As has been pointed out before, the first World Trade Center bombing occured some 35 days after Clinton took office. The first President Bush did not make any attempt to forewarn his successor, nor was any infrastructure in place specifically to combat terrorism on the scale that Al-Qaida represented. On 9/11, Bush Jr. had ample time to assess and ignore the threat of terrorism. In fact, the topic of the speech that then National Security Advisor Condi Rice was scheduled to give on 9/11 dealt with a space based missile defense program. No doubt an attempt to steer Defense spending to friends and contributors.

Anyway, here’s hoping that the truth comes out of this investigation, whereever it may lead.

Sorry I’m so late to the party! I’d like to point out that Herr Bush’s illegal domestic surveilance program with the telecoms was in full operation around February 2001. Manslagt would like to know what any of us Progressives would have done with the info in Bush’s daily PDBs. Hmm, maybe tracking Moussaoui’s e-mails/telephone conversations instead of spending all of your time data mining blackmail dirt against your political rivals, taking month long vacations, drawing up war plans for an unjustified attack on Iraq and hunkering down with your treasonous VP and his “lawyers” devising every way possible to shred the Constitution and gain as much unchecked power as you can. THESE were the activities occupying the Deciderer during the first 9 months of his presidency.

Perfect. :-D

Oh sure, if the US , hopefully, makes it to January of 2009 without another terrorist attack on our soil the Bush supporters will say that he has kept us from having another 9/11. But that still leaves those animals that committed the worst attack on US soil since the War of 1812 pretty much free from justice.

Considering that Clinton is, rightly so or not, criticized for not getting bin Laden during his administration, shouldn’t Bush be held to that same standard when he leaves office?

You know what, Zoo? Maybe the specific info Manslagt was talking about was this one:

ALERT. ALERT. 9/11/2001 Al-Qaeda members will kidnap planes and crash them on WTC, Pentagon and the Capitol. ALERT. ALERT.

But Bush would say after 9/11:

Well, they told me they have new info about terrorists attacks, but they didn’t tell me what the report was about. Hehehehe.

Madeleine Albright made it clear on tape what she thought about thousands of Iraqi children dead.

But nobody said they would ram the airplanes into buildings, so according to Slag, it’s right that they did nothing.

Madeleine Albright made it clear on tape that she thought that thousands of Iraqi children.

Bill Clinton sent to their deaths to thousands of people around the globe, from Sudan to Kosovo. He is as a murderer as Bush. So the Clinton did it too, is not cutting it.

Although it has to be said, that in terms of domestic policies, Clinton did a far far far better job than Bush, including the fact that the worst attack suffered in US soil was made under Bush. There is no escape from that one, no excuse whatsoever, unless you are a payed troll like I said, and your morals and common sense were left behind when you received the check.

Comment by Manslagt

The issue is not what Richard Clarke was aware of or what the Bush Administration was aware of. It’s what they COULD and SHOULD have been aware of. They should have been aware of the fact that a known terrorist was in the United States, that he was studying how to fly a 747 (only taking off, not landing), that French intelligence had warned the FBI about him and his terrorist ties, that when FBI agents tried to act upon that knowledge, they were met with silence and inaction. But no one in the Bush Administration was aware of these facts because they did not foster an environment in which they could have been aware. The FBI agents were unable to examine Moussaoui’s lap top or obtain a search warrant or even question his ties to Al Qaeda and his reason for wanting to learn how to take off in a 747 until it was too late. A competent President, given the high degree of urgent warnings in the weeks before 911 he had received would have streamlined his intelligence services with the demand that all specific warnings such as Mr. Moussaoui’s presence and activities be channeled immediately to a central authority and given high priority. Bush did streamline his intelligence services through a central authority, but he only did that AFTER 9/11. It is an acknowledgement on his part of his failure. Why did he improve the operation of intelligence services AFTER 9/11? Why did they need improvement, if Bush was doing his job? Because they weren’t working before 9/11. And Bush, given the many warnings he received didn’t seek to improve the way the intelligence community responded to specific threats, such as the purpose of Moussaoui in the United States. The fact that Bush only streamlined his intelligence services to respond to specific threats AFTER the fact is an admission of his failure of leadership and organization. He was, after all, a hands-off governor of a medium-sized state and more of a political animal than a statesman or a true and competent executive and organizer.

Comment by Juan C.

That’s not true! They’ve just got their own culture.

You’ve never heard of the Grand Old Opry?