In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
I'm going to copy and paste liberally from David Sirota's Website in this post. David's blog has some excellent examples of the mendacity that is coming from the White House these days.
It is well past the point where it should be perfectly reasonable for a reporter to say "The President lied again today." And the world yawned.
CLAIM:
President Bush said yesterday that a memo he received a month before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks did not contain enough specific threat information to prevent the hijackings and "said nothing about an attack on America." "I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America -- at a time and a place, an attack."
- Washington Post, 4/12/04
FACT:
In a single 17-sentence document, the intelligence briefing delivered to President George W. Bush in August 2001 spells out the who, hints at the what and points toward the where of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that followed 36 days later.
- NY Times, 4/12/04
Isn't it good to know that Bush is satisfied that he wasn't warned properly? And isn't it good to know that if the memo said "morning rush hour, World Trade Center, September 11th" that might have been specific enough for him to react.
I'm confused (shock!) by the Bush administration's method of diffusing this issue:Meanwhile Rice stated in her testimony that despite the above.
- It wasn't specific enough.
- It wasn't a warning at all.
- there were no Action Items.
I guess they are just covering their basis. It seems the only proof they have that the nation was on war footing was that Bush was on vacation, just as he was last week when all hell broke out in Iraq.
- The President set the nation on war footing.
- They earnestly followed up with the FBI.
More "accuracy issues":
CLAIM:
"The [August 6, 2001] PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat...[It] said nothing about an attack on America."
- President George W. Bush, 4/11/04
FACT:
"[There are] patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York...The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives."
- Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001
CLAIM:
"I asked the intelligence agency to analyze the data to tell me whether or not we faced a threat internally, like they thought we had faced a threat in other parts of the world. That's what the PDB request was."
- President George W. Bush, 4/11/04
FACT:
According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA."
- Washington Post, 3/25/04
And here's something from when Dr. Rice Testi-lied:
CLAIM:
[The August 6th PDB] "was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States."
- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 4/8/04
FACT:
The August 6th PDB included very current information, including warnings that the FBI had detected "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." The memo also included information from just 90 days beforehand noting that al Qaeda members were trying to enter the United States for an attack with explosives. "The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives," the document said.
- Retuers, 4/10/04
You know what is great about telling the truth? It is soooo easy, you just say what happened, that way you don't have to remember who you told what, etc. But Bush isn't about doing things the easy way... its about... something else I guess.
People say this is Monday morning quarterbacking, but not when the Bush administration had created a legend of them being the all perfect administration that was blindsided. Then pointing out the chinks in the armor is not only fair, it is necessary. If in October or November or December humility was shown America would have forgiven, now I'm not so sure. The purpose of finding out what when wrong is not about pointing blame, that is a byproduct. The importance of the commission is to show us where we need to improve, show us what went wrong, so it doesn't happen again. Why is the Bush administration against that?
- rob 1:51 PM - [PermaLink] -
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