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A Few Questions for President Bush
A
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by
C. Robert Holloway
Dear President Bush,
As a concerned citizen, a senior and a veteran, I have a few questions I'd like to put to you, questions so obvious that I keep hoping some member of the White House Press corps will ask them of Ari Fleischer, but to date, no one has. In an effort to 'be with you,' ("You're either with us or against us,") while aware that these questions might strike you as inflammatory and could land me on the wrong side of the Patriot's Act, I'm going to exercise my right of free speech and ask them anyway.
1. The timetable for 9/11 has you being informed that the first plane was hijacked before you arrived at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota. Did that alert include the detail that three additional planes had been hijacked? If it didn't, what does that say about the effectiveness of our $30 billion a year intelligence agencies, the FAA and your Secret Service? If it did include news of the other planes, what brand of composure were you calling on that permitted you to sit in a classroom for the next twenty five minutes, listening to second graders read excerpts from "The Pet Goat?"
A. Several months later, again in a forum with school children, when asked by one young man, "What was your reaction on seeing the first plane crashed into the tower?" you replied, "You know, I used to fly myself and my first thought was there's one terrible pilot." Mr. President, on seeing a plane crashed into the world's second tallest building, was that truly your first thought? In that no tape of the first crash surfaced until the next day, where did you see those pictures? The video tape made in the classroom indicates that Andrew Card whispered into your ear the news about the second plane at 9:05am.
2. I'm curious about the pilots whose job it is to 'scramble' into the atmosphere the minute anything resembling trouble is reported by the air controllers. How is it that, though based but a few miles outside Boston, New York and DC, the fighter jets were not dispatched until 55 minutes into the attack? Allowing for the possibility the pilots were on coffee break and away from their ready-stations, how could they not have seen the terrifying images on TV that half the world was watching? And where were their seniors whose job it is to say, "Scramble," or whatever the command is? We are assured that when the private jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart went out of control over Florida, the scramblers were in the air and surrounding the aircraft within six to eight minutes. When can we expect the congressional committee to summon the dozen or more pilots on duty that fateful morning and hear their version of those terrible events?
3. I've read that on Aug. 2, 2002 the FBI asked members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to take lie-detector tests as investigators tried to determine who leaked information to CNN about communications in Arabic on Sept. 10th that made references to an impending attack on the United States. The communications were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10th but weren't translated until Sept. 12th. What? Isn't this a classic case of going on the offensive to confuse an investigation? Who cares who leaked the information? Was the interception a fact or wasn't it? The NSA, CIA and FBI are charged with gathering intelligence so as to inform the appropriate agencies whose job it is to make preemptive strikes against those looking to harm our nation. Shouldn't they be the ones given the lie detector tests? With so many people asleep at the switch throughout July, August and September of 2001, why not pour the facts through the finest investigative sieve possible, and pour them through more than once?
4. On Oct. 29, 2001, your administration drafted an executive order that would, according to the Washington Post, "usher in a new era of secrecy for presidential records and allow an incumbent president to withhold a former president's papers even if the former president wanted to make them public." The Post article further explained the order required members of the public to prove "at least a demonstrated, specific need" for a president's papers to be released. Does that not overturn the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which releases documents after 12 years? I've read that your advisors maintain that a Supreme Court decision in 1977 allows presidents various privileges for their records, but wouldn't it behoove any administration to open up its closets and let in some fresh, investigative air after such a tumultuous shock to world order? What possible harm could result to national security on learning about decisions that were made more than a decade ago or two years ago? The terrorist horse has long since bolted the unlocked barn. Your twist on this ruling, coming so close to the events of 9/11 makes it look like there's something to hide. Why invite speculation and cynicism?
5. Mr. President, can you categorically deny the rumors that you called Senator Tom Daschle and asked him to go easy on the 9/11 investigation, cautioning that it would, "Take focus away from the 'war on terrorism'"? Can Vice President Cheney categorically deny he made a follow-up call in a similar vein? Can you each categorically deny these calls were made?
A. Can Senator Daschle be permitted to speak candidly to these disturbing rumors?
6. Most recently (April 30, 2003) we are informed that your administration has reviewed the nearly nine hundred pages of 9/11 Congressional investigation and determined that certain public statements are to be 'reclassified.' It is further reported that you are making strenuous efforts to block its publication at the end of this month and into the foreseeable future. What are Americans supposed to make of this? Don't we have a right to know everything about the single most important event since Pearl Harbor, the event that changed the course of modern history? In that Homeland Defense urges us to 'be alert for possible terrorist acts,' shouldn't we be privy to those subtle signals our government was not alert to?
7. Mr. President, would you be willing to share your Crawford guest list during your month-long vacation in August 2001? Surely certain matters of national interest must have been allowed to interrupt your recreation during that 32 day period? Would you be willing to share those items with the nation? Representatives from the FBI, CIA and NSA have testified that several messages were intercepted all through June, July and August, indicating "something really big was about to happen." Were you privy to any of those intelligence bulletins?
8. Finally, Mr. President, would you consider addressing these questions during one of your Saturday morning radio talks to the nation where your at home-on-the-ranch style seems most comfortable?
With some advance warning, I'll bet you'd have the rapt attention of millions of Americans, and the biggest Saturday morning audience in the history of radio.
Sincerely,
C.
Robert Holloway
New Orleans, LA
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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