[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[OESY]

President Bush's creation of the Homeland Security Department and the passage of the Patriot Act by Congress have removed some of the underbrush that caused the 9/11 failure. The CIA and FBI can now legally exchange evidence and information, for one thing. A new center to receive and assess threat information has been set up. The FBI has been directed to focus on terrorism along with its regular law enforcement activities.

But of course, there are still vocal claims that the somewhat expanded powers of federal anti-terrorist agencies are a threat to civil rights. There are still congressmen who want to micromanage national security policy. U.S. voters will themselves have to decide whom they fear most, Osama bin Laden or their own government.

A key recommendation of the 9/11 Panel should be the renewal of the Patriot Act, but that presupposes the Panel would reverse course in order to fulfill their public mandate responsibly, that their goal really was to improve national security against terrorists enemies, domestic and foreign.

[kitkat]

BUMP

[NYC GOP Chick]

Mr. Clinton, never a great fan of either the military or the CIA, was psychologically ill-equipped to admit that the U.S. was under attack. He preferred to think that he was dealing merely with an outbreak of criminality.

Not only that, but he dealt with terrorist attacks as isolated incidents, committed by isolated groups that had no ties to any nation and might have some "legitimate grievances" against us.

[Brian_Baldwin]

Thank you Mr. GEORGE MELLOAN - perfecto!

[Nix 2]

The reason Al Qaeda succeeded was because Clinton wanted to keep and hold the drug routes open all over the world. That is why he changed the Mission in Somalia. That is why we helped the pr*cks in Kososvo, and it was drug money that financed the bombings in Spain and nearly all previous exploits except what they lied to receive in *charitable* donations, conveniently left alone by the IRS under Clinton, and the mad House of Saud who loves their blondes, drugs, and booze...in that order. Clinton paid the USS Cole to Mubarak to soothe his ruffled feathers after Egyptair to elicit his help in securing a Nobel Peace Prize and the complete destruction of Israel.

DRUG money. Drug routes. Psychopathic, sociopathic, greedy meglomaniac, CLINTON! All his best friends are criminals and/or terrorists. That's why they never hit our mainland until he was out of office.