Free Republic

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...

From National Review's Media Blog: Murtha: Change Directions Like Clinton Did In Somalia06/16 06:27 PMRep. John Murtha appeared on The Situation Room this afternoon to talk about the Iraq resolution that passed in the House today. He spoke against the resolution and advocated withdrawing the troops like Clinton did in Somalia:MURTHA: The thing that disturbed me and worries me about this whole thing is we can't get them to change direction. And I said over and over in debate, if you listen to any of it, in Beirut President Reagan changed direction, in Somalia President Clinton changed direction, and yet...

Man with links to 9/11 pilot deported 10 June 2006 A man the Government says had a direct link with a September 11 terrorist has been deported from New Zealand because he was a threat to national security. Immigration Minister David Cunliffe confirmed today Yemeni national, Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, was deported because his continued presence in New Zealand posed a threat. "He was directly associated with persons responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001," Mr Cunliffe said in a statement. He was deported under the rarely used Section 72 of the Immigration Act...

Grab yourself a cup of coffee and head on over to TKS for the best summation of Able Danger as things presently stand. Or stay here and I'll summarize it for you. In very, very brief summation: The 9-11 commission did know about Able Danger; some of its staff were briefed on it twice, and the information got to some but not all of the commissioners What seems increasingly likely, based on the TKS summary and others, is that the commissioners who knew of Able Danger dismissed it because its Mohammed Atta timeline didn't agree with theirs. That in and...