Betraying our dead
Forgetting the vows we made:

September 11, 2009


Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died.

We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot.

We've learned nothing.

Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of killing terrorists, we free them.

Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them.

Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and who counts among his mentors and friends those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Instead of insisting that freedom will not be infringed by terrorist threats, we censor works that might offend mass murderers. Radical Muslims around the world can indulge in viral lies about us, but we dare not even publish cartoons mocking them.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists. So we confiscate granny's shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid.

Instead of insisting that Islamist hatred and religious apartheid have no place in our country, we permit the Saudis to continue funding mosques and madrassahs where hating Jews and Christians is preached as essential to Islam.

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.

Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel.

Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

Instead of taking every effective measure to cull information from terrorists, the current administration threatens CIA agents with prosecution for keeping us safe.

Instead of proudly and promptly rebuilding on the site of the Twin Towers, we've committed ourselves to the hopeless, useless task of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Perhaps we should have built a mosque at Ground Zero -- the Saudis would've funded it.)

Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamist fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations -- as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons; sponsor terrorism; torture, imprison, rape and murder their own citizens -- and laugh at us.

Instead of insisting that Islam must become a religion of responsibility, our leaders in both parties continue to bleat that "Islam's a religion of peace," ignoring the curious absence of Baptist suicide bombers.

Instead of requiring new immigrants to integrate into our society and conform to its public values, we encourage and subsidize anti-American, woman-hating, freedom-denying bigotry in the name of toleration.

Instead of pursuing our enemies to the ends of the earth, we help them sue us.

We've dishonored our dead and whitewashed our enemies. A distinctly unholy alliance between fanatical Islamists abroad and a politically correct "elite" in the US has reduced 9/11 to the status of a non-event, a day for politicians to preen about how little they've done.

We've forgotten the shock and the patriotic fury Americans felt on that bright September morning eight years ago. We've forgotten our identification with fellow citizens leaping from doomed skyscrapers. We've forgotten the courage of airline passengers who would not surrender to terror.

We've forgotten the men and women who burned to death or suffocated in the Pentagon. We've forgotten our promises, our vows, our commitments.

We've forgotten what we owe our dead and what we owe our children. We've even forgotten who attacked us.

We have betrayed the memory of our dead. In doing so, we betrayed ourselves and our country. Our troops continue to fight -- when they're allowed to do so -- but our politicians have surrendered.

Are we willing to let the terrorists win?

Over SIX hours of 9-11 memorial coverage. If our corporate/government controlled media gave equal coverage to our costly wars in the Middle East, -we wouldn't have these wars. War profiteering is TREASONOUS! Politicians legislating on behalf of crony defense/oil/investment companies -and NOT the American people, should be held accountable!!

My father worked as a metal lather on the construction of the World Trade Center. He passed away the summer of 2002. I remember him thinking how it was odd that the towers pretty much collapsed in their own foot prints. The free-fall of tower seven could only happen with planted dynamite. He was seventy-three years old at the time suffering from mild dementia, yet he knew the truth.

We are letting our government manipulate us. We are not allowed to ask questions. -That would be un-American.

EIGHT YEARS LATER, there is no building YET to replace the World Trade Towers! and the new building will be called world trade, or one world trade (for China), not freedom tower!

American ingenuity and spirit took 400 DAYS TO BUILD THE WALDORF WAY BACK WHEN MEN DID NOT HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY OF 2009. Is an Americans a man or a mouse today?

That's life (that's life), that's what all the people say
America is ridin' high in April, shot down in September 2001
But I know I'm gonna change that tune
When America is back on top, back on top in June

I said that's life (that's life), and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks stompin' on the American dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down
'Cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin' around

America has been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing
Each time America finds herself, flat on her face
America picks myself up, dust myself off, and GET BACK IN THE RACE

That's life (that's life), I tell you I can't deny it
I thought of quitting, baby, but my heart just ain't gonna buy it
And if I didn't think America was worth one single try
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly

America has been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing
Each time I find myself layin' flat on my face
America just picks myself up, dust myself off, and get back in the race

That's life (that's life), that's life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cuttin' out but my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothin' shakin' come this here July
America is gonna roll myself up in a big ball a-and die

America--My life!

The World Trade Towers always reminded me of strong, beautiful, buck teeth, and a warning to the world. Be careful, or you might get bit in the ass in the United States, but now the towers are gone.

On 9/11, 2001, MOSLUM NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE USA WERE OUT IN THE STREET DANCING, AND THEY TELL US TODAY THAT MOST MOSLUMS ARE GOOD.

The arabs that commandered these planes on 911 are the HEROES AND RIGHTFULLY SO TO THEIR PEOPLE.

What are the muslims doing TODAY, 9/11/09, in the USA? and in the world?

Hitler did not stand on top of the rubble after the allied forces carpet bombed Berlin, unlike Bush leaning on the fireman on 911 when the United States took a hit. Embarassing! and should have been in the War Room mobilizing the military.

A hero is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.

Never waste a good tragedy.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops. Guiliani thanks God every day for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

Bernie Kerik: The Trial of an American Hero

Friday, September 11, 2009

Overzealous federal prosecutors. A public figure who allegedly got home renovations as a gift. A massive federal investigation. A slew of charges. The target appears guilty, but a careful review of the evidence suggests otherwise.

9/11 aftermath New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik is joined by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and President George W. Bush at ground zero.
This sounds like the case of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, but it isn’t.

It is the ongoing legal saga of Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and one-time Homeland Security secretary nominee.

Stevens was the sitting Alaska senator whose 2007 federal conviction for not reporting renovations to his home properly was overturned. In April 2009 a federal judge voided the verdict and ordered a criminal probe of six prosecutors involved in the case.

“In 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.

The Stevens case has become emblematic of the length federal prosecutors will go to convict their target — even if key evidence suggests innocence.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson, who is overseeing the government’s case against Kerik, chided prosecutors for rummaging through his entire life to find some crime.

“It seems to me that it could fairly be said [that the complaint] is looking at the life of Mr. Kerik, and throwing everything at him,” Robinson said at a court proceeding earlier this year.

Kerik’s attorney, Barry H. Berke, also lambastes the government tactics in this case, especially the recent third indictment in a new jurisdiction, Washington, D.C.

“This is the third separate prosecution against him arising out of the same purported corruption allegations from 10 years ago — it is the latest example of the Department of Justice’s overzealous pursuit of high-profile public figures,” Berke explains in his offices at the prestigious New York firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. “The Justice Department’s own rules mandate that ‛the government bring as few charges as are necessary to ensure that justice is done,’” he adds.

Despite his legal woes, Kerik is still known as “America’s Top Cop” — New York’s police commissioner during the harrowing events of Sept. 11.

The World Trade Towers always reminded me of strong, beautiful, buck teeth, and a warning to the world. Be careful, or you might get bit in the ass in the United States, but now the towers are gone.

On 9/11, 2001, MOSLUM NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE USA WERE OUT IN THE STREET DANCING, AND THEY TELL US TODAY THAT MOST MOSLUMS ARE GOOD.

The arabs that commandered these planes on 911 are the HEROES AND RIGHTFULLY SO TO THEIR PEOPLE.

What are the muslims doing TODAY, 9/11/09, in the USA? and in the world?

Hitler did not stand on top of the rubble after the allied forces carpet bombed Berlin, unlike Bush, Jr., and leaning on the fireman on 911 like he is on vacation when the United States took a hit. Embarassing! Don't need combya. Needed ACTION, TAKE CHARGE, and Bush, the President of the United States, who was initially found in a kindergarden class reading to the children (ludicrous), the leader of the free world, should have been in the War Room mobilizing the military.

A hero is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.

