Top security advisers met just twice on terrorism before Sept. 11 attacks

[papau]

the Center for American Progress website has become one of my favorite sites and has posted the following:

USATODAY.com - Rice's refusal bothers commissioners*

URL:
http://www.detnews.com/2002/politics/0207/01/politics-526326.htm

Top security advisers met just twice on terrorism before Sept. 11 attacks By Ted Bridis / Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions, officials say.
The White House acknowledged the dearth of top-level meetings devoted to the subject of terrorism by the "principals committee" of the National Security Council. Yet it has aggressively defended the level of attention, given only scattered hints of al-Qaida activity.
One current security council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that intensive planning of anti-terrorism strategies was largely the role of midlevel committees at the NSC -- not the Cabinet-level players. <snip>

Seems folks are learning how the time line shows how the Bushies dropped the ball on terrorism.
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=39039

1. The statement by Rice that she 'cannot' testify because her position as Nat'l Security Adviser would upset precedent is not true. Before her tenure, many government officials in non-Cabinet positions have testified.

2. Read up on the many reasons why the Bush Admin. put counter-terrorism on the back burner, for instance, the Senate Armed Services Cmte. requested $600 mil. be diverted from ballistic missile defense to fight terrorism but Rumsfeld recommended a veto. It turns out that Ms. Rice's area of expertise is in Russia/missile defense.

3. Before 9/11, there were only a limited number of high level, i.e., cabinet, meetings on counterterrorism--most of the meetings held were aimed at the mid supervisory level.

[tabasco]

1. Gen. Myers was selected as CJCS because of Star Wars

He is a Star Wars expert. The Bush cabal was interested only in pursuing their corporate enrichment program. National security itself was secondary. They appoint a guy as Chairman of the JCS because he is a Star Wars expert. Now we have two ground wars and our top military man is a Star Wars geek. Star Wars is nothing more than a program to take taxpayer money and give it to corporations. It will never be a viable system, and the Bush people know it.