Gone Fishin'

From Newshounds.US
Moussaoui Trial Shows How Screwed Up FBI Is
Reported by Judy - March 21, 2006
The trial of "20th-hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui has not received nearly the amount of press coverage it deserves, based on the information it is providing about how George Bush's administration screwed up before 9/11.

The "Dayside" duo of Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick on Tuesday (March 21, 2006) interviewed Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano about the testimony of an FBI agent that his superiors would not let him get a search warrant to look into Moussaoui's laptop computer after he was arrested in August 2001. {His laptop is now said to have contained information about jetliners, crop dusters and wind currents}

August 2001, you may recall, is the same month when George Bush received that Presidential Daily Brief titled, "Al Qaeda Determined to Strike in U.S." That same PDB that Bush ignored because he was on vacation at his ranch in Texas.

The FBI agent also testified that he asked his superiors 70 times for permission to get a search warrant, and said their refusal was "criminal."

Do you suppose if Bush had reacted to that PDB and sent a memo to all his department heads asking them to be extra alert for Middle Eastern terrorists, the fools in the FBI might have connected the dots, that they might have looked in the laptop, which they had in their possession?

During the hearings of the 9/11 commission, the intelligence community complained a lot about the so-called "wall" between domestic and foreign intelligence gathering that they blamed for hindering the tracking of terrorists. And after 9/11 Bush says he had to set up a special program to spy on Americans without warrants because it was too cumbersome to get warrants, using the secret court set up for just that purpose, even allowing retroactive warrants.

But here is proof that the FBI was too lazy or stupid to use the police powers they already had.

The Fox News personnel did their best to defend the government's inaction. "I don't think any FBI agent would willingly allow the country to be unprotected, but by incompetence they did," admitted Napolitano.

Added Jerrick, "Nobody had ever taken an airplane and flown it into a building. It was unthinkable." Of course, it had been thought of before.




Too bad some Republican in Congress can't stir himself or herself to demand an investigation into why the FBI didn't protect Americans any better. They're too busy figuring out how to grant this bunch of Keystone Kops even more police powers that they won't use, so that the next time there's a catastrophe, the FBI will have to be given even more tools that take away Americans' liberties.

And besides, they'd rather just blame Clinton.





Al K. and I did our long run of the week today. I was really bonking but pulled through. It was a 13--really middle distance by now--but I'm spent from the 20 Sunday and this infection. We did the 13 today at 9 minute pace. And it was beautiful out, so I was able to pull through. But I really wanted to just lay on the grass.


Post Script
The pasty Dude from Seattle (see sidebar) had a funny anecdote about his son on his blog. It inspired me to share this one:


How I Got Myself In Trouble With The Mrs. This Evening
My son, who turns two the end of April, likes everything his older sister likes. Lately, it's her chocolate milk he wants. But when he asks for it, it sounds just like "fucking milk." We've video taped it. It's uncanny, "fucking milk." Tonight, we were having dinner and the little man observed his sister's beverage and started in, "I want fucking milk. Fucking milk. Fucking milk." Now here's the part where I get in trouble: as the Mrs. went into the kitchen to get his milk I added, "and I'll take a fucking beer."