Haven't Had a Chance Yet to Read It Myself, But…

Congress finally published its joint inquiry into 9/11 today. It's 858 pages long. Dig in.

Comments

[Ray]

The bottom line is that America didn?t act quick enough on the information it already had. Something like 9/11 had never happened and so convincing the right people what was possible, even though it was unprecedented proved to be too much for our bureaucracy.

Much like trying to convince the fringe elements of how much a possible threat Saddam was, even though he hadn?t yet succeeded in delivering a suitcase full of biological nastiness.

[Anonymous]

Whew, long read! Lacks drama but contains some substance. Don't plan on seeing on the NY Times best seller list.

[Zathras]

Can someone explain to me why this is not a bigger issue for Democrats than the famous 16 words?

I understand that neglect of terrorism was a feature of Clinton's watch more than of Bush's, but at least some of the things most directly related to 9/11 happened on Bush's watch -- and more importantly the steps Bush has taken to put things right are not evident. A few people have retired from FBI, CIA and so forth, but no one got fired over 9/11. Yet we have a short dozen Democratic presidential candidates singing sad songs about how we got into a war we won, and (so far) not calling Bush to account at all for the biggest domestic security disaster since Appomattox.

[Andy]

I won't be reading this whole thing, but I'll be keeping my eye out for analyses by those few who have. Scanning through it is interesting, especially the sections that are censored. I also like how all the pages say include "top secret" crossed out with a thin line... cute.

The best line I just hapenned to read so far, about the Clinton's administration shooting cruise missiles at UBL:

Senator Shelby: By "get him," that meant kill him if you had to, capture him or kill him?

Mr. Berger: I don't know what I can say in this hearing, but capture and kill.... There was no question that the cruise missiles were not trying to capture him.

[Ray]

Croesus,
"Ahh, an attack on the WTC or another target shouldn't been too hard to imagine or convince people of, given that the WTC was attacked in 1993."

Well, recent history has proven that apparently it was hard to imagine for alot of people and those people couldn't be convinced otherwise.

As for the WMD, there is no question, from the UN to Clinton and so on that Hussein had WMD, the question is when and if did he stop having them? If he disposed of them, he would have gone to the trouble to prove it and rob the US of our "smoking gun." But he didn't dispose of them per the UN and so his resume dictates that they still exist somewhere.
So much of what we have learned since 911 has shown that our intelligence wasn't neccessarily lacking but the channels that it had to pass through have simply become to clogged with bureaucratic garbage.

Both Clinton and Bush could have obviously done more to fix the system but this system has been deteriorating rapidly since late Vietnam-post Vietnam and no one of any import, as history now proves, thought enough of the possible threats to radically fix the intelligence community.

[Anonymous]

No doubt the FBI should have bee more on the ball but real effective action may well have led to this:

In a parallel universe, Sept. 11 never happened
by Kathleen Parker

Congress seeks to oust Bush following racial profiling fiasco, police state maneuvers

"The Bush administration's sudden imposition of several new - some say "terrifying" - policies came on the heels of an alleged FBI warning that radical Muslim terrorists were planning to hijack U.S. commercial airliners. In the past 36 hours, Bush has taken several steps that have sent American citizens and institutions into shock."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/kathleenparker/kp20020522.shtml

[joe]

'If he disposed of them, he would have gone to the trouble to prove it and rob the US of our "smoking gun."'

Haven't you ever heard of deterrence? You can't beat something with nothing.

Sometimes, the robber is just stickin his finger in his jacket pocket, and saying it's a gun.

[Evilcor]

I think Andy's remarks show why the report (and, indeed most government reports) is an 858 page cinderblock. 858 pages! Thoroughness is one thing, but there should be a rule about "explanations" that wind up bigger than the Bible.

[jacob dreyer]

the lack of WMD finds in Iraq hasn't really done much to convince that GW-III was needed

are you counting the sanctions as a war unto themselves, kinda like some people call the coldwar ww3? or is this something else, because i don't get it

[Evilcor]

He might have included the Iran-Iraq war. Or he might have included the English invasion of WWI.
Maybe the Crusades?
Gulf War MCMXXVII?

[Croesus]

Ahh, an attack on the WTC or another target shouldn't been too hard to imagine or convince people of, given that the WTC was attacked in 1993.

Ray,

BTW, the lack of WMD finds in Iraq hasn't really done much to convince that GW-III was needed. But I do enjoy your use of the fallacy known as poisoning the well when it comes to painting the arguments of those who might happen to disagree with you.

[Denk Jeremy]

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DATE: 01/27/2004 01:18:25
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