Never waste a good tragedy.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops. Guiliani thanks God every day for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

The World Trade Towers always reminded me of strong, beautiful, buck teeth, and a warning to the world. Be careful, or you might get bit in the ass in the United States.

On 9/11, 2001, MOSLUM NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE USA WERE OUT IN THE STREET DANCING, AND THEY TELL US TODAY THAT MOST MOSLUMS ARE GOOD.

The arabs that commandered these planes on 911 are the HEROES AND RIGHTFULLY SO TO THEIR PEOPLE.

What are the muslims doing TODAY, 9/11/09, in the USA? and in the world?

Hitler did not stand on top of the rubble after the allied forces carpet bombed Berlin, unlike Bush, Jr., and leaning on the fireman on 911 like he is on vacation when the United States took a hit. Embarassing! Don't need combya. Needed ACTION, TAKE CHARGE, and Bush, the President of the United States, who was initially found in a kindergarden class reading to the children (ludicrous), the leader of the free world, should have been in the War Room mobilizing the military.

A hero is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.

Never waste a good tragedy.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops. Guiliani thanks God every day for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

The insurance company said that they would only pay ONE BILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE INCIDENT--BOTH THOSE TOWERS GOING DOWN WAS ONE INCIDENT.

THE OWNER OF THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS TOOK THE INSURANCE COMPANY TO COURT, AND THE COURT RULED THAT IT WAS TWO (2) SEPARATE INCIDENCES--TWO PLANES, AND, GOT ANOTHER BILLION DOLLARS.


The arabs that commandered these planes on 911 are the HEROES AND RIGHTFULLY SO TO THEIR PEOPLE AND PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE THE USA IS HATED.


Are the muslims dancing in the street on 9/11/2001 the GOOD MUSLIMS TODAY AND ARE THEY DANCING TODAY?

Was the fireman George Bush, Jr., was leaning on on top of the rubble a retired fireman, but came back and put a helmut on?

The insurance company said that they would only pay ONE BILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE INCIDENT--BOTH THOSE TOWERS GOING DOWN WAS ONE INCIDENT.

THE OWNER OF THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS TOOK THE INSURANCE COMPANY TO COURT, AND THE COURT RULED THAT IT WAS TWO (2) SEPARATE INCIDENCES--TWO PLANES, AND, THE OWNER OF THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS GOT ANOTHER BILLION DOLLARS.


The arabs that commandered these planes on 911 are the HEROES AND RIGHTFULLY SO TO THEIR PEOPLE AND TO PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE THE USA IS HATED.


Are the muslims dancing in the street on 9/11/2001 the GOOD MUSLIMS TODAY? AND ARE THEY DANCING TODAY?

Was the fireman George Bush, Jr., was leaning on on top of the rubble a retired fireman, but came back and put a helmut on?

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops, or picture taking as it was known years ago. Everybody at grond zero, all the people down there knew his job without the mayor to tell them what to do.

A HERO is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.



Guiliani gets down on his hands and knees and thanks God every day for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops, or picture taking as it was known years ago. Everybody at grond zero, all the people down there knew his job without the mayor to tell them what to do. Guiliani was just there.

A HERO is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.



Guiliani gets down on his hands and knees and thanks God every day for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

The buck stops here. Bush opened the door to al Qaeda's attack with his incredulous grasp of non-reasoning ability by issuing his very own genius strategy ... Presidential Order-W:199i.
Presidential Order-W:199i which forbade FBI/CIA interference with AlQaeda movements *right after being briefed by President Clinton and Richard Clarke that al Qaeda was the foremost threat to our security.
Who else would do that?
Then again- who else would surender control of our ports leave us unable to monitor what comes into our country- THE DUBAI PORTS DEAL.
Who else would train and fund the MEXICAN ZETA'S who now are in full control of the Mexican drug market?
Who else would dare deliver a National[haha] Healthcare plan that didn't cover 47million "taxpaying" citizens.
________________________________

Former Vietnam Combat and Commercial Pilot Firm Believer 9/11 Was Inside Government Job

http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=1467

"The government may have fooled millions of Americans with its cockamamie official story, but the former fighter pilot who flew over 100 combat missions in Vietnam and who sat for 35 years in the cockpit for Pan Am and United, wasn’t one of them.

Now, almost four years later, Wittenberg is still shaking his head in disbelief more than ever, saying the country he loved and fought so bravely 40 years ago has fallen in the deep, dark and sinister hands of fascist leaders who are quickly turning America into a military state.

Although back in the beginning he seemed like a lone wolf in the hen house, he’s noticed, especially in the last six months, more Americans waking up to the cold reality that the U.S. government staged 9/1l, started an illegal war in Iraq and basically is criminally responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent lives here and abroad.

Even though it’s a hard pill for some to swallow, Wittenberg says Americans need to “wake up and wake up fast,” holding those in government responsible even though it may mean a total makeover of the American political system.

And for these despicable actions now taking place in the name of freedom, the former F-100 Vietnam fighter pilot, who knows what it’s like to be in harms way, directed a little military jab toward the Commander and Chief, saying: “Oh, why doesn’t he wake up and just fall on his sword.”

Talking about his obvious disgust for the Bush administration, he bundles 9/11 into the neo con’s “neat little contrived war package,” saying it was the lynch pin needed to usher in a state of constant fear, a climate of war and a perfect setting for the unconstitutional Patriot Act and eventual martial law.

“If you would have told me back in the 1970s this was going to happen to America, I would have never imagined it. It’s just not the same country I grew up in as all our Constitutional freedoms are being stripped away right before our very eyes,” said Wittenberg in a telephone conversation from his home in Carefree Az., a picturesque and serene place on the map near Scottsdale.

“The government story they handed us about 9/11 is total B.S. plain and simple. I also thoroughly went over the recent 9/11 Commission report, finding about 110 outright lies and numerous other half-truths and omissions in an obvious cover-up of not only the truth but of a criminal investigation.

“Condaleeza Rice lied through her teeth when she testified and if I would have had her on the stand for 10 minutes, I would have had her in tears.”

Concerning 9/11, Wittenberg knew right off the bat the hijackers - who couldn’t handle a Piper Cub - couldn’t fly the ‘big birds” he flew for so many years, knowing the planes were also incapable of performing such high speed maneuvers as the government claimed.

He also knew the possibility of jet fuel bringing down the towers made no sense. In fact, he knew the whole 9/11 story made about as much sense as crossing the Atlantic in a row boat.

And right after 9/11 when it was unpopular and considered almost treasonous to question the government, Wittenberg became the first commercial airline pilot with experience flying the jets used in 9/11 to publicly denounce the government story.

Although speaking publicly on many occasions about the fictitious government account of 9/11, it wasn’t until Sept. 16, 2004, his controversial remarks aired on Wing TV, sparking a heated debate among pilots and others clinging to the flimsy government account.

Knowing the flight characteristics of the “big birds” like the back of his hand, Wittenberg convincingly argued there was absolutely no possibility that Flight 77could have “descended 7,000 feet in two minutes, all the while performing a steep 270 degree banked turn before crashing into the Pentagon’s first floor wall without touching the lawn.”

Wittenberg claimed the high speed maneuver would have surely stalled the jetliner sending it into a nose dive, adding it was “totally impossible for an amateur who couldn’t even fly a Cessna to maneuver the jetliner in such a highly professional manner, something Wittenberg said he couldn’t do with 35 years of commercial jetliner experience.

“For a guy to just jump into the cockpit and fly like an ace is impossible – there is not one chance in a thousand,” said Wittenberg, recalling that when he made the jump from Boeing 727’s to the highly sophisticated computerized characteristics of the 737’s through 767’s it took him considerable time to feel comfortable flying.

“I had to be trained to use the new, computerized systems. I just couldn’t jump in and fly one,” he added.

