Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] airport security

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 9/19/07, Vern Green <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> You know the other interesting thing in all of this is how I hear people
> saying Bush could have done more to prevent 9-11. I am still befuddled as to
> what people think he could have done.

No time today to chat, but in brief:

He was told coming in that Al Qaeda, who had just bombed the USS Cole,
would be a major threat. Richard A. Clarke, Clinton's
counter-terrorism coordinator who was explicitly held over in the Bush
administration, repeatedly warned of the grave possibility of pending
attacks. But the official policy was that drug interdiction, not
counter-terrorism, would be the leading policy in this sphere. That's
why we gave millions to the Taliban in 2001 before 9/11.

> Just look at the complaints lodged now
> about airport security and think about how those complaints would have been
> amplified if these measures had been put into place before the attacks.

It honestly would have taken less than that to notice a bunch of guys
with expired visas were taking flying lessons where they considered
the landing lesson optional. It's true that US intelligence made an
uncoordinated response to the (now very obviously) suspicious events
before 9/11, but there would have been a lot more done if real
attention had been paid to reports, like (say) the top-secret security
briefing of August 6, 2001 that was entitled "Bin Laden detemined to
stike in U.S."

The idea is to be on top of things before it gets to the airport
screening stage. That is mostly theater.

jking

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