Here we go again: Cheney admitted that he could have prevented 9/11 but didn't!

[BuyingThyme]

Cheney Cites Justifications For Domestic Eavesdropping
Secret Monitoring May Have Averted 9/11, He Says

By Jim VandeHei and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page A02

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might have been prevented if the Bush administration had had the power to secretly monitor conversations involving two of the hijackers without court orders.

As part of an effort to sell Americans on the administration's recently disclosed program to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant, Cheney told a small group of conservatives at the Heritage Foundation that instead of being able to "pick up" on the terrorist plot "we didn't know they were here plotting until it was too late."

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010400973.html

leveymg (1000+ posts)

Court Papers: NSA Warrantless wiretapping, "The Program", started pre-9/11.

Edited on Thu Oct-11-07 05:39 PM by leveymg

The Rocky Mountain News reports today that in early 2001, Qwest, a Denver-based wireless telecom company, pulled out of a major NSA program believing the spy agency was involved in illegal domestic operations. See, http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,27...

That project, Project Groundbreaker, was awarded on July 31, 2001 to Verizon and a consortium of telcos and defense contractors. Groundbreaker effectively privatized NSA surveillance. Ever since, most of the NSA's domestic wiretapping and intelligence analysis function has been performed by the same telephone and high-tech companies for which some in Congress are now seeking a grant of immunity for massive warrantless wiretapping.

...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2023410#2024255

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=67153
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=226611
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2023997

[Liberal In Texas]

1. No...It's more like just becuase you ARE illegally spying doesn't mean that it would do any good to

stop an attack.

So, I say, why do it, why allow it?

[BuyingThyme]

2. Then how did he know the attacks could have been thwarted?

[Liberal In Texas]

7. Because, he says if they had been spying, they could have been thwarted.

But, according to your second story, apparently they were.

So they were spying, but they weren't thwarted.

There's also a big "could" in there as a weasel word.

(I take your point, it's all just repuke bs anyway you cut it.)

[jgraz]

9. Because if we'd given Cheney all the power he wanted, he wouldn't have ordered the attack

Sounds simple to me.

[crikkett]

11. Excellent comeback!

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. Because a PDB entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the U.S." just didn't do it.

:eyes:

[jimshoes]

4. Yes, it appears that they were

and they didn't. Criminals all.

[spanone]

5. go cheney yourself mr cheney

he must be astounded that the democrats still buy that 'soft of terrorism' bullshit

[elehhhhna]

6. THIS IS HUGH!!11! Rate it UP!!!!1!!!11 These are HIGH CRIMES, people.

[Mika]

8. They're not spying on terra-ists. They're spying on libruls and other enemies.

:wow:

[Ahpook]

10. The lies are getting terrible.

I hope any fucking idiot can see through this garbage

That's the part that is worrying me the most. They don't even care to lie GOOD anymore.

And if they could spy they could have stopped it? Anyone else see a problem in there?

[Canuckistanian]

12. They already had UNTRANSLATED EVIDENCE!

They could have done all the wiretapping in the world but wouldn't have had enough Arabic speakers to make sense of it all.

Raw data collection is one thing, ANALYSIS is quite another.

[BuyingThyme]

13. Cheney says he may have been able to handle it.

Actually, he says he could have. I guess he didn't feel like it.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Guess he had a bird hunt that weekend

It's HARD WORK vice-presidentin'

[eridani]

18. Too busy with the maps of Iraq's oil fields n/t

[BuyingThyme]

14. ..

[defendandprotect]

16. Also, two of the "alleged" hijackers were on the FBI's 24 Hour Watch List . . ..

yet they supposedly bought tickets for these flights in their own names using credit cards !!!!

Are they stupid or are we --- ????

[defendandprotect]

17. And Putin had a list of the hijackers names and the plans to hit skyscrapers . . .

he finally went to the United Nations with the info because he was so concerned that Bush was ignoring it ---

The United Nations Security Council in August 2001 sent representatives to the White House and to our intelligence agencies with the information . . . .

Just as many other nations had been doing for months and months ---!!!!

Still . . . OPERATION IGNORE --

There's only one conclusion that can be drawn from this ignorning of intelligence. . . .
including what Richard Clarke was telling Bush -- and others telling Ashcroft --
Ashcroft told them NOT to come back talking about terrorists again!!!

[InternalDialogue]

19. He's right.

The FISA court never would have approved a warrant to tap conversations between plotting terrorists.

:sarcasm:

[BuyingThyme]

20. .erom ecnO