What We Don't Know About 9/11 Hurts Us

Following up on last Friday's post from my sidekick Miles, this essay from AlterNet:

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.

Instead, an administration that resisted spending the tens of millions required to fortify airline security before 9/11 is nearing the $300-billion mark on Afghanistan and Iraq. And declassified documents have unmistakably said the latter had nothing to do with 9/11. Meanwhile, those countries that at least indirectly did, most notably "allies" Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, have been let off the hook.

Indeed, the 9/11 commission was not allowed to get near that story…

Click here for the rest.

Miles' post last Friday was about a single memo warning Bush that Al-Qaeda was a major threat. It turns out that there were many, many more unheeded warnings. Indeed, the above linked essay speaks of "an astonishing 52 of the 105 daily intelligence briefings received by the FAA – and available to Rice – before the Sept. 11 attacks" that "made specific reference to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden."

Even though I have strong suspicions that Bush knew about the attacks beforehand, I really can't say for sure. However, given the all the pre 9/11 warnings that have come to light, I think it's reasonable to speculate about what was happening inside the White House in the days leading up to the attacks. There are, in my mind, three possibilities here. First, Bush knew about the impending attacks, but did nothing in order to justify implementing a huge wish-list for conservatives that ordinarily would be politically impossible. Second, Bush didn't know about the impending attacks, but knew there were risks: he ignored these risks because his wealthy donors, his buddies, his "base," whatever you want to call them, stood to lose money if anything was done. Third, Bush not only didn't know about the impending attacks, but also completely ignored numerous warnings because he and his staff are totally incompetent.

Any way you go, Bush has blood on his hands--it's either murder, negligent homicide, or manslaughter. On an enormous scale. It's pretty darned clear, the President should be, at the very least, behind bars.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$