TEXT OF DR. CONDOLEEZZA RICE OPENING REMARKS THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS

US Air Force E-mail | 8 Apr 2004 | Condi Rice

[sanchmo]

bump 4 later

[SheLion]

Thank you SO much for this information! I really wanted this break-down! I bet they didn't treat her like this behind CLOSED doors. What a lynch mob!

[TYVets]

"God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. " Is that potential tagline for sale / lease?

Not for sale !

Lease available, send lots of cash (small bills only please).

[<1/1,000,000th%]

You've been watching TV news again, haven't you? ;(

You're going to have to spend more time on FR.

;)

[Hildy]

This is what I'd love to have heard Dr. Rice say to Kerrey and/or Ben Veniste: "Sir, please look into my eyes and tell me and the people of the US that you believe that President Bush and I knew about a forthcoming terrorist attack and that we chose to do nothing about it."

[TYVets]

"But I guarantee you, they didn't treat her like this behind closed doors!"

Kerry, Gorelick and Ben-Veniste came out looking worse behind closed doors ?

No way they could, could they?

[pepperhead]

What good would that do? Democrats have no conscience. We all know they would follow the example of X42 and lie anyway.

[dvwjr]

I get your point, but Condi Rice is not the "director of the NSA", she is the "National Security Advisor". The directory of the National Security Agency since 1999 is Lt. General Michael V Hayden, USAF.


dvwjr

[philman_36]

My pet peeve...nation vs country
I tuned out after the first reference to this nation as a country. You'll find both terms interspersed throughout the statement to a tally of 7-4.
So when one presumes that Dr. Rice, a very educated woman, understands the difference between the two terms one is forced to ask the obvious question...The "nation" is obviously America so what "country" was Dr. Rice talking about?
Pardon my nitpicking, but it is wrong.

And then I heard this for which I was glad to have stayed around.
Now, we have an opportunity and an obligation to move forward together. Bold and comprehensive changes are sometimes only possible in the wake of catastrophic events - events which create a new consensus that allows us to transcend old ways of thinking and acting. Just as World War II led to a fundamental reorganization of our national defense structure and to the creation of the National Security Council, so has September 11th made possible sweeping changes in the ways we protect our homeland.

Wake up America! You've been Hegeled and Delphied and didn't even know it...again! Some still won't know it, or even admit to it even after reading this.

[NERep]

Every time I see pictures of the "9-11 relatives" holding their pictures of their loved ones, I think of moveon.org -- as in why can't they just MOVE ON with their lives. Finding someone to blame won't bring back their loved ones. And, obviously, apologies aren't enough because Richard Clark gave them that and they were still there today.

Another thing I don't understand is people like my former Senator Bob Kerrey - hammering the administration for not taking action against Al Qaida before 9-11 and in the next breath hammering the administration for doing exactly that in Iraq!

[philman_36]

Oh, and one other thing...
This new strategy was developed over the Spring and Summer of 2001, and was approved by the President's senior national security officials on September 4. It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush Administration -? not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of al-Qaida.
Although this National Security Presidential Directive was originally a highly classified document, we arranged for portions to be declassified to help the Commission in its work, and I will describe some of those today. The strategy set as its goal the elimination of the al-Qaida network.
This is about NSPD-9 Combating Terrorism 4 September 01 (which still isn't available to the public else we'd be able to read it in the fas.org link provided and is different than the HSPD's dealing with homeland security).
If anyone has what the WH said would be released I'd sure appreciate a link.

Now, we know that war was declared on the US. We're even told so...
The terrorist threat to our Nation did not emerge on September 11th, 2001. Long before that day, radical, freedom-hating terrorists declared war on America and on the civilized world. The attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in 1985, the rise of al-Qaida and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the attacks on American installations in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, the East Africa embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, these and other atrocities were part of a sustained, systematic campaign to spread devastation and chaos and to murder innocent Americans.

In the past I've often asked myself...
What could've possibly prompted al-Qaida to give the go ahead on the attack on the WTC? Why would they act so quickly at the beginning of a new administration? They've been content in the past to attack outside of the US. It must've been something pretty big to warrant such a response.
So, I'm thinking to myself today after hearing this...NSPD-9 must be it. It calls for the elimination of al-Qaida (Clark spoke about this specific wording the other day also) and you know that had to pi$$ somebody off.
So now my question becomes...
Who leaked this "highly classified document" that prompted such a quick reply from al-Qaida?
It took a total of one week for the reaction to take place.
Pardon my musings.

[satchmodog9]

Ben VD was not questioning Rice, he was leading her like any rat bastardo lawyer would. He was trying to put words in her mouth.

[Clock King]

The applause is from a small chorus of "families of 9/11".

These people are despicable. And I would say it to their faces! They so dishonor the memory of those who died on 9/11 with their COWARDICE!

[buffyt]

THANKS for posting this! Condi sure blew them right out of the water. She had Little Bob Kerry blubbering like a whiney two year old "That's not fair, that's not fair, that's not fair. I only have ten minutes. You are using up MY time. That's not fair" I was laughin my arse off at him.

Condi Rice for President 2008!!!!!

[buffyt]

New poll today... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

	Are you satisfied with the White House response to the 9/11 commission?   * 177 responses
	Yes 55%
	No 45%

[NewRomeTacitus]

Since Davy Crockett is back in the public light, I couldn’t help but think of the stand he made before Congress when he had to balance the rights of the many against the misfortunes of a few:

“In 1827 in the U.S. House of Representatives, a $10,000 relief bill (real money back then) was proposed to aid the widow of a naval officer. Representative Davy Crockett rose in stern opposition to the bill, saying,

"We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not attempt to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money."

The bill was defeated by a wide margin, after which Crockett, one of the poorest members of Congress, made a substantial private contribution to the widow.”

http://www.geocities.com/noreparations/

Now we have a public that expects reparations as a matter of course and a Congress full of millionaires who think nothing of expending public funds at the drop of a hat, building or pork barrell.

Not only are the likes of Bob Kerry wrong for using the plight of the unfortunate as a political axe to grind, they have no right to even hold that particular axe after they spent years dulling it's blade (the disempowerment of our security agencies during the last two decades).

Unlike Mr. Crockett, I'd be willing to bet that candidate Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and every other wealthy Democrat spent little if any of their personal wealth on aid for 9-11 relatives.

[XHogPilot]

To: info@9-11Commission.gov
Subject: Urgent Note to 9-11 Commission: North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"

Body:
North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040409/1/3jdy5.html

Urgent note to the 9-11 commission: We have a terrorist threat warning! What do you suggest?