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.

[nopardons]

Nope and they never do give a straight answer about anything else, either.

[Betty Jo]

Just these two links and I must go to sleep.

A little cross-referencing:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/527633/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/103647/posts?page=772

See my # 776 on this last one,I guess only on Google.

[nopardons]

I couldn't possibly care less about what you've posted !

Are you running back & forth between this site and another ? Is that what's tiring your aged bones out ?

What you don't realize, sweetums, is that besides Fred, and a few other extreme fringe of the fringe fringers, no one, not a single person, gives a royal damn about your tinfoil garbage. With a lot of time, money, and effort, on our parts, President Bush is going to be re-elected, you can continue to weep in your beer, whislt wearing a full bosysuit of tinfoil,and I will NOT blame President Bush for the deaths, of those I and my friends and family knew, who were MURDERED on 9/11.

[Betty Jo]

I hope its clear that I am cross referencing the 9/11+Alamoudi+Clinton+Bush+FBI stuff.

Seeing the dates of the articles plus the replies is very important for the future.

[My Dog Likes Me]

You are correct. The immigration system is a national security threat. It must be reformed. Just who are we allowing into our house?
Tom Kean isn't attacking GWB. He is just speaking the truth. GWB was stuck with the (former) INS and castrated FBI and CIA when he took office. We all know that.
In the words of a retired FBI agent, shortly after 9/11, "In John Edgar's day, we would have been all over these guys." He is talking about J. Edgar Hoover. And the 19 hijackers. And he is right.

[CMClay]

Open all records now or else we will have another Watergate or worse.

bump

[CMClay]

The difference lies in whether we really want to find out who, what, why and how it was that 3000 of our fellow Americans were horribly murdered before our very eyes.

bump for the truth.

[Recovering_Democrat]

We had to rely on an informat to tell us where Saddam was. You think these idiots are going to be able to find Osama?

Heh. Yeah, never mind that "informants" are a regular source of information for any intelligence operation. Besides you're mixing apples and oranges here. The "prevention" of 9/11 and the apprehension of Saddam are not similar in scope, mission, or operation.

Whatever attack you're making upon the CINC, it ain't workin'.

[CMClay]

That's right: let's make excuses if it is at all possible that some of our folks may not have performed in a stellar manner. Only the Democrats could have been to blame for any of the failures that led to 911. And the fact that a former Republican governor heads the commission? Well, he must be ready to become a Democrat or he is really at heart a Democrat. If you look at US history through the years BOTH PARTIES have occassionally slipped up. 911 was the result of an across the boards failure, with the stage set by the Clinton years. As soon as I saw the Drudge headline I knew the wagons would begin circling to defend themeselves against the onslaught of criticism. So Bush should stonewall now more than ever? And so the famlies (they ALL must be Dean operatives) are Bush haters? No...people want to find out precisely what happened so it can never happen again. If Clinton goes down as a failure for what he did to the intelligence community, so be it. If it turns out some folks in the Bush administration were focused on other vital issues and didn't connect the dots then LET'S FIND OUT and make sure next time the dots are connected and perhaps even encourage a few folks to get different jobs or transfer to other positions in the federal government. If we turn every single national security issue into an US versus Them political wrestling match more 911s will occur -- and the fault will be in the mirror when we look into it.

Let Justice Prevail Though the Heavens May Fall.

[Terry Mross]

I think it will be worth to hear Billy Boy say "It depends on what the word terrorist means."

[CMClay]

Until Bush and co. come clean about the Saudis and 9-11, they deserve to be taken to task.

Amen. Let Justice Prevail Though the Heavens May Fall.

[CMClay]

If, after the country reads Kean's report, we discover that we want to know what's in those Daily Briefings, then we can take the appropriate action at that time. We can order Congressional hearings, create a new commission, reactivate Kean's commission, impeach the President or vote him or Congress out of office. But we can do none of these things until Kean issues his report.

The country should demand the right to know.

common sense bump.

[nopardons]

Dead wrong! The country has absolutely NO " right to know " what's in the daily briefings. We are a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC. we are NOT a Democracy. We vote, those of us who are eligible ( and , unfortunately, some who aren't ), for people to be our representatives and for a president, who makes up his own mind, without the " aid " of the populace, what to do.

There is absolutely nothing, NOTHING WHATSOEVER, in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or anywhere else, for that matter, which ensures the " right " of the people, to be in on everything a president, or for that matter, any member of the Congress, gets to know about/see.

And, IF enough mordant idiots want to demand a Congressional hearing, have new ( and useless !) commissions, and impeach THIS president, then they'll have the Dems on their side, hopefully will fail in ALL attempts, and those here, agreeing with this offal, do not, not, NOT belong here, are NOT Conservatives, and aren't bright enough to be allowed to vote.

Hey you ... go over to DU and take your pals with you.

[My Dog Likes Me]

I don't agree.
I, for one, don't just want to see the "daily morning brief" to the President from August to Sept of 2001, I want to see same for the directors of our pathetic intelligence organs. People should be made accountable and jailed for this terrible failure.

What were they worried about as the hours ticked away? School shootings, the Klan, the Mafia? Oh please.

Who in our government slept, and why? The commission is on the correct path.

[Coral Snake]

I've got news for you. Fred Mertz is'nt the ONLY Toddster LP double agent around Free Republic. ;c)

[gatorbait]

I'm sure Daschle's child bride had her fat little fingers in there somewhere...

She did,indeed.She was acting administrator for 21/2 years ,,Bill and Al shook the airlines down for a particular sum of money and the security problems, real and imagined, went away.

[eno_]

In order to succeed, a terrorist attack must inspire fear. If nobody knows it's a terrorist attack, it isn't. A successful terrorist attack cannot be covered up. That is one of the reasons why 9/11 was so successful.

That is preciesely why, if, for example, AA587 was a successful "shoe bomb" or a baggage bomb, it would be covered up.

In WWII, Nazis ran many sabotage operations against the U.S. Most were kept secret during the war to avoid damaging morale.

[Mia T]

YOO-HOO! GOV. KEAN: The 2-Headed Grotesquerie in the Room_bump

 

hillary talks:ON TERROR
(reinstalling the clintons in the White House has one advantage over suicide)

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

missus clinton's REAL virtual office update
http://hillarytalks.blogspot.com
http://virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com
http://demmemogate.blogspot.com
http://www.hillarytalks.us
http://www.hillarytalks.org
fiendsofhillary.blogspot.com
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fiendsofhillary.org
fraudsofhillary.com

[Coop]

would bet there's nobody in the world except a couple of rappers and a few dozen terrorists would even have considered the possiblity that people would coordinate an attack by hijacking 4 (5? 6? 7?) planes at the same time and flying them into prominent buildings.

To not consider planes being used as missiles is just nutty, in my view. A terrorist can use a truck as a bomb, but not a plane? Come on.

But anticipating a general event and stopping a specific one are two entirely different things. Hindsight is just wonderful, ain't it?

[Coop]

Open all records now or else we will have another Watergate or worse.

That's what I said about those missing billing records...

and the Travelgate firings...

and the thousands of missing E-mails...

and Vince Foster's "suicide"...

and Hillary Clinton's thesis...