Eric Renderking
Fisk asks, What does the 9-11 Commision final report meant to you and
who's to blame for September 11th, 2001?
July 22nd, 2004
COMMISSIONING
A WORK OF FICTION
Prelude
to Partisanship
During the past few months as I’ve been
observing the final stages of the 9-11 Commission I’ve come to the
conclusion that partisanship will literally kill a lot of us. Using a
distasteful fairy tale analogy, after the Big Bad Wolf blows down each
house, the three pigs are standing around arguing which of the three of
them are at fault as they’re rebuilding. As the Three Pigs: a Democrat,
A Republican, and a member of the media (the three major networks,
FOXnews, Michael Moore… take your pick) are fighting, The Big Bad Wolf
is making plans to blow down another house and sneaking more of his
friends in to help.
During this election year (in fact, since the
last one in 2000), there’s a lot of talking and yelling going on, but
there isn’t a lot of listening. Problems aren’t getting solved, and if
one person comes up with a good idea on how to fix what’s wrong he can
guarantee that half of the people are going to hate it just because of
the side of the room he sits on politically… vote for the solution then
later say he would have voted against, thinking it would get him
re-elected. The same is true in the War On Terror.
We’re hearing too much about what you CAN’T
do… you can’t profile against Muslims, you can’t deny people entry into
the United States from countries who harbor terrorism. Most idiotic of
all: You can’t round up illegal aliens who are here under expired visas
or came here through our inadequate borders.
Meanwhile, as the partisan fighting is going
on, the Big Bad Wolf is moving on, hiding in Grandma’s bed somewhere in
the middle east planning a bigger attack… bigger then before. Next
time, a city might be leveled using a Russian nuke (1) bought on the
black market or using chemicals they’ve stolen… whatever. It’s my
nightmare that one night my wife might not come home because those in
the government aren’t doing their jobs.
Maybe worst of all, I’ve learned to hate most
politicians regardless of the party. It’s not the Republicans, it’s not
the Democrats, it’s the politicians... period!
Testament
to a Prefabricated Fantasy
During National Security Adviser Dr.
Condoleezza Rice’s testimony, I was beside myself as I about her
involvement with the country’s security before September 11th 2001. The
attitude of all the Democratic members of the panel was: Stop talking
about how the Clinton Administration dismantled the Intelligence
agencies over two terms… you had 8 MONTHS! What did you do in that
time? That wasn’t the last time I felt as if the Commission on the
Terrorist attack on September 11th 2001 was a show.
Through out all of the September 11th Panel,
one thing is absolutely clear: obsolving one particular political party
of any guilt is far more important then getting to the bottom of what
led to that horrific day. Nobody seems to remember the endless gutting
of the CIA and the FBI during the Clinton years, how they were
under-funded and understaffed. And when they do, left-wing partisans
insist that Clinton had to do what he had to do because of the
“industry wide corruption” that actually encouraged REAL “corruption”
if they were ever going to get anything done.
Those on the left who are hammering the Bush
administration for sending our soldiers into combat “unprepared” and
that we don’t have the “infrastructure nor the manpower”, are being
absentminded of the countless military base closures during the Clinton
Administration.
The Clinton Administration had done what the
eastern bloc communist countries failed to do during the cold war…
render the intelligence community and the military virtually USELESS
while we were experiencing the best economic growth via the “Peace
Dividend”.
In all fairness against Bush… what was this
administration doing in the 8 months before September 11th? Why wasn’t
there a review of the inner workings of both the CIA and the FBI and
why weren’t the barriers torn down once they were found? If there were
memos and reports that Islamic fundamentalists were learning how to fly
planes into buildings… why didn’t anyone do something? If there were
barriers, why weren’t emergency Executive Orders written to tear those
walls down?
What he has done in creating a Department of
Homeland Security doesn’t seem to be much more then a showpiece for the
citizens and potential voters in this year’s election. Granted, when
there is an elevated threat of another terrorist attack, we see the
“Warnings”, but airline travel isn’t any safer which is clearly
illustrated in this two part series in the Women’s Wall Street Journal:
Links (2) and (3).
You’re
not part of the Solution; You’re part of the Problem.
