The 9-11 Commission has released their report. Here’s information on how to get your own copy and come to your own conclusions.
So how did 9-11 happen? From what I have read, the Commission feels there is plenty of blame for everyone. It isn’t all Bush’s fault; it isn’t all Clinton’s fault; it isn’t all Ashcroft’s or American Airlines’s or the guy manning the metal detector that morning or anybody else’s fault that 9-11 happened. It’s everyone’s fault. Like a thousand fictional tragedies, little mistakes happened, snowballing, allowing if not causing big mistakes. Here’s CNN, the BBC, Reuters twice, Bloomberg (one of my favorite news sources, even before Mr. Bloomberg became Mayor), MSNBC, even MTV is reporting on this.
Yeah, it’s the Modern Day Warren Commission.
The more important question is how we can say “never again” and mean it. The official stance of “More Homeland Security” and “One Information Czar to Rule Them All” seems weak. After all, the DHS was mired in bureaucracy from its very inception. From the standpoint of Joe Average, they have said little more than Look Out and have emergency supplies of canned food and plastic sheeting. Don’t get me wrong, having emergency food is a good idea for any disaster, from terrorism to storms to unemployment. But I think everyone was hoping for more.
As for a Cabinet Level Spook Supervisor, I remind everyone that the biggest reason the CIA has never been under the same auspices as the FBI for a reason. Officials at the time didn’t think it was a good idea for one man to control that much intelligence information. Heck, the CIA was created because of the “intelligence failures” leading up to Pearl Harbor. We already have one cabinet level agency set up because of 9-11, the DHS. How many bureaucrats does it take to make us feel safe?
It’s just as well that pretty much nothing will happen with these recommendations until after the elections.
In the meantime, lets remember that the ticket-holding men of middle eastern decent may be less of a risk than some nut being able to steal a baggage tractor and drive it onto a runway at a big, hub airport. I bet they didn’t re-screen any luggage that might have been aboard, either.