Streisand: "The Myth of Bush as Hero"

barbrastreisand.com ^ | March 29, 2004 | Barbra Streisand

[presidio9]

Finally ... finally we can talk about what's really going on. Rather than accept the myth that 9/11 turned President Bush into a "hero" ... former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke has bravely spoken out to tell us the real story - that Bush did not treat terrorism as an urgent issue. And that going to war in Iraq, in addition to tragically costing us so many lives, has diverted money and resources away from where they should have been focused - on dismantling al Qaeda and strengthening our homeland security.

We now know that the Bush White House never made counterterrorism a priority leading up to September 11th. In fact, on April 30, 2001, the new administration released the government's annual report on terrorism, with a noted change: extensive mention of bin Laden, which previous terrorism reports contained, had been left out. A Bush State Department Official reportedly told CNN at that time that the U.S. government under Clinton had made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden.

In fact, Bush never even held a cabinet level meeting devoted to terrorism until the week before the attack. While FBI agents were fielding concerns about non-citizens in flight school uninterested in learning how to land planes, and the CIA was aware that potential terrorists had entered the United States, because terrorism was not a priority in the high levels of the federal government these discussions were never elevated to a place where the information could be shared across departments, where the appropriate people would have an opportunity to connect the dots...

Here is a brief timeline (much of the information is from the Center for American Progress) of some of the more egregious warnings of looming terrorism that Bush overlooked as he spent the first eight months in office planning tax cuts for the wealthy, devising a way to invade Iraq, and taking long vacations out at his ranch in Crawford, Texas:

1) A 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council specifically theorized that al Qaeda could fly airplanes into buildings - so we know that the scope of the attack was not entirely beyond anyone's imagination.

2) In early 2001, a surge of al Qaeda activity and plans for attacks against American "interests" were noted, including by Israeli intelligence agencies.

3) Also in early 2001, the Bush administration departed from Clinton's policy of tracking money to terrorist organizations. (Was Bush trying to protect the Saudi royal family?)

4) In July 2001, U.S. and Italian officials were warned that al Qaeda may use planes as missiles at a Genoa summit of industrialized nations.

5) On August 6, 2001, while on vacation in Crawford, the president received a one and a half page briefing advising him that al Qaeda was capable of a major strike against the U.S., and that the plot could include the hijacking of American airplanes. And then what did the president do with this important information? He went fishing - bringing new meaning to the phrase, "Gone Fishin'"!

6) In July, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airlines because of a "threat assessment."

7) Newsweek has reported that on September 10th, 2001, a number of Pentagon officials canceled travel plans for the next morning due to security concerns, and "that as many as 10 to 12 warnings" were issued before 9/11 - "more than two of the warnings specifically mentioned the possibility of hijackings."

8) Also on September 10th (as I posted in a statement on November 21, 2002), Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected the FBI's request for a $58 million increase for their counterterrorism budget to pay for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators. He did that despite the fact, discovered later by a Congressional investigation, that the FBI had only one analyst monitoring al Qaeda and a severe shortage of Arabic translators.

Soon after September 11th, Condoleezza Rice said, "I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." And now Bush says, "Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people." Did he really say this? I heard it on the radio but I couldn't believe my own ears. Indeed, the scope of the horror of 9/11 is beyond the realm of what even the most savvy threat assessors may have thought possible.

However ... as the brief timeline above shows, THE PRESIDENT WAS REPEATEDLY WARNED that al Qaeda was planning some sort of attack, and that the attack may involve airplanes. So these are my questions:

-WHY DIDN'T OUR GOVERNMENT DO MORE TO BEEF UP SECURITY AT AIRPORTS AND ON AIRPLANES?

-WHY WEREN'T WARNINGS ISSUED TO THOSE ENTRUSTED TO PROTECT OUR FLIGHT SECURITY?

-ISN'T LEADERSHIP ABOUT ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY, ANTICIPATING THE UNFATHOMABLE, HEEDING WARNINGS AND FIRMLY ACTING UPON THEM?

-WHEN THE PRESIDENT RECEIVED A MEMO THAT HIJACKINGS OF AMERICAN PLANES MIGHT OCCUR, SHOULDN'T HE HAVE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN ACTION?

I DO BELIEVE THAT EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN THAT TRULY CARES ABOUT THIS COUNTRY, AND LEARNS THE FACTS, WOULD HAVE TO SERIOUSLY ASK THESE QUESTIONS ... AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT IN NOVEMBER!

