In an interview with Wolf Blitzer to answer Donald Trump's charges that George W. Bush is accountable for the 911 attacks, which he certainly was, Andrew Card, Bush's former chief of staff simply lied as a way to cover up for his boss.
That image above was the front page of the New York Post. The Rupert Murdoch owned conservative Republican leaning New York Post who rightly threw political alliances out the window in the face of what happened and showed who was accountable. They were the only ones who did. And to this day the news media continues to demonstrate why they have no backbone and no integrity and care nothing for the truth . Which is what makes them so worthless .
Chris Cuomo on CNN recently asked a spokesperson for Trump to react to conservative radio talk show host Mark Levins' attack on Trump for stating the truth about Bush and the 911 attacks, every word out of Levins mouth being one lie after another to defend Bush. The fact is if Cuomo and his brethren in the news media weren't such abject cowards and cared about facts and the truth, he wouldn't have had to ask the question. He would have been tearing anyone trying to defend Bush's 911 negligence to pieces instead of the mealy mouthed dishonesty we're used to from journalists especially those on CNN.
Bill Clinton overcame those walls. Richard Clarke who was the White House anti-terrorism chief for Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and George W, and who during the Clinton administration held a cabinet level status, chaired what was called the Meeting of the Principles. Every day during the Clinton Administration, the Attorney General, CIA Director, FBI Director, heads of the ATF, Immigration Service and the heads of every agency related to the terrorist threat sat in a meeting chaired by Clarke and shared all the related intelligence or information related to terrorism and Al-Qaeda they had collected in the previous 24 hours with each other.
When George W. Bush became president he ended those meetings. And he demoted Richard Clarke to a sub cabinet level position so Clarke never had direct access to the president. Because he didn't believe Al -Qeda was a threat and thought Clinton exaggerated the threat.
Clarke testified that Bill Clinton made anti-terrorism the number one national security concern of his administration and Bush dismissed it entirely. Which is why Bush ignored every piece of intelligence he was given about Al-Qaeda as not worth his time.
Clarke testified that in August of 2001, he and George Tenant, CIA Director were so alarmed by the spike in Al-Qaeda chatter and the translations of the intercepts that indicated the U.S. was about to be hit with a massive terrorist attack inside the U.S. an attack that in the words of the CIA translator that was going to be "spectacular", Clarke and Tenant were, in Clarke's words, " running around the White House like men with their hair on fire" trying to get Rice and Bush's attention and to get Bush to do something. Bush and Rice ignored them, brushed them off and Bush went on vacation in Crawford.
But before Bush left he had one another intelligence briefing on August 6, 2001 where he was told that not only was Al-Qaeda going to strike inside the U.S., Al-Qaeda cells were already in the U.S., they had New York City office buildings under surveillance and, most astoundingly Bush was told intelligence had determined the means of the terrorist attack was going to involve the hijacking of U.S., airliners. Bush did nothing. Rice did nothing. And when grilled by the 911 Commission counsel on how on earth she and Bush could have done nothing based on that intelligence her answer to this day is stupefying. She said, " we had no idea they were going to use the planes as missiles".
Andrew Card repeated the same preposterous defense. Meaning what? That hijacking U.S. airliners and holding maybe 1000 Americans hostage on the ground or in the air was nothing to get excited about?
Then Card went off on a tangent about what Bush did after 911.
Here are the inescapable facts: Had Bush simply ordered the FAA to issue a high alert bulletin, a BOLO -- Be On the Lookout for potential hijackings by Middle Eastern men and to report any suspicious activity by Middle Eastern men , 911 never would happened. Those guys were not only not that smart, they were dumb.
The 911 hijackers showed up at Logan and Dulles Airport, 11 Middle eastern men who all bought one way tickets to San Francisco. None had any luggage. None had reservations. They all had to pay the highest ticket price, $2500 for a one way first class ticket. They all paid in cash. What do you think any ticket seller for any airline who was told in a special FAA security bulletin to be on the look out for suspicious activity involving Middle Eastern men because of a threat of hijackings would have done with that?
None of those hijackers would have ever gotten on those planes. And 911 never would have happened. It did because of the gross negligence, malfeasance and dereliction of duty by George W. Bush and his administration. He didn't keep America safe as Jeb Bush tries to claim. He allowed the worst attack and worst loss of life on American soil by a foreign enemy in American history. And has never been adequately held accountable because of journalists like Wolf Blitzer on CNN and others who never had the courage to stand up to power and hold Bush and Rice accountable when it mattered. Had they, Bush either would have had to resign along with Cheney and Rice, or he never would have had the political capitol to invade Iraq and would have been defeated in the 2004 elections.
Which is why so much can be laid at the feet of journalists who won't do their job because of cowardice, fear and incompetence. And still are afraid to hold George W. Bush accountable to this day.
When Hillary Clinton was recently asked on Face the Nation if George W. Bush had kept the country safe, her answer was almost worse. It was so pathetic, so dishonest, such a dodge and so clearly the product of her political calculations spinning through her head at the moment that instead of answering the question honestly, gave an answer that was nothing but convoluted nonsense. Clinton deserves to be held accountable for her political dishonesty as well.
Faced with all the proof the 911 Commission unearthed through documents and
testimony of all the principles taken under oath it is inescapable that George
W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice were both guilty of the worst case of gross, even
criminal negligence and malfeasance with regards to the national security of the
United States in American history.
It was an unforgivable display of
incompetence and a mistaken belief in an ideology that killed 3000 Americans on
that day and plunged the United States into a perpetual state of war against
terrorists. And there is nothing that could have been more easily prevented if
Bush had taken any of the intelligence and warnings, imminent warnings,
seriously.
