Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] airport security

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 9/19/07, Vern Green <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, these are all good points that are supported by the
> facts. So Bush's administration is clearly guilty about knowing about the
> attacks.

I didn't say that. I said that the strong possibility of attacks was
known, and it was a consciously chosen policy to focus on other
things.

>Now what should he had done had he known?
>

Clarke suggested taking out Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, if I recall correctly.

> Unless I am unaware of anything, Clarke's warning was general in nature.

They were general in terms of future attacks, but Clarke's plans for
trashing Al Qaeda were pretty concrete.

The real point here is that counter-terrorism was not very high on
Bush's list. So not-very-high that it took Clarke weeks-to-months to
arrange a principals-only meeting on the issue. It is definitely
possible that even with a rather higher priority that September 11th
would have still happened. None of this, however, argues against what
the administration *might* have done about the stituation: they could
have made counter-terrorism a higher priority, which is what the
outgoing Clinton administration strongly suggested that they do.
Clearly, you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) take every piece
of advice you get, but the current administration pretty much takes
nobody's advice, and I would argue that this can't be right, either.

Jon King

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