Would George W. Bush have been re-elected president if the public understood how much responsibility his administration bears for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed?
For the last three years, administration apologists have tried to make the FAA the scapegoat for the 9/11 attacks. But it is the president who ultimately is responsible for national security, not a defanged agency that is beholden to the industry it allegedly monitors.
The terrible fact is that the administration took none of the steps that would have put the protection of human life ahead of a diverse set of economic and political interests, which included not offending our friends the Saudis and not hurting the share prices of airline corporations.
Given this shocking record of indifference on the part of the administration, it is politically understandable that it tried to prevent the formation of the 9/11 commission in the first place, and then for five months prevented the declassification of key sections of the final report. Commission members, including its Republican chairman, Thomas Kean, stated in the past that there was no national security concern that justified keeping those sections of the report from the public.
And let's be clear: The failure to fully disclose what is known about the 9/11 tragedy is not some minor bureaucratic transgression. Not since the Soviets first detonated an atomic bomb more than half a century ago has a single event so affected decision-making in this country, yet the main questions as to how and why it happened remain mostly unanswered.
Even worse, what we do know calls into question our government's explanation that a diabolical international terrorist conspiracy exploited our liberal, naive society. What has emerged, instead, is a portrait of an often bumbling terrorist gang allowed to wreak havoc because the top tiers of the administration were so indifferent to the alarms, which former CIA Director George Tenet described so graphically: "The system was blinking red."
Had the business-friendly administration put safety first and ordered a full complement of air marshals into the air, over the obscene objections of airlines loath to give up paid seats, nearly 3,000 people might not have died that day. And had the president of the United States taken some time from his epic ranch vacation that August to order a nationwide airport alert, two bloody wars abroad, as well as an all-out assault on civil liberties in this country, probably would not have happened.
Indeed, the 9/11 commission was not allowed to get near that story: It is an unnoticed but startling truth that the basic narrative on the tragedy derives from the interrogations of key detainees whom the 9/11 commissioners were not allowed to interview. Nor were they permitted to even take testimony from the U.S. intelligence personnel who interrogated those prisoners.
When the truth and governmental transparency are arbitrarily trumped by the invocation of national security, the public is simply incapable of making informed decisions on the most crucial decisions we face – starting with whom we elect as our commander in chief.
I didn't leave a hell of a lot out of that one, but go read anyway.
I would not, at this time, allege that Bush knew the specifics of the 9/11 attacks. If he did, I would be proud to harness up and put the cane to the four horses that would draw and quarter him. Small horses. I'd use Humvees, but that would be too quick.
I do accuse them of covering-up the truth. They have a lot to hide in all areas and are very good at it.
I will say, once again, that ideology trumps reality and the interests of the American people with this bunch. Incompetence, ineptitude, hypocrisy, lies, cover-ups, secrecy, meanness and wrong-headedness not only abound, but seem to be demanded by the majority of my fellow citizens who have bought into Bush's bullshit.
Why? What do they think Bush is going to do for them? National greatness? We had that, and he's destroyed it. Make them all rich? Bwa-hahahahaha! Maybe the "ruling class", at their expense. Make them feel all warm and safe? That may be it, but it's just another lie.
What is the flaw that keeps these idiots from seeing what's right in front of their faces?
Here's my message to the Retard Right: When you've got your head in the sand is the time these bastards are going to butt-fuck you. Well, they're doing it and you think it's a prostate exam.
