Consortiumnews: On the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it’s worth reflecting on how even a mildly competent U.S. President might have prevented the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and drove the United States into a spasm of revenge that has wasted untold blood and treasure.

The Reid Report: The next target for the red-baiting right: Valerie Jarret ( and the REAL Frank Marshall Davis)

Pensito Review: Because Joe Wilson is your pre-existing condition

Bitch Ph.D.: The Stakes

DownWithTyranny!: Teabaggery isn't just about South Carolina Republicans

Paul Hipp: A song celebrating our ranking in the World Health Organiztion's list of world health systems. "We're Number 37!"

Although I normally take everything the CIA says with a very large grain of salt, I just don't think Leon Panetta's all that far from the truth. I think Dick Cheney would rather be right than see the country safe from harm:

WASHINGTON -- CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Panetta told The New Yorker for an article in its June 22 issue that Cheney "smells some blood in the water" on the issue of national security.

Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the U.S. less safe. He has been critical of Obama for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.

Last month the former vice president offered a withering critique of Obama's policies and a defense of the Bush administration on the same day that Obama made a major speech about national security.

Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

I have a friend who was just blocks away from the WTC when the towers fell and her apartment was engulfed in ash for hours and hours. When we finally got in contact again and she shared with me how horrifying the experience had been, I admit that one of the first things I thought about was all that free flying asbestos from the buildings. My friend moved to Los Angeles a year later. But that year of living (and breathing) the air near Ground Zero has resulted in a permanent cough. And now, we get this:

TIME:

An appeals court ruling could spell trouble for New Yorkers suing the Environmental Protection Agency and its former chief for saying that sooty Lower Manhattan air was safe to breathe after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

A three judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared this week that EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and other agency officials can't be held constitutionally liable for making rosy declarations about air quality after the World Trade Center's destruction.

The opinion, written by the court's chief judge, Dennis Jacobs, said opening EPA workers up to lawsuits for giving out bad information during a crisis could have a catastrophic side effect.

"Officials might default to silence in the face of the public's urgent need for information," Jacobs wrote.[..]

Some preliminary scientific studies have indicated that as many as 400,000 people were exposed to toxic ground zero dust. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of people have fallen ill, and several have died from lung ailments blamed on inhaled Trade Center ash.

I've been trying to get some sort of handle on exactly what went on in Somalia. Something about it did not pass the smell test for me. A military expert with whom I consulted expressed some of the same reservations about the story that I had (albeit with far more specific knowledge).

First, the AC-130 is not a precision weapon in any practical term. It is fairly accurate area weapon and can contain it's fire to areas slightly larger than a football pitch (100mx90m). They may have hit "a senior terrorist figure" (who can tell from that altitude) but they hit a lot of other people in the process. Unless there were special forces on the ground calling in the fire it would be haphazard. Talk about back to the future, when every dead Vietnamese was Viet Cong -- the only requirement for identification was an unmoving corpse.

Then, as a follow up, he sent this article from the Guardian UK:

The US air strike on Somalia failed to kill any of the three top al-Qaida members accused of terror attacks in east Africa.

A senior US official said today that Sunday night's attack had killed between eight and 10 "al-Qaida affiliates" near the southern tip of Somalia.

But he said that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Abu Taha al-Sudan and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, all linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 Mombasa hotel attack, were still on the run. "Fazul is not dead," said the official, contradicting earlier reports. "The three high-value targets are still of interest to us."

I'm not sure what to think about this. Why Somalia now? Is this another case of "Wag the Dog" the Republicans accused Clinton of during the "Monica-gate" scrutiny?

John Cole found this statement in the Boston Globe:

"President Bush said Tuesday that “I take responsibility” for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government’s ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks. “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government,” Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. “To the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said."...read on

C&L was down for a while so I'm just catching up, but this is the first time I can remember that President Bush has ever taken responsibility for anything that has gone wrong so far in his tenure as president. What does it mean to you? Forget the resign theme because that won't happen. Do you think Rove whispered in his ear?

After this new information came out that the 9/11 commission report "... knew military intelligence officials had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a member of al-Qaida who might be part of U.S.-based terror cell more than a year before the terror attacks but decided not to include that in its final report..."

I remembered this clip from the Paula Zahn Show on Nov. 9th 2004, just days after the election. As you know Bob was part of the 9/11 Commission.

Download | play -WMP

(Update)-OK I'm remaking the video clip and uploading it. The clip will be ready soon. Sorry...

Shot man not linked to terror attacks : A BRAZILIAN man shot dead by armed police on Friday was innocent, police have said.The Brazilian government has now demanded an explanation of why Jean Charles De Menezes was killed on a Tube train at Stockwell station. British diplomats are expected to meet with officials of the South American country today.

Eric has a good account of the tragedy from the UK Times online.

From emailer Jay: " Yesterday morning on "Fox News Live" ( I filled that in ) was basically saying that the Brazilian that the london police shot and killed was actually all part of Al Quaeda's plan to dress up Brazilian's and other tan-skinned people and have them run from the police and get shot just to make us look bad. Amazing that Fox always manages to justify anything the U.S. or British do, even when there are MISTAKES made!! ( rush transcript )

Take a look. (I'm sorry I don't have more of the video clip to play or the guest's name.)

Download | play -QT

Rush Transcript

Is this the sickest analysis you ever heard?

WASHINGTON - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified documents from the National Archives, the Justice Department said Thursday... He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He called the episode “an honest mistake,” and denied criminal wrongdoing...read on

To the dismay of many on the right, there was no mention of his socks.