Panetta: Nobody Attacks US ‘and Gets Away With It’

[bemildred]

The existence of what U.S. officials say is a credible but unconfirmed terrorist threat is not changing President Obama’s plans to visit the Pentagon on the 9/11 anniversary. Commemoration events began at the Pentagon on Friday - under heightened security.

Under a drizzling rain, a large number of Pentagon employees gathered in the military headquarters’ courtyard to remember the day when hijackers slammed an American Airlines Boeing 757 into a side of the building.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was among those attending a commemoration ceremony for employees and other innocent victims who perished when the airplane crashed into and destroyed part of the huge structure.

“Though the gaping hole in this building has long been repaired, there remains a gaping hole in our hearts," he said. "We still feel deeply the loss of 184 people who perished here that morning.”

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Panetta-Nobody-Attacks-US-and-Gets-Away-With-It-129560433.html

[maxsolomon]

1. Sometimes i really think we're governed by idiots

who have no clue what they're doing.

Al Queda's goal was to draw us into a costly overseas military adventure that would bankrupt and demoralize us. We exceeded their expectations by invading Iraq in addition to Afghanistan. We're still there. We're broke. Almost everyone now recognizes that both wars were too costly and ultimately futile. Even if you won't admit it publicly.

Whether or not they "get away with it" is meaningless.

[Igel]

13. Sort of.

Long after the fact this achieved the status of being a previously announced goal, according to sources other than AQ.

The fact of the attack and its immediate consequences were intended to bankrupt and demoralize us, according to contemporaneous sources. Unfortunately, contemporaneous sources are inherently unreliable, since they often foolishly fail to take into account the hindsight that wise people use in formulating goals for future plans.

I know I regularly take into account what I'll find out in a year or two when setting my plans for the week. ;-)

[saras]

2. It's an irredeemably stupid lie. They do it all the time.

[Me.]

3. Not Even The RepubliCons?

[Enthusiast]

4. Panetta: the complete dumb ass.......nt

[pscot]

5. Panetta really is a tool.

[bhikkhu]

6. Unless you're Saudi and have good connections

...all they had to do was say "they went thattaway!", pointing in the general direction of Afghanistan.

[yurbud]

14. Saudi ambassador's wife gave money to two of the hijackers on a regular basis

and Prince Bandar was still smoking cigars with W on the White House balcony days after 9/11.



http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/03/foia-doc-shows-911commission-lied-about.html|FULL TEXT>

[provis99]

7. so it was all just some cowboy justice kind of thing?

Well, I'm sure the thousands of dead soldiers and civilians will appreciate that, Leon.

[bemildred]

10. I remember, right after 9/11, a story about Kissinger or some similar dumb ass

saying "We've got to hit back", like the most important thing was keeping up appearances,

[radhika]

8. And nobody gets to live unimpeded in an

innocent country when it serves the interests of the United States to invade.

[BiggJawn]

9. "Nobody puts Baby in the Corner!"

Asshat.

[xchrom]

11. wow -- that almost as stupid as something rumsfeld would say.

grow up, leon.

[Jefferson23]

12. Yea, we showed "them"...what an asinine claim. n/t

[NICO9000]

15. Tough talk!

Olbermann said he should be fired the other night. This is just more evidence against him.

[MisterP]

16. U.S.S. Liberty, Bill Stewart, Ben Linder, Rachel Corrie

hell, the murderers of Donovan, Kazel, Clarke, and Ford barely got tried
interestingly, Jerusalem and San Salvador partake of the same "touch our citizens and we will kill thousands" mentality, directly contributing to their amoral brutality

[yurbud]

17. what's most frustrating is Panetta will never be forced to answer for the hypocrisy