Op-Ed: The Trauma of 9/11 Is No Excuse - Richard Clark »
Posted By TimALoftis 7 months ago in Political NewsListening to Cheney and Rice, it seems that they want to be excused for the measures they authorized after the attacks on the grounds that 9/11 was traumatic. "If you were there in a position of authority and watched Americans drop out of eighty-story buildings because these murderous tyrants went after innocent people," Rice said in her recent comments, "then you were determined to do anything that you could that was legal to prevent that from happening again."
I have little sympathy for this argument. Yes, we went for days with little sleep, and we all assumed that more attacks were coming. But the decisions that Bush officials made in the following months and years -- on Iraq, on detentions, on interrogations, on wiretapping -- were not appropriate. Careful analysis could have replaced the impulse to break all the rules, even more so because the Sept. 11 attacks, though horrifying, should not have surprised senior officials. Cheney's admission that 9/11 caused him to reassess the threats to the nation only underscores how, for months, top officials had ignored warnings from the CIA and the NSC staff that urgent action was needed to preempt a major al-Qaeda attack.
Thus, when Bush's inner circle first really came to grips with the threat of terrorism, they did so in a state of shock -- a bad state in which to develop a coherent response. Fearful of new attacks, they authorized the most extreme measures available, without assessing whether they were really a good idea.
I believe this zeal stemmed in part from concerns about the 2004 presidential election. Many in the White House feared that their inaction prior to the attacks would be publicly detailed before the next vote -- which is why they resisted the 9/11 commission -- and that a second attack would eliminate any chance of a second Bush term. So they decided to leave no doubt that they had done everything imaginable.
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TimALoftis
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Goppy7 months ago
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When you can't feel pride in your own ability ... you must rely on the skill of those who manipulate public opinion.
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And there are few in Modern America that are better at manipulating public opinion ... through fear ... through jingoism ... through labels ... than the Modern Right.
I've often heard on Propeller how ... Bush/Cheney/Rice ... they kept us safe for seven years.
Rarely do I hear them attribute any accountability for 9/11. Believing it to be ... an 'act of God'.
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Beau78907 months ago
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Yes, of course. No one could possibly have foreseen 9/11...except the author of this article, who as President Clinton's and Bush's counterterrorism chief, was being blown off every time he tried to warn Bush/Cheney it was going to happen.
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spkguy7 months ago
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/
Yea, and they want a pass on this also... -
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Jaydee407 months ago
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Here we are how many years later and still the truth is being withheld by a new government. With in minutes of the impacts complete press releases were being handed out, sound like everything was according to plan. So if the old regime was in the know or even in the planing why does the new administration not hold them accountable? Could it be never really answer to the voters at all?
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Charlson7 months ago
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"...when Bush's inner circle first really came to grips with the threat of terrorism, they did so in a state of shock -- a bad state in which to develop a coherent response. Fearful of new attacks, they authorized the most extreme measures available, without assessing whether they were really a good idea."
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clipper447 months ago
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I encourage all the 9/11 conspiracy theorists to read the NT Times Bestseller, "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. The book methodically examines all the tensions and stress on the two agencies mainly responsible to uncover and stop terrorist plots; the CIA and FBI. As you read the book you can see that the CIAs witholding of critical information kept the FBI from stopping 9/11. The book dispells the myth propagated by Rosie O'Donnell and others that it was an "engineered" terrorist attack. What the book underscores is the conflict of prosecuting terrorists through the criminal system (court system) which the FBI follows, or thre CIA method which is to "take out" terrorists through assasination before the terrorist plot is executed. The book makes for a very good read. And by the way I had a cousin killed in the 9/11 atack (worked on the 88th floor for Cantor Fitzgerald). All I can say is thanks to Cheney/Bush/Rice and others for making sure no othe innocent civilians had to lose their life to these madmen.
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