A.R. Torres writes in Salon, "I used to know whose fault it was.
At least I thought I did. The loss of my beloved Eddie hurt badly enough
when 9/11 was a story about a secret plot that was so fantastic, so
sophisticated and hidden, that it escaped our mighty intelligence
network... But now the story has become one of incompetence vs. evil.
There had been knowledge, hints, warnings - shared at the highest levels -
and yet no action, not a peep. How was that possible? Suddenly the
diabolic geniuses behind this plot weren't that smart. Instead they were
just a few fundamentalist lunatics with box cutters and a dream, who could
have - should have - been stopped at so many points before 8:46 a.m.,
Sept. 11." Eddie Torres died on Sept. 11, his second day of work in
the World Trade Center.
'No
Warnings' - Bush's Unforgiveable Lie
Marie Cocco writes in Newsday, "In all the verbiage that has
rained down since word leaked that President [sic] Bush was warned that
Osama bin Laden's crew might hijack a plane and strike at the United
States, two words count: 'No warnings.' That is what White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sept. 11. He said it
as the flames from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon lit the sky and
the office workers and firefighters and deli-counter men were buried
beneath the molten steel. It was a lie... Since word leaked about the
infamous memo Bush received on Aug. 6, the White House has spun another
web of lies... Now there is an unnerving shadow that will follow Bush
through his presidency... Bush lied to us, and covered up." Impeach
Bush NOW!
Heads
Should Roll - Starting With John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft played "down the terrorist threat in the first
months of the Bush administration. [He accused] his critics of undermining
the fight against terrorism. But it is becoming clear that before
September 11 he had little interest in counter-terrorism, and diverted
resources from measures to prevent terrorism... He also sent a
memorandum... stating his seven priorities. Counter-terrorism was not on
the list. He turned down an FBI request for hundreds more agents to be
assigned to tracking terrorist threats. Nevertheless, he began using a
chartered private jet to travel around the country, rather than take
commercial airliners. [Ashcroft had a showdown with FBI director Louis
Freeh last spring on counter-terrorism. When] Mr Freeh began to talk about
his concern about the terrorist threat facing the country, 'Ashcroft
didn't want to hear about it'... But even since September 11 Mr Ashcroft
has been accused of putting ideology before the battle against
terrorism."
Bush
Incompetence Hides Behind a Veil of Executive Privilege
Robert Scheer writes, "Until Sept. 11, the Bush administration was
simply too distracted and/or incompetent to maintain the American pressure
on Osama bin Laden begun in 1998 under President Clinton. [Sandy Berger
was totally preoccupied with the prospect of domestic terror attack. He
warned Condi Rice]: 'You will be spending more time on this issue than on
any other.' Problem was, she didn't. [She wasn't alone. John Ashcroft also
downshifted anti-terrorism efforts, and] Rumsfeld blocked an attempt to
move $800 million from his pet missile defense program into
counter-terrorism... We already know enough... to raise strong suspicions
that executive privilege is now being invoked to conceal enormous
incompetence on the part of the [Bushies. But] we as a nation have long
believed that it is the truth--full, complex and unsanitized--that shall
make us free. We should continue to act accordingly."
Did
FBI Terrorism Expert John O'Neill QUIT Over Bush's Refusal to Heed the
Phoenix Memo?
MediaWhoresOnline writes, "At the end of August, in disgust, [FBI
terrorism expert John] O'Neill left the FBI to take what he somewhat
ruefully regarded as his 'retirement' job - as head of security at the
World Trade Center. There, on September 11, [he] died at the hands of his
arch-enemy bin Laden's fiendish followers. Connect the dots? Well, duh!
O'Neill got the Phoenix message. No one would listen... The Bushies had
backed off bin Laden. So O'Neill changed jobs - and went on to die a
martyr's death. While all the people who ignored him, on up the chain to
the Oval Office, live on - ghoulishly making political hay out of his
sacrifice and their own incompetence - and... their own perfidy. But
here's the really amazing thing - having unearthed this blockbuster, NY
Times reporters David Johnston and Don Van Natta, Jr. simply bury it in
their story. They report, incredibly, that O'Neill simply 'retired' back
in August - ignoring the well-known background, leaving the dots
unconnected!"
