Salon: Condi Rice's other wake-up call (Gary Hart warned her twice)

[kskiska]

Former Sen. Gary Hart says he, too, warned Rice about an imminent terror attack on two occasions before 9/11.

Richard Clarke was not the only national security expert who warned National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials about terrorist threats before 9/11. Former Democratic Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado also directly told senior Bush officials loudly and clearly that, in his words, "The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming."

Hart was co-chair (with former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H.) of the U.S. Commission on National Security, a bipartisan panel that conducted the most thorough investigation of U.S. security challenges since World War II. After completing the report, which warned that a devastating terrorist attack on America was imminent and called for the immediate creation of a Cabinet-level national security agency, and delivering it to President Bush on January 31, 2001, Hart and Rudman personally briefed Rice, Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. But, according to Hart, the Bush administration never followed up on the commission's urgent recommendations, even after he repeated them in a private White House meeting with Rice just days before 9/11.

(snip)

Hart spoke with Salon by phone from Denver, where he works for the international law firm Coudert Brothers.

(snip)

After your briefings, do you think the administration responded adequately to your warnings?

Well, let me just go through the history of things. Because we also sent copies of the report to every member of Congress. And we lobbied specific members of Congress, including Joe Lieberman, who took it very seriously. And in the spring of 2001, some members of Congress introduced legislation to create a homeland security agency. Hearings were scheduled. And our commission, which was scheduled to go out of operation on Feb. 15, 2001, was given a six-month extension so we could testify with some authority. Which we did in March and April.

And then as Congress started to move on this, and the heat was turned up, George Bush -- and this is often overlooked -- held a press conference or made a public statement on May 5, 2001, calling on Congress not to act and saying he was turning over the whole matter to Dick Cheney.

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/02/hart/index.html

[Kurt Remarque]

1. i wonder if hart and/or rudman were asked to testify?

to the 9/11 commission, that is

[David Dunham]

2. I bet they will be now.

[asjr]

3. How much longer

will this country put up with the lying and secrecy? When will someone in this administration finally feel patriotic enough to spill the beans? None of them has a soul.

[grannylib]

4. You said it!! There is not a hint of patriotism in these greedy

opportunists; if there were, they would not have:
LIHOP
Opposed creation of the 9/11 commission
Stonewalled at every opportunity
Blocked access to Clinton's papers
Blocked Condosleazza from testifying
Insisted that Chimpy and Cheney 'tag team' their testimony to avoid fucking it up

If there were a patriot among them, they would be falling all over each other to make sure that all the facts were known so that such a thing would never happen again, but we all know why that isn't happening, now don't we???

[grasswire]

5. we need to get...

...a. copy of that May 5 2001 speech or announcement Bush gave. We really need a copy of that.

[grasswire]

6. I found it.

I don't know that it is actually as described by Hart, but here's a link to it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/20010508.html

[scarletwoman]

7. Good work!

Here's the money quote:

Therefore, I have asked Vice President Cheney to oversee the development of a coordinated national effort so that we may do the very best possible job of protecting our people from catastrophic harm.

Notice that throughout this statement, he's talking about WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!! NOT terrorism!

Talk about your one trick pony... :eyes:

sw

[SharonAnn]

8. Are airplanes considered chemical, biological, or nuclear

weapons?

Just asking.

[scarletwoman]

9. Oh no...

After all, "NO one could have imagined using airplanes as weapons", right?

sw

[swinney]

10. Hart-Rudman given to Bush on 1-31-01.

He said he would have Cheney look at it.

Cheney did. In October.