9/11 Commission

[mlingley]

Why would Condoleezza Rice not be willing to be sworn in when she testified in front of the commission investigating 9/11? Makes it seem like she had something to hide.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,...,565974,00.html

Also I heard on the news yesterday that Bush was willing to be questioned for more than the hour that he had set aside for the questioning. Unfortunately he is only going to questioned by the commission chairman and vice chairman, although the panel has been appealing for him to meet with all members.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09414079.htm

It seems like the President of the United States would do everything asked of him, unless he has something to hide.

I'm not saying the Bush administration was behind anything, but I do believe they had more information about terrorist threats than they would like people to know about.

[rmnunez]

I can understand the preference for Bush to deal with the Commission's chair and vice-chair (rather than the full panel). I'd expect the Commission (made up of legislators) could become a partisan forum where each Commissioneer would use the opportunity to question Bush for their own aims in the midst of an election campaign. If it is necessary for this Commission to operate just now, then some accomodations will need to be made to avoid turning it into political theatre for the campaign.

[RebelWithanAK]

Politicized? Funny you should ask, especially since the commission wasn't put together until a year after the attacks, wasn't allowed access to the site for another year, was barred from the presidential papers until they threatened a subpoena, and had to fight to extend their deadline because they couldn't interview the president in time. Oh, and not to mention it was the Bush administration who chose the arbiters of the commission. No, nothing to see there.

[Impenitent]

conspiracy conspiracy... bush is evil... bush knew... the black helicopters are coming...

see you in november

[mlingley]

Who said anything about a conspiracy??

All I'm saying is the White House hasn't been very co-operative in the 911 investigation. You would think the president would be eager to have the whole story of what happened on 911 out in the open. More proof the war on terror is the most pressing matter facing our nation.

[dotcoma]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Impenitent,)
conspiracy conspiracy... bush is evil... bush knew... the black helicopters are coming...

see you in november<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

Their propaganda seemed to be working, wouldn't ya say Rebel?

[dotcoma]

Scandal Inside the FBI: Did G-Men Miss the Boat on 9-11?
Wes Vernon

Thursday, March 14, 2002

WASHINGTON – NewsMax.com has learned that active FBI Special Agent Robert Wright Jr. is about to blow the whistle on his superiors for hindering investigations that might have prevented the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm, scheduled, then postponed, a press conference for Wednesday where Wright, cloaked in anonymity until now, was going to tell the entire story.

The shocking details should be out in a few days.

Wright complains that when he tried to continue and pursue certain terrorist investigations, he met with retaliation from his bosses and from the Justice Department, which made it clear that it wanted the probes to go no further.Prior to putting off the news conference, Judicial Watch said that "based on the evidence, the FBI special agent believes that if certain investigations had been allowed to run their course, Osama bin Laden’s network might have been prevented from committing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocents."

Insiders believe that after this full story breaks, Wright’s career will be toast. Only public outrage can save him.

Meanwhile, Judicial Watch, which is representing Wright, is requesting a full independent investigation.

Assisting the law firm in this case is none other than David Schippers – the same Schippers whose quiet, methodical and damning leadership in the Clinton investigation led to the then-president’s impeachment.

[dotcoma]

Agent Claims FBI Supervisor Thwarted Probe
Stopping Some Hijackers Said Possible


By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 27, 2002; Page A01


The FBI might have been able to stop some of the Sept. 11 hijackers if it had more aggressively pursued an investigation of alleged terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who was in custody for more than three weeks prior to the attacks, the FBI's chief lawyer in Minneapolis wrote in a blistering letter to headquarters last week.

Coleen Rowley, in a highly unusual and bitter letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, was particularly critical of a supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters, whom she accused of "consistently, almost deliberately, thwarting the Minnesota FBI efforts."
Even on the morning of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Washington supervisor instructed Rowley and her colleagues to hold off on action against Moussaoui, arguing that his arrest after suspicious behavior at a flight school was probably a coincidence, the letter said.

Moussaoui, who is thought by U.S. officials to have been training as the "20th hijacker," now faces a death-penalty trial in Alexandria for alleged complicity in the attacks.

