The history ABC rewrote: Newsweek account of *'s dismantling of Clinton's

[ProgressiveEconomist]

antiterrorism efforts.

The ammunition needed to counter Orwellian White House electoral propaganda is "out there", on the internet, if you look closely enough. Remember this Newsweek article from four years ago? Karl Rove and company are counting on the electorate/TV audience to forget, and to instead bring in their minds to the polls the messages with which plutocrats will saturate them over the next two months.

From http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorismfoi/whatwentwrong.html :

"WHAT WENT WRONG. The inside story of the missed signals and intelligence failures that raise a chilling question: did September 11 have to happen?" By Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff; Newsweek May 27 2002

"Back in July 2001, Bill Kurtz and his team hit pay dirt, and no one seemed to care. A hard-driven supervisor in the FBI�s Phoenix office, Kurtz was overseeing an investigation of suspected Islamic terrorists last July when a member of his team, a sharp, 41-year-old counterterrorism agent named Kenneth Williams, noticed something odd: a large number of suspects were signing up to take courses in how to fly airplanes....

But little of that seemed to make a difference back in Washington, where the Kurtz team suffered a fate even worse than Cassandra�s: not only were they not believed, they were ignored altogether.... under Attorney General John Ashcroft, the department was being prodded back into its old law-and-order mind-set: violent crime, drugs, child porn. Counterterrorism, which had become a priority of the Clintonites ... seemed to be getting less attention. When FBI officials sought to add hundreds more counterintelligence agents, they got shot down even as Ashcroft began, quietly, to take a privately chartered jet for his own security reasons.

The attorney general was hardly alone in seeming to de-emphasize terror in the young Bush administration. Over at the Pentagon, new Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elected not to relaunch a Predator drone that had been tracking bin Laden, among other actions. In self- absorbed Washington, the Phoenix memo, which never resulted in arrests, landed in two units at FBI headquarters but didn�t make it to senior levels. Nor did the memo get transmitted to the CIA, which has long had a difficult relationship with the FBI�and whose director, George Tenet, one of the few Clinton holdovers, was issuing so many warnings that bin Laden was �the most immediate� threat to Americans he was hardly heeded any longer...."

[NMDemDist2]

1. kicked and nominated. how soon we forget eh? n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Remember Sen Feinstein's July 2001 antiterror-policy warning on CNN?

Remember Sen Feinstein's July 2001 terror warning, on CNN?

From http://feinstein.senate.gov/Releases02/attacks.htm :

"Statement By U.S. Senator Feinstein - On Concerns Raised About Possible Terrorist Attacks on Our Nation -May 17, 2002

"I am very surprised by the tone of the comments by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer regarding concerns I raised last summer about a possible terrorist attack on our nation ...

What I said last July on CNN was that I was deeply concerned as to whether our house was in order to prevent a terrorist attack. My work on the Intelligence Committee and as chair of the Technology and Terrorism Subcommittee had given me a sense of foreboding for some time. ...

In fact, I was so concerned that I contacted Vice President Cheney's office that same month to urge that he restructure our counter-terrorism and homeland defense programs to ensure better accountability and prevent important intelligence information from slipping through the cracks. Despite repeated efforts by myself and staff, the White House did not address my request. I followed this up last September 2001 before the attacks and was told by 'Scooter' Libby that it might be another six months before he would be able to review the material. I told him I did not believe we had six months to wait."

[nicknameless]

21. Excellent post!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

10. Remember the 1999 federal report that contradicted Condi's famous disclaimer?

Condi Rice, Thursday May 16, 2002: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."

BUT, from http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0517-06.htm :

"1999 Report Warned of Suicide Hijack" By John Solomon; Published on Friday, May 17, 2002 by the Associated Press

'WASHINGTON �� Exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building. "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said. The report, entitled the "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?," described the suicide hijacking as one of several possible retribution attacks al-Qaida might seek for the 1998 U.S. airstrike against bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. ...

The report noted that an al-Qaida-linked terrorist first arrested in the Philippines in 1995 and later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had suggested such a suicide jetliner mission. "Ramzi Yousef had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters," author Rex Hudson wrote in a report prepared for the National Intelligence Council and shared with other federal agencies....

