9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

CBS ^ | 17 December 2003

[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.

[fml]

My thoughts too, good point.

[jmstein7]

Everything is "preventable". The question is, was it reasonably preventable? That is, was there negligence, or would there really have had to have been an extrodinary (unreasonable) effort?

Also, what would the timeframe for this effort have been? Are we talking a year to prevent (meaning that Clinton would have had to have started the effort).

This report conveys no relevent information.

[ILBBACH]

So is this investigation only going back to January 20, 2001? What about the 8 years of Clinton, or the Carter administration, or the 1972 Munich Games, or the Six-Day war, or maybe 1948 when Israel was founded?

I guess it all depends on who they want to blame.

[Viking2002]

Until the smoke from the gun is traced back to the early/mid 90's - then they'll howl like banshees. Mark my words. :-)

[PISANO]

You got to be kidding me!!!! GW after 7.5 months in office is responsible for the previous 8 years of mis-management of our CIA, FBI and the US MILITARY. He wasn't even able to appoint a new FBI Director until ONE WEEK before 911 because of the election delay. If Chairman KEAN blames GW for this I will go balistic. I am sick of this!!

[Dog]

Horse Hockey....

[Arpege92]

Speaking of CBS, I saw the tale end of a story on Fox that showed a poll claiming that 70% of President Bush's coverage by CBS was negative coverage.

[Seajay]

It is interesting to note that both attacks on the WTC came in the earlier days of a new administration of the opposite party than the previous. Perhaps the dismissal of high leve analysts in DOD, DOJ and cet in 93 and again in 01 because they were political appointees may have also resulted in the dismissal of valuable intelligence?

[Dog]

Keane is on record saying 9/11 could have been prevented and should have...

[cwb]

"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."

Mainly, because these "various government agencies" were prohibited from sharing informaton with each other prior to 9/11. I getta kick out these libs who bitch about the shortcomings in the system, when it is their paranoia and hostility that has created many of these obstructions, in the first place. These same people who moan about the intelligence failures are the same people who supported the decimation of these intelligence agencies from the Church Commission to the Torecelli Amendment.
Even now, as we make changes to the system to elliviate some of these errors, we still have the usual suspects up in arms, objecting to those changes.

[onedoug]

"Bring it on."

[OneTimeLurker]

"Bush should stonewall on the records now, more than ever."

Yeah and screw open government too. BTW you don't think it was preventable? If that's how you feel then why bother with the War on Terror anyway. We may as well just duct tape our windows and pray we don't get hit.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Exactly. W had just hit the ground when this happened. Consider the various attacks we suffered while the Clintons were in the White House.
Kean is an elitist RINO, anyway and I would believe him if he wrote me a check..

[Lancey Howard]

It's the poorly constructed sentence of an otherwise bright man who has misspoken because he is lying.

Kean is just another in a long line of forgotten RINO New Jersey governors.
He's going to "find" something whether there's something to find or not.

[jmstein7]

Everything is "preventable". The question is, was it reasonably preventable? That is, was there negligence, or would there really have had to have been an extrodinary (unreasonable) effort?

Also, what would the timeframe for this effort have been? Are we talking a year to prevent (meaning that Clinton would have had to have started the effort).

This report conveys no relevent information.

[Chants]

If we had implemented the security measures necessary to avert 9-11, we would have been accused of fear-mongering.

Security officials get so many warnings it is hard to filter through the credible ones, and the not so credible ones.

[FReepaholic]

>>...we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility...<<

Lessee....who was President for eight years after that??? And this guy's blaming Bush??

[shrinkermd]

Kean, Howard Dean and John Dean all have an alliterative sound to me. There is something about people that they need to pull down those in power. This is going to be big news for some time. What to do is unclear to me, but the President should give it every attention.

[onemoreday]

...
...
....then what is the purpose of having an "independent" investigation?

Is there something that "may be possible" that you would rather not hear about?

If so, then the type of country you would like to live in would be some form of authoritarian tyranny, not this one.

...."stonewall and fire".....

Wow.....the mighty have fallen!!

What ever happened to honoring the "simple truth?"