Condoleeza Riceīs Testimony:
Not only she refused to aknowledge to any mistakes, both on her part and in the entire admin. part, she even appeared as cocky and almost defiant.
Hadnīt it been for a few accute questions from Ben-Veniste and Roemer, this entire hearing would have been a complete charade.
Instead of answers, i think the hearing left more questions unanswered than before. Are they going to declassify the August 6 PDB? If the title was as sugestive as she said, it would be safe to assume the briefing was centered on the Al-Qaeda issue. And if so, why didnīt they summon the foremost expert they had, to discusse it with the president?
Iīll grant her, there wasnīt any "silver bullit". But maybe they could have placed a couple of flies in the oyntment, like arresting one or two of them, keep them under surveillence, and maybe prevent one or more jets being highjacked!
Honestly, i think the Bush admin allowed it to happen. Maybe they couldnīt stop it entirelly, simply because they wanted something to happen.
They were hoping for a "disaster" to happen, so they could push some reforms in, and change a few policies. Letīs go over a few quotes from Dr. Condy Rice, that you can read in full
HERE:
"But I just don't believe that bringing the principals over to the White House every day and having their counterterrorism people have to come with them and be pulled away from what they were doing to disrupt was a good way to go about this. It wasn't an efficient way to go about it."
Oh, I see! Then those high level meetings are counterproductive, are they? So whatīs the point of having them? Or maybe those meetings are actually social gatherings, where they sit drinking and eating beluga caviar with their fingers, and discuss "important" issues, like the shitty season the Chicago Bulls are having, uh?
I donīt follow! First she says the principals didnīt communicate enough, and now she says the meetings are worthless? Bugger me if i understand why...
"And I think that the unfortunate -- and I really do think it's extremely tragic -- fact is that sometimes until there is a catastrophic event that forces people to think differently, that forces people to overcome all customs and old culture and old fears about domestic intelligence and the relationship, that you don't get that kind of change."
Itīs not the first quote iīve read where the Bush administration seems to have almost wished for the disaster to happen, in order to push those long overdue "changes". They couldnīt "prevent" 9/11, because they didnīt
want to. The only problem is that they got more than they had bargained for, and the
disaster they wished for turned out to be slightly bigger than they anticipated.
"Dick Clarke never asked me to brief the president on counterterrorism. He did brief the president later on cybersecurity, in July, but he, to my recollection, never asked."
Well well well, someone is lying here, but i wonder who? :indeed:
"Mr. Roemer, threat reporting is: "We believe that something is going to happen here and at this time, under these circumstances." This was not threat reporting."
To Dr.Rice, threat reporting is when they get a terrorist to hand them the time, place, and M.O. in a silver platter! What is she babbling about??
Do they expect the terrorists to walk into the local FBI headquarters and say "We are going to strike here, here, and here, at this hour, using this M.O.. So you better move your ass and arrest us to prevent it"?
Acording to her, the only time when its mandatory to have any action is when they find an orgy of evidence, laying around for them to pick it up. But since that only happens in bad movies, does this mean the CIA is sitting on their asses waiting for the next terrorist to come barging in through the door to spill his guts in an act of contrition?
"You say that the FBI was tasked with trying to find out what the domestic threat was.
We have done thousands of interviews here at the 9/11 Commission. We've gone through literally millions of pieces of paper. To date, we have found nobody -- nobody at the FBI who knows anything about a tasking of field offices.
We have talked to the director at the time of the FBI during this threat period, Mr. Pickard. He says he did not tell the field offices to do this.
And we have talked to the special agents in charge. They don't have any recollection of receiving a notice of threat."
TIMOTHY J. ROEMER, COMMISSION MEMBER
Condy Rice claims that she ordered an FBI task force to
investigate the latest threat spykes, but the comission found nothing that even resembles that. So, if the field offices didnīt get the message, where did the pipeline went broke? Or maybe the message wasnīt ever sent in the first place?
"I have no recolection..."
"I donīt remember anything..."
"I was not aware."
"I do not believe I was aware of that."
For a so well briefed and informed person, who remembers a speech given by one of the comission members years ago, she seems to have forgotten a great deal of things, wouldnīt you say? In the words of one of the members, this whole thing is "
hooey"!! :indeed:
"I don't believe in beating dead horses, but there's a bunch of lame ones running around here today. Let's see if we can't finally push them out the door."Quote from JAMES R. THOMPSON, COMMISSION MEMBER.
Thereīs a couple of "lame horses" around here also. Better get my whip!!
