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04/10/2004 Archived Entry: "Reeves: 'Exit Strategy - Fire Them All'"
Reeves: 'Exit Strategy - Fire Them All'
Sounds good to me.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice is giving good brains a bad name. Her testimony to the 9/11 commission on Thursday demonstrated that it is not enough to know everything. You have to understand something. She didn't get it and still doesn't.We screwed up big time, and now she says that she and President Bush just want to "move forward." But you can't do the latter if you do not understand the former, which is: what happened before Sept. 11, 2001. As smart and alone as she is in her job, she made a huge mistake in answering questions from commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, the combative little lawyer who was a majority (Democratic) counsel during the Watergate hearings 30 years ago.
Ben-Veniste questioned her about the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) of Aug. 6, 2001, and in her nervous answer she blurted out the classified title: "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." Ben-Veniste knew that, but could not say it because he and other commissioners had been allowed to see parts of the memo on condition that they not reveal its title or contents. Rice, in effect, declassified that title on her own. Many reasonable people will interpret the lack of follow-up -- she lamely said follow-up was not part of her job -- as stupidity and incompetence.
But that is now the hallmark of this administration: stupidity and ignorant incompetence -- in gathering, interpreting and following up pre-9/11 intelligence, and in going to war in Iraq.
To which I might add - first fire them all, then prosecute them.
Replies: 2 people speak up
send them to gitmo, and get them started making shoes for nike for $4 a day. now that would be justice
Posted by justin @ 04/10/2004 08:49 PM NY
Regarding this:
> in her nervous answer she blurted out the classified title: "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." Ben-Veniste knew that, but could not say it because he and other commissioners had been allowed to see parts of the memo on condition that they not reveal its title or contents. Rice, in effect, declassified that title on her own.
---
"Structural Problems" -- Not only with the White House, but also with absent U.S. Journalism
RH Commentary - April 10, 2004
That startling information we learned during Condi's recent historic testimony to the 9/11 Commission --- the name of that May 2001 Presidential briefing --- "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" ......
was well known to our US media since May, 2002 through disclosures in Bob Woodward's book and through publication in the Washington Post and all other major media outlets..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35744-2002May17.html
So where was the US media all this time since that disclosure? Were they "shaking the trees" to get answers from Bush "principals" like Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld about what Bush knew and what he was doing about terrorism -- vs what he was doing about Iraq?
Why wasn't Rice ever pushed on the contents of this memo in May 2002, in July, Aug, Sept 11, 2002, Oct, Nov, Dec 2002; in Jan 2003 after the state of Union address, Feb, Mar, April, May, Jun, July, Aug, on Sept 11 2003, in Oct, Nov, Dec 2003; and in Jan 2004 after the state of the Union address, then Feb, and March of 2004 ?
That's a gap of 22 months -- but now the US media is hot "on the trail" again. Lucky us. They're "on it" now.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A35718-2002May17
Can they be any more incompetent than those responsible for ignoring and then blocking Colleen Rowley's attempts to connect the dots prior to Sept 11, 2001? Or for ignoring the dire warnings of Richard Clarke and George Tenet? or those who ignored the bi-partisan Hart-Rudman report on terrorism in the 21st Century -- which was briefed to members of the Bush admin in early 2001?
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/
What value do these journalistic institutions serve when they apparently can't even operate their own databases -- or ingage in investigative journalism? They seem to have systemic "structural problems" too. Maybe we need to haul all those News Editors in front of a Journalism Commission and put them under oath. Like in the movie "The Insider", when Jeffrey Wigand refers to the 7 CEOs of Tobacco as "The 7 Dwarves"
Posted by Richard @ 04/12/2004 04:37 AM NY
