The 9-11 question rarely heard: What would YOU have done to prevent a 9-11 event?

[blm]

What would YOU have done if YOU were in a position of power to prevent the growing threat of global terror?

We all know so much more now about the last 4 decades of government deceit that led our nation to that day, but, what have we learned that would inform us of what COULD have been done to prevent it and any terror event of the last 30 years AND what should be done now to stop a FUTURE 9-11 type event?

[DS1]

1. eliminate goddamn box cutters from the acceptable carry-on items list

for one thing.

[Cha]

20. I was thinking about that earlier

today when they were talking about acceptable dress code for southwest.

Simply Amazing Concept.."eliminating box-cutters"..much too complicated for condi&co.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Airline safety.

Proper locks and doors would have prevented 9-11.

More money, people for law enforcemnt.

That's pretty much it.

[blm]

8. No major policy changes or greater scrutiny of decades of covert operations?

.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Not really, no.

Like I said, more money/people in law enforcement. That would include clearing incompetent people out.

[krispos42]

19. The system worked

The warning bells, even on specific people, were ringing. Dedicated government workders like FBI Agent Coleen Rowley were screaming, for example, about Moussoui, but the loyal Bushie in DC squished her applications for search warrants. He got a Medal of Freedom and a bonus, by the way.

Bush appointees in DC were ignoring the warnings.

[Cha]

21. Because what we thought then we

now know from their MO that they MIHOP..fucking desperate HomicidalOILGrabbers.

[blm]

22. Those people were in DC when they shouldn't have been, though.

In fact, some of them should've been in jail after the crimes of office committed during Bush1. Crimes that just HAPPENED to have included abetting terror networks (IranContra, BCCI, CIA drugrunning, Iraqgate all exposed the funding of terrorism and/or the funding of Saddam's dictatorial ventures).

[krispos42]

34. Yes, the system worked

It delivered warnings with enough accuracy and detail to prevent this from happening. The rank-and-file guys did their job. Unfortunately, it delivered them to a head-up-the-ass, incompetent "elected" administration and their appointed officers that were picked based on loyalty and fanatisism instead of competence. And at crunch time...

Well, it was either MIHOP or LIHOP or the end result of a determined and extended process of incompetence.



If the fire alarm goes off and you're too dumb to leave the burning house, getting a louder alarm isn't going to help.

[blm]

44. Do you think those incompetents in charge couldn't have been stopped

from being in that position long before the fire?

You don't think that Bush2 could have been prevented from taking office if open accountable government had been the past guide for this nation's direction?


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[krispos42]

60. Oh, yeah, that issue affects a whole bunch of things

The topic is about 9/11, though.

I mean, yeah, if Reagan had been impeached and removed from office for trading arms for hostages with Iran in 1981, the entire political landscape would have shifted. Iraq may have never invaded Kuwait in 1991, so the US would not have had a military footprint in Saudi Arabia that would ultimately have had Bin Laden turn the anti-Soviet guerrilla organization he make in Afghanistan against us.

Or if Gerald Ford nad nailed Nixon to the wall instead of issuing a pardon. That would have chilled illegal activities by the executive branch for quite a while, and Reagan/Bush would have behaved.

Or if the Iran-Contra scandal had resulted in force resignations/impeachment of Bush Sr. and Reagan. That would have tarnished the Bush Legacy, keeping Dubya out of politics and safely in vodka and coke until his head exploded in some hotel in Texas.

[blm]

63. Exactly - and why accountability is CRUCIAL - without it we will get more 9-11s

and a firmly fascist government without even the veneer of democracy.

[krispos42]

66. No argument from me.

I've stated several times here that the USS Constitution has both plenty of room on her yardarms and plenty of rope to hang traitors.

This makes interesting reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Wing_Authoritarianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_dominance_orientation

[LSK]

3. Al Gore has a nice section in Assault on Reason

Where if they just did some basic cross referencing and looking up under existing laws they could have figured it out and stopped it.

Oh and actually listening to Richard Clarke might have been a start.

[againes654]

5. They didn't really want to stop it

Look at how much the bush regime has profited from 9/11 do you really think they wanted to stop it?

[Cha]

26. Al Gore's Brillance Again..

Damn! What we could have and Don't! And I mean in a position of Power for The People. I love that we do have him and Kerry!

