Moonage Political Webdream

OK, so I’m no commission, but I do have a lot of questions and I think some ideas about security before 9/11 that the other commission wimped out of dealing with.

Namely, what went wrong?

No, I’m not talking about United States’ citizens not having the stomach to deal with the aftermaths of the original WTC bombings in 1993, or the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Lebanon barracks bombing, or the USS Cole. I am talking about what SPECIFICALLY went wrong. The other commission artfully dodged the specifics and blame for reasons I think I understand, but in lieu of Bush’s eagerness to adopt their recommendations, I might understand better than I think. I’m not a policy wonk, I’m more of a history buff. To me, the critical lesson to be learned from 9/11/2001 has not been specifically addressed to any depth at all. Until we know specifically what went wrong, we won’t know for sure that we are doing it again in the future. I think that’s a pretty obvious way to view it, apparently the other commission didn’t think so. Their recommendations are so lame that Bush feels, and justifiably so, that he can initiate them all BEFORE the election ( three months ). This rant’s a big one, so better get comfortable, get some coffee, and start reading.

The Wall

In 1995, Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General to Janet Reno, issued a memo to Mary Jo White ( United States Attorney, Southern District of New York ) , Louis Freeh ( Director, FBI ), Richard Scruggs ( Office of Intelligence Policy and Review ), and Jo Ann Harris ( Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division ). This memo was in response to Ramzi Yousef in regards to the original WTC bombing in 1993. It’s only four pages long, you should read it before continuing. If not, a brief synopsis: it directed Louis Freeh to pursue crimes that had been committed. If the FBI stumbled across something in planning, it was to be directed to OIPR ( Office of Intelligence Policy and Review ). In other words, the FBI could not pursue leads that a crime MIGHT occur, they had to give it to OIPR. This totally undercut the intent of FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. At that point, someone should have protested LOUDLY, but no one did, Clinton was too popular and Reno was considered too nuts ( see Branch-Dividians ). This effectively stopped all foreign espionage on American soil. Remember the name Jamie Gorelick, she re-appears later in another crucial role.

Janet Reno

She is here only because she supervised Jamie Gorelick. As a totally ineffective and clumsy Attorney General, she seemed to have a knack for delegating all responsibility to basically unknown people under her. This allowed Ms. Gorelick to do what she did without any spotlight.

John Deutch

Clinton’s first CIA director, Deutch actually had no use for spying. Clinton was spending the Peace Dividend after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the US citizens were basking in the fact that we were the only super-power left. We no longer had a use for spying, and the emphasis from Clinton was on balancing the budget. Deutch filled that mold perfectly and scaled the CIA back to almost nothing. Deutch resigned in 1996.

George Tenet

Tenet took over after Deutch’s self-appointed nominee, Tony Lake, couldn’t make it through the confirmation process. Tenet had been a CIA yes-man dating back YEARS. IMO, this is when things got REAL nasty and muddled. By the time Tenet arrived, Clinton was facing a semi-serious legal issue, and very serious potential impeachment process. At the same time, the US had been stuck patrolling Iraqi No-Fly zones in order to protect Kurds and Iraqi neighbors from Saddam Hussein. Hussein had been using chemical weapons on Iraqi citizens and the Irani army. His threat had been drastically reduced by the Gulf War of 1991 however. Shortly after Tenet took over, the CIA, which had been reduced to rubble under Deutch, suddenly started getting information that Iraq was a threat. Iraq had been shooting missiles ineffectively at US planes in defiance of the No-Fly zones, so Clinton sent missiles on 9/3/1996. In addition, it became apparent that Al Qaeda had coordinated the African Embassy bombings. Clinton ordered missile attacks against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan on August 20, 1998. They missed their targets, which gave way to the infamous phrase shooting a camel’s butt. This didn’t make Clinton look any better, which at the time was pretty bad anyway. On the eve of the impeachment vote, Clinton struck Iraq again. The focus of the federal government, from the direction of Tenet, was obviously on Iraq. On February 2, 2000, Tenet appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During that speech, he listed the threats to the US. Although people are quick to point out that Tenet mentioned Usama Bin Laden in great detail, they now ignore this part: A major worry is that Iraqi reconstruction of WMD-capable facilities damaged during Operation Desert Fox and continued work on delivery systems shows the priority Saddam continues to attach to preserving a WMD infrastructure.. Clinton was on his way out, Bush was on his way in.