Finding more inconsistencies with the government story about Flight 77, Wittenberg recalled the recent statements made by a flight controller on an ABC 20/20 television program three months ago.

“If you listened to her carefully only an experienced pilot probably would have known that what she was saying was scripted,” said Wittenberg. “Remember the transponder was turned off on Flight 77 and when this occurs, all the particular flight data like air speed and even the plane’s flight identification goes with it.

“All that’s left on the controller’s screen is a green blip, that’s it. But here you have this flight controller on 20/20 saying she was tracking the flight with specific air speed and other coordinates which was totally impossible once the transponder was turned off. How would she even have known the flight number? The whole story is a pack of lies and this is just another example.”

And from the moment Wittenberg called attention to the lies, he’s been in the cross hairs defending his story, defending it by using a little bit of psychology, a lot of history and asking critics to answer questions before drawing conclusions.

“I’ve learned over the years, it’s hard to change anybody’s mind when they really aren’t listening,” said Wittenberg. “So, I just decided to fire back a lot of questions to those people who believe the government story.

“I ask them explain how Building No.7 collapsed? I ask them why haven’t the “black boxes” been recovered? I ask them to explain how jet fuel – fuel that burns cold not hot -- could bring down two high rise structures when more than 90% of the fuel on board burned outside the buildings?”

And Wittenberg has hundreds of other tough questions ready, but said it’s also important to put 9/11 and the Iraq war in a historical prospective.

“Is 9/11 and the phony war on terror any different or more serious than Pearl Harbor and World War II?,” asks Wittenberg. “The bottom line is all wars are contrived and it is these rich bankers and financiers who have pulled the strings and who have put these contrived events like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor into motion.”

Turning to the recent London bombings, Wittenberg said he’s tired of the “talking heads’ trying to analyze how to counter terror when “the real cause and effect issues” about the root problems with America and the world are being ignored.

“It’s simply bizarre. Maybe our one-sided foreign policy that keeps getting us into all this trouble around the world should be seriously questioned,” said Wittenberg. “If we are really fighting terror, why are our borders just to the south completely wide open? It’s a joke.”

Claiming the entire neo con scenario now playing out in America and around the world is based on the attempt to establish a one world government controlled by a select few, he said it’s difficult to figure out their true motives, adding he can only offer an educated guess based on what he’s studied and read.

“Power corrupts, money isn’t enough and these people want total control,” added Wittenberg. “These elites actually think they are better than everybody else and basically want power and control over the diminishing resources by creating a one world government.

Regarding another terror attack on American soil coming on the heels of the London bombings, he said “it’s not if but when,” claiming the unconstitutional Patriot Act is waiting in the wings to silence those Americans who may not fall in line with the government’s eventual takeover.

“They passed it for a reason. The problem with our two party system is that the same group of gangsters controls both parties,” said Wittenberg, who didn’t vote for Bush or Kerry in the last election and was the former Arizona state chairman for Pat Buchanon’s failed presidential run in 2000.

Although Wittenberg remains politically active and abreast of world affairs, he has left the political forefront, trying instead to raise public awareness about the danger of the neo con agenda.

“More people are listening now, but it doesn’t surprise me that still a lot of people just don’t want to get involved, thinking things are just fine in America,” he added. “These people are perfectly content to play golf, watch the ballgame and not get involved.”

Wittenberg, who retired the day before 9/11 having a strange and unexplainable premonition, said high gas prices have led him to sell his private plane, saying it was getting too expensive to even “fly for fun’ anymore."

WHEN ATTEMPTING TO UNCOVERING ANY CRIME... YOU MUST FIRST BEGIN BY SEARCHING THE FORENSIC EVIDENCE, but Bush would have you all believe that he had all of that prima facia evidence sent immediately abroad to China. Hmmmmmmmm!

POLITICS-US:
Bush Had No Plan to Catch Bin Laden after 9/11
Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, 29 Sep (IPS) - New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11.

That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to planning for war with Iraq over military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

As a result, the United States had far too few troops and strategic airlift capacity in the theatre to cover the large number of possible exit routes through the border area when bin Laden escaped in late 2001.

Because it had not been directed to plan for that contingency, the U.S. military had to turn down an offer by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in late November 2001 to send 60,000 troops to the border passes to intercept them, according to accounts provided by former U.S. officials involved in the issue.

On Nov. 12, 2001, as Northern Alliance troops were marching on Kabul with little resistance, the CIA had intelligence that bin Laden was headed for a cave complex in the Tora Bora Mountains close to the Pakistani border.

The war had ended much more quickly than expected only days earlier. CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, who was responsible for the war in Afghanistan, had no forces in position to block bin Laden's exit.

Franks asked Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, commander of Army Central Command (ARCENT), whether his command could provide a blocking force between al Qaeda and the Pakistani border, according to David W. Lamm, who was then commander of ARCENT Kuwait.

Lamm, a retired Army colonel, recalled in an interview that there was no way to fulfill the CENTCOM commander's request, because ARCENT had neither the troops nor the strategic lift in Kuwait required to put such a force in place. 'You looked at that request, and you just shook your head,' recalled Lamm, now chief of staff of the Near East South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University.

Franks apparently already realised that he would need Pakistani help in blocking the al Qaeda exit from Tora Bora. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told a National Security Council meeting that Franks 'wants the [Pakistanis] to close the transit points between Afghanistan and Pakistan to seal what's going in and out', according to the National Security Council meeting transcript in Bob Woodward's book 'Bush at War'.

Bush responded that they would need to 'press Musharraf to do that'.

A few days later, Franks made an unannounced trip to Islamabad to ask Musharraf to deploy troops along the Pakistan-Afghan border near Tora Bora.

A deputy to Franks, Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong, later claimed that Musharraf had refused Franks's request for regular Pakistani troops to be repositioned from the north to the border near the Tora Bora area. DeLong wrote in his 2004 book 'Inside Centcom' that Musharraf had said he 'couldn't do that', because it would spark a 'civil war' with a hostile tribal population.

But U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who accompanied Franks to the meeting with Musharraf, provided an account of the meeting to this writer that contradicts DeLong's claim.

Chamberlin, now president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, recalled that the Pakistani president told Franks that CENTCOM had vastly underestimated what was required to block bin Laden exit from Afghanistan. Musharraf said, 'Look you are missing the point: there are 150 valleys through which al Qaeda are going to stream into Pakistan,' according to Chamberlin.

Although Musharraf admitted that the Pakistani government had never exercised control over the border area, the former diplomat recalled, he said this was 'a good time to begin'. The Pakistani president offered to redeploy 60,000 troops to the area from the border with India but said his army would need airlift assistance from the United States to carry out the redeployment.

But the Pakistani redeployment never happened, according to Lamm, because it wasn't logistically feasible. Lamm recalled that it would have required an entire aviation brigade, including hundreds of helicopters, and hundreds of support troops to deliver that many combat troops to the border region -- far more than was available.

Lamm said the ARCENT had so few strategic lift resources that it had to use commercial aircraft at one point to move U.S. supplies in and out of Afghanistan.

Even if the helicopters had been available, however, they could not have operated with high effectiveness in the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border region near the Tora Bora caves, according to Lamm, because of the combination of high altitude and extreme weather.

Franks did manage to insert 1,200 Marines to Kandahar on Nov. 26 to establish control of the airbase there. They were carried to the base by helicopters from an aircraft carrier that had steamed into the Gulf from the Pacific, according to Lamm.

The marines patrolled roads in the Kandahar area hoping to intercept al Qaeda officials heading toward Pakistan. But DeLong, now retired from the Army, said in an interview that the Marines would not have been able to undertake the blocking mission at the border. 'It wouldn't have worked -- even if we could have gotten them up there,' he said. 'There weren't enough to police 1,500 kilometres of border.'

