planes. June 10, 2002, Unaswered Questions forum in Washington D.C. Transcript at www.unansweredquestions.org/transcript.php




I don't necessarily blame Bush for 9-11 completely (though Bush is horrible indeed for a plethoria of other reasons regarding 9-11 -- and many other things, obviously), as bureaucracy is known to act like a sloth no matter how urgent the situation, and no matter what administration is in power . . . But he is the primary problem we are all facing, that is for sure! But it's funny, but no matter how bad our government or past presidents have been, I don't think I could have ever conceived of having a president as truly horrible as Dubya, ever!

No wonder I've lived this long (46)!

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

11. FWIW, this story covers the entire front page nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. All you have to do

is examine their reactions on the morning of 9-11. Not a single one of them reacted appropriately. Even stranger is the fact that not only did they not react appropriately, most of them barely reacted at all.

The next public hearings of the 9-11 Commission are to look at the events on the day of the attack. This is the part they can't blame on Clinton and this is the part that they have done everything to avoid addressing publicly. This is where shit meets fan.

[UpInArms]

13. kick

:kick:

[reprehensor]

14. kick II: electric boogaloo n/t