This, from the Times review of John Farmer's The Ground Truth:The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11, should be repeated as many times as necessary: "Yet both Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, Farmer says, provided palpably false versions that touted the military's readiness to shoot down United 93 before it could hit Washington. Planes were never in place to intercept it. By the time the Northeast Air Defense Sector had been informed of the hijacking, United 93 had already crashed. Farmer scrutinizes F.A.A. and Norad recÂords to provide irrefragable evidence that a day after a Sept. 17 White House briefing, both agencies suddenly altered their chronologies to produce a coherent timeline and story that 'fit together nicely with the account provided publicly by Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz and Vice President Cheney.'
Farmer further observes that the Bush administration wrongly asserted that the chain of command functioned on 9/11; that President Bush issued an authorization to shoot down hijacked commercial flights; and that top officials at F.A.A. headquarters coordinated their actions with the military. Farmer's verdict: 'History should record that whether through unprecedented administrative incompetence or orchestrated mendacity, the American people were misled about the nation's response to the 9/11 attacks.'"
Yeah, that article more or less killed my appetite for waffles yesterday morning.
I actually just finished reading this book, and it should be required for every government employee, and citizen for that matter. The amount of lies to cover up basic incompetency is just stunning — enough to put every Truther-conspiracy to rest.
And despite being the ex-attorney general of NJ, this guy can write a damn good narrative — very fast-paced and illuminative.
Why can't it be "unprecedented administrative incompetence" AND "orchestrated mendacity"? That was pretty much the working MO of every action the Bush-Cheney wrecking crew undertook.
Wouldn't it be more surprising to learn that there was something about which Dick Cheney wasn't bullshitting the American people?
It would be more refreshing. Although I don't think Cheney and refreshing should be used in the same sentence.
"I like to drink a refreshing Sprite and be thankful that Cheney is no longer in office."
How's that?
I stand corrected.
There's a lot of fuel for outrage on teh awl today. Frankly, I can't be arsed.
They were doing it right from the start on 9/11 itself with that bogus story about terrorists targeting Airforce One as a way of covering up Georgie Bush's scared rabbit act.
Boy did that hidey-hole business make me angry.
And yet, nothing will happen to them.
It's times like these that I wish I believed in Satan just a little bit more because at the very least, I could be comforted by the fact that these fuckers will burn in hell.
The author includes an epic-fail comparison of the response to Katrina, and includes this great anecdote: when a FEMA employee was trying desperately to get in touch with him, Brown's assistant stressed that he needed time to eat his dinner. The FEMA official's response:
"Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while I try to sleep."
It sounds even better in the voice of Jack Donaghy.
The irony, of course, is that the very incompetence they tried to cover up, has given the truthers years of grist for their crazy conspiracy theory mill.
Additional irony. I used to believe in various conspiracy theories until exactly the day of September 11, 2001. It was painfully, tragically, horrifically apparent on the ground in lower Manhattan that day, that the federal government had absolutely no idea what was going on or what to do about it. So then did my belief that the government was capable anything like meaningful subterfuge completely evaporate.
yes, this. When people tell me conspiracy theories about the WTC, I am like "if we can figure out the lies they told afterwards so easily, wouldn't we have a single whistleblower on the US govt (oops sorry, Israel) conspiring to kill 4000 people?" Which is kind of like a game of Who's on First.
Truthers would like you to consider: what if the incompetency/clumsy cover-up were part of a greater evil scheme – camouflage? Well?
My irony detector might be broken here, if so I apologize in advance, but…
You're implying that the Truthers would say there was a skilled cover-up designed to look like an incompetent cover-up of incompetence, but they actually knew what they were doing all along?
Lord, I've seen French Sex Comedies with less convoluted plots.
You have?
They all made it to the top of the governement of the most powerful nation on earth because they are….stupid?
Yes!
They speak to a majority of people.
Exactly! It is some very tall weeds out there, and when you buy into the closed logic system, everything supports your thesis.
(@lionel mandrake)