In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
"The Truth Lied"
is pretty much what we're getting now 24/7 from the What-Me-Worry House when it comes to terror threats. In this tepid editorial from the New York Times we get, "For three days, officials at news conferences and background briefings said their concerns were based on new information, then old information, then back to new information. Many people were scared out of their wits on Monday, cynical on Tuesday and befuddled by yesterday."
I was cynical and outraged on Monday, cynical and outraged on Tuesday, cynical and outraged on Wednesday. How about you? It continues, "It's shocking that Washington has not followed through on its own information by underwriting the protections cities need to stay safe." Well maybe Washington is making shit up. Ever think of that?
It goes on, "Finally, there is the matter of politics. The Bush administration expressed outrage at the suggestion that there could be any politics behind any of its warnings, but the president has some history to overcome on this issue." History Shmistory. History was bought and paid for four years ago. Can't the Times figure that out yet? The Bush administration expresses outrage if a Democrat clears his throat, never mind raise his hand. A question? You are going down, my friend. Who's next? Outrage my ass.
Then finally, "using [Tom Ridge] as a campaign surrogate would be disastrous for public confidence. The administration should also stop dropping dark hints about Al Qaeda's having election-related motives to attack, as if a vote against the current president were appeasement." As if. Appeasement says it all. Just who's being appeased here? (Hint: not the ones without the mad foam in the corners of their snarling mouths.) As for public confidence, since when did that ever play a role?
Editorials like this one suck extra hard because they give the illusion of asking the real question, when in fact nothing was asked; rather, an unpleasant possibility was politely raised by a gently scolding New York Times. Meanwhile they blast the front page with
this shit and this other shit. So the truth is out there people, it's circling some other galaxy 100 billion light years away. You can believe this "brand-new intelligence" if you want, but for me, I'll take the word of this whistleblower any day of the week over the paper's version of events. As a follow-up to Rob's excellent important post below, consider these particularly distressing facts:
"Your report has omitted these significant incidents, has foregone any accountability what so ever, and your recommendations have refrained from addressing this serious information security breach and highly likely espionage issue. This issue needs to be investigated and criminally prosecuted. The translation of our intelligence is being entrusted to individuals with loyalties to our enemies."
"After the terrorist attacks of September 11 we, the translators at the FBI’s largest and most important translation unit, were told to slow down, even stop, translation of critical information related to terrorist activities so that the FBI could present the United States Congress with a record of ‘extensive backlog of untranslated documents’, and justify its request for budget and staff increases."
"Melek Can Dickerson, a Turkish Translator, was hired by the FBI after September 11, and was placed in charge of translating the most sensitive information related to terrorists and criminals under the Bureau’s investigation. ... Melek Can Dickerson used to work for a semi-legit organizations that were the FBI’s targets of investigation. Melek Can Dickerson had on going relationships with two individuals who were FBI’s targets of investigation. For months Melek Can Dickerson blocked all-important information related to these semi-legit organizations and the individuals she and her husband associated with. She stamped hundreds, if not thousands, of documents related to these targets as ‘ Not Pertinent.’ "
"... the bureaucratic administrators in the FBI’s largest and most important translation unit were covering up their past failures, blocking important leads and information, and jeopardizing on going terrorist investigations. The supervisor involved in this incident, Mike Feghali, was in charge of certain important Middle Eastern languages within the FBI Washington Field Office, and had a record of previous misconducts. After this supervisor’s several severe misconducts were reported to the FBI’s higher-level management, after his conducts were reported to the Inspector General’s Office, to the United States Congress, and to the 9/11 Commission, he was promoted to include the FBI’s Arabic language unit under his supervision. Today this supervisor, Mike Feghali, remains in the FBI Washington Field Office and is in charge of a language unit receiving those chitchats that our color-coded threat system is based upon."
"To this date the public has not been told of intentional blocking of intelligence, and has not been told that certain information, despite its direct links, impacts and ties to terrorist related activities, is not given to or shared with Counterterrorism units, their investigations, and countering terrorism related activities. This was the case prior to 9/11, and remains in effect after 9/11."
What the hell??? Translators who don't speak English? Translators of hot intel being told to stop translating? Turkish spies in charge of rubber-stamping as 'not pertinent' the most sensitive information related to terrorists? Intelligence blockers being promoted? Intentional blocking remaining in effect as policy? None of this being mentioned -- at all -- in the 9/11 Commission's report? And we're being asked by Kean to vote on the basis of this profoundly flawed and doctored report? Why isn't this whistleblower on the front page of the New York Times?
Reality is standing on its head.
- Michael 1:16 PM - [PermaLink] -
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