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“We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went. We’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” — Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking last week “in Nancy Pelosi’s hometown.” AG Michael Mukasey revealed new, stunning information: he now knows precisely to whom that call was made. As 13 of the 15 muscle hijackers came late and knew little, that call undoubtedly was...

The L.A. Times saves space on its Sunday front page for a hit piece on John McCain. The main thrust of the piece is to say, in essence, “Nyaah, nyaah, John McCain said that Iraq would be a cakewalk, but it wasn’t.” A little context would be nice. Plenty of liberals were surprised at how easily we overran Baghdad and kicked Saddam out of power. Indeed, plenty of liberals — including Bill Richardson, a strong contender for the second spot on Obama’s ticket — were surprised at how quickly we overran Kabul. So yeah, like most of the rest of...

Video raises question "Why is the left being cheerleaders for failure in Iraq?"

Ties between White House, Sept 11 chief By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 3, 6:25 PM ET WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission's executive director had closer ties with the White House than publicly disclosed and tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration's responsibility, a new book says. Philip Zelikow, a friend of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, spoke with her several times during the 20-month investigation that closely examined her role in assessing the al-Qaida threat. He also exchanged frequent calls with the White House, including...

BOSTON – Despite the best attempts by a large contingent of local and national media gathered at Logan Airport here, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, co-chairman of the 9/11 commission, declined today to criticize Rudy Giuliani directly. But the mere fact that he officially endorsed Senator John McCain was criticism enough. Mr. Kean said in a brief interview afterward that Mr. Giuliani had sought his endorsement several months ago. But at that point, Mr. Kean said he indicated that he was not going to be backing anyone, which he said he believed at the time. It had been 20...

Runnin' ScaredRudy's Pants On FireSecret testimony shows that Rudy's stump speech is inflated, at bestby Wayne BarrettOctober 23rd, 2007 9:25 PM In a recent broadside deriding the Clinton administration's response to Al Qaeda, Rudy Giuliani told an audience at Pat Robertson's Regent University: "Bin Laden declared war on us. We didn't hear it. I thought it was pretty clear at the time, but a lot of people didn't see it, couldn't see it." Other tenets of his standard stump speech include the assertion that he's been "studying terrorism" for more than 30 years, and that "the thing that distinguishes me...

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s new policy that permits illegal immigrants to obtain New York State driver’s licenses is “an absurd” decision that will provide a new gateway for terrorists, a member of the federal commission that investigated the 2001 World Trade Center attacks warns. “It’s a perfect formula for al-Qaida. They won’t be able to resist it. They will be able to come to New York,” said John Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy who served on the 9/11 Commission that warned of the nation’s vulnerabilities to terrorist strikes. Lehman joins a growing number of critics of...

I'm scheduled to be on Andrea Shea King's radio show tonight at 9:15 p.m. EDT on Orlanda, Florida station WDBO. You can listen live by clicking the source link and following the link from there. Andrea wrote up the preview for the show: One year ago this month, the ABC miniseries "Path to 9/11" was broadcast amid a storm of controversy. But when it aired, the $40-million, five-hour ABC miniseries, which garnered seven Emmy nominations, drew a combined two-night audience of more than 25 million viewers. The controversy erupts anew, with writer Cyrus Nowrasteh saying ABC-Disney is halting "Path to...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement after Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid signed a bill that implements the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission and makes our country safer and more secure: "Democrats have again kept their promise to the American people and showed why Americans trust them to keep the country safe," Dean said. "Even with Republicans blocking them every step of the way, Democrats implemented the recommendations of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission. President Bush and his Republican allies wasted years playing politics with our security. Republicans ignored these recommendations,...

August 9, 2007 – The Department published two regulations to strengthen aviation security through uniform and consistent passenger prescreening. The first, Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) Predeparture Final Rule, enables Customs and Border Protection to collect manifest information for international flights prior to boarding. The second, the Secure Flight Notice of Proposed Rule Making, outlines plans for the Transportation Security Administration to assume watch list-matching responsibilities for domestic flights and align domestic and international passenger prescreening. "Stopping known threats before they board an aircraft, whether domestically or internationally, is a critical security measure," said Secretary Michael Chertoff. "This enables our...

