Neo-Con Neo-Lynching?

June 18, 2003 12:33 PM

Investigative reporter, Greg Palast is reporting on Alternet about now ex-congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney. “McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information,” said the media. The New York Times said, “Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war.” She was beaten to death, politically, by the fabricated quote in the 2002 Democratic Primary. But Greg Palast did some investigation, and despite his best efforts, can find no evidence that she said these things. The closest he comes up with is a quote from her saying, “George Bush had no prior knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on September 11.” Of course Cynthia McKinney kicked up a bit of a fuss about a few things embarassing to the Bush administration. Read on for the dirt and history.
posted by Blue Stone (32 comments total)

We are moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. Welcome. We just crossed over into the Twilight Zone, otherwise known as George Bush's America. For it is here and only here that the White House could receive warning after warning of massive attacks that were going to take place on American soil, the attack happens, and both the President and the Vice President, in separate phone calls to Tom Daschle, ask that Congress not investigate what happened and why. That could only happen in the Twilight Zone.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- HOUSE
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
107th Congress, 2nd Session
148 Cong Rec H 676

REFERENCE: Vol. 148, No. 22
SECTION: House
TITLE: THE TWILIGHT ZONE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICA
SPEAKER: Ms. McKINNEY
posted by claxton6 at 12:50 PM on June 18, 2003

The problem is, McKinney made a lot of public (as in TV) comments that made it so her constituents wanted to get the hell away from her. It's doesn't fare any better, when her father blamed her defeat "on the j-e-w-s"....on live TV. So even if she didn't say this, her record and other comments outraged her constituents enough, to where she only received 35% of the vote.

But the beginning of the story lies with a story called "All along the Watchtower" that was allegedly emailed out via the [e-mail] email address. Did Palast have access under the "Sunshine Laws" to her email, to make sure this story was false? From what claxton6 just said and not looking into emails, what research was actually done?
posted by mkelley at 12:56 PM on June 18, 2003

From the same congressional statement:

Or that this President could propose the biggest hike in defense spending, where his dad stands to make a mint, as long as increased spending does not get lost wherever the $2.3 trillion is that the Pentagon has already lost, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, says we can afford it. That could only happen in the Twilight Zone.

From an April 21 Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, which looks to be more of an opinion piece than a news story:

McKinney made the remarks March 25 on a public radio show in Berkeley, Calif. The Washington Post headline screamed, "Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer didn't have to say the words "conspiracy theorist" --- he simply mentioned the "grassy knoll" theory involving the Kennedy assassination. By the end of the day on April 12, the country was buzzing about McKinney's latest blowup.

posted by claxton6 at 12:58 PM on June 18, 2003

Thoughts On Our War Against Terrorism
By Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney
"Now is the time for our elected officials to be held accountable. Now is the time for the media to be held accountable. Why aren't the hard questions being asked. We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, delivered one such warning. Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before September 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American airlines, certain insurance and brokerage firms' stocks. What did this Administration know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?"
posted by mkelley at 1:01 PM on June 18, 2003

Sorry Blue Stone... I live in Atlanta, and it is plainly obvious that Crazy Cindy is/was/will always be an embarassment and a psycho. Same goes for her Pop. Thankfully, they're both unemployed now, but unfortunately Cynthia is currently plotting her comeback. Please don't help her with this 'she never said it' nonsense. Even she wasn't dumb enough to deny her statements when she could plainly see the issue was ending her career right before her very eyes. Some people are just looney, and they don't need a conspiracy theory to help 'em out.

On the other hand, did you hear about the Great Right Wing Segway Conspiracy?
posted by spilon at 1:09 PM on June 18, 2003

Drat, beaten to the punch. This link also contains the transcript of her appearance on Pacifica that appears to have set off the firestorm, as well as (on pages 2 and 3) the story of how those statements were drawn out and turned into something maybe a little worse than they originally were.

For the record, I don't mind McKinney too much, especially given that she was a staunch supporter of one of my pet causes, alternative electoral systems (proportional representation, instant run-off voting, etc.).
posted by claxton6 at 1:10 PM on June 18, 2003

So Greg Palast couldn't find what MeFi members were able to locate in 15 minutes?

