Posted on 08/31/2005 5:09:36 AM PDT by OESY
Unfortunately, the "new tone in Washington" prevents Republicans from holding anyone accountable.
Ping
ping
As most conservatives already knew, The 911 Commission was another expensive joke played on us by our politicians.
bttt
The man who has secured our borders who has removed illegals from our shores, who has found OBL, who has destroyed the narcotics traffic, and when the SCOTUS decided to steal our land, said stop right there.
You mean that war leader and his new tone?
What's President Bush supposed to do write an executive order to overturn a Supreme Court decision?
No doubt President Kerry would have done all these things. Um... well no doubt President Clark would have done all these things. Um... well no doubt President Dean would have done all these things. Um...well no doubt President Kucinich... never mind.
Not for nothing, but they didn't do much holding anyone accountable under the old tone, either.
It was about posturing, preening, and bashing the present administration.
Kerry would have to consult with North Vietnam first!
True, Pres. Bush was opposed to the commission then, embraced the report. The day the report was released I noted:
The report can be reduced to one sentenance: Government failed, recommends more government.
Politics is a nasty game and protecting the Gorelick wall meant protecting the Clintons, Albright, Berger, Cohen and Janet Reno at all costs. Democratic operatives Gorelick and Richard Ben-Veniste did a notable job of just that. Hamilton and Kean are beyond remiss in their duties to get at the truth; they are exemplary in their dereliction of that duty.
Then Gorelick was appointed, and Bush and Rove sat back and allowed this fiasco to move forward. I think they calculated that the commission would indeed try to shove some things under the rug, but that the attempt thereof would fail. They just sat back, and now the chips are falling.
He is a politician he is paid to be abused, after all he works for us and if he doesn't do things right then it should be pointed.
As far as the scotus decision he could do what Lincoln did to the chief justice, am i advocating throwing judges in jail not really, but it is a thought.
It's a thought you aren't advocating?... sounds like a bad thought then - not to mention illegal. That sure wouldn't get my vote.
The NSC's Millennium After Action Review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999 — with luck playing a major role. Among the many vulnerabilities in homeland defenses identified, the Justice Department's surveillance and FISA operations were specifically criticized for their glaring weaknesses. It is clear from the review that actions taken in the Millennium Period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government.
In March 2000, the review warns the prior Administration of a substantial al Qaeda network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the U.S., capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here. [AD info?]
Furthermore, fully seventeen months before the September 11 attacks, the review recommends disrupting the al Qaeda network and terrorist presence here using immigration violations, minor criminal infractions, and tougher visa and border controls.
It falls directly into the AD timeline. In that same post, I note that what Sandy Burger stole was the versions of the after action report:
The missing copies, according to Breuer and their author, Richard A. Clarke, the counterterrorism chief in the Clinton administration and early in President Bush's administration, were versions of after-action reports recommending changes following threats of terrorism as 1999 turned to 2000. Clarke said he prepared about two dozen ideas for countering terrorist threats. The recommendations were circulated among Cabinet agencies, and various versions of the memo contained additions and refinements, Clarke said last night.
Therefore, they were never provided to the Commission, as evidenced by the Commission Report footnotes (#769):
46. NSC email, Clarke to Kerrick,“Timeline,”Aug. 19, 1998; Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004). We did not find documentation on the after-action review mentioned by Berger. On Vice Chairman Joseph Ralston’s mission in Pakistan, see William Cohen interview (Feb. 5, 2004). For speculation on tipping off the Taliban, see, e.g., Richard Clarke interview (Dec. 18, 2003).And to what does footnote (46) refer? On p. 117, Chapter 4, we find this:
Later on August 20, Navy vessels in the Arabian Sea fired their cruise missiles. Though most of them hit their intended targets, neither Bin Ladin nor any other terrorist leader was killed. Berger told us that an after-action review by Director Tenet concluded that the strikes had killed 20–30 people in the camps but probably missed Bin Ladin by a few hours. Since the missiles headed for Afghanistan had had to cross Pakistan, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was sent to meet with Pakistan’s army chief of staff to assure him the missiles were not coming from India. Officials in Washington speculated that one or another Pakistani official might have sent a warning to the Taliban or Bin Ladin. (46)How about that? How many times have we heard Clinton say that he missed Bin Ladin by just a few hours? Yet the after-action report is missing, so the Commission relied on Sandy Berger's testimony.
Then the Clark/Kerrick memo peaked my interest and I found this (#784):
Clarke was nervous about such a mission because he continued to fear that Bin Ladin might leave for someplace less accessible. He wrote Deputy National Security Advisor Donald Kerrick that one reliable source reported Bin Ladin's having met with Iraqi officials, who "may have offered him asylum." Other intelligence sources said that some Taliban leaders, though not Mullah Omar, had urged Bin Ladin to go to Iraq. If Bin Ladin actually moved to Iraq, wrote Clarke, his network would be at Saddam Hussein's service, and it would be "virtually impossible" to find him. Better to get Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, Clarke declared.
If you want to open that can of worms there are plenty on this site who will accommodate you.
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