Neither he nor Rice did. And both know what happened because of it. Which may explain why in the 15 years since
the 911 attacks neither George W. Bush nor Condoleeza Rice ever attended a single memorial
or commemoration of the attacks. Not the ground breaking for the building to
replace the towers, not the ground breaking or opening and dedication of the 911 Memorial, not
the ground breaking or ceremony for the opening of the 911 museum. Not any of the commemoration ceremonies that ever took place on the anniversaries of the attacks. Other presidents, politicians, dignitaries, officials and families were always there each time. But the president and National Security Advisor on
whose watch 911 happened never showed up. Because they both know were it not for their own negligence and dismissal of terrorism as a threat, there would be no need
for memorials. And they at least had the good grace not to attend.
Card lied in his interview with CNN when he said the reason for the successful attack was because the
intelligence agencies who had the information that could have prevented the
attacks weren't talking to each other because they had put up " walls" between
the agencies that Card said "went back to the
Clinton administration". Card lied. And Wolf Blitzer was either too ignorant, too intimidated or too much of a coward to point it out.
Bill Clinton overcame those walls. Richard Clarke who was the White House anti-terrorism chief for Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and George W, and who during the Clinton administration held a cabinet level status, chaired what was called the Meeting of the Principles. Every day during the Clinton Administration, the Attorney General, CIA Director, FBI Director, heads of the ATF, Immigration Service and the heads of every agency related to the terrorist threat sat in a meeting chaired by Clarke and shared all the related intelligence or information related to terrorism and Al-Qaeda they had collected in the previous 24 hours with each other.
When George W. Bush became president he ended those meetings. And he demoted Richard Clarke to a sub cabinet level position so Clarke never had direct access to the president. Because he didn't believe Al -Qeda was a threat and thought Clinton exaggerated the threat.
Clarke testified that Bill Clinton made anti-terrorism the number one national security concern of his administration and Bush dismissed it entirely. Which is why Bush ignored every piece of intelligence he was given about Al-Qaeda as not worth his time.
Clarke testified that in August of 2001, he and George Tenant, CIA Director were so alarmed by the spike in Al-Qaeda chatter and the translations of the intercepts that indicated the U.S. was about to be hit with a massive terrorist attack inside the U.S. an attack that in the words of the CIA translator that was going to be "spectacular", Clarke and Tenant were, in Clarke's words, " running around the White House like men with their hair on fire" trying to get Rice and Bush's attention and to get Bush to do something. Bush and Rice ignored them, brushed them off and Bush went on vacation in Crawford.
But before Bush left he had one another intelligence briefing on August 6, 2001 where he was told that not only was Al-Qaeda going to strike inside the U.S., Al-Qaeda cells were already in the U.S., they had New York City office buildings under surveillance and, most astoundingly Bush was told intelligence had determined the means of the terrorist attack was going to involve the hijacking of U.S., airliners. Bush did nothing. Rice did nothing. And when grilled by the 911 Commission counsel on how on earth she and Bush could have done nothing based on that intelligence her answer to this day is stupefying. She said, " we had no idea they were going to use the planes as missiles".
It is only because of the cowardice of congressional Democrats, and the cowardice of the news media when Republicans circled the wagons around Bush did that answer not lead to Bush and Rice's resignation.
Andrew Card repeated the same preposterous defense. Meaning what? That hijacking U.S. airliners and holding maybe 1000 Americans hostage on the ground or in the air was nothing to get excited about?
Then Card went off on a tangent about what Bush did after 911.
Here are the inescapable facts: Had Bush simply ordered the FAA to issue a high alert bulletin, a BOLO -- Be On the Lookout for potential hijackings by Middle Eastern men and to report any suspicious activity by Middle Eastern men , 911 never would happened. Those guys were not only not that smart, they were dumb.
The 911 hijackers showed up at Logan and Dulles Airport, 11 Middle eastern men who all bought one way tickets to San Francisco. None had any luggage. None had reservations. They all had to pay the highest ticket price, $2500 for a one way first class ticket. They all paid in cash. What do you think any ticket seller for any airline who was told in a special FAA security bulletin to be on the look out for suspicious activity involving Middle Eastern men because of a threat of hijackings would have done with that?
None of those hijackers would have ever gotten on those planes. And 911 never would have happened. It did because of the gross negligence, malfeasance and dereliction of duty by George W. Bush and his administration. He didn't keep America safe as Jeb Bush tries to claim. He allowed the worst attack and worst loss of life on American soil by a foreign enemy in American history. And has never been adequately held accountable because of journalists like Wolf Blitzer on CNN and others who never had the courage to stand up to power and hold Bush and Rice accountable when it mattered. Had they, Bush either would have had to resign along with Cheney and Rice, or he never would have had the political capitol to invade Iraq and would have been defeated in the 2004 elections.
Which is why so much can be laid at the feet of journalists who won't do their job because of cowardice, fear and incompetence. And still are afraid to hold George W. Bush accountable to this day.
When Hillary Clinton was recently asked on Face the Nation if George W. Bush had kept the country safe, her answer was almost worse. It was so pathetic, so dishonest, such a dodge and so clearly the product of her political calculations spinning through her head at the moment that instead of answering the question honestly, gave an answer that was nothing but convoluted nonsense. Clinton deserves to be held accountable for her political dishonesty as well.
If Jeb Bush is going to run on his assertions that his brother kept
us safe it automatically disqualifies him from being taken seriously. And given her answer to the same question, maybe it's the same for Clinton too.
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