President Bush signed the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 in the Oval Office this morning. The president, along with Vice President Cheney and other members of his administration, then met with the counter-terrorism team at the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington. Afterwards, the president made a statement to the press, saying he wants the Democrats in Congress to stop playing politics with our national defense and send him an intelligence bill that he can sign, forcing Congress to stay in session through the August break if necessary. The president does have that authority. (Transcript) First Lady Laura Bush...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress sent President Bush legislation Friday to intensify anti-terror efforts in the U.S., shifting money to high-risk states and cities and expanding screening of air and sea cargo to stave off future Sept. 11-style attacks. The measure carries out major recommendations of the independent 9/11 Commission. The bill, passed by the House on a 371-40 vote, ranks among the top accomplishments of the six-month-old Democratic Congress. The Senate approved the measure late Thursday by 85-8, and the White House said the president would sign the bill. Six years after the Sept. 11 attacks and three years after...

Votes in both the House and Senate are likely to occur soon on a conference report for the bill implementing unfulfilled recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. That conference report still includes a provision authorizing DHS to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which enabled convicted 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to enter the U.S. using just his French passport and would have allowed shoe bomber Richard Reid to enter using just his British passport.

Congressional negotiators reached tentative agreement Tuesday on steps to strengthen air and sea defenses against terrorists in legislation aimed at fulfilling recommendations made three years ago by the 9/11 Commission. The bill outlines plans to inspect all cargo on passenger planes within three years and screen, within five years, all U.S.-bound cargo ships for nuclear weapons before they leave foreign ports. It also realigns the formulas for distributing federal security funds so that states and cities most at risk of terrorist attack receive a larger share.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats on Monday dropped their demand for union bargaining rights for airport screeners, hoping to revive anti-terrorism legislation that had stalled because of a presidential veto threat. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada made the announcement on the Senate floor as he called for House and Senate negotiators to begin reconciling bills implementing the July 2004 recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission. The legislation has been one of the new Democratic majority's priorities, but it had stalled because of a presidential veto threat over allowing airport screeners to have collective bargaining rights. Because of the veto...

Worse than Watergate -- But Invisible in the Media By Alan Nathan FrontPageMagazine.com | January 5, 2007 President Clinton’s Former National Security Advisor was caught stealing and destroying classified documents from the National Archives (before the 9/11 Commission could read them), but his actions have garnered less media attention than a fly breaking wind. Sandy Berger illegally removed four documents, hid them under a construction trailer for later retrieval, then cut three of the four with scissors upon returning to his office. He admitted to lying about it when first questioned by their officials, according to a December 20, 2006,...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 07/02/2007 Pelosi: 'We Cannot Wait Any Longer to Pass 9/11 Commission Recommendations' Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on the urgent need to pass legislation to implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations: "As the incidents over the weekend in London and Glasgow demonstrate, we must do more protect Americans from terrorism. To make our nation safer, we must pass legislation implementing the recommendations of the independent 9/11 Commission. "When Democrats took control of Congress in January, the first bill we passed H.R. 1, which implements the...

If anyone watched the Fox News report titled, "Socks, Papers, Scissors" hosted by David Asman, the conclusion was that the Justice Department was aware that Berger stole and destroyed some of the most sensitive documents in the National Archives - and yet failed to notify the 911 Commission priof to Berger testifying. Berger was sworn in under oath - and gave his testimony to the commission who was unaware of what he did? It wasn't until much later that they were told - after the report was printed and distributed. A commission member said he was shocked to hear that...

On the heels of the Senate’s 94-2 vote to pass a bill voiding a provision in the Patriot Act that allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. Reports KDVR-Fox 31 (Denver): "Gonzales' legacy at the DOJ has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold," he said. "I think that it is time for him to move on."Tancredo faulted several Justice Department decisions dealing with border crimes, including the prosecution of two...