[againes654]

4. For starters

Lets stop inflicting our views, morals, and "freedoms" on other nations. Stop occupying sovergin nations. Stop bombing countries and killing innocents and then saying it is to protect us.

That is why they hate us. They don't give a shit about our "freedoms".

[blm]

24. That's a strong point. And speaks to DECADES of wrong policies that led straight

to 9-11.

[Cha]

31. "hate us for our freedoms"...is

something the Orwellian monsters came up to get Americans excited about before they took them away. Turns out our fucking "morals" aren't so hot after all.

Welcome to DU, againes!

[obnoxiousdrunk]

43. BINGO !

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Read my Presidential Daily Briefings, for starters.

Take people like Richard Clarke seriously.
Not ignore Al Qaeda just because Bill Clinton thought they were a threat and I didn't want to do anything he did.
Actually try to learn something about the Middle East.
Try to understand what provokes acts of terrorism in the first place.
Not "stovepipe" the intelligence services.

[Cha]

33. A diplomat like Jimmy

Carter could have figured this out because he among others actually had America's interests at heart.

[BridgeTheGap]

7. Don't prop up dictators & totalitarian regimes just for economic expedience

Take away their reasons for existing as terrorists.
Consider their complaints honestly and see if they have merit.
What makes them terrorists are the tactics - the killing of innocents - which is illegal.
They should be held accountable for these crimes.
Avoid turning the pursuit of justice into a war of ideology.
Promote programs like the Peace Corp.

[blm]

14. I agree with that. 9-11 began long ago with those covert operations

that actually ended up FUNDING the growing global terror movement.

To prop up dictators? Most definitely. But also as part of the longterm goal to gain control of the world's resources as the key to gaining control of the world's citizenry. Global fascism.

[liberalmuse]

9. My job, plain and simple.

Listen to intelligence and paid serious attention to the fucking memo 'bin Laden Determined to Strike the U.S.', for one. I wouldn't have taken the FBI off of bin Laden survelliance, or made it easier for terrorists to launder money via international banks, like Bush did when he chucked out much of Clinton's anti-terrorist legislation. I would have also implemented the suggestions in the Hart/Rudman report--that was a very disturbing albeit accurate prediction of 9-11 two years before the fact. If we want to stop a future 9-11 event, we need to get Bush/Cheney out of office and ensure that those with highly vested interest in the military/industrial complex do not gain political office EVER. It's too bad we didn't know about Operation Northwoods until after 9-11--at least it wasn't very highly publicized until then. Americans need to know what corrupt government is capable of. They would gladly sacrifice millions of American lives if it puts an extra dime in their pockets. What we did wrong is not take to the streets en masse on December 9, 2000. That was the day America as we knew it was raped, beaten, tossed in a ditch and left for dead.

[blm]

27. Disgusting how corporate media deep-sixed the Operation Northwoods revelation.

It's obvious that controlling the corporate media has BEEN a big part of furthering the fascist agenda that's been enacted over the last 2 decades.

[Cha]

37. I know that now..too. That was

before I even had a computer and I had to Feel The Pain practically alone..

"What we did wrong is not take to the streets en masse on December 9, 2000. That was the day America as we knew it was raped, beaten, tossed in a ditch and left for dead."

Maybe we can make up for it somehow someway.

We sure took to the streets on Feb 15, 2003 all over the World but the coporatemediawhores played it down, of course, they wanted WAR.

[ljm2002]

10. Some generic preventives...

...like not pursuing asinine and destructive foreign policies.

But specifically: read the presidential daily briefing. Pay attention to terrorist threats (these were studiously ignored by bushco). Assign an individual over all the security agencies to coordinate their activities and funnel the information to those who can act on it -- that individual would be the national security advisor -- so I'd have to hire someone competent in that role. When that (competent) individual expresses concern and urgency, act on it.

Just a few obvious things that would have been different under almost any other administration.

[Cha]

38. That wouldn't have wanted it to happen..

"Just a few obvious things that would have been different under almost any other administration."

As opposed to the one we had that did want it and wanted it badly..

Couldn't be bothered, though, to stop reading.."My Pet Goat" to go out and simulate a "leader".

[Warpy]

11. First, since hijackings had been well known for over 30 years,

I'd have mandated planes be constructed with reinforced and locking cockpit doors at least that long ago and amended the rules to keep that door locked unless the cockpit crew were exiting or entering for bathroom breaks.