George Bush

The primary mistake Bush made was keeping Tenet. He wanted continuity of information, but I doubt he realized that the continuity was fabricated in the first place. He had a grudge against Hussein already, had mentioned Hussein in his campaign, and was more than willing to do something about him. The information he relied on was the Tenet supplied information to Clinton in 1998. Given that only months before, Tenet had claimed what I quoted, is it any wonder that Bush would have been concerned with Hussein moreso than a rogue terrorist in Afghanistan? Tenet, the always eager yes-man, had the opportunity then to let Bush know if Bin Laden was as, or moreso dangerous than Hussein. I’ve seen no evidence he did so. I feel Tenet pinned himself in a corner with his WMD assertions from 1996-2000 that Bush wasn’t willing to let him get out of.

Paul Wolfowitz

From 1989-1993, Wolfowitz served as the Under Secretary for Defense Policy, he answered to Dick Cheney. Wolfowitz’s claim to fame was coordinating policy for the Gulf War. His team ballooned to 700 members. In 2001, Wolfowitz assumed the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld. Almost immediately, in July 2001, he gave this presentation to the House Armed Services Committee. Notably, it was supporting the anti-ballistic Star Wars funding. Although following the recommendations of Tenet in regards to the ballistic threat, the ball in regards to Bin Laden was dropped right here.

Summary

Skipping back to the opening paragraph, the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) was created by Congress in 2002 to investigate what went wrong and what to do to stop it again in the future. On that panel were 10 members. One of which, is Jamie Gorelick. Did I ever expect her to come to the conclusion she is the primary blame for 9/11? Did you? Reno (Gorelick)/Deutch crippled the CIA to the point where they couldn’t collect any covert information. Tenet then started getting information SOMEHOW that Hussein was developing ballistic missiles dangerous enough to be a threat to the US. Although he mentioned Usama Bin Laden, he never mentioned Al Qaeda, which is much bigger than Bin Laden individually. He then used this mysterious new information to point Congress in the direction of being concerned with ballistic missiles ( concerned enough to have Clinton strike Iraq ). He was so unconcerned with conventional terrorism his first speech to Congress was for ballistic missile funding. He pointed Congress in the direction that appealed to Bush, as he had done for Clinton. Internationally, 9/11 falls squarely on Tenet and no one else IMO. Domestically, Jamie Gorelick ( Reno ) crippled the FBI’s ability to collect, decipher, and pursue anti-terrorism data. Domestically, the blame falls squarely on Ms. Gorelick. Tenet was flying by the seat of his pants, Ms. Gorelick was flying blind as well. Terrorists were taking flying lessons not even concerned enough to express a desire on how to land the plane, and there was nothing the FBI could do about it. They knew it, and there was nothing they could do about it except, according to Ms. Gorelick, pass it on to the OIPR. What is the process once the OIPR got a hot tip? The Office serves as adviser to the Attorney General and various client agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Defense and State Departments, concerning questions of law, regulation, and guidelines as well as the legality of domestic and overseas intelligence operations. That’s right, advise, at the time, Janet Reno. That’s where the blame ultimately falls.

We had tons of hot tips, all well before 9/11/2001. Nothing was done with any of them. The OIPR either failed to properly advise Reno, never got anything to Reno, or Reno failed to pursue. Given her history, I’m going to guess the latter of the three.

The scary part of the “other commission” is that Ms. Gorelick posed an obvious, blatant conflict of interest, and no one on the Commission seemed concerned. She is the reason the Commission could not come to an objective answer, and because of that, the Commission has not answered the very critical question of “what went wrong and why”. This wouldn’t be so important to me, but, if you don’t know “what went wrong and why”, you don’t truly know how to stop another “what went wrong and why”.

Technorati Tags: 1993 wtc bombing, 9/11, bill clinton, CIA, commission, donald-rumsfeld, george-tenet, iraq, jamie-gorelick, janet-reno, jo-ann-harris, john-deutch, National Security, national-commission-on-terrorist-attacks, office-of-intelligence-policy-and-review, Osama-Bin-Laden, paul-wolfowitz, ramzi-yousef, richard-scruggs, tony-lake, uss-cole

Tags: 1993 wtc bombing, 9/11, bill clinton, CIA, commission, donald-rumsfeld, george-tenet, iraq, jamie-gorelick, janet-reno, jo-ann-harris, john-deutch, National Security, national-commission-on-terrorist-attacks, office-of-intelligence-policy-and-review, Osama-Bin-Laden, paul-wolfowitz, ramzi-yousef, richard-scruggs, tony-lake, uss-cole

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