Re: 9/11—Bush-Cheney-Rice…
What They Knew and When They Knew It…
By Bob Zimmerman
April 21, Tiburon, California
Bush, Cheney and Rice knew 9/11 was imminent; they had intelligence
warnings describing al Qaeda’s plan to use our commercial jets to
attack the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C. The highest levels
of the Bush administration repeatedly and intentionally lied about
what they knew and when they knew it. The Bush administration failed
to take appropriate action on numerous actionable intelligence reports
and briefings, including a highly classified presidential daily
briefing memo (PDB) dated August 6, 2001 entitled Bin Laden Determined
to Strike inside the U.S. That PDB contained much “actionable
intelligence,” including information about active al Qaeda cells in
the U.S. and the training of prospective terrorists at military and
commercial flight schools—high-level U.S. State Department permission
is required for civilian pilot training at military flight schools.
Why was such permission granted to the terrorists?
Bush, Cheney, and Rice chose to ignore the al Qaeda threat warnings;
they failed to task and follow-up with the FBI and the CIA; and it is
uncontested that they intentionally failed to warn and protect the
American people. Prior to 9/11, only privileged government personnel
like Attorney General Ashcroft were warned to avoid air travel; the AG
cancelled his air travel plans; but the American people were not
alerted; the American people were left fully exposed to the al Qaeda
attack and 3,000 people were murdered. Why after receiving an FBI
threat assessment warning him to avoid commercial air travel did AG
Ashcroft and the FBI fail to warn the American people? Why did AG
Ashcroft tell FBI Director Thomas Pickard that he wanted no further
briefings on terrorist threats?
The post-9/11 evidentiary record clearly shows presidential gross
negligence, and perhaps even complicity in 9/11. The slowly unfolding
tale of what really happened on and before 9/11 is an overwhelming
tale of governmental dysfunction or worse. Why did Bush, Cheney, and
Rice deliberately and repeatedly lie to us saying they had received no
warnings that a 9/11-type attack was imminent? Why have they spent 2 ½
years deliberately covering up what really happened on and before
9/11? Was it because high-level Bush policy formulators had previously
prepared the infamous Project for a New American Century (PNAC) policy
initiative suggesting that America needed another Pearl Harbor before
it could launch a War of Terror on the world?
The Bush-Cheney-Rice cover-up of what really happened on 9/11 is
steadily unraveling. The American people are intent on learning
precisely what Bush, Cheney, and Rice knew about 9/11, and when they
knew it. Yet for over two-years the Bush administration stalled every
inquiry. Bush and Cheney opted for strict secrecy. They refused to
testify and refused to let Rice testify before the official 9/11
investigating commission. Why were Bush and Cheney afraid to let Rice
testify under oath? Why do Bush and Cheney refuse to testify under
oath? Why has Bush refused to release nearly 70 documents that promise
to shed even more light on what really happened on and before 9/11?
Why did it take over two years of begging by the wives of the victims
of 9/11 before Bush acceded to an official investigating commission?
Why is Bush afraid to testify before the commission without Cheney
holding his hand? Why, knowing that 9/11 was imminent, did the highest
levels of the Bush administration do nothing to alert and protect us?
Was the Bush administration complicit in the attack? If so, many in
the Bush administration, including Bush, Cheney, and Rice deserve long
prison sentences.
We Now Know:
The Project for a New American Century, as writ by Bush
neo-conservatives long before 9/11, makes clear that certain Bush war
and foreign policy formulators were eager for another Pearl
Harbor-type attack on the U.S. Within this context, the actions and
inactions of those occupying the highest positions in the Bush
administration, on, before, and after 9/11 are suspect. Testimony
before the official 9/11 investigating commission shows that an enemy
that was ignored roundly defeated America. Why, as early as the winter
of 2001, did VP Cheney and AG Ashcroft do nothing when informed by FBI
Director Thomas Pickard that al Qaeda was gearing up to attack inside
America?
Spending well-over $30 billion a year bought us much “actionable
intelligence” regarding the imminent 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration chose to ignore that
intelligence. On and before 9/11 our government should have been at
the highest state of defense readiness and according to John Brennan,
Director of the Terrorist Threat and Integration Center, it still is
not. He said our government is “not optimally configured to deal with
terrorist threats.”
Shortly after 9/11 the Bush administration secretly spirited members
of Osama bin Laden’s family and many Saudis who may have helped fund
the 9/11 attacks out of the U.S. Thomas Kean former Republican
governor of New Jersey, now chair of the official 9/11 investigating
commission, confirmed this. On C-SPAN, on April 14, 2004 he added that
the request for the evacuation of bin Laden’s family came from the
Saudi Embassy. He added that the evacuees were questioned before
boarding the six jetliners.
