A very good friend of mine was a block away when the first plane hit. Listening to him puts me closer to ground zero than anything I've ever heard out of Dr. Rice's mouth, and now that I've heard her testimony, I'm absolutely certain that we as a nation saw nothing like what Condoleezza Rice saw that horrible day in New York City.
For me, it's already over. I'm not wasting my time on it anymore. Rice's behavior is the kind that turns inquiries into investigations that become indictments and impeachments — and this is not the kind of thing we need to be wasting our time on at the moment since there are more people every day who are more resolved than ever in their desire to kill us in the most horrible ways possible.
We have blown the so-called "war on terror" from every conceivable direction. Caught now in the center of what has become a civil war, our enemy is no longer simply the "terrorist," because the term just can't stretch across a population. Today, as a direct result of the actions of our nation, our enemies are many, our allies are fewer; our coalition is in some ways just a ragtag collection of client states and contractors.
And on Easter Sunday, because of the failure of the National Security Advisor to take seriously the threat of terrorism on our soil, a mistake she continues to make, three human beings will be burned alive.
Article comments
1 - Nyx
Why should she resign? She wasn't any more at fault than the president.
He and his entire staff should resign.
2 - David Flanagan
To be fair, lets let Dr. Rice have her say as well. Ben-Veniste's behaviour was rather rude in that he tried to get her to answer quickly and cut her off hoping to leave the point at that. Dr. Rice, fortunately, did not let that one lie. Here is the dialogue in context:
Once the memo itself is declassified, which the White House is working to do right now, the case will be made, but, really we don't have to wait. Instead, we can just go back to 2002 and look at a quote from former presidential candidate Bob Graham:
So, that is what you'll find when you declassify that memo, information dating back to when Bill Clinton was still President with no other specifics than "something big is coming."
By then, I'm sure partisans will find some other item to try and spin into a scandal. This issue, however, is a dead duck and Ben-Veniste knows it, which is why he tried to keep Dr. Rice from clarifying.
And the politicization of 9/11 goes on.
David
3 - Dirtgrain
The White House is working frantically to declassify a memo? Yeah, sure, they have everybody working on it. They're working in shifts. Declassify? How hard can it be? Maybe some doctoring needs to be done. The title alone will probably be transformed in the following way: From "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" to, with a few blacked-out words, "Determined United States."
Oh, and by the way, Condoleeza Rice is Oliver North.
4 - Shark
It's sickening, but what's more sickening?
The other day, I realized that:
1) we're not going to get our country back; even if Bush & Co. leave, their shit has become so institutionalized that they could all be sent to Hell tomorrow and NOTHING would change; Halliburton and the Military-industrial-secrecy-energy industry wouldn't miss a beat; not for generations.
2) They've already dismantled over 30 years of 'regulatory' actions taken for the greater good of our people and our environment -- and we won't be able to get back to ZERO starting point for years and years. Losing a few decades in the fight to preserve the environment, get off the petroleum-heroin kick, assure access to clean water and clean air might mean the difference in life and death for millions. It might also mean the difference in 'independence' and some WW III fought by CEOs with their backs to the wall.
3) There is no cosmic guarantee that America will survive as a nation. America can disappear in a heartbeat -- the new 'Rome'.
4) These fuckers are expediting Her demise and we might see the dissolution of the 'American national ideal' dissolve into dust in our lifetimes.
5) This will end badly.
6) We've already lost, and Malcom X's "by any means necessary" is starting to sound like a defiant final gasp for the true patriot who cares about the future of this once-great nation.
5 - CW Fisher
Dr. Rice is free to return to academia in better proportion to her real stature. She's a fly to shoo.
George Bush is now equally irrelevant by my stick. I don't need polls to know he's already lost. We were attacked by hornets and he threw the nest into the crowd.
I've moved on. The election's over, Kerry's in power, but somehow... I keep seeing us still in Iraq. I'm going back to the future, did I hear the phrase "peace with honor"? Kerry too is talking about a job that needs to be "finished."
Whatever "job" this is, I'd like Kerry to get it in his head now that our "job" is to do what our host has demanded: go home now. Our "job" was never our job in the first place. We came to find phony WMDs. Finding none, we calmly took over Iraq and behaved as if we were planning to build a democracy there someday, but first we had to get the phones going, and the juice and water and roads and schools and hospitals that we destroyed up and running again.
To our utter amazement we are now shocked that this crap never sat right with the Iraqis, who'd heard the same shit from Saddam for 30 years.
None of this, none of it, should surprise anyone in the slightest. We have begged for it.
It is true that "we" had nothing to do with this conspiracy. But we, like the rest of the world, will continue to pay, and likely for the rest of our lives.
While George builds a library and Cheney gets life for tax fraud and embezzlement, and good ol' Denny Hastert becomes president -- and a fine one, with polls showing him neck and neck and even slightly ahead by November -- until kaBlam and kaBlooie.
The nightmare scenario, as casually dropped by General Tommy Franks to Cigar Aficienado, concerns a terror type attack followed by the imposition of martial law, followed by a suspension of the election. Tommy Franks.
Cigar Aficienado.
End of world. And you thought your day was hard, tonight I saw "The Passion." Holy Christ.
Curt
6 - Ben there
Richard Clarke was not the only national security expert who warned National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. She was warned by both Richard Clarke and the U.S. Commission on National Security, who also briefed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials about terrorist threats before 9/11. the U.S. Commission on National Security, a bipartisan panel warned that a devastating terrorist attack on America was imminent. Former Sen. Gary Hart and former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H.)wre members of that commission,and according to Hart, the Bush administration never followed up on the commission's urgent recommendations, even after he repeated them in a private White House meeting with Rice just days before 9/11. Bush held a press conference or made a public statement on May 5, 2001, calling on Congress NOT to act and saying he was turning over the whole matter to Dick Cheney.
So this "historical" PDB should be viewed in it's context of all the intelligence. It's been reported that every day George Tenet, the CIA director, would do the morning intelligence briefing of the president, and he would raise the al-Qaida threat with great frequency. That's not the same as having a meeting to decide what to do about it. yet at none of these meetings did Bush signal an urgency to do anything about al qaida. After many security briefings and the many times George Tenet mentioned the al-Qaida threat -- the president on one occasion said, "I want a strategy. I don't want to swat flies." Months or weeks went by after that, and he didn't get his strategy because Condi Rice didn't hold the meeting necessary to approve it and give it to him. Did Bush follow up, did he ask, did he push his staff, did he make it a priorty.... well apparently not.
7 - CW Fisher
Indeed you sound like you've ben there.
8 - BB
I already know how I'm going to vote:
Bush for 'Hoser of the Year' ;
Cheney for 'Chicago Mob Boss",
and Rice for newest "Sock Puppet' sensation.
9 - Hal Pawluk
Unfortunately, CW (and Mike and others) are right:
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.
Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.
Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent.
But Franks’ scenario goes much further. He is the first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.
John O. Edwards, Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
Newsmax