More Commission Shenanigans
Let me start by saying that I had little faith in the 9/11 Commission. There were a few reasons, ranging from how far back the commission was willing to go, in terms of the timeline, and who was sitting on the commission. But over the last few days, more and more has come out regarding their investigations. It remains to be seen whether this was gross incompetence, or biased partisanship.
Of course, the partisan argument can be raised because of one reason. Her name is Jamie Gorelick, the former Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, under the Clinton Administration. Only a hermit in a Taliban cave wouldn’t recognize that name. She was the one who issued the memo building a wall between the CIA, and military intelligence, and the FBI, and our domestic intelligence agencies. She was one of the reasons why Able Danger wasn’t capable of doing their job.
Able Danger was a team devoted to data-mining. A "total information awareness" sort of program where these people read through things--documents, phone taps, surveillance reports, etc.--and determine what was and wasn’t a threat. Through their extensive readings, they discovered Mohammed Atta in 1999. He was in the US, and the Able Danger team could—at that time—identify him with al-Qaeda. Not only did they know he was al-Qaeda, but they were able to connect him to an al-Qaeda cell in Brooklyn.
But the 9/11 Commission wasn’t interested. The partisanship was clear as they were unwilling to go back any further than 2001. Again, for the Left, the world began in January of 2001. Bush caused all the ills of the nation, of the globe, and of the human race. This is their dim, and quite extreme, view of the world. Nice. Great. Now, smack them on the butt, and send them back to the sandbox with the kids, and let the adults run the world.
This shows that we knew of our enemy in this nation back during the Clinton administration. One of the two of us posted that Dick Morris has refuted Clinton’s boasts that terrorism was his number one priority. In Morris’s eyes, it was; it was the number one problem he chose to ignore. This proves it even further when a matter of national security—the intelligence to prove it is a national security concern—can’t be shared with other agencies. Great. Way to go.
The 9/11 Commission has begun changing it’s story of recent, though. This was a quote from August 9th:
"The Sept. 11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell," said Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation."
This is what was stated today:
In a joint statement, former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said a military official who made the claim had no documentation to back it up. And they said only 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta was identified to them and not three additional hijackers as claimed by Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.
"He could not describe what information had led to this supposed Atta identification," the statement said of the military official.
They also said no else could place the other three hijackers with Atta in a purported terror cell code-named "Brooklyn" during the time period cited by Weldon.
Wait! Just three days ago, they stated that they had never been briefed on Atta. Today, they’re saying that they were briefed on Atta, but no one else. Anyone care to bet how long it will be before this story changes again?
The sole purpose of this commission was to connect the dots, establish a timeline, and address the failures of the intelligence network. They haven’t done it. We’ve gotten a ton of bureaucratic crap out of this commission, and little solutions to the problems. And now, we’re about to get more unless Congress locates its spine, and puts the commission under investigation. As it stands right now, three separate committees in Congress are addressing the commission and it’s discoveries. The problem is these clowns didn’t find a damn thing because they didn’t want to. They didn’t want to tarnish reputations.
The problem with that logic is with an issue like national security, you end up playing Russian Roulette. Three thousand people died on 11 September. If the commission refuses to look at ALL the facts, ALL the intelligence, and investigate ALL leads, then what is it’s purpose? More people will die as these shenanigans continue to play out. Hard work, determination, and luck have played an important role in preventing another attack. It’s 43 months an counting since 11 September. If these monkeys on the commission aren’t investigated, and the truth isn’t found out, and the problems addressed, three thousand may be a drop in the bucket for our enemies.
Publius II
Let me start by saying that I had little faith in the 9/11 Commission. There were a few reasons, ranging from how far back the commission was willing to go, in terms of the timeline, and who was sitting on the commission. But over the last few days, more and more has come out regarding their investigations. It remains to be seen whether this was gross incompetence, or biased partisanship.
Of course, the partisan argument can be raised because of one reason. Her name is Jamie Gorelick, the former Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, under the Clinton Administration. Only a hermit in a Taliban cave wouldn’t recognize that name. She was the one who issued the memo building a wall between the CIA, and military intelligence, and the FBI, and our domestic intelligence agencies. She was one of the reasons why Able Danger wasn’t capable of doing their job.
Able Danger was a team devoted to data-mining. A "total information awareness" sort of program where these people read through things--documents, phone taps, surveillance reports, etc.--and determine what was and wasn’t a threat. Through their extensive readings, they discovered Mohammed Atta in 1999. He was in the US, and the Able Danger team could—at that time—identify him with al-Qaeda. Not only did they know he was al-Qaeda, but they were able to connect him to an al-Qaeda cell in Brooklyn.
But the 9/11 Commission wasn’t interested. The partisanship was clear as they were unwilling to go back any further than 2001. Again, for the Left, the world began in January of 2001. Bush caused all the ills of the nation, of the globe, and of the human race. This is their dim, and quite extreme, view of the world. Nice. Great. Now, smack them on the butt, and send them back to the sandbox with the kids, and let the adults run the world.
This shows that we knew of our enemy in this nation back during the Clinton administration. One of the two of us posted that Dick Morris has refuted Clinton’s boasts that terrorism was his number one priority. In Morris’s eyes, it was; it was the number one problem he chose to ignore. This proves it even further when a matter of national security—the intelligence to prove it is a national security concern—can’t be shared with other agencies. Great. Way to go.
The 9/11 Commission has begun changing it’s story of recent, though. This was a quote from August 9th:
"The Sept. 11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell," said Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation."
This is what was stated today:
In a joint statement, former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said a military official who made the claim had no documentation to back it up. And they said only 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta was identified to them and not three additional hijackers as claimed by Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.
"He could not describe what information had led to this supposed Atta identification," the statement said of the military official.
They also said no else could place the other three hijackers with Atta in a purported terror cell code-named "Brooklyn" during the time period cited by Weldon.
Wait! Just three days ago, they stated that they had never been briefed on Atta. Today, they’re saying that they were briefed on Atta, but no one else. Anyone care to bet how long it will be before this story changes again?
The sole purpose of this commission was to connect the dots, establish a timeline, and address the failures of the intelligence network. They haven’t done it. We’ve gotten a ton of bureaucratic crap out of this commission, and little solutions to the problems. And now, we’re about to get more unless Congress locates its spine, and puts the commission under investigation. As it stands right now, three separate committees in Congress are addressing the commission and it’s discoveries. The problem is these clowns didn’t find a damn thing because they didn’t want to. They didn’t want to tarnish reputations.
The problem with that logic is with an issue like national security, you end up playing Russian Roulette. Three thousand people died on 11 September. If the commission refuses to look at ALL the facts, ALL the intelligence, and investigate ALL leads, then what is it’s purpose? More people will die as these shenanigans continue to play out. Hard work, determination, and luck have played an important role in preventing another attack. It’s 43 months an counting since 11 September. If these monkeys on the commission aren’t investigated, and the truth isn’t found out, and the problems addressed, three thousand may be a drop in the bucket for our enemies.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:28 AM
1 Comments:
Good blog. The 9/11 commission was tainted from the beginning and all efforts to remove Gorelick fell on deaf ears. It seems the purpose of the commission was to white wash Clinton and his administration and blame Bush. I hope the bloggers stay with story and swarm the 9/11 commission. Rawriter
Post a Comment
<< Home