Rice lied under oath when she said there was no “silver bullet” that
could have prevented 9/11. The relatively simple task of hardening the
cockpit doors would have prevented 9/11. Arrests of known Al Qaeda
terrorists and financiers in the U.S. could have prevented 9/11.
Capturing the al Qaeda terrorists and closing their training camps
could have prevented 9/11. A credentialed national security advisor
and a Bush administration that was “on the job” could have prevented
9/11. Why were these and other means for preventing 9/11 ignored?
Bush, Cheney, and Rice repeatedly lied about what they knew about al
Qaeda’s determination to strike within the U.S. It is now clear that
there were many credible warnings, including the now famous August 6
PDB and the “Phoenix memo.” The Bush administration knew al Qaeda was
training five times the number of terrorists than the FBI and CIA were
training as agents and analysts. Why did our government fail to
realize the implications of their inaction?
Unlike most of the rest of us, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and Rice
knew more than enough about al Qaeda’s plans to know that the first
plane to strike the WTC was the work of the al Qaeda terrorists. Why
do they say they did not realize America was under attack until WTC
Building 2 was struck?
Rice was intentionally deceptive under oath when she said that “most
of the intelligence chatter” regarding 9/11 was vague and did not
specify time, place, and manner. She did not say that all such chatter
was vague. She failed to mention that in previous testimony she said
that on September10, 2001 a report stating that 9/11 was imminent sat
on her desk unread.
The Bush administration failed to alert the American to the 9/11
attack. Prior to 9/11, AG Ashcroft, former San Francisco mayor Willie
Brown, and other notables were alerted to the risks of flying on
commercial airliners. Why were the American people, the Pentagon, the
FAA, NORAD, the WTC, and the airlines and their crews not alerted?
The “official story” regarding why NORAD, our first line of defense,
was looking “outward,” over the Atlantic (in Cold War posture), rather
than inward to protect the homeland, is nothing but bureaucratic
nonsensical cover-up. Why was our homeland defense posture nothing but
leftovers from the Cold War?
Why is the “official story” about why the Pentagon was not protected
not more deeply explored by the 9/11 commission? Many people believe
it is even loopier than the “official story” regarding the collapse of
Building 7.
On 9/11, “speculators” reaped vast profits selling short the stocks of
the airline companies whose planes were hijacked? Who are these
speculators? What did they know? When and how did they know what they
knew?
Well before 9/11 Florida governor Jeb Bush authorized the drafting of
an Executive Order 01-261 authorizing him to place the Florida
National Guard under his command if warranted by a terrorist
attack—the functional equivalent of martial law. The order was signed
by Jeb Bush on September 7, 2001. What prompted Bush’s brother to
draft and sign that order?
Bush vacationed at his Texas ranch knowing the 9/11 al Qaeda attack
was imminent. While our soldiers labor 24 hours a day, every day, Bush
has effectively vacationed, golfed, campaigned, and watched reruns of
old baseball games for fully ¾ of his presidency. On or about 9/10
Bush flew to Florida to visit with his brother Governor Jeb Bush. On
9/11, while the al Qaeda attack was in progress our Commander-In-Chief
was busily engaged in a goat story with second-graders at the Emma E.
Booker School in Sarasota, Florida.
According to Gwen Rigell, principal of the Booker School, Verizon
installed 49 telephone lines at the school just prior to Bush’s
supposedly routine visit. Is the installation of so many telephone
lines at an elementary school prior to a presidential visit routine,
or was the Secret Service expecting an attack?
At a press conference held at the Booker School on the morning of
9/11, Bush lied about when and how he learned about the terrorist
attack on the WTC.
Rice lied when she said no one could have imagined that commercial
airplanes could be used as guided missiles. The potential use of
airplanes as missiles is exceedingly well documented. In fact, NORAD
had conducted exercises to intervene in such attacks; Bush had been
threatened with a Kamikaze-type attack while attending a G-8 summit in
Italy in July, 2001; and counter-terrorist chief Richard Clarke
created detailed measures to prevent an 9/11-type attack at the summer
Olympic games in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bush and the highest levels of his administration have gone to great
lengths to cover-up what really happened on and before 9/11. Osama bin
Laden declared war on the U.S. in 1996 and again in 1998. The U.S.
response to that declaration was timid and grossly insufficient. When
President Clinton sent a strong counterterrorism bill to Congress,
Republicans stripped it of its teeth.
Bush said he launched the War on Terror because he was “tired of
swatting flies,” another blatant lie when you consider the fact that
his administration ignored the al Qaeda threat and its previous
attacks, including that on the USS Cole. Was NORAD also tired of
“swatting flies?”
