The Terrorists Flew and Bush Knew
By William Rivers Pitt
When Andrew Card interrupted the 298th reading of 'The Very Hungry
Caterpillar' by whispering words of fire and death into the ear of George W.
Bush as he sat with school children on September 11th, 2001, Mr. Bush's face
betrayed not a hint of surprise and shock.
Now, we know why.
Governor Jeb Bush of Florida signed Executive Order No. 01-261 on September
7th, 2001, renewing an order signed six months earlier that allowed the
National Guard to be called out in case of emergency. On September 11th, he
used this order to command members of the National Guard into active service
and essentially declared martial law in Florida. When informed of the
attacks in New York and Washington, Governor Bush responded, "Was it the
terrorists?"
Now, we know why.
On the eve of his first State of the Union speech, George W. Bush along with
Vice President Cheney contacted Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and asked
him to soft-pedal any Congressional investigations into the September 11th
attacks. The requests were little more than thinly veiled threats.
Now, we know why.
Virtually every news outlet is buzzing today with the newest revelation:
Bush had been warned in the months before 9/11 of Al Qaida terrorist plans
to hijack airplanes. The White House response to this thunderclap has been
predictably muted: "The administration, based on hijackings, notified the
appropriate agencies," said Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. He did not deign
to reveal which agencies were alerted, nor did he specify the content of the
warning.
Jose Juves, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, the state agency
responsible for security at Boston's Logan Airport, stated in today's Boston
Globe, "The Federal government never handed down any intelligence regarding
hijackings." The two airplanes that destroyed the World Trade Center towers
came from Logan.
Someone is lying.
Fleischer has described the warnings as having been regarding "hijackings in
the traditional sense," and that no one in the administration could have
conceived of a plot to turn commercial airlines into suicide bombs. This
does not defray the substance of the central question:
If Bush heard the words 'Al Qaida' and 'hijackings in America' in the same
sentence, why did he fail to substantially augment airline security across
the nation? He and his people did not need to conjure images of 9/11 before
the actual event to understand that avoiding terrorist hijackings within the
continental United States was of paramount importance under any
circumstances. Besides, one protects an airplane from getting hijacked in
the same way one protects an airplane from becoming a fuel-air bomb.
The warnings delivered to Mr. Bush regarding Al Qaida plans to hijack
American airplanes did not occur in a vacuum. FBI agents in Phoenix issued
warnings in the summer of 2001 about suspicious Arab men receiving aviation
training in American flight schools. The warning was never followed up. An
agent in the Arizona field office commented in his case notes that Zacarias
Moussaoui, arrested in August after suspicious activity at one of these
flight schools, seemed like a man capable of flying airplanes into the World
Trade Center.
Newspapers in Germany, France, Russia and London reported in the months
before September 11th of a blizzard of warnings delivered to the Bush
administration from all points on the compass. The German intelligence
service BND warned American and Israeli agencies that terrorists were
planning to hijack commercial aircraft and use them as weapons to attack
important American targets. Egypt warned of a similar plane-based plot
against Bush during the G-8 summit in Genoa last June, a warning taken so
seriously that anti-aircraft batteries were placed around Columbus Airport
in Italy.
Last August, Russian intelligence services notified the CIA that 25
terrorist pilots had been trained for suicide missions, and Putin himself
confirmed that this warning was delivered "in the strongest possible terms"
specifically regarding threats to airports and government buildings. In that
same month, the Israeli security agency Mossad issued a warning to both the
FBI and CIA that up to 200 bin Laden followers were planning a major assault
on America, aimed at vulnerable targets. The Los Angeles Times later
confirmed via unnamed US officials that the Mossad warnings had been received.
On September 16th, 2001, Vice President Cheney gave an interview to Tim
Russert on the NBC news program 'Meet the Press.' In the course of the
interview, the following exchange took place:
"MR. RUSSERT: Were you surprised by the precision and sophistication of the
operation?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, certainly, we were surprised in the sense that, you
know, there had been information coming in that a big operation was planned,
but that's sort of a trend that you see all the time in these kinds of
reports. But we didn't...
MR. RUSSERT: No specific threat?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: No specific threat involving really a domestic operation
or involving what happened, obviously, the cities, airliner and so forth. We
did go on alert with our overseas forces a number of times during the course
of the summer when we thought the threat level had risen significantly. So
clearly, we were surprised by what happened here."
Cheney's claim that no threats had been leveled against domestic targets
"involving what happened" stands in stark contrast to the warnings received
from foreign intelligence services regarding suicide pilots, aircraft and
important American buildings.
Furthermore, Ari Fleischer's claim that no one in the administration could
have conceived of any hijackings beyond the "traditional" kind stumbles
across these same warnings.
Conspiracy-minded Americans have taken as an article of faith the idea that
the Bush administration and the CIA knew full well that the 9/11 attacks
were coming, and allowed them to happen for personal and political gain.
Though largely circumstantial in nature, these claims do have some definite
substance. It cannot be denied that Bush has enjoyed phenomenal support from
the American people since the attacks, and political opponents who were
ready to take his policies apart last August have been cowed into silence
for months now.
Bush has personally used 9/11 to earn laughs at the expense of the dead, and
to make some fast cash for the Republican Party. On no less than eight
occasions, Bush has made his "trifecta" joke before fawning GOP audiences.
Based on a reported campaign 2000 promise that he would not raid social
security or enter deficit spending unless the rise of war, recession or
national emergency, Bush has since 9/11 remarked that he "hit the trifecta"
and was safe to crack open the taxpayer piggy bank. The joke never failed to
earn laughs from the crowd. It was recently revealed that the GOP was
selling photos of Bush's activities on September 11th as a fundraising
gimmick, an act that Al Gore has labeled "disgraceful."
The idea that Bush allowed 9/11 to happen for his own gain is difficult to
swallow, and even more difficult to prove. As things stand today, however,
the evidence and information in hand is damning enough. The Bush
administration was repeatedly warned by foreign intelligence services of
immediate threats via aircraft to American targets. FBI agents in Phoenix
had more evidence in hand, which was ignored. Bush himself was warned of Al
Qaida hijack threats, but failed to augment airline security. Vice President
Cheney lied on national television about having received these warnings, and
Ari Fleischer has been bolstering this lie with many of his own since the
story broke.
Add this to already-existing reports that the administration stood down its
anti-terrorism forces many months ago out of concern that such investigative
activities might offend a variety of oil-rich nations. This stand-down came
on the eve of the conclusion of a major deal involving a natural gas
pipeline through the Subcontinent that was sponsored by Unocal.
This much is certain: The Bush administration, the FBI, and the CIA failed
utterly to act upon readily available warnings regarding September 11th.
Bush himself owns this failure. Not only must he answer for this, but he
must also become the Number One Advocate for a far-reaching Congressional
investigation into the attacks, and into the failure of his administration
and its intelligence services to address the threat. He must stop making
jokes about trifectas, and he must stop selling photographs of himself
depicting the moment of his greatest shame.
Thousands of Americans are dead, thousands of civilians in Afghanistan are
dead, and thousands more may follow in Iraq.
Now, we know why.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.17A.WRP.Bush.NU.htm
|