In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
"We need a new Pearl Harbor"
As unofficial conspiracy paranoiac of this webpage, I direct your attention to The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, by David Ray Griffin. I just heard an interview with him on NPR and it made my stomach lurch. Say what you will, but these stories from the early days after the attacks in New York and Washington have been eating away at me ever since they were immediately swept under the rug -- by EVERYONE -- and if any of you have memories that go past lunchtime yesterday, you well may wonder about it too.
NICK WELSH:
Is there a smoking gun that shows the Bush administration knew 9/11 was likely to happen and did nothing about it?
DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: I think there are four. One is the fact that standard operating procedures for dealing with possibly hijacked airplanes were not followed on 9/11. Those procedures call for fighter jets to be sent out immediately upon any sign that a plane may have been hijacked. These jets typically get to the plane within no later than 15 minutes anywhere in the United States. And on that day, there were four airplanes that went for a half-hour or more after they were hijacked without jets intercepting them.
What’s the official explanation of that?
I’m afraid the press has not done its job. They have not forced government officials to explain why standard operating procedures were not followed that day, nor have they pressed the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to explain why they didn’t report these hijackings as they were supposed to. The official story is that [the fighter jets] were very late.
Where was NORAD between the first plane and the second plane to hit the WTC? No one on the 9/11 Commission ever asked this question, to anyone.
President Bush has also been criticized for behaving somewhat bizarrely that day.
As he and the Secret Service got word that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and that three planes had been hijacked, there could have been no possible doubt in their mind that the United States was under terrorist attack . . . The most horrendous attack the United States had ever suffered. And they would have had to assume that one or more of them were heading toward President Bush himself. And so upon learning about this, the Secret Service surely would have whisked him away immediately. In fact, one Secret Service agent on the scene said, “We’re out of here.” But obviously he got overruled because President Bush stayed there. After Andrew Card reported the second crash on the World Trade Center, the president just nodded as if he understood and said, “We’re going to go ahead with the reading lesson.” And he sat there another 15 minutes listening to the children read a story about a pet goat. This was a photo op and when it was over he lingered around talking to the children and talking to the teacher. Bill Sammon, of the Washington Times, wrote a very pro-Bush book, yet he comments how casual and relaxed the president was given the fact he’d just learned the country was under attack. He said Bush took his own sweet time and in fact called him “Our Dawdler in Chief.” And then the president went on national TV, going forward with an interview that had been planned and announced in advance . . . then they took their regularly scheduled motorcade back to the airport. In other words, [Bush and the Secret Service] showed no fear whatsoever that they would be targeted for attack, which strongly suggests they knew how many aircraft were being hijacked and what their targets were.
Rob has posted copiously about this one. Check the TCS archives. In fact this may have prompted the creation of TCS in the first place. I know I couldn't shut up about it.
Let’s say there has been this complicity. To what end?
There were several benefits that could have been anticipated from 9/11. One was the so-called Patriot Act. It did appear that the Patriot Act, given how fast it was rushed into Congress, voting had already been prepared. The Patriot Act is so large that it’s inconceivable it could have been written after 9/11. Rushing it through Congress when most members had not even read a small portion of it was clearly one benefit, giving the government increased powers. Also, there was the desire to wage war in Afghanistan to force out the Taliban and put an American-friendly government in place because of the desire of Unical and other gas companies to build an oil pipeline, which they felt was too dangerous with the Taliban in power. There was a meeting in Berlin in July 2001, a final effort to get an agreement between the Taliban and the United States that would allow a sort of joint government, where the Taliban would share power with more American-friendly leaders. The Taliban refused, at which point they were told, “If you don’t take our carpet of gold, we’ll bury you under a carpet of bombs.” The Pakistani representative at this meeting said the Americans told him that the war would start before the snows came that October. And after 9/11 happened, there was exactly the right amount of time for the U.S. forces to get organized to begin the war, and the war began on October 7. Another benefit is that many senior members of the Bush administration had for a long time wanted to attack Iraq. Getting control of the oil there was one motive; the more general motive was to secure a military presence in that part of the world.
All of this stuff is a giant wish list that was prefigured in the Project for the New American Century and explains extremely persuasively why Bush was so hell bent on the missile shield from day one. It's all he could talk about. This is the weaponization of space. It's the cold war. I recommend the documentary The Fog of War about Robert McNamara and this kind of thinking because it permeates the Bush administration and will scare the shit out of you, because that's the whole point, and if you disagree, then ask yourself why you weren't frightened to death until the minute Bush stepped into the White House. That's key, to keep you scared. Every single person who added adversarial comments to this web log are speaking from fear and cravenness, and if you don't believe me, read 'em yourself. These tough talkers are all shitting their panties. Calling me a pussy doesn't exactly make yer point, fella. I leave you with this one, from World War II, when an American president battling fascism actually stood for freedom, and words meant something, free of charge:
Four Freedoms
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want . . . everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear . . . anywhere in the world.
--President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message to Congress, January 6, 1941
Reality is standing on its head.
- Michael 4:05 PM - [PermaLink] -
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