[lit-ideas] Re: with or without Bush
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 23:49:54 -0700
> Open Letter To Thomas Kean, Chairman Of The 9/11 Commission - From FBI
> Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds
Over the weekend, I read the book version of the 9.11 Report. It is a
devastating indictment
of the US government. The White House, the Congress, the Pentagon, and the
alphabet soup of
agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA, FAA, INS, and many more) were nearly completely
unaware of the
threat. An incredible amount of bureaucratic inertia, bickering, and pettiness
took place
among these agencies.
Al Qaeda was created in 1988 and for ten years, was completely unknown to the
US, even as
they carried out one attack after the other (the US embassies in Africa, the
Cole, etc.)
Only in 1998 did the CIA began to realize there was such a group.
Even now, in August 2004, nearly three years after 9.11.2004, we are not one
bit safer in
the USA. The 9.11 Report makes that stunningly clear. The FBI and CIA continue
to fight like
little children over budgets. There is no sharing of information. There is no
leadership on
this from Congress. The White House is not the office to lead this issue either.
The problem requires a massive increase of experts in military affairs, Islam,
counter-terrorism, and so on, working within a single unified structure. That
infrastructure
does not exist in the USA today.
We are in far greater danger than on 9.12; al Qaeda has had three years to plan
and plot.
Al Qaeda is intent on buying or stealing nuclear weapons. If Pakistan collapses
in an
Islamic coup (there have been numerous assasination attempts against Musharaf,
the current
dictator), the Islamic fundamentalists will get Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The
Taliban, al
Qaeda, and Pakistan's intelligence service have essentially the same goals. If
the al Qaeda
jihad wins the civil war in Iraq, they will control the oil and will be able to
buy nuclear
weapons from Pakistan, the Russian Mafia, or North Korea. They will attack New
York City,
Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle.
This is not about Bush. The 9.11 Report makes it clear that Bush could not have
done very
much, either positively or negatively, after 9.11. (However, the report makes
it clear that
Bush's White House didn't care much about the issue before 9.11, even tho' they
were warned
by many government officials in 2000 and early 2001. For example, after two
briefings on bin
Laden in Summer 2001, Ashcroft said he didn't want to hear anymore about bin
Laden. That
ended Justice Dept's interest in the issue.)
After 9.11, even if one took the most generous pro-Bush position, one must
admit that the US
government could have done very little because, as the Report points out in
overwhelming
detail, the government system has been completely incapable at all levels of
dealing with al
Qaeda. Even if Bush were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert
Einstein all in one,
he would not have been able to do much.
Read the 9.11 Report. It's only $10, at all bookstores.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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