9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

CBS ^ | 17 December 2003

[Hal1950]

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of the Bush administration – that there was never any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.

"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.

The widows want to know why various government agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota and Arizona about suspicious student pilots.

"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it," Breitweiser said.

Kean admits the commission also has more questions than answers.

Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting in the decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those positions, Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will."

Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.

[LasVegasMac]

He's going to "find" something whether there's something to find or not.

Exactly.

The Bush Admin should make it very clear, right now, what they knew, when - what the threat was assessed as, threat level, why, etc.

Then make it doubly clear that the proof that the previous Admin had the opportunity (several of them) to break the chain that led to this disaster - is ready for publication.

Time to play hardball with the Demidiots.

LVM

[mike_9958]

I do believe you are right..... Kean is trying to get his 15 minutes....

Everything is avoidable & preditable , given time, money, & people.

How careful do you want to be...

[montag813]

"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.

How? Because she is incompetant, and should have resigned, along with Tenet, for their intelligence failures prior to 9/11. The Ramsi Youssef laptop material found in the Philippines specifically mentioned planes and the WTC in 1996. Although 9/11 would never have been possible without the Clintons, Rice clearly dropped the ball, and her constant propping up of the terrorist Al Queda cell which calls itself the Palestinian Authority is also shameful. Bush should not invite her along for the next term, despite Rove's political interest in her skin color.

[adam_az]

This is dumb. I would bet there's nobody in the world except a couple of rappers and a few dozen terrorists would even have considered the possiblity that people would coordinate an attack by hijacking 4 (5? 6? 7?) planes at the same time and flying them into prominent buildings.

You haven't been paying attention. Ramzi Yusef was caught with the plans to hijack planes and crash them into CIA HQ, Sears Tower, the Pentagon, Capitol building, White House, Transamerica tower, and the WTC. Khaled Sheik Muhammad was the other plotter, you might have heard of him.

Heres a good reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Bojinka

[Deb]

Yeah, sure, it was preventable. All we had to do is round-up and jail all young, male islamic immigrants even though they had committed no crimes, broken no laws and were just students, or we could have denied all of them access to airplane travel or strip searched them or prevented their immigration in the first place or just forbidden the manufacture of box cutters. Wait. Was there an FBI memo about box cutters being used as weapons? Never mind...Yeah, you're right, piece a cake.

All those folks who love to bash the Patriot Act would have had no problem at all with any civil rights problems of the above mentioned preventions.

[Republican Wildcat]

See post #94.

[mplsconservative]

But will the "goods" get to the sheeple through the liberal media? Spin, spin, spin. GW was in office 7 1/2 months. I AM SO SICK OF THIS GARBAGE!

[mike_9958]

Ya know we never enjoy anything nowadays.

There always has to be something to screw up the good news.

Can't we have a week where we beat on the terrorists, have a good economy, and Christmas ?

Geeze.

[Arkinsaw]

This is so stupid. Of course it could have been prevented. Of course it should have been prevented. In fact, I could have prevented it if I had only driven east and then located and shot all the highjackers. But I didn't so I guess I am to blame for the whole deal.

[gipper81]

You're right. However, we are looking at the headline. We need to see how much Bush is identified. How much you wanna bet either somebody got to Keane or this is his rino ass paying somebody back.

[plain talk]

Apparently kean has sh!t for brains.

[Finalapproach29er]

If Bush had been told the day before what was going to happen,what could he really do?

The law hadn't yet been broken, you can't shut down air traffic without doing massive harm to the economy. The only thing that could have been done as a precaution is to have fighters on near strip alert (2 minute alert).

Clinton had 7 1/2 years and did nothing.

Anybody who goes to the press, like Keen did, loses credibility and deserves suspicion.

[GeronL]

What did Fox know, and when did they know it? An interesting theory I've heard is that they got a call from Halliburton prior to 9/11. We'll I've had enough! No blood for ratings! Who's with me?!?!

Darn right, we cannot blame anyone but Senator Church, is he even alive?, so lets get Murdoch!=o)

[Lancey Howard]

That widow is a scumbag.
It's all about the money.

[GeronL]

random bilateral conspiracies

hahahaha!

[Saints fan]

Bill Clinton was preventable if it wasn't for that short fruitcake with the bad haircut from Texas.

[arasina]

Thanks for the link. Similar article with a little more detail. I found the last paragraph interesting:

"The commission is still culling through thousands of documents. In recent months, it has subpoenaed documents from some agencies that were hindering its probe, and after months of negotiations recently worked out an agreement with the White House to see several years worth of highly classified daily intelligence briefings given to Presidents Clinton and Bush."

[Lancey Howard]

Darn right, we cannot blame anyone but Senator Church, is he even alive?, so lets get Murdoch!=o)

Heck, blame Senator Pardek. It's all Pardek's fault.

:-D