Gonzo II

The vice chair of the prominent 9/11 Commission is denying Attorney General Michael Mukasey's claim that the US received a warning before the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, Salon reports.

[...]

Given Hamilton's statement, Greenwald says "one of two things is true" about Mukasey's alleged call from an "Afghan safe house": either the White House concealed it from the 9/11 Commission, or Mukasey fabricated it "to scare and manipulate Americans into believing that FISA and other surveillance safeguards caused the 9/11 attacks..."

  Raw Story

Or, three: the White House concealed it, and now Mukasey is using it to scare and manipulate Americans.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Pipe Dreams

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin today demanded that Atty. Gen Michael Mukasey open a criminal probe into whether CIA officials broke the law in employing the interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three suspected terrorists.

  Chicago Tribune

Senator Durbin has a better chance of getting an alien anal probe.

And while we’re sending letters to Santa, the 9/11 Widows want a new investigation following further revelations about one of the 9/11 commissioners which confirm a whitewash.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The Worthless Commission Had a Ringer

Would you believe it?

Max Holland, a D.C. area blogger and author got hold of an advance copy of The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation

A lot of what has been "censored," it turns out, revolves around the commission's executive director Philip Zelikow. According to Holland, Shenon reports that Zelikow 1) hid the depth and breadth of his relationship to key members in the administration, 2) had a number of private conversations with Karl Rove (funny how he keeps popping up) while he was on the panel, and 3) succeeded in softening the final report's judgment on the Bush Administration's responsibility.

  TPM Muckraker

What a surprise.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Worthless Commission update

Able Danger's mouth is identified.

A former member of a classified Pentagon intelligence unit told CNN on Wednesday that information he tried to provide to the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks never made it to the panel's members.

Publicly identifying himself for the first time, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said he worked this year with Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, and they determined "there was a significant amount of information that was totally deleted or not provided to the 9/11 commissioners."

  CNN article

But, never mind...

In a statement Friday, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, chairman and vice chairman of the now-defunct 9/11 commission, said that Able Danger "did not turn out to be historically significant, set against the larger context of U.S. policy and intelligence efforts that involved [Osama] bin Laden and al Qaeda."

Worthless Commission wants new investigation

Well, some of them do.

"The 9/11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell," said [Co-Chairman Lee] Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation."

[...]

Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who serves as vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, said a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger" identified the men in 1999.

[...]

Weldon said that in September 2000 Able Danger recommended that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI "so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists." However, Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally, so information on them could not be shared with law enforcement.

[...]

If the team did identify Atta and the others, it's unclear why the information wasn't forwarded. The prohibition against sharing intelligence on "U.S. persons" should not have applied since they were in the country on visas and did not have permanent resident status.

  Fox article

WH still won't turn over 9/11 documents

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - The White House has failed to turn over any of the information requested by the 10 members of the disbanded Sept. 11 commission in their renewed, unofficial investigation into whether the government is doing enough to prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, commission members said.

The members said that the Bush administration's lack of cooperation was hindering a project that was otherwise nearly complete.

Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission, said he was surprised and disappointed that the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several other executive branch agencies had failed to respond to requests made two months ago for updated information on the government's antiterrorism programs.

[...]

"It's very disappointing," Mr. Kean said of the administration's failure to cooperate with the group. "All we're trying to do is make the public safer."

[...]

"Honestly, I thought they would want to cooperate," he said of the White House and the agencies. "I thought it would give them a chance to tell their story. They have made some progress."

  NY Times article

Number one: the Worthless Commission submitted a final whitewash report. End of story.

Number two: Thomas Kean is a bubblehead if he's actually surprised.

Get a clue, bubblehead.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.