[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Editorial Week of April 21, 2002
9-11 Congressional Panel Should Demand Answers
by Philip Roberto
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) made news this week when she accused President George Bush of having advance knowledge of the September 11th terrorist attacks and doing nothing to prevent it, which was as good as charging the President with high treason and conspiracy to commit mass murder. McKinney has also called for a Congressional investigation.
PoliticsOL.com believes that such accusations are not helpful unless McKinney can present irrefutable proof to back up her charges. Though conservatives now have a taste of their own medicine that some of them dished out in making similarly preposterous charges against President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, that in no way should condone what McKinney said.
Rather, both 'days of infamy' were the result of complacency, massive intelligence failures, intra-agency communication breakdowns, inadequate Congressional funding and oversight, and irresponsible military command decisions at the time of the attacks.
Free Newsletter
Get the scoop on important legislation, Congressional action, election updates, hard-hitting political commentary, the latest developments in the War on Terror...and more! Just enter your email address below.
Privacy: Your name and email address will be confidential - never rented, never sold.
The 107th Congress is working to approve a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the 9-11 attacks [Why a commission? Aren't they up for the task?]. But, rather than chase after a conspiracy theory that has no basis at this time, we'd rather see answers to the following questions:
Was Iraq in any way behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, as it was in that year's thwarted assassination attempt on former President George Bush?
Is there any connection between the mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Ramzi Youssef, and Terry Nichols, co-conspirator of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City?
Was Abdul Hakim Murrad, a former roommate of Youssef's in the Philippines and who was charged in plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners in 1995, an Iraqi agent -- along with Youssef?
After Algerian terrorists were thwarted in a 1994 attempt to crash a hijacked airliner into the Eiffel Tower and Philippine authorities alerted U.S. intelligence agencies of a 1995 plot to hijack an airliner and crash it into CIA headquarters, why didn't alarm bells start ringing in CIA Director George Tenet's head in August the very moment he was informed that Zacarias Moussaoui was picked up in Minnesota?
Who at the Department of Justice denied the search warrants that field agents requested in order to search Moussaoui's computer? After all, you have in custody someone who wants to learn only how to steer a jumbo jet, you are told by French intelligence officials that bin Laden is plotting to hijack commercial jets and that Moussaoui might be connected to al Qaeda. You shouldn't need agents named Mulder and Scully in order to make the case for a search warrant.
Why is Attorney General John Ashcroft more worried about placing drapes over statues at the Justice Department than he is about finding out why the FBI blew the chance at uncovering the whole 9-11 plot?
Why is George Tenet still the Director of the CIA?
Why did it take so long for air traffic controllers to notify NORAD that American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked out of Boston? What is the excuse for the crucial 18 minute delay in Boston air traffic controllers notifying North American Aerospace Defense Command that AA 11's transponder signal was lost? Why did NORAD waste another six minutes before notifying Otis Air Force Base [two F-15 fighter jets took off some six minutes after that]? Had Air Force fighter jets taken off 20 minutes earlier than they did, the F-15's would almost certainly have intercepted United Airlines Flight 175 before it slammed into the south tower of the World Trade Center and, possibly, even American Airlines Flight 11 [which hit the north tower].
Vice President Dick Cheney claims that as he watched live on television at the White House, UAL 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center and he said he immediately thought "terrorism." Therefore, it seems he may not even have known of the hijackings. Why wasn't he told, since NORAD and the President had already been notified? He certainly wasn't told of American Airlines Flight 77 [the airliner that slammed into the Pentagon], which was hijacked near the Ohio-West Virginia border and was able to fly all the way back to D.C. without anyone warning the Vice President of the danger until it was too late had the target been the White House.
After AA Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, why wasn't fighter aircraft put up above Washington, D.C. immediately, which could have intercepted Flight 77? When fighters were finally sent aloft, why did they take off from Langley AFB in Norfolk, Virginia? Are the allegations true that the D.C. Air National Guard had fighters ready to take off from Andrews AFB, just outside of D.C., but they weren't ordered to take off? Why weren't they scrambled instead?
Why did the Republican-controlled Congress -- with former President Bill Clinton's approval -- slash defense appropriations to such low levels that there were only a reported dozen or so jet fighters ready to be scrambled on the morning of September 11th out of a pathetic total of only 60 combat aircraft to protect the entire continental United States and that Canadian Air Force fighter jets were needed to help patrol the northeastern United States later that day?
It is now six months after 9-11. Why hasn't the Congress fixed the broken student visa system yet? Why hasn't the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which can't even recognize the name "Mohamed Atta" on a visa, been ordered to clean up its act?
Why is James Ziglar still the Commissioner of the INS?
Why do we continue to allow possible terrorists onboard commercial aircraft bound for the United States and check watch-lists while the planes are in flight? Given that many of these flights are from countries that lack vigilant security and are aircraft without secure cockpit doors, is another suicide hijacking inevitable?
Why did former President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress cut back funds to the Navy so drastically that our reduced aircraft carrier force needed to have six month deployments during Operation Enduring Freedom?
Why, as Tom Brokaw's recent "Ship of War" news show on NBC this past week documented, do we have sailors making only $16,000 a year? Why hasn't Congress pressed for better pay for the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend our country?
Why is Saddam Hussein still allowed to thumb his nose at U.N. weapons inspectors when the inspections were part of a still valid cease fire agreement? Why are we still buying Iraqi oil?
...and so on.
These are the questions that need to be asked, not wasting time on McKinney's wild assertions.
However, it remains to be seen whether the Congress has the intestinal fortitude to seek those answers, answers that are likely to put much responsibility for the failing to prevent the 9-11 disaster on former President Clinton and a Republican-controlled Congress that were far too engaged in intern chasing, political bickering and budget cutting than they were in defending the United States and its citizens.
Philip Roberto is the Editor of PoliticsOL.com and a veteran political activist. Sign up to receive his FREE valuable e-book on E-Activism, How to Advocate Your Cause on the Internet, at: http://www.politicsol.com/ebook.html
PoliticsOL.com believes that such accusations are not helpful unless McKinney can present irrefutable proof to back up her charges. Though conservatives now have a taste of their own medicine that some of them dished out in making similarly preposterous charges against President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, that in no way should condone what McKinney said.
Philip Roberto is the Editor of