To me there could have been no better way to remember those that died in the 9/11 attacks than to take the day seriously and figure out what went wrong in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. Some what how we hear military leaders say that we need to finish the mission in Iraq in order to honor the memory of those who gave their life fighting the war. So why don’t our leaders feel the same way?
The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception, the panel’s chairmen say in a new book.
Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in “Without Precedent” that their panel was too soft in questioning former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — and that the 20-month investigation may have suffered for it.
The book, a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, recounts obstacles the authors say were thrown up by the Bush administration, internal disputes over President Bush’s use of the attacks as a reason for invading Iraq, and the way the final report avoided questioning whether U.S. policy in the Middle East may have contributed to the attacks.
Kean and Hamilton said the commission found it mind-boggling that authorities had asserted during hearings that their air defenses had reacted quickly and were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93, which appeared headed toward Washington.
In fact, the commission determined — after it subpoenaed audiotapes and e-mails of the sequence of events — that the shootdown order did not reach North American Aerospace Command pilots until after all of the hijacked planes had crashed.
Cheney was one of those people out there talking about how rough it was for him to have to be involved in deciding whether or not to shoot down flight 93. Now we find out that was a flat out lie. But why even lie about something so horrible? Could it be just for political gain or possibly to avoid an embarrassment of our failures that day? It was both. The Bush administration and the Republicans have been quick to raise 9/11 as a political tool for themselves. Now we find out it should in fact be the very reason not to vote for them.
Another interesting issue is how the commission backed down from witnesses because of editorials that were critical of the commission:
The questioning of Giuliani was considered by Kean and Hamilton “a low point” in the commission’s examination of witnesses during public hearings. “We did not ask tough questions, nor did we get all of the information we needed to put on the public record,” they wrote.
Commission members backed off, Kean and Hamilton said, after drawing criticism in newspaper editorials for sharp questioning of New York fire and police officials at earlier hearings. The editorials said the commission was insensitive to the officials’ bravery on the day of the attacks.
“It proved difficult, if not impossible, to raise hard questions about 9/11 in New York without it being perceived as criticism of the individual police and firefighters or of Mayor Giuliani,” Kean and Hamilton said.
“Sharp Questioning”? WTF? This commission demanded sharp questioning in order to get the right answers. Because of these editorials though, that was now overlooked and here we are 5 years later and could face the same failures that happened on that bloody day.
If there was ever an argument for an actual congressional investigation into 9/11, then right there is it. Of course we are now at five years after the fact and people will have forgotten key details.
We now have another failure in 9/11. That failure is the 9/11 commission. They failed America because they could not handle criticism from outside influences. Talk about pissing on the graves of all those people that died on that day. Congratulations – you guys just did it and because of your fragile egos, you have made America less safe.