She Wears Skirts Because All Her Pants Are Aflame
By now most of you have probably heard about today's NY Times story regarding all the warnings given to the White House pre-9/11 regarding Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the possibilty of airplane hijackings and suicide operations. The question, of course, is why that report was sequestered until today.
"The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if 'the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable.'
"The report takes the F.A.A. to task for failing to pursue domestic security measures that could conceivably have altered the events of Sept. 11, 2001, like toughening airport screening procedures for weapons or expanding the use of on-flight air marshals. The report, completed last August, said officials appeared more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays, and easing airlines' financial woes than deterring a terrorist attack.
"The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system. The administration provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago and, even with heavy redactions in some areas, the declassified version provides the firmest evidence to date about the warnings that aviation officials received concerning the threat of an attack on airliners and the failure to take steps to deter it."
Naturally, the fact that there was an election coming up, and the fact that Condi Rice lied her piano-playing, ice-skating ass off about those reports to the 9/11 Commission had absolutely nothing to do with that delay. Nothing whatsoever. No sir. How could you even think that?
It's just outrage after outrage with these bastards, isn't it? Every day, there's another revelation of duplicity and incompetence and corruption, to the point where even those of us paying attention have a hard time keeping up. I suppose that's probably the point.
"The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if 'the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable.'
"The report takes the F.A.A. to task for failing to pursue domestic security measures that could conceivably have altered the events of Sept. 11, 2001, like toughening airport screening procedures for weapons or expanding the use of on-flight air marshals. The report, completed last August, said officials appeared more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays, and easing airlines' financial woes than deterring a terrorist attack.
"The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system. The administration provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago and, even with heavy redactions in some areas, the declassified version provides the firmest evidence to date about the warnings that aviation officials received concerning the threat of an attack on airliners and the failure to take steps to deter it."
Naturally, the fact that there was an election coming up, and the fact that Condi Rice lied her piano-playing, ice-skating ass off about those reports to the 9/11 Commission had absolutely nothing to do with that delay. Nothing whatsoever. No sir. How could you even think that?
It's just outrage after outrage with these bastards, isn't it? Every day, there's another revelation of duplicity and incompetence and corruption, to the point where even those of us paying attention have a hard time keeping up. I suppose that's probably the point.
posted by Generik at 4:44 PM
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