September 11 - after three years

I think Bush deserves a lot of the blame for 9/11.

His administration was repeatedly warned that terrorists, particularly al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, were the biggest national security issue he faced. They were repeatedly urged to move on them. They didn't believe it and wanted to build Star Wars instead.

He told the FBI and other agencies to back off the Saudis. The Bush family and the House of Saud have had a long and lucrative relationship now making them the two most powerful families in the world.

There is much documentation on this, here is some recent by Reporter Greg Palast.

On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on the dust in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television received a call in London from a top-level US intelligence agent. He was not happy. Shortly after George W. Bush took office, he told us reluctantly, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the FBI, "were told to back off the Saudis."

We knew that. In the newsroom, we had a document already in hand, marked, "SECRET" across the top and "199-I" - meaning this was a national security matter.

The secret memo released agents to hunt down two members of the bin Laden family operating a "suspected terrorist organization" in the USA. It was dated September 13, 2001 -- two days too late for too many. What the memo indicates, corroborated by other sources, was that the agents had long wanted to question these characters ... but could not until after the attack. By that time, these bin Laden birds had flown their American nest.

After Bush was elected he appointed the head of the Texas Air National Guard to be head of Air National Guard. It has been said this may have been a reward for taking care of some embarrassing Bush records.

Air National Guard planes stationed on 5 minute standby alert in the 70's had been cut back to fewer on 15 minute alert by 2000. Under Bush's watch on 9/11 the Air National Guard was cut back further and did nothing, despite repeated attempts at communication, while four planes with passengers were used as bombs. No one was held responsible. This president has never held anyone responsible for anything on his watch. The only people that Cheney and others have fired have been those who have inconveniently told the truth.