Second, with a Wayback Machine, I'd have strangled Phil Gramm in his crib. He singlehandedly made sure that Clinton's legislation to close offshore banking conduits never made it out of committee, thus ensuring the 9/11 cells could be fully and easily funded. Gramm was protecting Enron, which was using those same conduits to launder money.

Third, I'd never have maintained bases in Saudi Arabia. That was an incredibly stupid thing to do in a country of zealots.

Fourth, were I world dictator, I'd never have allowed the massive violation of human rights throughout the Middle East by dictators who were allowed free rein as long as they kept the oil flowing.

[jmowreader]

35. Why even for then?

Every airliner I've ever been on has had a lavatory right behind the cockpit. Put the door on the aft side of that lav, put a few amenities--small fridge, warming oven, coffeepot with five gallons of water--in the flight crew area, and they'd only have to come out after the plane landed.

[tridim]

12. Banish the entire Bush family to the dark side of the moon. nt

[blm]

17. That'd be my call. AFTER exposing the entire fascist agenda fully, of course.

.

[Cha]

40. You make me want to

listen to Pink Floyd right now!

[Just-plain-Kathy]

13. All Bush had to do was pick up a phone and warn the airlines. ..n/t

[Cha]

41. But, all he did was

go on vaca so he could clear important brush.

[Clark2008]

15. Elected Gore.

Technically, he was, but he never got to serve.

[meegbear]

18. Clinton stopped the Millenium bombers with vague information ...

I think anyone who doesn't take the ABC (Anything But Clinton) method of handling terrorist threats could do something to try to stop it.

[AndyTiedye]

23. What President Clinton Was Doing

The worst they managed to do under Clinton was blow up a few cars in the WTC parking garage — and they got caught.

Ordinary police work would have prevented this, if the FBI had been allowed to do it, but once Bush** got in it was "Hands off the Saudis".

Then there was the August 6, 2001 PDB that spelled out the threat. And Bush** ignored it and went on vacation.

Ashcroft was also ignoring all the warnings that came in from his people (and switching to government jets instead of commercial airliners for his personal travel).

When the attacks were going down, Bush** sat there reading "My Pet Goat". How did he know there wasn't a plane headed for that school?

Of course, once 9/11 happened, all questions about the legitimacy of Bush**'s pResidency evaporated.

9/11 was LIHOP or more likely MIHOP.

[mdmc]

25. I know! I know!

1. Enforce the laws on the books (the terrorists were here illegally).
2. Place safety before profits (flag the cash transaction, secure the airplanes so that they have police officers, secure cockpits so that they can't be overrun).

If we had done these two things, 9-11 would have never happened.

[L. Coyote]

28. Question IS "What did BUSH fail to do?" It is not about ME. I'm not the problem.

If I had been the Supreme Court's Resident, 9/11 would not have happened.

[blm]

45. You can't think of anything YOU'D do differently in the 80s and 90s if YOU were

a lawmaker?

Seems to me that this nation has FAILED to come to terms with the LONG ROAD that led to 9-11. If they never track it back to its key junctures, then how is it ever to be dealt with effectively and in ways that would ensure honest assessment and accountability and that it would be less likely to occur again?

[90-percent]

29. I already did it

My vote for Al Gore in 2000 was the most powerful thing I could have done to prevent 9/11!

-85% Jimmy

[MiniMe]

30. Reinforced the Bulkhead doors then look at how El Al does security

Reinforcing the bulkhead doors is something that should have been done after all of the hijackings in the 60's. If I got a memo about bin ladin determined to strike withing the US using airplanes, I just might have let the FBI director know about it, and let the FBI warn the airlines.

I believe that El Al has never had a flight hijacked, one of the only airlines that has been around for a while that can say that. It is all due to security at the airport and around the planes. The fact that an Israli airline that is based in the middle east has never been hijacked is pretty amazing!

[Parche]

32. Dismantle the CIA

Since They were the ones that carried out 9/11.............


Put heavy locks on all cockpit doors, that would have been enough

[blm]

47. Dismantle the CIA 'cell' loyal to Poppy Bush who abetted terrorism for decades?

I would track that cell and eliminate them in the 90s if I had the power to do so.

