Bush Made Joke Explaining Dropped Ball on Cole to 9-11 Comm.-- RECOMMEND!

[Dems Will Win]

BUSH MADE JOKE ABOUT NOT RETALIATING FOR USS COLE BOMBING IN WHICH 17 SAILORS WERE KILLED AND SAID HE "LOST THE ARGUMENT" FOR ATTACKING AL-QUEDA AFTER CONFIRMATION BY CIA AND FBI

Now we know! The 9-11 Commission voted to KEEP HIDDEN the full interviews with Bush and Clinton, including the Cole and how Bush dropped the Osama ball in 2001, UNTIL 2009!!

Those fucking bastards.

Ben-Veniste just told Wolf Blitzer the truth about what happened. When asked why he didn't retaliate for the Cole, Bush lamely answered "no one had told him that we had made that threat." When Ben Veniste further challenged him as to exactly what happened, Cheney kept his mouth shut and Bush made a joke asking Ben Veniste if he "had ever lost an argument", and Ben-Veniste replied he had 2 daughters too.

What a pathetic excuse for a President! And Ben Veniste gave him a "pass"!! WTF!

Richard Ben-Veniste

BLITZER: So you the asked the president in the Oval Office -- and the vice president -- why didn't you go after the Taliban in those eight months before 9/11 after he was president. What did he say?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, now that it was established that al Qaeda was responsible for the Cole bombing and the president was briefed in January of 2001, soon after he took office, by George Tenet, head of the CIA, telling him of the finding that al Qaeda was responsible, and I said, "Well, why wouldn't you go after the Taliban in order to get them to kick bin Laden out of Afghanistan?"

Maybe, just maybe, who knows -- we don't know the answer to that question -- but maybe that could have affected the 9/11 plot.

BLITZER: What did he say?

BEN-VENISTE: He said that no one had told him that we had made that threat. And I found that very discouraging and surprising.

BLITZER: Now, I read this report, the 9/11 Commission report. This is a big, thick book. I don't see anything and I don't remember seeing anything about this exchange that you had with the president in this report.

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I had hoped that we had -- we would have made both the Clinton interview and the Bush interview a part of our report, but that was not to be. I was outvoted on that question.

BLITZER: Why?

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't have the votes.

BLITZER: Well, was -- were the Republican members trying to protect the president and the vice president? Is that what your suspicion is?

BEN-VENISTE: I think the question was that there was a degree of confidentiality associated with that and that we would take from that the output that is reflected in the report, but go no further. And that until some five years' time after our work, we would keep that confidential. I thought we would be better to make all of the information that we had available to the public and make our report as transparent as possible so that the American public could have that.

BLITZER: Now, you haven't spoken publicly about this, your interview in the Oval Office, together with the other commissioners, the president and the vice president. Why are you doing that right now?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I think it's an important subject. The issue of the Cole is an important subject, and there has been a lot of politicization over this issue, why didn't President Clinton respond?

Well, we set forth in the report the reasons, and that is because the CIA had not given the president the conclusion that al Qaeda was responsible. That did not occur until some point in December. It was reiterated in a briefing to the -- to the new president in January.

BLITZER: Well, let me stop you for a second. If former President Clinton knew in December...

BEN-VENISTE: Right.

BLITZER: ... that the CIA and the FBI had, in his words, certified that al Qaeda was responsible, he was still president until January 20, 2001. He had a month, let's say, or at least a few weeks to respond.

Why didn't he?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I think that was a question of whether a president who would be soon leaving office would initiate an attack against a foreign country, Afghanistan. And I think that was left up to the new administration. But strangely, in the transition there did not seem to be any great interest by the Bush administration, at least none that we found, in pursuing the question of plans which were being drawn up to attack in Afghanistan as a response to the Cole.

BLITZER: Now, as best of my recollection, when you went to the Oval Office with your other commissioners, the president and the vice president did that together. That was a joint interview.

BEN-VENISTE: At the request of the president.