The report contrasts with Bush administration officials' assertions that none in government had imagined an attack like Sept. 11 before that time. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.'

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. Remember Ashcroft's misleading testimony before the 9/11 Commission?

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2082072

for online copies of internal DoJ documents detailing his radical re-ordering of FBI priorities and budget away from antiterrorism.

[Wretched Refuse]

38. The long and winding Path to 9/11

Well, could not we go further back in our time machine and ask:
What the hell did George Bush I do to stop Osama? I mean why not do that? He had the whole middle east in his grubby little hands back in 1991, so why not take Osama out right then either?

Now HERE is a concept for y'all,

It has struck me that this "non-issue" (really if you think about all the treason this admin is doing, this is a non-issue) is REALLY the DLC re-asserting itself as the controller of ALL things Democrat.
I mean it is all a Clinton (+administration) face saving thing that now supposedly ALL good Dems come to the aid of their "fearless leader." Well, it really is sapping our "momentum" on other more important issues, and the corporate controlled DLC KNOWS THAT.

So, I have stayed outside the blogosphere on this one, except for the few phone calls to ABC radio to gnash my teeth on the air, with the likes of Levin (the Zionist) and the new idiot (Jerry) last night taking over Laura Ingram's 8-10 slot in the NY ABC market.

Screw Disney and ABC, they were the next to fall to the nazis after Fox anyway, everyone knew that. I believe that ABC is also stirring the pot to get all good Dems back into the DLC fold, as Hilary was starting to get REALLY antsy at the calls to debate Tasini and with Lamont, and the Screw the DLC push happening as of late, I feel this is the motive for the over-hype of this non-issue.

This all just another Corporate-control of our sense of "what is important."

[Hissyspit]

2. Nothing "went wrong." They wanted 9/11 to happen.

It went RIGHT. Radically right. PNAC right.

[Karenina]

3. Who can forget

Ashcroft's private jet? Things that make ya go hmmmm...

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. Did any reporter ever ask Ashcroft directly about that?

If not, maybe some would-be Michael Moore will camp out on Ashcroft's lawn this weekend, and pester him until he comes up with some lame response.

[fasttense]

4. And what about those "War Games" that were supposedly

going on at the same time as 9/11 occurred. It is just very strange that these games were going on at the same time.

http://www.oilempire.us/wargames.html

[ProgressiveEconomist]

12. How credible is that source, especially with people who do not share your

apparent views about the trustworthiness of the Bush administration?

I prefer to mine the mainstream media for nuggets of skepticism and fact-checking.

[druidity33]

23. Vanity Fair...

They also have audio tape (about 3 hours worth... excerpts online) from NORAD that morning. A constant refrain is "Is that real-life or exercise" ... officials ask that question about 10 times in the first few minutes...

[Atman]

7. Holy shit. Karl was right. America has already forgotten.

Unreal. This reads like a parallel universe, where everything is exactly the opposite of what it is now.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. I hope Keith O reads DU....

America needs to be reminded. We'll never hear this from Brian Williams or Katie Couric who apparently are big Limpballs fans.

Thanks for posting.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

15. Thanks for reading--we need to get our own facts straight before the ABC

atrocity goes on the air, and before even more URLs documenting 9/11 slip "down the memory hole".

[EVDebs]

9. THIS NEEDS TO BE AT TOP OF 'GREATEST PAGE' !!

DU, if WE are the media, this is the time to put it up there front and center. Then R's and their corporate whores will have to look into the mirror and either change or get right with their God or continue down their path to destruction.

[bleever]

14. Agreed. They put this topic front and center. The facts must now

rain down like heaven's own justice upon them.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

22. Thanks for your enthusiasm

[Poiuyt]

11. Kick

[Supersedeas]

16. the Corp Media memory hole is expose daily

[EVDebs]

18. More 'inconvenient truth's' from the MSM's memory hole circular file

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2082715&mesg_id=2082858

[madmusic]

17. K&R

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. Thanks! Let's keep threads with respectable links to 9/11 facts KICKED

until the Orwellian ABC program airs.

