Live 9/11 Commission Thread [testifying today Freeh, Reno, Ashcroft]

April 13, 2004 | Vanity

[Peach]

9/11 Commission. Now on C-Span.

Chairman Thomas Kean has asked the audience to refrain from clapping.

Louie Freeh, former FBI director, up at 9:30.

Business matters being taken care of now by the Commission.

[Peach]

I see Ted Olsen in the background.

[texasbluebell]

Yeah, I liked that, BV telling Cofer Black he was mistaken in his answer.

Ha. BV is a punk. Too bad somebody can't get him tossed off along with Gorelick.

[GOPrincess]

Ted Oleson sitting over Ashcroft's shoulder. Love it.

[Desdemona]

Ted Olsen is there, too.

[1Old Pro]

Ben Veniste, is there solely to protect his buddy Clinton.

Exactly, but all too obvious for the media to recognize.

[Miss Marple]

I have no idea. If it came from the Clinton papers it is suspect, in my opinion.

I see that Ted Olsen is sitting behind the Attorney General.

[LisaFab]

Ooh AG jumps right in blaming UBL!!! Yes!!

[mass55th]

Just saw Ted Olson sitting in the audience.

[TomGuy]

[Peach]

Finally - someone placing the blame where it belongs.

On the jihadists and their chief murderer - Osama bin Laden.

[TexKat]

What was it? I can only surmise BV would bring it up in order to paint Clinton in a good light.

Something regarding the capture and/or kill OBL Clinton memo or authorization.

[texasbluebell]

Ashcroft is such a good decent man. No wonder so many misguided people hate him.

[Nexus]

I posted this as a seperate thread ( 9/11 Freeh testimony: "fight an enemy that was using missiles" ), but I figure I might as well post it here too:

Did anyone happen to catch Freeh say this today:

"A war footing means we seal borders. A war footing means we detain people that we're suspicious of," Freeh said.

"We were using grand jury subpoenas and arrest warrants to fight an enemy that was using missiles and suicide boats to attack our warships."

Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I don't remember any terror attacks pre-9/11 using missiles, except for perhaps TWA 800!

[Howlin]

BV tried to stop Pickard from even saying that!

Frankly, I thought they both did very well. I thought Black might explode about the $$.

It sounds to ME that everybody was doing as much as they could -- and that people who are LOOKING for something to bitch about are twisting facts.

For example, today we learn that Moussoui did NOT ask "just to learn to take off" which has been Chris Matthews' mantra for MONTHS.

[Mo1]

I wonder how John Kerry voted on that bill? and who sponsored that bill?

John Kerry on Homeland Security

[bvw]

Re: Ben Veniste's question to Pickard:

Pickard said "Travelgate!" ... That is policies put in lace following the abuse of power by Clinton during Travelgate were the reason the FBI could not work with the WH directly.

[Carolinamom]

Ted Olsen's presence should remind them that the widders are not the ONLY ones to suffer the loss of a loved one.

[maica]

The Washington Post indicated there was a specific warning involving Lower Manhattan in the PDB.

"Chrissy Matthews was spewing that "downtown Manhattan" all morning."

Obviously Chrissy trusts the words of WaPo writers over PDB writers:

Dana Milbank and W Pincus' opening sentence of their page one article last Sunday:

"President Bush was warned a month before the Sep 11, 2001, attacks that the FBI had information that terrorists might be preparing for a hijacking in the US and mightbe targeting a building in Lower Manhattan. "

@@@

In the actual PDB, the words "Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft..." appear in paragraph 9.

The words "for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." are in the next paragraph.

Yet renowned WaPo writers rearranged the words and meaning, to send a message that Bush Knew!

[prairiebreeze]

For nearly a decade our government had blinded itself to our enemies.

And Slick was Pres for most of that time (my entry)

Prairie

[Gothmog]

Yes, that whole Travelgate mention puts a nice hole in the Dems attack strategy. They keep hammering why the "Principals" didn't meet with key people. Well, now we know one reason was that because of witch Hillary and the Travelgate scandal the acting FBI director could not go to the WH himself.

No wonder rat boy scurried right along to the next question.