"Although I agree it's very doubtful that the full scope of the tragedy could have been prevented, it's at least possible we could have gotten lucky and uncovered one or two more of the terrorists in flight training prior to Sept. 11, just as Moussaoui was discovered, after making contact with his flight instructors," Rowley wrote.

Brimming with indignation and at times personally critical of Mueller, Rowley's correspondence provides the most pointed indictment yet of the FBI's failure to properly read clues available before Sept. 11 that al Qaeda terrorists seemed focused on aviation. The claims in Rowley's letter are the most specific allegations to date that U.S. officials may have been in a position to at least diminish the attacks.

The single-spaced, 13-page, footnoted letter -- revealed in snippets last week after it was delivered to Mueller and congressional intelligence committees -- was first reported in its entirety yesterday by Time magazine, which posted an edited copy on its Web site.

FBI spokesman Steven Berry declined to comment yesterday on the letter, which is considered classified by the FBI.

In her letter, Rowley sought protection under the federal whistleblower statute, and Mueller has referred her complaints to the Justice Department's inspector general for investigation.

Senior FBI officials in Washington, including Mueller, have for months insisted that the bureau did everything it could to ascertain Moussaoui's intentions. They have said they aimed to secure a warrant for a laptop computer found in Moussaoui's possession, but that FBI attorneys -- including Rowley -- had agreed there was not enough evidence to do so under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

In the days leading up to Sept. 11, officials have said, U.S. law enforcement put in place a plan to rapidly deport Moussaoui under heavy guard to Paris, where French authorities would take possession of the laptop and use more aggressive statutes there to examine it.

"The fact that there were a number of individuals that happened to have received training at flight schools here is news, quite obviously," Mueller said on Sept. 15. "If we had understood that to be the case, we would have -- perhaps one could have averted this."

To Rowley and her colleagues in Minneapolis, such statements were misleading at best and ignored significant evidence that could have been used to pry open Moussaoui's laptop and possibly learn more about the impending plot.

Rowley said Minneapolis agents were hampered at every turn by bureaucrats in Washington, who allegedly resisted seeking a warrant, sought to micromanage the case and admonished the field agents when, in desperation, they turned to the CIA for help.

Rowley is especially critical of one supervisory special agent (SSA) at headquarters, who was "consistently, almost deliberately, thwarting the Minnesota FBI efforts," according to the letter.

At one point, Rowley alleges, the unnamed SSA changed a warrant application in such a way that FBI lawyers would be more likely to reject it, as they did.

Headquarters, Rowley said, "continued to almost inexplicably throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis's by now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant, long after the French intelligence service provided its information and probable cause became clear. HQ personnel brought up almost ridiculous questions in their apparent efforts to undermine the probable cause."

What's more, Rowley wrote, she and her co-workers were dismayed further by the reactions of FBI officials to revelations this month about another case in Phoenix.

FBI agent Kenneth Williams, who was investigating possible terrorists at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., wrote to headquarters July 10 suggesting that U.S. aviation schools should be canvassed and raising the possibility Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network might be trying to infiltrate the aviation field.

The request was formally closed within a few weeks, and it was never acted upon. The Radical Fundamentalists Unit, a recipient of the Phoenix memo, also never connected Williams's suggestions with the investigation of Moussaoui a month later, officials have said.

Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month that, although the Phoenix memo should have been pursued more aggressively, it would not have led investigators to the Sept. 11 plot.

"I don't know how you or anyone at FBI Headquarters, no matter how much genius or prescience you may possess, could so blithely make this affirmation without anything to back the opinion up than your stature as FBI Director," Rowley wrote. "The truth is, as with most predictions into the future, no one will ever know what impact, if any, the FBI's following up on those requests would have had."

In addition to criticizing the handling of the Moussaoui case, Rowley is blistering in her condemnation of FBI culture, which she portrays as dominated by careerists who are too afraid of internal discipline to be aggressive in their work. In addition, Rowley complains that headquarters staff involved in the Moussaoui case were central to the post-Sept. 11 probe and that the SSA most to blame was actually promoted.