[madmusic]

20. kick

[ProgressiveEconomist]

27. Kick!

[Ninga]

24. We need to keep these facts fresh in our memory. Good job! Thanks.

[jazzjunkysue]

25. Here are the current headlines at ABC "News"

This is the Politics page: Fluff, sex, danger. NO news.

War in the Womb
Living in the Dark
Real-Life Werewolves
Primetime: Dangers of Toxic Trains
WEBCAST: Shooting Caught on Camera
WEBCAST: Amputation by Choice
I Woke Up With a Foreign Accent!
WEBCAST: Dealing With a Racist Cabbie
Tango Tourism
Experts' Keys to Surviving a Nuclear Terror Attack
San Francisco Quake Could Be Worse Than Katrina
Investigations
Female Suicide Bombers: A New Al Qaeda Tactic?
Pirate Attack on Luxury Cruise Liner
Traumatized Girl Wills Herself to Silence
A Boy Trapped by Love and Circumstance
Does a New Pill Contain the Fountain of Youth?
The Advertising Behind Male Enhancement Pills
'The Staircase': Money, Sex and Secrets
Fake English Lord's Identity Revealed
Face Transplant Patient Returning to Normal Life
What Parents Don't Know About Their Teen Daughters' Sex Lives
What Are Teens Hiding on MySpace
When Young Love Turns Dangerous
Outrage After Teen Gets 10 Years for Oral Sex With Girl
Exclusive: Joran van der Sloot Tells 'Primetime' About Night With Natalee Holloway
Teen Girls Tell Their Stories of Sex Trafficking and Exploitation in U.S.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

26. From a short-term profit perspective, ABC would be THRILLED not to have

anything to do with news. It's time-consuming and expensive to produce, involving research, interviews with unwilling subjects, travel, tight deadlines, etc. It's risky--lawsuits could make innocent mistakes cost millions. And it has the lowest ratings of any program segment type. I'd surmise that many ABC execs would LOVE to replace most "hard news" with cheap big-audience spectacles such as sports, reality-TV, variety-talk, and celebrity infotainment.

IMO, your list shows that "news" is being redefined at ABC (and CBS and NBC) to encompass those money-making replacements for investigative news. IMO "hard news" is morphing into rebroadcast of news-like propaganda tapes from WH, GOP, and corporate sources, or else network video stenography for emailed press releases from those sources.

[wiley]

28. "the Bush administration never launched even an unarmed Predator"

" At the Treasury Department, Secretary Paul O�Neill�s team wanted to roll back almost all forms of government intervention, including laws against money laundering and tax havens of the kind used by terror groups. At the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld wanted to revamp the military and push his pet project, NMD. Rumsfeld vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism. The Pentagon chief also seemed uninterested in a tactic for observing bin Laden left over from the Clinton administration: the CIA�s Predator surveillance plane. Upon leaving office, the Clintonites left open the possibility of sending the Predator back up armed with Hellfire missiles, which were tested in February 2001. But through the spring and summer of 2001, when valuable intelligence could have been gathered, the Bush administration never launched even an unarmed Predator. Hill sources say DOD didn�t want the CIA treading on its turf."

http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorismfoi/whatwentwrong.html

[lisainmilo]

29. K&R

thanks!

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. Kick.....

:kick:

[me b zola]

31. k&r

[Raksha]

32. K & R - Very good information here. Thanks!

[Tarheel_Dem]

33. kick....

n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

34. The smoking gun.

It's time for Ashcroft to do some 'splaining.

[ms liberty]

35. K&R: Need to keep this at the top of the Greatest Page n/t

[Jed Dilligan]

36. I'm going to build a collection of these

and e-mail them to all my friends on Sunday night.

There's the OP and post 5 here and heiderheld's thread. Any I'm missing?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

37. This thread is minutes away from the 24-hr time limit on

the Greatest Page: Look how close it is to the bottom of the left-hand column, although it's third from the top in the right-hand column. So I have expanded and revised it and reposted to URL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2089943 .

as well as to DailyKos at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/9/9946/79088 .