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.

[Dont Mention the War]

This does not sound good. Of course one doesn't know how he can analyze an event that was years in the making by zeroing in on a few months that preceded the tragedy. How does one separate September 11 from all of the al Qaeda events of the 90s? How does one not comment on the lack of leadership and response to those events and how that served to frame the intelligence operations for almost a decade?

Sadly, a lot of quite high-level bureaucrats have remained in place to this day from the Clinton Administration. We have no reason to believe Kean is only referring to Bush officials. He may be referring to very few (or even no) Bush officials.

[oceanview]

who is "they"? the air traffic controllers who saw these planes wildly off course and seemingly didn't alert anyone? if Kean really wanted to produce a beneficial report, he would have targeted the failures of that permanent bureaucracy that the other poster talked about. Instead, it appears as if he is selling out to the media elites and giving them what they want, a political report, so he can get his name into a NYT op-ed page as a "hero".

[FreeReign]

Well, Betty Jo, you have been saying ever since 9/11 that Condi Rice and all the other players are/were incompetent. Sure.

So you've been saying SINCE 9/11 that CONDI should have know BEFORE 9/11.

Why didn't you say something BEFORE 9/11 or are you as incompetent as you claim Condi to be?

[Howlin]

No, Betty Jo, you're just as big a whack job as you always have been.

And one of the most preeminent Bush haters on this forum.

As someone was just saying over on the Crazy Harry thread, the right, too, is burdened with its very own fringe. You're one of the leaders.

[Howlin]

Absolutely!

[Deb]

The whole argument is nuts. When I saw that Richard Ben Venista was on the committee, I knew GW would be taking it in the shorts.

I tried to watch some of it on C-SPAN, but left when Max Cleland (drunk out of his mind) went on an anti-Bush, anti-Republican rant that caused him to tilt his wheelchair dangerously leeward.

This committee is a travesty and ranks up there with the Civil Rights Commission (P-tewy!).

I don't care if Condi Rice, Louie Freeh and Mueller had all gotten memos in their fortune cookies telling them where, when and by whom the terrorists would strike...they couldn't have done a thing about it. Nobody could have.

And even if the terrorists hadn't had box cutters, like Barbara Olsen and everyone on her flight, passengers on those planes would have thought that their plane being hi-jacked just meant they'd be late for dinner.

[mplsconservative]

"let the Dems run with it, it just pushes them further into a corner."

I hope that corner includes a colorful duncecap, fully ensconsed with 'Go Dean' buttons' and permanently implanted, for all the world to see. As a pessimist, that's my most fervent dream. Unfortunately there are too many Du'ers out there that will take it verbatim. My father always says the glass is half full. I always do the half empty take on things. Gotta smile more at myself in the mirror. It's scientifically said to improve one's mood! LOL

[anglian]

Another FBI Agent Blows the Whistle AUGUST 2-8, 2002
New evidence that the Bureau quashed another terror probe before 9/11
by Jim Crogan: The Weekly has learned that Chicago-based special agent Robert Wright has accused the agency of shutting down his 1998 criminal probe into alleged terrorist-training camps in Chicago and Kansas City. The apparent goal of the training camps, according to confidential documents obtained by the Weekly, was to recruit and train Palestinian-American youths, who would then slip into Israel. Recruits at these camps reportedly received weapons training and instruction in bomb-making techniques in the early 1990s. The bomb-making curriculum included the sort of explosives later used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. And government documents state that two trainees came from the Oklahoma City area.

One alleged trainer at the terror camps is now fending off a government lawsuit to seize his bank accounts, car and property for alleged money laundering on behalf of the militant group Hamas. So far, no one has been prosecuted for these alleged terrorism-related activities.

The official government position is that Middle Eastern groups had no involvement in the 1995 bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh, and that conclusion may stand the test of time. The FBI, however, never fully investigated leads suggesting a different verdict, according to law-enforcement and government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Congressional investigators are starting to re-examine the entire matter. There's also another troubling question: Why has the FBI dismissed or ignored evidence linking the Oklahoma City bombing to the Middle East? http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/37/news-crogan.php

[Map Kernow]

"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."

Here's something that should not have been done by Kean: self-consciously making these sort of teasing, sensationalizing, grandstanding comments on responsibility for a national tragedy for news consumption before the full report is ready to be released and its conclusions and supporting evidence reviewed.

I don't know who are the people who "would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed" in preventing 9/11, but I do know now that Kean has failed in his obligation to maintain proper decorum in his position as chair of his investigative committee. And that he should not "be in the position" he is in.

[onyx]

No, Betty Jo, you're just as big a whack job as you always have been.

And one of the most preeminent Bush haters on this forum.

---

What was you first clue, Howlin? That she posts to herself? LOL! Old habits are hard to break.

[Betty Jo]

Well, Free Reign,go back and read the Cole attack archives.

Lets see, was that BEFORE 9/11 ?

Did you know then what was up?

Did you connect the dots and say here on FR what you connected about Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi and the American Alamoudi?

Have you been non-partisan in your critique of Americas failure to protect Americans?

I dont think so.

But I have.

We have met the enemy and it is our government and its incompetents.

[Mo1]

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.

Chances are you might have taken down the wrong plane and they'd blame you for that too

Here is what the air traffic looked like on the morning of 9/11

[VeniVidiVici]

If I was obligated by the constitution to swear an oath as the king of my castle, that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend my house, that may be a valid scenario.

[Howlin]

Are you too enthralled with your own words to not realize the COLE was NOT during the Bush administration?

Your hatred for all things Bush blinds you.

[Ethyl]

9/11 happened because acts of war were treated like random acts of criminal violence for eight years under a corrupt, self-serving administration that didn't have the time, the inclination or the stomach to do what was necessary. That's the simple truth of the matter.

But let's attack the adminstration that's done more to eradicate Islamic terrorism than anyone ever dreamt possible.

These idiots are infuriating...


That's the only way they can get elected! Ignore the truth and tell lies, they learned from a professional and it's wife.

[Howlin]

"would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed"

What on EARTH does that mean? If Kean's report is no clearer than that sentence, he's going to be causing a lot of trouble about nothing.

And I'm with you; if he was appointed by Bush to do a report, why didn't he just GIVE the report to Bush first?

[Dolphy]

who is "they"? the air traffic controllers who saw these planes wildly off course and seemingly didn't alert anyone?

I think that is "they" he is referring to here. It has always been my opinion that September 11 was a massive failure of leadership through the last decade. That includes Clinton and Congress.

[MJY1288]

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

Did those plans say.............. "Dear Akbar: Board your flight at Bostan Logan Airport on 9/11 and once in the air, you, Mohammed, Akmed and Kamkazi kill the pilots and fly the plane into the World trade center, Please dont share this information with anyone, Allah forbid the infidels from stopping this mother of all attacks" ?

We also know that they have plans to conduct Biological and Chemical attacks as well, do we have specific information on a place or time?.... NO, but we will do what we can to prevent it, but unless we declare Martial Law and become a police state, we will remain vulnerable