The Bombshell Memo


I think that it is a wonderful idea to find better ways of recognizing when an attack is imminent. And I think that hindsight is 20/20. It is easy to look back at a puzzle when it is complete, and say "oh, I see how that works". It isn't so easy when you have 5,000 pieces scattered across your table waiting to be put together. Do I think the FBI did enough? At the time, yes. If the same type of information were to crop up now, I would expect more from them. Because now they have been through this, they have seen where they could've done things differently, and they have *hopefully* learned from their mistakes. But I think it is ridiculous to keep laying blame. Anybody can fit the pieces together after something has happened. Let's see all of these critics fit the pieces together before it happens.

By Ginnyk on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 - 11:14 am:

I have no affection for the Bush administration, and little respect for Bush as a president. Having said that, in this matter I think the ball was dropped by people within the intelligence agencies and at much lower levels than would ever be speaking directly to the President. Whatever my differences with George Bush - and they are many - I cannot fault him on this one.


I had a small hope that with the appointment of Ridge to the Office of Homeland Security (which, by the way, I think is a really dumb name for an agency or position) that there might be some beginnings of serious cooperation between our various intelligence agencies, but I don't see it happening and I don't read of anything happening in the administration or in Congress to change this.

By Sandie on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 - 10:19 pm:

Just a little thought I had. A lot of people are complaining and such things, but what about ALL the things that we don't even know about as the general public. There are tons of things that are/have been stopped/prevented that we are just clueless to. Everybody is quick to complain and point fingers, but what about all the hard work people have done to protect and serve us?

By Terri0930 on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 - 07:55 am:

My DH and I talked about this last night, and both agreed that hindsight is 20/20. Also the pieces to the puzzle go to together easier the second time.

I on the other hand also have many reasons for disliking Bush, but I can't fault him for this one.

I also believe that if they had known the extent of what the terrorists had in mind, I would like to believe that they would have stopped this in a heartbeat. There is no way that our country would loose these millions of dollars in one day due to the terrorists. It is just sad to think that what took us million of dollars and hard work that people can tear it down in minutes. And to rebuild the WTC will take years, lots of money and many hours of hard labor. And to all the victims of this crime will have to look at that site for the rest of their lives and remember the horror they say on Sept. 11 and wonder when the next hit will be and where. We will have to be gaurded every day by these terrorists, and some people say we must go on with our everyday lives otherwise they have suceeded. IMHO they have already terrorized our lives and we must be on the lookout for the next hit. Unfortunatly I think there will be another one.

By Annie2 on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 - 09:40 pm:

Ginny and Terri, what don't you like about President Bush?
I watched the HBO WTC special on Sunday with my SIL who happened to be in the subway when the attack happened, (she works down there). and her DH is a fireman in the Bronx. She gave me alot of inside commentation.

By Ginnyk on Thursday, May 30, 2002 - 09:41 am:

Annie - it's a long long long list. Start with I'm a life long died in the wool left-wing liberal. Here's a partial list - his strong ties to big business and the major tax cuts which help big business but not poor people - his efforts to stop funding for health insurance for poor children in Texas and then, when it was passed over his veto, taking credit for it - his phony "concern" for public education but cutting funds for public education - his lack of knowledge about the rest of the world outside of the United States and Texas - his abrogation of treaties to which the U.S. was a signatory without understanding how this will affect this country's relationships with the rest of the world - his "right to life" stance without understanding how the poor in the Third World live (and die) - his plan to provide a "prescription benefit" for the elderly by working through private insurance companies - the recent efforts to "privatize" the Government Printing Office without recognizing that one of the fallouts will almost certainly be the GPO's lack of funding for printing and providing (free) brochures and information used by hundreds of thousands of citizens every year - the whole effort to "privatize" Social Security. And, in my opinion, he's just not very bright.

I will admit that he handled 9/11 pretty well - much better than I expected - and I give him credit. But his inability to understand how other nations think and what makes them tick is hampering efforts to get them on board the anti-terrorism effort.