U.S. troops probably would also have faced armed resistance from the local tribal population in the border region, according to DeLong. The tribesmen in local villages near the border 'liked bin Laden,' he said 'because he had given them millions of dollars.'

Had the Bush administration's priority been to capture or kill the al Qaeda leadership, it would have deployed the necessary ground troops and airlift resources in the theatre over a period of months before the offensive in Afghanistan began.

'You could have moved American troops along the Pakistani border before you went into Afghanistan,' said Lamm. But that would have meant waiting until spring 2002 to take the offensive against the Taliban, according to Lamm.

The views of Bush's key advisers, however, ruled out any such plan from the start. During the summer of 2001, Rumsfeld had refused to develop contingency plans for military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan despite a National Security Presidential Directive adopted at the Deputies' Committee level in July and by the Principles on Sep. 4 that called for such planning, according to the 9/11 Commission report.

Rumsfeld and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz resisted such planning for Afghanistan because they were hoping that the White House would move quickly on military intervention in Iraq. According to the 9/11 Commission, at four deputies' meetings on Iraq between May 31 and Jul. 26, 2001, Wolfowitz pushed his idea to have U.S. troops seize all the oil fields in southern Iraq.

Even after Sep. 11, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney continued to resist any military engagement in Afghanistan, because they were hoping for war against Iraq instead.

Bush's top secret order of Sep. 17 for war with Afghanistan also directed the Pentagon to begin planning for an invasion of Iraq, according to journalist James Bamford's book 'Pretext for War'.

Cheney and Rumsfeld pushed for a quick victory in Afghanistan in NSC meetings in October, as recounted by both Woodward and Undersecretary of Defence Douglas Feith. Lost in the eagerness to wrap up the Taliban and get on with the Iraq War was any possibility of preventing bin Laden's escape to Pakistan.

*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, 'Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam', was published in 2006.


Reverified: in Bob Woodwards detailed interviews with Bush, along with the calender of implausible events that aided and abetted the Escape from Tora Bora. None of this should be surprising when we think back to the a) military Presidential Escort given to Bin Laden and Sauds without interrogation or questioning. b) dismissing 9/11 victims families the right tot sue the Saud government for the actions connected to 14 of the 19 terrorists.
c) the 32 missing pages denoting detailed Saud involvement in Al qaeda funding. d) the safe haven the Bush Administration for Osama and Al Qaeda by casually diminishing his importance. d-z) Wanted: Dead or Alive? Give me a break. Every time the Bushies were caught with their hands in the cookie jar be it losing Spanish support for the war and its subsequent Madrid bombing. Or the equally embarassing and condemning evidences found in the Downing St memos release that just as curiously coincided with the London bombing... and the numberous calls for impeachment that necessitated yet another Osama #1 with a bullet release YOU KNEW THAT BUSH WASN'T EVER GOING TO COOK HIS GOLDEN GOOSE.
never forget... THE CARLYLE CONNECTION AND WHY THE TOPIC CAN NEVER BE DISCUSSED ON MASS MEDIA AIRWAVES. Not now, but perhaps soon.

Bob Woodwards account based on the calender of events, orders given to Commanding General Tommy Franks,... etc
http://www.topdog04.com/000781.html

"Bush opened the door to al Qaeda's attack with his incredulous grasp....."


John, don't worry.....you don't have to run from the draft any longer. The very old and very lame are legally exempt from military service. You luck out again, on both counts!

Clinton Caused 9/11:

It was said by former Clinton advisor Dick Morris that, Clinton was an utter and total failure. The statement refers to Clinton's unwillingness to remedy the problem of international terrorism. Much has been said and written about Clinton, but facts are facts, and the facts show that Clinton did not protect America from terrorism, in particular Usama bin Laden. Usama bin Laden heads the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Bin Laden explained the purpose of the group in an interview in May of 1997, he declared a jihad, a holy war, against the United States government because it is, according to him, unjust, criminal, and tyrannical.

Clinton was made painfully aware of the danger this group provided, but he did little to nothing to stifle its threats. Al Qaeda was busy during the Clinton Administration; the group took responsibility for the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the attacks on two U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of two U.S. Embassies in Africa, and the attacks on United States soldiers in Somalia. Throughout these attacks, Clinton did nothing to protect America or her citizens; in fact he sabotaged America's ability to protect herself. Clinton incapacitated America by weakening the counter-terror organizations, overusing diplomacy, and simply ignoring the problem of international terrorism.

Weakening the Counter-terror Organizations

Clinton disrupted the counter-terror organizations' ability to protect America on many different levels. It seems he kept a few words handy when dealing with armed forces, Central Intelligence Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation: under-funding, over-politicization, and compromise.

Clinton dangerously weakened the armed forces. He kept them under-funded and over-politicized at the same time as spreading them thinner than any president had ever done before. To keep his special interest constituents happy, Clinton made sure the armed forces, the Army in particular, was bogged down with political correctness. Clinton instituted a stress card system in boot camp. In this system, if a recruit was stressed he or she could flash a yellow card to the Drill Sergeant and would be exempt from the exercise. How will a soldier be able to stop terrorists if they can wimp through boot camp? President Clinton lowered the level of Special Forces training so that more women could join.

At the same time as weakening the Army, he spread it out all over the world. He used the Army in South America, the Near East, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania. His use, or rather misuse, of the armed forces was both dangerous and ineffective.

The Central Intelligence Agency suffered greatly under Clinton. According to CIA agent Robert Baer, by the mid-1990s, the CIAÕs headquarters throughout the world lacked the officers to go after the rising epidemic of radical Islam. Clinton often ignored the CIAÕs advice, he considered them irrelevant. The CIA warned Clinton that without proper funding, it could not properly supply the White House with current, honest intelligence. Clinton responded by disregarding the CIAÕs request for more funding.

It was the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent John O'Neil that first connected Usama bin Laden to the rise in Islamic radicalism, specifically the terrorist actions of Muslims. O'Neil told officials in 1997,

When bin Laden, speaks we have to listen. They have the capability to strike American soil any time they choose.
Then on September 10, 2001, O'Neil said,

It's going to happen. And it looks like something big is brewing.

O’Neil made a career of tracking bin Laden and predicting his actions, he informed the White House that bin Laden is the center of activity and that he controls the actions of millions of followers. The White House, starting with President George H. W. Bush and peaking with President Clinton, neglected his warnings.

The one time President Clinton did use military might, it was hastily done. Clinton had ordered the bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan to take attention away from the Lewinsky scandal. O'Neil, and a few others in a tight circle of national security insiders, knew Clinton was working with intelligence that was more than a year old. O'Neil felt that if Clinton was going to use the information, he should have used it when he got it, not when it was politically helpful. Clinton did not even notify the Director the FBI of the attacks. Clinton also didn't notify the FBI or CIA agents that were in those countries; they were essentially left in two heavily bin Laden sympathizing nations wearing FBI coats. A total of 75 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles were fired, Afghani terrorist camps and a Sudanese VX manufacturing plant were the targets. The VX plant turned out to be an aspirin plant, the only casualties were Sudanese civilians. And time proved Clinton wrong with his attacks in Afghanistan. All the terrorist training camps survived well enough to train Mohammed Atta, the suspected ring-leader of the high-jackers on September 11th.

The Over Use of Diplomacy

It was President Teddy Roosevelt that said, Walk soft but carry a big stick. Clinton never failed to walk softly, but his destruction of the armed forces weakened his big stick. Clinton was weary of using the full force of military might, this is shown by his complete inaction after each terrorist attack. This compounded with his ineffectiveness at diplomacy made him useless at protecting America.

After the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, the Saudi government arrested eleven suspects. Clinton tried to get the Saudi government to allow America to try the suspects. He failed. Agent OÕNeil contacted former President Bush, and together they were only able to witness an interview of the suspects.

