Babs Is Unhinged
From BarbaraStreisand.com:Finally ... finally we can talk about what's really going on. Rather than accept the myth that 9/11 turned President Bush into a "hero" ... former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke has bravely spoken out to tell us the real story - that Bush did not treat terrorism as an urgent issue. And that going to war in Iraq, in addition to tragically costing us so many lives, has diverted money and resources away from where they should have been focused - on dismantling al Qaeda and strengthening our homeland security.Isn't it funny how a commission that was supposed to focused on what happened on 9/11 and how it could be prevented in the future has turned into a forum to discuss Iraq? I thought you hamsters didn't think 9/11 and Iraq had any links?
We now know that the Bush White House never made counterterrorism a priority leading up to September 11th. In fact, on April 30, 2001, the new administration released the government's annual report on terrorism, with a noted change: extensive mention of bin Laden, which previous terrorism reports contained, had been left out. A Bush State Department Official reportedly told CNN at that time that the U.S. government under Clinton had made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden.Really. How about you reportedly giving us the link for that assertion. I wonder which "Bush State Department Official" we're talking about here. I get the distinct impression from Clarke and Rice that there was a focus on terrorism. The President wanted to eliminate al Qaeda. Clarke wanted to roll al Qaeda back. The plan to eliminate al Qaeda didn't get finished until Setember 4, 2001, too late to prevent 9/11. And according to Clarke's testimony, under oath and in public, even if the adminsitration had enacted each and every one of his suggestions the day after the inauguration, 9/11 would not have been prevented.
In fact, Bush never even held a cabinet level meeting devoted to terrorism until the week before the attack. While FBI agents were fielding concerns about non-citizens in flight school uninterested in learning how to land planes, and the CIA was aware that potential terrorists had entered the United States, because terrorism was not a priority in the high levels of the federal government these discussions were never elevated to a place where the information could be shared across departments, where the appropriate people would have an opportunity to connect the dots...In fact, the Clinton administration made it law that the intelligence agencies (that's the FBI and CIA for you hamsters out there) couldn't share information with each other. If that catastrophic mistake hadn't been made, perhaps these guys would have been able to make a stronger case for high level discussions. While we're at it, because of the Gore shenanigans, the Bush adminsitration got a late start getting a number of significant administration posts filled.
Here is a brief timeline (much of the information is from the Center for American Progress) of some of the more egregious warnings of looming terrorism that Bush overlooked as he spent the first eight months in office planning tax cuts for the wealthy, devising a way to invade Iraq, and taking long vacations out at his ranch in Crawford, Texas:The Center of american Progress...a leftist organization. Now there is a credible source.
Those tax cuts that you hate so much Babs, went to 100% of Americans, not just the wealthy. We had to get out from under the Clinton/Gore recession and the tax cuts worked.
Devising a way to invade Iraq? Uhh, no...hamsters like to think that the Bush administration had some sort of obsession with Iraq, but if you go back and look at the period, you will see that the new administration was more concerned about China, not Iraq.
as for "long vacations," I'll point out that the President of the United States is NEVER away from the job. No matter where the President is (and that includes Clinton, Carter, and whatever other hamster President you want to talk about) the President has the ability to do the job. There are no vacations for the President. It has been well documented. Only hamsters think that President Bush was lounging in Texas, but anybody who knows anything about the office of the President knows that just isn't possible.
1) A 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council specifically theorized that al Qaeda could fly airplanes into buildings - so we know that the scope of the attack was not entirely beyond anyone's imagination.I'll grant that statement was rather silly. I think what the administration's position was that they didn't think it was a realistic scenario, not that they didn't think it could be done. At least that's my read of the situation.
2) In early 2001, a surge of al Qaeda activity and plans for attacks against American "interests" were noted, including by Israeli intelligence agencies.How about all the al Qaeda activity in the eight years prior to the Bush inauguration, hamster? Not hearing you complain about all that?
3) Also in early 2001, the Bush administration departed from Clinton's policy of tracking money to terrorist organizations. (Was Bush trying to protect the Saudi royal family?)I've never heard this one before. Is there a source or citation that is credible for this assertion or is this another fabrication?
4) In July 2001, U.S. and Italian officials were warned that al Qaeda may use planes as missiles at a Genoa summit of industrialized nations.Uh huh...I'll remind the hamster audience that until that evil, dreaded Patriot Act, our intelligence agencies weren't allowed to talk to each other. Which officials were told? Source/citiation that is credible, please...
5) On August 6, 2001, while on vacation in Crawford, the president received a one and a half page briefing advising him that al Qaeda was capable of a major strike against the U.S., and that the plot could include the hijacking of American airplanes. And then what did the president do with this important information? He went fishing - bringing new meaning to the phrase, "Gone Fishin'"!Riiiiiiiiiight! A one and a half page report should have given the President sufficient information to stop the whole plot! Because, afterall, it was all spelled out in black and white!
Speaking of "Gone Fishin,'" how 'bout that 9/11 Commission, eh?
