How 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented - Rory O'Connor

[greyl]

Was 9/11 preventable? Add New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright, author of "The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," to the growing ranks of those answering a resounding "Yes!" to that simple but highly-charged question.

The failures of the CIA, FBI, the National Security Agency and many other branches of government to share information -- and the concomitant failure to stop the 9/11 hijackers -- have already been well-documented by others, but few have offered Wright's coherent focus on what the New York Times accurately describes as "the stupidity, hubris and dereliction of duty that occurred within the United States government." In particular, Wright's relentlessly detailed account of the flawed investigation of the October 2000 bombing of the American destroyer USS Cole -- a seminal and largely misunderstood event in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks -- amply demonstrates how "jealousy and turf wars" were used by U.S. intelligence operatives as "an excuse to hide information that should have been shared."

"9/11 could have been stopped with a functional intelligence community," Wright states forthrightly. "But instead, things were hidden for no reason from people with a vital need to know them."
More...

[blm]

1. Sorry, but it was Bush1, Clinton and Bush2 who worked to cover up BCCI

documents that held ALL the secrets to what brought on 9-11 and all of our current foreign policies. Factions of the Intel agency were doing the jobs Bush1 set it up to do.

[democraticinsurgent]

2. Agreed, inside job

The incompetence/intelligence failure story is nothing more than a (very) limited hangout and a red herring to pacify those who can't allow themselves to believe that the government could be evil enough to kill its own citizens to facilitate policies.

[leesa]

3. They brought the information right to the top. What more could they have

done? It was purposely ignored.

[CJCRANE]

4. It's an absurd question.

The people at the top didn't want to prevent it. They sat on their hands and let America get punched in the face.

[greyl]

5. "Was 9/11 preventable?" is an absurd question? nt

[CJCRANE]

6. It was not preventable

if the people at the top did everything in their power to ensure it went off without a hitch.

Just like before the Iraq war when some people believed that if the inspectors found nothing then the war would be off. The Iraq War was a done deal. So was Florida 2000 and 9/11 and Ohio 2004.

[greyl]

8. Your post is a bit too fatalistic for my taste.

As a progressive, I believe people have the power to change things for the better, but only if they try. Believing that nothing one does can have any positive effect against the unseen forces of evil is not a progressive or liberal value, as I understand it.

Survival of our system of government and our culture, will require a nationwide Political Revolution against Tyranny, and a Renaissance of the genuine values and principles of; Liberty, Freedom and Justice. We must return our country to an American Liberal Democratic Government that is actually of, by, and for the people. We don’t have to start from scratch, the ideological philosophy, is already contained in the history of western civilization, since the 17th Century. We just have to relearn its basic truths and defend them, against their age old enemies.
http://liberaldemocracyalliance.org/Heritage.php

[CJCRANE]

9. "Was LIHOP preventable?" is a better question..nt

[greyl]

10. Please read the links in the article from the OP nt

[CJCRANE]

11. Interesting

and goes some way towards a "limited hangout" but still doesn't ask the relevant questions.

[Artdyst]

7. Sounds like a new, improved limited hang-out.

Mr. Wright must have been hired by someone inside the U.S. Gov't to spin the latest official version of 9/11.

What he is really saying is:

* Yes, it is true that 9/11 was: 1) an inside job and 2) there really was some incompetence and failures to rat out the rogue elements inside the U.S. Gov't that were ultimately responsible for 9/11.

BUT

* It was not the Bush administration's idea. It was the idea of a group of extremist rogue elements within various intelligence/military industrial complex agencies and groups.

AND

* Since it was cooked-up by ONLY that small group of rogue elements, it could have been prevented were it not for the apathy or incompetence of those insiders that knew about the plan.

I'm beginning to think it's possible that the end play of all this might well be indictments for treason, but ONLY for that group of "rogue elements", certainly not for anyone that's anyone.

[CJCRANE]

12. The problem is

I don't think he goes that far: "But instead, things were hidden for no reason from people with a vital need to know them."

He doesn't delve into all the possible motives for the LIHOP.

[greyl]

13. Does conservative Stephen Jones delve into intelligence & terrorism?

Nope, absolutely not.

[elehhhhna]

14. Like this PDB from 8/6/01?

[CJCRANE]

15. The PDB

mentions some of Bin Laden's motives but the real question is to ask what are the motives of those who let it happen?

[elehhhhna]

16. WHo benefits? Occam's Razor says: The Butch Admin.

MIHOP. Not just LIHOP. MIHOP.

[CJCRANE]

17. Hmmm...

Excerpt:
In his book, as well as a recent New Yorker article, Wright explains how the CIA withheld vital information from FBI agents who were in Yemen investigating after the attack on the Cole. In particular, the spy agency lied about its knowledge of a terrorist planning meeting in Malaysia that took place before the Cole bombing, which had been attended by two Al Qaeda operatives named Khaled Al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hamzi. It also failed to reveal that the men -- both of whom ended up on planes involved in the 9/11 attacks -- were living in Los Angeles, information that the CIA was legally bound to share with the bureau.

"Given all the alarm bells, I just can't understand why they would tolerate the presence of two known Al Qaeda members in California," says Wright. "Everyone in the CIA knew they were Al Qaeda, but they did nothing! Had this information been given to the FBI, they could have uncovered the 9/11 plot at that time."