Posted on 04/01/2004 1:12:47 AM PST by kattracks
We don't need a "commission" to find out how 9-11 happened. The truth is in the timeline:
PRESIDENT CARTER, DEMOCRAT
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah of Iran to be deposed by a mob of Islamic fanatics. A few months later, Muslims stormed the U.S. Embassy in Iran and took American Embassy staff hostage.
Carter retaliated by canceling Iranian visas. He eventually ordered a disastrous and humiliating rescue attempt, crashing helicopters in the desert.
PRESIDENT REAGAN, REPUBLICAN
The day of Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were released.
In 1982, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed by Muslim extremists.
President Reagan sent U.S. Marines to Beirut.
In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut were blown up by Muslim extremists.
Reagan said the U.S. would not surrender, but Democrats threw a hissy fit, introducing a resolution demanding that our troops be withdrawn. Reagan caved in to Democrat caterwauling in an election year and withdrew our troops – bombing Syrian-controlled areas on the way out. Democrats complained about that, too.
In 1985, an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, was seized and a 69-year-old American was shot and thrown overboard by Muslim extremists.
Reagan ordered a heart-stopping mission to capture the hijackers after "the allies" promised them safe passage. In a daring operation, American fighter pilots captured the hijackers and turned them over to the Italians – who then released them to safe harbor in Iraq.
On April 5, 1986, a West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen was bombed by Muslim extremists from the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin, killing an American.
Ten days later, Reagan bombed Libya, despite our dear ally France refusing the use of their airspace. Americans bombed Gadhafi's residence, killing his daughter, and dropped a bomb on the French Embassy "by mistake."
Reagan also stoked a long, bloody war between heinous regimes in Iran and Iraq. All this was while winning a final victory over Soviet totalitarianism.
PRESIDENT BUSH I, MODERATE REPUBLICAN
In December 1988, a passenger jet, Pan Am Flight 103, was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Muslim extremists.
President-elect George Bush claimed he would continue Reagan's policy of retaliating against terrorism, but did not. Without Reagan to gin her up, even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went wobbly, saying there would be no revenge for the bombing.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
In early 1991, Bush went to war with Iraq. A majority of Democrats opposed the war, and later complained that Bush didn't "finish off the job" with Saddam.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, DEMOCRAT
In February 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by Muslim fanatics, killing five people and injuring hundreds.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In October 1993, 18 American troops were killed in a savage firefight in Somalia. The body of one American was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu as the Somalian hordes cheered.
Clinton responded by calling off the hunt for Mohammed Farrah Aidid and ordering our troops home. Osama bin Laden later told ABC News: "The youth ... realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."
In November 1995, five Americans were killed and 30 wounded by a car bomb in Saudi Arabia set by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In June 1996, a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia was bombed by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
Months later, Saddam attacked the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, lobbed some bombs into Iraq hundreds of miles from Saddam's forces.
In November 1997, Iraq refused to allow U.N. weapons inspections to do their jobs and threatened to shoot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In February 1998, Clinton threatened to bomb Iraq, but called it off when the United Nations said no.
On Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
On Aug. 20, Monica Lewinsky appeared for the second time to testify before the grand jury.
Clinton responded by bombing Afghanistan and Sudan, severely damaging a camel and an aspirin factory.
On Dec. 16, the House of Representatives prepared to impeach Clinton the next day.
Clinton retaliated by ordering major air strikes against Iraq, described by the New York Times as "by far the largest military action in Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991."
The only time Clinton decided to go to war with anyone in the vicinity of Muslim fanatics was in 1999 – when Clinton attacked Serbians who were fighting Islamic fanatics.
In October 2000, our warship, the USS Cole, was attacked by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, REPUBLICAN
Bush came into office telling his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, he was "tired of swatting flies" – he wanted to eliminate al-Qaida.
On Sept. 11, 2001, when Bush had been in office for barely seven months, 3,000 Americans were murdered in a savage terrorist attack on U.S. soil by Muslim extremists.
Since then, Bush has won two wars against countries that harbored Muslim fanatics, captured Saddam Hussein, immobilized Osama bin Laden, destroyed al-Qaida's base, and begun to create the only functioning democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. Democrats opposed it all – except their phony support for war with Afghanistan, which they immediately complained about and said would be a Vietnam quagmire. And now they claim to be outraged that in the months before 9-11, Bush did not do everything Democrats opposed doing after 9-11.
What a surprise.
Ann Coulter is a bestselling author and syndicated columnist. Her most recent book is Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.