The FBI enforces a "double standard which results in those of lower rank being investigated more aggressively and dealt with more harshly for misconduct, while the misconduct of those at the top is often overlooked or results in minor disciplinary action."

Rowley also takes aim at Mueller's plans to create an anti-terrorism "super squad" at FBI headquarters in Washington, which would control all terrorism cases and would rely heavily on a centralized Office of Intelligence. Rowley, a 21-year FBI veteran, argues in her letter that the Moussaoui and Phoenix incidents show that FBI headquarters is the problem, not the solution.

[dotcoma]

Robert Wright seems to be the real deal. Coleen Rowley, I think, is part of the whitewash: "Oh, we screwed up, give us more funding."...

[Suburbanite]

Mlingley, lets be honest, you do think he was behind it.

[dotcoma]

It's not that cut and dry...

[RebelWithanAK]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Suburbanite,)
Mlingley, lets be honest, you do think he was behind it.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>Logical fallacy. Not a good debate tactic. Sorry.

[Mia]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Impenitent,)
conspiracy conspiracy... bush is evil... bush knew... the black helicopters are coming...

see you in november<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>


Rebel, I suppose you found this to be a good argument and that's why you didn't say anything?

[Suburbanite]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (RebelWithanAK,)
</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Suburbanite,)
Mlingley, lets be honest, you do think he was behind it.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>Logical fallacy. Not a good debate tactic. Sorry.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

Just trying to get at the honesty behind the issue. I don't know for sure, the way I wrote it was inquisitive not absolute. It isn't a logical fallacy because it has no logic in it at all. Perhaps if I add a '?' to the end of it, it will make more sense to you?
The idea behind his whole post is the credibility of the Presidential Office. More so, Mlingley presented specific issues in her (his) favor, assuming Mlingley thinks Bush is behind this.
Impenitent, is it safe to assume you trust Bush? Perhaps your distrust lies with Liberals?

[Impenitent]

I trust no politicians in particular on general prinicple (same as lawyers), but I trust bush to let me keep my money while actually defending the nation; moreover, I trust any member of the party of the impeached liar to steal my money through excessive taxes...

[Wind_Waker]

I doubt her reluctance to be sworn in means she had any thing to hide. That being any major development that would harm her reputation. All I hear is this big quote about "no one predicting terrorist would use planes as missiles", from her.

Then they (the commission) go and say some crap about some FBI records from 1991 saying they had an interest in doing just that. Well if that is case, then every one who has served in the federal government is guilty. But of course it all has to be blamed soley on the Bush Administration right?

This 9/11 commission is a waste of time, it serves no purpose. The attacks happened, we know who did it, and we are going after them. We've learned that we are vulnerable, so security is being beefed up. What more could people want? To play the blame game?

Well if the Bush administration could have prevented it, then so could have the Clinton administration. After all, Clinton was given several opportunities to be given information on Al Qaeda and even chances to extradite Bin Laden himself, which he turned down every time.

[dotcoma]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Impenitent,)
I trust no politicians in particular on general prinicple (same as lawyers), but I trust bush to let me keep my money while actually defending the nation; moreover, I trust any member of the party of the impeached liar to steal my money through excessive taxes...<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

Bush has almost spent more of your money in four years than Clinton spent in all eight of his. You've been duped my friend....

[Mia]

Well, to be more accurate, he spent our children's and grandchildren's money - he did give us a few dollars in a tax cut.

He gave the richest 1% tax breaks, maybe Imp is in that category.

He partially financed the war by cutting social programs. And taking benefits from vets.

It all makes sense to me! lol..........

[Suburbanite]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Impenitent,)
I trust no politicians in particular on general prinicple (same as lawyers), but I trust bush to let me keep my money while actually defending the nation; moreover, I trust any member of the party of the impeached liar to steal my money through excessive taxes...<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

There you go, you like Republicans and hate Democrats. I think it is important to get that out in the air so Democrats can then judge you and you can squabble and fight about it... which seems to have already begun in the posts above me.

[dotcoma]

I hate chocolate but LOVE Hershey kisses....