Posted on 05/18/2002 1:47:57 PM PDT by mondonico
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:00:33 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (CNN) --The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee says the criticism that the White House had enough information to possibly prevent the September 11 terror attacks is "bogus," and contends U.S. intelligence agencies are not fully cooperating in investigating their failures.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
By Andy Sher, Washington BureauWASHINGTON -- Nearly three years before terrorists flew hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., was urging Clinton administration officials to prepare Americans for the potential attacks by Osama bin Laden here in the United States.
"If we are going to be in or expecting more of these kinds of attacks, both domestically and with regard to our embassies abroad and our other targets abroad, we need to know that," the senator told then-FBI Director Louis Freeh.
"And the American people need to get ready for that," Sen. Thompson said. "And they need to be convinced that we need to do the things necessary to confront that."
Sen. Thompson's comments were made during a Sept. 3, 1998, Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. Days before, the Clinton administration ordered missiles fired into Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for suspected al-Qaida-sponsored bombings of U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Today, there is a furor over what President Bush and his administration knew before Sept. 11, 2001, about potential terror attacks.
Sen. Thompson, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it isn't fair to blame President Bush for a system he "inherited." The senators said not enough was done previously.
"That's one of the unfortunate things about what's happening right now," Sen. Thompson said. "We're focusing in on a single matter when we've ignored the elephant in the living room for some years. We've had public hearings. We've had public statements by public officials of all kinds, describing threats and potential terrorist vulnerabilities.
"It's hard to get people's attention until something actually happens," Sen. Thompson said.
Sen. Thompson said the latest flap is "a tempest in a teapot."
"I've seen a dozen reports of serious kinds of threats, not specific in terms of time and place," he said. "Most of the time nothing ever happens, and they're so general you can't take any specific action on them. The real issue here is why didn't we have more information and why didn't we have people connecting dots?"
The problems include inadequate funding for intelligence operations, insufficient use of "human intelligence" and an intelligence culture that at times has been "too satisfied" with itself, he said.
The intelligence committees will delve into the matter, but it should not be a "witch hunt," he said.
"I think individual members will continue to make irresponsible statements," Sen. Thompson said. "You can't stop dogs from chasing cars."
I question the democrats timing on this.
For now, let's identify and admit who the enemy is.
Too many mosques and schools in the US are preaching and advocating death to others,
for whatever reason. Attack militant Islam as someone else said, as political sedition.
It means admitting that radical islam is our primary enemy for now; either here or abroad
and getting serious about not living in fear and all these threat levels.
Have we been upgraded yet? Or is the same level today?
Want to do something? Go here:
Ignorance Making You Ill? Cure It!
for links, tools, & instructions about how to contact a pile of different people, and how to send a link to this story right here ( or anywhere else ) to a "mass email" using Outlook Express.
Do be advised that since I increased my volume of mass emails to letters to editors I have gotten return volleys of virus attacks- my ISP filters them out before the get to my PC, but if yours does not, take appropriate precautions to guard your PC.
I take this as a positive- my emails are simply links with no editorial content; so the other side must fear & loath the information even reaching the public.
911 INVESTIGATION DELAY IS CERTAIN --
Staff Director of 9-11 Probe Quits Suddenly. Both Britt Snider and Rick Cinquegrana, his temporary replacement as the head of the Joint 9-11 Congressional investigation, have serious CIA baggage that connects back to drug dealing, the Contras, House Intelligence hearings and three mysterious deaths in 2000.
Ominous signs for the credibility of any Congressional investigation.
It wouldn't have prevented the 9/11 attacks. The suspects were not involved in these attacks.
The agent (Williams ?) who put together the report in August should be immediately promoted and placed in charge of the "bin Laden" files.
His boss, on the other hand, should be selling hot dogs in Shea Stadium...
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