Rumsfeld: We would have stopped 9/11

[Aunt Anti-bush]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-usrums0605,0,7312603.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines

The United States would have stopped the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks if American intelligence had gotten inside information, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told sailors and Marines aboard the USS Essex warship near Singapore Friday.

(more)

[Disturbed]

1. Sociopath Liar

Rumsfailed is a miserable failure just like the Puppet Pres.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. Whatever Rumsfuck.

[molly]

2. Sure they would - then they would have no excuse

to go to war. Liar - liar - pants on fire. It's his turn next.

[htuttle]

3. They were singing a different song after Clarke's book came out...

...and once this attempt to smear Tenet fails, they'll go back to their "Nobody could have prevented 9/11" song. Bank on it.

[aquart]

5. Come again?

"inside information"?????

Rummy, did no one ever explain to you what the word "analysis" means?

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

6. Rumsy: Firm Grasp of the Obvious

Gee, if I'd KNOWN that was going to happen I'd DONE something about it.

That's a moot point, the question still remains WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?????????

Breakdown in US intelligence?

Okay, but aren't we good buds with Britain and Israel? Wouldn't ISRAEL at least be a litte bit MORE in the know about Arab terrorists and their organizations and said 'pssss.. friend.... we got this info...'.

[ET Awful]

7. I guess having a memo that said

Al Queda determined to strike in the US. . . . hijack planes. . . . cased buildings in New York . . . . etc. wasn't quite good enough eh?

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

9. But Clinton still dogged about WTC basement and Cole...

and HE was the Teflon president?

Well GWB is definitely the new improved no-stick kind of guy, huh?

[MisterP]

8. didn't he also say that there was absolutely no way the U.S.

could've stopped 9-11?

[Aunt Anti-bush]

36. Flip flopping?

Not Rumsfeld, say it isn't so.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

10. uh huh

"when Clinton left office many people, including the incoming Bush administration leadership, thought that he and his administration were overly obsessed with al Qaeda. After all, al Qaeda had killed only a few Americans, nothing like the hundreds of Marines who died at the hands of Beirut terrorists during the Reagan administration or the hundreds of Americans who were killed by Libya on Pan Am 103 during the first Bush's administration. Those two acts had not provooked US military retaliation. Why was Clinton so worked up about al Qaeda and why did he talk to President-elect Bush about it and have Sandy Berger raise it with his successor as National Security Advisor, COndi Rice? In January 2001, the new administration really thought Clinton's recommendation that eliminating al Qaeda be one of their highest priorities, well, rather odd, like so many of the Clinton administration's actions, from their perspective."
Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies 225-226

[Minstrel Boy]

11. Well hell, how could they have known?

The Taliban warned:
"Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=331115

The Germans warned:
"According to an article in one of the major daily newspapers in Germany, published just after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the German intelligence service BND told both US and Israeli intelligence agencies in June that Middle East terrorists were 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.'

"The newspaper cited unnamed German intelligence sources, who said that the information came through Echelon, the US-controlled system of 120 satellites which monitors all worldwide electronic communications. Echelon is operated jointly by the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, although its existence is not officially admitted."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/sept-j16.shtml

The Egyptians warned:
"Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/national/04WARN.html

The Russians warned:
According to Russian press reports, Russian intelligence notified the CIA during the summer that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In an interview September 15 with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/sept-j16.shtml

The French warned:
"A key point in unraveling why the FBI failed to follow up leads on Al Qaeda terrorism now centers on the Bureau's contemptuously brushing aside warnings from French intelligence a few days before 9-11."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0222/ridgeway2.php

The British warned:
"Britain gave President Bush a categorical warning to expect multiple airline hijackings by the al-Qaeda network a month before the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3000 people and triggered the international war against terrorism."
http://www.sundayherald.com/24822

The Israelis warned:
The London Telegraph: "Israeli intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent."
http://tinyurl.com/28rrh

The Moroccans warned:
"A Moroccan secret agent, Hassan Dabou, had penetrated al Qaeda for two years, breaking cover the summer of 2001 to warn of 'spectacular' attacks in New York in the summer or autumn of 2001. Secret service chiefs are said to have taken seriously the tip from one of its veteran informants and immediately passed on the details to Washington."
Times of London, June 12, 2002

Arab intelligence agencies warned:
"When the hubbub about what the White House did or didn't know before Sept. 11 dies down, Congressional or other investigators should consider the specific warnings that friendly Arab intelligence services sent to Washington in the summer of 2001."
http://www.iht.com/articles/58269.html

[Mokito]

16. See? They were totally in the dark. nt

[oblivious]

17. Thanks MB. I'll bookmark this and keep repeating it. (nt)

[2Design]

22. Thank you we need more people like you in the WH

Now do not our wh or congressman know how to read or search the internet.

