Monday, April 05, 2004
Amazing; Farcical; Deeply Troubling
Leaders of 9/11 Panel Say Attacks Were Probably PreventableAmazing:
WASHINGTON, April 4 — The leaders of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks agreed Sunday that evidence gathered by their panel showed the attacks could probably have been prevented.Farcical:
Also appearing on "Meet the Press," Karen P. Hughes, one of Mr. Bush's closest political advisers and an important strategist for his re-election campaign, rejected the suggestion that the attacks could have been prevented.I love this. On one side, you have Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic House member from Indiana. One the other side, you have
"I just don't think, based on everything I know, and I was there, that there was anything that anyone in government could have done to have put together the pieces before the horror of that day," Ms. Hughes said. "If we could have in either administration, either in the eight years of the Clinton administration or the seven and a half months of the Bush administration, I'm convinced we would have done so."
Does anyone seem to care that the major Bush administration figure heading up their national security argument is the freaking campaign advisor?
Deeply Troubling:
The commission has said it intends to make its final report public on July 26, which Congress has set as the commission's deadline, although Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton said there could be a struggle with the White House over whether the full document can be declassified. Large portions of the Congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks remain secret at the insistence of the White House.But hey, November or December might not be so bad, right?
Mr. Kean said Andrew H. Card Jr., President Bush's chief of staff, had set up a special declassification team to "look at the report in an expedited manner and try to get it out just as fast as possible — nobody has an interest in this thing coming out in September or October in the middle of the election."
posted by Blicero : 4/05/2004 03:17:00 PM
