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Bush not necessarily to blame

May 28, 2002 ~ 12:27 p.m.

When Eden wrote in an entry last week about how fed-up she was with the onus being put on President Bush, I responded with a curt g-book entry about how I don�t care who they go after, we need answers, and for all responsible to atone for the horrors of Sept. 11. Now I�m beginning to feel as if I need not be so hard on Bush himself.

It remains mysterious as to why security was not significantly boosted in light of advance intelligence that a flight might be hijacked by terrorists. According to government officials, on July 10, 2001, FBI agent Kenneth Williams had written a note cautioning against Arab students at an Arizona flight school and linking said students to a London-based Islamic group that supported Osama bin Laden. Williams concluded that Middle Eastern students should all be subject to extensive screening. But the higher-ups at the FBI did not heed the warnings. It is scandalous that this was ignored in such dismissive fashion.

Yet, Bush retains �great confidence� in the CIA and FBI, and the national security alert system remains at code yellow, the half-way point. Vice President Cheney, while allowing for the possibility of threats, has called the threats too vague to merit raising the security alert any higher. One hopes that this doesn�t amount to foolish optimism.

The FAA has revealed recently that bin Laden threatened the hijackings as far back as 1998. Should the focus be on what Clinton knew instead? In Watergate lingo, �what did he know and when did he know it?�

It seems natural to me to conclude that Clinton may or may not have passed certain critical information onto the FBI and CIA. And if the authorities did not take the steps necessary to prevent against the possibility of a terrorist attack, then either the former President or the Feds are to blame. So, when Bush took office, his young presidency was obviously ill-informed of any such dire threats. Bush maintains �great confidence� only at the expense of national hysteria, but in this, Bush is doing his job in minimizing panic.

I believe Bush�s request for the inquiries into the events surrounding September 11 to be dealt with by Congress � as opposed to the separate commission proposed � to be appropriate.

Recently, authorities tightened security around New York City, protecting landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, against the threat of attack. Bush was determined to confirm the nature of another terrorist threat against the U.S. That these terrorists could make use of weapons of mass destruction is not only possible, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, but hardly new information.

�Our security is still bound up together in a transatlantic alliance, with soldiers in many uniforms defending the world from terrorists at this very hour,� Bush said in his Memorial Day speech.

At this stage, maintaining the transatlantic alliance and keeping the nation on alert is the most President Bush can do in the meantime. And his long-term plans had better include a thorough re-arranging of the FBI. In the end, this is the agency the lives of Americans depend upon.

� M.E.M.

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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.

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