BLITZER: Did the vice president say anything to you? Did he know that this warning had been given to the Taliban, who were then ruling Afghanistan, if there's another attack on the United States, we're going to go after you because you harbor al Qaeda? And there was this attack on the USS Cole.

BEN-VENISTE: The vice president did not at that point volunteer any information about the Cole.

BLITZER: So what's your -- did the president say to you -- did the president say, you know, "I made a mistake, I wish we would have done something"? What did he say when you continually -- when you pressed him? And I know you're a former prosecutor, you know how to drill, try to press a point.

BEN-VENISTE: Well, the president made a humorous remark about the fact that -- asking me whether I had ever lost an argument, and I reminded him that -- or I informed him that I, too, had two daughters. And so we passed that.

He made his statement about the state of his knowledge, and I accepted that as a given, although I was surprised considering the number of people who continued on, including Richard Clarke. So that information was there and available, but the question of why we did not respond to the Cole, I think it was an important lapse, quite frankly.

I think that we would have sent a message to the Taliban and we would have sent a message to al Qaeda. It could have conceivably -- I don't know the answer to this, but conceivably it could have had an affect on whether Sheikh Mullah and -- Omar.

BLITZER: Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Taliban.

BEN-VENISTE: Omar, right -- would have continued to harbor bin Laden and al Qaeda in their country.

BLITZER: It's such a fascinating aspect of this whole issue. It's surprising to me that none of this made it into the final report, but that's a question for another day.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/25/sitroom.02.html

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/26/what-did-bush-do-about-the-cole/
(thanx shoopnyc)

IF YOU LIKE FIGHTING FREEPERS WITH TRUTHINESS, PLEASE REMEMBER TO RECOMMEND

[Gabi Hayes]

1. so what? Clinton had his

leg showing during the Wallace interview

get your priorities in order, dammit!

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. !

:spray: ** is a heartless bastard in more ways than one!

[Avalux]

11. And he has a six inch wagging finger -

looked like a cross between Frankenstein and Dracula!! (Limbaugh) :eyes:

[Lochloosa]

29. rush wishes he something 6 inches long and wagging....

[sam sarrha]

2. Bu$h has also said he didn't want to 'fire Cruse missiles and miss'..

[Old and In the Way]

4. But killing 100,000 Iraqis who had nothing to do with 9/11.....

no problem. He's a lying sociopath.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. He was saving them to kill innocents in Iraq. Shock and Awe!

:grr:

[grannylib]

5. I am floored that this imbecilic little monkey boy still has ANY fucking

approval rating...* is without a doubt the most worthless, witless, lying sack of crap ever to sit in the WH.
What a disgrace he is.

[shoopnyc]

6. Link...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/26/what-did-bush-do-about-the-cole/

[Dems Will Win]

7. Thnx - This means Clinton said attack Afghanistan and Bush

went on vacation!

[dpbrown]

34. EXACTLY! Plans were drawn up to attack and Bush paid the Taliban instead

Clinton put together the plan to attack Afghanistan in retaliation for the Cole and passed those plans on to Bush, who then became the world's biggest monetary benefactor of the Taliban instead.

The Bush Administration gave the Taliban, arguably the most repressive regime in the world, and the government harboring the most dangerous terrorist in the world, $43 million for declaring that growing opium is "against the will of god." This made the United States, in 2001, the world's greatest monetary supporter of the Taliban.

This is after Bush was advised that al qaeda was responsible for the Cole bombing and with Clinton's plan to attack Afghanistan in his hand!

[file83]

9. USS Cole is a joke, Iraq is a "comma" - how friggin' stupid can one

man be?

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Heartless is more like it! ** just doesn't give a rat's ass about our

safety, that much is clear! And he cares even less about the troops he puts in harm's way! What a despicable POS he is!

[bdamomma]

30. * clearly shows his ignorance and arrogance and contempt

to us and our soldiers every day and even our vets who come back without no VA benefits.

[Rageneau]

10. Thank Lee (Whitewash) Hamilton for the secrecy of the 9/11 report.

Le Hamilton did not get on the 9/11 commission by accident, and certainly not by merit. He was chosen by the Republicans to do what he always does for the Republicans, which is to cover up for the Republicans.