He could get a job at the New York Times!
posted by pardonyou? at 1:21 PM on June 18, 2003

It kills me that it's stated in the article that she never made any sort of comments like that. But we show here, that a few people and Google had actual words from McKinney available within minutes.

BTW, here is a PDF of the Congressional Record claxton6 posted above. ...found here

on preview, What Pardonyou? said.....
posted by mkelley at 1:24 PM on June 18, 2003

He could get a job at the New York Times!

He's a coke-head?
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:26 PM on June 18, 2003

Neo-Cons? Them's just small potatoes compared to a much larger group of folks that are quietly claiming credit for getting rid of her ...

"One prominent activist sent out an e-mail ... urging them to work for her opponent, a local judge named Denise Majette.
Led by a prominent dotcommer in the area, they were soon holding fund-raisers for Majette, who like McKinney is also African-American. They chipped in with $20,000 ..."

Yup, it's the Indian-Americans ...
posted by Jos Bleau at 1:52 PM on June 18, 2003

McKinney, who’s earning her doctorate at Princeton’s Fletcher School of Diplomacy

Gulp.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:22 PM on June 18, 2003

Is this the same McKinney who used to be your ambassador here, and turned out to be palsy-walsy with Nigerian dictators?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:25 PM on June 18, 2003

Nope. You're thinking of defeated Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun, who's currently running for president.

Slate has a bit about her here ... and her campaign slogan seems to be "I Could Win"
posted by Jos Bleau at 2:41 PM on June 18, 2003

How she may have lost the race: republicans voting for McKinneys rival in the Democratic primary's - Google cache, as the story has disappeared from the AJC webservers.
posted by dash_slot- at 3:38 PM on June 18, 2003

Cynthia McKinney or Al Sharpton--who will win the race for
Willie Horton 2003?
posted by y2karl at 3:41 PM on June 18, 2003

Well, since he growed up and cut his hair, Al has clearly lost the surrealists vote, as well as the hippie and comedy constituencies...Cynthia it is then!
posted by dash_slot- at 4:59 PM on June 18, 2003

The way I see it, none of the quotes you cite, come close to her saying that Bush deliberately let Sept 11, happen, after holding back information.

She's saying warnings were there and ignored. Fact. She's asking why? But these things are a far cry from saying Bush let people die so he could profit.

In the UK, there was a very well known case, of the football captain, Glenn Hoddle, who had his comments deliberately and maliciously distorted, to cause him maximum damage (he lost his captaincy and job as a result) though a rudimentary examination of the article in the Times (I had to track it down via my library) showed he said nothing that could have been so misconstrued by anyone but someone with the most distorted mind (or an agenda.)

I don't see any real evidence here on MeFi, that disproves that she's been the victim of a deliberate distortion campaign. All of the quotes prove that she was asking questions, and about why warnings had gone unheeded, but where's the stuff about her saying W, et al, had let it happen so they could profit? Or even that he deliberately held information back?

Blocks were made on investigations that likely may have uncovered the 9-11 plot, to protect the Saudi royal Family; fishy stuff was going on.
This lady was asking questions. None of your quotes add up to the charges levelled against her, that she said that Dubya deliberately held back information so that people would die, and he and his friends could profit from the resulting war. Read your quotes a couple more times.

It's not that difficult for someone to distort or misconstrue the nature of questions or comments (deliberately or not) if the topic is controversial.
posted by Blue Stone at 5:38 PM on June 18, 2003

You know, its is just a tiny bit possible that McKinney actually wasn't comatose during her primary election, that she actually participated in some small way, and so had every lots of opportunities to 'correct' any errors about her views. And the the voters in her district weren't lobotomized sheep waiting for instructions from Bush central.

For McKinney's problems, see this Slate piece

and this from the AJC (no longer easily findable at their website).

See also the Indian-American website listed in my previous post.

Cynthia McKinney is most likely the 'victim' of her contituents actually paying attention to her ...
posted by Jos Bleau at 6:46 PM on June 18, 2003

"We've found the weapons of mass destruction. You know, we found biological laboratories . . . . And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."