[mudesi]

36. Implement Dennis Kucinich's foreign policy (nm)

[Squatch]

39. I would have hunted down and killed OBL in the years 1992 thru 2000

[Cha]

42. Ah Ye-ah..I'm thinking if they

didn't have osama bin hiden they would have found another boogie to carry out their mission of terrorism to begin bombing the ME..but that's just me.

[blm]

46. True - Poppy Bush's abetting of terror networks was more than Bin Ladens group.

Abu Nidal was also a recipient of funding via BCCI. And surely there were more, especially those in control of the opium crops.

[Cha]

50. You know sooo much

history about these fascists! And right..I'm sure they had back-up plans to their back-up plans. They're all about leaving nothing to fate but then FATE steps in and says .."Whoa buster!"

[Cha]

48. Stimulating question, blm.

And now that I've read all the other responses..

Who knows what the buSHITS knew even before the Aug 6th, 2001 Memo? I'm surprised we even get to know about that infamous MEMO. I'm sure they wouldn't want that known. The corporatemedia if they were a Free Press would be Pounding that from the get go and we would never have to endure buSHIT for a second term. It all goes back to the US corporatemediawhores..they're a Scourge on America besides being lazy fuckers.

The Fairness Doctrine might have saved 9/11.

[blm]

51. Excellent point. I would submit that most people have no idea WHY we were

even ABLE to see that Presidential briefing document in the first place.

A dogged senator kept taking the Reagan and Bush1 administrations to court to gain access to documents they regularly kept hidden from congress. That was one important court battle won by the good guys back then.

This is why Democrats should keep the pressure up no matter what - there are always gains to be made if you stick to siding with the constitution and government accountability.

[Cha]

55. Bravo to the Congress who do..

"This is why Democrats should keep the pressure up no matter what - there are always gains to be made if you stick to siding with the constitution and government accountability."

[Kelly Rupert]

49. Assuming I was elected in 2000?

Knowing what I know now? The solution is obvious; order Mohammad Atta et al. arrested, detained, tried, and imprisoned.

If I only was allowed to know "There will be a terror attack involving airplanes and the WTC in September," I would order air marshals on every flight possible originating on the east coast during that month, warn the airlines, and divert all FBI resources to tracking down the hijackers.

Knowing nothing we didn't know then? Probably very little. Bureaucratic inertia is enormous.

[blm]

52. And with the hindsight of what you know now, what would be your priority

back in the 80s or 90s that would have stopped the growing threat of global terrorism?

[Kelly Rupert]

58. Starting with 1980, assuming I have Shadow Dictator powers or something:

I now know that the Soviet Union is going to collapse regardless of the course of the Afghan war. As such, I do not supply the jihadis there; rather I insert several moles, and order the CIA to begin tracking them as potential threats. Similarly, the threat of the Ayatollah is overblown; I do not supply Iraq. Moreover, I do not engage in overt actions in Lebanon; US soldiers do not need to be there To counter the rise of fundamentalist Islam, I encourage fair economic links to liberal, secular states. I engage in behind-the-scenes negotiations with both the Iranians and Libyans, and I offer favorable trade offers with minimal but progressively increasing strings attached.

Similarly, my aid to (and tariff rates regarding) the Saudis, Kuwaitis, and other "friendly" states in the region is dependent on the extent to which they meet extremely-mild liberalization benchmarks.

My aid to the Israelis is limited to defense. Any use of American funding I determine to be otherwise will be cut. Funding is also dependent on meeting benchmarks towards creation of a Palestinian state.

Regionalism, terrorism, jihad, and xenophobic nationalism can never be "stopped;" they're a natural reaction to the threat the unifying McWorld faces to every single traditional society. However, their influence can be marginalized--and that has always been done best, in my opinion, through a combination of respect and economic incentive to return the favor.

Also, I buy tech stock.

[blm]

59. heh - pretty good answer -

and you don't have to be a dictator - just an honest Democratic lawmaker applying pressure and speaking to these realities.

[Cha]

53. There were plenty of people

in the government who actually cared about America and they knew about the volitile situation of that time. The August 6, 2001 MEMO was huge and airlines could have been warned to be on THE ALERT before the fact not After.

