Posted on 06/03/2002 11:55:31 AM PDT by Plummz
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:40:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
They might have been surprised by the ferocity of the attacks, but the highest-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration knew before Sept. 11 that something terrible was going to happen soon.
Bush knew something was going to happen involving airplanes. He just didn't know what or exactly when. His attorney general, John Ashcroft, knew. His national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, knew. They all knew.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Because Ashcroft received personal death threats. But go ahead and make it part of your conspiracy theory. Why should the truth factor in to your "reporting"?
I have to admit my ignorance; I had to look this word up:
"iconoclast - 1. one who attacks and seeks to break down traditional beliefs and institutions or popular ideas and values."
Pretty pretentious title IMHO.
Why else would it have Ashcroft use a $1,600-plus per hour G-3 Gulfstream when he could have flown commercial, as he always did before, for a fraction of the cost?
Because he’s a government hump who, like all government humps, doesn’t mind spending our money for his luxury.
No need for a conspiracy, beyond the conspiracy of free-spending federal potentates.
(Also wouldn't want to speculate on how this delay in his confirmation may have lead to any pre 9/11 lapses, 'cause that wouldn't be right)
On July 5, 2001, according to a recent Washington Post article, the White House called together officials from a dozen federal agencies to give them a warning.
"Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon," the officials were told by the government's top counterterrorism official,
Richard Clarke.
Clarke considered the threat sufficiently important to direct every counterintelligence office to cancel vacations and get ready for immediate action, the Post reported.
How do you explain this away? If we knew something was about to take place, why didn't we have contingency plans to protect the capital from attack by air?
I'll admit to a little skepticism regarding some of the Bush and Ashcroft should have known statements, but there are aspects of this that simply defy logic.
-PJ
So what exactly do they suggest he should have done?
An airplane.
How? No answer.
When? No answer.
Gee, that's enough to 'guess' 4 planes were going to be highjacked and flown into the World Trade Center, aye? What's wrong with Bush? He should have read their minds! He's president! Being psychic is mandatory for the position!!!
Of couse, using that logic, Clinton, who must have also been psychic to be president, also knew about the following before it happened and should have warned the people:
Addressing terrorism of Osama Bin Laden before the 1993 WTC bombing,
the 1993 trip to Somalia - in which our retreat after 18 deaths was perceived as weak by Bin Laden and the Islamic world ,
the 1995 US barracks bombing in Saudi Arabia,
the 1995 Philippine warning of terrorists hijacking planes to fly them into government buildings,
the 1996 Khobar towers bombing,
the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania,
or the 2000 USS Cole bombing.
'After' each,of course, President Clinton promised to bring the "cowards" to justice. By summer of 1996, Bin Laden had fled to Afghanistan.
You can also blame him for not taking the Sudanese government up on their offer to extradite Bin Laden.
Clinton knew!
The thread of rational behind this is if the Fed's were under the impression that a more conventional hijacking was likely to occur, Ashcroft's presence on the plane would be a gigantic feather in the cap of the hijackers. It's hard to imagine that he would not have been singled out by hijackers and used as an additional bargaining chip.
Did she? Everytime I see this crap rehashed a nagging doubt says that Reno spent time on private planes also.
Of course, Hillary is well known for abusing Air Fed when running for her Senate seat. What did she care? The rubes were paying the bill.
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