What didn’t they know and when didn’t they know it?
: Well, I won’t call it Terrorgate. But the FBI’s bungling of warnings about Sept. 11 terrorism bears thorough investigation.
First we found out that the FBI ignored a warning from one of its own agents that Arabs were taking flying lessons — complete with speculation about ties to Osama bin Laden.
And now we learn that the White House had been warned about Arab hijackings before they occurred.
President George W. Bush was told by U.S. intelligence in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network might hijack American airplanes, the White House acknowledged Wednesday night.
Though the FBI’s behavior — its general lack of competence — has been scandalous, this is not a scandal. Obviously, nobody tried to screw this up; nobody tried to hide anything.
Nonetheless, for our safety, for our future, this must be investigated so we can find the problem and fix it!
The FBI is planning a super squad against terror. How it is run should be run must be informed by complete, open, independent, and frank investigation of what was messed up by intelligence and law enforcement officials prior to September 11th. And the administration should ask whether it’s the FBI that should be running this.
I’m not given confidence by this team and its disorganization: We have powerless, silent, wimpy bureaucrat Tom Ridge. We have bumbling Norm Minetta failing to give us security in the skies. We have dogmatic but — let’s be honest — ineffectual John Ashcroft catching no one (remember anthrax?). And we have the FBI (stands for Friggin’ Bungling Idiots) letting valuable intelligence get lost in its lack of a system.
And we have the sure prediction that the terrorists will try again.
Do you feel safe?
I don’t.
Snark attack!
: More snarky words are being written about the Weblog Foundation. No surprise. It’s the Internet. That’s why we love it, eh?
But what does surprise me is that webloggers — or at least some of them — don’t want money, don’t like it, think it’s a bad thing.
I thought we were past defending capitalism (except, perhaps, in Cuba).
But capitalism has able defense from Eric Olsen and Richard Bennett. They do it better than I could.
: More show-off snarkiness from elsewhere [a bozo who apparently doesn’t know how to do permalinks]:
Heh. Excuse my mirth for a second. Bwahahahahahahahahahah! The carpetbloggers want to set up a Weblogging Chamber Of Commerce. This from a fragment of a subculture even more superredundant than indiekid bassists, budding fast bowlers and pop starlet wannabes. Ferfugsake, get a real job you lazy bums and stop whinging! Seriously, I’ve had cause to gather my thoughts on the issue of journalism and weblogging, so I’ll probably splurt it out at some point.
Can’t wait.
: If these guys don’t want money, good. Leaves more for the rest of us…. Insert smug, irritating smiley face graphic here….
