1. Allowing several members of the Bin Laden family to leave the country just days after 9/11, some of them without being questioned by the FBI.

2. Focusing on missile defense at the expense of counterterrorism prior to 9/11.

3. Thinking al Qaeda could not attack without state sponsors, and ignoring evidence of a growing threat unassociated with "rogue states" like Iraq or North Korea.

4. Threatening to veto the Homeland Security department – The President now concedes such a department "provides the ability for our agencies to coordinate better and to work together better than it was before."

5. Opposing the creation of the September 11th commission, which the President now expects "to contain important recommendations for preventing future attacks."

6. Denying documents to the 9/11 commission, only relenting after the commissioners threatened a subpoena.

7. Failing to pay more attention to an August 6, 2001 PDB entitled "Bin laden Determined to Attack in U.S."

8. Repeatedly ignoring warnings of terrorists planning to use aircraft before 9/11.

9. Appointing the ultra-secretive Henry Kissinger to head the 9/11 commission – Kissinger stepped down weeks later due to conflicts of interest.

10. Asking for testimony before the 9/11 commission be limited to one hour, a position from which the president later backtracked.

11. Not allowing national Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to testify before the 9/11 commission – Bush changed his mind as pressure mounted.

12. Cutting an FBI request for counterterrorism funds by two-thirds after 9/11.

13. Telling Americans there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

14. Failing to adequately secure the nation's nuclear weapons labs.

15. Not feeling a sense of urgency about terrorism or al Qaeda before 9/11.

16. Reducing resources and troop levels in Afghanistan and out before it was fully secure.

17. Not providing security in Afghanistan outside of Kabul, leaving nearly 80% of the Afghan population unprotected in areas controlled by Feudal warlords and local militias.

18. Committing inadequate resources for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

19. Counting too heavily on locally trained troops to fill the void in Afghanistan once U.S. forces were relocated to Iraq.

20. Not committing US ground troops to the capture of Osama Bin Laden, when he was cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November, 2001.

21. Allowing opium production to resume on a massive scale after the ouster of the Taliban.

22. Opposing an independent inquiry into the intelligence failures surrounding WMD – later, upon signing off on just such a commission, Bush claimed he was "determined to make sure that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for every challenge in the future."

23. Saying: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."

24. Trusting intelligence gathered by Vice President Cheney's and Secretary Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans."

25. Spending $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year to develop new nuclear weapons this year – 50% more in real dollars than the average during the cold war – while shortchanging the troops on body armor.

26. Ignoring the importance of the Middle East peace process, which has deteriorated with little oversight or strategy evident in the region.

27. Undermining the War on Terrorism by preemptively invading Iraq.

Fact: 9/11: Internal Government Documents Show How the Bush Administration Reduced Counterterrorism

Fact: two years after the 9-11 attacks, funding for emergency responders--firefighters, law enforcement officers, public health and emergency medical personnel, and others first on the scene in case of a terrorist attack--remains dangerously low.

Myth: Bush has wiped out Al-Queda

The White House had zeroed in on Al-Queda linked Abu Musab Zarqawi’s camp/WMD lab, “….but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.”

Bush let Abu Musab Zarqawi off without even a slap on the wrist, and now he’s killed 700 people as of May 14^th, and sawed an American civilian’s head off.

What happened on 9/11? A timeline

9/11 Timeline: A flash movie

Myth: only the lunatic fringe is skeptical of the Bush administration's version of 9/11 events

Earl Krugel killed a civil rights leader in a bombing and had a conspiracy to assassinate a Member of Congress and to blow up a church, yet he was given immunity is likely to receive a mere 13-year sentence.

In the Krugel case, the government had evidence of a conspiracy to attack Arab Americans and their institutions; it included bombings with the stated intent to terrorize. Yet, the government chose not to charge Krugel as a terrorist but instead charged him only with civil rights violations.

In Florida, Robert Goldstein and his wife, Kristi Lea Persinger, had an arsenal that included 30 bombs, mines, 30 to 40 guns, light-armor rockets, machine guns, sniper rifles and grenades, as well as plans to blow up 50 churches and a school.

Like Krugel, Goldstein was charged not with terrorism but with civil rights violations. Goldstein was sentenced to a paltry 12 1/2 years for conspiracy to violate civil rights. Persinger (who had five bombs in her closet) was given a mere three years in prison

Fact: $66,000,000,000 taxpayers dollars labeled "homeland security" was used as welfare for oil companies:

Halliburton Corporation was given a multi-billion, no-bid contract in Iraq by the Bush White House. Vice President Dick Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, and still receives hundreds of thousands in compensation from the corporation, on top of his government salary. Is there a connection?

CBS News' 60 Minutes September 21, 2003 exposé

Nation Builders for Hire," by Dan Baum, New York Times Magazine, June 22, 2003

Fact: Bush is sending taxpayers dollars to mercenaries which include veterans of Latin American death squads and pro-aparthied terrorists. For example, just one mercenary:

- Detonated a car bomb that killed a cabinet minister.
- fire bombed 40 to 60 residences and builddings.

- Murdered and mutilated Winnie Mandela’s driver
- and committed a variety of other random mmurders and mutilations of blacks

Myth: Republicans never criticized the war against Milosovich

Project on Defense Alternatives on Terrorism and counter-terrorism and Homeland protection / security.

Had enough? GET ACTIVE!

Back to: What is liberalism? The Freedom FAQ