Kerry Press Release: August 6 Anniversary: 3 years later, still problems

[Skinner]

For Immediate Release
August 6, 2004

“Today is the anniversary of the August 6th Presidential Daily Brief, which warned of possible terrorist attacks in the U.S. Three years later, this administration has failed to adequately strengthen our intelligence services to make America more safe and secure. Now they’re even dragging their heels on fully implementing the 9-11 Commission Report’s recommendations. It’s time to act – we can’t wait any longer,” said Flynt Leveritt, former member of the Bush-Cheney Administration’s National Security Council.

AUGUST 6 ANNIVERSARY: THREE YEARS LATER, PROBLEMS STILL EXIST

Today commemorates the three year anniversary of Bush’s receipt of the President’s Daily Brief which warned: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” Many intelligence experts and Bush Administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice, held structural intelligence-sharing problems responsible for the failure to prevent the 9-11 attacks. When the 9-11 Commission identified possible structural reforms, Bush responded by creating a national intelligence director without real powers.

THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THE PROBLEM BUT FAILED TO ACT.

9-11 Attacks Due To Systematic Failures In Intelligence Sharing. Rice: “The really difficult thing for all of us -- and I’m sure for those who came before us, as well as for those of us who are here, is that the structural and systematic changes that needed to be made, not on July 5th or not on June 25th or not on January 1st, those structures and those changes needed to be made a long time ago so that the country was in fact hardened against the kind of threat that we faced on September 11th. The problem was that for a country that had not been attacked on its territory in a major way in almost 200 years, there were a lot of structural impediments to those kinds of attacks. Those changes should have been made over a long period of time.” (9-11 Commission Testimony, 4/8/04)

AUGUST 6, 2004: BUSH STILL FAILING TO FIX PROBLEMS

Bush Has Created a Figurehead. “The Sept. 11 commission also said the (national intelligence director) should have the power to hire and fire the heads of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI intelligence office and other agencies. Bush’s plan, however, simply envisions giving the director a say in those decisions.” (AP, 8/5/04)

Bush’s Intel Czar Has No Real Power. “Some members of Congress and 9/11 commissioners doubt Bush’s idea to allow the intelligence director to ‘coordinate’ foreign and domestic intelligence fully embraces the commission’s recommendation. The panel wants an intelligence czar with budget authority over the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and 12 other spy agencies, and the power to hire and fire their chiefs.” (USA Today, 8/4/04)

9-11 Staff Director: Position Pointless Without Real Power. Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9-11 Commission said about the national intelligence director, “If Congress takes the shell of this idea and then dilutes the powers so that it looks like they’ve done it but they haven’t really done it, then you will have another bureaucratic layer, and I’ll just say here, if that’s the way it ends up, they might as well not do anything at all because they’ll make us more worse off than we were before.” (Newshour with Jim Lehrer, 7/23/04)

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[hippiegranny]

1. oh yeah.

hit 'em again, hit 'em again! BushCo is going down.

[Trajan]

2. A Day worthy of note ....

The day that "Al Qaeda determined to attack United States" was a sign for Bush to ....

go on vacation ....

Clear some brush ....

Perhaps scratch the pResidential nides ....

Sheeeesh .... what a bunch of fucking losers ...