Posted on 07/21/2004 6:42:53 PM PDT by vrwc1
WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission's final report concludes the hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government" over a long period but does not blame President Bush (news - web sites) or former President Clinton (news - web sites) for the mistakes, according to administration officials familiar with the findings.
The report, being released Thursday, describes the patience and determination of the hijackers and said they explored weaknesses in airline and border procedures, even taking test flights to see when cockpit doors were open.
White House officials and congressional leaders were briefed on the report's findings, and Bush is to receive a copy of the 575-page report on Thursday.
"It does not place blame on particular individuals or particular incidents, but in fact it identifies institutional failings that have grown up over time about the way our government is organized," one official said.
It concludes that Bush and Clinton took the threat of al-Qaida seriously and were "genuinely concerned about the danger posed by al-Qaida," the official said. It finds that neither president was to blame for failing to stop the attacks, which were the culmination of years of planning.
Less than four months before the presidential election, the commission's work already has ignited partisan debate over whether Bush took sufficient steps to deal with terrorism in the first year of his administration.
As expected, the report will call for creating a Cabinet-level national director of intelligence with authority over the CIA, FBI and other agencies. The White House administration is reserving judgment on that recommendation, and officials doubt it could be approved by Congress this year.
Four administration officials briefed reporters on the content of the report on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly released.
"Rather than finding that there was a failure at the presidential level, what they find though is that there are failings and that there were deep institutional failings within our government," an official said. "And that's what they really examine at some length over a long period of time that there were a variety of factors spanning many years and many administrations that contributed to a failure to share information amongst agencies for both legal and policy reasons."
In particular, the official said, the commission found the FBI was not set up to collect intelligence domestically, in part because of civil liberties concerns.
On Aug. 22, 1996, just before the Democratic National Convention,
Ms. Gorelick oversaw a critical Justice Department meeting with the FBI.
mmediately after this meeting, as it happened,
all serious inquiry into the fate of TWA 800 came to an end.
MORE?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1117579/posts
GORELICK GATE - various FR links
Berger repeatedly rebuffed Sudanese offers to hand Osama bin Laden
to the United States in a deal brokered by a $900,000 contributor to Democrat campaigns.
Source 1 - National Review, "Clinton & Khobar", Rich Lowry
Source 2 - Washington Times, "Miniter Responds", Richard Miniter
Berger stonewalled the Energy Department about Chinese spying in Los Alamos for three years.
It was Berger whose calls Bill Clinton ducked in 1998 when bin Laden was briefly vulnerable to missile attack.
US News & World Report, Paul Bedard, 15 Mar 2003
"Mr. Berger, please this is urgent.
We can take out Osama, now. Please answer!!! We have him in our sight."
Berger-Burglar: "Nope. Forgetaboutit. No big deal. I am watching the West Wing."
"I was summoned to the office of National Security adviser Sandy Berger,
who chewed me out for not having a national security adviser (on the West Wing).
So I opened the next season with Anna Deavere Smith as the national security adviser" -
Aaron Sorkin
Lucky-to-have-only-been-Impeached before the 911 Commission
with his Document-Procurer-on-Loan-to-Kerry Sandy (the) NSA Burglar:
[quietly, fuming, out of the side of his mouth]
"Sandy, are you absolutely d@amn positively certain you took
each and every one of the important classified documents?
Sandy, if you f&ck up, she will put us both into Fort Marcy Park."
Sandy Burglar: "You dont understand.
Why did I throw them away and give xeroxes to my client Kerry, you ask? Well, because I could!!!
I finally got my own copy of Gorelick's book "Destruction of Evidence"."
This is bullsh!t.
Why was al-Qaeda -- which was a virtually unknown terror organization in 1994 -- allowed to build up and grow substantially during the mid 90s, which, ummmmm... let me think -- was right smab dab in the middle of the Clinton administration?
During what years was 9/11 planned/executed?
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 (early stages)
2000, 2001 (final stages)
Clinton was in charge during 5 of those 6 years.
C'mon -- to say that Clinton could not have done anything during those 6 years is blatantly non-truthful.
Clinton and company get off easy, when they should have been seriously smacked by the report.
F the government.
Typical "bi-partisan" committee report. CYA all around.
We knew they wouldn't blame Clinton. The bonus is, they're not blaming Bush.
I hope the no-good un-American leftist bastards at DU choke on their cold pizza breakfasts when they hear this--they've been expecting some kid of karmic friggin' apocalypse for the Bush Administration.
PS: Are we to believe the administration leaked the Sandy Burglary to cover up this? BWA HA HA HA HA HA!
I don't know if anyone is aware of this 'glimpse' of the 911 report. Perhaps you could do some ping magic? Thanks.
I'll be glad to.
PINGY!
Thanky thanky.
This report isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I demand my money back.
Prairie
Ms. Yen managed to work that in but left out any mention of the eight YEARS of Clinton fecklessness and perfidy.
Prairie
The question is , "Is there a minority report from this committee whose main theme is bashing Bush?"
I would not be surprised if the Democrats made a deal to not trash Bush or Clinton in the main report. But have the Denocrats done a minority report that Blames Bush first and last and in the middle for good measure?.
Let's see if I understand this right.............Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia - good...
Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq - bad...
Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia - good...
Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq - bad...
Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...
Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian terrorists - good...
Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator - bad...
Clinton bombs Chinese embassy - good...
Bush bombs terrorist camps - bad...
Clinton commits felonies while in office - good...
Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit - bad...
Clinton says mass graves in Serbia - good...
Entire world says WMD in Iraq - bad...
No mass graves found in Serbia - good...
No WMD found Iraq - bad...
Stock market crashes in 2000 under Clinton - good...
Recession under Bush - bad...
Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden - good...
World Trade Centers fall under Bush - bad...
Clinton says Saddam has nukes - good...
Bush says Saddam has nukes - bad...
Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...
Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton - good...
Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan - bad...
Milosevic not yet convicted - good...
Saddam in custody - bad...
Ah, it's so confusing!
Since it's so "kissing your sister" namby pamby stuff, it kinda takes the starch out of the Dems reasoning for the Berger leak.
The DemocRATs caused the institutional failures. Flippen traitors.
That's the Hail Mary approach to politics. Devoid of any issues of their own newer than 1973, the Democrats are left (pun intended) to merely hope that some miraculous anti-Bush scandal occurs that puts Senator Kerry into the white House.
Won't happen, but it's the only hope that they have. It's not as though they can win based on the merit of their ideas (oh yeah, raise taxes, gay marriages, gay adoptions, don't drill for oil, don't cut trees even if you need to build firebreaks to save forests from fires, ban guns, outsource foreign policy to the UN, and nationalize healthcare, etc...).
7 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
The elites will never screw each other.
How about the "instituion" of Congress which failed to act after war had been declared on this country three times by Al Qa'ida?
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