[shadowknows69]

54. Stop fucking in people's business that didn't want us in it

IE. troops in Saudi and various other middle eastern imperial efforts. They know it's all about the oil for us so they've made it all about fighting the Great Satan. This event wasn't a surprise to me.

[blm]

61. Nor to me. Anyone who bothered to READ the BCCI report and the documents

that provided the backdrop of IranContra could see where this was heading.

This is why accountability matters. Accountability for government corruption is the ONLY way that a citizen is truly shown respect by our leaders.

[Canuckistanian]

56. Implement Hart-Rudman

If it had been implemented as recommended, there's no way events leading up to 9/11 could have been ignored for so long.

[Lilith Velkor]

57. Let the FBI do their fucking jobs. n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

62. Repealed sanctions on Iraq during the '90s, removed American

bases from Saudi Arabia and stopped supporting Arabic dictators.

[baldguy]

64. Listen to Richard Clarke

Listen to Sibel Edmonds.

NOT spend 8 months trying to figure out how to con the American people to let me attack Iraq.

Immediately fire anyone who said "Osama who?"

Work with domestic & international law enforcement to capture known terrorists for trial.

Not make the entire North American Air Defense "unavailable due to a training exercise" at any time.

[DaveJ]

65. Duh.. For one, Don't allow public access to plane's cockpit!

Okay, I see the plane engineers are doing that now. Oh, wow thanks. I guess they weren't getting paid enough to think of that before 9/11. Or too busy being vacationing millionaires. Yeah right, there was no way to predict a lunatic would try to take over a plane and crash it into something?!?!?!?

Seriously, it's just a matter of creating an atmosphere where competent people are expected to be in charge of high level positions, no politics, no ego fanatics, no nepotism, no ladder climbing junkies, etc.

[mvd]

67. Follow up on all the warnings we got

That would have led us to the hijackers. Though I'm not sure it could have been prevented. I consider the official story to be a conspiracy theory in itself - no way I believe everything happened the way they said it did. There were likely infiltrators in our government, and the possible connection to Cheney should be explored. What realy happened is probably in the middle of the extremes.

[blm]

68. I think most of DU would agree about that.

And I think most of the country is heading in that direction, too.

[Octafish]

69. After Aug. 6 PDB, I'd have warned the flying public...

...alerted the nation's airports and police. At the same time, I'd put the military and all government agencies on alert.

One thing I certainly would not do is say is: "All right. You've covered your ass now."

Long-term, I'd have used the Peace Corps and all the other programs President Kennedy started to help the people in Asia, Africa, South America and other places fight hunger, poverty, disease, ignorance, etc. Places like the United States of America.

Being friends with people means living together in peace. That's easier to achieve if we work for the common good.

The Covered-Up Meeting

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, October 2, 2006; 1:12 PM

The "State of Denial" in the title of Bob Woodward's new book describes President Bush's ongoing refusal to see the true consequences of the war he launched in Iraq.

But one of the book's most notable revelations suggests that the Bush White House was in another state of denial more than five years ago, this one about the threat of terrorism before September 11, 2001.

If the omniscient narrator of Woodward's book is to be believed, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice waved off warnings that should by any reasonable standard have put the government on high alert for an al-Qaeda attack.
And in what looks like a potential administration cover-up, Rice and the other participants in that meeting apparently never mentioned it to anyone, including investigators for the 9/11 Commission.

SNIP…

And a month later, as Ron Suskind reported in his book, "The One Percent Doctrine," an unnamed CIA briefer flew to Bush's Texas ranch to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' According to Suskind, Bush heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

CONTINUED…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/10/02/BL2006100200537.html

What would you do, blm?

[blm]

72. The same thing I would've done years earlier - opened the books on BushInc.

That would have stopped the growing global terror networks as they would've been exposed in their countries for working FOR the Bush cabal they claimed as oppressors - their credibility would have taken an enormous hit.

The exposed books would have assured no Bush would ever get even NEAR the WH again, let alone get inside it.

This country NEEDS the books opened. A real truth and reconciliation hearing televised an EVERY NETWORK so that EVERY citizen can be learning the facts TOGETHER - unfiltered and untainted - just open books on ALL of it.

[Horse with no Name]

70. Showing up to work would have been a good start...

:)

[B Calm]

71. Since 9-11 was an inside job, I'm not sure what can be done to prevent it.

I'm looking for the neo cons to nuke an American city next!