Remembering the Bush Administration’s Post 9/11 Lies that Forever Changed America

[azmouse]

Quote:In every country on Earth, there are defining moments that changed the course of their history, and in some cases they were monumental enough to affect the entire world, and not always for the better. It is not often though, that a single event instantly transformed a nation or the world, and one might think of the Reformation, Crusades, or the rise of Nazi Germany as examples that changed the world, but developed over a span of time. Eleven years ago today, Americans awoke to the news that commercial passenger jets crashed into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania killing thousands of Americans, and to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks, President Obama proclaimed September 7 through September 9 as 9/11 National Days of Prayer and Remembrance. However, while Americans reflect on the events of 9/11, they should remember that as catastrophic as the attacks were, it was subsequent events that really changed this country for the worse.

*snip*

For six years after that fateful September day, the Bush administration was allowed to run roughshod over the people using lies and deception effectively to keep Americans off-guard and always looking over their shoulder instead of watching the country’s leaders. Under the guise of patriotism, the neo-conservatives in Bush’s administration successfully equated dissent with treason and it prevented Americans from asking important questions to hold our politicians accountable to the people. If the people did start asking questions, Bush officials conveniently raised the terror level to remind Americans that their energy was better spent being terrified than demanding accountability and honesty from their leaders. Subsequently, under Republican control, the nation became embroiled in two costly wars, and sat on their hands as Bush instituted unfunded tax cuts that combined with wars will keep the nation’s deficit at unsustainable levels for a decade if nothing changes.

http://www.politicususa.com/remembering-...erica.html

I always feel incredibly sad on this day. We should never forget not just the attacks but that the inept pResident Bush's reaction was to take us into an unnecessary war with Iraq.

[jaxx]

I will never forget the day this was unclassified and we were shown the Bush adm were warned of the event to come.

Declassified and Approved
for Release, 10 April 2004 (date of PDB is August 6, 2001)

Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US

Clandestine, foreIgn government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin
since 1997' has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin
implied in US televisioni nterviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would
follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Youse! and "bring
the fighting to America."

<..> -Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of
suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for
hijackings or other types of aNacks, including recent surveillance of
federal buildings in New York.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAE...6-2001.pdf

[jaxx]

This is more info uncovered by the NYT and published today:

The Deafness Before the Storm
By KURT EICHENWALD
Published: September 10, 2012

<..> On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.

That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.

The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.

<..> On July 24, Mr. Bush was notified that the attack was still being readied, but that it had been postponed, perhaps by a few months. But the president did not feel the briefings on potential attacks were sufficient, one intelligence official told me, and instead asked for a broader analysis on Al Qaeda, its aspirations and its history. In response, the C.I.A. set to work on the Aug. 6 brief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinio....html?_r=1

No wonder they're not declassified. BushCo ignored the warnings. I keep remembering a GWB quote about the Aug.6th PDB....something about 'you've covered your asses'.

[jaxx]

Found the quote:

Tuesday, Jun 20, 2006 01:42 PM CDT
<..> What we didn’t know is what happened in between the briefing and the fishing, and now Suskind is here to tell us. Bush listened to the briefing, Suskind says, then told the CIA briefer: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

http://www.salon.com/2006/06/20/911pdb/

[Hekate]

I will never forget waking up to my daughter's frantic phone call from work: "Turn on CNN!" In California, with my husband teaching at night and me pulling all-nighters finishing my dissertation, we were still asleep. I staggered to the kitchen where my small tv is, and stood aghast at the images already looping. Honest to God, to this day I do not know if I saw the towers fall in real time or not.
I will never forget realizing that the ass in the Oval Office wasn't up to THIS task, either. "Go shopping": a phrase that will live in infamy.

I will never forget the USA PATRIOT ACT, that evil document pulled off some shelf in a file-room in Hell, 350 pages all prepared in advance, awaiting the proper opportunity. And the vote held so fast that no one had time to read the damned thing.

I will never forget the liars in the Bush administration swearing that the air in New York City was safe to breathe. I knew they lied.

I will never forget watching Bill Moyers' program on Patriot Act II, and the horrible, horrible sensation -- for the first time in my entire life as an American citizen -- that I wished there were a back door out of my own country, where some of my ancestors have dwelt since 1620 and others joined in streams of immigration along the way.

I will never forget my son and daughter, in their very early 20s, coming to talk to us in the first few weeks after 9-11. My son had a dream where he joined the Army to defend the US -- not abroad, but here, where we'd been attacked. In his dream his sister also joined, as a paramedic. My husband and I are not pacifists, but we held our breath. I asked them, what have you decided to do? They said: Wait and see what develops. I breathed again, thankful as a mother both for their desire to help and their caution.

I didn't trust Bush-Cheney even then, but we had no idea of the magnitude of betrayal that awaited our young volunteers when they were deployed. One of my nieces had a 19-year old friend who died early on in a firefight outside Kirkuk, wearing inadequate body armor, his last call home saying his weapon and ammunition were not right. I wrote a card with his name on it and affixed it to a cross in the sand at Arlington West, here in Santa Barbara.

I watched my country betray its most sacred principles in the name of safety, and the citizenry acquiesced. I will never forget my hatred of Bush-Cheney and their cabal for leading the charge.

Hekate

[SeattleGirl]

"I watched my country betray its most sacred principles in the name of safety, and the citizenry acquiesced. I will never forget my hatred of Bush-Cheney and their cabal for leading the charge."

Nor will I, Hekate.

To think that first, the Bush Cabal ignored the warnings, and then, after 9/11 happened, they then used it to systematically start taking away the rights of Americans, and then launched a pre-emptive war against Iraq, just sickens me to this day.

I have watched several programs about 9/11 over the past couple of days, and one of them I watched tonight had Condi and Rumsfeld in it, and I wanted to scream at the TV, "LIARS!!!".

I remember this day as the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I also remember that Bush/Cheney used it against us.

[jaxx]

I watched a lot of the programs too SG and the one with Condi smirking was more than I could take. She had a smartass answer to everything. I turned that one off. The others were like reliving it all over again, mesmerizing in it's horror.

[cannae1]

Those people had sufficient warning.
Those people were, at best, damnable fools. At worst, duplicitious scoundrels.