9/11 panel blames Bush, Clinton failures in attacks

[keith]

9/11 panel blames Bush, Clinton failures in attacks

This should get the sparks flying. I have an issue with framing this debate in terms of "failure".

Complacent might be more appropriate.

Keith.

 

[JohnnyO]

The former Clinton staffers ought to be careful though, if they make it sound like Bin Laden was too big a threat, then even their accomplices in the liberal media will be forced to ask how come they didn't do anything back then.

 

[ALS]

Clinton had 8 years to fix the problem. Bush had 7 and 3/4 months. No comparison in any way.
George retaliated from day one. Bill made excuses and blew up an aspirin factory and made a few holes in the desert. Ok they blew a hole in a Chinese Embassy, accidentally on purpose.

I'll give him a cookie for that one.

 

[ALS]

Tuesday, Mar. 23, 2004 01:22 PM EST
Powell: Clinton Failed to Act on Clarke's 9/11 Warning

Under fire on Tuesday from 9/11 Commission Democrat Timothy Roemer for failing to act on a December 20, 2000 briefing from Clinton administration terrorism czar Richard Clarke, Secretary of State Colin Powell turned the tables - demanding to know why the Clinton White House failed to act on its own intelligence.

Powell acknowledged that Clarke had warned him that al Qaeda operatives had already entered the U.S., but reminded Roemer, "At the time [Clarke] gave me the briefing, I was not the secretary of state - this administration was not in office."

"If they were aware that al Qaeda representatives were already in the country running around, and knew that, and knew that these nineteen [9/11 hijackers] . . . were running around inside the country, the obligation, frankly, was on them," Powell said.

"[It's] not, 'Why didn't we do something beginning a month later?'" he contended.

Instead, Powell said the more pertinent question is, "Why hadn't they done something while they were preparing [Clarke's] Power Point presentation?"

Former Rep. Roemer said he would put that question to Mr. Clarke when he testifies on Wednesday.

 

[jsharp]

Face it, we got caught with out pants down on 9/11. As long as it was just military people getting blown up, or it was happening in some other part of the world, no one was really too worried about it.

The better question to ask is "what should we be doing about it now..."

 

[Bob Woods]

If the Clinton or Bush administration had of done anything about a perceived threat it would have been meet with cries of "why are you doing this" both here and abroad. We would have been accused of saber rattling for the sake of oil. No matter what is done we will be looked upon as the bad guys, why? because we are not the underdog in this fight. THIS IS NOT A NEW ENEMY. We have fought this battle before, do a search for "Barbary Coast Pirates". Thomas Jefferson had a hard time rounding up support. Look back just 63 years and you will see an American public that did not want to be involved in Europes problem. What then **** could the Government have done round up and put in jail arab men, that would have went over like a fart in church.

 

[TC]

"...that would have went over like a fart in church."

Actually, the whole "farting in church" thing has really evolved in the last decade or so, with effective new ventilation technologies for gas extraction, dilution, and masking in worship facilities. New cross-air flow, air ionization, and scent masking systems have decreased church-fart permeability by at least 60%, per joint studies by Honeywell and Carrier Air Conditioning. Newly-built churches incorporate innovative fart-extracting airflow systems which greatly reduce sermon interruption and congregation discomfort. And pew seating pads now utilize activated carbon layers to increase fart retainment and odor neutralization. This topic is well covered in the June 2003 edition of "Worship Facilities & Maintenance Journal."

[ March 23, 2004, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: TC ]

 

[JohnnyO]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bob Woods:
that would have went over like a fart in church.

---

Doesn't stop me. My wife joined the choir a few weeks ago and I sit by myself now.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

I heard a sound bite from Madeline Albright where she said the American people would not supported an attack on Afghanistan prior to 9-11-01.

It makes me wonder if she was speaking of the same American people who oppose a preemptive strike in Iraq?


Hmmmm.