SOTU: Bush Pushes Two Hijacker Myth
SOTU: Bush Pushes Two Hijacker Myth
Bush said: “We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al-Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know their plans until too late.”
FACT – WE KNEW THE TERRORISTS WERE THERE BEFORE THE ATTACKS. BUREAUCRATIC PROBLEM, NOT SURVEILLANCE LAW, WAS THE REASON THEY WERE NOT DETAINED: Cheney made the same claim a couple of weeks ago, and the Washington Post debunked it:
But Cheney did not mention that the government had compiled significant information on the two suspects before the attacks and that bureaucratic problems — not a lack of information — were primary reasons for the security breakdown, according to congressional investigators and the Sept. 11 commission. Moreover, the administration had the power to eavesdrop on their calls and e-mails, as long as it sought permission from a secret court that oversees clandestine surveillance in the United States.
The bigger problem was that the FBI and other agencies did not know where the two suspects — Cheney’s office confirmed that he was referring to Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar — were living in the United States and had missed numerous opportunities to track them down in the 20 months before the attacks, according to the Sept. 11 commission and other sources.
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Nice! It’s so painful to listen to this kabuki theater.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:31 pmFor the people of the United States it is simple: the Bush Administration ignored the warnings, including a PDB titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States. Bush and his cronies are clueless as to how to protect the citizens of the U.S. What the ARE good at is lying and spinning the truth.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:31 pm[...] Weak connection if you ask me. ThinkProgress apparently thinks so too, citing the Washington Post: he government had compiled significant information on the two suspects before the attacks and that bureaucratic problems — not a lack of information — were primary reasons for the security breakdown, according to congressional investigators and the Sept. 11 commission. Moreover, the administration had the power to eavesdrop on their calls and e-mails, as long as it sought permission from a secret court that oversees clandestine surveillance in the United States. [...]
January 31st, 2006 at 9:33 pmThe definiton of infinity: the sum of all the times bush said the numbers 9 and 11.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:37 pmDo you think the mainstream media will address these lies after the speach? Most likely no.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:38 pmBush wouldn’t dare tell the truth because it would show just how incompetent he truly is. The fact is that he wouldn’t have recognized the danger if it had come up with a huge sign on its chest and bit him in the ass. He might even believe his own lies. Republicans continue to count on the stupidity of the American people to listen to people like Rush Limbaugh and not find out the truth. The crazies will be ranting tomorrow, but a lot of people are starting to catch on. He smirked a lot, which means he was lying through his ass. By the way, wasn’t our governor, Tim Kaine, wonderful? His honesty greatly contrasted the criminal we have in the White House now. Bush really is a piece of work!!!!!
January 31st, 2006 at 11:34 pmThe biggest lie of the STU, because it was so damn blatant and easy to refute.
January 31st, 2006 at 11:52 pmhttp://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=36857
TRANSCRIPT: WELDON DISCUSSES RECENT DEVELOPMENTS WITH ABLE DANGER ON LOU DOBBS TONIGHT (CNN)
WASHINGTON, Nov 9, 2005 – Today, Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN) regarding his recent work on Able Danger – a Department of Defense planning effort to identify and target the linkages and relationships of Al-Qaeda worldwide. Below is a transcript of that interview.
[SEGMENT BEGINS]
DOBBS: New charges tonight. Charges of a massive cover-up by
members of our defense intelligence community. Congressman Curt
Weldon today called for a criminal investigation into what he
says, is the most important story of our lifetime.
Weldon says the army’s intelligence unit known as Able Danger,
identified the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks more than a year
before September 11, but those warnings were ignored by the
Pentagon.
Weldon says the defense intelligence agency is now trying to
smear the reputation of Able Danger member Lieutenant Colonel
Anthony Shaffer, for speaking out about the scandal.
In addition to identifying the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks,
Congressman Weldon says Able Danger warned defense officials
about terrorist activity in the Port of Aden in Yemen, two weeks
before that bombing of the U.S. the bombs of the U.S.S. Cole in
2000.
He also blasted the 9/11 Commission, calling them a
February 1st, 2006 at 12:09 amdisappointment and a failure for not including that information
about Able Danger in its final report.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0904-03.htm
“All along, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were living openly in the San Diego area, using their real names on their California driver’s licenses and rental agreements. Even more shocking, they had befriended and moved in with a prominent local Muslim leader, Abdussattar Shaikh, who, unbeknownst to them, was a long-time undercover FBI counterterrorism informant in regular contact with a terrorism case officer in the bureau’s San Diego office. According to Newsweek, it was such a close encounter that “on one occasion the [FBI] case agent called up the informant and was told he couldn’t talk because ‘Khalid’—a reference to al-Mihdhar—was in the room.â€
————
So we couldn’t find them or wiretap them, but they were living with an FBI informant????
February 1st, 2006 at 2:31 amSo we couldn’t find them or wiretap them, but they were living with an FBI informant????
Comment by John Kotlaba — February 1, 2006 @ 2:31 am
Actually another Bush wiretap spin, they were on Student Visas, and If I understand it Correctly, Im not a Lawyer by Trade, but they weren’t American Citizens therefore a Warrant was probably not even needed to Tap ‘Terrorists’ Students or those here illegaly.
February 1st, 2006 at 9:53 amBut yes that only one of the Weldon reports from Congress, the 911 Commission report is well, read the link,,above for Weldon/ Lou Dobbs transcript..
Its amazing how good Karl Rove is at framing things to throw people off his scent.
This analysis completely misses the larger and more important point:
FISA wasn’t stopping Bush from having a wiretap program. if he had wanted a wiretap program in September 2001, all he had to do was go to the rubber stamp FISA court with 3 days. He could have easily had one if he had wanted one, so the whole argument is a crock of the ususal shit.
The Republican frame is wiretap terrorists vs. protect civil rights. This si the frame that Bush used and the trap many are falling into. We must avoid this frame.
The accurate, progressive frame is: We all agree on wiretapping terrorists. The question about the wireless wiretaps is whether or not to have minimal checks and balances on the politicians in Washington to prevent them from abusing the program — not whether or not to wiretap terrorists.
February 1st, 2006 at 11:21 amA 5 star progressive frame presented by The Fool…. why isn’t someone hiring you to write ‘talking points for the demos OR the ‘liberal’ (sigh) media…. They (the media) are so flush with their talking points — like one of them commenting soon after the SOTU how B redeemed himself with his handling of Katrina … surely, this guy didn’t even watch the thing…. Heres some research im doing on framing follow the bottom hyperlinks to move through or on framing tag…
February 2nd, 2006 at 3:03 pmSuggest a visit to
tvnewslies.com and
loosechange.com
and a careful study of Professor Griffin’s paper – all 51 pages of it.
February 10th, 2006 at 1:08 pmYou know i just turend 18. All of this just makes me not even want to vote because no matter who you vote for president you get screwed over. The gov knew about the attacks, and even if they didnt know where they were going attack they coulc have done something to warn the American people.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:03 pm