To prove his complete lack of caring, Clinton froze all of bin Laden's assets. He did this as a last-ditch effort to prove he did something. Clinton notified Congress of his freezing of bin Laden's assets in August of 1998, three years later bin Laden was still capable of killing thousands of American citizens on American soil. Clinton failed to realize that bin Laden's power doesn't come from assets, it comes from rhetoric.

Dick Morris explains Clinton as having paralysis by analysis. According to him, Clinton sees everything as a complex problem, where others would simply see it as a problem that can be fixed with swift military action. Morris had this to say about Clinton:


Beyond Clinton's reluctance to engage the military, another factor was at play here: Bill Clinton was a one-thing-at-a-time president.
It was this indecision and inaction that caused the September 11th attacks. Clinton should have engaged the military with an all out assault on bin Laden, his terrorist camps, and all nations that harbored those camps.

Clinton Simply Ignored the Problem of International Terrorism

Bin Laden claimed responsibility for six terrorist attacks on Americans during Clinton's years as president; as Morris writes, All our terrorist problems were born during the Clinton years. After the six attacks, a total of 75 missiles were launched, no troops were deployed, and no extra covert agents were deployed.

In 1993, American soldiers were involved in what has become named the Black Hawk Down Incident. In a routine operation, U.S. soldiers were to detain key Somali figures. The soldiers came under heavy fire and were unable to adequately protect themselves because of a White House order to only use light weaponry. In that operation, 18 American soldiers were killed. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks. President Clinton responded by showing his attitude toward terrorism, he gave in to bin Laden and removed all troops from Somalia.

After the attacks on the U.S.S. Cole, the Khobar Towers, and the World Trade Center, Clinton did nothing of importance. Bin Laden was basically told that he could kill Americans with no repercussions. It was this message that Clinton showed that allowed bin Laden to orchestrate the attacks of September 11th. Also, when the Sudanese government got tired of protecting bin Laden, they offered to give him to Clinton, but Clinton refused. Rumor has it that this occurred two other times with the same result; however, this can not be proven because when people learn of devastating information about Clinton, they tend not to survive.

On February 26, 1993, America and Clinton Administration realized the full scope of bin Laden's abilities. On that morning, Ramzi Yousef and a few others parked an explosives-ridden van in the below-ground garage of the World Trade Center. When the bomb went off six Americans were killed and over one thousand were injured. This attack was the first of its kind seen on American soil, it should have awakened the Clinton Administration, but it didn't.

Conclusion

No man caused the attacks of September 11th more than bin Laden himself, but it was President Clinton that allowed those attacks to happen. Bill Clinton systematically turned the counter-terror organizations to a politically correct automaton of his pacifistic, anti-military beliefs. It is this attitude of his that allowed bin Laden to kill almost 3,000 Americans in one day. Clinton also relied too heavily on diplomacy when military intervention would have been safer, more methodical, and more complete. Finally, Clinton disregarded the warnings of the CIA and the FBI. He continued his pattern of ignoring America's best interest by refusing to imprison bin Laden. It was Clinton that allowed the tragedy to happen, and now he has the death of 3,000 Americans on his conscience.

Bill F: "Bush opened the door to al Qaeda's attack with his incredulous grasp....." WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH COMPLETING THE WHOLE SENTENCE THAT MAKES THE COMMENT NOTEWORTHY?


"Bush opened the door to al Qaeda's attack with his incredulous grasp of non-reasoning ability by issuing his very own genius strategy ... Presidential Order-W:199i.
*Presidential Order-W:199i JANUARY 2001-which forbade FBI/CIA interference with AlQaeda movements *right after being briefed by President Clinton and Richard Clarke that al Qaeda was the foremost threat to our security.
IF BUSH HADN'T INTERFERED WITH THE OPERATIVES ALREADY ASSIGNED, HAD BUSH LISTENED TO FOREIGN LEADERS WARNINGS, HAD BUSH READ THE AUGUST MEMO, THEN THE NITWIT WOULDN'T HAVE HAD HIS PEARL HARBOR THAT- CHENEY, BROTHER JEB, WOLFOWITZ, PERLE, AND THE REST OF PNAC HAD CALLED FOR AS EARLY AS FEB/1998.
*
IF YOU STILL REFUSE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT CHECK INTO IT FOR YOURSELF AND SEE WHO SIGNED ON TO THIS "stink" TANK of Bush League "NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME" LOSERS, DECEIVERS, TORTURE ADDICTED FANATICS & ANTI-SOCIAL MISCREINTS KNOWN AS Project for a New American Century[PNAC]
_____________________________


Quote from Bill F: John, don't worry.....you don't have to run from the draft any longer. The very old and very lame are legally exempt from military service. You luck out again, on both counts!
RUNNING AWAY? IS NOT IN MY GENES. WHEN SERVED WITH THE NOTICE TO REPORT I DID SO VOLUNTARILY, SHOWED THE BOARD THAT THEY HAD NO AUTHORITY OR JURISDICTION TO IMPOSE THEIR DECREES,... AND WALKED OUT THE DOOR WITH MY RIGHTS AS "CITIZEN" FULLY INTACT.


There is quite a vast difference between being a "draft dodger" such as Dick Cheneys 4th times a charm and Dumbya's various AWOL disappearances and missing in action records showed all so clearly.
Draft dodger? You must have your facts confused with some other fools brazen enough to pretend to befriend murderous villains, lie about the connections, and then send others out to fight to protect "only themselves and their wicked two-faced ways of doing business".
*Caring not for the well-being and safety of American troops. Heaping hardship upon hardship on their families while offering no relief.
*Allowing and promoting paycheck loan establishments to spring up unchecked all around our army bases.
*The small print that returning veterens were encouraged to sign that denied coverage for their injuries sustained in theatre.
Protecting, neither our troops, nor the nation, nor our people, and most definitely not "our values" in the process.

What better definition of "lame" could there be... then being a full grown man unable to write his own posts.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops, or picture taking as it was known years ago, while the clown cops kept just the public out, but celebrities and VIP's are above the cops. Everybody at grond zero, including all the people--poor people doing their jobs--down there knew his job without the mayor to tell them what to do. Guiliani was just there.

Guiliani gets down on his hands and knees and thanks God every day and/or night for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

When drug use was on the decline about the time when Guiliani took office, Guiliani was credited with the decline in drug crime. Guiliani did nothing again.

A HERO is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.

Guiliani gave celebrity tours of ground zero and photo ops, or picture taking as it was known years ago, while the clown cops kept just the public out, but celebrities and VIP's are above the cops. Everybody at grond zero, including all the people--poor people doing their jobs--down there knew his job without the mayor to tell them what to do. Guiliani was just there.

Guiliani gets down on his hands and knees and thanks God every day and/or night for the 9/11 tragedy-- Guiliani's approval ratings were way down because of his personal life, his divorce and cavorting with another woman. Donna had to get a court order of protection. 9/11 gave Guiliani presidential aspirations.

When drug use was on the decline about the time when Guiliani took office, Guiliani was credited with the decline in drug crime. Guiliani did nothing again.

A HERO is somebody who jumps into a fox hole and throws himself on a guernade to save others.

The cops and firemen were doing their jobs, just like the nurses and doctors and EVERYBODY ELSE in the area tending to victims, pickiing up debris, and doing whatever they could to ameliorate the situation--ALL COGS IN THE WHEEL.

P.S. The decline in crime is nationwide, NOT JUST New York City, because of the decline in the USE of crack, but somehow they credited Guiliani with the decline in crack use FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS NATURAL.

Actually, the decline began with DINKINSSS, at the end of his term in office, but it is a NATIONWIDE, NATURAL PHENOMENON, THE DECLINE IN CRACK USE AND HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DINKINSSS, EITHER.