The Spanish Connection What the 9/11 Commission didn't consider. The 9/11 Commission relied on information derived from two captured al Qaeda perpetrators for much of its picture of the conspiracy leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The interrogations of these men--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or "KSM," who masterminded the plot and got Osama bin Laden to finance it, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who acted as KSM's liaison with lead suicide terrorist Mohamed Atta--were performed by the CIA at secret locations. KSM claimed that he left almost all the tactical details to Atta, and therefore could...

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board—former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board – former Democrat Rep. Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder Samuel "Sandy" Berger. In the words of a recent House Committee report, Berger had perpetrated "a disturbing breach of trust and protocol that compromised the...

Paper Chase Did investigators turn a blind eye to the seriousness of the Sandy Berger scandal? Washington scandals are curious things. Sometimes special prosecutors are appointed and the media provide saturation coverage of their doings. An example would be the Valerie Plame episode, which led to this month's perjury trial of Scooter Libby, the former White House aide accused of lying about who first told him Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Then there are the barely noticed scandals, which prosecutors pursue quietly and professionally. Take the case of Donald Keyser, a former State Department official who last week...

Eighteen House Republicans have urged the Justice Department to proceed with a polygraph test for Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser who agreed to take the test as part of a plea of guilty of stealing documents from the National Archives.

January 09, 2007, 6:00 a.m. 9/11 Commission DayDemocrats’ national-security trendsetter is a bust. By Andrew C. McCarthy A lack of seriousness, the chasm between frivolous campaign rhetoric and real-world governing, and the politicizing of our national security — the one subject always claimed to be above such unseemliness … right before being politicized. These all figure in the theater that is Day One of new Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “First 100 Hours� blitz: The day when House Democrats undertake to make good — sort of — on their electoral pledge to enact the yet unfulfilled aspirations of the 9/11 Commission....

Did the 9/11 Commission receive all the documents it requested? Davis Releases Berger Report January 9, 2007 By David Marin (202)225-5074 Washington, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) released the following statement today on a committee report that sheds important new light on Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives. The report makes it clear that the full extent of Mr. Berger’s document removal can never be known, and consequently the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsive documents to which Mr. Berger had...

<p>Did the 9/11 Commission receive all the documents it requested?</p> <p>Washington, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) released the following statement today on a committee report that sheds important new light on Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives. The report makes it clear that the full extent of Mr. Berger’s document removal can never be known, and consequently the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsive documents to which Mr. Berger had access.</p>

Josh Gerstein covers some of the incredible details in the National Archives Inspector General's report on Sandy Berger's theft and destruction of classified documents from the National Archives in this New York Sun story. Regarding Berger's hiding of the documents underneath a construction trailer oustide the National Archives, Gerstein quotes Steven Aftergood: leading authority on classification policy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, said Mr. Berger's behavior was reminiscent of a "dead drop," when spies leave records in a park or under a mailbox to be retrieved by a handler. "It seems deliberate and calculated," Mr. Aftergood said....

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft this week became the only Cabinet-level Bush official to attack the Sept. 11 Commission, writing in his memoirs it "seemed obsessed with trying to lay the blame for the terrorist attacks at the feet of the Bush administration, while virtually absolving the previous administration of responsibility." Ashcroft also writes that the commission's hearings "were not so much about discovering the truth as they were about assessing blame and grandstanding," adding that they "degenerated into show trials."

Products Site Content Five Years Later: Are We Any Safer? John Lehman Proceedings, September 2006 Discuss in the eForum. Timeline: Major Islamic Extremist Attacks A former secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission identifies the real enemy in the current war and assesses progress. GREG E. MATHIESON According to the author (left)-here, with fellow 9/11 commissioner, Washington attorney Richard Ben-Veniste (right)-the commission's report on the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and its recommendations for what the United States should do to prevent such attacks from happening again have been largely ignored. Are we winning the war? The...

Paul Pillar Speaks, Again The latest CIA attack on the Bush administration is nothing new. by Stephen F. Hayes 02/10/2006 4:15:00 PM IN A BREATHLESS front-page, above-the-fold article in today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus reports that a former senior CIA official named Paul Pillar accuses the Bush administration of "misusing" intelligence to take the country to war in Iraq. According to the Post account, Pillar uses a forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs to claim that the Bush administration "politicized" the intelligence on Iraq. Bush administration policymakers did this subtly, Pillar says, by repeatedly asking the CIA questions about Iraq, its...

