What professional journalists would ask Bush about September 11 [View All]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/14/920183/-What-professional-journalists-would-ask-Bush-about-September-11

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, came to define the Bush-Cheney presidency. Having stolen the election, already sagging in the polls, having lost his Senate majority through a defection, and with neither a direction nor a clue, just months after moving into the White House, Bush already was in trouble. Then came the attacks, and the national and international sense of unity and purpose in mutual grieving and determination for justice and security. And then came the increasingly cynical political machinations by which the Bush-Cheney team manipulated it all into imposing police state surveillance on an innocent public, launching an illegal, immoral, and unjust war, funneling countless billions of booty into the pockets of their friends and political donors, and the election to a second full term, after not actually having been elected to the first one.

With Bush now on tour, making the rounds of the talk shows as he cashes in on the disaster he was to the nation and the world, you would think that professional journalists might want to ask him about the event that defined those eight years, some of which he actually spent in the Oval Office. Professional journalists might want to inquire about how those attacks came to be, and whether or not they could have been prevented. But that would require acts of professional journalism, the likes of which we so rarely see in the broadcast or dead tree media, these days. The facts are there. The questions are not easy. And that likely explains why Bush won't be asked. But for the benefit and edification of those that care about the facts, it's time, yet again, to recount the truly astonishing chain of failures without which the September 11 attacks likely would not have succeeded. An even minimally competent administration likely would have prevented the attacks, and despite the perpetually false framing that Republicans are tough on defense and national security, when the nation most needed but vigilance and competence on defense and national security, the Republican administration of Bush and Cheney could not have failed more disastrously.

Just a month before the 9/11 attacks, while on a month long vacation, Bush was personally handed a presidential daily briefing entitled:

Bin Laden determined to strike in US.

With characteristic intelligence and class, Bush responded with the words:

All right. You've covered your ass, now.

And went fishing.

(much more at the link)


Chimpy's emergence from the darkness has opened a flood of emotion and memories and questions. The American people need closure, the kind that comes from a criminal trial.