- mckinney may have been a little heated in her accusations, is our president A) stupid B) a liar C) being lied to or D) all of the above ?
posted by specialk420 at 6:54 PM on June 18, 2003

Ah, I get it. The facts of McKinney's particular case are unimportant.

Bush is bad.

McKinney said bad things about Bush.

Therefore: What? McKinney good?

No matter what you think you want, what you'll get if you keep this up is more Bush than you ever thought there was.

"More broadly, the tendency of liberals to underestimate Mr. Bush as a nitwit boy king helped put him in the White house. And unless liberals belatedly acknowledge that he is more than an "Idiot Usurping Lying Weasel," they will keep him there."

From a Nick Kristof NYT column from the day that the Dem's lost the Senate in '02.
posted by Jos Bleau at 7:17 PM on June 18, 2003

Blue Stone: The way I see it, none of the quotes you cite, come close to her saying that Bush deliberately let Sept 11, happen, after holding back information.

Nice try, Blue Stone. It's too late to move the ball now. Nobody ever claimed that she said Bush "deliberately let September 11 happen." From your own FPP: "McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information." She did so imply. "Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war." She did so suggest -- on both points.

And how about this part: The closest he comes up with is a quote from her saying, “George Bush had no prior knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on September 11.” Sorry, we got a lot closer than that.

Time to let this one go, Blue Stone. Your boy didn't hold up to MeFi's own "investigative reporters."
posted by pardonyou? at 7:25 PM on June 18, 2003

Blue Stone -- To be clear, I don't think that she quite said that Bush had specific prior knowledge, but she walked up to the line, I think. I also think that she was unfairly maligned with the charge. However, I think that Palast--who I want very much to believe--is a little too starry-eyed when he talks about how she never said anything close. That he doesn't quote what she actually says, choosing instead to play around with dialogue exposing those dirty New York Times editors, really lessens, for me, any useful point he could have. The brief skim-through of the American Politics pages I linked to seem much more useful, in that they give the interview, then look at how it happened. Palast's cheap points-scoring don't do anything but feed leftist cliches and easy tropes.
posted by claxton6 at 7:25 PM on June 18, 2003

Well, for a fact. dash_slot, James Brown was like a father to A Sharpton when the latter was a teen and his former conk was inspired by and worn in tribute to the Godfather. I have always found that fact endearing and I wish he'd kept it.

Well, when James Brown and I first hooked up, his son had just been killed in a car accident. And he said he wanted to do some benefits for my youth group. And he started telling me what to do, how to promote, and I did it. Then he'd take me on the road with him. And little by little, I would stay with him and fly around with him on his jet. I would do everything with him. And that's how he became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son: "Watch this on the road, don't deal with these kind of girls, dress like this, eat this." I mean, literally, like a father. And I guess because I'd never had that kind of relationship with anybody, he became the father I never had.

And he is the next Willie Horton.
posted by y2karl at 8:06 PM on June 18, 2003

Therefore: What? McKinney good?

supporters of bush ... and in fact supports of politicians on either side need to put down their flags (of whatever stripe) - and ask... are you telling us the truth? are you doing what is right for our country? are you helping the little guy and those less fortunate? ... if the answers are yes to those questions - democrat or republican, labor or conservative ... you should be elected or re-elected ... if not...?


mckinney got booted from office for saying things that may or may not have been true. blair and bush will be removed for their outright lies ...
posted by specialk420 at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2003

McKinney got booted because she lost an election. Ferchrissakes.
posted by PenDevil at 12:52 AM on June 19, 2003

It's too late to move the ball now. Nobody ever claimed that she said Bush "deliberately let September 11 happen."

You moved the ball, Blue Stone moved it back. The 4th paragraph of the article says:
The New York Times’ Lynette Clemetson revealed her comments went even further over the edge: "Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war."

What's even stranger is that you, a breath later, say
"Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war." She did so suggest -- on both points.

So which is it? Do you think she said Bush willfully Let It Happen or not? And if yes, where's the quote?

All I find in the many quotes cited by both Palast and here on MeFI is her calling investigation into who knew what and when they knew it. There's a lot of unanswered questions, and they're too big to ignore. But the real point here is the McKinney's character was assassinated in the press. The WaPo, NYT, and the Atlanta J-C all spun what she said into a very damaging and ultimately dishonest way.
posted by brantstrand at 1:39 AM on June 19, 2003

McKinney got booted because she lost an election.