"Bush opened the door to al Qaeda's attack with his incredulous grasp....."


John, don't worry.....you don't have to run from the draft any longer. The very old and very lame are legally exempt from military service. You luck out again, on both counts!

What Would Bush Do?

If he wants to prevail in Afghanistan, Barack Obama needs a Bush moment.

September 4, 2009

If he wants to prevail in Afghanistan, Barack Obama needs a George W. Bush moment. He’ll have to ignore the polls, brush aside doubters in his own party, and reinforce a failing war effort.

Bush did all that, and more, when he ordered the surge in Iraq in January 2007. He also had to buck his own military brass and almost the entirety of a foreign-policy establishment that considered the feckless recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton commission holy writ. He operated from a position of political weakness so debilitating, Lyndon Johnson might have identified with it in his final days.

Compared with those headwinds, Obama is experiencing a late-summer breeze on Afghanistan. He’s a new president in whom the American public hasn’t yet lost faith, even if he’s faded from his post-election heights. In a CBS poll, four in ten say they want troop levels decreased, and only 48 percent approve of Obama’s handling of Afghanistan. That’s nothing like the collective “enough” the public had exclaimed about the Iraq War prior to the surge.

But Obama will need three especially Bushian qualities if he is to spare his country a humiliating retreat or an underresourced, inconclusive slog in Afghanistan: sincerity, perseverance, and courage.
Bush risked his presidency on Iraq because of his heartfelt belief in its strategic importance. Obama sounds just as categorical about Afghanistan. If he believes it, he’ll make the tough calls. If not, he’ll be prone to Rumsfeldian half-measures that will ensure all our sacrifices are made on behalf of failure.

We’d be in even worse shape if Obama hadn’t already sent 21,000 additional troops earlier this year. The buzz among coalition commanders on the ground was that August would be a trying month — casualties would spike, and Americans back home would sour. So it has come to pass. If Obama approves another request for additional forces from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, it will mean even more casualties as — for some period of time — the Taliban look as strong as ever.

Bush had to endure a similarly treacherous lag between our troops’ fighting their way to outposts among the population in Iraq and the results in enhanced security. Obama, too, will have to persevere, and have the fortitude to disregard the voices of his own politicos who want nothing to do with an Afghan escalation, to ignore his most fervent supporters who fear he’ll wreck his presidency in the Hindu Kush, and to stomach poll numbers that will get worse.

If the war can’t be fought on the cheap, it can’t be sold on the cheap, either. Obama gives the impression of wanting to maintain at least 68,000 troops in a far-off conflict in Central Asia in which dozens of Americans die every month, without ever mentioning it except when scheduled for the occasional speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

He’ll have to convince the public that the war is necessary and winnable when the charm of simply characterizing it as the “good war” in contrast to Iraq has worn off.

If we withdrew, the Taliban would take over swaths of the country and would likely host al-Qaeda again. Pakistan would feel pressure to return to embracing the Taliban fully as its proxy in a war that would become a free-for-all for Afghanistan’s neighbors. This would strengthen the hand of extremists within Pakistan at the same time our credibility would have sustained a devastating blow.

The war is far from lost. Kabul is relatively safe, certainly compared with the hellish extremity of Baghdad in 2006. The areas that are in the worst shape, in the south, are those in which we have had the fewest forces. The population doesn’t want a reprise of Taliban rule. If we could recover in an Iraq that had descended to Dante’s seventh circle, Afghanistan is salvageable with enough resources and time.

As he contemplates his next move, Obama should ask an unexpected question: “What would Bush do?”

Why the Democratic Left Can't Ever Fight Their Way Out of a Wet Paper Bag.

-------------------------------------

From Preparedness to Appeasement

Grueling war, promises of peace, new attack — are we about to repeat this tired cycle?

By 1930 Verdun had been transmogrified almost into a dirty word in French schools. Throughout the late 1920s, the First World War was increasingly reinterpreted in the West as a futile bloodletting. International “Merchants of Death” and greedy capitalists, not the Kaiser’s aggressive Prussian militarism, were now seen as the true causes of that recent horrific war. A punitive Versailles Treaty — and not the failure to invade, occupy, democratize, monitor, and transform a defeated Germany — was seen as the real mistake on the part of the victors.

Britain and France all but disarmed. The Maginot defensive line, England’s island status, the new and welcomed art of appeasement (originally, lest we forget, a suitably liberal and humane idea), growing socialist movements, the League of Nations, and a new pacifism were all seen as substitutes for Neanderthal notions like deterrence and military preparedness. Perpetual peace was supposed to follow — and not another war with Germany a mere 20 years after the last one. Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and the rest begged to differ.
After the Second World War, the United Kingdom and the United States once again disarmed at an astonishing rate. By June 1950, even tiny Communist North Korea had access to better tanks and jets than were available to nearby American occupation troops in Japan. Only the threat of a nuclear response kept Stalin’s divisions from walking into postwar Western Europe — mostly disarmed despite efforts to forge a conventional NATO deterrent.

Louis Johnson, briefly Truman’s secretary of defense, had sought to close down the Marine Corps altogether and dismantle as many army divisions as he could — all thought to be superfluous in the new postwar age of strategic air power and nuclear weapons following the defeat of the Axis powers. Admirals were up in arms over massive cancellations of shipbuilding and the mothballing of their fleets.

Then came the Communist-inspired effort to topple Greece and Turkey, the Communist takeover of China, the war in Korea, the brutal Soviet suppression of liberation movements in Eastern Europe, and the massive expansion of the Soviet Union’s conventional and nuclear forces. Only the rearming of the United States in the early 1950s, along with the new policy of containment and foreign aid, stopped the Soviet advance and saved millions from Communist takeovers.

By the mid-1970s the United States was weary again. Vietnam had nearly wrecked the American military and had sent millions into the streets at home. Accommodation and détente — not the rollback of Communism — were the preferred way of dealing with an ascendant, but now supposedly more moderate, Soviet Union.

After the Nixon years and Watergate, the evangelical Jimmy Carter called for defense reductions and an end to our “inordinate” fear of Communism. He put confidence instead in the United Nations, good will among men, and a new emphasis on global human rights, rather than, yet again, reactionary deterrence.

But after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Communist intrusions into Central America, the rise of radical Islam, and the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran, Carter ended his presidency in disillusionment about the efficacy of the United Nations, and about the supposedly benign intentions of the Soviet Union and radical Islam.

Nonetheless, Ronald Reagan was considered a cretin for once again massively rearming and waging an ideological war against the “evil empire” created by the Soviet Union, as well as for engaging in provocative acts like bombing Libya and invading Grenada. Reagan spent eight years enlarging all branches of the military, creating new strategic weapons, and opposing Soviet adventurism almost anywhere it was identified. Soon after he left office the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended.

George Bush continued these policies during the four years of his administration, but then, as if on cue, Bill Clinton reversed course and announced a “peace dividend.” He reduced the number of army and marine divisions and of air wings. The military shrunk radically in size. New weapons programs were put on hold. We settled into the 1990s prosperity of the dot-com boom. The talk was all about twentysomething college dropouts making millions in ground-floor stock options by brainstorming for brilliant new concerns like AskJeeves or America Online. Little Silicon Valleys were going to sprout up everywhere.

By 1999 Americans were focused on whether their president should be merely censured or impeached for engaging in sex acts with a White House intern in the Oval Office. Occasional radical Islamic attacks such as the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the murder of U.S. servicemen in their Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the destruction of three of our East African embassies in 1998, and the assault on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 were all considered police matters that did not warrant a full-fledged military response. It was the global American hegemony and support for Zionist Israel, not existential hatred for Western freedom and liberality, that provoked these outbursts from an exasperated radical Islam.




