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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (263237)	6/12/2002 2:05:12 AM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

The source of terrorist power in the world is the American left's stranglehold on the Democrat party. The people will punish that party in 2002 and 2004...

To: MSI who wrote (263237)	6/12/2002 2:46:54 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 769667

nytimes.com Summer of All Fears By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON Washingtonians are well known for being hypersensitive to the elements. A dusting of snow or a heat wave can shut down schools. A Code Red unhealthy air alert, as we had here yesterday, leaves the streets deserted. So you can imagine the panic spread by the prospect of radioactive mist settling on monuments, and uranium-laced, cell-mutating gamma rays ricocheting down Pennsylvania Avenue. John Ashcroft's announcement that the military has in custody a bona fide Al Qaeda operative who was exploring how to set off a dirty bomb in D.C. or elsewhere was designed both to make our teeth chatter and our gratitude well up. Weren't we thankful that the Bushies were finally catching somebody and protecting us? To maximize the drama of the moment, Ashcroft aides went into the Justice Department in the pre-dawn hours to prepare the attorney general to give the news live by satellite from Moscow. On the Hill yesterday, Republican lawmakers were using headlines about the dirty-bomb plot to try to hurriedly push through the president's homeland security makeover. "This is what's at stake," said Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas. "This kind of attack, using chemical, biological, nuclear weapons, radiological weapons, or some other kinds of suicide bombers of the kind we've seen. We must act quickly." It's bad enough that the terrorists are using fear as a device. Does the Bush administration have to do the same thing? The Islamic enemy strums on our nerves to hurt our economy and get power. The American president strums on our nerves to help his popularity and retain power. Both the bad guys and the good guys are playing with our heads and ratcheting up the fear factor. If you'd only paid cursory attention lately, you'd think the government had grabbed the offensive against terrorists and that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. were now cuddle buddies. But the question is being asked here: Is the Bush crowd hyping things? First the government leaked word that it had identified a Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 plot, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a development hailed as an investigative coup. But the creep is still at large. Then the president unveiled his Homeland Security Department plan. But yesterday even top Republicans were dubious about whether it could work without the F.B.I. and C.I.A. under its umbrella. And on Monday Mr. Ashcroft, Bobby Three Sticks and Paul "Bomb Iraq" Wolfowitz breathlessly told the nation that they had thwarted a scary radiological bombing plot. In its eagerness to convince itself and us that it has prevented something, the Bush administration has built up the dirty bomber into an Atta-like terrorist capable of leveling downtown Washington. But privately it acknowledges that he may be far less than that. The plotter was a Chicago street punk named Jose Padilla, a hothead with a long criminal record who was thrown in jail in Florida for shooting at a motorist in a road-rage incident. Even law enforcement officials and counterterrorism experts were skeptical about whether he had the brains, know-how and materials to build a dirty bomb from scratch, or whether he was even an officially sanctioned Qaeda terrorist. "There is no indication he had the means to do it or was given the authority to do it," said a law enforcement official in New York familiar with the case. "It is a bit of stretch to say he was here to do it." The mind games of fear begin with Abu Zubaydah, the U.S. captive, one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, who fingered Padilla. Based on nuggets and head fakes given to them by Zubaydah, American agents are fanning out all over the world, possibly going on wild goose chases. Some of his tips have checked out, some have not. The feds do not know for sure if Zubaydah is playing them, or if he has led them into a wilderness of mirrors. With Padilla, is Zubaydah throwing agents a decoy? A small fish that they're turning into a big marlin, while there's another Mohamed Atta running around undetected in this country? The Qaeda leadership has regrouped. Osama and Mullah Omar are out there scheming somewhere. But Mr. Ashcroft says we can sleep more soundly tonight: Jose Padilla, Chicago street thug, is in the brig.

To: MSI who wrote (263237)	6/12/2002 5:26:14 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: DID GWB AND THE USAF "STAND DOWN" ON 9/11? Thread, I'm very troubled by what is appearing to be a massive cover-up of the actual events of Operation 911. Here's some new material I'm running across. I'd like to share it and get reactions if possible. -Ray Unanswered Questions.org is just getting started: unansweredquestions.org Some of their research into the Air Force response is gripping, particularly pay attention to the discussion of Pres. Bush's reaction (noted in section six of the URL below) at the Saratoga school, even after knowing of the first plane crashing before the reading lesson begins, and being informed of the second strike at the WTC, he sits there passively for minutes. Leadership of a different sort. Most curious. Not what I would call a normal response to crisis. unansweredquestions.org Here is Section Six from the above URL: "George W. Bush is made aware of the crisis before he leaves his hotel in Sarasota, Florida, just before 9am.(16) According to Vice-President Dick Cheney, "the secret service... FAA... had open lines after the World trade Center was [hit]." (Meet the Press, 9/16/2001) Cheney says he was whisked into the basement of the White House for his own protection; yet George W. Bush was clearly in a more-vulnerable position: out in the open, a very public arena, schedule well-publicized; and he continues to his appointment in a third-grade classroom. When he is updated not once, not twice, but thrice about the crisis, he continues sitting in the classroom for a full thirty minutes.('AP' 9/12/2001, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/2001 Pg. A 20; CNN "Breaking News" 9:25, 9/11/2001) Only later do we hear that George. W Bush is the only one who can order any shootdowns." """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Here's a Quicktime movie of the session at the Sarasota school: buzzflash.com In particular, note the President's reaction at Minute 4:31. He does nothing. How can that be? [[Note: I had best result by saving the file to disk and then running under Quicktime locally.]] """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Here's another site with a lot of questions that we in the public need answers to: scoop.co.nz """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Inquiring minds want to know about some of these details. I think it's very revealing that Executive Order 13233 was imposed soon after 9/11, and Dick Cheney tried to strong arm Daschle from pursuing any investigation. That's a clear red flag. Best, Ray