Foley makes a concise argument, in his OpEd at Jurist on 9/11/07, that it's not too late for a new investigation, one that assesses individuals' responsibility, not just "failed policy." It's quite clear that this nation is no more secure now than we were on 9/11, even after handing this administration unchecked powers and endless sums of money. This week, a TSA study found "Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints... At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons."
As Benjamin DeMott stated in his Harper's review of the 9/11 Commission Report ,
The 9/11 Commission Report, despite the vast quantity of labor behind it, is a cheat and a fraud. It stands as a series of evasive maneuvers that infantilize the audience, transform candor into iniquity, and conceal realities that demand immediate inspection and confrontation. Because it is continuously engaged in scotching all attempts to distinguish better from worse leadership responses, the Commission can't discharge its duty to educate the audience about the habits of mind and temperament essential in those chosen to discharge command responsibility during crises. It can't tell the truth about what was done and not done, thought and not thought, at crucial turning points. ... In the course of blaming everybody a little, the Commission blames nobody—blurs the reasons for the actions and hesitations of successive administrations, masks choices that, fearlessly defined, might actually have vitalized our public political discourse.
We at 911truth.org don't believe for a moment that the tragic series of events on 9/11 were strictly a "massive security failure." As Mindy Kleinberg, widow of 9/11 victim Alan Kleinberg, stated in her testimony at the first public hearing held by the 9/11 Commission:
With regard to the 9/11 attacks, it has been said that the intelligence agencies have to be right 100% of the time and the terrorists only have to get lucky once. This explanation for the devastating attacks of September 11th, simple on its face, is wrong in its value. Because the 9/11 terrorists were not just lucky once: they were lucky over and over again.
Nonetheless, as Foley makes clear below, without an investigation with the power to actually determine and assess culpability of responsible parties, the very idea that "increased security and revoked civil liberties are justified in the post-9/11 world" is untenable.
I'm sure General Hayden would like us to take him at his word. But who on earth will believe the CIA has 'reformed' itself, when even the mainstream press reports blatantly illegal acts like extraordinary rendition? The worst abuses we never hear about.
The unfortunate truth is that the prescriptive atmosphere in Washington permits ANY abuse of human and civil rights so long as it 'advances' the 'war on terror'. According to this sick mindset, anything LESS than torturing, kidnapping, illegally surveilling and stripping people of their basic human rights would be doing 'less than everything' we could to fight terror! It's true legacy is to radicalize hundreds of thousands of potential terrorists and to ensure that Americans are hated for generations to come.
September 11th Advocates Regarding Declassification and Release of Documents
The Public's Right to Know - Declassification and Release of Documents petition ( http://www.petitiononline.com/july10/petition.html ) surpassed 15,000 signatures. As promised, we have hand...
Thursday May 17, 2007 10:16 PM
By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist...
Consortium News' Robert Parry discusses some of the new 9/11 revelations in George Tenet's memoir, "At the Center of the Storm". We learn that Tenet went to Crawford, TX in late August 2001 and interrupted W's vacation because of the confidence he had in the intelligence pointing to an imminent terrorist attack. The president was apparently unmoved. This was Tenet's first visit to the ranch, and he reports that his conversation with the president descended into Tenet's "trying to make small talk about the flora and the fauna, none of which were native to Queens."
This meeting took place about two weeks before Andrew Card whispers into Bush's ear at Booker Elementary School, and that strange look of recognition dawned on the president's face.
Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say...
