First of all, any talk that Bill Clinton didn't deal with the threat of terrorism is bullshit...
In 1997 President created a bipartisan commission headed by Warren Rudman (R) and Gary Hart (D) to investigate vulnerabilities to and defenses against terrorism. Their work and the work of those on the commission produced a series of documents, all under the heading of:
"The U.S. Commission on National Security/ 21st Century Report."
On September 15, 1999, the first phase of the report was presented, including this dire prediction:
“Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.” ( Hart-Rudman U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century report, Sept 15, 1999 )
The report went on:
"...the combination of unconventional weapons proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack... A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century,"
The final report was titled:
Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change
The Phase III Report of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century
And was published on January 31, 2001
--------
It included 50 recommendations such as a need for a single Department of Homeland Security, FEMA being unable to deal with the threat and much more.
Congress received it enthusiastically and was taking steps to creating and passing a bill.
And then George W Bush came into office and withdrew it from congress saying:
"I'll have Cheney look at it."
Because Dick Cheney was, of course, more qualified to make a decision about in in a few weeks (actually he never said anything about it ... just buried it, because it was tainted by --- GASP! -- BILL CLINTON having initiated it) than all the people who spent their time working on it for several years:
Co-Chairs
Gary Hart
Warren Rudman
Commissioners
Anne Armstrong
Norm Augustine
John Dancy
John Galvin
Leslie Gelb
Newt Gingrich
Lee Hamilton
Lionel Olmer
Donald Rice
James Schlesinger
Harry Train
Andrew Young
Study Group Members
Patti Antsen
Lyntis Beard
Jeff Bergner
Coit Blacker
Barry Blechman
Chris Bowie
Ivo Daalder
Jacquelyn Davis
Rhett Dawson
Keith Dunn
Charles Freeman
Adam Garfinkle
Richard Haass
Keith Hahn
John Hillen
Frank Hoffman
Robert Killebrew
Richard Kohn
Bill Lewis
Martin Libicki
Jim Locher
Charles Moskos
Williamson Murray
Barry Posen
Peter Rodman
Barbara Samuels
Kori Schake
James Thomason
Ruth Wedgwood
as well as a huge number of US Defense and State Department Offices (Pages 144 and 145) as well as International Research with countries (such as England and Israel) who had been dealing with terrorism on an almost daily basis,
But Monkey Boy just put the report aside and said "Cheney will look at it."
So I guess that means there's no point in blaming Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell or anyone else in the administration. It seems as if it goes to Monkey Boy and Dick Cheney and their arrogance and neglect and psychotic hatred of Bill Clinton and refusal to possibly accept the possibility that the former president ever did anything right -- looks like responsibility for the devastation of September 11, 2001 should be laid right at the feet of Dick Cheney, in whatever unsdiscosed location he's hiding.
Oh, talk about a gentleman -- Warren Rudman was courteous and refused to point the finger at the Unholy One on September 12, 2001. Gary Hart just made it clear they had predicted it in their report of 1999.
So let's be clear as to who was actually looking ahead and who was actually not.
And let Rudy Giuliani admit that other than standing up like a mensch on 9-11-01 (at least compared to the Sock Puppet), he helped make the death toll higher than it needed to be by refusing to accept anyone else's suggestions -- such as locating the Emergency Response Center somewhere OTHER THAN in the World Trade Center, or providing the NYFD with walkie-talkies on which they could have gotten the same heads-up and get out warning the NYPD did with their better equipment. (Oh, those crapola walkie-talkies have never been upgraded to the ones they now KNOW could have saved the lives of most of those firefighters.). And when anyone accused his authoritarian and dictatorial style as "fascist," he chose to do the most fascistic move possible -- shout as loudly as he could and denounce the accuser as having made an anti-Italian slur.
Six years into the most incompetent, criminal, self-serving, plundering administration in US history, the second rate fumblers that call themselves the Bush Administration are still blaming the man who actually saw it coming and sponsored the report that, if they'd had the balls to overcome their rabid desire for absolute power (meaning can't give any credit to anyone else), could have allowed those thousands of people to live through the working day on 9-11-01 and gone home, complaining about traffic jams and crowded subway cars.
I still -- 6 years into it -- still can't figure out if they're monsters or just idiotic egomaniacal assholes. (Or is that the same thing?)
