Black conservative ping
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Posted on 04/19/2004 10:50:53 AM PDT by mhking
As the parade of government bureaucrats continues to march before the 9/11 commission, one thing becomes increasingly clear: The commission is more interested in pointing fingers - specifically at The Bush Administration -- than it is in getting to the facts. I can't say I'm surprised. As another columnist has pointed out, bi-partisan does not mean non-partisan. The blame game may or may not be good for John Kerry and the Democrats. It's certainly not good for this country.
The thrust of the "Blame the president" argument seems to be that this administration and George Bush, in particular, had sufficient warning about the attacks of 9/11/01 and through negligence, failed to act. The charges are nothing new. Remember former democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her blood-for-money theory? It's simply now during this election year that these tired charges have been resuscitated and are being given political life.
During the commission's questioning of National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste pressed Dr. Rice about an August 6 memo to the president that was entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." Except for one sentence that referenced "suspicious patterns of activity in this country consistent with preparations for high jacking," the document is as Dr. Rice described it: largely historical and extremely vague. Of course, that didn't stop Ben-Veniste from behaving as if he had caught Dr. Rice "in the parlor, with the candlestick." I suppose the president can be faulted for not divining the future, but if it's blame they are seeking to cast, certainly there's more than enough to go around. What Ben-Veniste didn't say was that Senate and House intelligence committees had been given the same information. Head of the Senate intelligence committee, Florida's Senator Bob Graham said last year, "The particular report that was in the president's daily briefing was about three years old. It was not a contemporary piece of information." Congress had this information for three years and, yet, failed to issue a declaration of war on Afghanistan or to propose legislation requiring airport security to profile Arab men? Shocking!
The Associated Press reports that there were "chronic problems within the FBI, including limited intelligence and analysis capabilities, outdated technology, poor information-sharing and floundering attempts at reorganization." Similar problems were to be found in the CIA. These were some of the "systemic and structural impediments" Dr. Rice referred to in her testimony. Many of the bureaucratic walls Dr. Rice spoke of were lowered with the passage of the Patriot Act. (The very same Patriot Act that was booed by Democrats during the President's State of the Union address and that Democrats hope to scrap.) With all of the finger-pointing, I'm curious to see if any Democrat will accept culpability for the intelligence community's outdated technology, especially given that since 1996 almost all of the opposition to intelligence spending has come from Democrats. Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) actually stood on the House floor and advocated the abolition of the CIA! What's the old saying? When you point your finger at someone, three fingers point back at you.
That's the way the blame game goes, 'round and 'round, pointing fingers, never moving forward and dividing this nation at a time when unity is our greatest ally. If the commission is going to be of any value to the American people, it must begin to concentrate on fact finding and stop giving political life to conspiracy theories. Besides, we all know who is really to blame. He is living in a cave somewhere on the Afghanistan/Pakistan boarder while his ideological brethren continue to murder innocent people all over the world.
Black conservative ping
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
I'm sending it far & wide- it should annoy people, if nothing else.
Democratic Warrior Bump
That's their plan, I'm afraid. If they allow the public to be objective, they would see right through this sham.
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