I am sometimes asked what I would have done if I
was President of the United States on 9/11. Had I been president prior
to 9/11, I would have paid attention to the clear and very specific
warnings pouring in about the forthcoming attack! I’ve taken my own
time to thoroughly document these warnings (see my web site at http://www.justiceblind.com/airplanes.html).
Upon receiving these warnings, I would have taken every reasonable step
within the law to prevent such an attack.
I certainly would NOT have remained on vacation in Texas cleaning brush
from my ranch after learning that "bin Laden wanted to hijack US
aircraft to gain the release" of terrorists incarcerated in the United
States and that there was "suspicious activity in the US consistent
with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including
recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." This was at a
time when the system was blinking red and it could not have gotten any
worse (see 9/11 Commission report, p. 257).
Having received such threat information, I would have sent the names
and faces of the members of al-Qaeda we knew were already in the United
States to the television show, "America’s Most Wanted." I also
would have contacted the airline industry to make sure all airline
companies had the names and pictures of these folks so that they could
not get on a plane. In other words, sir, I would have done something to
alert Americans of the threat!
President Bush did NOTHING – literally – and his pre-9/11
counterterrorism meetings focused not on al-Qaeda but instead on Iraq!
The last meeting was on September 4th, 2001, only one week prior to
9/11. After this meeting, head of counterterrorism, Richard Clarke,
sent a warning letter to Condoleezza Rice saying "The real issue is,
are we serious about dealing with the al-Qaeda threat? Is
al-Qaeda a big deal? … decision makers should imagine themselves on a
future day when the Counter Security Group has not succeeded in
stopping al-Qaeda attacks and hundreds of Americans lay dead in several
countries, including the US" (see 9/11 Commission report, pp. 212-213).
One week later nearly 3,000 Americans died after President Bush did
NOTHING to stop it. For more on failures that led to 9/11, see my web
site at http://www.justiceblind.com/incompetent.html.
To bring about justice for those who committed the attacks, I would
have actually gone after those responsible and captured or killed them
all. This was originally the plan, but President Bush bailed out prior
to finishing the job. When our troops had Usama bin Laden (UBL)
surrounded in Afghanistan and al-Qeada nearly crushed, President Bush
decided to call off the dogs in order to ready the fight against Iraq .
Resources were diverted to Iraq away from al-Qaeda for a war on Iraq
that had been long planned. This has been well-documented in the press
and the result was recently reported in a National Intelligence
Estimate to Mr. Bush – UBL and al-Qaeda are alive and well in Pakistan,
flourishing there, and preparing new attacks against the United States.
I would not have gone after Iraq for it had nothing to do with the
attacks of 9/11 and our invasion created a new terrorist threat to our
nation (al-Qaeda in Iraq). Instead, I would have devoted our vast
American resources – economic, political, moral, military, etc. – to
eliminating the conditions that produce terrorism. The first would have
been to rebuild Afghanistan so that it was not a "failed state" (which
our own intelligence shows breeds terrorism). We did not rebuild it
after the Afghan "freedom fighters" (including UBL) defeated the Soviet
invasion in the 1980s, and we did not rebuild it after removing the
Taliban from power. So it still languishes and produces even more
terrorism.
Another option would have been to go after the people in Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan (two of our "allies") who funded the 9/11 attacks. To this
day, none of these individuals has been held to account by President
Bush.
Further, I would have called upon Israel and Palestine to come back to
the peace table and end their long-time fight. Both would have been
called on to make real sacrifice for the sake of a fair solution. This
struggle is the rallying call for much hatred against the United States
and must be ended if we ever want to see a peaceful Middle East and
world. This includes insisting that Israel stop killing innocent
Palestinian civilians with American weapons.
I have been offering solutions for years, in class and out of class, as
part of my continued effort to shed light on the realities of America
’s war on terrorism. I may be wrong, but at least I have a plan. If you
want to learn more about what I would do and why, see http://www.justiceblind.com/war.
I’ve also offered a six point plan for what to do now that we have
invaded Iraq, at http://www.justiceblind.com/losingiraq.html.
So there you have it.