[IP] CBS says 9/11 was preventable
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 20:19:48 -0500
From: Kim Brooks Wei <kimi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: CBS says 9/11 was preventable
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To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/eveningnews/main589137.shtml
9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable
NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2003
(CBS) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission
investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have
and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall
Pinkston.
"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it
right," said Thomas Kean.
"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what
wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not
something that had to happen."
Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of
New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.
"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in
the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply
failed," Kean said.
To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political
landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's
top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most
controversial assertions of the Bush administration - that there was never
any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a
building.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an
airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national
security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.
"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and
saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI
records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen
Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the
president to appoint the commission.
The widows want to know why various government agencies didn't connect the
dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota and
Arizona about suspicious student pilots.
"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband that
we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it," Breitweiser
said.
Kean admits the commission also has more questions than answers.
Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting in the
decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those positions,
Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will."
Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month
from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security
Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.
© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
--
Kim Brooks Wei
New Jersey State Coordinator,
Kucinich for President Campaign
V 201.475.1854
mailto:kimbrooks.wei@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.njforkucinich.us
www.kimbwei.com
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