October 1, 2006 9/11 Panel Members Weren’t Told of Meeting By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action. Details of the previously undisclosed meeting on July 10, 2001, two months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, were first reported...

HILLARY'S FECKLESS 'DEFENSE' OF BILL WILL DAMAGE BOTH CLINTONSTHE CHRIS WALLACE INTERVIEW BLOWBACK by Mia T, 9.27.06 I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks. All you have to do is read the 9/11 Commission [Report] to know what he and his administration did to protect Americans and prevent terrorist attacks against our country. hillary clinton, 9.26.06 hat was it exactly that impelled missus clinton to rush to her husband's 'defense' within hours of the broadcast of his now infamous interview by Chris Wallace? 1 Was it the...

In fact, a 1999 Clarke after-action memo - the one top Clinton aide Sandy Berger later stole from the National Archives - identified national-security weaknesses so "glaring" that only sheer "luck" prevented a cataclysmic attack back then. And, as Clarke told the 9/11 Commission publicly, there was nothing the Bush administration could have done that would have prevented the attacks. Sure, he tells a different story now. But that, he admitted, is because of his opposition to the Iraq war, which he believes distracted from the War on Terror. Secretary Rice was a lot more honest, explaining yesterday that there...

Picture Proof: The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections The following information did not make it into the Senate Intelligence Committee's report released last Friday, that claimed Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward" al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates. What do you suppose the committee had to say about these documents? Captured Iraqi Document ISGC-2004-019920 Page 6From blogger The Dread Pundit Bluto: ISGZ-2004-0199202002 Iraqi Intelligence Correspondence concerning the presence of al-Qaida Members in Iraq. Correspondence between IRS members on a suspicion, later confirmed, of the presence of an Al-Qaeda terrorist group. Moreover,...

Of all the 9/11 anniversary coverage this morning, FNC was absolutely the best, letting the unadulterated tape tell the story of that savage September day.Of course, there were others, and as you might have guessed in advance, CNN's was easily the worst. Most notably, not once was Flight 175's actual impact into the South Tower ever shown. But one particularly ugly moment immediately floated to the top of the CNN bowl. Former Dem Congressman (he didn't last long) and former 'd-list' DLC hack Tim Roemer was given 5 minutes by CNN to make a free, but utterly tasteless & depraved...

Lee Hamilton (co-chair) of the 911 Commission is on the Board of Directors of Sandy Berger's company - Stonebridge International. I saw another freeper post this and thought it warranted its own vanity thread.

Guests: 9/11 Commission Members: Thomas H. Kean, Chair Richard Ben-Veniste Jamie S. Gorelick John F. Lehman 9/11, Five Years Later: On the fifth anniversary of the worst terror attacks in U.S. history, I speak exclusively with those commissioned to seek the truth about the 9/11 attacks. Four key members of the 9/11 Commission: Chairman and former Gov. Thomas Kean, R-N.J., Richard Ben-Veniste, Jamie Gorelick, and John Lehman weigh in on the lessons learned, and whether America is prepared for another catastrophe. And, with ABC's controversial dramatization, "The Path to 9/11," set to air Sunday and Monday, the commissioners react to...

The Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean, as well as Commissioner John Lehman, were George Stephanopoulos’s guests on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, and they both spoke out strongly in favor of the upcoming miniseries “The Path to 9/11” As the discussion ensued, John Lehman brilliantly offered the following:if you don't like the hits to the Clinton administration, well, welcome to the club. The Republicans have lived with Michael Moore and Oliver Stone and most of Hollywood as a fact of life. Yet, maybe the finest moment of Sunday’s program was the following statement made by ABC’s George Will during...

