|
President
Bush has told America many times that he wants
to "usher in an era of personal responsibility"
(1). Yet instead of following former counterterrorism
chief Richard Clarke's lead and admitting some
responsibility for overseeing the worst national
security failure in American history, the White
House has pushed its allies to unleash a vicious
attack on Clarke. Instead of apologizing to the
families as Clarke did (2), Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist (R-TN) said Clarke's apology "was not
his right, his privilege or his responsibility"
(3). Meanwhile, a Bush official said Clarke's
apology was "bull" (4).
Similarly,
the President has told America he wants a "society
in which people take responsibility for the decisions
they make" (5) instead of "blaming somebody else."
Yet the President still refuses to own up to specific
decisions he and his Administration made before
9/11 to "de-emphasize terrorism" (6) as a priority,
terminate a key program to track Al Qaeda suspects
in the United States (7), and "veto a request"
(8) to put more money into counterterrorism after
the Bush White House tried to slash the FBI's
counterterrorism budget.
The
Administration also refused to take responsibility
for rejecting January 2001 recommendations (9)
from the U.S. Government's bipartisan Commission
on National Security (10) and instead waited five
months to create a counterterrorism task force
(11), which it then never once convened (12).
When asked about this on CBS' Face the Nation,
Secretary of State Colin Powell said only "I--I--I
can't answer the specific question" (13).
Sources:
1. "President Bush Discusses Progress in Education
in St. Louis", 01/05/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25354.
2. "Clarke's apology", Newsday, 03/25/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25355
9286.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines.
3. "Frist's Comments on Clarke's Testimony", New
York Times, 03/26/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25356
position=.
4. "The Truth of the Matter", Time, 03/28/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25357.
5. "Remarks by the President at Bush-Cheney 2004
Reception", 01/29/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25358.
6. Freedom of Information Center, 05/27/2002,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25359.
7. "In the Months Before 9/11, Justice Department
Curtailed Highly Classified Program to Monitor
Al Qaeda Suspects in the U.S.", Yahoo!, 03/21/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25360.
8. Freedom of Information Center, 05/27/2002,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25359.
9. "We predicted it", Salon, 09/12/2001, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25361.
10. US Commission on National Security, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25362.
11. Statement by the President, 05/08/2001, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25363.
12. Washington Post, 01/19/2002, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25364.
13. Face the Nation, 03/28/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=25365.
Topplebush.com
Posted: March 31, 2004
|