6) In July, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airlines because of a "threat assessment."That John ashcroft, he's evil. He stopped flying on commercial airlines because he knew! Do you hamsters honestly think that the Attorney General flies on TWA?
7) Newsweek has reported that on September 10th, 2001, a number of Pentagon officials canceled travel plans for the next morning due to security concerns, and "that as many as 10 to 12 warnings" were issued before 9/11 - "more than two of the warnings specifically mentioned the possibility of hijackings."Hey! Have you heard that we shot down a UFO and captured aliens in Roswell? Yeah, we keep them in Hanger 18 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Ms. Streisand, you black helicopter is ready...
8) Also on September 10th (as I posted in a statement on November 21, 2002), Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected the FBI's request for a $58 million increase for their counterterrorism budget to pay for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators. He did that despite the fact, discovered later by a Congressional investigation, that the FBI had only one analyst monitoring al Qaeda and a severe shortage of Arabic translators.And let me guess, Babs, if Ashcroft had okayed that, the FBI would have prevented 9/11! Uh-huh...
Soon after September 11th, Condoleezza Rice said, "I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." And now Bush says, "Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people." Did he really say this? I heard it on the radio but I couldn't believe my own ears. Indeed, the scope of the horror of 9/11 is beyond the realm of what even the most savvy threat assessors may have thought possible.I think what the President was saying, and I'll explain it to you hamster because the President is so much smarter than you, is that he didn't believe that anybody had thought that the events that transpired on 9/11 were something that anybody could believe would ever happen. You see, the President is an optomist. He would like to believe that people are good. That evil of this magnitude could be conceived of and carried out just wasn't something that anybody thought would happen. Not that it couldn't happen, but that it would happen. It is apparent that folks in the intelligence community were thinking along these lines, but as Babs says, "the scope of the horror of 9/11 is beyond the realm of what even the most savvy threat assessors may have thought possible." There you have it.
However ... as the brief timeline above shows, THE PRESIDENT WAS REPEATEDLY WARNED that al Qaeda was planning some sort of attack, and that the attack may involve airplanes. So these are my questions:Uh-huh...Babs, I'm sure Al Gore would have negotiated with the terrorists on 9/10 and offered them trees or something if they would just go away... Yeah, that would have worked.
-WHY DIDN'T OUR GOVERNMENT DO MORE TO BEEF UP SECURITY AT AIRPORTS AND ON AIRPLANES?I DON'T KNOW WHY WE'RE SCREAMING, BUT OKAY...I'LL PLAY.
IT MIGHT INTEREST YOU TO KNOW, BABS, THAT AIRPORT/AIRLINE SECURITY WAS A TOPIC THAT AL GORE HEADED A COMMITTEE ON. DID YOU KNOW THAT AL GORE CUT THE SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE REQUEST OF THE AIRLINES? DID YOU KNOW THAT THE AIRLINES THEN GAVE RATHER GENEROUS DONATIONS TO YOUR FRIENDS?
-WHY WEREN'T WARNINGS ISSUED TO THOSE ENTRUSTED TO PROTECT OUR FLIGHT SECURITY?BECAUSE BILL CLINTON MADE SURE THAT OUR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES COULDN'T TALK TO EACH OTHER. THE REAL QUESTION OUGHT TO BE, WHY DIDN'T PRESIDENT BUSH OVERTURN THIS THAT LAW BILL CLINTON SIGNED?
-ISN'T LEADERSHIP ABOUT ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY, ANTICIPATING THE UNFATHOMABLE, HEEDING WARNINGS AND FIRMLY ACTING UPON THEM?I THOUGHT YOU LIBS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP WAS ALL ABOUT GETTING SOME PLAY? WHAT WOULD YOU PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT TAKING RESPONSBILITY...BILL CLINTON WAS OFFERED OSAMA FOUR TIMES AND DID NOTHING. AL QAEDA ATTACKED THE USS COLE AND CLINTON DID NOTHING. AL QAEDA ATTACKED NUMEROUS A COUPLE OF AMERICAN EMBASSIES AND CLINTON DID NOTHING. DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY AND LEADERSHIP WITHOUT CRITICIZING BILL CLINTON.
-WHEN THE PRESIDENT RECEIVED A MEMO THAT HIJACKINGS OF AMERICAN PLANES MIGHT OCCUR, SHOULDN'T HE HAVE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN ACTION?WHERE IS YOUR PROOF THAT HE RECEIVED A MEMO ABOUT HIJACKINGS? AND ISN'T THAT REALLY A LAW ENFORCEMENT PROBLEM? SHOULDN'T THE FBI BE HANDLING THAT SORT OF ACTIVITY? I MEAN, REALLY, SHOULD THE WHITE HOUSE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR INVESTIGATING EVERY CRIME THAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN AMERICA? I DON'T THINK SO...
I DO BELIEVE THAT EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN THAT TRULY CARES ABOUT THIS COUNTRY, AND LEARNS THE FACTS, WOULD HAVE TO SERIOUSLY ASK THESE QUESTIONS ... AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT IN NOVEMBER!Oh, Babs, I intend to...I'll be voting for GEORGE W. BUSH!
