I can't stand Bush. I think he stole the election and I hated his dad too. Hell, I even hate Bush baked beans. Now that you know how I feel about Bush, let me say this wasn't his fault. The info that he got was not enough to prevent what happened. I agree with that statement. However, it would also be a shame if the Bush adminstration has been covering up any intelligence failures just for political reasons. If we want to investigate conspiracies, we don't have to go much further than the US government role in the recent coup attempt in Venezuela
So basically: a) the CIA warned the president and other top officials of an active plot by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida operatives to seize civilian aircraft. b) During the same period, FBI special agents in Phoenix and Minnesota had warned their own agency of activity by suspected al-Qaida operatives at U.S. flight schools, including one guy who actually *said* 'he could fly a plane into the World Trade Center'. c) But because of the weird-ass decentralised nature of intelligence-gathering around here (they might want to do something about that), nobody at the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Council or any other government intelligence agency managed to connect the dots until after the disaster. I don't think this is a conspiracy - this administration isn't capable of anything that huge. They can't even overthrow a South American government (surely one of the world's easiest missions). And it would have been difficult to see this coming in its entirety if you were Nostradamus. But these people are just, um, dense for not doing some basic protective stuff. Italy managed to set up some rockets in Genoa last July to protect President Meathead, after all... why not take some basic preventative measures with US airports? When the FAA issues a high alert, as it did last summer, perhaps beefing up security is an option. I mean, maybe they could even have federalised airport security, and trained these people, and paid them more than minimum wage. But don't go nuts or anything.
dimsie, Elvis, glynch.... I might respect your opinions more if you could name 3 cities in Venezuela without looking at a map, but I doubt you can.
I keep seeing this as if paying the worthless security guards at the airport more money would suddenly made them competent. But I guess this sort of thing is going to continue. For any administration, there are going to be many people who seek to blame the administration for anything and everything they can while believing the unprovable idea that their guy would've done things better. Any little thing becomes proof to support their worldview. I'm sure if Al Gore had been the one being sworn in in January, 2001, the Twin Towers would still be standing today. No doubt about it. And I'm sure if Pappa Bush had been reelected in 1992, we'd have never had Oklahoma City. No doubt about it. It's all the fault of the people who are in the party that opposes the one you like. End of story. Now that that's settled, I shall leave this thread never to return. It's obvious that those who want to be mad at Bush will remain mad at Bush. The reason for their anger doesn't even matter anymore.
Not that it matters in the slightest to my argument, but funnily enough I was actually born in Venezuela (Caracas) and am a citizen of that country as well as the US and NZ. Haven't been back there since I was six weeks old, though. By the way, this isn't partisanship on my part. I didn't vote for the Republicans *or* the Democrats. But it doesn't take a genius to work out that the guy currently in the White House needs Cliff's Notes and several interns with yellow highlighter pens to get through the reports he's meant to be reading. Nor did I say it was all Bush's fault. What I did say is that there were some basic holes in a) policy b) security and c) organisation that could have been fixed before all this happened, and it would be nice if *someone* said 'hey, we f*cked up a tad'. But it's hardly like anyone could have predicted *all* of this... My point, I think, is actually on the mild and reasonable side. At least for me.
I guess that beautiful bean footage just doesn't do it for you. Bush- Being a liberal here I am abit disappointed in how the democrats are using this to their advantage. I was a Gore supporter around election time but since 9/11 I have been impressed with how Bush has retaliated. I know that there is reasonable concern over the issue but I agree with President Bush given the general info that he reviewed I don't seem to understand why this is a Bush failure. I doubt Bush would not try and stop something like this given his popularity at the time wasn't that great. Polls had a split opinion of him if I recollect correctly. We are hearing about these general alerts off and on now and nothing has happened. I reckon this is the reason the info given to Bush before 9/11 was taken with a grain of salt. Right now the main thing I disagree with Dubya on is the environmental issues but on everything else especially in regards to the War On Terror I believe hes doing fairly well in office.