[AngieGOP]

Babs doesn't need any stinkin facts. She's a Democrat!

[Free_at_last_-2001]

...and drinks their blood to stay young. - It's not working Babs!

[b4its2late]

Barbra who?

[freekitty]

BS as usual is full of bs. I swear this woman doesn't even begin to think much less think things through. She just hits the floor running.

[CasearianDaoist]

Uh Oh! Looks like we're in trouble now. They have pulled out the big guns.

[Old Grumpy]

Oh no! The beast with the big schnoz is talking again!

[TomGuy]

former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke has bravely spoken out

Yeh, Babs, but I guess you missed the part of his sworn testimony where he had the CTU on alert for 6 weeks in the summer of 2001. After 6 weeks, nothing happened and HE, not GW, not Condi, HE took his team OFF alert status.

So, if their is any blame, from HIS own words, Babszie, it is your hero, Clarke, for not keeping HIS CTU on alert for an additional 2 weeks or so. Then HE, single-handed, could have prevented the 9-11 attacks.

After all, Babs, Clarke, in his own words, single-handedly saved us from the vicious millenium attacks.

[mewzilla]

Click here for the whole darn doc (in PDF). See how much is devoted to the subject of terrorism...

[BUDDYCAT]

the last picture i saw of babs (it think it was at the golden globes) it appears that she is harboring terrorists underneath her skirt. it is either that or she as a butt the size of nebraska

[dougherty]

Once again, Babs has managed to make a fool of herself.

[cwb]

"A Bush State Department Official reportedly told CNN at that time that the U.S. government under Clinton had made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden."

I must have missed the name of this anonymous employee. There are just too many lies in here to address. Heck, it was Rice who was talking about OBL before the presidential election was ever held. Of course, there is a bit a truth in this above statement in as much as the Bush administration was going to focus more on the sponsors (and states) of terrorism than just the terrorists, alone...which is something Clinton couldn't even do.

[Peach]

Streisand - The Myth of a Singer.

Hey Babs (or should I say Flabs) - why don't you ask Al Gore why he allowed himself to be paid off by the airline industry rather than insist that they secure the cockpits, etc.

[Argus]

Since Vieques is closed, Bar-Bar's Malibu beach house would do nicely as a naval gunnery range.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Oy vey! Could someone please shut this yenta's pie-hole?

[dwd1]

A lot of personal attacks on Streisand on this thread...Not helpful...

We need Rice and perhaps Bush to testify under oath in public and that will shut up those who are asking such questions.... Until the answers are presented, this is giving the left a valid attacking point that needs to be taken away...

[SquirrelKing]

Forgot the Barf alert...wait-you included "Streisand". Good enough.

>Projectile Babs Alert<

[finnigan2]

Do you suppose Bab's REALLY writes these rants all by herself?
I can see her giving some general directions to a flunky ("I want something on the Clarke thingy"), reviewing the resultant story ("Add something about airplanes dammit, and use capital letters to show I'm mad as hell!") and then issuing some last minute instructions ("OK, post it but for chrissake don't forget the spell checker this time!").

[keysguy]

Talk about BS talking points, I feel weak, anyone got any dem/Rat kool aid?

[Quix]

"THE MYTH OF BABS STRIVINGnTHEsand AS WOMAN, HUMAN"

--Standing on the side of Arafart kissers, she's clearly lost any Jewishness she may have acquired by osmosis.

--Brazenly castigating, castrating and otherwise shredding as many real men as she can get her claws close to--verbally, legally and in film--she comes across more as a male competitor than a female anything. Maybe she's a TERMINATOR prototype from another dimension or future era sent back to our era as garbage in need of thorough isolation from more enlightened eras.

--Given her shrillness, dimwittedness, mindless Kommie Kissing-ness . . . she comes off more as a last class shrew than as a human being.

--Given her efforts to shred the Constitution of The Republic, she most clearly must not be anything close to an AMERICAN.

I say . . . send It to a lonely island wherein the only structure is a circular room walled in mirrors and no media, no sound equipment and no audiance.

It's been traitor extraordinaire long enough to the land that gave It so much.

[cyncooper]

Bwahahahahahahahaha

Streisand weighs in just as it becomes crystal clear that Clarke's credibility is in shreds.

I didn't read past her first idiotic paragraph.

What a dolt.