Then came 9/11, and the belated catch-up inevitably followed. A new Department of Homeland Security was created with bipartisan support. Both houses of Congress passed the Patriot Act. A majority of Democratic senators voted with the Republicans to authorize two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush enlarged the defense budget. In the dark days after 9/11, Americans praised the FBI, CIA, and armed forces for keeping us safe.

Indeed, for the next eight years there was no repetition of the September 11 massacres, despite terrible suicide bombings abroad. For all the tragedy of the occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were removed, and ensuing constitutional democracies continued to survive. Tens of thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists flocked to Iraq and were killed there. Their leadership remains attrited and scattered in the wilderness of Waziristan. Dozens of terrorist plots in America were broken up while still in the planning stages. The message went out that if another American city were to be attacked, an unpredictable but angry United States would go after any nation that had supported, housed, or subsidized the terrorists, even if only tangentially.

So here we are in yet the latest round of perpetual peace, this time overseen by a postnational, messianic Barack Obama. Serial apologies, engagement with dictators, the trashing of his predecessor, and calls for a newly empowered United Nations are all part of a sophisticated soft power that has replaced the old Bush “smoke ’em out,” “dead or alive” reductionism.

We are more likely now to put CIA interrogators on trial than to arrest and berate new terrorists. Dick Cheney, not Osama bin Laden, has become the new national threat. George W. Bush has been reduced to Orwell’s Emmanuel Goldstein, the “He did it” collective menace at whom we are supposed to yell out in hatred each morning. We now live in an era of renewed appeasement, faith in the United Nations, no “inordinate fear,” and all the usual tired slogans.

Given the massive, nearly $2-trillion annual deficits, and the soon to be $9-trillion addition to the existing $11-trillion national debt, together with a new confidence in world governance, defense stagnation and cuts are not a matter of if, but only when.

So there is no need to mention what follows next in this tired old script. We may experience another attack like 9/11, given that many terrorists must now believe that the United States either cannot or will not go after them in the manner of the last eight years.

Many jihadists must feel that the new government in Washington is more likely to contextualize their hatred than ensure it does not spread or materialize into war. Regional bad actors — take your pick, from Ahmadinejad to Chávez to Kim to Putin —may feel it is about time to make regional adjustments in the balance of power, given their impressions that the United States is almost sympathetic to their frustrations and believes that Bush ineptness and bad faith, not the intrinsic agendas of such antidemocratic, ambitious powers, caused prior tension.

And once we experience such “adventurism,” the reaction is just as scripted. We will want tougher CIA interrogators to ensure there is no more suicide mass murdering. Attorney General Eric Holder will go the way of Louis Johnson. Congress will hold hearings on who shut down Guantanamo and freed the terrorists. White papers will be issued detailing how the Obama administration curtailed proactive national-security measures. Committees will blast the creation of needless “firewalls” between agencies. Senators will call for more aid to Colombia or Georgia or South Korea or Israel or (fill in the blank).

The cycle will play out as in the past, because, in this age of enlightenment, affluence, and leisure, we just cannot accept that human nature remains the same and thus predictable. It remains too depressing to concede that for a few evil opportunists good will is seen not as magnanimity to be appreciated, but as weakness to be tested. And who but a dunce would believe that continual military preparedness is far cheaper — and more humane — than the perpetual “peace dividend” and lowering of our defenses?

Obama proving incapable of terror fight:

Tuesday, August 25, 2009


Indignation is a curious thing in the era of Barack Obama. Having seen the mockery this White House can heap on voters who dare to show it anger, this week has provided a window to what in turn sparks the Obama team to outrage.

The current scorecard:

•Release of one of the world's most notorious terrorists by Scottish authorities – not much indignation.

•Techniques used by the previous administration to get answers from terrorists to keep Americans safe – massive indignation.The evidence mounts that an administration that cannot even bring itself to use the word "terrorist" has shown itself thoroughly unfit to fight them. From the wildly foolish notion of affording Guantánamo detainees access to American courts to the stunning gullibility of its soft stance on Iran, this administration has made it clear to terrorists: there is indeed a new sheriff, and his holster is empty.

I have expressed gratitude to President Obama for not pulling the rug out from under our troops in Afghanistan as he has constantly sought to do in Iraq. But I've also known that Afghanistan is the portion of the war liberals say they can stomach to insulate themselves from being identified as gutless pacifists.

Now that Afghanistan is entering a tough stretch, we'll see if Obama has the will to give our troops what they need to achieve greater success. This week's news does not inspire optimism in that regard.

First came the sick spectacle of the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison. As families of his 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 mass murder recoiled in shock – along with most of the civilized world – Obama, a supposed master of word choice, found the whole thing "disturbing."

"Disturbing." Really.

A dip in the housing market is disturbing. The Scottish decision to release the only man convicted of blowing up 270 people is an unmitigated outrage, compounded by the hero's homecoming he received in Libya.

FBI Director Robert Mueller wrote a decently stern letter, but I suppose a presidential mouth that very nearly kisses the ring of Saudi royalty cannot be expected to speak truth to any evil cloaked in the Islamic faith. Might get in the way of that Happy Ramadan message on the White House Web site.

But the Obama administration did get its collective dander up this week against a specter of evil it has always been eager to fight: the Bush administration.

But not just administration officials. With its maliciously reckless decision to criminalize tactics used to interrogate terror detainees since 9/11, the Obama White House is seeking to demonize and punish trained professionals tasked with preventing future 9/11s, a job for which one might believe thanks are due for inarguable success.

It won't be coming from this administration.

Politicizing national security is a shameful thing. I dream of the day when that's all this White House does. Their current intent is not only to change interrogation policies (with a White House "Interrogation Group" sure to strike fear into al-Qaeda hearts), but to cast differing policies of the past as illegal and evil.

I can only imagine Attorney General Eric Holder choking back gasps as he heard of some detainees threatened with guns and power drills and others threatened with harm to family members.

Pardon my misdirected vexation. I'm still pretty worked up about my countrymen dying in various ways at the hands of the 9/11 hijackers. If, after careful evaluation of a suspect's value and demeanor, questioners thought a particularly intense method of interrogation would yield information that could save American lives, it is the height of moral idiocy to tell them not to do it.

The only thing more despicable is to prosecute them for it.

The Bush Administration Surveillance & Security kept Us Free from Attack after 9/11.
---------------------------
A win against terror:

September 13, 2009

The good guys chalked up a big win in the War on Terror last week: A British jury convicted three masterminds behind the 2006 plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic airliners.

The convictions serve as a reminder that the war is far from over — that, eight years after 9/11, terrorists continue to target the West.

They also affirm that robust counterterrorism efforts can indeed foil plots before they manifest — and, for that reason, are indispensable in this fight.

Of course, even as memories of the 2001 attacks fade and the West’s resolve flags, the best way to prevent future attacks still involves offense: snuffing out terrorists at their source — in the Mideast.

But Monday’s courtroom victory was still a big deal.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were found guilty of conspiring to detonate bombs, made from readily available liquids, on planes flying between Britain, Canada and America.

Had the plotters (including four others convicted on related charges) succeeded, they’d have killed thousands of innocents and thrown the global economy into chaos.

Even though it failed, the plot had an impact: When British authorities swooped in to arrest dozens of suspects, thousands of domestic and international flights around the world were grounded.

To this day, strict rules dictate how travelers must pack liquids, cosmetics — even baby food — to board planes.

Meanwhile, authorities have uncovered post-9/11 terrorist plots targeting numerous locales within America’s own borders — in places like Fort Dix, NJ, Willow Spring, NC, and even a Bronx synagogue.

It’s too much to hope that no plot can possibly ever slip by counterterrorist and Homeland Security agents.

Which is why, to repeat, America must remain aggressive — and on offense.

