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.

[GeronL]

Didn't 2 guys fly their Cessna's into the Clinton White House??? so its obvious that Clinton knew!!!

[MJY1288]

Big difference in the way these two stories were written on the same subjest

[GeronL]

exactly, its like Kirk said in the Wrath of Pardek

"PARDEK!!!!!!!!!"

[Ethyl]

Let's see, who benifits from this junk report? Dr. No Dean said in the last few weeks that "Bush knew about the attacks and the Saudi's told him about it" Several months ago it seems like hitlery was saying "What did Bush know and when did he know it?" This a hit piece put out by one of them to stop all the good things happening because Saddam was caught. They somehow have to stop the rising polls. Will it work? or can we shed light on who the real culprit was a.k.a. osama and bill? Your comments please.

[Steel Wolf]

It's 1995. You believe that some time within the next 20 years, there's a better than even chance that a terrorist will try to implement a multiple hijacking/crash-into-buildings scenario.

What steps do you take to prevent them from succeeding?

Why stop there?

What about surface to air missiles against our airliners? They wouldn't even need to come ashore to hit our planes. Hell, they could even set one up to fire on a delay, and not be there when it goes off.

What about biological weapons in the mail? It might not be anthrax next time, but whatever it is, we probably have heard about it.

What about suicide bombers with a jacket full of C4, and a one way ticket to Paradise? How would you stop them from blowing up crowds of infidel Christmas shoppers?

What about WMD? Not just a fistfull of Anthrax, I mean the good stuff. We know its out there. What if a tanker sails into the harbor of a major city with a nuclear weapon on it. What if they take it off the tanker before it gets there, and race it to shore on a small boat?

Think fast. There may be a comission someday, wondering how we didn't see it coming.

[adam_az]

Khaled Sheik Muhammad was one of the 9/11 planners and also murdered Daniel Pearl (and who knows how many other people!)

Bushs military caught him.

Clintons didn't.

[knak]

Agreed. One makes you mad and the other makes you wonder!

[Whispering Smith]

So was Pearl Harbor, the Lusitania, the Titanic, the Maine, Fort Sumter, impressment of American seamen, the Boston Tea Party, and as the King of Siam would say etc., etc., etc.

[adam_az]

Operation Bojinka

[joesnuffy]

T. McViegh and crew blew up a Fed building in Ok City, Ok....was this preventable?...who let the crew escape...?

[adam_az]

Did we know before hand that 19 terrorist were gonna simultaneous hijack 4 Passenger Jets and crash them into the Twin Towers? ....... Hell Know

Ramzi Yusef was caught in the Phillipines with plans to do just that.

[M Kehoe]

"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 only thing I can figure is that Mrs. clinton (or bill, or Sandy, or Maddie, or...) didn't give the FBI files to the Bush administration, when they left power.

Heck, the most ethical administration of all time did nothing, zero, nada, bupkus, for eight years. A$$holes, all of them.

Nothing to see here, move on (sound like a web site/left wing/America hating group. Kinda like People for the Amerikan Way).

5.56mm

[eno_]

I hope you fully support the War on Terror, including our actions in Iraq which are intended to prevent whatever other dastardly deeds that the terrorists, including Saddam Hussein, had planned with our destruction in mind.

I FULLY support the overseas war on terror, its conduct, and the results. That's how it is done: find their Rolodex(tm), find the people listed, and kill them dead.

However, you should also read my tag line. We are defending our liberty. Our freedom. Once that is eroded, well, who the hell cares?

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Open all records now or else we will have another Watergate or worse.

While we're at it, let's open up all the records on the '93 WTC attack, the Murrah Building bombing in OKC, Flight 800, Egypt Air, the USS Cole, Kobhar Towers and the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Contrary to popular belief among the sanity-challenegd at D.U., Islamic terrorism against America didn't start on 9/11/01. It culminated, after nearly a decade of wanton neglect by The Stainmaster.

Hussein's trial should be most enlightening. It certainly won't be Bill Clinton's finest hour.

[oceanview]

right now, there are probably 100s of AQ people around the world with "plans" to use a various array of WMD against the US. What's a "plan"? A ranting on a piece of paper? What can you do to thwart a "plan"? Shut down all the airlines forever?

[FreeReign]

A good step by the Bush Administration might be to release some of the 28 Commission report pages about Saudi involvement in 9-11, that were bogusly stamped "secret" (Repub Sen. Shelby called the 28 pages "90 percent" releasable).

Why would you trust Shelby on this more than you would the president. Bogusly stamped secret the commision report?

I would doubt it.

[gipper81]

Hussein's trial should be most enlightening. It certainly won't be Bill Clinton's finest hour.

Maybe that's why nobody wanted him caught.

[adam_az]

What can you do to thwart a "plan"? Shut down all the airlines forever?

No, but airline security was certainly very lax at the time. It's still lax for my tastes, now. In fact, I took a pretty good sized pay cut to work local to home and not have to spend half the year flying around.

[mplsconservative]

You're right. Let's see how this plays out tomorrow. The pessimist in me is coming out. (And gee, I wonder why?) (;

[dagnabbit]

Until Bush and co. come clean about the Saudis and 9-11, they deserve to be taken to task.
Until Clinton and co. come clean about TWA800 and Vince Foster they deserve to be taken to task.
BlaBlaBla

Not sure I get your point. I agree that Clinton has loads to come clean about, but what does that have to do with Bush leveling with us about the role of a country, Saudi Arabia, and it's government, in the worst-ever attack on the USofA?

Are you suggesting that because his predecessor had no respect for the truth, that Bush need have none either – and on far greater issues?