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.

[GOPyouth]

Gorelick is up

[piasa]

I just love it when they try to bring up the USS Cole. In the YEARS right up until just before the bombing of the USS Cole my brother's boat unit REPEATEDLY demonstrated its ability to come within a literal arm's length of US warships in the Persian Gulf and the region. They would get up to a destroyer or other vessel and then see if anyone ever bothered to look, leaving port in the company of arab fishing boats, etc. They were never spotted, and had ample time in each case to destroy the ship they had come alongside had they been terrorists, with any of a number of methods possible. Only when they notified the captains of those ships were they revealed. Security was bad and crews were lax throughout the nineties and beyond.

No effort was made, except by individual captains who had been so 'embarassed' for lack of a better word, to improve the conditions. There was no leadership at the top and only low morale down below.

[Steven W.]

This is a major cover-up by Reno, Gorelick and the DemoncRATs on the committee. Gorelick should be ousted from the committee and now here she is ASKING QUESTIONS????

[mlbford2]

They are treating Ashcroft with kid gloves. Wonder why?

[Desdemona]

Gorleick Gorelick

Uh-oh.

[cyncooper]

I wish I hadn't missed it.

The author up now. This might get interesting.

[mewzilla]

Bob Kerrey from 2003:

And then we pass the Homeland Security Bill, the US Patriot Act. I mean, Jeez, anything that has that name on it, you ought to vote against it. Because they're setting it up, how could you vote against the US Patriot Act? Aren't you patriotic? And anything that's pretending to be for homeland security-- I mean, there's vendors from Washington DC all the way around the Beltway, waiting to get in to see Tom Ridge and spend some of your and my money. And I think we've completely overestimated the threat of terrorism to us, and as a consequence, we're afraid to do the things that we ought to be doing. That's my own view. And it doesn't mean we aren't getting some good things done, and so forth.

Maybe Kerrey's afraid Ashcroft will quote him.

[mombonn]

clinton/gorelick up now. Should be interesting

[MasonGal]

I know - amazing, isn't it - she needs to be taken off this panel- NOW!!

[texasbluebell]

I thought Gorelick wasn't going to question Ashcroft, guess that was only re: Reno.

This should be interesting.

[LisaFab]

surely you jest, m'dear..the Dem senators, dare I say it, "crucified" him at his confrimation hearing...

Ah, but Kerrey and Ashcroft are former senators, and thus bound by a gentleman's code :-)

[Cosmo]

he he..She seems flustered.

[Trust but Verify]

OMG I hope Ashcroft goes directly after Gorelick. Please! Please!

[Peach]

Gorelock is questioning Ashcroft. Holy moly.

[krunkygirl]

I think you are right--they have been taken aback by his forthrightness...YES!

[ken5050]

I will, as always, defer to your wisdom, m'dear...

[OESY]

Gorelick is up

Lunch is also up. Barf Alert, Barf Alert!

[TexKat]

Thanks pagmaticgal.

[ken5050]

If they succeed in bouncing her off the panel..Martha Stewart is available...

[cyncooper]

I thought of Val Plame earlier, but her bailiwick (to employ a Gorelickism) is WMD and this PDB was more an overall historical assessment.

I would faint if she turned out to be the author.

I find it highly unlikely.