Alas, a few months back, Obama administration officials sought to chuck the phrase “Global War on Terror” in favor of the bland “Overseas Contingency Operation.” The president himself has been blaming America for its supposed misdeeds.

Now, if all of this is meant to win the terrorists’ hearts and minds, it’s a sure loser: Jihadists have no hearts, and their minds are set on one thing — global domination.

Which is why they must be seen for what they are — implacable enemies — and dealt with accordingly.

Even as the nation marked the eighth anniversary of 9/11 just two days ago, it’s easy to ignore this reality.

But America forgets at its peril.

And Still Another Democratic-Left Accident Waiting to Happen.
---------------------------
Raiding rail security:
Obama neuters counter-terror unit

September 12, 2009

New Delhi. Mumbai. Chechnya. Madrid. Lon don. The question isn't whether America will suffer a jihadi attack on our passenger rail lines, but when. So why has President Obama neutered the nation's most highly trained post-9/11 counterterrorism rail-security team?

All signs point to cronyism and pandering to union bosses.

Amtrak's Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations -- OSSSO -- grew out of a counterterrorism and intelligence unit developed by the Bush administration in the wake of global jihadi attacks on mass-transit systems. The office was staffed with Special Forces veterans, law-enforcement officers, railroad specialists, other military personnel and experts who collectively possessed hundreds of years of experience fighting on the front lines against terrorism.


Biden: Tight with union that resents security outfit.
Sponsored Links
Each member underwent at least 800 hours of rail-security-related training, including advanced marksmanship, close-quarters combat and protective-security exercises.
OSSSO's mobile-prevention teams acted as "force multipliers" working with local, state and federal authorities across the country to detect, deter and defend against criminal and terrorist attacks on mass transit. They conducted hundreds of show-of-force, uniformed and rail-marshal rides.

OSSSO also provided security services for President Bush, the pope, the 2008 Democratic and GOP conventions, -Obama's campaign events and Joe Biden's Amtrak whistle-stop tours. The unit's push to conduct random passenger and baggage screening won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill. Even Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who chairs the House homeland-security subcommittee on transportation security, hailed the rail-security team's work last year.

"Let me congratulate them for being aware" of the threat to rail passengers, she told USA Today in July 2008. "[But] this has to be the new standard for Amtrak."

How will Congress react to the news that this high standard has been obliterated?

Multiple government sources (who declined to be identified for fear of retribution) say OSSSO's East Coast and West Coast teams haven't worked in a counterterrorism capacity since the summer. Their long arms were put under lock and key after the abrupt departures of Amtrak Vice President for Security Strategy and Special Operations Bill Rooney and Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold.

Weiderhold played an instrumental role in creating OSSSO's predecessor at Amtrak, the Counter-Terrorism Unit. He tapped Rooney to oversee the office. But Rooney was quietly given the heave-ho in May, and Weiderhold was unexpectedly "retired" a few weeks later -- just as Amtrak faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes.

Weiderhold had blown the whistle on intrusion of Amtrak's Law Department into his financial audits and probes. A damning report from an outside legal firm concluded that the "independence and effectiveness" of the Amtrak inspector general's office were "being substantially impaired" by the Law Department -- which happens to be headed by Eleanor Acheson, a close pal of Vice President Biden.

Biden himself is tight with the Fraternal Order of Police, the powerful union that represents the Amtrak Police Department. OSSSO sources say the APD brass have been aggrieved from the start over the nonunionized counterterrorism unit's existence.

A West Coast OSSSO team member told me that union leaders blocked police credentialing efforts by his office for more than a year. An East Coast member told me that the union recently filed a grievance against one of its counterterrorism officers for assisting a train conductor who asked for help in ejecting a ticketless passenger.

Unlike OSSSO's specialized personnel, APD officers have minimal counterterrorism training. Past studies show alarmingly low pass rates among APD patrolmen who'd attended basic special-operations classes, government sources say. The Amtrak Fraternal Order of Police continues to squabble over turf with the rival Teamsters union -- its leaders can't even agree on minimal physical fitness standards for its members.

Nevertheless, OSSSO is now under the command and control of the APD -- and federal stimulus funding earmarked for the counterterrorism unit has now been absorbed by the police department.

Amtrak didn't respond to my questions about OSSSO by my column deadline.

Al Qaeda operatives have repeatedly plotted to wreak havoc on our mass-transit systems. They'll try, try again. American jihadi Bryant Neal Vinas recently gave the feds details about a plot to blow up a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in New York's Penn Station.

As America marks the 9/11 anniversary and the "never forget" mantra echoes, an OSSSO team member told me, "There is no room for internal protectionism, vested interests of unions or asset-manipulating bureaucracies where the safety of our national passenger railroad is concerned."

Does anyone else in Washington agree?

GILIANI--DON'T YOU KNOW WHO THIS MAN IS?

While in office, Guiliani appointed KERICK, formerly the New York City Commissioner of Corrections at Rikers Island, as the new police commissioner. KERICK WAS IN A probe where kerick PLEADED GUILTY TO ACCEPTING $180,000 IN RENNOVATIONS TO HIS APARTMENT IN BRONXDALE--BRIBERY--from a New Jersey construction company who were looking for contracts in New York City and thought KERICK WOULD BE INFLUENTIAL TO THEM.

KERICK PLEADED GUILTY TO A MISDEAMOR--NO JAIL TIME, NO FINE--KERICK WAS AN EMBARASSM TO GUILIANI.

KERICK'S NAME was considered to run Homeland Security when it was being formed after 911, but with all the rumors of Kerick and Guiliani with all his baggage, Kerick was only an embarassment, AND, they removd his name from the Manhattan Correctional Facility, which is located under the Criminal Court Building at 100 Centre Street, which at the turn of the century was called THE TOMBS..

GILIANI--DON'T YOU KNOW WHO THIS MAN IS?

While in office, Guiliani appointed KERICK, formerly the New York City Commissioner of Corrections at Rikers Island, as the new police commissioner. KERICK WAS IN A probe where kerick PLEADED GUILTY TO ACCEPTING $180,000 IN RENNOVATIONS TO HIS APARTMENT IN BRONXDALE--BRIBERY--from a New Jersey construction company who were looking for contracts in New York City and thought KERICK WOULD BE INFLUENTIAL TO THEM.

KERICK PLEADED GUILTY TO A MISDEAMOR--NO JAIL TIME, NO FINE--KERICK WAS AN EMBARASSM TO GUILIANI.

KERICK'S NAME was considered to run Homeland Security when it was being formed after 911, but with all the rumors of Kerick and Guiliani with all his baggage, Kerick was only an embarassment, AND, they removd his name from the Manhattan Correctional Facility, which is located under the Criminal Court Building at 100 Centre Street, which at the turn of the century was called THE TOMBS..

GILIANI--DON'T YOU KNOW WHO THIS MAN IS?

While in office, Guiliani appointed KERICK, formerly the New York City Commissioner of Corrections at Rikers Island, as the new police commissioner. KERICK WAS IN A probe where kerick PLEADED GUILTY TO ACCEPTING $180,000 IN RENNOVATIONS TO HIS APARTMENT IN BRONXDALE--BRIBERY--from a New Jersey construction company who were looking for contracts in New York City and thought KERICK WOULD BE INFLUENTIAL TO THEM.

KERICK PLEADED GUILTY TO A MISDEAMOR--NO JAIL TIME, NO FINE--KERICK WAS AN EMBARASSM TO GUILIANI. If that was anybody else, they would be thrown in prison and fines.

KERICK'S NAME was considered to run Homeland Security when it was being formed after 911, but with all the rumors of Kerick and Guiliani with all his baggage, Kerick was only an embarassment, AND, they removd his name from the Manhattan Correctional Facility, which is located under the Criminal Court Building at 100 Centre Street, which at the turn of the century was called THE TOMBS..