"Got booted" being a eupemism for...lost the election.

So you're saying "McKinney lost the election because she lost an election"

Very insightful. *Thank you.*
posted by brantstrand at 1:43 AM on June 19, 2003

brantstrand, I don't think you understand. My point is that there's been no claim that McKinney ever said that Bush "deliberately let September 11 happen" -- yet that is the standard Blue Stone suddenly interjected halfway down this thread. (You've now changed it to "willfully," but same difference).

I fully agree that people said that McKinney "implied" or "suggested" that Bush "might have known" about September 11. And I think the very sources cited in this thread confirm those statements. In other words, no reasonable person reading her actual statements could fail to conclude that she was suggesting or implying that Bush might have had prior knowledge.
posted by pardonyou? at 6:14 AM on June 19, 2003

pardonyou? - Pardon me, but it's simply an acknowledged fact that the Bush Administration received an extraordinary number of high level warnings, some painfully explicit, about the impending Sept 11 attack. These warnings did not give a date - they were not cheap prophecies. They were informed intelligence assesments from Israel, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Syria... (I could go on), some of which explicitly mentioned the use of planes as weapons and the fact that the attacks were likely to be against high visibility, symbolic targets.

The ONLY question here is: was Bush briefed about these high level warnings? And if not, who was responsible for the failure to brief him?

I could include much more than the material below, but I think it gets the point across: the only way the Bush Administration could have been warned in more explicit terms about the upcoming 9-11 attack would have been if Osama Bin Laden had called up Mr. Bush personally and given the specifics of the operation, and offered to send faxes, emails, and Fedex Express packages with hardcopy of the details of the plot ( usefull additional materials - names of the hijackers, their addresses, phone numbers, aliases and fake identities, and so on ).

SO.........Ms. McKinney was simply stating a factual point.

"August 2001 - Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. [Source: MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15.]"

"June 2001 - German intelligence, the BND, warns the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]"

 
"Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks - By David Wastell in Washington and Philip Jacobson in Jerusalem [ UK Telegraph ]
(Filed: 16/09/2001)

"ISRAELI intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent....The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service, were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation."

[ about the above Mossad warning ] "...It is not known whether U.S. authorities thought the warning to be credible, or whether it contained enough details to allow counter-terrorism teams to come up with a response. But the official said the advisory linked the information "back to Afghanistan and [exiled Saudi militant] Osama bin Laden." [ LA Times, Sept 20, 2001 ]

"As late as August 24, less than two weeks before the attacks, a Mossad warning, confirmed by German intelligence, BND, said that "terrorists plan to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." The warning alert was passed to the CIA.

The warning was also passed to MI6 (British Intelligence). The agency made its own checks and also informed the CIA. Frustrated by its inability to alert the CIA to an impending attack, the Mossad arranged on September 1, according to Tel Aviv sources last week, for Russian intelligence to warn Washington "in the strongest possible terms of imminent assaults on airports and government buildings." The Mossad's fury at the failure of the US intelligence community to act has been compounded by the revelation that the Bush administration had ordered the FBI only a week before the September attacks to curtail investigations on two of Osama bin Laden's close relatives living in Virginia at the time."


[ NYT, JUne 4 2002 ] "CAIRO, June 3 — Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday.

Using a secret agent they had recruited who was in close contact with the bin Laden organization, Mr. Mubarak said, his intelligence chiefs tried unsuccessfully to halt the operation"

[ Christian Science Moniter, May 23, 2002 ] "ATHENS - The Bush administration may hesitate to give Arab allies public credit, but Washington investigators should consider warnings that at least two friendly Arab intelligence services sent to Washington just weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Jordan, beyond a doubt, and Morocco, with some certainty, advised US and allied intelligence that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorists were preparing airborne terrorist operations in the continental United States."

"Report: FBI Ignored French Warning on Extremist
Thursday, September 13, 2001 5:38 AM EST

PARIS (Reuters) - The FBI arrested an Islamic militant in Boston last month and received French intelligence reports linking him to Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden but apparently did not act on them, a French radio station said on Thursday.

