From Jane Mayer's new book: 9-11 Preventable

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34725

9-11 Preventable
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2008-07-13 11:32.

From Frank Rich on Jane Mayer's book:


So hot is the speculation that war-crimes trials will eventually follow in foreign or international courts that Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, has publicly advised Mr. Feith, Mr. Addington and Alberto Gonzales, among others, to “never travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel.” But while we wait for the wheels of justice to grind slowly, there are immediate fears to tend. Ms. Mayer’s book helps cement the case that America’s use of torture has betrayed not just American values but our national security, right to the present day.

In her telling, a major incentive for Mr. Cheney’s descent into the dark side was to cover up for the Bush White House’s failure to heed the Qaeda threat in 2001. Jack Cloonan, a special agent for the F.B.I.’s Osama bin Laden unit until 2002, told Ms. Mayer that Sept. 11 was “all preventable.” By March 2000, according to the C.I.A.’s inspector general, “50 or 60 individuals” in the agency knew that two Al Qaeda suspects — soon to be hijackers — were in America. But there was no urgency at the top. Thomas Pickard, the acting F.B.I. director that summer, told Ms. Mayer that when he expressed his fears about the Qaeda threat to Mr. Ashcroft, the attorney general snapped, “I don’t want to hear about that anymore!”

....That’s why the Bush White House’s corruption in the end surpasses Nixon’s. We can no longer take cold comfort in the Watergate maxim that the cover-up was worse than the crime. This time the crime is worse than the cover-up, and the punishment could rain down on us all.

Review of book here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x370819

[baldguy]

1. LIHOP

[BuyingThyme]

4. MIHOP

PREMISE A: The anthrax attacks were planned in parallel with the hijackings.

PREMISE B: The anthrax attacks were orchestrated by people within the U.S. government.

CONCLUSION: The hijackings were orchestrated by people within the U.S. government.

Are there any other possibilities?

[Prophet 451]

9. Just a couple

1) The Bush admin really are that incompetent.
2) They knew that US policy in the MidEast for the last thirty or so years made some form of terrorist strike inevitible but didn't know the details. After that, this is another LIHOP and the option I tend to think is accurate.

[azul]

2. Holy crap, what if they knew about the attacks on 9/11/01 and allowed

them to happen? Facilitators and opportunists, betraying America?

Naw, too mind numbing to think about. Better to keep humming the terrist looney tunes...

oh sam a ben la den la la la... and,

Que se ra al que da da da dum dum dum...

[noise]

3. "...no urgency at the top."

Yet Rich would have us believe that the torture was Cheney's way of making up for the lack of urgency? Rich has taken spin to a new level in this column. This is nonsense.

1. January 5-8, 2000 Malaysia meeting.

2. Early January 2000 CIA failure to alert the FBI when al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar entered the country.

3. Cole attack on 10/12/00.

4. CIA failure to share intel with the Cole investigators.

5. 9/11

We are told Tenet and Clarke were highly aware of the urgent nature of the situation. If this is so then how did al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar roam around the US from January 2000 through 9/11/01?

Did the Bush White House order US intel to back off these purported al Qaeda operatives? How could this be if the only problem was their lack of urgency?

[BuyingThyme]

5. And why were they wiretapping BEFORE 9/11?

To track the progress of the plot?

[baldguy]

7. And why did they ignore Clarke's warnings for months

and then fire him?

[SpiralHawk]

6. "Smirk." - Commander AWOL and Republicon Homelander cronies

[TexasObserver]

8. at a minimum, the Bush admin was grossly negligent before 9-11, ignoring all signals

Even if they were non complicit in the action, they actively ignored every warning, every red flag, every opportunity to follow the leads that would have prevented the attacks. If they didn't know, it's because they chose to stick their fingers in their ears, close their eyes, and ignore every indicator that something bad was on the way.