Text 22838, 69 rader
Skriven 2006-09-27 15:49:42 av Bob Sakowski (1:275/311)
Ärende: Lead up to 9/11
=======================
From "The Book on Bush."

Following the Cole bombing, Clinton counterterrorism forces
started working on an aggressive plan to retaliate against al
Qaeda. Their plan to strike back reached then national security
advisor Sandy Berger and other top officials on December 20,
2000. But with less than a month remaining in office and the Bush
team about to take over, they decided it would be wrong to take
an action that would tie the incoming administration's hands.
Instead they took their case to the new administration in the
hopes that some version of the plan might be enacted before it
was too late. CIA director George Tenet termed al Qaeda a
"tremendous threat" as well as an "immediate" one, while Berger
warned Rice, "You're going to spend more time during your four
years on terrorism generally and al Qaeda specifically than any
other issue."

Clarke, who headed the counterterrorism office, then offered up a
complete Power Point presentation to Rice, promising, "We would
make a major error if we underestimated the challenge al Qaeda
poses." Featuring a complete set of proposals to "roll back" al
Qaeda, Clarke's plan envisaged the "breakup" of al Qaeda cells
and their arrest and imprisonment. He also called for an attack
on the financial network that supported the terrorists, freezing
its assets, exposing its phony charities, and arresting its
personnel. The United States would offer help to such disparate
nations as Uzbekistan, the Philippines, and Yemen to combat the
al Qaeda forces in their respective midsts. And finally, Clarke's
proposal suggested a significant increase in U.S. covert action
in Afghanistan with the goal of "eliminat[ing] the sanctuary"
where the Taliban and bin Laden were operating in tandem. The
plan recommended a considerable increase in American support for
the Northern Alliance in their fight to overthrow the Taliban's
repressive regime, thereby keeping the terrorists preoccupied
with protecting their gains, rather than seeking new victories
elsewhere. Simultaneously American military forces would begin
planning for special operations inside Afghanistan and bombing
strikes against terrorist-training camps.

It was an enormous undertaking, and Newsweek quoted one official
as costing out the plan at "several hundreds of millions."
Instead of acting on it, however, the Bush administration decided
-- as it did with the Hart-Rudman recommendations -- to lay it
aside and conduct its own review. Rice did not even bother to set
up a high-level meeting to discuss the issue, but instead
effectively demoted Clarke through a reorganization of the NSC
structure.

As power in any strong hierarchy flows downward, the rest of the
Bush team was hardly more concerned about meeting a potential
terrorist threat.

All through the governmental system, the issue was moved, in the
words of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh
Shelton, "farther to the back burner."
[snip]

Bush and his Band of Bunglers did nothing, not one damn thing to
prevent 9/11.


-- 

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or
that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt
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