Richard Wolf made an interesting comment last night on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."
In the interview, Wolffe speculates about possible infighting between intelligence agencies, and Olbermann later reported Wolffe's theory as coming from White House sources.
He makes the point of saying that the White House is investigating whether this failure was an intentional act.
Wolffe, an MSNBC analyst who has met one-on-one with the president many times for his book, said the White House sees the situation "more as an intelligence lapse more than a situation of airport security faults."
"The question here is why didn't the centralized system of intelligence that was set up after 9/11, why didn't it work? Is this conspiracy or cockup?" Wolffe asked.
"Seems that the president is leaning very much towards thinking this was a systemic failure by individuals, who maybe had an alternative agenda."
"The question is was this information that was shared, remember there was some sharing of information ... that information why wasn't it shared fully. The question there is again, cockup or conspiracy? Was there a reason these agencies were at war with each other that prevented that intelligence from being shared?"
Olbermann asks, "Is the implication there that there is at least a possibility that somebody understood how serious this could be and yet withheld information to make some other part of the counterterrorism system look bad?"
"That has got to be an area that the White House is looking into. Motives can be hard to assess," Wolffe said. "That's where this internal inquiry for the moment has to go."
Olbermann tells Wolffe, "What you're describing is a far bigger threat" than a man on a plane with explosives.
He says Wolffe was "quoting" sources "at the White House" who say "The administration is investigating whether or not those intel failures that led Abdulmutalib onto that flight might have been intentional and not accidental."
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The question is, could people in our government really allow Americans to die to make a broader point, could there possibly be individuals charged with our security that are so motivated by partisanship that they would fail to prevent an attack on this country?
Could there be Dick Cheney loyalists, still in key positions in government, that are willing to allow an attack on this country so to make Mr. Cheney's position on the President's handling of national security a more salient one.