#NeverForget
"The leader of our Country was made to look like a fool"
After 9/11, No Americans Were Held to Account. Here's Why That's Dangerous
BY WILLIAM M. ARKIN ON 09/10/21 AT 5:00 AM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/2021/09/17/after-9-11-no-americans-were-held-account-heres-why-thats-dangerous-1627683.html
September 11 is the most studied day of our lifetimes. Almost everyone who was old enough remembers the details—where they were, how they felt, what it meant to them. It remains unforgettable.
The U.S. intelligence community had known some sort of terrorist attack was on the way but failed to focus or to act. After 9/11, there was finger-pointing at President George W. Bush and the White House, between the previous Bill Clinton and Bush administrations, at the CIA, NSA, FBI and even at the Pentagon. The government pledged to do better: to break down barriers to intelligence analysis and sharing, and to organize itself so that such a catastrophic event would never happen again.
But even in the immediate aftermath there were more powerful emotions that overshadowed the desire for reform. The desire for revenge propelled the administration of George W. Bush to declare a global war. Panic within the government drove the secret agencies to take their own liberties—through warrantless surveillance, torture and secret prisons, arbitrary watch listing, domestic spying and more. And though reforms did follow, including the largest reorganization of government in 50 years, government performance again faltered. September 11 was followed by other intelligence debacles, from the faulty reports regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan last month: a long line of failures that yearn for accountability.
Polls show that a majority of Americans remain bewildered about the attack, the perpetrators and the reason. And most everyone laments Washington's political and partisan machinations and the decline of American institutions. However, few connect today's national friction to the aftermath of 9/11. Yes, the government has (so far) succeeded in preventing another such attack on U.S. soil, but an even greater disaster in endless war and the collapse of civic life sullies the achievement.
And despite legions of blue ribbon panels to review what happened, despite subsequent revelations of wrongdoing, despite administrations promising to do better, the basic reality of government was exposed: No one is held accountable—not a White House official or top government agency director, not an intelligence analyst or FBI agent, not even a lowly airport security screener.
The cost of government secrecy has also been exposed. It nurtures our world of alternative facts and undermines public faith in government motivations and authority. Secrecy has also fed a generational gap, with young people indifferent to or confused about national security, an entire new generation seeking their own agendas with regard to what is vital for the country and the world.
So yes: We will never forget. But a more interesting question at the 20th anniversary is what we should remember—or more, what should we learn?
Tragic failures
On September 11, 2001, two hijacked commercial airliners crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. Soon thereafter, the Pentagon was struck by a third hijacked plane. A fourth hijacked plane, bound for the U.S. Capitol building, crashed into a field in Somerset County in southern Pennsylvania after passengers managed to overpower the hijackers. The 19 hijackers were all young Arab men, from four different countries, all sacrificing their lives on behalf of Al-Qaeda.
The attacks that day killed 3,030 U.S. citizens and other nationals. There were 2,735 persons who died in the twin towers in New York: 2,184 at work in the buildings, 129 aboard the two aircraft (119 passengers and crew, and 10 hijackers), 343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, and eight private emergency medical technicians and paramedics. A total of 189 were killed at the Pentagon: 125 uniformed military, civilian and contractor personnel in the building and 64 passengers, crew, and terrorists. Forty-four died in Pennsylvania.
The day itself was horrific in other ways. Despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on presidential communications, on nationwide air defenses, on airport security and on emergency preparedness, despite preparations that were supposed to work in the face of a full scale nuclear war, hardly any part of what had been created worked.
Leaders were preoccupied with the most basic activities—getting phone calls through, finding and protecting their loved ones, keeping up with the news, struggling with the rumor mill. For a large part of the day, President Bush was unable to reliably communicate or know precisely what was going on. Successors to the presidency and Cabinet members ignored continuity-of-government plans and procedures for emergency response. The White House and Pentagon were out of sync and made decisions without any basis in fact. There was stunning confusion regarding what the president ordered Air Force fighter jets to do and why. The Pentagon confusedly declared a high-level alert—including nuclear forces—with key decision makers, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dick Meyers mistaking measures to increase the protection of American forces with an alert that prepared for war.
Many of the organizational and technological deficiencies of 9/11 have since been corrected, we've been told. But in an age where information overload is exponentially worse, and where cyberthreats raise questions about the reliability and credibility of communications and decision-making, there is no particular reason to believe that the very same issues won't repeat in some future crisis. And indeed everything that happened 20 years ago recurred in the past two years. With the emergence of COVID-19, continuity and emergency actions again became important when questions of the president and vice president separating were raised, and yet none of the established procedures were followed. And when rioters swarmed the Capitol on January 6th, the lack of preparedness was alarming. Questions of who was in charge again became paramount. The dots were not connected; the information did not flow; the decision-makers were paralyzed.
