Breaking News - 9/11 Flight Confrimed

George Z. Bush wrote:

That may be, but an awful lot of people who'll see his flic some time before
they enter the voting booth in November are going to believe his version of the
truth and will be influenced by it. The administration hasn't yet caught on to
the fact that a lot of people simply no longer believe their constantly changing
rationales for entering the war against Iraq....you can't keep on changing your
story without at least some of the audience figuring out that you're doing it to
keep from having to tell the truth.

Don't think there's really an issue of lying.

A failure of intel that might or might not have been the case.
The only thing that changed from what GW believed was the WMDs
weren't overflowing the warehouses. They could very well still
be stashed somewhere else, but it seems even Saddam didn't know
what he had (or didn't).

IFAIK, there's been no changing story. Saddam was removed from
power and that's a good thing for US interests, and probably
the world's interests in the long run.

It may have been done for all the wrong reasons, but it's still
a good outcome.


SMH

Chad Irby wrote in message . com...
In article iW9yc.78545$Ly.18197@attbi_s01,
Mike Dargan wrote:

I, for one, object to the knee jerk reaction that the shrub was lying.
The poor guy is so intellectually isolated by the neocons that he may
well have believed what he was saying.

...like parts for those outlawed long-range missiles that Iraq was
supposed to have, but that we didn't find.

...until this week, in Syria.

And that WMD/missile production equipment that we couldn't find, until
they dug it out of a scrap pile in Europe, where it's been since last
year.


Not long-range missiles. The engines and other components are from
SA-2 GUIDELINE SAMs. These were used in the Al Samoud short-range
missiles. The Al Samoud flew about 20-30 miles over the limit set by
the UN. You do realise that the Al Samoud weapons were being tagged
immediately pre conflict by the UN and falling into Coalition hands
during the advance on Baghdad? Ask yourself how many SA-2 motors the
Iraqi's had or were able to obtain?

TJ

Cub Driver wrote:
From the Wall Street Journal, June 1:

Elements of Myth
Enter Into Post-9/11
Flights by Saudis
By ALAN MURRAY

The secret evacuation of Saudi nationals from the U.S. after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks has achieved grassy-knoll status. Craig
Unger, author of "House of Bush; House of Saud," calls it "the single
most egregious security lapse related to the attacks." Every Bush
hater can cite the basic details: At a time when Americans were
grounded, more than 140 Saudis, including members of the bin Laden
family, were spirited out of the U.S. without questioning by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.

It's a myth. But like all great myths, it has such suggestive power
that it will live on for years, despite its feeble connection to fact.

In a recent column, I criticized Michael Moore for adopting this myth,
both in his most recent book, "Dude, Where's My Country," and in his
new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." I mentioned I hadn't seen the film --
Mr. Moore declined to make it available before the Cannes festival --
but I relied on a synopsis provided by his publicist.

Mr. Moore responded, not by disputing the facts of the Saudi flights,
but with a blistering attack on me for daring to "review" a synopsis.
On his Web site, he said that everything I wrote about the film was
"completely false." This despite the fact it all was quoted directly
from his book or the synopsis, and confirmed in a telephone interview
with Mr. Moore himself.

But perhaps I shouldn't have picked on the hero of Cannes, who has
long had a loose relationship to truth. The Saudi story has made its
way into much more respectable journalism. And the flood of critical
e-mail I received after writing that column convinced me the myth has
considerable staying power.

For what it's worth, here are the facts, as gathered by the staff of
the bipartisan 9/11 Commission:

Between Sept. 14 and 24, 2001, six chartered flights carrying mostly
Saudi nationals among their 142 passengers departed from the U.S. The
9/11 Commission found "no credible evidence that any chartered flights
of Saudi Arabian nationals" left before U.S. airspace reopened.
Moreover, all six flights "were screened by law-enforcement officials,
primarily the FBI" to ensure that no one of interest was allowed to
leave. The most controversial flight, filled with members of the
sprawling bin Laden family, left Sept. 20. Of the 26 people aboard --
23 passengers and three private security guards -- the FBI interviewed
22 before the plane was allowed to leave.

Last week, I reviewed these facts with Mr. Unger, who is now a
principal proponent of the Saudi flight myth. "I think most of that is
true," he replied. "I never said any flight left the U.S. while there
were still restrictions on U.S. airspace."

I asked Mr. Unger, what's the problem then? He pointed to an account,
first reported in the Tampa Tribune, of a Lear jet with three Saudi
passengers that flew from Tampa, Fla., to Lexington, Ky., on Sept. 13,
2001, as part of an effort to help prominent Saudis who feared
reprisals in the U.S. While commercial airspace was open at that time,
private planes still weren't allowed to fly, according to Mr. Unger.
He said he believes it couldn't have flown "without a special favor
from the White House." Moreover, he says, he's not sure "the FBI did
their job thoroughly" in screening passengers on the Saudi flights
that later left the U.S.

The 9/11 Commission still is investigating the Tampa flight, but it
has found no evidence that any discussion of Saudi flights rose higher
than Richard Clarke, former antiterrorism czar and now a prominent
critic of President Bush. Moreover, the coordinated Saudi flights
turned out to be a convenience for FBI officials, who were able to
screen all passengers and interview any they wished -- something they
wouldn't have been able to do if the same passengers had traveled on
commercial airlines. To check the FBI's work, the 9/11 Commission this
year ran the names of all passengers on the Saudi flights against
current terrorism-watch lists, and found no matches.

As for bin Laden family members, Mr. Clarke strongly suggested in his
public testimony to the commission that they had been under close
surveillance by U.S. officials for some time. "The FBI was
extraordinarily well aware of what they were doing in the United
States," he testified. Mr. Clarke, who has shown no hesitancy to
criticize the Bush White House, concludes the Saudi flight story "is a
tempest in a teapot."

There are plenty of reasons to question President Bush's handling of
national-security matters during the past 3½ years. But there is no
reason to rely on mythology in the process. Let's have a great debate.
But stick to the facts, please.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! www.vivabush.org

Anyone that gives Michael Moore as a credible source of facts needs a
reality check. Moore distorted the facts and took interviews completely
out of context to support his so-called documentary, "Bowling for
Columbine". I wouldn't expect anything less from him in "Fahrenheit
9/11". This guy's way out on the left fringes somewhere and has a rabid
hate of Bush and the Republicans in general, so I'm sure he's going to
be very economical with the truth with any 'documentary' he produces.

-- Darrell