Report Ends Much Debate

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Report Ends Much Debate
53
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 5:47pm
WOLFOWITZ--STRIKE BIN LADEN HARD
Richard Clarke has gone after Paul Wolfowitz very aggressively as Mr. Iraq who had no interest in bin Laden. But check out page 214, describing a pre-9/11 debate over the Predator. Wolfowitz wanted a robust military option:

"The Defense Department favored strong action. Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz questioned the United States’ ability to deliver Bin Ladin and bring him to justice. He favored going after Bin Ladin as part of a larger air strike, similar to what had been done in the 1986 U.S. strike against Libya. General Myers emphasized the Predator’s value for surveillance, perhaps enabling broader air strikes that would go beyond Bin Ladin to attack al Qaeda’s training infrastructure."
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/04_07_18_corner-archive.asp#036402

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 8:18pm

One more item that's not from the report, but which clears up the question of whether the passengers on flight 93 prevented further catastrophy on 9-11 and where the plane was headed:


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/politics/22CND-FLIG.html?hp




Once the hijackers were in control, they knew that passengers were using cell phones and seat-back phones to call the ground "but did not seem to care," according to the report. Yet clearly what the passengers learned in those phone calls inspired their counterattack on the cockpit. . . .


"It might not have occurred to him that they were certain to learn what had happened in New York, thereby defeating his attempts at deception," the report said. . . .


The report does not clarify whether the hijackers' goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.


At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?"


But another hijacker responds: "No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off."


The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, "In the cockpit. If we don't we'll die!"


Then a passenger yelled "Roll it!" Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.


Mr. Jarrah "stopped the violent maneuvers" at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!"


"He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?' to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.' "


Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, "Pull it down! Pull it down!"


"The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them," according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. "With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C," according to the report.


Renee ~~~

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 8:40pm

Clinton did not leave a

Renee ~~~

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 9:07pm

Sandy Burger is a liar:


http://musil.blogspot.com/2002_09_15_musil_archive.html#81883537


"It turns out that TIME's fool Bill Clinton's former national security advisor, Sandy Berger, who just back in August was busy telling TIME that the Clinton administration had prepared a major, magic strike against al Qaeda, which the Bush Administration delayed!"


Renee ~~~

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 9:14pm

It was not luck that foiled the Millenium Plot Bombing:


http://www.leadandgold.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_leadandgold_archive.html#109042805761868055


"Many posts and articles on the Berger matter quote Richard Clarke's verdict that the Millennium plot to bomb LAX was foiled by luck. Luck, in the sense of a fluke occurrence, had nothing to do with it. A vigilant U.S. Customs Inspector followed up on her suspicions and searched the trunk of a car trying to enter the US at the Canadian border. She expected to find drugs but, instead, found the makings of one or more big bombs.

Her name is Diana Dean and she deserves to have her name remembered and get credit for her good work.


This just isn't a matter of giving Ms. Dean her rightful credit. It also points to an important lesson going forward in the WoT. No number of principals meetings in Washington or action plans by Homeland Security will protect a single American. The rubber meets the road at the street level where alert LEOs and dedicated investigators do their job.


It is easy to forget that. Journalists, historians, analysts and planners have a tendency to over-emphasize the paper that gets generated, the options selected, and the secrets uncovered. But as John Keegan noted about intelligence in WWII--"ULTRA did not sink a single U-boat."


Or, as Col. Harry Summers pointed out, in the end every (military) strategic plan always comes down to a single soldier walking point..."


Diana Dean 's senate testimony


http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/21020dd.htm

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 9:47pm

One more not from the report. On Sudan:


Sen. Shelby: Sudanese Were Willing to 'Assassinate' Bin Laden


A former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that he has personally confirmed that the government of Sudan offered to arrest Osama bin Laden in 1996 and turn him over to the Clinton administration - revealing for the first time that the Sudanese were also willing to "assassinate" the notorious terror mastermind if necessary.

"I'm privy to some information on this," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told MSNBC's Chris Matthews.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/7/23/114602.shtml


Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 9:59pm

Clinton administration ignored security recommendations:


Ashcroft: Berger 9/11 Docs Reveal Clinton Security Lapse

A sensitive after-action report on the foiled Millennium bomb plot, portions of which allegedly were pilfered by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, sounded the alarm that al-Qaida operatives had entered the U.S. and were preparing to strike.

In testimony before the 9/11 Commission in April, Attorney General John Ashcroft detailed the highly classified March 2000 document, saying it contained a set of sweeping recommendations on how to combat the al-Qaida threat that were completely ignored by the Clinton White House.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/7/19/221714.shtml

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 10:00pm

The intelligence community was responsible for portraying the case for WMD to the president and to Congress:


Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that President Bush was correct to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. attacked in March 2003.

"The intelligence picture that was presented to the Congress, presented to me, presented to the president by the intelligence community led the president to the conclusion - the correct conclusion - that you had to assume that these weapons were there," Powell told national radio host Sean Hannity.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/7/21/231135.shtml

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 10:57pm

We are safer now:


"Because of offensive actions against al Qaeda since 9/11, and defensive actions to improve homeland security, we believe we are safer today. But we are not safe."


--From the executive summary

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

Avatar for independentgrrrl
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 11:10pm
Thanks for your links. Very informative and am adding to the others I already have. Does anyone wonder why most relatives of those 9/11 victims think the 9/11 commission was a joke? The conclusion is pure whitewash. What was I NOT surprised?
Avatar for independentgrrrl
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 11:13pm
Just because no one replies to your posts doesn't mean no one is listening. I'm sure there are lurkers out there who find your links invaluable. I say, keep up the good work.