George Bush's action saves American lives

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | 11/17/02 | Dateline D.C.

[e_engineer]

No, I'm just trying to say that it is difficult to know what a president's legacy will be until some years have passed. History (and the American people) would probably forgive another terrorist attack on Bush's watch if it could NOT be blamed on his failure to control our borders.

I don't think anyone seriously blamed Clinton for "allowing" the Oklahoma city bombing, and history will look upon it as something that simply happened co-incident to his presidency.

9/11 is different. He spent years de-funding and ignoring the CIA and military, and he turned down several opportunities to capture Bin Laden. In short, he probably could have prevented the attacks of 9/11, but he did not.

[anniegetyourgun]

I wonder how many plots have already been foiled. But I suppose if 1 gets through for every 20 that is stopped, that'll be enough for you.

[jd777]

I'll accept 9/11. But if a WMD attack occurs in my home town (NYC) and FBI agents again complain that they were stifled or hold held back by washington, yes THAT WILL BE ENOUGH FOR ME.

[jd777]

Man who knew 9/11 haunts on `Frontline'

BY GLENN GARVIN
ggarvin@herald.com

If there was one man in America who immediately knew what was happening the morning of Sept. 11, it was John O'Neill, just starting his third week as security director at the World Trade Center after being forced into retirement from his job as a counterterrorism expert at the FBI.

It was O'Neill's constant, irritating warnings that Osama bin Laden was planning newer and bigger attacks that got him into trouble at the FBI, but losing his job hadn't changed his mind. The night before the Twin Towers fell, he told a friend: ``We're due. And we're due for something big.''

O'Neill never had a chance to share his thoughts on the Sept. 11 attacks; he died in the collapse of the south tower. But his warnings echo through this haunting episode of PBS' Frontline that may reveal more about the intelligence failures of Sept. 11 than will all the congressional hearings under way.

For eight years O'Neill was the FBI's resident Cassandra on Osama bin Laden, telling everybody who would listen -- and lots who wouldn't -- that the bin Laden threat was growing, that ''we're at war with these people'' whether we realized it or not, as one friend remembers it.

But every time O'Neill was proven correct -- the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, the thwarted plot to attack Los Angeles International on the eve of the millennium, the suicide assault on the USS Cole -- it only seemed to further enrage his many bureaucratic enemies. His flamboyance (suits by Burberry, shoes by Bruno Magli) and his roughshod office manners (''sharp elbows'' in FBI parlance) made him nearly impossible to bear at the button-down Bureau.

''John was somebody that the bureaucrats were not always pleased with because they felt that he wasn't marching to their tune, that he was too ambitious and that he operated out of the box too often,'' recalls one colleague. ``This was a guy that was constantly pushing the envelope when the envelope didn't want to be pushed. So the envelope fought back.''

To Frontline's credit, it makes it clear that some of the wounds of O'Neill's martyrdom were self-inflicted. He misused FBI vehicles; he smuggled classified documents out of the office (and lost them!).

The final blow to his career came when he was given charge of the FBI investigation of the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. He maneuvered armed U.S. troops around the Yemeni capital like an occupying force, infuriating not only the local government but also the American ambassador, who banned him from the country.

It may seem the cruelest of ironies that O'Neill wound up at the World Trade Center. In fact, it was anything but coincidence. O'Neill began his career in counterterrorism in 1993, investigating the bombing of the trade center by what turned out to be bin Laden cronies. ''They've always wanted to finish that job,'' O'Neill told friends. ''I think they're going to try again.'' If only someone had been listening.

[jd777]

AGENT ROWLEY'S MEMO: (excerpt)

FBI Director Robert Mueller FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

Dear Director Mueller:

I feel at this point that I have to put my concerns in writing concerning the important topic of the FBI's response to evidence of terrorist activity in the United States prior to September 11th. The issues are fundamentally ones of INTEGRITY and go to the heart of the FBI's law enforcement mission and mandate. Moreover, at this critical juncture in fashioning future policy to promote the most effective handling of ongoing and future threats to United States citizens' security, it is of absolute importance that an unbiased, completely accurate picture emerge of the FBI's current investigative and management strengths and failures.

To get to the point, I have deep concerns that a delicate and subtle shading/skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of FBI management has occurred and is occurring. The term "cover up" would be too strong a characterization which is why I am attempting to carefully (and perhaps over laboriously) choose my words here. I base my concerns on my relatively small, peripheral but unique role in the Moussaoui investigation in the Minneapolis Division prior to, during and after September 11th and my analysis of the comments I have heard both inside the FBI (originating, I believe, from you and other high levels of management) as well as your Congressional testimony and public comments.

[jd777]

* In July 2001 an FBI agent in Arizona sent a memo to headquarters noting the presence of Islamic fundamentalist students at a local flight training school, and urging a nationwide check for similar activity. It went unanswered.

[MeekOneGOP]

Iraqi version of Let's Roll??.....

[JulieRNR21]

Good to see someone in the press highlighting what has been accomplished since 9-11.

President George W. Bush has done more to combate terrorism in one year than Clinton did in his 8 years!

Yet Daschle & the RATs whine.....that we don't have Osama....we need to remind them that Clinton turned down the Sudanese when they presented a chance to get him!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Amen, Julie. The press is in full DNC PR mode. They are, imho, a threat to our national security. If the mainstream press reported the truth, Clinton and Gore would think twice about showing their faces in public - never mind speaking out against the Bush administration.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Love Osama xoxox"

BWAHAHAHA...fer the name of Allah, I sure hope we git bil Clinton alive so as I can enjoy the theatrics of the trial...MUD

[Clovis_Skeptic]

I don't think anyone seriously blamed Clinton for "allowing" the Oklahoma city bombing, and history will look upon it as something that simply happened co-incident to his presidency.

Unless of course, it is proven that ME's were involved in the OKC bombing, as many reports seem to indicate.