When
Deceased FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill's Story Is Told, Bush Will Be
Impeached
Daily Brew writes, "It is simply impossible to examine the FBI's
role... prior to 9/11 without examining the work of John O'Neill [who]
quit the agency just two weeks prior to the 911 attacks to serve as
Director of Security at the WTC, where he died in the attacks... French
intelligence analysts Brisard and Dasquie claim to have met O'Neill
several times last summer, and reported in their book, 'bin Laden: Hidden
Truth' that O'Neill had complained bitterly that the US State Department -
and behind it the oil lobby who make up Bush's entourage - blocked his
attempts to prove bin Laden's guilt. They quote O'Neill as stating 'The
main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate
interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.' They also charge
that shortly after assuming office the Bush administration slowed down FBI
investigations of Al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a
deal with the Taliban for an oil pipeline across Afghanistan."
Did
Nearly 3,000 Americans Die for an Oil Pipeline?
Even before Bush took office in 2001, he was apparently scheming with
Unocal to force through a deal with the Taliban to put an oil pipeline
through Afghanistan. Thus, in AUGUST 2001, instead of taking steps to
avert terrorist attacks, Bush was holding secret meetings with the Taliban
over the pipeline, threatening to bury them "beneath a carpet of
bombs" if they didn't play ball. Two weeks before Sept. 11, FBI
deputy director John O'Neill - the nation's top Osama Bin Laden expert -
quit in disgust because he felt Bush was placing corporate interests ahead
of national security. This heroic man took a job as head of security at
the WTC, where he died on 9/11. Did O'Neill KNOW the WTC was targeted and
thus tried in his own way to protect the bulding and those in it because
the "President of the United States" REFUSED to?
At a top-level meeting on July 5 2001, 'Something really spectacular is
going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon,' the government's top
counterterrorism official, Richard Clarke, told the assembled group,
according to two of those present. The group included the Federal Aviation
Administration, along with the Coast Guard, FBI, Secret Service and
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Clarke directed every
counterterrorist office to cancel vacations, defer nonvital travel, put
off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid-response teams on much
shorter alert. For six weeks last summer, at home and overseas, the U.S.
government was at its highest possible state of readiness - and anxiety -
against imminent terrorist attack. That intensity - defensive in nature -
did not last. By the time Bush received his briefing at his ranch in
Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, the government had begun to stand down from the
alert." AND WHY DID BUSH LET THEM STAND DOWN??? WE DEMAND ANSWERS!
It's not every day that Bob Woodward calls the National Security
Advisor and the White House Spokesman liars. So read Woodward's article
"Aug. Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S." carefully: "In
earlier comments this week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and
other administration officials stressed that intelligence officials were
focused primarily on threats to U.S. interests overseas. But sources made
clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks
within the United States.... Ari Fleischer told reporters yesterday said
the headline on the document was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike the
United States.' But sources who have read the memo said the headline ended
with the phrase 'in U.S.'" We demand that Bush fire Rice and
Fleischer for lying to the American people about 911!
Feinstein
Urged Cheney to Act Against Terrorism on 9/10 - But She Was Told to 'Wait
Six Months'
There really is no limit to the despicable things the Bushies will say.
Ari attacked Senators Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein, demanding to
know "What did the Democrats in Congress know? And why weren't they
talking to each other?" Of course, the Democrats only knew what Bush
WANTED them to know, since Bush runs the CIA and the FBI. DiFi hit Ari
right between the eyes with her response: "I was so concerned that I
contacted Vice President Cheney's office that same month to urge that he
restructure our counter-terrorism and homeland defense programs to ensure
better accountability and prevent important intelligence information from
slipping through the cracks. Despite repeated efforts by myself and staff,
the White House did not address my request. I followed this up last
September 2001 before the attacks and was told by 'Scooter' Libby that it
might be another six months before he would be able to review the
material. I told him I did not believe we had six months to wait."
