9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

CBS News is reporting that the 9/11 panel personally appointed
by the Bush Administration has determined the attack was preventable.
Thomas Kean, former Republican governor of New Jersey and current head
of the panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks has come
forward and said those responsible for predicting and averting the
attack "simply failed":

For the first time, the chairman of the independent
commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that
9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News
Correspondent Randall Pinkston. "This is a very, very important part of
history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean. "As you read
the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done
and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that
had to happen." Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.
"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be
in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They
simply failed," Kean said. To find out who failed and why, the
commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena
to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those
documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of
the Bush administration � that there was never any thought given to
the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building. "I
don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an
airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national
security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002. "How is it possible
we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no
idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991
stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of
four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to
appoint the commission. The widows want to know why various government
agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from
FBI offices in Minnesota and Arizona about suspicious student pilots.
"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband
that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it,"
Breitweiser said. Kean admits the commission also has more questions
than answers. Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting
in the decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those
positions, Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will." Kean
promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month
from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National
Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.

Thomas Kean is a hero for breaking ranks with the Karl Rove cabal. I've said it before,
and it bears mentioning again - September 11 happened to all of us, and
the Bush Administration has done everything in it's power to keep us
from finding out what happened that day. Of course, the stonewalling will
get much, much worse, but hopefully other Republicans will follow
Kean's lead and make an attempt to retake the party from the hands of
the neocons currently in power.
I mean fer Chrissakes. If this guy gets re-elected it means the
republic has failed. Perhaps because of a populace that's too apathetic
or lazy to bother, perhaps due to a media with absolutely no sense of
responsibility, or any number of other reasons. But mark my words -
what happens during the coming year will define America for a long,
long time. I just hope this country can pull itself together in time.

Posted by flow Frazao on December 17, 2003 at 11:57 PM | Permalink