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Politics > Politics-USA |
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22 Jan 2004 06:24:36 AM |
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What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
Joe Conason The New York Observer 01.21.04
What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission?
Administration doesn't want truth out before the election In an election
year, a Republican President seeking his second term can be expected to
propose more tax cuts and, in this era of right-wing profligacy,
considerably more spending as well. Informed critics calculate the costs
of George W. Bush's latest proposals in the trillions of dollars -- a
vague yet substantial sum that will come due sometime during what
budgetary jargon denotes as "the out years," meaning long after Mr. Bush
has departed the White House. .
Excessive spending and tax breaks always elicit more applause than
controversies over the global "Axis of Evil," Niger's phantom yellowcake
and Iraq's weapons of mass disappearance. So do such perennially popular
topics as improved health care, the protection of heterosexual marriage
and, in the immortal words of the President's father, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Estimates of future deficits depend on whether the President actually
tries to send astronauts to live on Mars and the moon, or abandons that
vision in deference to disapproving poll numbers. In short, bread and
maybe circuses.
What Mr. Bush understandably chose not to highlight, however, is his
administration's continuing determination to undermine, restrict and
censor the investigation of the most significant event of his Presidency:
the attacks on New York and Washington of Sept. 11, 2001.
The President is fortunate that until now, the bipartisan National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has received far
less attention than controversies over the design for a World Trade Center
memorial. At every step, from his opposition to its creation, to his
abortive appointment of Henry Kissinger as its chair, to his refusal to
provide it with adequate funding and cooperation, Mr. Bush has treated the
commission and its essential work with contempt.
In the latest development, the President's aides refused additional time
for the 9/11 commission to complete its report. Although the original
deadline in the enabling legislation is May 27, the commissioners recently
asked for a few more months to ensure that their product will be "thorough
and credible."
Earlier this month, Thomas Kean -- the former New Jersey governor who has
chaired the commission since Mr. Kissinger recused himself -- explained
why the commission needs more time. As the genial Republican told The New
York Times, he is only permitted to read the most important classified
documents concerning 9/11 in a little closet known as a "sensitive
compartmented information facility" (or SCIF). He cannot photocopy the
documents, and if he takes notes about them, he must leave the notes in
the SCIF when he leaves.
Other recent statements by Mr. Kean, which he subsequently modified,
suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about what the
commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News that he
believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented -- and that
incompetent officials were at fault for the failure to uncover and
frustrate the plot.
Following the creation and staffing of the commission, many months passed
before the administration agreed to let Mr. Kean look at any of those
crucial documents. The commission still has hundreds of interviews to
conduct, and millions of pages to examine, before its members begin to
draft their conclusions.
But the President's political advisers, concerned about the political
impact of the commission's report, are unsympathetic to its requests for
additional time -- and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who would have to
approve an extension, is perfectly obedient to his masters in the White
House. According to Newsweek, the administration offered Mr. Kean a
choice: Either keep to the May deadline, or postpone release of the report
until December, when its findings cannot affect the election.
Mr. Bush doesn't want his re-election subject to any informed judgment
about the disaster that reshaped the nation and his Presidency. But why
should such crucial facts be withheld from the voters? What does the
President fear?
Perhaps inadvertently, Mr. Kean provided a clue to the answers in his
Times interview. Asked whether he thinks the disaster "did not have to
happen," he replied, "Yes, there is a good chance that 9/11 could have
been prevented by any number of people along the way. Everybody pretty
well agrees our intelligence agencies were not set up to deal with
domestic terrorism . They were not ready for an internal attack." Then,
asked whether "anyone in the Bush administration [had] any idea that an
attack was being planned," he replied: "That is why we are looking at the
internal papers. I can't talk about what's classified. [The] President's
daily briefings are classified. If I told you what was in them, I would go
to jail."
But the commission's final report may well indicate what the President was
told in his daily briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, when he was sunning himself in
Crawford, Tex. -- as well as the many warnings he and his associates were
given by the previous administration. That kind of information could send
him back to Crawford for a permanent vacation.
Joe Conason writes for the New York Observer and Salon.com, and is the
author of Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts
the Truth.
For more Conason columns, see his archive.
E-mail Conason at jconason@observer.com.
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| User: "King Pineapple" |
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| Title: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
22 Jan 2004 07:27:58 AM |
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Smirking Leftist College Kid <stop_the_nazis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de473659.0401220424.4627efe5@posting.google.com...
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
Joe Conason The New York Observer 01.21.04
Conanson? He's been a Bush HATER since day 1. Hardly "objective".
Other recent statements by Mr. Kean, which he subsequently modified,
Translation: which he RETRACTED
suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about what the
commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News that he
believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented -- and that
incompetent officials were at fault for the failure to uncover and
frustrate the plot.
And then he retracted what he said 2 days later. Goebbels taught Conanson
well. Repeat a lie often enough, and people will believe it.
"I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things"-
CBS News Managing Editor/Chief Anchor Dan Rather
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| User: "Bob" |
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| Title: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
22 Jan 2004 08:08:00 AM |
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"King Pineapple" <saddlepill@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:ydQPb.18898$i4.1767@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Smirking Leftist College Kid <stop_the_nazis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:de473659.0401220424.4627efe5@posting.google.com...
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about what the
commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News that he
believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented
Can you name any attack in the history of man that could not have been
prevented?
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| User: "Sid9" |
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| Title: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
22 Jan 2004 08:54:13 AM |
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Bob wrote:
"King Pineapple" <saddlepill@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:ydQPb.18898$i4.1767@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Smirking Leftist College Kid <stop_the_nazis@yahoo.com> wrote in
message news:de473659.0401220424.4627efe5@posting.google.com...
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about what
the commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News
that he believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented
Can you name any attack in the history of man that could not have been
prevented?
What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission?
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| User: "InsuranceBroker" |
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| Title: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
22 Jan 2004 08:58:09 AM |
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Subject: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission?
From: "Sid9"
Date: 1/22/2004 9:54 AM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <CtRPb.819$L04.476@bignews4.bellsouth.net>
Bob wrote:
"King Pineapple" <saddlepill@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:ydQPb.18898$i4.1767@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Smirking Leftist College Kid <stop_the_nazis@yahoo.com> wrote in
message news:de473659.0401220424.4627efe5@posting.google.com...
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp
suggest that the White House has ample reason to worry about what
the commission's report will say. In December, he told CBS News
that he believes the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented
Can you name any attack in the history of man that could not have been
prevented?
What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission?
I do not know but I do find it funny that Republican who could not spend enough
money investigating Clinton like to hide when the question is about a fellow
republican.
The 911 is a very important issue and it should be addressed and investigated.
Doing Insurance business in the Garden State
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| User: "Bob" |
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| Title: Re: What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission? |
22 Jan 2004 10:48:38 AM |
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"InsuranceBroker" <insurancenj@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040122095809.12966.00000487@mb-m02.aol.com...
Can you name any attack in the history of man that could not have been
prevented?
What's Bush hiding from 9/11 commission?
Note that this response did not address the question.
I do not know but I do find it funny that Republican who could not spend
enough
money investigating Clinton like to hide when the question is about a fellow
republican.
The 911 is a very important issue and it should be addressed and investigated.
I agree. This administration is much too secretive.
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