To update and paraphrase the words of Emile Zola:
"J'accuse, motherfuckers. J'accuse."
---------------------------------------------
"The U.S. Commission on National Security/ 21st Century Report."
On September 15, 1999, the first phase of the report was presented, including this dire prediction:
“Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.” ( Hart-Rudman U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century report, Sept 15, 1999 )
The report went on:
"...the combination of unconventional weapons proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack... A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century,"
The final report was titled:
Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change
The Phase III Report of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century
And was published on January 31, 2001
--------
It included 50 recommendations such as a need for a single Department of Homeland Security, FEMA being unable to deal with the threat and much more.
Congress received it enthusiastically and was taking steps to creating and passing a bill.
And then George W Bush came into office and withdrew it from congress saying:
"I'll have Cheney look at it."
Because Dick Cheney was, of course, more qualified to make a decision about in in a few weeks (actually he never said anything about it ... just buried it, because it was tainted by --- GASP! -- BILL CLINTON having initiated it) than all the people who spent their time working on it for several years:
Co-Chairs
Gary Hart
Warren Rudman
Commissioners
Anne Armstrong
Norm Augustine
John Dancy
John Galvin
Leslie Gelb
Newt Gingrich
Lee Hamilton
Lionel Olmer
Donald Rice
James Schlesinger
Harry Train
Andrew Young
Study Group Members
Patti Antsen
Lyntis Beard
Jeff Bergner
Coit Blacker
Barry Blechman
Chris Bowie
Ivo Daalder
Jacquelyn Davis
Rhett Dawson
Keith Dunn
Charles Freeman
Adam Garfinkle
Richard Haass
Keith Hahn
John Hillen
Frank Hoffman
Robert Killebrew
Richard Kohn
Bill Lewis
Martin Libicki
Jim Locher
Charles Moskos
Williamson Murray
Barry Posen
Peter Rodman
Barbara Samuels
Kori Schake
James Thomason
Ruth Wedgwood
as well as a huge number of US Defense and State Department Offices (Pages 144 and 145) as well as International Research with countries (such as England and Israel) who had been dealing with terrorism on an almost daily basis,
But Monkey Boy just put the report aside and said "Cheney will look at it."
So I guess that means there's no point in blaming Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell or anyone else in the administration. It seems as if it goes to Monkey Boy and Dick Cheney and their arrogance and neglect and psychotic hatred of Bill Clinton and refusal to possibly accept the possibility that the former president ever did anything right -- looks like responsibility for the devastation of September 11, 2001 should be laid right at the feet of Dick Cheney, in whatever unsdiscosed location he's hiding.
Oh, talk about a gentleman -- Warren Rudman was courteous and refused to point the finger at the Unholy One on September 12, 2001. Gary Hart just made it clear they had predicted it in their report of 1999.
So let's be clear as to who was actually looking ahead and who was actually not.
And let Rudy Giuliani admit that other than standing up like a mensch on 9-11-01 (at least compared to the Sock Puppet), he helped make the death toll higher than it needed to be by refusing to accept anyone else's suggestions -- such as locating the Emergency Response Center somewhere OTHER THAN in the World Trade Center, or providing the NYFD with walkie-talkies on which they could have gotten the same heads-up and get out warning the NYPD did with their better equipment. (Oh, those crapola walkie-talkies have never been upgraded to the ones they now KNOW could have saved the lives of most of those firefighters.). And when anyone accused his authoritarian and dictatorial style as "fascist," he chose to do the most fascistic move possible -- shout as loudly as he could and denounce the accuser as having made an anti-Italian slur.
Six years into the most incompetent, criminal, self-serving, plundering administration in US history, the second rate fumblers that call themselves the Bush Administration are still blaming the man who actually saw it coming and sponsored the report that, if they'd had the balls to overcome their rabid desire for absolute power (meaning can't give any credit to anyone else), could have allowed those thousands of people to live through the working day on 9-11-01 and gone home, complaining about traffic jams and crowded subway cars.
I still -- 6 years into it -- still can't figure out if they're monsters or just idiotic egomaniacal assholes. (Or is that the same thing?)
To update and paraphrase the words of Emile Zola:
"J'accuse, motherfuckers. J'accuse."
---------------------------------------------
posted by Saintperle at
1:41 PM