You can bet he voted against making this report public, and that he was in favor of letting Bush and Cheney hold hands while testifying, not under oath. In fact, the moment I heard Hamilton was being appointed to the commission, I KNEW there was going to be a cover-up.
\

[Dems Will Win]

12. Me too

That was it

[Dems Will Win]

15. THis is what really gets me!

But strangely, in the transition there did not seem to be any great interest by the Bush administration, at least none that we found, in pursuing the question of plans which were being drawn up to attack in Afghanistan as a response to the Cole.

[BrklynLiberal]

23. and of course none of this came out before the 04 elections!!!!!!!!!

[hang a left]

28. Also as I remember

The WH had the report for like a year or something editing it, isn't that right?

[Dems Will Win]

14. Feb 2001 Bush said "back off Bin Ladens", nixed Clinton's offshore

money laundering effort and kept the Predator on the ground.

Today Bush is hoping we don't notice Pakistan just made peace with Mullah Omar and Osama in return for Mushareff's own neck.

[Poiuyt]

16. So what argument did Bush loose?

Is he implying that he wanted to retaliate for the Cole, but everyone else argued against him? I find that VERY hard to believe. The only person that would stand up to Bush is Cheney, and Cheney would love to start any war with any excuse.

[Dems Will Win]

17. Paul O'Neil said that Cheney pushed Bush around when

he wanted still another tax cut for the rich and Bush pushed the tax bill back across the desk and asked "isn't it the Middle Class's turn?" Cheney said "no" and pushed the bill back. "Sign it" Cheney ordered.

This could be what happened with the Cole. Cheney didn't want to wipe out AQ in Afghanistan BEFORE they attacked on American soil and gave him the power of total war. So he told Bush no when Bush naturally wanted to retaliate. I bet they never even showed Bush the Clarke plan to attack in Afghanistan with Special Forces and truly find the Northern Alliance.

[Marie26]

20. Wasn't he also placed

in charge of counter-terrorism task force in May 2001? That sort of jumped out at me. Cheney placed in charge of both energy & terrorism policy - we all should've known where that was heading.

[Dems Will Win]

18. Cheney also was completely taking the heat off OBL at the

same time. IT all makes sense if...

LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP LIHOP

[me b zola]

19. That line caught my attention as well

"Have you ever lost an argument?"

It could well be what the posters have said who responded before me--bush* was whining becuase he was bullied. But another possibility occurred to me--could that have been some kind of (thinnly)veiled threat?

Things that make you go hmmmm.

[Jacobin]

35. And all this time i thought Bush* was the Decider.

Deciders don't argue, do they?

:eyes:

[Straight Shooter]

21. Wolfie is surprised that none of this made it into the final report?

Yeah, right. :eyes:

At least Clinton was man enough to testify on his own, under oath, and the testimony was recorded, as is proper and fitting for a situation of such gravity.

Little Boots and Unca Dick ..... pfffft! "Why have history judge us on our own words? Ain't gonna happen, 9/11 Commissioners, go fuck yourself. And go fuck America, too."

[Imagevision]

36. Cheney could never allow an unleashed Bush to answer questions

[BrklynLiberal]

22. O. MI. God. Dimson made a joke.... What a total schmuck.

[civildisoBDence]

48. DUUUUHbya can't even tell a joke.

It was ben Veniste who made the quip, "I have two daughters, too."

Newsprism

[EVDebs]

24. Jersey Girls and the rest of us deserve a New 9-11 Commission Report

Ya think ?

[Tin Man]

25. K&R for truth

...but not for truthiness - that's a Repub characteristic.

[Dems Will Win]

26. kick

[Catherine Vincent]

27. and another kick!

[Laurab]

42. Thanks for correcting that Tin Man It's TRUTH not "Truthiness"

as you know, but for anyone who doesn't - "truthiness" is a word coined, I think by Stephen Colbert, to describe - well, probably what this administration does on a daily basis. If they SAY it's fact, it's fact, whether it's true or not. That's "truthiness" - like, WMD, Saddam's "known" connection to Al Quaida and everything else this administration pulls out of its a$$.