Thanks to Attorney General John Ashcroft and
his testimony before the September 11th 2001 commission, the focus of
that commission had temporarily changed to one of partisanship and one
of the actual members on that panel. Jamie Gorelick is a name that
doesn’t ring any bells because of her obscurity in Clintonian lore. She
was the Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno during the Clinton
administration and was working on prosecuting the fundamental Islamic
terrorists who tried to destroy the Twin World Trade Towers the first
time over 10 years ago. During that time, she was the “architect” of
the now famous “Wall Memo” that prevented branches of the FBI or the
CIA from talking to each other… crippling once and for all the
aforementioned agencies. Irony or clandestine opportunism… Gorelick is
now serving on the September 11th panel, the event that she may have
single-handedly (or perhaps underhandedly) made possible on September
11th, 2001 (and perhaps the Oklahoma City Bombing and hampered the
possible Islamic Terrorist connections with the downing of TWA Flight
800 in July 17, 1996.) If this commission was about finding the flaws
in the system, then perhaps Jamie Gorelick should have stepped down as
one of the panel members and taken accountability for some of her
actions that lead to the breakdown in the Intelligence infrastructure.
To make matters worse, there’s no way the
September 11th commission could ever be complete or accurate due to the
events, which lead to a news story about missing documents in the
National Archives. During the same week the Final Report was to be
released, this Tuesday the news outlets carried the story that Samuel
Berger, former President Clinton's National Security Adviser, is now
under investigation for “lifting” top secret documents from the
National Archives. Many of these documents were memos and hand-written
documents that include details of the failed “Millennium” terrorist
attack during the New Year’s celebration 2001, terrorist threats to
this nation by Al-Qaeda and other notes on terrorist activity
throughout the world during the Clinton administration. (4)
While much of what Mr. Berger has taken has
been recovered, much still remains missing. What could be on those
documents might never be known, and from this moment on the questions
and debates that will have been initiated from this event will be the
fuel for conservative conspiracy theorists for ages to come. While
those documents remain missing, the Final Report by September 11th 2001
which will be released on July 22nd can never be absolutely complete.
The most we can indeed hope for are the suggestions on how to improve
the Intelligence community and ways to prevent the next terrorist
attack.
As I said on Monday, July 19th, on a local
radio talk show, I would appreciate that the officials in our own
government not be like Chicken Little yelling about one part of the sky
falling when it isn't while another part is… the part they don't want
to address and they can prevent. I said this in the context of our
“Terror Alerts” pertaining to the Democratic National Convention
starting on July 26th. They're virtually closing up the city of Boston
during the convention next week... but leaving the airport open. All
the roads are closed to traffic within parts of the city to everything
but foot traffic and bikes, The highways are closed period, and the
harbor is "secure", but the airport... nope. Flights will be leaving
Logan Airport on time. Now... the jets that crashed into the Twin
Towers- where did they come from? Do you see my point?
We are being inundated by stories that hardly
anything has changed since September 11th, 2001: A sentiment I’m sure
will be echoed in the Commissions Final Report due this week, if they
did at least half their jobs right.(5)
I’m not nearly being hard enough on
politicians. Everything is all about protecting “The Party” and it’s
members with the attitude: “We’re always right, they’re always wrong”.
Politicians and their lawyers will contort logic, reason and even the
law to explain away any wrong doing with out taking any responsibility
for what they have done. Politicians have taken the “by any means
necessary” attitude to cover their own backsides, but won’t take that
same attitude in doing their jobs to protect their constituencies.
Democrats and Republicans all are so concerned
and upset about the wrong doings of the other party in the past,
they’re ignoring the absolute immediate needs of the present and the
potential horror in the near future. The Three Little Pigs are fighting
over hay, straw or brick (Immigration, Foreign policy, Or the Patriot
Act) while The Big Bad Wolf is now trying to find ways of blowing our
houses down in units of Mega-tons.
The
Connection… You’re on your own.
From my observation for the proceedings of the
September 11th 2001, I have to repeat myself again from a previous
rant: We’re being treated like sheep and we’re being thrown to the
wolves by the same people who are spending our tax dollars to protect
us. While they’ve been fighting about who’s to blame they’re not taking
the time or putting in the full effort to make sure this is not
happening again.
We’re all being asked to go to sites like
Ready.gov and “Make a kit”, “Make a Plan”, and “Be Informed”. Between
the lines, we’re supposed to become civilian soldiers, state-side
vigilantes without crossing the line. Granted, I’m tickled that more
then a few of us are going to the local Army/Navy store and stocking up
on surplus clothes and weapons… but isn’t there a more efficient way to
fight the War on Terror? Starting with our agencies actually DOING
their jobs?
We’re all faced with the absolute certainty
that there’s going to be another attack, thanks to the Madrid Train
bombing and the Philippines pulling out of Iraq… or at least that’s
what we’re being told by the Department of Homeland Security that’s
cried Wolf.
Supported Links
(1) “Nuclear arms reportedly found in Iraq”
(2) “Terror in The Skies… Again: Part I”
(3) “Terror in The Skies… Again: Part II”
(4) “Federal probe targets Clinton's national security
adviser. "
(5) ”GAO: Air marshal cuts had 'minimal' impact.”