Lopez: In sum, how many times did Bill Clinton lose bin Laden?Miniter: Here's a rundown. The Clinton administration:1. Did not follow-up on the attempted bombing of Aden marines in Yemen.2. Shut the CIA out of the 1993 WTC bombing investigation, hamstringing their effort to capture bin Laden.3. Had Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a key bin Laden lieutenant, slip through their fingers in Qatar.4. Did not militarily react to the al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.5. Did not accept the Sudanese offer to turn bin Laden.6. Did not follow-up on another offer from Sudan through a private back channel.7. Objected to...

Writing the history of our time in song. MIDI - I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS The docs were marked TOP SECRET Sandy had been intently reading Billy Boy Clinton sent him There was a favor he was needing There was evidence in there Set for the 9-1-1 commission It can't see the light the day That had been their final decision In my life, I've seen dangerous scum But they're nothing like what all these traitors have done For far too long...they've gotten away When is judgment day? What did you stuff in your pants...it's time that we...

As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, and also with the approach of the November elections, it is crucial to examine the record of the last Democratic administration in protecting us from the terrorism of Muslim extremists. I mention the November election because leading Democrats have made no secret of their plans to tie the Bush Administration into knots with impeachment hearings, cut off funding of the troops in Iraq, overturn the Patriot Act and drastically curtail foreign terrorist surveillance programs.

The U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general has urged the FAA to consider disciplining two executives who failed to correct false information provided to the commission that investigated the September 11 attacks, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Citing the report by the acting inspector general, Todd Zinser, whose office acts as the department's internal watchdog, the Times said the Federal Aviation Administration executives, as well as a third, now-retired official, learned after the fact that false information was given to the commission in May 2003 about the FAA's contacts with the Air Force on the morning of the attacks....

Investigators found no evidence that aviation officials intentionally misled the Sept. 11 commission when they made inaccurate statements about their response to the 2001 terrorist attacks but recommended that two officials face "appropriate administrative action" for failing to correct the record, according to a report released yesterday. The findings by the Transportation Department's acting inspector general, Todd J. Zinser, address a lingering question about the response on Sept. 11 by military and civilian aviation officials, who initially portrayed the reaction as swift and efficient. It was later shown to be neither.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., charged on July 31 that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) have covered up "catastrophic failures" that left the nation vulnerable during the Sept. 11 hijackings. "For almost three years now, NORAD officials and FAA officials have been able to hide their critical failures that left this country defenseless during two of the worst hours in our history," Dayton declared during a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. During the hearing, Dayton told leaders of the Sept. 11 commission, that, based on the commission's report, a NORAD...

After two wars, thousands of deaths and many billions of dollars, the United States is still vulnerable to terrorists. That painful reality has ignited a political frenzy over who's to blame and who's best qualified to protect Americans. The one thing that Republicans and Democrats agree on is this: Five years after the Sept. 11 disaster, terrorists want to strike again and the country is not safe. To hear both sides talk, the wonder is that America hasn't been hit yet. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people," President Bush said Thursday. "But obviously we're still...

There is no evidence that Pentagon officials intentionally misled the Sept. 11 commission when they gave inaccurate accounts about actions at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a Defense Department spokesman said. A forthcoming report from the Pentagon's inspector general will address the question of whether military commanders intentionally misled the commission, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka. But "there is nothing that indicates the information provided to the commission was knowingly false," Maka said. The inspector general's report is the result of a compromise among commissioners, some of whom concluded that the Pentagon may have been deliberately...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception, the panel's chairmen say in a new book. Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in "Without Precedent" that their panel was too soft in questioning former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani - and that the 20-month investigation may have suffered for it. The book, a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, recounts obstacles the authors say were thrown up by the Bush administration, internal...

Allegations Brought to Inspectors General Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate. Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to...

WASHINGTON, July 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on the two-year anniversary of the 9/11 Commission recommendations this Saturday: "Two years ago, the bipartisan and independent 9/11 Commission released its report, outlining urgent and achievable recommendations for securing our nation. Implementing the recommendations would have fundamentally changed the way the executive branch and the Congress deal with matters related to terrorism - making us more unified and more effective. "Yet, two years later, the Bush administration and the Republican Congress have either failed abysmally to act on many of the critical recommendations, or...