[bdamomma]

31. kick

very interesting.

[babsbunny]

32. Hurry! Send this to Keith Olbermann!

[Auggie]

33. Their inaction was a plan to have us attacked

The evidence is pointing (for me at least) that Bush and Company were hoping for a terrorist attack on American soil to justify the invasion of Iraq and put the plans of the PNAC into action. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/CrisisPapers/9

That's why they didn't lift a finger to go after bin Laden.

[Dems Will Win]

38. It's way more than not lifting a finger

The DIA had Atta identified and Tommy Franks and Gen. Isler prevented the ABle Danger agents fcrom telling Clinton or Clarke about Atta! They even made them put a yellow Post-it over Atta's photograph on the chart!

When they took power, they were trying to make a deal with the Taliban over the planned Centgas pipeline. So the Bush Cheney team told the FBI
to "back off the Saudis and the Bin Ladens" in Feb. Demoted Clarke, stopped the Predator, scuttled the offshore laws that had just been passed, etc. etc.

When the Taliban and basically Osama demanded a cut of the pipeline profits, on Aug. 2, 2001, the Taliban were told "Accept our carpet of gold or you will get a carpet of bombs". On Aug. 6, Bush got the PDB saying Bin Laden Determined to Strike In US and told the agent, "you've covered your butt, (so goodbye)" Then David Frasca keeps putting the terror and FISA request memos from the FBI field agents on the bottom of the pile--and he gets promoted later!

They had Atta and most of them under surveillance.

Bush knew. Otherwise, why did the Secret Service not hustle him out of an unprotected site for an hour while the country was under attack and why did he blithely read My Pet Goat AFTER the second plane hit????

It's a lot more than not lifting a finger.

[Auggie]

47. Okay, they knew. They we're expecting it. Wow, I feel so much better.

Maybe I'm hoping they may have underestimated the amount of dead. I'm mean, to have this presidency willingly sacrifice thousands of his own people is Hitler/Mussolini/Stalin/Pol Pot/Amin kind of stuff. Makes you proud to be an American.

[Imagevision]

37. We have a lunatic for a president, and stuck with the him -- end of story!

[mirandapriestly]

39. BenVeniste's law firm represents United Airlines

and, in fact, has represented them against 9-11 victim's spouse Mary Schiavo, who chose to forgo government compensation in order to sue and attempt to find out the truth. This is an obvious conflict of interest and if you look at all of the members of the commission you will find similar conflicts of interest. For example, the guy next to BenVeniste in the picture, above, is Fred Fielding who is senior partner at Wiley, Rein & Fielding, a Washington, D.C. law firm which represents Motorola which made the radios which failed the firefighters on 9-11. The fire-fighter's families sued , but court found they waived their right to because they had received government compensation for the loss of their family members. "Coincidently", Karen Kincaid, who was an attorney for Motorola died on flight 77, on 9-11, was also from Wiley, Rein & Fielding.

The Commission seems to have been chosen because they have an interest in making sure information does not come to light , not for their ability to find the truth.
BenVenistes law firm, Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw , also has an office in Uzbekistan.

[Dems Will Win]

41. and didn't Thomas Kean's law firm represent the Saudis

Something like that or they own. Anybody know?

THen there's turncoat Lee Hamilton.

Worst was Robert Zoellick, one of the guys who helped Condiliar turn off the heat on Bin Laden and demote Clarke, etc. He also kept the Able Danger agents--who had found Atta in 2000 and were kept from telling Clarke and Clinton by neo-cons in the DoD--out of the hearings and the Report.

[krispifried]

46. And Unocal

A Unocal-led consortium proposed a pipeline route that would stretch across several areas and end in Pakistan. In 1996, Unocal was negotiating with Uzbekistan to connect Uzbekistan's pipeline network to a UNOCAL pipeline that would end in Pakistan. A "second proposed" UNOCAL pipeline would have transported natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and ended in Pakistan, near which is India, home of Enron's natural gas Dabhol power plant.

