Posted on 12/17/2003 5:23:34 PM PST by Hal1950
For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.
"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.
"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."
Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.
"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.
To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of the Bush administration – that there was never any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.
"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.
The widows want to know why various government agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota and Arizona about suspicious student pilots.
"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it," Breitweiser said.
Kean admits the commission also has more questions than answers.
Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting in the decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those positions, Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will."
Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.
Shelby's spent years reading thousands of Intel-related reports. I would think he has some basis for saying something is largely releasable. Even if he's inexplicably wildly off the mark, surely there's 50 percent, 40 percent, a single word - about Saudi Arabia and 9-11 that the American people are adult enough to hear.
Instead we're treated to Crawford photo ops with House of Saud "princes" and to pabulum about the KSA being an ally in the WOT.
BTW- There's a thread somewhere on FR today about a Saudi diplomat mixing it up with Mohammad Atta's Hamburg terror cell.
Well Betty Jo, just who do you suppose was in office from 1992 to January 2001? Just who do you think it was who failed? The guy who was there for 8 years or the guy who was there for 8 months?
We know why! The agencies investigation terrorism, CIA, NSA among others, were prevented by law from talking to those agencies investigating criminal activity. Since there was no crime involved, the FBI couldn't prosecute. Since the CIA didn't know about the activity, and the FBI couldn't talk to them, they didn't have a basis to act.
The Patriot Act dissolved that artificial and incomprehensible provision in the statutes.
Are you putting words into Betty Jo's mouth, or are you being deceptive again?
Give it to Bush, AND release its conclusions to the American public, with the supporting evidence (except what still needs to be classified). We don't need a RINO has-been from New Jersey (I'm from New York originally so I'm prejudiced ;-)) to tell us that "something went wrong" with our intelligence and national security and those responsible therefor on 9/11/01, but we DO need to know the how and why, and the back-up, without a lot of showboating and political spin.
You can say whatever you want to about me, but at least I haven't been reduced to coming over to FR to get something for Todd to copy and paste over at LP.
Quite pathetic.
9/11 Commission Set to Blame Bush, Clinton Gets a Pass
The chairman of the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks is hinting that he's prepared to place blame at the doorstep of the Bush White House for not acting on evidence that could have prevented the catastrophe.
Bad stuff afoot, if true.
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