Keeping Americans Safe!

A little while ago at a Republican debate, there was a dust-up over the attacks of 9/11. Jeb Bush said that President GW Bush “kept us safe.” President Bush ran for re-election on the premise that his actions as president “kept us safe.”

According to Republican orthodoxy, this partial list represents the best actions of a Republican president keeping Americans "safe”:

• Prior to the WTC attacks, the Bush administration ignored scores of escalating warnings that terrorists were going to attack the US. http://www.businessinsider.com/new-...n-were-ignored-by-the-bush-white-house-2012-9 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/09/bush-administration-ignored-september-11-warnings.html#

• The intelligence entitled, “Bin Laden determined to strike in the US” was dismissed as worthless historical fodder by the Bush Administration. Instead of looking at Al Qaeda and taking it seriously, the Bush Administration was focused like a laser…..on Iraq. President Bush had said he didn't want to swat at flies (Al Qaeda). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282.html

• The Bush Administration’s management of US defense assets made the USA’s security so nakedly vulnerable that 19 maniacs with box cutters brought the World’s greatest historical superpower to its knees. No citation needed.

• The numbers: 2,999 killed, trillions of dollars lost in property damage, trillions more lost in a resultant stock market crash. http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0911/how-september-11-affected-the-u.s.-stock-market.aspx

The Republican machine so thoroughly bungled national security that the entire USA & World were forced to watch on National TV 2,999 American citizens die, some swan diving off of the WTC to their deaths, from the worst attack on American soil in history.

This is what Republicans call “keeping Americans safe.”

Not to be lost in the mélange of Republican grotesque incompetence and negligence was the stalwart way in which the Party of “personal responsibility” owned up to the errors and vowed to do better.

Ha ha ha, Nope, they blamed President Clinton, Hillary Clinton, the Democrats and really, anybody but the people that were responsible for complete failure: A Republican administration.

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/index.htm
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2005/08/30/1684/bush-blames/


If you decide to vote for another Republican to ‘keep us safe’, sit this one out. Or else I sincerely hope that another republican administration keeps you and your family as safe as the Bush Administration “kept Americans safe.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House's former counterterrorism coordinator blasts President Bush in a television interview and a new book, saying the president ignored warnings about terrorist attacks before 9/11 and has done "a terrible job" battling terrorism since then.

"Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism," Richard Clarke told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview Sunday night. "He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/22/clarke.bush/

 

You ignore the fact that the terrorist pilots were in the country and training before while Clinton was president and before Bush won the nomination. You also ignore the first Trade Tower bombing, again under Clinton. How long will it be until you blame Bush for the Boston Marathon bombing?

 

And what does any of those things have to do with Bush's utter failure to protect downtown New York?

Terrorists were training in the US? So what? It's a free country and they can do anything they want under the law. Are you implying that Clinton should have exercised omniscience?

Ahh, the first WTC bombing failed and Clinton arrested and jailed all the perpetrators. Are you a Clinton defender?

The Boston Marathon is not the topic here. Republican criminal negligence and double speak is the order of the day.

Here's an easy question for you pal: Did the Bush administration keep American citizens safe on 9/11? If so, how?

 

He didn't fail, the system did. The various intelligent agencies were not allowed to share information.
Clinton allowed the 9/11 pilots into the country pal. The first bombing didn't fail.
"Are you implying that Clinton should have exercised omniscience?"
You're claiming that Bush should have exercised omniscience and failed to do so buddy.
And the Boston bombing proves that you can't trust a Democrat to keep us safe because there is no safe.

 

ah billy boy clinton knew it was going to happen he should of up security in the building

https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-076.pdf
scroll down to the bottom of the pages

 

Did the 9/11 pilots break any laws creating a red flag? No? Then pipe down son. It's a free country even to visiting foreigners.

The first WTC bombing failed. Unless of course the WTC tumbled and we just missed it. Get your facts straight before you chime in bud: The plan was that if the bomb truck was parked at the right place, the North Tower would fall onto the South Tower, collapsing them both. However, the tower did not collapse, according to Yousef's plan, but the garage was severely damaged in the explosion. Nevertheless, had the van been parked closer to the WTC's poured concrete foundations, Yousef's plan might have succeeded. http://web.archive.org/web/20050316140649/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3069653/

Bush didn't need omniscience. Richard Clarke and Leon Panetta were warning him and his counsel every single fricken day with escalating warnings.

And Bush did nothing. I take that back, he went on a month long vacation.

The Boston bombing is not germane to this issue. Where you see relevance, everyone else in the universe sees a pathetic rhetorical ploy.

Here you go buddy, a declassified memo that Bush ignored (as well as all the others):
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/index.htm

Click on the memo to read it and tell me Bush wasn't warned.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House's former counterterrorism coordinator blasts President Bush in a television interview and a new book, saying the president ignored warnings about terrorist attacks before 9/11 and has done "a terrible job" battling terrorism since then.

"Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism," Richard Clarke told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview Sunday night. "He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months..."

Yup, sounds like Bush was just in the dark. Do you see that now?

 

Welcome to the USA. Your language skills are impressive.

 

To be fair it wasn't 2999 American citizens, there were a lot that were from elsewhere in the world they weren't all American. Offhand I think over 50 British people died.

As an aside, two friends of mine were in the Pentagon when it got hit by a cruise missile.

 

You're claiming that Republicans can't keep us safe. It's in the OP. So the Boston bombing is germane in that Obama failed to keep us safe and he had prior warning from the Russians.
Also the pilots were known terrorists and never should have been allowed in the country. The first Trade Tower bombing didn't cause as much damage as intended but it wasn't prevented and that's the point. Try and keep up.

 

It's more like 2,700 AMericans and I really don't think that is important. I had a friend 1/2 block from the WTC when the first plane hit. She was changed forever.

A cruise missile?

 

The First WTC bombing was prosecuted. The perpetrators brought to justice.

Clinton actually went after AQ but when he did, the Right accused him of trying to wag the dog instead of supporting him.

 

Wrong, wrong wrong and wrong. You have an excellent track record.

For Clinton, Where were the multiple daily warnings of the WTC attack that Bush got and ignored?

 

I'm sure it would change someone forever. But yeah, it probably was a cruise missile that hit the Pentagon, I thought everyone knew that by now. It certainly wasn't a plane.

 

But it was prevented.

 

So what was it launched from?

 

I didn't claim Clinton was warned, I claimed Obama was.

 

What warning did Clinton have about WTC 1?

 

I never claimed he was warned, but no warning is specific as in "WTC 1". So a warning that an attack from Al Qaeda was imminent doesn't translate to a warning that planes were going to be flown into the Trade Towers on 911, you've been warned. But have your little spin.
So to recap
The first WTC bombing was not prevented by Clinton.
Clinton allowed known terrorists into the country that we now call the 911 pilots.
Obama was warned about Tsarnaev but failed to prevent the Boston Marathon bombing.

 

Bush has reports the Bin Laden was planning an attack using commercial aircraft as weapons.

 

Most likely an American warship in the Atlantic.

 

You seriously think that a couple hundred American sailors would be able to keep that secret for 15 minutes let alone 15 years?

 

He had reports about hijackings.
U.S. intelligence officials warned President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might hijack American planes, but White House officials stressed the threat was not specific.

A White House official acknowledged to ABCNEWS that the information prompted administration officials to issue a private warning to transportation department and national security agencies weeks before the attacks. But, the official said the threat of a hijacking by bin Laden's al Qaeda organization was general in nature, did not mention a specific time or place and was similar to the variety of different terrorist threats U.S. intelligence monitors frequently.

"There has been long-standing speculation, shared with the president, about the potential of hijackings in the traditional sense," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. "We had general threats involving Osama bin Laden around the world and including in the United States."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91651

I wonder how many hijacking threats they get every day.

 

Well, that must be the darnedest cruise missile anyone has seen, it looks like a Boeing Model 757 and even had a name, American Airlines flight # 77. No doubt the first cruise missile in history to carry passengers, 64 of them of whom 5 were vicious killers.

 

Warning about a guy with suitcase bomb is the same thing as the multinational multiplayer conspiracy to hijack 4 jumbo jets simultaneously and crash them into beacons of American Capitalism.

And we all know that the Russians have the same cache as the US's Director of Anti-Terrorism and head of the CIA. Why they are practically the same thing deserving the same respect.

And we all know what pushovers Congressional Republicans are. This high crime / misdemeanor would never start impeachment proceedings.

Or are you giving only half the story....again?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...brothers-but-name-was-misspelled-9217308.html

Oh look! It was the FBI and not Obama that was notified.

"The Russian government alerted the FBI to suspicions about one of two alleged Boston bombers, but US authorities failed to arrest him because of a spelling mistake." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...brothers-but-name-was-misspelled-9217308.html

That certainly is different than having your Anti-Terrorism Czar and Chief of the CIA tell you on a daily basis that Al Qaeda is important and ginning up for an attack of the US....Bush ignored those things completely.

 

It has to be a near impossible task to weed through the "chatter" and other intelligence to discover which threats pose a real danger and which ones are simply posturing. I don't blame Bush 43 for 9/11. He didn't do it. The hijackers with a political/ religious beef did. However, I do blame Bush 43 and Congress for the Patriot Act, which allowed bulk collection of every email, text, and phone call by the American people without a warrant in the name of keeping us safe from terrorists and in direct violation of the 4th Amendment.