Truespeak

I expect ot hear this a lot over the next several days. Here it is almost two hours before the release of the 9/11 commission's report and the Republicans are already on the tube saying "It's not our fault." According to the commission's findings, blame should be placed on basically everyone.

Administration officials familiar with the contents of the report said those failings include:


• That the FBI was not set up to collect intelligence domestically;
  
  
• The failure of the intelligence agencies to share information;
  
  
• Missed opportunities catalogued in the press;
  
  
• The failure in "connecting the dots" in the intelligence community.
  
  
  These officials said the plot "fell into the void" between foreign and domestic threats and was timed when the nation was still in transition from one administration to the next.
  
  .....
  
  Congressional sources told CNN the report outlines 10 "missed opportunities" by both the Clinton and Bush administrations to derail the suicide hijacking plot.
  
  One source said, however, that it would take a "huge stretch of the imagination that any of these opportunities would have really happened."
  
  Congressional leaders were briefed on the report by the commission's leaders Tuesday and Wednesday. Top White House officials were briefed Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Six of the missed opportunities mentioned in the report occurred during the Bush administration and four under the Clinton administration, according to a story in The Washington Post, citing an unnamed government official it said had read the report.
  
  Officials told CNN the report will note that both Clinton and Bush took action against al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but that neither administration totally appreciated the threat his al Qaeda terror network posed.

First of all, I see this as a cop-out. Victims families were looking for something difinitive and what they got was a general statement saying "well, somebody screwed up."

Second of all, I think this commission was put into an almost impossible position. If they find blame with either the Bush or the Clinton administration, it could effect the outcome of the election. For instance if they were to place the blame on Bush, it may very well cost him the election in November giving the perception that the commission was biased

Finally, there is still the issue of disclosure by the White House. If they didn't feel that they were guilty, why did they continuously block access to documents, officials and information? Why wouldn't the President and Vice President testify under oath? Why did they oppose the commission in the first place? I'd be interested to see if any of those questions are addressed by the commission' report. I doubt they will.

What I don't doubt is that the Republicans will be dancing around all over television holding a copy of the report and saying "It's not our fault," when what they should be saying is what Richard Clarke said on the day of his testimony:

...your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed.

But that would take integrity.