meta-roj

despite my cheering the efforts of the 9/11 commission, it’s important to keep the brain open. here, we find a letter from one of the witnesses to the commission, with some points he feels were lost.

Letter to Thomas Kean from Sibel Edmonds [the agonist, august 2, 2004]

During its many hearings your commission chose not to ask the questions necessary to unveil the true symptoms of our failed intelligence system. Your Commission intentionally bypassed these severe symptoms, and chose not to include them in its five hundred and sixty seven-page report. Now, without a complete list of our failures pre 9/11, without a comprehensive examination of true symptoms that exist in our intelligence system, without assigning any accountability what so ever, and therefore, without a sound and reliable diagnosis, your commission is attempting to divert attention from the real problems, and to prescribe a cure through hasty and costly measures.

most of the points in this letter seem to revolve around personal responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures that led to the deaths of thousands of americans. on this general problem, i agree wholeheartedly. it seems that almost anywhere else in the world, people would step up, assume responsibility and fall on their sword as loyal administration members. not so in america. we’ve circled the wagons, and blamed the “system” (the system people created), while holding no one accountable.

i haven’t found the time to get through the commission report (yet), so i’m still forming an opinion. i still think the efforts of the commission members to suppot their document, in public, and beyond their mandate, is a good thing. i think that is a rare level of commitment from public officials. on the other hand, there are obviously some major questions about the content and focus of the commission document.