19 May 2006

New York Times reporter had warning of 9/11 attacks (not that anything would have happened differently)

Yesterday's big news was the revelation that New York Times reporter Judith Miller (of Plamegate fame) had been privy to a leak in 2001 that al-Qaeda was planning a major attack in the U.S. For various reasons, the story was never published. [Read the details.]

My first reaction was that this story, if Miller had followed up on it and had gotten it published, might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

But no. On second thought, I don't think so.

After all, George W. Bush had ample warning that bin Laden was determined to strike in US. But he did nothing. It wasn't worth interrupting his vacation.

Even as the World Trade Center was under attack, Bush did nothing. He read "My Pet Goat" with a bunch of children as we were under attack. He had his priorities. Or, more likely, he had no idea what to do in a national emergency.

This is your so-called leader.

This is how your hard-earned tax dollars are spent.

This is the administration that was reelected based on its claims that only Bush and Cheney could save us from the terrorists, even though the American people should have known better by then.

This is what happens in a culture of fear.

And it reinforces FDR's message that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

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