Europe 1 radio reported that U.S. police arrested a man with dual French and Algerian nationality who had several passports, technical information on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals.

The man had been taking flying lessons, it added.

Asked for information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, French security services provided a dossier clearly identifying him as an Islamic militant working with bin Laden.

``He has a pedigree as long as your arm, an investigator said,'' the radio reported. ``He belongs to the Pakistani-Afghan network that trains Osama bin Laden's soldiers.'' "

Jim Pavitt, CIA Deputy Director for Operations
Excerpts from Address to Duke University Law School Conference
April 11, 2002 "....We had very, very good intelligence of the general structure and strategies of the al Qaeda terrorist organization.  We knew and we warned that al Qaeda was planning a major strike.  There need be no question about that."

[ USA Today, June 4, 2002 ] "U.S. had agents inside al-Qaeda

By John Diamond, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence overheard al-Qaeda operatives discussing a major pending terrorist attack in the weeks prior to Sept. 11 and had agents inside the terror group, but the intercepts and field reports didn't specify where or when a strike might occur, according to U.S. officials"

PLANES AS WEAPONS? -

"The American government was warned 8 years ago that the Pentagon and the White House were vulnerable to hijacked jets. Military advisor Dr. Marvin Centron says he prepared a 250 page report for the intelligence agencies in 1993 which detailed his concerns - but it was ignored. "I said ... aircraft could hit the White House or the Pentagon - making a left turn at the Washington Monument and running into the White House - or making a left turn at the Washington Moument and running into the Pentagon," Dr. Cetron said. He added: "They understood and they ignored it, they took it out of they final draft."

The recent history of airplanes as weapons.

1) In April, 1994, a disgruntled Federal Express flight engineer boarded a DC-10 and invaded the cockpit, intending to crash the plane into a FEDEX building in Memphis.

2) In September 1994, a pilot crashed a single engine Cessna on the White House lawn, just short of the president's bedroom.

3) In December 1994, Islamic terrorists hijacked an Air France flight in Algiers and had it loaded with fuel with the intention of crashing into the Eiffel Tower. From (the NEW American 11/05/2001)"The December 1994 hijacking of an Air France flight from Algiers was carried out by four members of the "Phalange of the Signers in Blood," a subsidiary of Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group. The terrorists seized control of the plane and demanded that it fly to Marseilles, where it was to be refueled for a trip to Paris. The hijackers also demanded that the Airbus A300 — a plane of comparable size to the Boeing 767s that were used to attack the World Trade Center — be loaded with 27 tons of fuel, which was three times what was necessary for the short trip.After debriefing released hostages and working with other sources, French authorities determined that the terrorists intended either to explode the plane over Paris or ram it into the Eiffel Tower. Corroborating evidence, in the form of 20 sticks of dynamite, was found by French troops who stormed the plane and killed the hijackers."


4) In 1995, Phillipines police tortured an Islamic terrorist (with Al Qaeda affiliations) into confessing of a plot to simultaneously bomb 11 US airliners and to crash one into CIA headquarters. The WTC, the White House and the Pentagon were also mentioned as possible targets. This plan was called "Bojinka". The alleged mastermind of the first WTC bombing in 1993, Ramzi Yousseff, boasted of this plot to FBI agents ("Border network of terror, Bin Laden followers reach across globe", Washington Post, 9/23/2001).

5) In 1996 US officials, worried about the use of crop dusters and suicide flight during the Altanta Olympic games, deployed Black Hawk helicopters and US customs service jets to protect the Atlanta airspace and issued bans on specific Games-related airspace. FBI agents went to local airports to thwart hijacking of small planes. In fact, the International Olympic committee has considered plane crash scenarios in it's security planning since 1972 (LA Times, 11/17/2001)

6) The FBI began investigating Arab students training at flight schools in 1996 - "Since 1996, the FBI had been developing evidence that intyernational terrorists were using US flight schools to learn to fly jumbo jets" (from Washington Post 9/23/2001, "FBI knew terrorists were using flight schools).

