Senate Intelligence Committee (Sen. Kerry) asleep at the wheel about 9/11?

[heartsurgeon]

I believe the 9/11 commission will end up criticising the structure of the CIA and the FBI, and note the lack of :actionable intelligence" on the part of both Clinton and Bush Whitehouses.

The CIA and FBI will get the brunt of the criticism, and i suspect tenent will step down.

meanwhile...what was the Senate intelligence committee doing? they are susposed to oversee the CIA and its function (i don't know if they also oversee the FBI, maybe someone can help me out here).

well according to none-other than Sen Kerry (Senior member of the Senate Intelligence committee, 1993-2000):

"We have always known this could happen [9/11]. . . . I regret to say -- I served on the Intelligence Committee up until last year. I can remember after the bombings of the embassies, after TWA 800, we went through this flurry of activity, talking about it -- but not really doing the hard work of responding."

hmmmmm...admission of failure to restructure the CIA and fix known problems!! Call for s "Special Commission" to investigate the Senate Intelligence Committee!!

Linky - Boston Globe Editorial

 

[conjur]

Ayup...it's all Kerry's fault. He was alone on that commission. He was the only one who could have passed laws forcing FBI/CIA to share with the White House and the Congress.

 

[heartsurgeon]

Democrats led by Frank Church and Teddy Kennedy are responsible for the sorry state of the FBI and the CIA, in large part due to the Church Committee recommendations which created the problem we have today.

it wasn't kerry that created the problem (it was his liberal patrons), but he did nothing to "fix" it BY HIS OWN ADMISSION

linky

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
Democrats led by Frank Church and Teddy Kennedy are responsible for the sorry state of the FBI and the CIA, in large part due to the Church Committee recommendations which created the problem we have today.

it wasn't kerry that created the problem (it was his liberal patrons), but he did nothing to "fix" it BY HIS OWN ADMISSION

linky

That's just great. Instead of one incompetent administrator running for president we now have two! Well at least Kerry didn't use the shock and sorrow of 9/11 to deceive a nation into going to war against a soviergn state who had nothing to do with the attack.

 

[heartsurgeon]

read Sen Bob Kerrey's editorial in the NYT's today..

"anyone who was in Congress, as I was during the critical years leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, must accept some of the blame for the catastrophe. It was a collective failure."

the partisan hacks on the 9/11 commission (Ben-Veniste comes immediately to mind) are nauseating.
the real issue is what can be done to improve the intelligence gathering ability of the U.S.
The issue will come back to the Patriot Act eventually, which is an attempt at a Systemic "fix" to the problem the 9/11 commission will eventually report on, which was in large measure created by th Church Commission....

gee, isn't kerry in favor repealing the Patriot Act (which he voted for, and wrote part of

NYT's editorial

 

[fjord]

Gee, its too bad the Senate Intelligence Comitee didn't have an expert staff member, like National Security Advisor Rice had Dick Clarke, to brief them on the activities of Al Qaida and domestic Terrorism in general.

 

[heartsurgeon]

Sen. Bob Graham (D.-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told HUMAN EVENTS May 21 [2002] that his committee had received all the same terrorism intelligence prior to September 11 as the Bush administration.
"Yes, we had seen all the information," said Graham. "But we didn't see it on a single piece of paper, the way the President did."
Graham added that threats of hijacking in an August 6 memo to President Bush were based on very old intelligence that the committee had seen earlier. "The particular report that was in the President's Daily Briefing that day was about three years old," Graham said. "It was not a contemporary piece of information."
Graham's comments contradicted combative statements made recently by the Democratic congressional leadership, and confirmed White House assertions that the only specific threats of al Qaeda hijackings known to the President before September 11 came from a memo dating back to the Clinton Administration.

linky

Haul in the Senate Intelligence committee for public testimony under oath i say!!
What did you know and when did you know it!!!

 

[CaptnKirk]

Kerry must have cut the funding to Rice's mouth and ears rendering her incapable of hearing the repeated warnings,
and also the lack of capability of speach would have made it impossible for her to say anything.
The additional cutting of funding for her brain must hav prevented her from thinking as well.

Come off it - she is one of the choke points on the breakdown of passing information.

 

[heartsurgeon]

here's the best commentary yet on the 9/11 commission

Bush Failed to Stop al Qaeda During Clinton Years

Scrappleface always gets it right!

 

[Pliablemoose]

Anyone else suspect we'll see bome backpedalling by the Democrats?

Expected Backlash

As Democrats appeared to back away from the attacks on Bush over the weekend, Republicans went on the offensive to capitalize on an expected backlash. The Republican Study Committee, a group of about 75 conservative Republicans, released a memo detailing House Democrats' overwhelming opposition to intelligence funding since 1996. According to the memo, 154 House Democrats voted to cut the U.S. intelligence budget in 1996, while 158 Democrats did the same in 1997. Although fewer Democrats voted to cut the intelligence budget in 1999 (only 61), almost all opposition to intelligence spending came from Democrats.

The memo also quotes several Democrats opposing intelligence spending, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.), who advocated the abolition of the CIA on the House floor in March 1997.

In addition, a HUMAN EVENTS survey of lawmakers found that few--even among Republicans--would have been willing to act decisively on threats of hijacking by Muslim extremists. Not one Democrat surveyed would countenance the idea that President Bush, upon learning of the al Qaeda hijacking threat, should have suspended the visas of young men visiting from nations that are al Qaeda hotbeds--even though this measure would likely have prevented the attacks of September 11.

Few support that action even now, after September 11, when new warnings of attacks by al Qaeda have been issued by FBI director Robert Mueller and Vice President Cheney.