The failure to connect the dots, big and small, was certainly a theme of the 9/11 Commission, which published its final report three years after the attacks. It stated that "the 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamic extremists had given plenty of warnings that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers." But it's worse than that. As early as 1995, when a plot was foiled in the Philippines, the CIA knew of plans to use airplanes in an attack. And though an August 6th President's Daily Brief (PDB) became infamous as the warning that was ignored, an item in the December 4, 1998 PDB titled "Bin Laden preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft and other attacks" said that the Al-Qaeda leader might "implement plans to hijack U.S. aircraft…and that members of the operational team had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport."
Warnings continued over the years and particularly peaked in July 2001, the CIA expecting something spectacular during the summer. There is no question that the Agency had a hard time getting the attention of President Bush and his deputies, but as Newsweek's "Road to 9/11" series attests, even in the last weeks before 9/11, there were abundant signs and warnings that the intelligence community and the FBI themselves failed to follow up on or heed. The Bush administration might not have been paying sufficient attention, but the security agencies flat out failed to do their own jobs.
"Nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envisage flying airplanes into buildings," stated President George W. Bush. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice claimed: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." FBI Director Robert Mueller said: "There were no warning signs that I'm aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country."
The 9/11 Commission, of course, gave these officials the space to explain, and laid out the details of the many failures that accumulated to forge the attacks. But in its desire to produce a useful and supportive bipartisan document that would suggest practical reform, the Commission also floated above the fray, not pointing fingers and not naming names, keeping the government's secrets and not forcefully condemning anything. In an environment where no one was held accountable or took responsibility, reform became a matter of the American people writing the government a blank check, creating gigantic new bureaucracies but eliminating nothing. And because no one was held accountable, the public was left to wonder if important information was being withheld.
Some live coverage of 9/11
1) Starts at 8:40 am est
https://911memorialmuseum.brightcovegallery.com/
2) Join us for live coverage of September 11th anniversary events at Ground Zero in New York, The Pentagon in Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., starting Saturday at 8 AM ET on Newsmax.
SCHEDULE:
8 AM ET - At 20: September 11
1 PM ET - Saturday Agenda
3 PM ET - Special: "9/11: The Day That Shook The World"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39WrSskl3XE
Ministry of Defence Press Office / @DefenceHQPress
The US national anthem being played at Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle.
@ArmyInLondon
@USAinUK
#September11
Vid at link https://twitter.com/DefenceHQPress/status/1436637846606159873
Fox has started what they aired on the morning of 9/11.
MELANIA TRUMP / @MELANIATRUMP 09/11/2021 08:20:38
On this solemn day of remembrance our Nation honors the 20th anniversary of 9/11. May we never forget the innocent lives that were lost & the selfless heroes who emerged. Let us remember that evil will not break our spirit. God bless our Nation, our military & their families.
https://twitter.com/MELANIATRUMP/status/1436665989295394820
Rudy W. Giuliani / @RudyGiuliani 09/11/2021 08:42:29
It is very difficult to be here but We Must Remain Together. It’s not over. God Bless our Heroes.
https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1436671489890308097
Donald Trump Jr. / @DonaldJTrumpJr 09/11/2021 08:17:24
Never Forget those who perished on this terrible day 20 years ago and those who lost life and limb fighting for our freedoms, our country, and to keep us safe in the 20 years since!
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1436665173960429573
Mike Pence / @Mike_Pence 09/11/2021 07:44:25
Today America will pause again to remember September 11, 2001. We will Never Forget the 2,977 loved ones lost that day and we will never fail to honor the Heroes forged on that day and every day since these past 20 years. God Bless Them All & God Bless America. #NeverForget
https://twitter.com/Mike_Pence/status/1436656876322705408
Mike Pompeo / @mikepompeo 09/11/2021 08:08:03
Today, 20 years ago, the fabric of our nation changed forever. We will never forget the lives lost, the victims and their families and the heroes who came to the rescue. Let this day be a reminder that we will never stop fighting terrorism. We will #NeverForget.
https://twitter.com/mikepompeo/status/1436662824080756741
I can't imagine Potus45 not being there. Has anyone seen mention of him being there or not?
DIA
@DefenseIntel
On #September 11, thousands were killed in terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and on United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Today and every day, we pay tribute to those who lost their lives that day. #NeverForget #HonorThem #PatriotsDay
https://twitter.com/DefenseIntel/status/1436676137472643077
#PatriotsDay
Q Drop #521
We are FIGHTING for LIFE.
We are FIGHTING for GOOD.
We are at WAR [@].
NOT EVERYTHING WILL BE CLEAN.
[SCARE] NECESSARY EVENT.
Do you TRUST the US Military?
Do you TRUST the Chain Of Command?
Have FAITH - WE ARE IN CONTROL.
PATRIOTS.
PATRIOTS DAY.
HAVE FAITH.
YOU WERE CHOSEN FOR A REASON.
YOU ARE BEING PROVIDED THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF INTEL TO EVER BE DROPPED PUBLICLY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
USE IT - PROTECT AND COMFORT THOSE AROUND YOU.
WHERE WE GO ONE, WE GO ALL.
Q