John P. O'Neill Retired as the FBI's top terrorism expert after working for the FBI for 31 years. During his time with the FBI, O'Neill worked on many of the world's deadliest terrorist attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole as well as the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Africa. O'Neill's first terrorism case was the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center. He told several people he resigned over the Bush administration reluctance to pursue terrorists. There are also several reports he felt he was a victim of a smear campaign on his reputation because he wanted to aggressively pursue terrorists.
After retiring from the FBI, O'Neill took a new job as the security director for the World Trade Center.
O'Neill started his new job on Monday, September 10, 2001.
He died on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame. As a former ambassador with experience in West Africa Mr. Wilson was asked by the CIA to investigate claims that Saddam was attempting to acquire uranium for nuclear weapons. He found no evidence of those claims and that the uranium was very secure and protected. After Bush used the supposed efforts of Iraq to acquire uranium in his State of the Union speech Wilson wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times casting doubt on that statement. Both the Vice President's office and the White House launched a smear campaign against Wilson. Two unknown sources outed to the news media his wife Valerie Plame as a deep cover CIA agent responsible for preventing nuclear material from falling into unfriendly state or terrorist hands. It was more important to hit back at a critic and discourage others than to protect the American people from nuclear attack.
Greg Thielmann. State Department intelligence analyst reponsible for weapons of mass destruction. Thielmann resigned and appeared on PBS Frontline to denounce Bush, Powell and other administration officials lies and exagerations about Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the father of the incumbent president. "Tenet and Cheney should resign."
Paul O'Neill, Bush's former Treasury Secretary and a member of the National Security Council. Despite being repeatedly praised by Bush for his honesty and candor was attacked and smeared when he stated that he learned the White House had decided to remove Saddam, by whatever means, on his second day in office.
Scott Ritter, former Marine intelligence officer and a Republican who voted for Bush in 2000, warning us long before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Saddam's government didn't represent a regional threat, let alone a global threat because UNSCOM had disarmed Iraq 85 to 90 percent in the 1990s.
He knew that because he was the UNSCOM chief weapons inspector from 1991 to 1998. Ritter probably knew, and knows, more about Iraqi WMD capabilities (or lack thereof) than 99 percent of the human population. Yet, when Sen. Biden was having his pre-war hearings on the "threat" that Iraq did (not) pose, Ritter informed Biden's committee of his willingness to testify.
Biden ignored Ritter and other analysts with expertise on Iraq while Bush neo-con henchmen launched a character assassination campaign against Ritter, who turned out to be exactly right, though it didn't stop the true believers from disingenously arguing that the invasion wasn't really about WMD but about liberating the Iraqi people.
David Kay, Bush's former chief weapons inspector. "It turns out we were all wrong. The president really needs to say to the American people, 'We made a mistake.'" (Only one who was not subject to personal attacks. He was one of the very public neo-con hawks before the war.)
Rand Beers, former White House terrorism advisor. Got disgusted with Bush and is now working for Kerry. "The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure," said Beers, who until now has remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as special assistant to the president for combating terrorism. "As an insider, I saw the things that weren't being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out."
The focus on Iraq has robbed domestic security of manpower, brainpower and money, he said. The Iraq war created fissures in the United States' counterterrorism alliances, he said, and could breed a new generation of al Qaeda recruits. Many of his government colleagues, he said, thought Iraq was an "ill-conceived and poorly executed strategy."
"I continue to be puzzled by it," said Beers, who did not oppose the war but thought it should have been fought with a broader coalition. "Why was it such a policy priority?" The official rationale was the search for weapons of mass destruction, he said, "although the evidence was pretty qualified, if you listened carefully."
He thinks the war in Afghanistan was a job begun, then abandoned. Rather than destroying al Qaeda terrorists, the fighting only dispersed them. The flow of aid has been slow and the U.S. military presence is too small, he said. "Terrorists move around the country with ease. We don't even know what's going on. Osama bin Laden could be almost anywhere in Afghanistan," he said.
Why do you think all of these people who supported Bush but are knowledgeable on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are now critics? I think it is because among knowledgeable people Dubya is a miserable failure. There is a solution. Losing the upcoming election is too good for them. Impeach Bush and Cheney now and we'll call it even.
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