Warnings a poor cover up for Bush's past mistakes

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Warnings a poor cover up for Bush's past mistakes

BY STEPHEN WINN Commentator

Vice President Dick Cheney has been asking Americans to be on the lookout for "things that are out of the ordinary or unusual."

Well, Mr. Vice President, now that you mention it, something odd did happen recently: You and other high-ranking administration officials began frantically clanging the terrorism alarm bells without offering any real evidence of an increased risk.

A lot of things, of course, might happen.

But the administration's high-profile worriers have not explained why their warnings suddenly became so shrill. In most cases, they are merely speculating; someone, somewhere, someday might blow up an apartment building, for example.

Meanwhile, the government's official alert level on terrorism remained unchanged.

That oversight gave the game away. The recent Chicken Little routine was actually designed to distract the public from the developing scandal over the administration's failure to better protect the country against terrorism.

A great deal of information is now gushing forth about the administration's mistakes. But there are three basic categories:

Sloth and ineptitude before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Recent news stories have revealed many warnings inside the government last year — some more specific than others — about the approaching danger of al-Qaida attacks.

Last summer the FBI knew enough to warn law enforcement agencies of possible domestic attacks by al-Qaida. Individual FBI agents raised alarming questions about students from Middle Eastern countries taking flying lessons.

By early July, President Bush was concerned enough to ask Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser, what government agencies were doing with intelligence reports about al-Qaida threats. A month later the CIA, in a report to the president, raised the possibility of al-Qaida hijackings.

The government took some preventive measures but obviously not enough. In many places, there appears to have been little sense of urgency.

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein, alarmed by what she was hearing about near-term terrorist threats, asked to meet with Cheney on the subject, the California Democrat was told that his staff would need six months to prepare for such a meeting. That was on Sept. 10, one day before the attacks.

Bush and Cheney take offense at suggestions that they be held personally responsible for the government's failure to respond more vigorously to last year's warnings.

If the blame rests with other high-level people, however, where are their resignations? Unless the top officials who made the mistakes leave the administration, how can the public know they won't be repeated?

Or are we to suppose that only anonymous low-level bureaucrats were responsible for the government's fateful inertia?

Deception of the public after Sept. 11.

The administration's story line last fall and winter was that the terrorist attacks came without warning. As we now know, this was nonsense.

"America never dreamt before September the 11th anybody would attack us," Bush said on Dec. 21. And just a couple weeks ago, Rice told the country: "I don't think anybody could have predicted these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center."

Terrorism experts, in fact, had long speculated about precisely this possibility.

And an FBI agent in Minnesota raised it in a memo last September. The administration's deceptions since last September have undermined its credibility at a critical time.

Bush and his aides have repeatedly asked for the public's trust in recent months. Yet they have sorely abused that trust.

Continued incompetence and inaction.

While the administration has effectively carried the battle to the enemy in Afghanistan, it has failed to fix many of the domestic security problems that have been revealed since Sept. 11.

Bush has failed to give Tom Ridge, his much-ballyhooed homeland security czar, the authority he needs over jealous rivals. Many security improvements need to be made.

Finally, the administration continues to hinder the congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 disaster and, even worse, to oppose an independent investigation.

Bush and his top aides have made plenty of mistakes already. They should at least drop their resistance to the inevitable and accept an independent investigation.

-- (dumbya@evil.bastard), June 01, 2002

Answers

"Evil" is a very moralistic word. Are you a religious fruitcake? Or just a fruitcake? LOL.

-- (fruitcake@fruitcake.church), June 01, 2002.

Yeah!! Who do you think you are using the word "evil"?!!

Dumbya calls everybody an axis of evil, but he's allowed to because he's a fruitcake. He thinks he is a religious fruitcake but he's not, he's just a fruitcake.

-- (how@dare.you!), June 01, 2002.


What I don't understand is why there was a "war plan" on Condy's desk the day before 911? Why have a war plan if there was no justification to attack, especially a country we had just given 47 million dollars in "aid" to, and had been trying to negotiate a pipeline throught? Was the war plan because of the destruction of the Budhas? Or did the government piss of the Taliban and recieve threats from them which made little Georgie run away to Texas for a month, then dash over to Florida to sit safely in a classroom full of children-hoping the "enemy" would not hit him there. Kind of like Hussean sitting in a room full of children to shield himself.