We will spend 1000's of dollars on investigations that the people here at DU could get them the facts in an evening.....

Ya'll are amazing.... this is quite of list of facts and sources...

[Cronus Protagonist]

26. Great list.... I'm going to publish this at a permanent location

So that others can link to it. Awesome job!

[loftycity]

28. They recieved the invitation and RSVP'd for the short sells -instead

10 billion is somewhere..Rumproast knows..

[cliss]

30. yes, MB. I have read this, too.

thanks for the post. In particular, I remember that the Vladimir Putin personally called the White House because he was trying to emphasize that he had undisputable evidence that something "big" was going to happen.

They knew.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

12. yeah

Paul Wolfowitz, "Well, I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden," Wolfowitz responded.

Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies 231

[Emboldened Chimp]

13. It's so fucking easy to say that in retrospect

[Stephanie]

14. FUCK him.

NYC to Rumsfeld: Go Fuck Yourself!

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Well maybe if Rummie got off his ass

on 9-11 and tried to find out what was going on after Victoria Clark told him that a plane had hit the WTC, maybe the 2nd plane in NYC and the 3rd plane that hit the Pentagon could have been intercepted? Instead he choose to pretend he didn't know what was going on until Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. 1000's of people died that day, because Rummier let them. He could have had all the intelligence in the world and it wouldn't have made a difference. He would have reacted in the exact same way.

[2Design]

18. The intelligence was there but there wasn't anyone intelligent

in the WH to read it. Since they do not read they could not take action. All illiterate, need Literacy volunteers to help them learn to read....

[steely]

34. Right on! - This was my first thought.

Asswipe doesn't even read the paper himself.

[goforit]

19. So Rummy.......Feeling quilty that you still are trying to explain 911?

Well......Sir......YOU ARE QUILTY!!!!!

Total MIHOP!!!!!

[Cocoa]

20. so the Sept. 11 commission can quit now

Rummy figured it all out.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. They had ALL of the information they needed to stop 911...

...but what did anyone expect from Rummy? The truth?

[FreakinDJ]

23. If the say it enough times maybe THEY will believe it

but any form of intelligence can equate they knew and did nothing to stop it.

I even heard it on KGO radio today. One woman called in to ask "Did they allow 911 to happen in order to go after the Terrorist" The radio host said that may have been the case in Pearl Harbor but was not sure about 911

[chicagojoe]

24. When will someone PLEASE do the right thing...

...and fill Rumsfelds' mouth with about a yard of concrete ?!?!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

25. A yard would not be enough.... that is one big black hole

[stepnw1f]

27. Would or Should? (nt)

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. Unbelievable. The Bush Administration didn't get the information because

the first thing they did when they got into the White House was to build a Chinese Wall between them and the people who were suppose to give them that information. Condoleze Rice is no Sandy Berger. She was incompetent at shaking the trees, remember?

[leesa]

31. We woulda, coulda, but then we wouldn't have been able to bomb

Afghanistan like we had planned, and, Iraq, forget it!

[Old and In the Way]

32. On 9/11 Rumsfield was a clairvoyent.....twice.

1st, he predicted that we'd have an attack on major US targets very soon. Within minutes, the WTC had been hit.
2nd, after the WTC, he stated that there'd be more attacks to follow.

Too bad he wasn't channeling this a day earlier.

[belab13]

33. It's either the ultimate hubris or a shrill response eminating from

someone about to have his nuts crushed in a vice.

My optimism and belief in humanity indicates it's the later.

[Octafish]

35. What's he call the FBI reports?

Do all the red-flag, hair-burning memos about suspected terrorists at flight schools in Minnesota, California, Florida ring any bells, Rummy?

If it weren't so tragic for so many and my country, I'd laugh at this pitiful man. He just gave himself, and all the BFEE, away. Crooks always explain their actions.