BUSH KNEW ABOUT 9/11 ATTACKS: Newsmax breaks story for right wing --
newsmax.com
[[Note: Newsmax is a source I usually don't give much credence to. However, they seem to have this one right.]]
Prez Wannabe Graham Eyeing Evidence That Bush Blew 9/11
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bob Graham is reportedly sitting on damaging evidence that the Bush administration could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks - but he hasn't released the information yet because it's classified.
"I think Bob Graham has a smoking pistol on the Bush administration," Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander late Tuesday.
Crawford explained that Graham's mystery evidence has to do with "their failures, particularly intelligence failures, before 9/11."
In recent weeks Sen. Graham, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has charged repeatedly that Bush bungled the war on terrorism. But the ex-Florida governor has never publicly suggested that he thought the president had left America vulnerable to the 9/11 attacks.
Nevertheless, Crawford, who's been covering the Florida Democrat's presidential run, said that Graham obtained the Bush-9/11 evidence while serving as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"The problem is that what [Graham] knows - and he knows some very damaging stuff about the Bush administration's failures before 9/11 to prevent 9/11 - he can't talk about because it's classified," he explained.
Another reason for Graham's silence: Republicans would likely complain that Graham has abused his position on the Intelligence Committee by turning it into a tool for opposition research.
Still, Graham has been publicly hinting at what he knows without going into detail, said the CQ reporter. He quoted a recent speech in which the senator claimed, "I know first hand, as former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, how little this administration has done to provide real security at home while it has directed its attention away from the war on terror abroad."
Crawford said that the presidential hopeful is trying to figure out a way to make the 9/11 evidence against Bush public without violating the secrecy rules on the Intelligence Committee.
"He's got something on Bush. He just can't figure out how to use it," he explained.
If Graham does indeed have evidence implicating the administration in 9/11-related negligence, it would be doubly ironic for the Bush White House, which has gone out of its way not to point fingers at the Clinton administration for its role in leaving America vulnerable to a 9/11-style attack.
Even an acknowledgement last year by ex-President Clinton that he turned down a deal for Osama bin Laden's extradition to the U.S. prompted only yawns from the Bush political operation. |
