Post by HODLying Liberals Nailed Again!
Idiot Savant
1 The Bush administration shifted the focus away from
counterterrorism after taking office.
(A) The National Security Council was more interested in national missile
defense and Iraq than in dealing with the threat of terrorism.
ii Reports that substantiate this.
(A) Newsweek reported, "By the end of the Clinton administration, the then
national-security adviser Sandy Berger had become 'totally preoccupied' with
fears of a domestic terror attack, a colleague recalls. True, the
Clintonites
had failed to act decisively against Al Qaeda, but by the end they were
certain
of the danger it posed. When, in January 2001, Berger gave Rice her handover
briefing, he covered the bin Laden threat in detail, and, sources say,
warned
her: 'You will be spending more time on this issue than on any other.' Rice
was
alarmed by what she heard, and asked for a strategy review. But the effort
was
marginalized and scarcely mentioned in ensuing months as the administration
committed itself to other priorities, like national missile defense (NMD)
and
Iraq." [Newsweek, 5/27/02]
(B) Time Magazine reported that instead of focusing on the threat posed
by al
Qaeda, the "Bush national-security team was obsessed with setting up a
national
system of missile defense." [Time, 8/4/02]
(C) The Associated Press revealed that while the National Security
Council's
'principals committee' [comprised of cabinet-level officials] had met more
than
100 times during 2001 prior to 9/11, only two of the meetings had
specifically
addressed the issue of terrorism. [Associated Press, 6/28/02]
e Department of Justice.
i Summary.
(A) Ashcroft shifted the emphasis from counter-terrorism to "violent
crime,
drugs, child porn." Ashcroft's department was reportedly uncooperative with
the
FBI's efforts to strengthen its counter-terrorism capabilities.
ii Specific Incidents.
(A) On September 10, one day before the terrorist attacks, John Ashcroft
rejected a $58 million proposal to revamp the FBI's counter-terrorism
program.
On the same day, he asked the White House for a budget increase that would
fund
68 programs - none of which concerned counter-terrorism. He also sent a memo
to
the heads of departments, announcing seven priorities of the Justice
Department,
which again did not relate to counter-terrorism. His actions betrayed claims
he
had made earlier that year, when in May he had told a Senate committee that
counter-terrorism would be his "highest priority." [New York Times, 6/1/02;
Time, 8/4/02; Guardian, 5/21/02]. Interestingly, Ashcroft had stopped flying
commercial airplanes that July because of terrorist threats. [CBS News
7/26/01;
Newsweek, 5/27/02]
iii Reports that substantiate this.
(A) Newsweek reported, "under Attorney General John Ashcroft, the
department
was being prodded back into its old law-and-order mind-set: violent crime,
drugs, child porn. Counter-terrorism, which had become a priority of the
Clintonites (not that they did a better job of nailing bin Laden), seemed to
be
getting less attention. When FBI officials sought to add hundreds more
counterintelligence agents, they got shot down."
f Department of Treasury.
i Summary.
(A) Bush's Department of Treasury, led by Secretary Paul O'Neill, wanted
to
take laws off the books that prevented money laundering and the use of tax
havens "of the kind used by terror groups." [Newsweek, 5/27/02]
g Department of Defense.
i Summary.
(A) On September 9, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld threatened to push for a veto if
the
Senate passed a resolution diverting $600 million from missile defense to
counter-terrorism. [Time, 8/4/02]
h Other
i Censorship of Intelligence Agency Funding Requests.
(A) Newsday reported on August 7, 2003: "The administration blocked the
congressional investigators from obtaining information showing how
intelligence
agency funding requests were handled by the White House budget office,
dating
back to the Reagan administration" [Newsday, 8/7/03]
ii Dismissal of Rudman report
(A) Summary.
(1) The Bush administration ignored a list of 50 recommendations made by
a
bipartisan 14-member panel that had been commissioned by President Clinton
in
1998 to investigate the threat terrorism posed to the U.S. [Salon, 9/12/01]
Instead, Bush appointed Vice President Cheney as head of FEMA's new Office
of
National Preparedness which was charged with coordinating all federal
programs
for responding to domestic attacks. [New York Times, 7/8/03]
Read more . . .
iii Statement from former Clinton administration official.
(A) Time magazine reported, "Some members of the outgoing Administration
got
the sense that the Bush team thought the Clintonites had become obsessed
with
terrorism." The magazine quoted one former Clinton administration official
who
said, "It was clear that this was not the same priority to them that it was
to
us." [Time, 8/4/02]
I could go on...its just that you are most likely choking on what I have
just posted.
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