"This latest alleged plot appears to bear some similarities to an al Qaeda plot to bomb 11 U.S. passenger jets over the Pacific that was uncovered in the Philippines in 1995. Code-named "Bojinka," the Serbo-Croatian word for "explosion," the plot also included the assassination of Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila and
crashing a plane into the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Va."
-- Wall Street Journal 8/9/06
"I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons."
-- Condi Rice before the 9/11 Commission
I wonder how many people picked up on this...
Basically, what this says is that SIX YEARS after there was a demonstrable threat to the CONTINENTAL United States, not "assets", not "military hardware" but our HOMELAND, the Bush Administration did not have any idea that Al Qaeda might want to crash a plane into a government building.
This is completely unacceptable. To ignore the connections between evidence as far back as 1995 of a concerted effort to use aircraft as guided bombs, then to have credible evidence that something is being planned by Al Qaeda. This is not a failure of communications by intel agencies, nor is it a failure to "imagine things" that weren't already known.
September 11th was an abject failure by the Bush Administration to acknowledge warnings that existed as early as 1995, and intelligence that was well enough known to be on the PDB in August of 2001. My belief is that it is a systemic trait of this Administration, it's staff, and the Congress who rubberstamp it, to toe the President's line at all times.
Pure and simple, President Bush and his Administration let us down and failed in their duty to protect Americans.
I am a moderate. There are many times on here where I think people pull things out of context, rip the President, rip Republicans, and just generally type things out of spite and out of pique, finding whatever they can to support their anger.
These threats are not a party issue, this is an American issue. If you are an American, and you want to be safe in this nation, in November, you will vote out those who are "yes-men" and "yes-women" to the President. Not having someone to stand up to him and not having someone to consider opinions other than G-dubs, is likely why September 11th happened.
The British have caught their terrorists, because their intelligence agencies were up to the task, and allowed to do their job.
Are you confident that such a job would be done correctly here?