By misinforming the public and allowing politics to interfere with accountability, the 9/11 Commission excused our leaders from any role in the disaster. This allowed the President to have his convention later in the year near Ground Zero in New York City and campaign successfully for reelection using the slogan "Stay Safe: Reelect Bush". In addition to a second term, the President enjoyed unchecked executive power derived from the 9/11 disaster and greater control of Congress.
Accountability of the President and Vice-President most likely would have averted another major disaster, Katrina. The 9/11 Commission traded off accountability in one disaster and tens of thousands in another paid the price. Without accountability, history did repeat itself.
USING EXPERTS RATHER THAN RETIRED POLITICIANS ON INDEPENDENT COMMISSIONS
Congress has considered several times patterning future commissions after the 9/11 one. Examples are commissions on investigating what went wrong with our economy and another on seeking out the truth (a truth commission) on alleged war crimes and constitutional violations. The 9/11 experience has shown us that investigative commissions can be politicized, no matter how able their members are, and especially when very intense presidential elections are underway.
Members of future investigative commissions should be selected based on their broad expertise in the subject area and analytical ability. They should not be retired politicians who are vulnerable, as the 9/11 members were, to a politicized result. They should not be put in the predicament of deciding matters of national interest that conflict with their deeply-held party loyalty. A fifty-fifty political split did not protect the public interest in this case. Rather, it almost assured a standoff on what was a pivotal issue U.S. preparedness for the upcoming attacks.
REOPENING THE 9/11 INVESTIGATION
9/11 Widows have strongly opposed the Commission's work on the grounds that it did not assign any accountability for individual failures that allowed 9/11 to happen. They do not agree with the Commission's "simplistic conclusion" that there was a "failure of imagination." It's important to recognize that no matter how well lower levels of government performed, any response to the threat was impossible without the support of the President and Vice-President. They, not the lower levels, had the benefit of numerous warnings of the upcoming attacks, daily CIA briefings and expert advice. Our leaders, however, were preoccupied with their own agenda and did not take seriously the most advanced threat in U.S. history.
Congress should reopen the 9/11 investigation so that accountability is clear and the 9/11 historical record is complete. Perhaps the long quest of 9/11 Widows for accountability can finally be satisfied. The public and future historians deserve much better information and analysis than they now have.
PURSUING AN AGGRESSIVE GLOBAL STRATEGY TO REVERSE THE CONSTANT THREAT OF TERRORISM
The U.S. response to terrorism has been too limited in scope to solve a global problem. Wars are not the answer. Terror networks are international and move from country to country. They must be dismantled with Special Elite Forces using good intelligence and international cooperation. There must also be a global crackdown on sources of terror funds and far less U.S. dependence on Mideast oil that is a major source of these funds. The root causes that promote terrorism must be addressed with equal priority. The strongest possible international pressure must be brought to bear on solutions to resolve the 60-year old Palestinian/Israel conflict one of the root causes of today's terrorism.
The idea that the U.S. can cope with each and every country that supports or harbors terrorism is impossible to achieve. Deterring terrorism is a shared responsibility that requires leadership and cooperation from all heads of state. All nations must address root causes, dismantle terrorist activities in their own country, and help others do the same. Elite Special Forces of the larger countries should find and take down command structures and training camps of al-Qaeda and their affiliated groups -- wherever they exist. Any nation which continues to support terrorism should be subject to strong diplomacy, sanctions and, if necessary, international military action. Periodic meetings among Heads of State should be held on the global terrorist threat to review progress, hold each other accountable and find solutions for outlaw nations.
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KEY SOURCES
The most important sources for the article are the first 12 below. They, in turn, contain many other sources. For example, The Terror Timeline book has many hundreds of sources and is the best guide for what the Bush administration actually knew about al-Qaeda's intentions before 9/11. Most of the sources below can be googled on the internet. Some members of the Bush national security team and 9/11 Commission were given opportunity to comment and declined. This included the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Commission.
Time Magazine's Special Report and Cover Story on 9/11, The Secret History, August 12, 2002.
Joint congressional inquiry into the intelligence community, December 20, 2002.
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