"Why, Oh Why?"

By W.C. Allen

03/16/04 "ICH" -- Why did President Bush ignore a one and-a-half page briefing he personally received on August 6, 2001, a month prior to September 11th, which talked about Osama bin Laden's capabilities to strike the U.S. using hijacked aircraft as weapons?

Why won't President Bush share this briefing, at least the pertinent parts, with the American people?

Why, upon the appointment by President Bush of Vice President Richard Cheney in May of 2001 to head a task force to "combat terrorist attacks on the U.S." did the task force and the President never meet?

Why did Vice President Cheney, after receiving counter-terrorism and homeland defense legislation from the Senate in July, 2001, say he wouldn't be able to review the material for six months? 

Why did the Justice Department under John Ashcroft shift the department's efforts away from counter-terrorism, even though he had said prior to 9/11 "fighting terrorism was a top priority of his agency"?

Why did John Ashcroft's own priorities of fighting "violent crime and drugs" supercede FBI Director Louis Freeh's priority of fighting terrorism and the need to bolster counter-terrorism efforts in the United States? 

Why did Attorney General John Ashcroft stop flying commercial aircraft due to a "threat assessment" he received in July 2001, and why was this "assessment" not shared with the American people, the aviation industry, and why was no warning issued?

Why, on September 10, 2001 did a group of top Pentagon officials, out of security concerns and after numerous warnings, cancel travel plans for the following day, September 11th, and why was this information not disseminated to the public?

Why, on September 10, 2001, did Attorney General Ashcroft fail to endorse FBI requests for funding for counter-terrorism field agents, intelligence analysts and translators?

Why, on the same day September 10th, did the Attorney General propose to cut $65 million from programs which funded local counter-terrorism efforts, which included paying for equipment and training for local first responders?

Why did the Bush Administration, during their first eight months in office, stop the flights of unmanned Predator drone planes over Afghanistan which had had previous success tracking Al Qaeda terrorists including Osama bin Laden?

Why did the Bush Administration give the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan $43 million in "drought aid" in early 2001, even though they were providing safe-haven to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, declared enemies of the United States?

Why does President Bush fail to acknowledge his close personal ties to Saudi Arabia and the bin Laden family?

Why were Saudi Arabian elites, including 24 members of the bin Laden family allowed to fly out of the U.S. in the days immediately following 9/11, while the rest of the country was in "lock down"?

Why were these same Saudis subjected to only a cursory interrogation by the FBI prior to their being whisked out of the country, even though at least one of them, Saudi Prince Ahmed may have had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks?

Why does the Bush Administration refuse to pressure the Saudis into allowing U.S. investigators to interrogate Sidi Tayyib in Saudi Arabia regarding knowledge he may have of Osama bin Laden's and Al Qaeda's financing? 

Why did the Bush Administration under fund efforts to track the flow of money to terrorist organizations, even though the Clinton administration passed along concise plans for doing so?

Why did the Bush Administration follow an "ABC" policy of "anything but Clinton" by downplaying any and all warnings the previous administration had given them regarding terrorist threats?

Why did the Bush Administration's national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and her deputy Stephen Hadley not take serious the warnings by outgoing deputy national security advisor General Donald Kerrick who wrote in a two page memo not only of the threat of Al Qaeda but the fact that he believed the U.S. was going to be attacked?

Why did Ms. Rice see terrorist threats, as General Kerrick put it, through an "Iraqi prism?

Why did the Bush Administration initially fail to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate the 9/11 terrorist attacks until, by way of political pressure, it was forced to do so?

Why did the Administration classify 27 pages of a congressional report about 9/11 which depicted Saudi Arabia's link to, and funding of terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda?

Why does the Administration under fund border security, sea port security and aviation security, where only 5% of all air cargo is screened for bombs?

Why did the President promise then threaten to veto funding for local emergency first responders less than a year after 9/11?

Why has the President decreased the funding to secure nuclear materials from around the world that if obtained by terrorists could be assembled into a nuclear or "dirty" bomb?

Why, if the Bush Administration has nothing to hide and claim to have so much integrity, are they so reluctant to share with the American people the truth about their actions, their inactions and their failures before and after the 9/11 attacks, to simply answer a few questions honestly without passing the blame onto someone else?

Perhaps we can start with a few of these.

© 2004 W.C. Allen <wallen@mail.com>