I want say something about this whole Clinton/Bush Pre-911 crap...

[originalpckelly]

No one knows.

We all try to bitch at each other, but no one in America really knows. That sounds pretty stupid, but I think it is right.

Even the CIA analysts don't know. I was flipping through and caught the end of that Fox News Sunday program, and there were two expert ex-CIA officers debating. One said Clinton did his duty, one said Bush did his. They were both convinced the other was full of crap.

I have a feeling they both weren't lying, and both think they were right. The problem is this: the CIA is a large organization, and it was only one part of this whole matter. You can't tell me anyone in the CIA has all the info on what happened.

The big wigs probably think they have it all, but I have a feeling they only see digests of the info. The people at the bottom think they know, because they saw this one piece of the puzzle that said such and such.

They all are blind of the larger picture, and we can't really trust any of them.

And we the people are completely in the dark, and those of us interested in politics think we know all the pieces and that our guy did the right thing. I am willing to bet we don't know any better than the CIA analysts who only have part of the picture.

No one will know until the documents from the period before 9/11 are released, with as little redaction as possible. That is the only way that our nation's collective consciousness will make up its mind about who is wrong and who is right, if that categorization means anything at all in this matter.

I think we should start some kind of petition to open the pre-9/11 files as wide as possible. That's the only way any of us will ever really know.


I doubt that in this political climate people will be able to make a sound judgment; I can guarantee you that people on our side and the Republicans side will find something to make hay out of, and once again we will all be convinced we are totally right.

We need to de-politicize national security.

That's what it comes down to. That way we can have an honest debate without all the partisan baggage that is bound to crop up in any debate about national security.

I don't know if anyone will listen, but I guess I can just put this idea out there, and see how people feel about it.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

1. People who are criminally negligent need to be held accountable

The only administration that has been shown to be is Bush's. He deliberately ignored intelligence so he could plan to attack Iraq, and then when 9/11 happened he deliberately ignored it again and used the attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq.

[Zenlitened]

2. "We need to de-politicize national security."

The only way to do that, at the moment, is via (political) elections.

It's not the Democrats who need to be lectured about politicizing national security.

But if you have any success convincing the morally corrupt, propaganda-peddling, politically poisonous liars currently occupying the White House to change their ways... well, please do let us know.

[rooney]

3. Richard Clarke knows all that happened in both

administrations. I believe his reputation is beyond reproach. He does not accuse either administration of being the cause of 911, but he does tell the things he knows about, meetings, reports, etc.

[Zenlitened]

4. And all that he says and writes seems to be quite damning of the Bush WH.

He was in the thick of things beginning with the Reagan administration, if I remember correctly.

And it's pretty clear that the whole ongoing, bipartisan anti-terrorism effort came screeching to a complete halt the day Dubya Bush and his handlers slithered into the White House.

Now we're hearing about this Tenet-Rice meeting, in which Rice basically gave a blank stare to the latest urgent warnings. (See links, below.)

We'll see how this part of the story develops. But it may be the final argument, really, to conclude that 9-11 could have been prevented by the Bush-Cheney-Wolfowitz administration... but wasn't.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2283976

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282.html

[Bandit]

5. But we sure can ask questions such as

Why did the Bush* Administration issue Cipro to the Whitehouse a week before the Anthrax attacks but never before or since? We have lots of questions....

[Nimrod2005]

6. Oh man...wish you hadn't...........nt

[ComerPerro]

7. BushCo are the ones who politicized it in the first place

when they started using it as a weapon