[Kaslin]

Excellent observation by NewsMax

[WhiskeyPapa]

I dismiss statements that the 9/11 attacks were in any inevitable.

Just a few more pieces being put in their proper place might have foiled the whole thing. The difference in emphasis that the Clinton administration and the Bush administration put on international terrorism might have been decisive.

Walt

[arjay]

Outstanding article. Thanks for posting it.

[conservative cat]

Oh, how true. And he would have had just over a month to get all of that done!

[TomGuy]

"Calling channel 7, calling channel 7.
How do you tune in this dang thang?"

[america-rules]

Wrong!

Bush's only huge mistake was holding over all the Clinton failures. All this crap happened under the Clinton teams watch and Bush should have cleaned house because they knew they were not doing their job swatting flies !

[Caipirabob]

Given the sabotage the rats committed on Federal property before they surrendered the White House and other agencies to the new administration, it was a long time before Bush's team even had the proper equipement in place. Imagine Bush distributing a document to round up Terrorists in the name of the " ar on Terror".

The rats did everything to disable the incomming administration. If there was anything that could be done, they are directly responsible for any delays Bush faced in getting started.

[Smartass]

Hypocritical, Monday morning quarterbacking. I read
the memo as well as the world and could not find the
WHAT, WHO, WHEN OR WHERE. However, we now know WHY!!!

[A CA Guy]

Clinton allowed Bin Laden the freedom to grow a massive terror structure that may cost us a trillion to defeat.
Laden declared war on us and when Clinton had him in hand, yet he let him go to kill Lord knows how many tens or hundreds of thousands of innocents around the whole world.

Carter then has the nerve to come out and open up his pathetic stupid pie hole. For heaven's sake, he had no gonads to handle terrorists in Iran and he had hostages held all his administration. This is the last F'ing loser that should ever open his mouth about anything. Carter is an idiot and Clinton was the worst President ever.

The Democrats attempts to make it harder to prosecute this war and to try and make hay at President Bush really makes a case for them being a pretty anti-American crowd that acts in the interest of their own power and NOT the American people IMO.

This is 100% Clinton's fault.

[Tacis]

I sincerely regret the loss of each person murdered by religious fanatic Muslims on Sept.11 and wish there was something that could have prevented just as I sincerely regret the deaths of each person killed this weekend on the Washington Beltway by drunk drivers.

Beyound that, who gave these wealthy widows the right to assuage their guilt that they should have treated their loved one better and that they have profited mightely by that act and the grave, grave concern that some one else might have gotten something more, by criticing the governments actions and pretending they know something about national security? I guarantee that, no matter how much information some of these people have, they will never be satisfied. That is, despite the fact that they claim to want information, they want to be releived of their guilt or they want the act undone. There will ALWAYS be the next question; there will ALWAYS be "We'd have closure if we knew [what] [when] [who] [how]....."

Let's try to understand their grief. But, let's not let them think they've become spokesmen for all of us.

[Sabatier]

Exactly right. Imagine the howls of outrage if Bush had taken the necessary steps to prevent 9/11. If he had done so Congress would have been in an uproar.

The media would have accused him of conducting a witch hunt against Muslims. Politicians would have accused him of conducting an imperial presidency.

What I suspect? If Kerry gets elected a whole lot more Americans will die because a la Johnson he will get us bogged down in Iraq, not Bush.

[Chewbacca]

Bush could have prevented the 9/11 attack by running for president and winning back in 1996.

[Montaignes Cat]

Let's look at what Bush should have done: September 11, 2001 was plotted during the 1990s. The Al-Qaeda bombings during the 1990s were plotted by men raised in Muslim Brotherhood families, and the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920s. So, Bush should have stopped the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood, and their indoctrination of their followers. It doesn't matter that he wasn't born yet. He shouldn't have done things to fuel Arab resentment. He should have prevented the Pakistan and Bangladesh wars of independence, he should have forbidden Jews from living in Palestine in the 1880s. He should have supported the Arabs against the Ottoman Turks. He should have worked for the return of the Mahdi in the 1800s. He shouldn't have supported the Spanish crown from retaking Andalusia and expelling the Moslems in 1492. It is all Bush's fault.

[marajade]

Are any of the widows claiming they saw the Aug 6 briefing before we did yesterday?

I read it today and agree with Dr. Rice; its mostly historical in nature.

How could anyone marry the desire by bin Laden to hijack planes in exchange for political prisoners and using them as missiles by flying them in the WTC. Those two go to two totally different outcomes.

You can't blame Bush for wanting to keep Clinton admin staff in place... it was prudent considering the Dem controlled Senate was slow in confirming Bush nominees and the 36 day recount fiasco really hurt the transition between administrations. I remember articles saying that Gore was getting more of the confidential military briefings and that Bush was being ignored by Clinton.

[E=MC²]

"Everything is in [the briefing memo] but the date 9/11," complained Lori Van Auken whose husband died in the Twin Towers, in comments to the New York Daily News. "You have the who, what, where, why and how. The only thing you don't have is the when."

We will never know, but I wonder just how many OTHER equally probable memos the president received before 9/11 that fingered OTHER who, what, where, why and how groups??? demonrats and their eternal love affair with "smoking gun" memos always cherry pick the one out of thousands that hindsight validates and that promotes their agenda.

[secretagent]

"Where?" The memo mentions "federal buildings in New York." But Bush could have closed every one of them ...

Hmmm....

[NordP]

How Bush Could Have Prevented the 9/11 Attacks = Crystal Ball

;-) sheesh

[KillBill]

I don't know about you, but in my high school World Civ class we came to a general consensus that the U.S. should invade Afghanistan to take out the Taliban (most recently having blown up Bamiyan Buddhas) and Bin Laden. Though that memo says absolutely nothing new, if Clinton had the resolve or Bush the time to invade Afghanistan pre-9/11, I think it would have been supported more than Bosnia would have been.

[NYCVirago]

Bump for a great article!

[Imperialist]

I posted this rant at another thread, seems more relevant here on this thread though:

I just want to repeat something I have felt and mentioned since 9/11/01 with regards to the newly released "PDB". It seems everyone is looking to blame somebody for the attack, naturally. Though our intelligence apparatus could have performed better, they did manage to get some good intel prior to 9/11/01. So much intel that in June 2001 a warning was given to the FAA about AQ hijacking domestic flights. The info was passed on to the airline industry. And what did the airline industry do? Nothing. Prior to 9/11/01, alot of aircraft cockpits had what amounted to a shower curtain seperating the pilots from the passengers. I quit flying in 1999 because of security and mechanical problems the airline industry still has. I have stood in front of the curtain to the cockpit and looked in there to see what I could see. Back then I could hardly believe that the cockpit was so vulnerable. Gore even tried to get the airlines to tighten security but the airlines lobbied against it to the point where they had the suggested security improvements but which had no deadline for enforcement. All the airlines cared about was profit or lack there of. Upgrading security was to expensive for them back then. Your safety was/is not included in the cost of the ticket to fly, as an EL AL Exec. pointed out shortly after 9/11.

I blame the Airline Industry for 9/11/01 by not responding to the hijack warning given in June 2001. Of course Klintoon Admin could have declared war on AQ in 1996 and things might have been different.

Sorry about the rant. Thanks.

[Solamente]

Don't forget all the racial profiling stories in the year or two before 9/11. Law enforcement was just getting used to all the restrictions of their suspicions.