9/11 Myths and Misinformation

This morning somehow, I think I was sleeping on the remote and punching buttons while I slept, I awoke to Fox News programming on which a guest, Retired General Michael Hayden, NSA Director leading up to and during 9/11/2001 was spewing vitriol about President Obama (please don’t say just Obama.)  The Presidency and the current occupant of the highest office in the land is worthy of being shown respect no matter what your politics.  Hayden is one of the people who were heads of Government Agencies that were charged with protecting the United States from the very kind of terrorist attack that they allowed to happen. Not only was he in a position of authority then, he was later with other higher level appointments and with nomination for head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

• He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005.
• From April 21, 2005 to May 26, 2006 he was the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
• And from May 30, 2006 – 12 February 2009,he was Director of the CIA
• On July 1, 2008, retired from the Air Force

Other Faux (pronounced Fox) Facts about September 11 that make my blood boil:

• Condoleeza Rice’s statement that  “I don’t think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile …” is disingenuous at best.  Some reasonable people knew in 1995 that something like this was being planned, as well as the warnings the Bush Administration had in August 2001.  She should have made the President listen to her when she discussed the PDB in August 2012.
• “George Bush kept us safe.”  Duh, the 9/11 attacks happened almost a year into his presidency.   If Faux News can say that Obama is responsible for economic events that happened before his election, let alone his taking of office, then surely former President George W. Bush must take responsibility for an attack which had been warned of in one of his Daily Presidential Briefings almost a month before the attacks.

Richard Clark is one of the only people who admitted responsibility for screwing up and has talked about the guilt he feels for allowing 9/11 to happen. Read or watch his testimony before the 9/11 Commission to get the full impact of his apology to the American People.   If you get a chance to watch the Secrets of 9/11 which I saw watched on Destination America Channel, formerly Planet Green, one of a group of Discovery Channels,  I highly recommend it. It is not a 911 conspiracy product.  It is fact filled reporting.  Watch it if you can.
In the mean time, here is a video of Richard Clark talking about the build up of a 4th Branch of Government that was made 8 years ago that most people still don’t really comprehend.  Just because there was a terrorist attack on the U.S. in September of 2001, something that had happened before, there is no justification for turning our country into a police state.

Here is another good summary article you should read:  NSA Analyst: “We Could Have Prevented 9/11”  if you want a more recent summary, May 2012, of what we know about that horrible chapter in American History.
This is a tough anniversary for the many people personally impacted by what happened 11 years ago today.  So if you are not mourning personal losses suffered that day, why not pay respect to these thousands of souls lost to the physical world in the attacks by reading up on facts, not opinion pieces, about what happened.
Blessings to all the innocents who have, do, and will suffer from the ceaseless pursuit of war by we humans.  If you are a praying person, please say a special prayer for peace today.