Rumsfeld: Source May Have Stopped Attacks

[maddezmom]

ABOARD THE USS ESSEX - The United States would have stopped the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks if American intelligence had gotten better inside information on those who planned and carried them out, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told sailors and Marines aboard this warship Friday.


Without directly assigning blame to the CIA (news - web sites), whose director, George Tenet, resigned on Thursday and will leave in July, Rumsfeld posed the question, "Is it a terrible failure that we did not" have sufficiently good intelligence to stop the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil?


His answer was that it simply is not possible to prevent every conceivable attack, and that is why the United States has taken a more aggressive approach to disrupting terrorists before they strike.


"We have to be realistic and expect that there will be additional successful attacks," he said during a question-and-answer session with several hundred sailors and Marines aboard the USS Essex, a helicopter carrier in port at Singapore with several other ships of the Essex strike group.

~snip~
more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=693&e=6&u=/ap/20040604/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rumsfeld_asia

Looks like Rummy is going to pile on Tenet and the CIA....diverting attention from the Iraq fiasco. :eyes:

[Piperay]

1. WOW, that was fast.

:wow: I just heard on Nightline less than two hours ago the prediction that within the next couple of weeks they would start passing the blame to Tenent. This is fast, they have out done themselves and already began. :wtf:

[amber dog democrat]

2. Its all about election year politics

and needing a fall guy. Wait until the 9/11 Commission report comes out.
This will deal with some of the flack ahead of timem -- or will it?

[radfringe]

3. if you notice in many reports

Tenent is referred to as a "Clinton hold-over" or it's mentioned that Tenent was appointed by Clinton

:tinfoilhat: seems to me that this is a 'stealth' was of blaming Clinton... although this may be toooooo subtle for some GOPers to grasp -- give it a day or two and they will be blaming Clinton directly

[kerrycrat2k4]

8. Dont worry

Just like everything else these zionist neocons have allowed to happen on thier watch the blame will be shifted to clinton and whatever democrat is standing closest

[saracat]

4. Can you spell backlash?

I don't think this is going to fly. Tenent is in too deep with both sides and has a reputation for integrity. Clarke has intimated that Tenet was one of those "running around with their hair on fire" trying to warn the Admin prior to 9-11 and now Tenant second in command has quit! Maybe they don't want to lie any longer?

[Born Free]

5. It's not good to screw with the CIA....

The incompetent jokers in the white house are picking the wrong fight going after the CIA. The CIA is experienced at regime change, the incompetent jokers in the white house may end up getting the big boot out the door faster then they like if they screw with the wrong people.

[saigon68]

10. I don't know about the SUPERMEN at Langley

At times they appear to have trouble fighting their way out of a Wet Paper Bag.

[radfringe]

6. ohhhhhhh MATCOM.....

any reaction from papa-matcom on this?

[dusty64]

7. The blame game

intensifies, now this is a surprise.

[CWebster]

9. Everyone knows they were intent on invading Iraq

by hook or by crook. No one was gonna stop them--they were banging those war drums and hyping up the fear factor around the clock.

The Bush administration is seeking to pin the blame on Intelligence after they slashed budgets and ignored Clinton administration concerns prior to 911.And if both parties in the US government are searching for someone to take the fall because of their own negligence--The crimes of the Republicans and the dereliction of duty by the Democrats, it would ultimately be a miscarriage of justice in an ongoing saga of deception.

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. So who are they going to blame with the next one? n/t

[Stephanie]

13. True - they have fired the scapegoat too soon

How can they win the election without another terra attack and a scapegoat to pin it on. But I guess there's always Clinton.

[searchingforlight]

12. According to the reports I have read, Tenent was not the one looking for

a reason to attack Iraq. Bushco's ears were closed to anything that they didn't want to hear, ergo, good intelligence was not the issue.

[htuttle]

14. Bookmark those Rummy quotes

When this ploy to blame Tenet fails, the administration will want to go back to their PREVIOUS story of 'nobody could have done anything to prevent the attacks' -- you know, the story they were telling after Clarke's book came out.

[Norquist Nemesis]

15. Correct me if I'm wrong on this

but 'everyone' (generically) is pointing the finger at the CIA/Tenet. Rummy's comments are "intelligence" and unless I'm mistaken, the FBI is also a core component of "intelligence". Plus, given one of those little facts that Rummy likes to call an unknown known, the AQ operatives were in the country several months before 9/11...in the country is FBI.

So...why isn't there a bullseye on Mueller's back as well? While the administration states "intelligence", it is allowing this to be spun squarely and pointedly at the CIA. I can hear the Rummy retorts now, "That's not what I said. Go back and look at what I said." It's the same as the 9/11 - Iraq connection.

[Just Me]

16. Nearly everytime Rummie speaks, he does a "foreshadowing",...

,...thingy re the inevitability of a future terrorist attack.