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.

[krunkygirl]

I "dropped in" to hear some callers remarks--COULDN'T TAKE IT!

[pragmaticgal]

It's hard to believe that Clinton would be proactive in this case. He crippled our intelligence agencies. It just doesn't make sense that he would sign a MON on assasinating OBL - unless he signed it while walking out the door. Maybe that's why noone heard of it until today.

[texasbluebell]

What, no widders to hold him up this time? Poor Chrissie.

Did somebody fix his wagon?

[mewzilla]

The wives? Oh, no. Not Kristen Breitwieser again?

[LisaFab]

Don't know where Kean was born, but never heard anyone from New Jersey talk like that.

[Wolfstar]

They are treating Ashcroft with kid gloves. Wonder why?

Answer: Polls and, more importantly to Dems, their own focus groups are showing a big backlash against attempts by the commission to blame President Bush for the 9/11 attacks. There attacks against Dr. Rice apparently backfired on them. Not just me saying this; info was posted elsewhere on FR earlier today.

[EllaMinnow]

THE CORNER:

HOW ASHCROFT IS PLAYING [KJL]
From the NYTimes: Headline: "Ashcroft Faults Clinton Era for Lapses That Preceded 9/11"; Included: "The attorney general sounded almost contemptuous as he spoke of a 'legal wall' put into effect in 1995 to separate criminal investigators from intelligence agents in an effort to safeguard individual rights."
Posted at 05:26 PM

[pragmaticgal]

OMG...a caller is now saying that Reno was much more natural and forthcoming than Achcroft.

This is hilarious.

[mewzilla]

He couldn't have signed an order to assassinate UBL unless he first signed an EO lifting the ban he signed again on assassination.

[Cosmo]

The media is more concerned with Cheney's conflicts of interest resulting from duck hunts and Halliburton. This Gorelick memo exceeds the mere appearance of impropriety, but.....hey, we all know the story here at FR

[fight_truth_decay]

ah my hero for quotes..thanks!!!

[piasa]

Boy, Ben-Veniste could sleep comfortably on a corkscrew, couldn't he?

LOL! Hadn't heard that saying before but it applies.

I noticed how there seem to be some folks who post here (one post after a long silent lurk, for exapmple) who really don't want us to look too closely at the 911 commission/intelmemo/Wilson/Plame/Pincus connection. I think that may be part of the reason the presstitutes have been getting prodded to make FreeRepublic quite posting their articles.

[Carolinamom]

Thank God that President Bush and now the CIA and FBI are not into the nuance of weasle words. Pray that Mr. Negative F'n Kerry (the 4 month Vietnam veteran) will not succeed.

[TexasCajun]

Is Mr. Walter Pincus a journalist or a Top-Secret clearance CIA or FBI officer?

[cyncooper]

Official Dem talking point from Chrissie: the overnight battle will deal with Clinton's MON (memo of notification) ordering the assassination of bin laden.

Of course.

Ignore facts that have been presented and instead focus on hints from BV and take that and present their own speculation as conclusions.

The fact that BV has already outright lied from his seat on the commission is not even on their radar screen.

I will continue avoiding MSNBC, but do appreciate reading reports from those who do.

[Steve_Seattle]

But the mainstream media create impressions. Today, for the first time, I found out that Ashcroft's infamous 9/10/01 turndown of a budget increase for FBI anti-terrorism activities was in fact a rejection of an ADDITIONAL increase on top of an 8% increase that had already been submitted in the budget. Moreover, Ashcroft himself - in his opening statement - talked about his requests for major increases for the FBI IT budget, which has never been mentioned in the media.

[LisaFab]

Why does this make a difference?

It doesn't make a damn bit of difference in the real world, but they got Ashcroft on record as saying he never saw it. That's as close to a "gotcha" moment as they have--pathetic yet illustrative.

[Bob]

He couldn't have signed an order to assassinate UBL unless he first signed an EO lifting the ban he signed again on assassination.

IIRC, the EO banning assassinations only pertained to foreign heads of state, not individuals running terrorist groups.

[Cosmo]

Yeah, I read that blurb. I do hope that NRO is busy writiing on the subject of Ashcroft and Gorelick and puts out a few Clarion calls before tomorrow morning. The mainstream press does indeed pay attention to National Review, as much as it pains them to admit.

[Peach]

Thank you for that Laurie Mylroi testimony; she has a lot more credibility than Clarke imo.