Well, hell, Truman and
Ike (and everyone else!) let
the Arabs just take
the oil fields British
and US companies built.
Everyone's to blame . . .
In 1989, according to the NTSB, terrorists destroyed an Avianca Airlines jet by placing a small bomb over the center fuel tank. The methodology relies on a terrorist smuggling a small amount of plastic or liquid explosive inside a passenger jet. The bomb is then detonated in a row of seats located near the center of the plane, immediately over the fuel tank.
While it is extremely rare to ignite aviation fuel with a mere spark (to this day, NTSB investigators cannot explain the source of ignition that caused the presumably accidental explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996), the energy from even a small amount of high explosives will initiate a catastrophic explosion of the fuel tank. The bomb works best when it is a shaped charge that channels its explosive energy down through the floor of the aircraft directly into the tank. This is the effect Richard Reid had in mind when he boarded American Airlines Flight 63 with explosives laced to his feet.
Al Qaeda has experimented with this technique for attacking 747 aircraft. Pakistani-born terrorist Ramzi Youssef, who is now in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, planned to blow up a dozen U.S. jumbo jets on a single day using bombs over center fuel tanks. To calibrate the precise amount of explosive needed, Youssef conducted a test bombing on a Philippine Airlines jet.
Fortunately, he and his co-conspirators were foiled after a fire in their Manila safehouse resulted in authorities detecting their plot to blow up passenger planes on trans-Pacific routes before it could be put into effect. It was in this same safehouse that Filipino security services found documents outlining plans to crash aircraft into government buildings in Washington.
Some experts believe that TWA 800 was actually destroyed by a bomb of this type rather than by the accidental ignition of the center fuel tank.
According to Larry Johnson, a former CIA and State Department counter-terrorism official who participated in the Pan Am Flight 103 probe, an FBI official told him that Youssef claimed in 1996 that al Qaeda had destroyed TWA 800. Approximately 5 percent of the wreckage of TWA 800 -- some eight tons of the plane, equivalent to a mid-sized cargo truck -- has never been recovered. Mr. Johnson told me that the Pan Am 103 aircraft pieces, which bore evidence of a bomb attack, were "small enough to fit on top of a table." The precise source of the explosion of TWA 800 -- whether a bomb, a missile or malfunctioning equipment -- has never been identified and may never be known.
In 1989, according to the NTSB, terrorists destroyed an Avianca Airlines jet by placing a small bomb over the center fuel tank. The methodology relies on a terrorist smuggling a small amount of plastic or liquid explosive inside a passenger jet. The bomb is then detonated in a row of seats located near the center of the plane, immediately over the fuel tank.
While it is extremely rare to ignite aviation fuel with a mere spark (to this day, NTSB investigators cannot explain the source of ignition that caused the presumably accidental explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996), the energy from even a small amount of high explosives will initiate a catastrophic explosion of the fuel tank. The bomb works best when it is a shaped charge that channels its explosive energy down through the floor of the aircraft directly into the tank. This is the effect Richard Reid had in mind when he boarded American Airlines Flight 63 with explosives laced to his feet.
Al Qaeda has experimented with this technique for attacking 747 aircraft. Pakistani-born terrorist Ramzi Youssef, who is now in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, planned to blow up a dozen U.S. jumbo jets on a single day using bombs over center fuel tanks. To calibrate the precise amount of explosive needed, Youssef conducted a test bombing on a Philippine Airlines jet.
Fortunately, he and his co-conspirators were foiled after a fire in their Manila safehouse resulted in authorities detecting their plot to blow up passenger planes on trans-Pacific routes before it could be put into effect. It was in this same safehouse that Filipino security services found documents outlining plans to crash aircraft into government buildings in Washington.
Some experts believe that TWA 800 was actually destroyed by a bomb of this type rather than by the accidental ignition of the center fuel tank.
According to Larry Johnson, a former CIA and State Department counter-terrorism official who participated in the Pan Am Flight 103 probe, an FBI official told him that Youssef claimed in 1996 that al Qaeda had destroyed TWA 800. Approximately 5 percent of the wreckage of TWA 800 -- some eight tons of the plane, equivalent to a mid-sized cargo truck -- has never been recovered. Mr. Johnson told me that the Pan Am 103 aircraft pieces, which bore evidence of a bomb attack, were "small enough to fit on top of a table." The precise source of the explosion of TWA 800 -- whether a bomb, a missile or malfunctioning equipment -- has never been identified and may never be known.
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