Naturalized-Texan
09-12-2006, 11:15 AM
The movie, Path to 9/11 was well done and fairly depicted the events leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I do have a few comments, however:
- The problems during the months between President Bush's inauguration and the 9/11 terrorist attacks depicted on the second night were due to Clinton administration policies that President Bush inherited:
1) The refusal to share information and photos about known terrorists between the CIA and the FBI was a direct result of the Jamie Gorelick wall, erected in 1995, that prohibited the sharing of intelligence information between those two organizations. Fortunately, the Patriot Act tore down that wall.
2) The inability to open and examine Moussaoui's computer was the result of the Clinton administration's misinterpretation of the FISA rules, thinking that a warrant would have been required. That policy was corrected by a ruling by the FISA Court of Review (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2FjZTQzNjUzOTUzMzgwODQ3ZjEyNWE5OWJmYTU4ZTA=) that warrants are not required for searches involving national security.
- According to several books that I have read (see partial list below), BJ Clinton's culpability for the 9/11 terrorist attacks was FAR greater than was depicted in the movie. If course, to depict all the instances of BJ Clinton's culpability would have required at least a 30-hour movie.
- While Richard Clarke's role as a lonely voice in the Clinton administration favoring strong action against terrorism, confirmed by Richard Miniter in Losing bin Laden, his role in the Bush Administration, as depicted in the movie, was grossly exaggerated based on the books that I have read. In fact, Tommy Franks, in his book, American Soldier, stated, "I never received a single operational recommendation, or a single page of actionable intelligence, from Richard Clarke." Clarke was pretty much a non-entity in the Bush Administration, so he finally left to write a dishonest book about his experiences.
Partial list of books I have read on this subject:
- Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years by Richard Lowry
- American Soldier by General Tommy Franks
- Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security by Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson, USAF (Ret.)
- Bush at War by Bob Woodward
- Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - from Inside the Bush White House by Bill Sammon
- Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror by Richard Miniter
- Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September 11 by Bill Gertz
- Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorisrt Commander by Rowan Scarborough
- The problems during the months between President Bush's inauguration and the 9/11 terrorist attacks depicted on the second night were due to Clinton administration policies that President Bush inherited:
1) The refusal to share information and photos about known terrorists between the CIA and the FBI was a direct result of the Jamie Gorelick wall, erected in 1995, that prohibited the sharing of intelligence information between those two organizations. Fortunately, the Patriot Act tore down that wall.
2) The inability to open and examine Moussaoui's computer was the result of the Clinton administration's misinterpretation of the FISA rules, thinking that a warrant would have been required. That policy was corrected by a ruling by the FISA Court of Review (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2FjZTQzNjUzOTUzMzgwODQ3ZjEyNWE5OWJmYTU4ZTA=) that warrants are not required for searches involving national security.
- According to several books that I have read (see partial list below), BJ Clinton's culpability for the 9/11 terrorist attacks was FAR greater than was depicted in the movie. If course, to depict all the instances of BJ Clinton's culpability would have required at least a 30-hour movie.
- While Richard Clarke's role as a lonely voice in the Clinton administration favoring strong action against terrorism, confirmed by Richard Miniter in Losing bin Laden, his role in the Bush Administration, as depicted in the movie, was grossly exaggerated based on the books that I have read. In fact, Tommy Franks, in his book, American Soldier, stated, "I never received a single operational recommendation, or a single page of actionable intelligence, from Richard Clarke." Clarke was pretty much a non-entity in the Bush Administration, so he finally left to write a dishonest book about his experiences.
Partial list of books I have read on this subject:
- Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years by Richard Lowry
- American Soldier by General Tommy Franks
- Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security by Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson, USAF (Ret.)
- Bush at War by Bob Woodward
- Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - from Inside the Bush White House by Bill Sammon
- Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror by Richard Miniter
- Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September 11 by Bill Gertz
- Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorisrt Commander by Rowan Scarborough