CIA Director George Tenet and the FBI knew of active al Qaeda cells in
the U.S., they knew prospective terrorists were enrolled in flight
training schools, and they knew of wire transfers to fund terrorist
activity. Throughout August 2001, at the time “chatter” about an
attack by al Qaeda was high, CIA Director Tenet and President Bush
vacationed and were not in contact with each other. Why were they
incommunicado? Why did the FBI and the CIA not act to crush al Qaeda
when they declared war on us? For years after al Qaeda’s declaration
of war, why was only 3.5% of the FBI budget spent on counterterrorism
activities?
Rice lied under oath when she attributed the failure to prevent 9/11
to certain long-standing “structural problems” between the CIA and the
FBI.” The August 6 PDB and much testimony before the 9/11 commission
confirms regular cooperation and communication between them; thus, for
Rice and others to blame 9/11 communication failures is pure cover-up.
Rice said the August 6 PDB scared her; Bush said it comforted him;
these are disturbingly diverse interpretations of the al Qaeda
terrorist threat on our homeland.
Rice lied under oath when she said that following up with the FBI
about al Qaeda was not her job. Helping to make America secure was her
only job.
Rice lied under oath when she said she could not recall whether she
had informed Bush that al Qaeda was operating in the U.S. It is simply
not possible for people as bright as Rice to forget such
conversations.
Yet unconfirmed by Bush, Bush’s brother Marvin was a principal in
Stratesec, Inc, formerly Securacom. From 1995 to 2001, that firm
provided security services at the World Trade Center and to United
Airlines. Securacom was backed by a Kuwaiti-American investment
company with ties to the Bush family.
World Trade Center (WTC) Building 7 collapsed in exactly the same way
as WTC buildings 1 and 2 even though it was not hit by an airliner.
The collapse of WTC buildings 1, 2, and 7 looks to many more like
professional demolition than the result of the al Qaeda attack.
Five hours after the collapse of buildings 1 and 2, one of the owners
of the WTC says he had Building 7 “pulled” down. Yet, Building 7 could
not be “pulled” down by its owner unless it had been previously wired
for demolition, an illegal task that would require far more than five
hours.
Perhaps the commercial airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania had been
targeted for Building 7 and Building 7 was “pulled” down out of fear
that the minor fires in Building 7 would set off the explosives or
that the explosives would be found.
NORAD, America’s first line of domestic air defense, was not alerted
in time to thwart the 9/11terrorist attack. Coincidentally, just three
months prior to 9/11 responsibility for ordering NORAD into defensive
action shifted to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. (See June 1, 2001
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction revision
(CJCS3610.01A).
The Bush administration knew al Qaeda favored the WTC and buildings in
Washington, D.C. as targets and knew of their predilection for
revisiting targets. Why was nothing done to protect these targets?
We now know that the Bush family and Bush friends and supporters are
pocketing staggering profits from Bush’s War on Terror.
After failing to protect us from the 9/11 attack, Bush had the
audacity to launch his 2004 presidential campaign with a doctored TV
ad that portrays him as the nations’ protector against terrorism when,
as the facts clearly show, it was his administration’s inept
leadership and his heavy vacation schedule that failed the American
people on 9/11.
Thomas Kean said that with real leadership 9/11 would have been
prevented. He said, “This was not something that had to happen.” Kean
closed the interview promising additional revelations in the near
future but, the next day, in a follow-up interview on ABC’s Nightline,
he appeared far more cautious; if you looked closely, you could almost
see Karl Rove’s and ***** Cheney’s heel prints on his face.
Conclusion: Many Americans and most of the world now view the Bush War
on Terror as a War of Terror, an evolving global nightmare for
everyone except for the few who personally reap vast profits from
perpetual pre-emptive war. Bush’s former director of
counter-terrorism, Richard Clarke, has testified under oath and said
that Bush failed to take speedy action against al Qaeda, and that
Bush’s invasion of Iraq has increased America’s risk of future
terrorist attacks, making the world far less safe. There are now more
than enough connected dots to warrant either immediate indictments or
the commencement of impeachment proceedings. Concerned Americans and
the Congress should demand nothing less.
The crucial question is: Will the official 9/11 investigating
commission continue the cover-up and merely accuse the Bush
administration of gross negligence, or will their findings lead to
official charges of treason?
# # # # #
A public service project by Bob Zimmerman, author of: The American
Challenge: Twenty-One Winning Strategies for the 21st Century
http://www.bookmasters.com/americanchallenge. Contacts:
BobZimmerman@usa.com.
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