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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion March 30, 2004

     

Despite Rhetoric, Bush Refuses to Take Any Responsibility for 9/11 Failures



President Bush has told America many times that he wants to "usher in an era of personal responsibility"1. Yet instead of following former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke's lead and admitting some responsibility for overseeing the worst national security failure in American history, the White House has pushed its allies to unleash a vicious attack on Clarke. Instead of apologizing to the families as Clarke did2, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said Clarke's apology "was not his right, his privilege or his responsibility"3. Meanwhile, a Bush official said Clarke's apology was "bull"4.

Similarly, the President has told America he wants a "society in which people take responsibility for the decisions they make"5 instead of "blaming somebody else." Yet the President still refuses to own up to specific decisions he and his Administration made before 9/11 to "de-emphasize terrorism"6 as a priority, terminate a key program to track Al Qaeda suspects in the United States7, and "veto a request"8 to put more money into counterterrorism after the Bush White House tried to slash the FBI's counterterrorism budget.

The Administration also refused to take responsibility for rejecting January 2001 recommendations9 from the U.S. Government's bipartisan Commission on National Security10 and instead waited five months to create a counterterrorism task force11, which it then never once convened12. When asked about this on CBS' Face the Nation, Secretary of State Colin Powell said only "I--I--I can't answer the specific question"13.

Sources:
  1. President Bush Discusses Progress in Education in St. Louis, 01/05/2004.
  2. "Clarke's apology", Newsday, 03/25/2004.
  3. "Frist's Comments on Clarke's Testimony", New York Times, 03/26/2004.
  4. "The Truth of the Matter", Time, 03/28/2004.
  5. Remarks by the President at Bush-Cheney 2004 Reception, 01/29/2004.
  6. Freedom of Information Center, 05/27/2002.
  7. "In the Months Before 9/11, Justice Department Curtailed Highly Classified Program to Monitor Al Qaeda Suspects in the U.S.", Yahoo!, 03/21/2004.
  8. Freedom of Information Center, 05/27/2002.
  9. "We predicted it", Salon, 09/12/2001.
  10. US Commission on National Security.
  11. Statement by the President, 05/08/2001.
  12. Washington Post, 01/19/2002.
  13. Face the Nation, 03/28/2004.



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