-- Cherri (whatever@who.cares), June 02, 2002.

Cherri and you say you were in the military?! "Why have a war plan", that's your question!

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), June 03, 2002.

Maria, I suspect that the only productive thing in Cherri’s life was her short stint as an Air Force enlisted woman who worked on flight Sims. After her 3 or 4 years in-service, she took whatever skills she had into the private sector (Boeing/Seattle) and landed some sort of entry-level tech position.

With this background, she has wanted us to believe that she can ‘fly’ airplanes and has all of this ‘inner’ knowledge of matters of the military. Of course that is all pure bullshit.

She has not worked for many years, has difficulty getting along with people, and now has most likely resigned herself to a life of public assistance and serious weight-driven health problems.

Our country is chock-full of social parasites like Cherri who claim to hate their government for all manner of reasons. The truth is that Cherri and her ilk really hate themselves and will only give political support to those who would fatten the welfare coffers.

-- Oink (oink@welfare.hog), June 03, 2002.



"I suspect that the only productive thing in Cherri’s life was her short stint as an Air Force enlisted woman who worked on flight Sims."

Better than Dubya's short stint in the Air National Guard where he went AWOL to snort whiskey and drink cocaine.

-- lol (not@very.productive), June 03, 2002.


I have yet to hear George W. Bush say anything derogatory about Cherri. LOL, you have this amazing ability to consistently confirm your status as one of the best examples of mentally challenged thinkers. That desert sun has baked what little was left of your brain Doc.

-- Free (head@case.analysis), June 03, 2002.

"I have yet to hear George W. Bush say anything derogatory about Cherri."

Probably not Free Head, but you conservo pugs did plenty of bashing Klintoon. Now it's our turn!

-- yeehaaa! (this@is.fun!), June 03, 2002.


Yep, now its your turn to look stupid.

-- dr. pibb (drpibb@new.formula), June 03, 2002.

Nope, it's our turn to show you pugs how stupid you were, and annoy the hell out of you in the process. Every time you say that we are stupid, it just proves how stupid you were. So far it looks like Unk is the only one who is actually beginning to grasp this concept, the rest of you are still too stupid to realize how stupid you were. LMAO!!

-- bwahahaha!! (what comes around @ goes. around), June 04, 2002.


When I read the various posts from ‘bwahahaha’ above, there is this mental picture of a red-faced adolescent whose older sister has just caught in the act of pulling his little pee pee. Sputtering and bawling his rage against that which he is too embarrassed or ill- eqipped to deal with.

It’ OK son, one day some hair will grow around those little raisins and the world will open it’s secrets to you….or not.

-- Send (mo@money.please), June 04, 2002.


You’re on the right track ‘Send’. This man/woman/undetermined has been bleating the ‘Bush is evil’ mantra from the beginning. My professional opinion is that we are dealing with a ‘male’ that has an underdeveloped sexual organ and has never ‘been’ with a woman (rubber dolls excluded). Add to this individual’s frustration, the inability to achieve any degree of success in his personal and professional endeavors. Like all good liberals, he is quick to blame the conservative establishment for his own shortcomings (yep, pun intended) instead of some inner soul searching.

My profile for this person would be as follows:

Sex: Male (with special circumstances)

Age: 34-42

Height/weight: 5’10”, 158 Lbs.

Race: White (very pale)

Marital Status: Single (very)

Education: Dropped out of Community College

Occupation: Perpetually Unemployed

-- Free (head@case.analysis), June 04, 2002.


That's a pretty good description of yourself there, "Free Head", except you've exaggerated a couple of things. You're only 5'1" and 108 lbs. and you never even attempted community college because you flunked out of the 9th grade in high school. You live with your satan-worshipping mother and spend all day on the internet because you're too retarded to get a job.

BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

-- BWAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA! (thanks for my @ morning. chuckle!), June 04, 2002.


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