As recently as 4/19/02, Dow Jones Business News reported that Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan were "expected" to meet to discuss a natural gas pipeline that would route gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan. Dow Jones said the pipeline could extend to India, which is home of the Dabhol power plant.

Bordering on Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea is Uzbekistan, a Central Asian Republic that is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world.

A 10/22/98 article from Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections shows that Enron tried to gain access to Uzbekistan's natural gas supplies. Enron needed the supplies in order to fuel its Dabhol natural gas power plant in India, which borders on Pakistan, a country that could be connected to possible gas and oil pipelines from Uzbekistan.

On its Web site, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw Project Finance Practice Group listed Enron and Uzbek Oil and Gas (Uzbekneftegaz) as a "joint venture to develop an oil and gas deposit in Uzbekistan."
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/05/08_Bush_Oil.html

Richard Ben Veniste, senior partner of law firm Mayer Brown, Rowe and Maw. That company has and still does represent virtually every oil company and electrical generation plant manufacturer (GE) in Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the latter country also sharing an office with ENRON. Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw was the key law firm to ENRON and while the Bridas Corporation v. Turkmenneft $500 million arbitration award was on appeal to 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals and US Supreme Court , Mayer Brown represented Turkmenneft to keep Bridas tied up on court and not out in front of the eyes of America.
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1100733452,32063,
9 September 2003, Houston - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today reversed a district court's finding of arbitral jurisdiction over the Government of Turkmenistan in an ICC proceeding initiated by Argentina's Bridas SAPIC. The Government had not signed an agreement to arbitrate and refused to participate in the proceeding. Rejecting claims that the Government could nevertheless be bound by the resulting award based on theories of agency, estoppel and third-party beneficiary status, the court remanded the case for a determination limited to whether the state oil company Turkmenneft was merely the alter ego of the Government. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP attorneys William Knull, Jeff Sarles, William Hubbard and Tim Tyler represented the Government and Turkmenneft on the appeal.
http://www.mayerbrown.com/news/index.asp?page=18&archive=Y&nid=

ExxonMobil, Mobil implicated in bribery scandal.
Schlumberger Oil Services, Jamie Gorelick on board, 9-11 Commission member, conflict of interest. Schlumberger stayed pretty quiet about their Caspian Basin adventures until the 9-11 Commission was wrapping up and handing things over to Congress to slam shut more of our American freedoms instead of addressing 9-11 and who did it, and bring them to justice. (Continued growth in Russia and the Caspian, and strong performance across Asia and the Middle East, were both very encouraging. North America pricing moved up satisfactorily in the quarter.)
Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw, represents Kazakhstan. Slightly conflicted out on 9-11 Commission.
Major Uzbekistan Players
Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw, including joint office with ENRON. Directly represented ENRON, Enron executive has pled guilty to California criminal charges, El Paso too, charges against Dynegy trader pending
ENRON—everyone keep an eye out for Prisma Energy International, Cayman Islands, the post-bankruptcy ENRON and this cushy, profitable, colossal oil and gas deal in the Caspian Basin that had to have the pipeline across Afghanistan. Represented by Mayer Brown
http://www.yuricareport.com/Energy/OilCompaniesLawyers12-04.pdf#search=%22mayer%20brown%20rowe%20maw%20bridas%22

Ben Veniste is a partner of course...

unclean hands.

[The Count]

40. That's why * emerged from interview saying he had a good time

He killed!

[Laurab]

43. K & R n/t

[NobleCynic]

44. Just one note:

Don't say this is fighting freepers with truthiness.
Truth ≠ Truthiness

[Dems Will Win]

45. Got it

[Cocoa]

49. I didn't think that's what he meant by that comment

I thought Bush was commenting on Ben-Veniste's relentlessness in drilling him.

I didn't get the idea that Ben-Veniste was saying that Bush was claiming to have argued and lost for an attack in retaliation for the Cole.