Richard Clarke talks about Bush Administration failure (3 minutes)

Tomorrow will be the 21st anniversary of the attack on America that took place in 2001. There will be the usual remembrances that will pour out the deep sense of sadness that we all have at the needless loss of life on that day.

What will be missing will be any in depth analysis of what brought on the 9/11 attack. What many people forget is that Osama Bin Laden and his followers were on the American radar as we had a change of administrations in 2001. 

This was a transition from a Democratic Administration to a Republican administration. While concern over terrorism was not top priority in the Clinton administration, it was certainly on the radar. Bin Laden had led strikes on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in the late ’90s. However during the transition, the incoming Bush administration showed little interest in terrorism or Bin Laden.

Slightly more than a month before the attack on 9/11, then President Bush blew off a Presidential Daily Briefing titled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.” With a little prompting, most of remember that the new Bush administration did not pay much attention to foreign policy or terrorism. They were focused on tax cuts for the rich at the time.

Fast forward 21 years and we find ourselves in another crisis dealing with foreign policy: theft of Top Secret documents by a Republican president. As a country we are trying to get a handle on just how much damage the most recent Republican president, Donald Trump, may have done to our security due to his and his administration’s handling of Top Secret documents.

We as a country have no idea what documents he stole. We have no idea what he has done with these documents. We have no idea if he has shared in some way, these secrets with our enemies. We have no idea if he has sold these secrets or if he has destroyed these secrets or if he has copies of these secrets. In short we know that Trump has taken Top Secret documents, but we have no idea what he has done with them.

And of course he and his band of bandits refuse to co-operate. We also know that Trump could simply could not have moved such a volume of documents by himself. As already reported, there are boxes and boxes and boxes of Top Secret documents. This raises the question of not only who physically moved them without anyone blowing a whistle, but also who allowed (approved?) the movement of such a massive amount of documents.

As we contemplate how this crime took place the mind simply boggles at all the points at which the system should have stopped this apparently on-going theft which failed. Who failed and why did they fail? Did the system fail because the people in place did not stop it because they allowed the president to do what he wanted or were they all part of the plan? 

Are those people still in place? Why did the appointment system allow such people to be put into these jobs if they were either incompetent or potentially criminal? There are just so many questions. We hope the FBI and the Justice Department are digging deeply to find answers to these questions. 

But we see Republicans of all stripes and at all levels from elected officials including senators and representatives on down to their propaganda disseminators on cable TV and in newspapers and online doing all they can to intimidate the FBI from investigating this incredible theft and possible major espionage case. 

Don’t forget that some 43 – think of that FORTY-THREE! – folders are empty. What was in those 43 folders? We know they were Top Secret, so it must have been information vital to our government. What happened to all that information? Sold to our enemies? Handed out to settle some debt?

And amazingly how come no one, NOT ONE PERSON, is in jail with all the boxes of Top Secret information having been stolen and at least 43 folders totally missing. Our country has been compromised like it has never been compromised before. This is a crime that is unmatched in our history and the obvious perpetrator continues to walk free. He continues to do rallies where he stirs up hate for our government and our institutions.

He is able to do so I believe because of his enablers in congress that he has conned. Also the threat of violence from his followers is actually intimidating the country from following the rule of law. 

Trump has changed this country forever. He has also shown that the US is no different than all the countries who have been conned before by authoritarian leaders. 

Two Republican presidents, two disasters. And don’t forget that both left the economy in shambles.

We may have one chance left to fix it and that comes this November. We need to vote out Trump enablers like Grassley, Hinson, Miller-Meeks and Feenstra. But we also need to vote them out at all levels, including state and county. It has never been more important.

Tip of the hat to http://all-hat-no-cattle.blogspot.com