JotW,
Re: "Cover up" is a tricky term but the only time it carries any weight is when there is an attempt to conceil wrong doing....... if that is what is flushed out, then I will take a stand against it.
Time to get out of the chair!
mediawhoresonline.com
HIS FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS
KEY PORTIONS OF CONGRESSIONAL 9/11 REPORT HIDDEN
"DISCLOSURE COULD UPSET RELATIONS WITH KEY US OIL. ALLY."
OFFICIALS TESTIFY NO HOPE FOR COOPERATION FROM SAUDIS. BUT BUSH WEBSITE SAYS JUNIOR "FROM THE FIRST DAY HAS BEEN VERY SATISFIED WITH ACTIONS OF SAUDI GOVERNMENT"
NIXONIAN WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO RELEASE BRIEFING CONTAINING KEY INFORMATION ON WHAT BUSH KNEW AND WHEN HE KNEW IT
Bush Regime Hid Embarrassing Portions of Report:
washingtonpost.com
With respect to Bush, the congressional panel indicated that it tried to determine "to what extent the President received threat-specific warnings during this period" -- but obtained only limited information.
Among the only clues cited in the report about Bush's knowledge of al Qaeda's intentions against the United States is an Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Briefing (PDB) -- described in the report only as a "closely-held intelligence report" -- that included information "acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of [Osama] Bin Laden supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives."...
The panel also took the FBI to task for not aggressively pursuing allegations against Saudi individuals, including a network of businessmen and religious figures in San Diego who, together, provided two key hijackers with seemingly unlimited money, an interpreter and other support.
The report said that because Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally, "the United States had not established heightened screening for illegal immigration or terrorism by visitors from Saudi Arabia."
Joe Conason's Journal:
salon.com
The prescient warnings of the late FBI counter-terror expert John O'Neill, who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, were vindicated again yesterday. He tried to tell us that the U.S. government protected Saudi interests at our terrible expense, and the joint Congressional committee report – whose chapter on the kingdom was redacted at the insistence of the Bush administration – posthumously proves O'Neill's point.
The consensus within the intelligence community during the years leading up to 9/11 was that the Saudi regime would never cooperate with the United States against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. At least three high-ranking officials testified, according to the report, that such cooperation could not be expected because it would be "contrary to Saudi national interests," meaning the interests of the ruling dynasty. Worse yet, the report quotes at least one official who suggested that certain Saudis may have been aware of an imminent al-Qaeda operation against the United States just before 9/11. And it is also clear that the FBI dropped a crucial probe of Saudi operatives in San Diego who provided financial and other assistance to two of the 9/11 hijackers.
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"Our Saudi Friends":
washingtonpost.com
One of the most disturbing incidents of Desert Storm I (I guess we can call it that now) occurred on January 18, 1991 when Iraq launched its first Scud missiles against Israel. American officers watched in shock as virtually all of their Saudi military counterparts in the Gulf War coalition command center in Riyadh leapt to their feet applauding the Iraqi attack on America's ally.
To say the least, Saudi Arabia has always been a strange friend of the United States and a prickly ally. U.S. tolerance is often explained as the price that is paid for access to oil. With oilmen in the White House, the notion that America is a supplicant to the Saudis has only grown stronger.
Yet so many years of accommodation have created a far more complicated actual relationship. As Desert Storm II looms, Saudi-American habits are not only influencing the Bush administration's military strategy for driving Saddam Hussein from power. They are also threatening the larger goals of the war on terrorism. |