7) During summer, 2001, at the meeting of the G-8 counries in Genoa, Italy., warnings about Al-Qaeda threats involving the use of aircraft were taken seriously enough by Italian authorities that the airspace over the meeting was declared a no-fly zone and antiaircraft batteries were set up along a defensive perimeter.

"Wednesday July 11, 2001
The Guardian

Italy has installed a missile defence system at Genoa's airport to deter airborne attacks during next week's G8 summit, fuelling hysteria about looming violence. ...A land-based battery of rockets with a range of nine miles and an altitude of 5,000 feet has been positioned in the latest security measure against perceived threats from terrorists and protesters. ...The millionaire terrorist, Osama bin Laden, has been linked to an alleged plot to assassinate the US president, George Bush."

"the CIA station chief in Italy warned the Italian secret services that al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group, might be planning a suicide attack on the summit. Italy took security precautions seriously and placed Spada surface-to-air missiles at strategic locations around Genoa in the event of a terrorist air attack."
" ISSUES OF THE DAY

Commentary and Interpretation on Global Issues by Gordon Frisch

July 23, 2001"


7) In 2001, during the New York City trial of four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 bomings of the US emabssies in Kenya and Tanzania, it came to light that Bin Laden operatives had received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma. One Bin Laden operative, Essam Al - Ridi, became an FBI informant in 1998 concerning Bin Laden pilot training schemes (available from court records).

8) In a Sept. 15th MS-NBC interview, Vladimir Putin revealed that he had ordered Russian intelligence to warn the US "in the strongest possible terms" in August 2001 of impending attacks. According to the Russian newspaper Isveztia, the russian warnings in summer 2001 informed the US government that 25 terrorists in the US were training for suicide pilot attacks (Isveztia, 9/13/2002).

9) In august 2001 the FBI in Boston arrested an islamic militant, linked to Bin Laden, who had been taking flying lessons and possesed manuals on Boeing aircraft. (Source: Rueters, sept. 13)

10) In June 2001, German intelligence warned the CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]

11) "The FBI had advance indications of plans to hijack U.S. airliners and use them as weapons, but neither acted on them nor distributed the intelligence to local police agencies," reported Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak on September 27th. "From the moment of the September 11th attacks, high-ranking federal officials insisted that the terrorists’ method of operation surprised them. Many stick to that story. Actually, elements of the hijacking plan were known to the FBI as early as 1995 and, if coupled with current information, might have uncovered the plot."
posted by troutfishing at 8:31 AM on June 19, 2003

pardonyou, your point, as you define it, is wrong. There most certainly has been a claim that she said Bush deliberately let September 11 happen. The NYT Lynette Clemetson quote.

You are right that McKinney's suggesting that he might have had more prior knowledge than they've ever let on (viz. all the ridiculous claims that the aircraft-as-missile attack hadn't been considered.) There's more to the story than they're letting on, and some independent, smart people should get together and investigate for the sake of the nation. *That* is what McKinney was asking for. Is that reasonable or not? Does that make her a LOONEY? A nutty conspiracy theorist, as the White House implied? Not in my book. So Palast is asking reasonable questions about the assassination of her character through mischaracterization of her remarks in the national press during her re-election campaign.
posted by brantstrand at 8:49 AM on June 19, 2003

There most certainly has been a claim that she said Bush deliberately let September 11 happen. The NYT Lynette Clemetson quote.

WTF? Once again, here's the Clemetson quote: "Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war."

Please point out to me where Clemetson says that McKinney said that "Bush deliberately let September 11 happen." Unless I'm losing my mind, I'm pretty sure it says that McKinney "suggested" that Bush "might have known." Do you really not appreciate the difference between "deliberately" and "suggested/might have known"?
posted by pardonyou? at 1:54 PM on June 19, 2003

And troutfishing, I'm thinking you're too late to the party. I never tried to address the issue of whether Bush, in fact, had advance warning of September 11. If you read the FPP, and all of my posts, you'll see I've addressed one issue and one issue only: Whether there is any evidence that Cynthia McKinney made a statement that either "suggested" or "implied" that Bush had advance warning of September 11. That's a totally different (and much narrower) issue than the one you're trying to argue.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:58 PM on June 19, 2003