Kean: "9/11 Attack Was Preventable"

[MTAtech]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in589137.shtml

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented.

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"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," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.

"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.

[Bovon]

I donno...maybe I'm all wet but this (one more time) sounds like Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

Sure..9/11 was preventable, but only if we live in a total lockdown police state (IMO). How in the world can we (or anybody) in a free society watch and control such as happened that black day. I don't believe its possible. We would need an army of police. They would have to have total and absolute control...no running to the Supreme Court etc. for permissions..just do it. Every airport down to the shoddiest shed storing phosphate and/or kerosene would have armed guards.

Intelligence plays a huge part in getting a handle on, and subsequently stopping terrorist acts...but unless and until we as Americans decide to give up all freedoms as we know them in favor of security (been tried in other countries..didn't work there either), we will not have 100% (or probably even 50%) security.

[MTAtech]

I can't answer those questions but Kean can. He's planning on releasing the report soon. Perhaps your answers will be had.

[Epidemic]

MTA perhaps there was wrong doing. But monday morning quarterbacking can look pretty convincing.


If it was found out in 1991 that planes could be used why were restrictions not stepped up from 1991 to 2000. One might think because this threat was not credible at the time. 3 presidents and countless underlings never too this very serious.

As far as was this preventable, I wonder how much of this is monday morning quarterbacking. Under processes in place for dozens of years the ability to put all the pieces together were not there. To say it should have been corrected ahead of time is not a realistic statement much of the time.

I can tell you this, had I known that the tree in the back yard had carpenter ants in it before the hurricane I would have moved my garden trailer. The evidence was there. My daughter noticed ants in the tree, I knew the wind could knock down weakend trees and that my trailer was close to the woods.

many many things could be prevented if you look at all the facts in the proper way. However most times you do not check out every possibility.

Do you check your breaks every morning, including breaklines? Beaklines do occasionally fail and you know it you should verify your entire drive train and suspension every day. Unless you play the odds a bit. Odds are that your breaks will not split and odds are that if they do split it will happen with a little warning like a spongy pedal.

Knowing that some people had theories of a potential problem does not alway mean action. I am quite sure that there were plenty of things mentioned prior to 911 that were possible scenarios. Yet to act on them would have met with you MTA screaming about delays in your flight. With critisism of the president of a scale not heard of before. For the tentative theory that someone perhaps might someday take box cutters and fly a plane into a building.

I am quite sure that there are threats of all variety which were routinely ignored. That does not make the people who ignored them wrong or incompetent. Without precident there risks must be weighed with all other risks and benefits.

Your risk your life and the lives of those around you every day by ignoring the potential for break failure for running with tires that are worn 25%, that your ball joints are tight and you wheel wont fall off. All possible but unlikely so you ignore them but for your annual inspection which does not includes such things.

[Mntsnow]

Just about everything is "technically" preventable in hindsight. Just as Bovon mentioned. For example, We could have closed all immigration (Oh but wait...We have illegals getting into the country every day) , We could have kept every non-american off the airplanes (Oh but wait...It still could have happened..) We could have done this and we could have done that....the bottom line is at what price?

[Epidemic]

I can just see the president saying: we are going to have every passenger take off their shoes and there will be a 3 hour screening process oh yea and no nail clippers or knitting needles from now on because a field agent has a theory based upon no solid evidence.


Yea that would have floated.


BTW I do not discount the idea that perhaps the evidence was compelling enough to take the risk. But as of yet I have never heard that a compelling argument was ever presented in more than a, "you know what could happen maybe sorta" kinda way.

[wallie_x]

The facts are that CBS aka Communist Bullcrap Station with Dan 'Slather' [you in leftist propaganda] tried to demonize the Bush administration. They fished for vague references and tried to insinuate that the Bush administration could have prevented 9/11.

CBS reported that Kean's comments constituted "pointing fingers inside the [Bush] administration and laying blame."

To clarify the blatant miss use of his statements Kean said later:

"We have no evidence that anybody high in the Clinton administration or the Bush administration did anything wrong," chairman Thomas Kean said in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" taped for airing Thursday night.

And here you have it: CBS an active member of the leftist feces machine caught red handed with crud spewing out of it mouth.
HERE!

[Epidemic]

He said he was commenting on obvious mistakes that were made, such as letting terrorists into the country and letting dangerous items onto planes.

Wellll duh but there are those on both sides of the isle who to this day will not take action on taking prudent steps to limit terrorist access to the USA.

As for dangerous items on planes. They still allow dangerous items on planes. No one is strip searched. ceramic scaples can be stored in clothes or pockets or even cavities. Along with explosives in body cavities. Dangerous is in the eyes of the beholders and within the realm of what method is used to screen.

The airport screening is for show only. They do not screen near close enough for a determined terrorist with two or 3 helpers I am sure that they could even overcome the rentacop as well.

[osprey4]

Keep in mind that preventing Sept. 11 would have required preventive action on the part of the Clinton administration as well as the Bush administration. No one has ever said the blame lay squarely on the Bush administration. But have you heard anyone in the Clinton administration say, yes, we all knew this was coming and Bush ignored us? No.

On the other hand, Gary Hart has made the case that his warnings about potential terrorist attacks on the US were ignored by both Clinton and Bush.

[J-Excel]

Had we had the level of security necessary to prevent 9/11, the left would would have cried like the babies they are that the rights of the guilty were being trampled on. Besides, 9/11 could have just as easily happened during the Clinton years, a la Oklahoma City.