After yesterday's revelations by the White House in a pathetic excuse for a press release, I am reminded of a quote used by two of my favorite authors, "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence". I sincerely hope that this is the case now. I, along with most of the country, would like to believe that the President and his advisors simply missed the warnings from Echelon, from the FBI, from the CIA, and from five different foreign intelligence agencies.
It is easy to believe that the Bush team felt that the idea that 25 Arab men who were learning to fly airliners at U.S. flight schools on student visas were going to hijack airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center. If I wasn't a fan of Tom Clancy novels, I wouldn't believe such a thing either. But then I don't claim to be a foreign relations expert/defense expert like Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, or Donald Rumsfeld, either. These would be the people responsible for evaluating the information that Ari Fleischer tossed aside as nonspecific last night, and they are supposed to be experts. Of course, their expertise tends to be of the outdated, fight the Soviet Union in Central Europe variety, or the South American coup starting variety, or the rigging American election variety (oh, wait, that would Katherine Harris).
Unfortunately, a look at the evidence begins to lead me to a conclusion that is much worse than simple incompetence, and makes me feel like a conspiracy theorist. The two options I am left with after incompetence are that:
1. The Bush Administration knew, and decided that the attacks would not cause the damage they did to the WTC, but thought it could use the attacks to push through all sorts of things on its wish list, including more money for the military, revenge on the Taliban for not selecting UNOCAL for the Caspian pipeline, and the items in the USA PATRIOT Act.
2. The Bush Administration helped in some way with the execution of the attacks for the above reasons.
The attacks also let the President appear, well, Presidential for a change instead of a bumbling idiot.
The Evidence
Let's start with the newest piece of evidence that the Administration (and the FBI) took the possibility that the hijacking threat was real: this July 2001 article says that Attorney General John Ashcroft began flying military aircraft when he traveled for "security reasons". Previously, the only cabinet officers to so so were from the State and Defense Departments. I guess the FBI was taking it more seriously than Ari Fleischer would have us believe.
I mentioned yesterday that FEMA was deployed to New York City in the days leading up to September 11th. I haven't been able to find the article that information appeared in, but I found it on Buzzflash.com, which has headlines that are a bit over the top, but most of the links point to articles in the mainstream press. FEMA being there implies a level of foreknowledge that really frightens me. If we knew enough to deploy FEMA, why didn't we warn the citizens? Why didn't we evacuate the buildings?
In the past two weeks there have been accusations from FBI agents that their superiors ignored warnings about Arab men that were learning to fly airliners, but didn't really seem interested in landing. The men under suspicion included the September 11 hijacker, and Moussaoui, who is now on trial for his alleged role. Why weren't these men questioned, watched, or detained? Why were they allowed to board the planes?
Here are some more tasty tidbits:
* According to the September 14, 2001 edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German intelligence service warned US and Israeli intelligence that Middle East terrorists were, "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture," in June. The only way to get more specific is to announce the date and the target. This warning was evidently ignored. I hope.
* According to Le Figaro, on June 13th Egypt warned that an airplane loaded with explosives would be used in a terrorist attack. This warning was taken seriously enough that Italy deployed antiaircraft batteries around Genoa during the G-8 conference because an Ossama bin Laden video tape spoke of using this method to assassinate world leaders, including President George W. Bush.
Russian intelligence notified the CIA during the summer that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In an interview September 15 with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered
* Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings.
* During the summer of 2001, Russian intelligence notified the US that 25 terrorist pilots were training for suicide missions. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings in an interview with MSNBC.
* According to London's Sunday Telegraph, the Israeli intelligence service delivered a warning to American intelligence services in August 2001 that followers of Osama bin Laden were entering the country to prepare "a major assault on the United States." The advisory spoke of a "large-scale target" in which Americans would be "very vulnerable." The Los Angeles Times confirmed that US officials had received the warning.
* No US intelligence agency issued warnings related to possible attacks, although it would appear that senior Administration officials were briefed and some department heads were issued warnings.
* $2.5 million in stock profits made when American Airlines and United Airlines stock prices fell have been left unclaimed.
* The CIA has high-level links to the officers of Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the brokerage which many unusual trades were made leading up to September 11th, including trades related to Munich Re and the AXA Group, who insured the WTC. Do we really believe that Ossama bin Laden made these mysterious transactions?
Rumors
There are lots of rumors flying around that I haven't beena able to confirm. If even a few of them are true, we have a serious problem, and there are a slew of Administration officials that need to do some time in prison. Not being at war, I don't think a treason conviction would stick, which is just as well for our fearless leaders.
Here are a few of the rumors:
* The CIA met with Ossama bin Laden in Dubai while he was undergoing dialysis treatments.
* The Bush family has close business ties to the bin Laden family.
* The United States threatened the Taliban with open warfare after the Taliban refused to give UNOCAL a contract for the Caspian Sea oil pipeline.
* Executives from the top floors of the World Trade Center were evacuated shortly before the attack. (A note on this: the WTC's directory of security was killed during the attack, so I don't know that I buy this one.)
* Some of the hijackers rented a house two doors down from some of Ossama bin Laden's family in Falls Church, Va, which happens to be near the CIA's Langley headquarters.
* The flight school in Venice, Fla. that trained some of the hijackers was run by, or associated with, the CIA.
* The Pentagon began work on war plans for Afghanistan several months before the attacks.
What to Do?
Even if all of this is purely circumstantial evidence, it definitely shows that there were multiple warnings of impending attacks from multiple sources. At the very least officials at the CIA, FBI, and in the White House were negligent in their duty to warn the American people of impending attacks, and to do something to prevent them. No steps were taken to warn the airlines. No steps were taken to increase airport security. No Combat Air Patrols were placed over American cities until after the attacks.
So what do we do about it? Congress must insist on a full investigation of the events leading up to September 11th, including Bush Administration ties to Ossama bin Laden, warnings by intelligence agencies, stock purchases, the FEMA deployment, etc.. and the resignations of those involved. If the individuals won't resign they should be impeached. Followed by criminal charges. Three thousand Americans are dead, along with between three thousand and twenty thousand Afghani civilians.
With this hanging over their heads it is no wonder the Bush Administration refuses to recognize the International Criminal Court. They're afraid they'll end up in front of it as war criminals. Finally, Congress should demand the immediate repeal of the USA Patriot Act. We need our civil rights back. Without them the Republic is no more.