As the most deadly attack on US soil, 9/11 is a solemn occasion for all Americans. What makes it even more tragic is that it likely didnt have to happen.
Many of us knew about the August 6, 2001 presidential daily brief headlined Bin Laden determined to strike in US. But few of us knew of all the warnings that preceded it. Kurt Eichenwalds revelations in the New York Times represent a 9/11 disaster for the Bush administration and, most especially, former V.P. Richard The Dick Cheney.
The memos detailed in Eichenwalds piece reveal that neoconservatives within the Bush administration were dismissive of warnings from the CIA and its Counterterrorism Center, labeling the warnings as a distraction from the “real threat” that was Saddam Husseins Iraq. This was despite the fact that international inspectors repeatedly stated that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, and that it had no delivery vehicles capable of reaching the US.
Moreover, the reports showed that there was no evidence of cooperation between Iraq and al Qaeda.
So who were these neocons dismissing the warnings of an attack by al Qaeda? The most prominent neocons connected to the Pentagon and the intelligence community included Donald Rumsfeld, Lewis Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams and, of course, Dick Cheney who bullied his way into the leadership role for intelligence for the administration.
These people were all members of the Project for a New American Century, which was determined to use our unchallenged military to push our economic interests around the world. Indeed, a 2000 PNAC report stated The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in (Persian) Gulf regional security the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The 2000 PNAC report went on to say that it would be politically difficult to transform our military into tomorrows dominant force and create such a presence in the Gulf unless the US was struck by some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor.
If that doesnt send a chill down your spine, I cant imagine what would especially when you consider the Cheney-led dismissiveness of pre-9/11 warnings.
Want to know something almost as frightening? 17 of Romneys foreign policy advisors worked for the George W. Bush administration.